01 November 2006

Arsenal vs CSKA Moscow - Emirates Stadium, London - Wednesday 1st November 2006

One of those nights, for sure. Over twenty shots on target, plus at least another 6 opportunities that went right across the face of goal - had anybody touched them, they would have gone in. Seriously, Arsenal could well have won 5-0 or more this evening. The fact that they didn't was mostly down to wasteful finishing, not helped by CSKA's resolute defending - they have still not conceded a goal in the competition this season. So, an annoying 0-0 draw, and work still to do in this group.

In his programme notes, Thierry Henry had a well-justified dig at some sections of Arsenal's support (myself NOT included, I might add), who keep shouting "shoot" whenever a player gets within 2 miles of the goal, and who start moaning when we are not 3-0 up after 20 minutes. Stick together and support the team, he said.

Quite right too. The bloke that sits behind me, who I am growing to completely detest, said to his mates towards the end "we have played completely shit tonight". Yes mate, we dominated posession, had well over 20 shots on goal plus countless other opportunities, played some brilliant football, and in fact did absolutely everything but score. I know that putting the ball in the back of the net is quite important, but to call a performance like that "shit" really shows how much many Arsenal fans know about football.

That is now 2 home games in a row where we have struggled to break down a team that defended well in depth. To be fair, we created more than enough excellent chances this evening, it was "just" the finishing that was missing. Breaking down and killing off these annoying teams like Everton, CSKA Moscow, Middlesbrough, and Aston Villa, could be the conundrum of our season, just as "winning away from home" was the big issue last season. We seemed to have solved the away victory problem, only to replace it with a distinct home victory problem instead.

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