But, like too many home games this season, this was 2 points dropped. A shockingly pedestrian Arsenal display in the first half, coupled with a complete lack of any enthusiasm or atmosphere from the home crowd, and topped off by conceding just before the interval, made me quite close to giving up and going off to the pub at half time. The first half display really was pathetic - no urgency from anybody in particular in the Arsenal team, and strange selection plus an early injury to Ljungberg left us with something of a lightweight attack.
The start of the second half didn't get much better, as Pompey scored again, and the display showed no signs of picking up. Then on 55 minutes, Wenger introduced Adebayor, who has been one of our most impressive players for the last month or so, with more than a few goals to contribute too. Within 4 minutes, he had scored. Within another 10 minutes, we were level, and continued to throw everything at Portsmouth in search of the winner. But then, with 20 minutes or so to go, Arsenal seemed to ease off again, although thankfully not quite all the way back to the disinterested display from the first half.
It was a great comeback, and for 15 minutes, we could have blown any team in the world off the park - the main question is why we were unwilling or unable to do this for the rest of the game, and especially to go out attacking from the beginning. IN previous seasons, we have started well, blown teams away, but won the game after 20 minutes - we need to start doing that again.
Before the game today, I took a walk up to the back of the upper tier, behind the goal - my god that is high up! It was amazing how much the roof slopes down when you are at the back, and also amazing just how far away (both upwards and backwards) you are - this really is a very big stadium.
Finally, a word about the banning of national flags in the new stadium - utterly ridiculous, and yet another example of Arsenal's attempts to completely sanitise the matchday experience. No standing, no swearing, no inflatable mobile phones, certainly no fake photocopied banknotes, and now no national flags. Considering the flag days that Arsenal have held in the past, and how good our European away support looks with all the flags on display, this is another great way to completely kill any spectacle or atmosphere at football.
"We want to be inclusive, and we don't want to offend anybody", they say. Well. they have just offended thousands of people, but of course we are the people that they don't give 2 hoots about. I hope that when Arsenal are playing in a half-full, completely silent stadium, because they have driven all the real fans away, that they look back on this and regret it. Sadly, for one reason or another, I doubt they ever will.
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