My doubts were eased a few minutes later. Arsenal had a free kick on the left hand side of the penalty area, Denilson swung it in front of James who looked shaky during the game from high balls and once again made a hash of it

Match Review – Arsenal 1 Portsmouth 0 – Premier League (28.12.08)

Well it wasn’t pretty was it? They say that it is the winning that counts and not the performances from now on, I agree to some extent but what this team needs is a convincing score line and great quick football. I suppose that is asking a lot of a team who are clearly lacking confidence in themselves.

It wasn’t the best circumstances for both Tony Adams or Arsenal football club for the two to be reunited again. The Arsenal former captain and legend has been under pressure as results have not gone well of late. Portsmouth had lost 4-1 at West Ham on Friday and recently 3-0 at home to Newcastle. There were not many teams in the Premier League that the Arsenal players would have chosen to score some home goals and gain some self belief.

Alex Song and Johan Djourou picked up injuries on Friday so missed out along with an out of sorts Kolo Toure, in came Bendtner and Clichy. I was very intrigued to see Diaby line up alongside Denilson in central midfield for the first time in a long time. Hopefully he will now get a run in that position unless Alex Song comes straight back in when fit.

Arsenal started the game quicker and sharper than Pompey as you would expect from this fixture, nothing much was created in the early stages. The passing was pretty decent up until the final third where we were crowded out on several occasions. I watched closely to the performance of Diaby in the middle and his touches were mostly very good, one neat turn and drive opened the Portsmouth midfield at one stage, the problem is at this early stage his passing can let him down where as Cesc Fabregas would keep the ball almost all of the time.

He was clearly instructed to hold his position and not to get caught too far forward because often it looked like there was an invisible line that would have electrocuted him had he went beyond it.

Bendtner and Nasri appeared to be swapping positions, perhaps Wenger trying to get more of a link between the midfield and attack. Cesc provides that when playing and Nasri is probably the closest to Cesc in the squad.

The first real chance fell to Portsmouth who were not causing any problems to Gallas and Silvestre before that. Hughes crossed a high ball into the penalty area which Crouch and Gallas contested for, there was only one winner and the gangly Crouch glanced the ball wide of Almunia against the base of the post. A let off for Wenger’s men.

On the 32nd minute Adebayor was presented with Arsenal’s best chance of the game. A quick flowing move saw Eboue flick the ball out wide to Diaby who done his best impression of Fabregas and slipped a first time pass for Adebayor to run through on goal. David James rushed off his line to stop the ball but Adebayor’s long leg touched it past him, Ade was met with Sol Campbell who stuck out a leg which pushed it towards goal but more importantly for Portsmouth, towards Silvain Distin who cleared.

For Adebayor to have scored he would have needed his second touch to have been a shot instead of trying to take a touch forward. Perhaps had it of been on his right side then he could have taken it early.

A word on Bendtner, it has been pointed out that his work rate for the team has not always been what it should. But he was chasing back inside his own half and winning tackles.
I remember Wenger speaking after the Burnley result about most of the players putting in effort which surprised me and I had the feeling that he wasn’t pleased with Bendtner. Perhaps the pair have had a chat, if so then it appears to be paying off.

Not much else happened worth mentioning before the half time whistle blew. So half time zero a piece, I wondered why we had only created a couple of decent chances against a team who have been shipping in goals at will.

I suppose any side missing the creative edge of Cesc, Van Persie, Walcott and Rosicky would struggle to create clear cut chances.

It took Arsenal a couple minutes after the break to fashion a half chance, this time it was corner taken by Nasri that almost opened the scoring. David James came for a cross which he flapped (heard that one before have you?) Silvestre headed back towards goal but was cleared on the line by the wardrobe.

The next big chance was presented to the home side on the hour mark, It was Adebayor once again who should have done better. David James (yup, him again) came off his line to punch a cross clear but his punch glanced off his gloves into the path of Adebayor who was standing around 6 yards from goal, his first touch was not good enough and instead of swinging with his left he attempted to adjust his body so he could hit with the outside of his right foot, his shot hit the inside of his foot and flew wide of the post from close range.

Adebayor should have put Arsenal 2-0 up but instead the scores remained at 0-0 and the crowd started to feel restless.

Carlos Vela came on for Eboue on the 66th minute. Bendtner took his flank partner towards the right side of the pitch with Vela playing as a left winger.

Samir Nasri in his new position was played in through the right channel on 73rd minute but his shot was well saved by David James.

I was expecting Robin Van Persie to come on to add a bit of quality upfront but he stayed sat firmly in his seat, instead Wenger replaced Diaby with Ramsey. Diaby had a quiet second half compared to his first half showing, perhaps he was suffering with fatigue.

Ramsey’s first real contribution was to attempt a long range strike that lacked any real quality of power and it was at that point where I thought to myself that I just do not see us winning the game. We looked very lacklustre throughout the game and hardly created any goal scoring chances.

My doubts were eased a few minutes later. Arsenal had a free kick on the left hand side of the penalty area, Denilson swung it in front of James who looked shaky during the game from high balls and once again made a hash of it and William Gallas rose in front of him to head it into the Portsmouth net. How Adams must have been cringing on the Pompey bench. Adams spent a large chunk of his career playing with a certain David ‘safe hands’ Seaman who claimed 99% of crosses to came anywhere near his massive hands.

Papa Bouba Diop suffered an injury which was being treated on the pitch before coming off so we had to face 6 minutes of stoppage time. Portsmouth couldn’t really threaten our goal so we finished the game as winners of a game that lacked any sort of guile and craft.

It is my duty to find the positives, and I shall indeed oblige.

Hats off to Bendtner who put in his shift and worked for the side, not much of what he did in the final third really came off but hard work should be the base of every Arsenal players performance.

I will put Adebayor’s misses down to the fact that he had the week off and as Arsene would say, ‘lacked a little bit sharpness’

Abou Diaby showed some promise in the center of midfield and could improve with a run of games in that position.

We kept a clean sheet, albeit against a poor Portsmouth side. But more importantly we are unbeaten in 6 league games since Cesc was named as captain, not that it has anything to do with it. These 3 points are an important way to end 2008. Arsene Wenger now has a few weeks off from playing to working with the new CEO to try and bring some bodies to the club, preferably alive ones, and alive ones with quality.

Lets all wish for a happy and positive 2009.