Injury Woes Cast Shadow over Decent Draw

By: Martin | April 8th, 2009

Positives and negatives from yesterday’s match. We played very badly in the first half, gave up a number of scoring chances, and suffered two key injuries. But the bottom line is that away games in Europe are very, very tough, and a scoring draw is a good result. We certainly looked better than we did in Rome, and it’s a positive sign for a young side to come out in the second half, down a goal in a hostile environment, and dominate play to the extent we did.

Now, this tie is not over. Not by a long shot. But the reality is that there is a better chance of Arsenal reaching the semifinal today than there was at this point yesterday, and we have to be happy about that. Villareal is a team that can perform away from home, having beaten Panathinaikos in Greece and having held Manchester United to a scoreless draw at Old Trafford. But they’ve also had some shocking performances away, including a 2-0 loss to Celtic, and 3-0 losses to Deportivo La Coruna and Almeria. Villareal is 4-6-5 away from El Madrigal in La Liga this year, and have conceded more goals than they’ve scored. Objectively, you’d have to say we’ve probably taken their best shot and they’ve yet to take ours.

Aside from the result, the big news was injuries. And the initial news isn’t good. Nothing is certain yet, but Wenger has said that William Gallas may be out for the season with a knee injury, and Manuel Almunia could be out a couple of weeks with his ankle injury. Gallas is definitely a big loss although I think our backline works a little better with Djourou’s size and aerial presence paired up with either Gallas or Toure, who rely more on pace and athleticism. Our defense was woeful at the beginning of the season, but improved when Djourou began playing regularly, although one can have few complaints about the Gallas-Toure pairing lately. At any rate, Toure and Djourou become our first choice center backs, and Silvestre, Gibbs, and Alex Song will be substitution options. I am optimistic that Djourou is up to the task. It should also be noted that if this prognosis is correct, we may have seen Gallas play his last match in an Arsenal shirt yesterday.

Manuel Almunia has been great for this club. The way he handled the Lehmann situation was first-class all the way, in stark contrast to how Jens himself handled it. The underrated Almunia never gets mentioned as being one of the best keepers in the Premiership, but there are few goalies I’d rather have between the sticks. However, having watched most of the cup matches this year, Fabianski is a better pure shot stopper and more athletic than Almunia. If you haven’t seen him play, he’s aggressive and absolutely fearless. He’s the kind of keeper who goes after every cross into the box, which can shut down a lot of promising attacks, or lead to scrambles and the occasional sloppy goal in the box. Of course I’m nervous relying on a young goalie going into some of the biggest games of the season, but Fabianski has the talent to be one of the world’s top keepers someday, and won’t shrink from the big moment.

No word on the statuses of Eduardo, van Persie, and Diaby, but here’s hoping they make speedy recoveries. After the Wigan match on Saturday, we have Villareal at home on Wednesday and the FA cup semifinal at Wembley against Chelsea next weekend. Those games will make or break our season, and we need all hands on deck. In other news, the FA has asked Arsenal for their side of the story regarding the Fabregas “spitting incident.” I still think nothing will come of this, and it just shows what a ridiculous organization the FA can be.

On a side note, how great was Adebayor’s goal yesterday? I haven’t always been the Togonator’s biggest fan, but that was a world-class strike in a crucial moment. The official website put it on their list of Arsenal’s Top 10 European goals, which makes for a nice read/trip down memory lane.