GUTTED! TYPICAL Boro! For the second time in a week. But this time there is a warm glow because battling Boro put in restorative display of united, organised, determined physicality at the Emirates Stadium and came within five minutes of completing a famous double over awesome Arsenal, the kings of over-elaboration.
It was a brilliant display of robust defending to claw to bonus point that few would have budgeted for when things looked so bleak in the debris of broken dreams after Cardiff. It may not be compensation for that sickening epoch-defining surrender - indeed, some may think it really rubs it in - but it is step towards some kind of collective rehabilitation.
I got back very late: the players usually come out quickly after an away game because they want to be on the coach and watching rap videos on their Ipods sharpish but they were flying home so this time took an age, warming down and eating nutritionally balanced snacks. As a result the Gazette posse were certs to miss the last train out of that one horse town with terrible transport links and had to peg it after Ally Brownlee and Bernie Slaven to blag a lift home. Arsenal weren't the only ones saved at the death from disaster in North London.
Anyway, that means I never got to knock my thoughts into shape on the train so here's the notes I was banging out as we went along yesterday....
THE ARSENAL experience is the future of football reporting. Airport style check-in desks, friendly staff, spacious press lounge, dedicated desks, a restaurant with selection of mouth-watering hot and cold food (there were fruits there so exotic that even working together we couldn't identify them), Ben and Jerry's ice-cream and a free bar, which naturally being consummate professionals we declined. The press box is easily accessible, has good sight-lines and each place has comfy padded seats and a quality TV monitor. The lay-out and organisation was incredible. And do you ever see a bad word in the press about Arsenal? A lesson to be learned there for the soup-and-a-bun kiosk functionalism of the Riverside I think.
Before the game Eduardo tottered out on his crutches to be awarded the player of the month award for January to a massive standing ovation. He raises and waves one crutch in salute ... for Christ sake, don't fall over. That's the last thing you need. The thought flashes up that it might be the last time he is on the Emirates pitch. I hope not.
That mascot... what the? Gunnasaurus? A green dinosaur? Was North London home to roaming herds of primeval herds of these things? Is there something in the history of the club that gives them an affinity with 20 ton goofy herbivores? And you thought Captain Microwave looked daft.
Their Mark Page presents the team Bundesliga style, forenames only and the crowd respond with a roar to fill in the gaps. It's an excellent idea that demands a reaction from the crowd but if we tried it at the Riverside it would be an invitation to insert expletives. Boro's team are reeled off and it raises barely a ripple let alone a boo. Even Aliadiere gets only an almost imperceptible acknowledgement: "he's only a footnote for them," a colleague assesses correctly.
This a brilliant stadium. Everything about it is on a grand scale, from the sweeping visionary curves of the stands to the wide open piazzas and walkways that surround the ground. Despite being new - maybe because of that - an opulent sense of history permeates through the pores of the building: the upper balcony is decorated with symbols and years of trophies won in the manner of a WW2 fighter plane and the size of the silverware selection is underlined by the fact that that they are fast running out of room. The electronic hoardings are given over not just to money making adverts from Globalmegacorps Inc but also to vaguely totalitarian blipvert slogans: "Strive for History", "Harmony in Arsenal"... I half expected Arsenesque Orwellian contradictions to pop up like "Vision Through Myopia."
The Boro fans are tucked tucked in a little pocket of the bottom tier to Schwarzer's right. As they host team and fans are wearing red it is a struggle to spot them among the Arsenal crowd but as soon as th game kicks off you can hear them, maybe 1,500 making themselves bigger with passion.
Boro are under the cosh in the opening spell and there is some frantic, scrappy defending on the edge of their own 18 yard with the occasional quick break forward at pace. After just four minutes Boateng puts a tackle in on van Persie and sends the ball squirting towards Boro's box and Adebayor breaks through to slot home but the flag goes up - presumably the officials thought van Persie had pushed the ball forward but it was the Boro man so the goal should have stood and we have a lucky break in the first big refereeing decision of the day.
There is a scare as an in-swinging cross from van persie wide on the right curls towards the far top corner but clips the bar. The robust nature of the game is shown as Robert Huth sends Flamini sprawling in the box with a neck hold and forearm whip throw that Kendo Nagasaki wold be proud of, then Eboue is crunched and needs treatment after a shoulder charge from Shawky.
Boro sting the Arsenal crowd into anger then stun them into silence on 25 minutes as Boateng single-handedly roughs up Eboue and Sagna on the touchline but somehow comes away with the free-kick which Schwarzer quickly pumps down he left for Tuncay to chase, control and whip across the face of goal for Jeremie Aliadiere to steam in unmarked and stab home the almost pre-destined goal that had 'inevitable strike from returning former player, why couldn't he do that when he was here?' stamped all over it.
That fired Arsenal up. The crowd woke up and started screamingly impatiently and the team played with more urgency and there some close calls as they started to get into the box before falling over. First Sagna carved through then went jelly legged and flopped over as the ball ran away from him to screams for a penalty. Soon after Eboue cut in to the box and again took a tumble as he lost out in a tussle with Pogatetz. Then there was a furious cry for handball as Young charged a shot down on the edge of the box and it whacked into his ribs.
