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THE AWAY END - THE EMIRATES 17-3-08
John Powls
The Build Up To The Game
The websites this week have shown some grudging acceptance of Gate’s "One small step back to respect" line after the Villa game. Not much is expected of this game in the way of a result but a performance is demanded.
The posters to the message boards and blogs have been peeled back to a single "foam hander". One of his optimistic gems has been "we’re twelfth – that’s nowhere near a relegation place". Full marks for ordinal ranking, DM, if not for adding up and taking away! I must have been off school that day.
Aliadiere was available again after the ‘fourth game’ of his ban and Gate has been dropping heavy hints that he was going play against his old club.
Alves was supposed to be fit again, so for almost the first time this season, Gate has the proverbial ‘nice problem for a manager to have’ – the chance to pick from his full squad.
He had also hinted that The Tippy-Tappy Twins will not play and that he favoured The Shawkster and The Boat as two holding (No, strangely disturbing image – must blot it out!!).
It seemed that Arca – new contract and all – may, like a fading actress short of a damehood, be ‘resting’ again. All together now, "Don’t cry for me Marge and Tina…".
That surely meant same again all round with the only exception being Aladdin replacing Greggs-boy or Our Turkish Delight up front. I hate horse racing so why am I coming off like Peter O’Sullivan all of a sudden?
That should also give us a pretty strong bench too.
For the first time ever, Phil and I had trouble getting tickets for The Away End for this one. No-one could think why the full allocation had been gobbled up by season ticket holders.
Was everyone doubling up with seeing the other Egyptian attractions - Tutankhamun or the other fabled Away End, The Terracotta Warriors? Perhaps they were also taking in a show (anything but The Lion King, for goodness sake!) to start the Easter break?
But, at the last moment our Fairy Godmother, Hazel, came through for us and we stopped looking for pubs with Setanta! What it is to have friends in the right places. Thanks, Hazel!
At least Lawro is back on form and has us down to lose!! I begged him not to back us against Cardiff…
Gristleburgers - with cheeeeeese – why hasn’t Harry Hill picked up on that one yet? - and onions!
A sold-out Away End in a sold out ground were greeted with rain as the game approached. Everyone in the ground stood and applauded the unfortunate Eduardo as he took his player of the month award for February.
The big screens told us that results elsewhere had gone Boro’s way and the Gooners groaned as they realised that ManUre were atop the league and that Chelksi were closing in.
Arca was on the bench but, yet again, there was no sign of Alves.
The Game
Overall, it was a good result and performance in the 'no guts, no glory' mould.
Boro almost held out but the last twenty minutes were a bit like the Alamo, although virtually the only nationality the Gunners didn’t have was Mexican.
Like Wednesday at Villa, we'd have settled for a point beforehand and four points from Arsenal this season was pretty good going, as The Away End reminded the despondent Gooners at the end.
Boro’s defence were immense in all senses. The Berlin Wall and the Redcar Rock repulsed every incoming wave of attack. Schwarz was steady behind them.
They were ably flanked by Young and Pogo, and later by the welcome return of Tayls when Boro went to a back five as they retreated to defend the fortress-mission eighteen yard box as the second half wore on.
In front of them The Shawkster and The Boat were excellent. The Egyptian, smooth and unhurried, covered the ground and the threats, nicked the ball and passed simply to a Boro shirt. Arca, who replaced Rocky on the bench, should have been taking notes. His calmness and ball retention was a big influence.
The Boat was all energy and commitment and many times, he carried the ball out of defence having won a challenge and shrugged off the Gunners’ attempts to stop him. His disciplined use of short passes wide to O’Neil and Stewie was a welcome replacement for the booming sixty yard cross-fielders he’s been trying.
The Shawkster picked up a toe injury to add to the profile-improving broken nose he suffered at Villa and didn’t come out for the second half.
Phil and I were a little sceptical when we saw Catts warming up in the break but to give him credit it wasn’t Clattermole that slotted into the midfield but a player with endeavour and energy who stuck to his task and tackled like a Trojan with perfect timing rather han a Berserker.
O’Neil and Stewie turned in their shift but it was a shame that a couple of chances for longer range shots fell to O’Neil who blazed high and wide. Stewie had one chance in the second half and showed what he could do with a twenty-five yarder. It skimmed the post as Almunia played statues.
Wing play and crosses wasn’t Boro’s tactic in this game, though. The idea was to try to turn their defence with longer passes through the middle to hit Tuncay or Aliadiere beyond or alongside Toure and Gallas.
It worked repeatedly, until they abandoned it in favour of all out defence about twenty minutes from the end as Boro’s legs started to give out as our Turkish Delight and Aladdin ran the channels.
It was a tactic employed before – away against Derby – and when the inevitable ‘goal against your former team’ came, it was reminiscent of Stewie to Tuncay and the first time shot home that we saw at Pride Park.
This time it was Tuncay who turned provider, latching on to an accurate free-kick from Schwarz and sweep-crossed it to the on-rushing Frenchman who cleverly controlled the strike to wrong foot Almunia. Phil and I doubted whether it was a Goal of The Month contender like Tuncay’s but it was a thing of devastating beauty.
