Match Ratings: Arsenal 1 - 1 Middlesbrough

 

Manuel Almunia - 6 -  Had one save to make, which as it happened, he had no chance with. Played as a sweeper all game.

Bacary Sagna - 6 - Disappointing, he had nothing to do defensively yet wasn’t very impressive going forward despite the time and opportunities that he had to roam forward.

Kolo Toure - 7 - I didn’t think that Wenger needed to drop Senderos who has been pretty much faultless recently, but Toure got the goal that saved the match and committed defenders when going forward late on.

William Gallas - 6 - Didn’t do much except pass sideways and into midfield. Defensively untroubled.

Gael Clichy - 6 - Also pretty disappointing. He and Hleb lacked the understanding they normally seem to have and so a lot of the attacks on the left when backwards .

Emmanuel Eboue - 7 - He was decent gong forward although decision making wasn’t always great, generally he at least had some urgency. Faded in the second half though.

Cesc Fabregas - 6 - Played some fantastic through balls at times, but was too slow most of the time for my liking.

Mathieu Flamini - 5 - Wasn’t needed defensively, and his energy going forwards wasn’t great to be honest.

Alexander Hleb - 5 - Nothing came off for him, except one truly brilliant reverse pass which on another day Fabregas would have buried and we’d all be praising his genius.

Emmanuel Adebayor - 5 - Bad first touch, lacked pace and didn’t ask enough questions of the Boro defence. I sincerely hope he finds his form again soon.

Robin van Persie - 6 - Clearly not match fit in my opinion. Created the odd moment of danger but still a while before he’s back to his best.

Substitutes:

Nicklas Bendtner - 6 - Added a presence late on.

Theo Walcott - 6 - Didn’t get the ball enough, because when he did have it he made a difference.

Philippe Senderos - n/a - Wasn’t on for long enough.

Arsenal 1 - 1 Middlesbrough

Four points in twelve games is clearly not title winning form, and when you look at the fixtures that we have had: Birmingham City, Aston Villa, Wigan and on Saturday the 1-1 draw against Boro’, these are all fixtures that we have gone into the match thinking that the most likely outcome would be three points. The fsum total of four points that we have got, then, are more than just disappointing - they are bordering on disaster.

And despite the three previous draws, I still travelled to the Emirates with all the optimism you could possibly want or need - the three points were virtually ours from where I was standing. And in the first ten minutes, we all but blew Boro’ away, with fantastic passing allied to direct running making Middlesbrough cling on to the match desperately. Adebayor had the ball in the net and the goal without a doubt should have stood - how you can be offside having been played through by an opposition player I will never know. Eboue then had a cross hit the crossbar and from that point you could see that luck was not with us.

But with Boro struggling to get out of their half, even with Arsenal’s passing and movement not flowing at its brilliant best we seemed assured of the win. But then we gave away a dubious free kick, which Schwarzer hit long towards the offside Aliadiere and the onside Tuncay, with the Turkish winger latching onto the ball and crossing for the now (apparently) onside Aliadiere to score against us, his former team.

The sighs were audible around the ground, and a familiar story that was repeated every week last season began to take shape as the first half slowly drew to a close.

Arsenal had all the pressure for all the second half, but were somehow kept at bay by Middlesbrough, while the referee showed signs of increasing incompetence. And I am not complaining about the ref because the result went against us - he made some terrible decisions against Boro as well, although as we had all the pressure obviously we had the worst of it. Van Persie came close with a left foot strike from outside the area, Fabregas had a header shave the post but the pressure still didn’t have any effect on the scoreline.

With five minutes remaining we got an undeserved corner as Eboue clearly fouled Young heading towards the by-line, and from the resulting superb delivery that Fabregas gave Toure was there to head in past the obstructed Schwarzer (obstructed by his own player I’d like to add). It was less than Arsenal deserved, but if you can’t take chances you will slip up again and again and we did that on Saturday. One thing is for sure - if we do not rise to the challenge of Chelsea with some effective football, we’ll be found dumped out of the title race before we play Liverpool in the Champions League in three weeks time.