New dawn fades

Written by Paul Williams on Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
25 Nov	7:45 PM	CL	Dynamo Kyiv (H)	1	0	Win

We're there.

A strange game at the Grove last night. Arsenal's cause not helped by a side shorn of pace and width and some inexperience leading to the wrong pass being made in promising positions, much of last night was Matchday 4: The Groundhog Day version.

However, the little bit of luck going went Arsenal's way. For once.

Nevertheless, it still took a moment of absolute genius from the new captain to put Nicklas Bendtner away. Bendtner's finish on the run matched Francesc Fabregas' raking pass and the fixture that has a burgeoning history of crucial late goals had another one for the collection as we pass into the knock-out stages of the Champions League.

It was followed almost immediately by hilarious sending off for one of the throwbacks on display for Dynamo Kyiv last night. Having rolled around on the ground earlier in the second half; when already on a yellow card, then bounced back up as soon as Kyiv got the ball back, incensed by the award of the goal - which had come from a drop ball situation, the idiot went and tried to push the referee out of the way as Kyiv went to take a free kick. A karmic payback was instant, at least he would have had first use of the showers.

Speaking of karmic payback, some people have been wondering this morning whether the same people who's only response to the introduction of Bendtner was to wolf whistle at his rather fetching Nikes were the same people that vacated the stadium, as usual, 10 minutes early and so missed the same player's coup de grace. It's worth wondering about, I think. Perhaps for those people, it might even be worth thinking about.

Happily, no such disrespect was afforded the deposed skipper, who had a mixed bag last night. He went down early; after a seemingly innocuous collision with Carlos Vela (which prompted a rousing chorus from blocks 5 and 6 - I assume - of "Billy Gallas is our mate"), nearly gifted Kyiv a goal when having dispossessed Bangoura, he promptly gave the ball back to him and Bangoura hit the post and then before the half was out, he knocked the ball home from a corner, but was flagged offside.

The second half saw him block what the commentators claimed was a goalbound shot from Robin van Persie, it looked to me like the ball was going wide and then made a magnificent tackle in our penalty area. His evening finished at the full-time whistle, when he clapped the fans in the direction of the tunnel and quickly departed the scene.

Aside from that, I thought Carlos Vela showed why he was brought into the attack, he seemed very happy to work the channels, showed good intelligence and composure when on the ball and I think Arsène should have no fears about deploying him in future first team action.

The final words on Kyiv, though, must be for Cesc Fabregas, pictured during the first half trying to organise the team, I thought he played well. Not brilliantly but at the heart of most of the good work done last night. His quick thinking to see and react to the opportunity that developed in the 87th minute was bettered only by the way he delivered the ball. It is my hope that we see a bit more of that as the season progresses.

In other news, finally, Arsenal have appointed Ivan Gazidis as the new CEO. He joins us on January 1st. Just in time for the transfer window.

User Comments

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Ben

Posted on 27 Nov, 2008 at 06:21 AM - Reply

I turned on the game a little late (5am start in Australia) and was saddened to hear the Emirates even more quiet than usual! I would love to be able to get tickets to any CL game and would happily cheer, scream and belt my lungs for the entire game. You'd think those lucky enough to be there would too, regardless of the situation. Fans need to lift the side through these troubled times. You'd never hear the Kop or Old Trafford that quiet would you?

Let's hope a little more luck continues to flow our way for the Chelsea game.

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