PLAYA RATINGS

ALMUNIA
Looking rather tidy, isn’t he?7

SAGNA
Over a day on and I’m struggling to remember too much, as is the way with Sagna. Solid as usual.7

TOURE
I’m going to stick my neck out: has been a little below his best recently with a few uncharacteristic mistakes.6.5

GALLAS
Solid as usual as I remember.7

CLICHY
To call the second one a hoof seems a little harsh - even if the first one was a proper punt. Funny really, because his actual crossing still needs work.7

FLAMINI
Used to take a touch to control and then decide what to do with the ball. His first touch now both controls and takes the ball on. Massive improvement.7.5

CESC
Not yet back to his best.6.5

DIABY
I like him, but where is his position? Has never looked comfortable on the left and his reluctance to tackle properly has seen him kept out of the central midfield berth. That he has not improved hugely in two years at the club is not in itself a problem - Flamini took three years to come good.6

HLEB
Like Cesc, still off his best.6

BENDTNER
Not a joyful full debut, but on the basis of the last three games is still in credit. Little attacking impact other than his (attempted) flick for the second. Not hugely to blame for their goal as these things happen and there was no time for him to react after the ball popped up. Stupid tackle that you hope he will learn from.5

EDUARDO
Can’t really ask for a lot more than a match changing two goal salvo. Needs confidence, games and time.8

SUB: ADEBAYOR
Usual stuff and got his goal through persistence.7

SUB: DIARRA
Slotted in well enough.7

SUB: ROSICKY
Only had two minutes to make an impact, which he did.7

Everton 1 Arsenal 4

THIS was a game of four chances - three taken by Cahill’s poke and two Eduardo soft shoe shuffles, one spurned by the head of Yakubu.

For all their first-half domination and sweeping play, Everton’s goal was their only opportunity. It is a failing we know well.

Northernised, every cliche about them bullying us out of play was coming true. And most galling of all it was all perfectly legal.

Stilted by a front six that was 50 per cent Carling Cup, we offered little. And the after the Aston Villa show from Cesc and Hleb continued.

The speediness of the equaliser was as unexpected as it’s directness. But then this is a team that has learned that not every goal has to be perfect. The directness sparked umbrage from David Moyes - perhaps spoilt by the quality of the 4-1 and 7-0 spankings
dished out to his side three years ago. By those standards, this eventual drubbing was fairly rough and ready.

In those ten or so minutes after the break, Eduardo probably made a more telling contribution than anything Francis Jeffers did in his entire Arsenal career. With luck, comparisons can now cease. The boy appears to bob and dip on confidence. When absent, his frame appears to meek for even the most simple control and lay off.

When present, little appears capable of halting his route to goal. And so it proved yesterday with two clinical finishes.

Yakubu’s header wide at 1-1 was crucial. There followed huff, but not a lot of puff from Everton.

Nicklas Bendtner’s can have no complaints. That it was probably borne out of stupidity rather than the malice with which Crouch scythed down Mikel a fortnight ago matters little.

I’m all for tackles like Bendtner’s being punished - but the sanctimonious pundits shaking their heads at how two footers have suddenly crept into our game are having a laugh.

The tackles have always been there - it’s just that more often than not those same pundits have dismissed them as “accidents” and “part and parcel of the game”, while perpetrators are excused as “not that kind of player”.

The reality is that sometimes these tackles are deliberate and often they are not. But either way they are dangerous and deserve punishment.

Only Martin Atkinson was at fault for Arteta’s dismissal. Perfectly placed to see the arm was not straight, a red card was excessive. Cesc going down with no exaggeration - staying down for so long perhaps was so. But Martin Atkinson took all of two seconds to show the card, so frankly it’s irrelevant.

As one friend pointed out, if your best mate went down like Cesc did in a bar room brawl you may feel a little let down.

But this was no pub and any exaggeration from Cesc was nothing compared to how Arteta, then Yakubu and then Saint Phillip of Neville of all people threw themselves to the ground. Spot that Moyesie?

