Leeds

And Grandad, did the frog marry the beautiful princess? Yes my dear, and they all lived happily ever after.

So end many old fairy tales.

Personally I thought it was appalling. After all those years away from us, Thierry still had only one old pattern of play to show us….an off the opponent’s shoulder run into space, first touch control and pass the ball around the keeper into the far side of the net. Fer Gawd’s sake we’ve seen that time after time. How’s about something new Thierry?

Actually there was something new…no knees on the floor, no pulled up shirt… just a run over to “Dad” for a hug-in.

Goal 227 beautifully assisted by Alex Song may not have been the best of them, but Oh My, it was very emotional.

The game itself was nothing to build up hopes that a new era may dawn. Individual bits of brilliance followed by mediocrity. Finishing and accuracy thereof, woeful. In truth we did not look like we were a division ahead, half a division maybe as we certainly retained possession but as is so often the case it was possession leading to nowhere with nobody getting into space at speed. Marouane had some good layoffs but he’s there to score and at the moment there’s as much chance of that as the frog marrying the beautiful princess. (Whoops. Sorry)

AA is in similar mode and when you remember what he has done in the past, it really is embarrassing. At least he looked as though he wanted to play which is progress. Oxo looked a bit diffident in the first half; how he improved in the second, only to be (imho) stupidly substituted…he was at the time the one forward who looked like getting through, the first half was as bad as any we’ve seen this season. Jack Wilshire’s yawn summed it all up.

Le Coq pulling a hammy meant my first lengthy view of Nico Vennaris and the one real bit of interest in the half. Having the wretched Squelch on one side and a not very dedicated to defending Ox in front, meant that the lad was vulnerable, but he put in one very good shift.

The second half was more encouraging. Mikel Arteta came close, though having some 66% possession and less shots on target (3-4) than Leeds was indicative of our general performance. 18 shots off target probably summed it up better.

Defensively we were fairly sound but for some brain farts in the last few minutes. What on earth we were thinking of leaving Forsell on his tod? Fortunately Ches had kept himself awake and unlike Jack wasn’t even yawning. No complaints there.

But for an otherwise night of fairy tales and knights on speeding chargers, it deserves a dip into when most days were magic…have a feast on this lot.

http://redlondon.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/if-you-truly-love-arsenal-this...