Exorcising The Demons

Arsenal visited a “saintly” Andrews stadium on Saturday night, with a clear view to exorcise the demons that have haunted them following Eduardo’s horror injury. It was here that many people believe Arsenal lost the title when they drew 2-2.

If Eduardo was in sparkling form that day, this time he was on the bench. Bendtner started up front, with Walcott and Rosicky alongside. Arshavin, who had begun to look a little jaded, got a break, as did Eboue. Surprisingly, Vela was on the bench. Clearly, Wenger believed that pace on the wings was crucial to break down Birmingham.

Brimming with the confidence an unbeaten streak brings, Arsenal started extremely brightly, with Diaby creating the first threat as early as 5 minutes. The passing was smooth, but not yet inch-perfect. But clearly, the hosts were on the defensive straight away.

However, Birmingham clawed back into the game and few nervous moments passed for Arsenal, including a fumble by the newly non-blond Almunia, before Walcott got his first speed run at the defence. The fouls meter from Birmingham started ticking, as they attempted to disrupt the Gunner’s play, and try to create some chances for themselves. In return, Arsenal too seemed determined to show Birmingham their tough side, with both Song and Clichy picking up yellow cards. Unsurprisingly, stronger challenges by Birmingham went unpunished.

As the game progressed, Birmingham pressed well in the centre of the park, keeping Clichy and Sagna pinned into their halves and not allowing them to run. This also meant Fabregas had to drop deeper and deeper to get the ball. The Catalan seemed further hampered by a knock he picked up, and was clearly well below par. With Denilson also unsuccessful at imposing himself, midfield supremacy was not with the Arsenal, and often even struggled to retain possession.

Recognising that Song was the makeshift defender, the two wing-backs also compressed their play and went more central, which gave the home side some opportunities to attack via the wings. In fact, McFadden continually troubled Clichy, and drew many fouls, which provided opportunities to exploit Arsenal’s well known frailties against set pieces.

At half time, I was wondering if it would have been good if Birmingham had scored earlier. That might have meant that they would have chosen to sit on the lead, giving Arsenal more possession and thus more chances. It was not to be though, as the half ended scoreless, and the game continued where it had left off on the break.

The home side’s approach was unchanged, and they continued their efforts in the same vein. The closest they came to scoring was a couple of lucky bounces off Clichy and the post, but they couldn’t capitalise.

As the match wore on, the home side looked clearly tired. They were running out of stamina, their forays into the Arsenal half were increasingly rare, and Diaby was more and more influential. To turn the screws then, Wenger brought Arshavin and Nasri. Apparently, a short spell on the bench and being forced to watch the game from the sidelines seemed to have rejuvenated the little Russian. He was full of trickery, and combined really well with Nasri.

While the game still remained scrappy, for all their industry, Birmingham lacked any sort of refinement to make any attack count. For this, they well and truly punished. Nasri embarked on a little run, the defence kept backing down, but they left a little hole through which the young Frenchman shot an arrow into the far corner.

However, just as the familiar chant of “one-nil to the Arsenal” began to die down, Almunia showed why I, and many others, don’t rate him, as he palmed a ball back into his net to give Birmingham a point.It was extremely poor judgement of how far his goal was, and showed a very weak forearm, since all he could was to plop it into the net.

With Chelsea thrashing Villa, the goal difference is not in Arsenal's favour, and neither is the points position. It seems Arsenal have lost the title again at this stadium. The demons are still there…