Dismal performance brings fortuitous point.
A disheartening afternoon at the Grove highlighted the unpredictability of this Premiership season and the flaws in this promising Arsenal team.
We escaped with a point courtesy of two deflected goals that Chelsea would have been proud and it was one of those rare occasions when Wenger had to admit we deserved to lose. The players were very lethargic and played as if they had expected the game to be called off. Everton struck early when Osman rose unmarked from a corner, we equalised via a deflected Denilson shot but Pienaar looked to have won the game for Everton in the 81st minute when he dinked a beautiful finish over Almunia. Somehow Rosicky found space to level after Diaby capped another decent display with a forceful run in the second minute of injury time. The celebrations were muted given the expectations before the match but it was a good result considering the performance.
Everton were gifted a late chance to make it 3-1 when Denilson collapsed in a heap, for what now appears to be very little reason, but Almunia produced a good save. The boss criticised the young Brazilian for what was a complete overreaction and said that if the same situation occurred again he should commit a handball to stop the play. Denilson has now stated he will be fine for the Bolton game on Sunday and Wenger confessed that they didn’t even know what had happened to him. It was a bizarre incident and summed up our whole performance.
It was one of those games that are tempting to write off as just one of those days but there are some worrying trends: Almunia is poor, we don’t have a replacement for Song, we need a striker and there is no cover for Vermaelen and Gallas. Wenger may rectify one of those problems in January but the others will remain at least until the summer.
Fortunately there isn’t a stand out team so far this season so our frailties have not proved too costly. Hopefully Wenger can find a player who can improve our chances this season as it is a rare opportunity to take advantage of a very open league.