Why was 6ft7 Zat Knight left unmarked inside a penalty area on 92 minutes? That is not bad defending, it goes beyond that. It is almost like going to a park watching a collection of teenagers doing tricks and skills then throwing them into a team for the first time

Match Review – Aston Villa 2 Arsenal 2 – Premier League

Matches against Aston Villa are not usually seen as so called 6 pointers but Boxing day 2008 had brought up a very important match for both Arsenal and Aston Villa.

Aston Villa came to the Emirates on the 15th November and surprised Arsene Wenger’s team, this time around without Cesc Fabregas the players could not afford to take the game lightly.

With Adebayor out through suspension, Arsene decided to go like for like with Villa’s midfield so Diaby played in the free role that he played so effectively against Manchester United and Fenerbache earlier in the season.

Johan Djourou was penciled… well more like felt tipped in to start the game but pulled out with a last minute injury during the warm up. Kolo Toure who has just come back from another injury partnered William Gallas in the center of defence.

The game started quite positively, both sides attempting to make the strongest start and get a grip of the game. Arsenal passed well without really having the presence up front and Villa looked dangerous trying to get in behind with the pace of Agbonlahor and Ashley Young.

Villa won a corner in the 5th minute, and the big guys were sent forward. I watched Curtis Davies walking in the penalty area with Zat Knight and was amazed by the size of Knight. Davies is a big guy but seeing him alongside Knight was quite frightening. Knight looked like a monster alongside our team. It certainly wouldn’t be the last time in the game that he would scare the Arsenal team.

Aston Villa started to look a really threat to Almunia’s goal starting with former Gunner Steve Sidwell crashing a header against the upright. It was a lucky escape for the Gunners but what it did do was provide Martin O’Neill’s men with that extra bit of impetus

After Davies headed a good chance wide, the Gunners created their first chance which fell to the man of the moment, Robin Van Persie. In the 13th minute Abou Diaby won a ball against Barry deep inside the Villa half and the Frenchman strode forward and chipped a ball over to Van Persie who spun off his marker, pulled the ball down on his chest and I was waiting to see where his left foot strike would go before a fantastic tackle came in from Knight to put it out for a throw.

On 20 minutes Villa almost found the breakthrough, Gareth Barry played the ball into the left hand channel for Agbonlahor to run onto, the youngster cut inside on his right foot and curled towards Almunia’s far post, Almunia managed to get a hand on it which fell to Sidwell who looked certain to score but for a superb block from William Gallas.

Arsenal missed Cesc Fabregas’ ability to dictate the game, to ability to find space to receive the ball and once again Villa’s midfield started dominating the game as they did at the Emirates.

Milner hit the post again, with Almunia gathering up the rebound, Curtis Davies headed against the crossbar as well as a few more half chances that Villa really should have put away and it was a case of when and not if Villa would score.

It is usually Arsenal who have all the bad luck (bad finishing) infront of goal and the opposition score with their first real attempt, but for once the boot was on the other foot. One time Wenger target Nigel Reo-Coker made a mistake on the edge of his penalty box and Denilson ran on to slot it past Brad Fridel.

Bacary Sagna produced one of the best moments in the match from an Arsenal perspective by clearing off his line with an acrobatic bicycle kick.

Yet another injury to another Arsenal midfield player, Alex Song could go on no more after suffering a leg injury and 18 year old Aaron Ramsey came on to replace him.

Just after half time Arsenal scored the second goal and what a goal it was. Diaby produced a wonderful piece of skill that left Davies for dead, he flicked it forward to Eboue who charged towards goal, Diaby continued a run ahead of the Ivorian who slipped a perfect pass into the path of Diaby and he lifted it over the out rushing Friedel. Fantastic move and surely safe at 2-0.

Van Persie hit the post with a left foot shot and at 3-0 the game would have been wrapped up. As it was, Gallas the experienced one at the back let Agbonlahor get on his wrong side and committed himself when the sensible thing would have been to stay on his feet. Accusations that Arsenal lack experience is not warranted in my opinion. It is the quality in certain areas that is the problem.

Barry converted the penalty and we as fans feared for the worse.

The team defending in injury time was just criminal, utterly criminal. Aston Villa had a throw-in deep inside their half, the ball was thrown to Milner and no Arsenal player closed down the receiver of the ball. Milner crossed into a penalty area where 4 Villa players waited for the ball against 3 Arsenal defenders.

Why was 6ft7 Zat Knight left unmarked inside a penalty area on 92 minutes? That is not bad defending, it goes beyond that. It is almost like going to a park watching a collection of teenagers doing tricks and skills then throwing them into a team for the first time.

It makes you wonder if the team actually practice any defending whatsoever. Forget injuries, any player who is playing for this club should know the basics in defending. When I say basics I really mean the very basics.

Arsenal are almost the best and worst in world football. When the strong side of our game is strong then we can out pass any team in any stadium and when our bad side is bad then we do not pick players up and are generally carless. Arsene needs to address the balance.

Currently, the fight for consistency continues.