There followed a fourth, where Tomas Rosicky did nothing to dispel the insinuation that he only scores when games are won. It’s unfair frankly - of his six this season, the one against Sparta was an opener, the fizzer against Pompey came a minute after Senderos had gone and we were nervy and the Wigan and Bolton goals guaranteed wins rather than adding cherries to already iced cakes.

The Boro one was admittedly pointless, but he can hardly be blamed for yesterday’s last minute effort given he was only sent on 90 seconds earlier.

Anyway, I digress. Given this is a bad spell and given the three changes, this was no bad result. 4-1 flattered us admittedly but a win was well deserved.

United lost of course, which we are contractually obliged to call an “aberration”, whereas when we draw at Pompey it’s an expose of our failures.

If we don’t speak before, a Happy New Year to you all. It’s been a record breaking year here on Goodplaya, with almost exactly twice as many visitors in 2007 than in 2006. And all that in spite of match reviews posted over 24 hours after the game, compltely irregular postings and other updates written when very tired and even occasionally tired and emotional.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in 2008.

HEADBANGER Emmanuel Eboue is getting a rest in one of those happy coincidences. The 24 year-old must be exhausted after all those 65 minute appearances.

And no doubt Arsene is anxious to keep him fresh for the African Nations Cup.

It SHOULD mean only one thing: a return to 4-4-2 and in all likelihood a start for Nicklas Bendtner.

Most other options would be too clever by half. Eduardo looks too weak on the ball for Everton away, while including Gilberto could severely limit our attacking threat.

He could plump for Diaby. But he was utterly horrific at Pompey (though I do like him). Or maybe Diarra. Probably the least bad of the non-Bendtner options.

The biggest reason not to plump for Bendtner would be the old fear of playing two wingers away from home (I’m assuming Hleb will go right and Rosicky left).

Certainly, it used to be a problem when we had Ljungberg, who could defend, and Pires, who patently could not. I think both Hleb and Rosicky work sufficiently hard for it to be less of a problem than it once was.

BLIMEY. Reading some of the reaction to Pompey away you would have thought we were the first team to ever draw a blank.

Apparently we have a goal-scoring crisis. Critics say Cesc Fabregas has failed to score since the beginning of November.

Hang on, Cesc Fabregas has barely played since the beginning of November. Four league games I think you will find. And in the first (at Reading) he provided one assist, against Chelsea he provided the only assist and against Spurs he provided both assists.

I do not deny his form has dipped a little, but some perspective please.

Elsewhere, every blog and his wife knows exactly why we have plummeted so far that we have a mere 44 points from 19 games. One blog used the word “delusional”. Hang on again. 4-5-1 is not delusional. It has worked a treat at times this season.

The only delusional people are the ones who thought that if one north London side would be 23 points ahead of the other at this stage, it would be Spurs above us.

Which brings us neatly on to Spurs. Let me right one giant inaccuracy: we were not lucky to beat them. The first half was awful: we offered little, they offered nothing.

Two minutes into the second half we scored a very good goal that exposed the fallacy of sitting back and hoping you will shut Arsenal out. Stats show you usually won’t. They then had a double chance where the first hit the bar and the second went in. So 1-1.

Then they got a penalty. A penalty is not a goal - the striker still has to score it and the keeper has a chance of saving it. And Almunia saved it. That’s not luck.

And in any case, Arsenal a goal down at home with 20 minutes left is hardly game over.

And talking of keepers, the win over Chelsea was apparently all down to a Petr Cech mistake. So no credit there either.

Why am I saying all this? Because we need some perspective. With most of our midfield and attack out we dropped three indisputably bad points at Boro. At Newcastle we were not great, but they were very, very northernised that night if you recall.

And a point at Pompey is no disaster either. Just ask United and Liverpool.

Of course there is room for improvement and for me freshening things up a little by bringing in Bendtner at Goodison and reverting to 4-4-2 would be no bad thing.

Player wise, I am satisfied sufficiently with Almunia’s form to let Jens go - even if Fabianski remains an unknown quantity as back-up. But allowing Diarra to leave would be wrong. Gilberto is visibly waning and Denilson is still very raw, so one injury to Cesc or Flamini and we could be a little short.

