Arsenal vs Portsmouth - Emirates Stadium, London - Sunday 28th December 2008

This was one of those games where the result was much, much more important that the way it was achieved. After a couple of draws in the past week - both against good teams, but you feel we needed more than 2 points from the 2 games - it was important to pick up 3 points here, against one of the so-called "lesser" teams. It was good to see Tony Adams again, and nice that he waved when Arsenal fans sang at him, but we were hoping to make him unhappy in his day job.

The first half was boring. When we all gathered under the stand at half time, the over riding thought was "how very dull". There was lots of Arsenal passing, but very little penetration, no real chances created, and not much to get excited about. Bendtner and Adebayor did not exactly make a dynamic duo up front, Nasri was stuck out on the wing, and the rest of the midfield hardly looked creative. At the other end, Peter Crouch was allowed an unchallenged header, which hit the post - reminding us of Arsenal's defensive frailty, which could strike any any moment.

The second half started as more of the same - Arsenal had the vast majority of possession, created a couple of chances, but either nobody felt like shooting, or the final ball was astray. Still, we know from enough previous games that patience is key here - if we try it enough times, we will score eventually.

The introduction of Carlos Vela made a big difference to the game, for me. He went on the left wing, Nasri switched to the right, and the move injected some flair, creativity and something interesting to Arsenal's play. Vela was lively, worked hard, scared the opposition, and generally played a big part in helping to win the game. The winner came from a Gallas header, but Vela had done enough to unsettle the opposition defenders over the past 10 minutes, to be able to claim some of the credit.

Three points to finish the year, and overall, it doesn't seem like too bad a Christmas break now. For sure, we need to bring in some further resource to our squad in January, just to give us a few more options of the type that Vela provided today. We still have an uphill struggle to finish fourth I think, but with no League game for 13 days, we can at least forget about it all for a short while. A useful 3 points, the result was much better and more important than the game and performance.