Sunday 24 February 2008

Premier League - Match #27

Birmingham City 2 McFadden 2
Arsenal 2 Walcott 2

Theo Walcott opened his Premier League goals account for Arsenal but the day will be more remembered as a Black Saturday for Gooners all over the world after a horrendous tackle by Martin Taylor on Eduardo saw the Croatian international being stretchered off just after five minutes with a broken leg.

Taylor saw red for his action.

It was quite a shocker for everybody and it seemed to affect Arsenal more than the home side. The injury caused a delay which nearly lasted ten minutes and upon resumption the mood at St Andrews was quite sombre.

James McFadden put the home side ahead on the half an hour mark with a free-kick but Arsenal forced a number of saves from Maik Taylor who continued to frustrate the visitors throughout the match.

But Arsenal levelled the match after the interval with a poacher's goal by Walcott, his first fro Arsenal in the Premier League. He then showed his class five minutes later with a fine low shot past Taylor after robbing Liam Ridgewell off the ball.

Arsenal should have sewn up the points when a wonderful pass from Cesc Fabregas put Manu Adebayor clear in a 2 versus 1 situation with Nicklas Bendtner providing the support. The Togolese chose to have a go himself and Taylor managed to palm it away.

Had he chosen to lay the ball into the young Danes's path, it would have presented him with an open goal and that would be game set and match for Arsenal.

Adebayor's selfishness came to haunt Arsenal in the dying seconds after Gael Clichy was robbed of the ball by Stuart Parnaby. The French international made a superb recovery and took the ball cleanly but the referee thought otherwise and awarded a penalty.

McFadden blasted the ball home for an undeserved point for the home side, which they would not have gotten if Adebayor had been more generous earlier to Bendtner.

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