Talking of tactics, Phil and I wondered whether the late appearance of Boro after the interval was intended. A chap in front of us said that he’d been at Villa and they’d done the same thing. I remembered that that had been a favourite trick of The Ex. Has it been exhumed?
From the texts we exchanged with various Gooners from work in other parts of the ground and from the swells of discontent that got louder as the game went on, you could tell their crowd were getting anxious as their team ran out of ideas and got frustrated.
The crowd focused some of their anger on Mr. Halsey who had refused to respond to various dives and the usual petulance from Arsenal players and had disallowed an Adebayor ‘goal’ for offside when the unintended pass to him broke off The Boat.
Phil and I didn’t know how he had missed it - we saw it from eleven rows back in The Away End. But we were relieved he had.
Sadly he also missed a foul on The Boat which, again, we saw from The Away End, even though it was the full length of the pitch away. He gave a corner instead.
Wheats didn’t get close enough to Toure whose run gave him the height to power a header goalwards that somehow squirmed between Schwarz, Tayls and Fabregas and ended up in the side of the net.
I’m pretty sure I screamed "s**t" at the top of my voice – not very poetic but there are some times when nothing else will do!
The Gunners were level with four minutes to go and you knew what was coming as they went after a winner, egged on by a crowd who were suddenly relieved and decided to shout rather than tut.
Gate had brought on Mido to try to hold the ball as we launched it out of defence. In pursuit of one of those and doing a move to control a pass that was more John Cleese than walking like an Egyptian, the big forward caught Clichy on the head and cut him with his studs.
It was clearly accidental. Mido’s eyes were always on the ball and he didn’t see the full back coming up behind him. Under pressure from Arsenal players who were influenced by the cut more than the challenge, Mr. Halsey produced an unwarranted red card.
That left the ten remaining with no ambition other than to defend the Alamo to the last. With bodies on the line, blocks, and accomplished tackling and marking they succeeded.
The Away End stayed and cheered as the lads left the field and we cherished the point and the performance as we joined the rain soaked throng in the queue for the tube.
More texts from Gooner workmates confirmed that that was the sort of performance they had been giving of late. They felt the league was slipping from them.
I just texted "Can we play you every week?" as a prelude to the pleasure I’ll be getting at work next week.
Later…
The pictures and analysis on MotD proved that Phil and I had got it right with what we had seen. We could only hope, as Gate said, that Mr. Halsey would take another look. But what chance did we really think we had? Boro had suffered from a poor refereeing decision for the second game in a row but we got away with one too.
There was praise for the Boro performance on MotD and in the Sundays but in the versions of the newspapers we get down here, it was more about Arsenal dropping points rather than what Boro did. So nothing unusual there, then.
Boro can take something from this game and the draw at Villa. As Gate said they began – but only began - to respond properly to the debacle against Cardiff and the equally disappointing failure against Reading.
But these last two games weren't the test. Boro can always get themselves up for the big games. Phil and I could well see how we’d give it a good go against Chelski and ManUre in the next few weeks.
Next week is the big test. It is more than a six pointer but which Boro will turn up - the rabble that let us down against Reading and Cardiff or the team we've seen in the last two games?
I'm damned if I know yet - and what's more I don't believe anyone at the club does either.
And before anyone gets too carried away with Derby's record, please remember that when their nearest challengers for the worst Premiership team ever - the Mackems of two seasons ago - fetched up at The Riverside, we gifted them their only away win of the season.
I know Gate doesn't like to call games 'must win' but next week's is and he and the squad must know that and train and play like it is.
We hoped that The Shawkster’s toe injury will clear up in time for him to play and that Gate would not be tempted to re-introduce The Tippy-Tappy Twins – at least not both of them - if the Egyptian was out.
And it’s time for Alves to be told to get fit and firing – for THIS season, not next. We need him to start paying back the fee and the wages. What better time to start than against the Premiership’s worst defence, even if it is coming off the bench because neither Tuncay nor Aliadiere should make way.
Dropped points next week are unthinkable but Gate must think about that and plan and prepare so that it doesn’t happen otherwise the last two points will have been for nothing and the ordure will rain down again and rightly so.
‘Yerjokin’aren’ya’ Quotes of the Week
Digfurit, the famous archaeologist, was sure that he would unearth the Boro spine.
“It’s out there somewhere. There have been fleeting glimpses, even as recent as a few days ago, and I’ll find it,” he said, whilst pissing into a force nine gale. Steve Morley, The Daily Snort
Stop Press – Part of Boro’s spine unearthed at Villa Park and some more at The Emirates. Digfurit needs to see whether there’s any at The Riverside to complete it.
The Away End will be back after the Chelski game on the weekend of 29/30 March.
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John Powls is a published poet with five books of his work in print. He is a regular performer of his work at major literary festivals and exhibitions in the UK and America, often working with musicians, painters with photographer Carol Ballenger.
Check out Red Shoes 250 for more of John Powls, right here.
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