A Point Gained, But Is It Enough?

An early trip to London tomorrow morning means I have to make a rapid assessment of what has been served up before me today. The dish may have been a little uninspired, the result perhaps not what was required, but the sour taste from Saturday was thankfully avoided as Arsenal returned from the north-east with what could prove to be a valuable point.

The loss of Tomas Rosicky through sickness brought an unexpected response, with Arsene Wenger switching Ljungberg to the left hand side, and pushing Abou Diaby in behind Adebayor. I think most of us would have made another change or two.

There was some early hope as Hleb took the first opportunity to shoot, but once again the Gunners build up was laboured and easily read by the Newcastle back line. From the most promising looking move Solano appeared to haul down Ljungberg, but it was the Swede who picked up the yellow card for daring to suggest that referee Howard Webb had not interpreted the challenge correctly.

Jens Lehmann was called upon to make a smart stop down to his right when Emre’s free-kick broke to Onyewu, and Emmanuel Adebayor should have gone closer with a header at the other end.

The second half almost started calamitously for the visitors as Milner’s mis-hit cross struck the bar, but a dire forty-five minutes resulted in yet another in the catalogue of ‘how did Arsenal not score there’ moments as Solano twice denied Gilberto on the line.

I’m less scathing in my apparaisal than on Saturday because we have secured a point at a difficult venue. It has brought an end to the run of three defeats, yet in truth the performance leaves Wenger with many questions to answer.

Can we make the 4-4-1-1 formation produce the wins that are needed. Diaby is a wonderful player but Bergkamp he ain’t. The same goes for Ljungberg. Perhaps if Rosicky is recovered he may be given the opportunity to play in the hole on Saturday?

I don’t want to go on about a player when he is down, but Hleb is in desperate need of a rest. He looked almost relieved when he dragged his battered frame off the park on the hour to be replaced by the equally inept Baptista.

Wenger’s options are clearly limited. He doesn’t possess a fit striker who is in a scoring vein, his midfield options appear to be the inexperienced Denilson, or Flamini who clearly has his mind elsewhere, and only his back four is probably at full strength.

It is going to be a tough end of season, but that is true for the likes of Bolton and Everton as well. We still have our destiny in our own hands. Saturdays home game with Bolton now becomes the biggest game of the season. How times change!