ASTON
VILLA 0 ARSENAL 0
I AM starting to think Emerson and I are becoming a curse on away games this season. This trip to Villa Park was our third of the season following on from excursions to Stoke in August (0-0) and Norwich last month (0-1), and once again we failed to see the team score.
I don’t know why we thought this would be any different. With Villa struggling at the wrong end of the table, this had Norwich written all over it. But the joy of travelling to away games is the hope you will witness something special, like a Reading, so we tackled the M6 full of optimism.
Villa Park, one of the best grounds in the country |
I am beginning to wonder if we would actually be better off not qualifying for it at all and just concentrating on the things that really matter. I mean it hasn’t done Liverpool any harm has it?
Tiredness or not, we seemed to think we just had to turn
up, play our football and we would win. But unfortunately that is rarely the
case for us these days.
I couldn’t help feel, however, that if Theo had been fit we
would have won without too many problems. He is fast becoming our most
important player, giving us that extra bit of pace and quality in the final
third. Fingers crossed he signs that new contract then.Theo Walcott, may have made the difference |
Arshavin’s lovely cross from the left would have left Gervinho with a tap in even he couldn’t miss had it not been for the last-ditch intervention of Clark.
I would love nothing more than to see the little Russian
to get a run in the side. Technically he is still probably our most gifted
player and a run of games may bring back his missing confidence.
Next up came the chant of ‘We want our Arsenal back’ from
the increasingly frustrated away section. But just what is ‘our Arsenal?’ Is it
the Arsenal I first fell in love with in early 1980’s? You know the one
with players like John Hawley, Lee Chapman and Brian Sparrow in the team? And
if so do we really want that back? I know I don’t.
Anyway as Emerson and I set off back down the M6, we
reflected on another goalless away trip. His opinion was that Mertersaker, Ramsey and Szczesny had all played well and that Villa Park is a very nice ground. I found it hard to disagree.
Emerson enjoying another 0-0 draw! |
Oddly the only three away games where
we have failed to score this season are the only three we have travelled to. Our next scheduled trip is for the Capital One cup tie at
Bradford in a couple of weeks, then Wigan just before Christmas. If we don’t
score in either of those two, we will get the message.