There is a worrying little echo of Wednesday at Villa Park where a sizeable and vocally tetchy crowd, nervous at being behnd, started appealing on masse for everything in and around the box and there is a nagging fear laced with paranoia and a dark hint of conspiracism that sooner or later they will get something against a team that seems to be at odds with refs right now.
It was all hands to the pumps on the edge of the box. Boateng and O'Neil and putting in some incredible workrate. Luke Young puts in a superb tackle on van Persie then Huth rattles Adabayor in the box and there is another scream for a penalty as Young puts in an awesome text book last gasp tackle from behind on van Persie. Again, a low ball is drilled in and Young blocks it and the crowd - inspired by Steve Bennett (fourth official today) and his liberal approach to anatomy on Wednesday - again scream and point to the spot. Mark Halsey waves play on and is taunted with chants of 'you're not fit to referee' and you can sense the pressure on the man in black being cranked up by the minute.
The ref waves away handball calls, a blatant offside is missed and suddenly the big club gets a taste of what the little clubs seem to get every week. The apoplectic Arsenal fans think Alex Ferguson is in the middle and scream bile as the whistle goes for - back down in the press room the phrasing is calm and more articulate but the sentiment is the same except for the North-east contingent sat beaming and laughing and happily munching away.
At the break Cattermole comes on for Shawky and takes about two minutes to put in his first foul after two minutes. Arsenal pile on the pressure. Boro break away as Tuncay weaves down the let and shows great strength to hold off Eboue's grappling, physical ten yard embrace that appears to have seeped through from the Six nations egg-chasing before finally winning a foul.
Boro's workrate is staggering and seems unsustainable. Every player is battling back, flying into tackles, throwing their body in the way to block shots and cut out crosses. There are more hoofs flying than the Gold Cup as Arsenal pump the ball in and Boro hammer it away while Tuncay has run non-stop to offer an outlet over the top. Arsenal bring on Bendtner and Walcott to add to the frantic all out attack. The pressure - and my heart rate - continues to mount.
Yet, incredibly, Boro are still getting all the decisions: a couple of robust tackles are ignored but Boateng is barged and goes down easily and gets a free-kick then a blatant hand-ball by Tuncay prompts a massive shout from the crowd but is waved away. The Arsenal crowd are not baying now - they are more sullen and nail-bitingly shrouded and in the vacuum all you can hear is the defiant Boro travelling army in noisy jubilation.
Bendtner heads over a few times then Fabregas breaks through but Schwarzer spreads himself and blocks the low effort with and outstretched leg. Boro bring on fit again full-back Andrew Taylor to add pace to a flagging back line and take off knackered Tuncay. An Adebayor shot fizzes wide. A Fabregas header bounces through and clips the post. Can we keep on soaking up this incessant barrage to claim a famous double and a huge step towards safety?
Someone watching at home on Setanta texts in to say Arsenal have had 78% of the possession - but Boro have had 78% of the decisions, all the luck and are busting a collective gut to make sure it stays that way.
Mido comes on for drained Aliadiere - to immediate boos for the 'Tottenham reject'. Wenger is livid, stomping foaming mouthed round the technical area and screaming with the bong-eyed, red-faced contortions of a candidate for spontaneous human combustion that belie his media reputation as a calm, collected football intellectual. It is very funny.
Then, with one hand on a famous victory Arsenal spawn a leveller on 86 minutes as they get a decision their way - an Arsenal handball goes unseen and they win a corner that shouldn't be - then when the flagkick sails into the box Toure puts in a ten yard header that hits Taylor on the line then squeezes against Flamini and squirts past Schwarzer and spins away and bounces in off the post. What a sickener. Especially for poor Tayls. He comes back, gets in the way of his keeper to set up a chaotic leveller and has possibly cost Boro a famous victory.
Two minutes late the pendulum swings further against Boro as Mido is sent off for catching Clichy as he went flying in to challenge for a high ball. There was no intent, he was just focussed on the ball and it was there to go for but his studs were right up there and in the current climate there is no surprise he got the red. What is a surprise is that Clichy needs six paramedics, two stretchers, an oxygen tent and police on the pitch putting out the cones and the stripey plastic ribbon to denote a crime scene. Come on. I know they are a bit touchy after Eduardo but this is ridiculous. Wenger is going crazy. He saw that one.
Stoppage time and what feels like a dozen corners are scythed clear, there are two furious scrambles, Arsenal put one into the side netting and then there is a bit of a toe-to-toe barney in which there is an explosion of irony and cool headed Catts of all people wades in as the voice of reason to calm Poggy down and drag him away. Amid the confusion the whistle goes.
Boro have earned a fantastic point but will be gutted it is not three. Boro are unbeaten against Arsenal under Southgate and have lost just one in six in the league against the Gunners (although it was a seven goal battering, so best not bring that one up).
Afterwards, as we leave Mido looks at us and shrugs bemused. "Was it a red card? No. I should not be sent off. You write that in the paper", he says, animated. "He went down like he had been murdered" says Adam Steel. "No, I have been murdered. Write that."
And with that we raced off into the night in hot pursuit of Ally and Bernie.
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »