One point gained not two points dropped

This game was tricky from the start and would be a good gauge of where we were with our season yet again, we were playing an in form team in Everton and a team that was capable of taking points off many teams home or away on their day. We had 9 players on the injured list and an additional 2 players away on the African Cup of Nations as well, this team was as threadbare as it possible could be.

Two players should not have played yesterday, one we can do something about and the other was forced on us. Almunia is a liability and some of his actions and decisions were poor, he came for crosses and never made them his own, he threw the ball to players who were immediately under pressure because of the keeper’s poor decision in the first place. Almunia did keep us in the game when Everton could have gone 1 – 3 up but that is his job, he does make fine saves, the problem is that he also makes poor decisions as well.

When Jens went from our Invincible goalkeeper to the bit of a clown when he also lost his confidence, once that happened  opposition players started to put additional pressure on him in every way they could (at corners, treading on his toes etc etc) and this is now happening to Almunia and he is reacting to it, he is a liability and needs to be replaced for a while.

Teams now recognise Almunia as a weak link and play on this as well, look at the collision he was involved in at the end of the game, he should have had the confidence in his left back to clear the ball but he came running out and clattered into all of them including Traore after he had cleared the ball out of danger, Almunia has no confidence at the moment and that is the primary thing along with ability that the position requires, he no longer catches the balls as often he now punches the ball away, this is a sure sign of uncertainty.

We were relying on our third choice left back Traore who’s lack of experience and pace against top flight in form teams was exposed yet again (Manchester United) to all of the 60,000 who attended the Grove yesterday.

Traore had an Alex Song moment like he had at Fulham a few years ago and partially like Eboue had last season, the game went past him and as it went on the more mistakes he made and it cost us points yesterday and you could see it totally sapping everything out of Traore as the game went on, it was his mistake that eventually led to Everton’s first goal. Traore was exposed a lot and in fairness to him against a decent player that had never kicked a ball in the premier league before so Traore had not had the chance to study him as a player before but he was found wanting.

Everton were no more than hard working and determined side but they came away from a snowy London with a share of the spoils after holding us to a 2-2 draw, but they came within minutes of a victory but because of the resilience of the squad this season we were prepared to make up the shortfall of the few who were not performing to their ability.
Everton began the brightest and had the ball in the net after six minutes, but the effort was chalked off as Louis Saha was offside. Within two minutes he did beat Arsenal's offside trap but his shot was well over the bar.

The visitors were rewarded for their endeavour in the 13th minute, when Leon Osman rose to head in a corner from Landon Donovan that Denilson, stood on the line, could only help into the net, the problem for Arsenal was that the header was totally unchallenged.

The goal woke up the Gunners and they gradually turned the game around and finally drew level through Denilson, who received a pass back from Eduardo on the edge of the area after some intricate play by the Gunners. The Brazilian's goalbound shot found the net, but only via a severe deflection off Osman that wrong-footed Tim Howard.
Phil Neville had an effort in the 39th minute with a cheeky chip from the right flank that finished on top of the netting but it looked as though Almunia had it covered.

The second half saw the snow begin to fall harder, Arsenal came out with a greater determination and looked the more obvious team to score in the most competitive of matches, with thundering tackles and shoulder to shoulder barging throughout the game,  like the weather the football was a throwback to the 60’s with the snow now beginning to settle on the pitch and a few sliding tackles taking place.

Saha continued to work had for Everton in attack and was causing the Gunners a few problems. A shot on the turn on 62 minutes was deflected just wide.
The swirling wind added to the cold and the conditions were very difficult, but it was the Toffees who seemed tohave that cutting edge that was lacking by Arsenal.

Arsene Wenger brought on Rosicky for Aaron Ramsey in an effort to inject some impetus in the attack and Andrey Arshavin was inches away from connecting with a Bacary Sagna cross from the right in the 73rd minute.

Eduardo slid in to meet an Armand Traore cross from the left but the ball bounced over his feet and then a fierce shot from Denilson was deflected high and wide.
Everton elected to sit back and hit the Gunners on the counter-attack for most of the second half and the tactic worked.

There was a claim for a penalty from Arsenal but the referee was not going to give it in a million years as he had let to much go before it, it came about when Tim howard and his defender were under pressure from Arshavin and the defender punched the ball, twice but with his back to the referee.

With eight minutes to go and Arsenal committed forward looking for the 3 points, Pienaar broke from his own half, racing on to a ball from Tim Cahill, he raced towards the home goal before lifting the ball over Almunia to put Everton back in the lead and silenced the Gooners yet again.

Another similar chance followed a minute later but in fairness before Vaughan shot for goal the ball should have been put out of play by an unsporting Everton side because it was in fact Denilson who was carrying the ball into the Everton half when he inexplicably collapsed to the ground like his legs had been chopped from underneath him.

Everton decided to instead of doing the right thing and kicking the ball out of play for what was unequivocally a genuine case of serious injury chose to take the opportunity to try and score a goal instead of putting the ball out of play for the player to receive immediate treatment but fortunately and poetic justice prevailed as this time the Arsenal keeper managed to block the shot from James Vaughan, had he not done so, Everton would have been exposed as extremely poor sportsmen and no doubt a row would have ensued. Denilson was then carried off on a stretcher.

Wenger's substitutions paid dividends again as Rosicky scored in added time to level the scores. The Czech Republic international was played in by Abou Diaby and his shot looped over Howard off Lucas Neill.