Abou Diaby was a long way from what it takes to become an Arsenal regular against Manchester City on the weekend, although in my eyes his ability has never been in doubt. He needed to increase his effort, his fight and the rest would take care of itself. There certainly was an improvement

Standard Liege 2 Arsenal 3 – Champions League

A very strange game of football took place in Belgium. At times it was almost school boy defending. That term is overused for bad defending but in this case, it sums up what took place in the first five minutes in the Stade Maurice Dufrasne.

Eduardo’s attempted back flick on the edge of his penalty area was obviously not the done thing especially at that stage of a game but it was not a wild attempt at a fancy flick. He spotted Cesc running off him whilst the ball was high in the air, his improvisation went horribly wrong and moments later it was in the back of Mannone’s net without the Italian having a touch of the ball.

The penalty started and finished with Jovanovic. Eboue tried to cut inside him but the midfielder won the ball and drove at the Arsenal defence, a drop of the shoulder and cut inside Gallas was enough to make the Frenchman commit the foul, the only question is where the foul took place. It looked to me as if the first touch was outside the box but obviously his momentum took him inside and the penalty was given.

I had visions of Mannone making himself an instant hero by saving the spot kick but he was sent the wrong way from the player who single handedly doubled the home sides advantage.

My thoughts at that stage were ‘at least we will play at a decent tempo for the rest of the game’

Next goal was crucial. Horrible position to be in after five minutes of your first Champions League tie of the season but an Arsenal goal before half time would be ok as long as we didn’t make anymore idiotic mistakes.

Momments later Gallas sold one of his team mates short with an underhit pass which Arsenal just about got away with. We looked shaky and very fragile. I was worried about why it took so long for the team to settle down and start moving the ball around accurately.

Abou Diaby was a long way from what it takes to become an Arsenal regular against Manchester City on the weekend, although in my eyes his ability has never been in doubt. He needed to increase his effort, his fight and the rest would take care of itself. There certainly was an improvement in his overall game even though his did give his customary loose ball away from time to time. His part in the Arsenal fight back was key. Picking the ball up on the half way line with his back to goal, twisting and turning past his marker then opening up his legs to take him towards the penalty area, Bendtner waited and waited then timed his run across his marker perfectly. Diaby spotted the Dane who fired low in between the keepers legs. Just before half time. That first Arsenal goal was pretty much the Arsenal winner.

At 2-0 walking into the dressing room Arsene Wenger’s work would have been much harder. Instead the dominance was rewarded and it was just a case of coming out and doing the same with added self belief.

At 2-1 I was convinced we would win the game 4-2.

Arsenal must stop beating themselves. We have the most amount of talent in the league but we beat ourselves against Manchester United, was in the driving seat at Eastlands at 1-1 then folded when we had the far stronger hand and those results must have been in the back of the mind when Liege had scored from the spot.

I have said countless times that I do not believe in the saying ‘decisions even themselves out over the course of a season’ although if someone sent me the footage of the second Arsenal goal I could evaluate the video evidence.

Cesc’s free kick was floated into the box, it was very difficult to tell if Eduardo managed to get a glance on the ball. Had he done just that then Alex Song and Thomas Vermaelen would have been standing in offside positions. The referee had a body of players to look through as he took his place outside the penalty area, so he would not have seen Song’s arm play a part in his control of the ball, he hooked it back across goal for Thomas Vermaelen to level the game up.

We didn’t get the run of the green in our last couple games so hopefully this is a sign on things to come.

Minutes later Standard Liege wanted to show Arsenal that they have a long way to go in really not defending a corner correctly. A cross was driving in at knee height towards the six yard box, not one player in red got near the ball. Eduardo allowed the ball to cannon off his knee into the empty net.

Vito Mannone had plenty of peering eyes on him before the kick off and I must say overall he handled himself well. A few of his kicks in the early part of the game looked nervy and panicky but he grew in confidence as the game went on.

This will be a game of mixed emotions for our manager. He will be pleased that they team showed great mental attitude when we fell two behind, the boys plugged away and got their just deserts. Arsene will be concerned about the teams continuous defensive mistakes and will hope that it solves itself out soon.

A victory was needed to bounce back after the weekend and although we took the long way round, we got there in the end.