Oktoberfest at The Emirates!

ARSENAL 4 Silvetsre, Gallas, Adebayor, van Persie

SP*DS 4 Bentley, Bent, Jenas, Lennon

Two goals lead with just a minute to go against your local rivals, the sensible thing to do? Shut the shop and pull down the shutters.

But what did Arsenal do? Continue operating normally and look to increase the profit which eventually was wiped out at the end of the four minutes added time.

It was so disappointing thinking we are capable of making that kind of defensive errors which let opponents back into the match. It shows that this season perhaps we are not really title contenders yet. But football is a funny old game so I would not be giving up hope just yet.

I have always believe there is something special about David Bentley and this morning he showed that I am not wrong by scoring the goal which topped the ones he scored for us against his current boss Harry Redknapp’s Portsmouth back in 2004 in the FA Cup.

We responded well after going behind and it was good to see Mikel Silvestre scoring his first Arsenal goal, an effort that many Arsenal fans have not seen with enough frequency lately, scoring from corners. It was truly a wonderful header and he nearly repeated the feat a while later.

Then just after break we went ahead with another header from a set piece. This time skipper William Gallas connecting well with a Robin van Persie free-kick. The Gunners went two goals ahead when the Dutchman precise pass released Samir Nasri who beat Gomez with a delicate chip. It was already on its way into the net but Manu Adebayor touched it to make sure.

But Sp*ds cut out the lead when Manuel Almunia failed to get up quick enough to prevent Darren Bent from getting the rebound past him. The Spaniard had earlier failed to hold Tom Huddlestone’s fierce drive from outside the box.

But van Persie restored the lead as Arsenal capitalised on an error by Allan Hutton. Adebayor latched on to a weak pass from the Scottish full-back and found the Dutchman at the far post. Unlike earlier chances when he tried to shift the ball to his stronger left foot, this time van Persie took it with his right and Gomez had no chance.

It should be game over but somehow Gael Clichy’s error presented the ball to Jermaine Jenas who scored with a wonderful curler which gave Almunia no chance at all.

One thing about Glichy is that he is a good defender with a powerful engine that enables him to run down the flanks all day. Unfortunately, he is also prone to this kind of lapse of concentration where he failed to do the simple thing which led to critical situation.

One situation that immediately came to my mind was the match at St Andrews last season when Eduardo suffered the horrific injury. It was almost identical, Arsenal were leading 2-1 and Glichy lost the ball near to the goal. He made a wonderful tackle to win the ball back but the referee deemed it was an offence and awarded Birmingham a penalty which they scored.

Arsenal never recover from that.

If only the young Frenchman did the simple thing and just hoof the ball out.

This morning match also was not a good one for Almunia. He conceded four goals at the Emirates for the first time. A slight deflection took Luca Modric’s shot away from him, which hit the post and rebounded for Aaron Lennon to equalise in the last minute of the added time.

How I wish we just play ugly once in a while and just bring the ball to the corner and wait for the referee to blow for time. Thierry Henry and Robert Pires used to do it, why can’t we do it again?

Hope this will be another lesson well learned.

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