Disappointing stalemate compounded by more injury woe.
The game struggled to find any kind of rhythm for the entire 90 minutes and this was in part down to Lee Probert, the dreaded referee who loves the sound of his own whistle. It was as if he had never heard of the advantage rule and he blew up time and time again when the team that he was awarding a free kick already had possession. The stop start nature of the match meant that we rarely enjoyed a prolonged period of possession and a succession of free kicks and goal kicks taken by Manuel Almunia gave the ball straight back to Villa as Eduardo was once again bypassed throughout the match.
The entertainment value of the game was not the main worry though; Eduardo and Thomas Vermaelen were forced off the pitch with a strained hamstring and suspected broken leg respectively. Vermaelen’s injury is the one we have feared all season but, remarkably, Sol Campbell appears to be more than capable of filling the void.
Vermaelen was exposed by Emile Heskey on a couple of occasions before he was replaced in the 35th minute whereas Campbell had the England striker in his pocket for the rest of the match. Sol can look ungainly at times but his positional sense is excellent and he snuffed out a number of potential chances for Villa. Campbell is also used to playing on the left side of the centre back pairing and will allow William Gallas to continue is impressive form on the right side. The only question will be if Campbell can maintain his match fitness given his long break from competitive football.
There were poor performances elsewhere in the team though. Ashley Young terrorised Gael Clichy throughout and the entire midfield and attack were extremely poor until Niklas Bendtner entered the fray. The young Dane has enormous potential and proved his value when he replaced Eduardo in the 62nd minute. We had been unable to retain the ball in the final third for the whole game until he took his place up front and immediately won every aerial challenge against dominant figure of Richard Dunne. Bendtner simply stepped in front of the former Man City player, chested the ball down and used it perfectly; he hardly misplaced a single pass. His skill meant that our ineffective midfield didn’t have to make the perfect pass and we looked far more dangerous in the closing moments.
Arshavin looked threatening when he had the chance and can skip past players at will but once again, he was too often at the periphery of the match. His best run of the game led to Rosicky striking the underside of the bar from 15 yards and it was the kind of opportunity that a league winning side would put away to seal the points. It is far too early to rule us out but there is just the sense that some of our players are still too lightweight to compensate for our relentless injury problems.
Cesc Fabregas finally had a poor game, he was joined in the centre by Denilson and Aaron Ramsey but all three were running around like headless chickens for much of the match as they continued to compensate for the absence of the more physically imposing Alex Song. This left them with very little energy to help in attack and we can only hope that Song is able to return for the Man Utd game on Sunday as we have struggled to put in one good performance since he has been away.