A Classy Affair...

Yesterday was a test of our character. We had lost everything on offer in Manchester. We had to make a statement of intent and we did it in some style. It was an away game in a pressure packed atmosphere of Champions League. We went down 2-nil in 1st 5 minutes and our backs (arse) were against the wall. In times like these we get to see the true character of a side. Nothing but a special display could get us out of the soup. An 11gunners interpretation of a classy affair @ Stade de Sclessin..

The man who won it for us was not even allowed to play a few hours before the game. Lady luck was in bed with him last night and if anyone deserved it, it was him. No points for guessing. It is Croazillian we are talking about. He scored the winner just 10 minutes before time. The Croazillian marksman was only available because the club successfully appealed against UEFA’s two-match ban imposed for diving against Celtic in the second leg of the qualifying tie.

Arsenal fought back from going 2-0 down inside five minutes to win their opening Champions League Group H clash away to Standard Liege. Arsenal were favourites to win it and nobody expected Liege to do anything other than turn up and get a footballing lesson from Arsenal. We again failed to deal with set pieces. Arsenal failed to clear a corner, and it proved costly as Eliaquim Mangala smashed a low drive into the bottom corner to give Liege a shock lead in just two minutes. Moments after the restart William Gallas was adjudged to have tripped Milan Jovanovic – Spanish referee Eduardo Gonzalez immediately pointing to the spot. It was an uphill task from there on.

Arsenal started to mount pressure of their own and it was Rosicky who was playing a pivotal role after his triumph over his mysterious illness and if he does continue playing like this, it was worth the patience.The patience was the key and then in stoppage time, Abou Diaby charged towards the penalty area before slipping in Bendtner on the right. The Danish kid drilled in a fine first-time shot into the far corner to give the small band of travelling Arsenal supporters hope. This kid does not score fantastic goals ONLY for Denmark. He can do the same for us as well. Adebayor replaced?? Liege got off to a flier on the other side of the break and thanks to Gael Clichy who made a last-gasp saving tackle to keep us in the game.

Arsenal was pressing forward with whatever they had and Liege were defending deep. They were looking to hit us on the counter. We are known to break down in conditions like these but last night was different. As the hour mark approached, Arsenal now faced a wall of 10 red shirts every time they went forward. However, the equaliser finally came in the 77th minute when a deep free-kick caused havoc in the Liege six-yard box and Vermaelen made sure that it did end up at the back of the net.

Former American football coach Vince Lombardi said:

“If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”

And if we can go by what happened last night we can say that slowly but surely Arsenal is learning the true meaning of Vince Lomabardi’s quote. It comes to mind whenever Arsenal lose, as they have done twice within 15 Manchester days. We always have a sinking feeling that this Arsenal team can not grind out a result. We always suspect that “when the going gets tough this team falls like a pack of cards.” There are no question marks over the technical quality of the side. They lost both the ties @ Manchester just because they were not clinical enough. The lack of defensive midfielder is still a concern and it was exposed widely @ Manchester. We can just hope that last night was not a false dawn and if it was not then Premier League, Champions League, et al; Here We Come..