Frustration & Relief

Morning All,

We ended up drawing the game 1-1 in Ukraine last night and it came as no surprise owing to our poor record in the former Soviet Union. In the past we've been beaten twice by Dynamo, in 1998 and 2003. We went down 3-0 to Shakhtar Donetsk in 2000, while their record in Russia was also poor, with two defeats from three visits.

We managed to get a bright start to game. In the second minute of the game, RVP got a great pass through Walcott, but his low angled shot was saved at the near post by Stanislav Bogush. In the 19th minute, Adebayor capitalized on poor control by Roman Eremenko & sprinted into the Dynamo penalty area. However he sent his shot wide when he really should have hit the target.

As half-time approached, RVP shot the ball into the side netting following good work from Sagna down the right. We cut out an even better chance when Adebayor fed Van Persie with a ball across goal, which was cut back for Fabregas who could only manage a tame shot straight at the keeper from six yards out.

At the start of the second half, Kiev almost snatched the lead when Eremenko got clear down the right and cut inside Gallas, our brilliant goal keeperAlmunia get a fingertip save. Walcott was soon back in the action as he set up Van Persie down the left, only for the him to skew his shot horribly wide. Fabregas was on target again with a 25-yard drive, but once more hit the ball straight at the Kiev keeper. A mistake by Gallas allowed Bangoura to get away down the right. Although Arsenal tracked back, the ball was eventually played into the penalty area where Ognjen Vukojevic went down under pressure from Sagna. The referee "apparently" had seen enough contact to immediately point to the spot before booking him. It appeared to be quite a dubious call, Sagna himself was not too convinced either and according to le boss', "The penalty was harsh, Sagna is convinced he was pulled with two hands on his own shirt as the guy went down." also seemed to have convinced me even more.

No use crying over spilt milk, Bangoura took the shot and sent Almunia the wrong way. 1-0 to Kiev. We were now chasing a game which we should have had in the bag following all out first-half dominance. Alex Song was then replaced by Nicklas Bendtner. Arsenal, though, still looked vulnerable to the counter-attack as they chased the game, and Bangoura hit the side netting following another quick break down the Dynamo left. Emmanuel Eboue replaced Sagna for the final 13 minutes before a far-post header by Adebayor almost sneaked in. Mexican striker Carlos Vela was then brought on for Van Persie. It was beginning to become quite frustrating and at this point all my friends had gone haywire (you lot need to relax a bit).

In the 88th minute of the game, we managed tol rescue a point when Gallas bundled in at the far post following a low cross by (who else?) Theo Walcott for the skipper's third goal of the European campaign this season.

William Gallas was none too pleased with our performance, Le Captain, whilst speaking to Sky Sports had this to say:

"It was really hard, we played well in the first half and in the second we didn't play at all well. We didn't defend well and conceded the penalty. I think everyone was disappointed with the second half. It's not bad to get a point but we feel we should have done better, because we feel we should have won, it's normal to feel disappointed."

Le Boss too was a tad frustrated and had this to say;

"The game is a mixture of frustration and relief. The game should be over at half-time because we had clear chances in the first half, but it is a relief because with three minutes to go we were 1-0 down. I felt our level dropped in the second half and we did not create as many chances as we would have liked to. We feel we have lost two points today."

And I must say I have to agree, with all our dominance and flash, we were unable to yet again unable to finish what we started and this is beginning to become quite a habit. We need to be more clinical. We miss that poacher's element to our finishing, something Ian Wright brought to us and something that is required on such occassions. We need not be exuberant, just effective. Anyways, we've gotten the haunted former Soviet Union out of our systems, hopefully we can put them back in their place once they visit our hallowed turf.

In other news, it is being said that Stan Kroenke will be appointed on the Arsenal board in order to get rid of that Man Utd supporting ****, Alisher Usmanov. You can read the full report, here.

Right then, I'm off.

Here's hoping for a fantastic display against Bolton this weekend.

Come on you Gunnnneeerrrrsssss!!!!