With Kolo off to Africa and Gallas possibly injured, the temptation is to buy a central defender. But who could be brought straight in to the team immediately? Rather than Djourou going on loan I would have far preferred him to have been first reserve to Kolo and Gallas for the first half of the season so he could have slotted easily in when Kolo went away.

Anyway, that’s about your lot for now. Just to say I’ve nearly finished writing up the results of the Goodplaya survey, which I will finally publish shortly.

Portsmouth 0 Arsenal 0

IN a normal title race this would be considered a decent point. But in this year’s unprecedented four team assault, the 0-0 at Fratton Park is a disappointment.

The truth is this was a largely unremarkable game, where the most notable happening was a substitute appearance by Abou Diaby of Baptistaesque wretchedness.

A few things were at play. The first was that in spite of very early promise, we lacked our usual fluency. Central to this was an (again) below-par Cesc such is his influence, it meant we never really clicked. The second thing was that Portsmouth were very, very tough to break down. They got men behind the ball and played largely on the break, which is fair enough.

For all their struggles to score at Fratton Park this season, they have lost there just once. And with Adebayor the lone front-man against a defence marshalled by Sol Campbell, the usual 4-5-1 were failings were all too evident. More on that in a minute.

The final thing was that when the chances did come to Gallas and Rosicky at the end, they fluffed them. Both got their shots away but neither hit the target. It’s hard to complain too much really - our record in the last ten minutes of games has been pretty awesome this season.

I think this was better than Newcastle and Boro away. Granted, we were fairly listless in the first half. But our second half performance was significantly better than in either of those games. And on another day might have stolen a win.

The draw means we cede top spot to United. It’s a disappointment, but not a disaster. As I’ve said before, we are not going to win the title at this stage. We are only going to lose it. So the important thing is we keep touch with the leaders. At the moment we are doing just that - despite us going through a dodgey patch and United flying.

I would prefer to see us play 4-4-2 and maybe Goodison on Saturday is the ideal time to mix it up. Without RVP I can understand Arsene’s reticence to do so, though I would still plump for Adebayor and Bendtner. We could well be four points off United come kick-off for the daunting trip to Goodison Park. It will be a test.

Playa ratings below:

ALMUNIA
Very solid all game.7

SAGNA
Seemed to do reasonably well and got forward too.6.5

CLICHY
Covered well for the second half one-on-one and did ok under tough examination from Benjani. Got forward well but too often his final ball was poor.6

GALLAS
In control and a couple of good clearances. Given his recent goalscoring form we can hardly complain about the late miss.7

TOURE
Solid, though could improve his distribution. Too many balls are hit too straight or at chest height and are easily intercepted.6.5

FLAMINI
Excellent again. Snapped in everywhere and was very neat when using the ball.7.5

CESC
Again below his best. Looked a little sluggish on the ball and lacked his usual creative genious. Got into the box well enough on a couple of occasions.6

HLEB
Neat, but unable to really make a telling difference.6.5

ROSICKY
Should have scored at the end. Other than that, found space and drove us forward as well as anyone. But needs to be making telling contributions.6.5

EBOUE
Drove forward well at times. But with no goals this season, he too is not making enough telling contributions (in spite of assists).6.5

ADEBAYOR
The usual. Leads the line well, goes offside, shows good skill, fluffs a simple pass. He is what he is and is battling gamely.6

DIABY (SUB)
The best thing I can say is that he completed a pass. The other 15 odd went astray.4

BENDTNER (SUB)
Only had a few minutes but set-up Rosicky for great chance at the end.7

Arsenal 2 Spurs 1
From Goodplaya in the West Upper

IT may seem odd to focus on Cesc, given that for much of this game he was some way off his best.

And truth be told, for the first 45 minutes he was as below par as I can remember. Normally he and the ball are drawn to each other like opposing poles on magnets. But on this occasion it was as if one of the poles had flipped round and now they were repelling each other.

It truly was odd. He trotted rather than ran. He gravitated away from the ball rather than towards it. And when he did get the ball he was sloppy rather than sumptuous.

He was so below-par that I assumed it had to be down to injury or illness. You could credit Spurs for keeping him quiet, but really I’m not sure they did a lot because Cesc appeared almost disinterested in receiving the ball.

When the half-time whistle blew, he picked it up and booted it towards the goal we had been defending before exchanging a few words with Rob Styles as he trotted off.

It had made for a terrible half. Well done to Spurs and all that, but saying that also credits an attacking performance that had yielded one solitary over-hit cross and nothing else.

Nothing, however, could be more marked between the way Cesc ended the first half and started the second. This time he moved away from his usual berth to the right of Flamini. He came deep to collect the ball.

He fed Rosicky and drove straight on. Rosicky turned, held the ball brilliantly and played it on for Cesc who had shown more energy in one move than in the whole of the first half. By now you will have seen what followed, a brilliant back-heel for Adebayor who hit the ball under Robinson.

It was a perfect goal, scored by Adebayor, assisted by Rosicky and mastered by Fabregas. In an instant he had changed the game.

We played decently afterwards but you suspected a second was needed. And so it proved. The warning came when Keane hit the bar. A minute later they were level after Berbatov’s vicious shot hit an Arsenal heel and flew past Almunia.

It was not his fault. Just because keepers generally should not be beaten at their near post, it does not alter the fact that however good or bad, every keeper will be a few times at some stage in his career. And when a player slams it hard at you from not very far out AND it takes a deflection, that is usually when it happens.

The penalty save really screwed me up. Mentally, I was already anticipating what, if any, avenues were open for us to claw back the 2-1 deficit. It was as if I’d already mourned the fact we were losing and so when Almunia saved it, while others celebrated, I didn’t really know what to do.

Within two minutes Fabregas had done the trick again. But what about Bendtner you say? Yes, he did brilliantly. But the point is that despite our best attempts to hide the fact, last season and the year before we have always had players who given a decent cross can get their head on it.

Their ability to head has not changed markedly. But what has changed, is our ability to deliver a corner. Last season we knocked them again and again to the first defender, as if we were embarrassed to score from such a direct route.

Just in the past 10 days, both Chelsea and Spurs have been undone by the fact Cesc Fabregas can now swing over the ball properly.

And so it was that order was restored. By their standards, Spurs battled gamely and we were way off our best. It meant that while the second half was exciting, it was not enjoyable. In fact, the gusto with which everyone sang “Merry Christmas” afterwards suggested there was a lot of stored up happiness that nobody dared exude until the three points were certain.

Performance wise, Clichy did pretty well against Lennon and is getting better and better on these big one on ones. That, tellingly, was a sign of Cole’s emergence as a truly world class player. Almunia did great on the penalty, Sagna was pretty good, Gallas solid and Kolo will rue diving in so recklessly on Berbatov.

Speaking of Berbatov, if looks could kill, he’d have no teammates. We struggled to cope with him dropping off into the left-back position to collect long balls.

Flamini was excellent again in midfield and Cesc I’ve covered. Eboue offered direct running in the first half but as usual was the obvious candidate to come off. Adebayor was the usual Adebayor and got his usual goal against Spurs.

I know some people feel Rosicky’s performance are too peripheral. But his contribution was crucial for the opener and he gets through a lot of vital work. There might not always be fireworks, but like Hleb, I think they will come.

And what of Hleb? This was by no means his best game. But for pure artistry the man is a joy to behold, shifting the ball with the most incredible slight of foot.

So a good win and the great run continues. There are now 25 points between us and them.

There were also a fair few people saying the north London derby is not what it was. Undoubtedly, the 12.45pm kick-off did not help. But it is almost now as if Spurs arrive expecting to lose and that anything else would be a great bonus.

And for us, the edge has been taken off it too. A north London derby win would be great. But would a defeat hurt much? Not when all it does is close the gap to 19 points. Not when we can shrug our shoulders and console ourselves with the fact that over the last 11 years, we’ve had a pretty good run in these fixtures.