It is with foreboding that I approached this game. I was going to liveblog it, but I'm too nervous. See you later.
Halftime. My opinion is that Arsenal is lucky they're only one down. De Bruyne hit the post, Ospina made a smart save, and Koscielny made some important blocks and interceptions to save a goal. For us, it was an opportunity made because Clichy kept Walcott onside (he specialized in that for us too). That's not quite all, but close. Caballero had little to do. Our defending often seemed somewhere between desperate and naive. Mustafi is always taking himself out of position, and his daft header that created the Sane goal was typical. There will be a lot of focus on Ozil giving the ball away and then washing his hands of the whole defending thing before City's second goal, with good reason. He's done himself no favors with his uninterested play lately.
Oh, no--Kos was injured and Gabriel replaced him. We're fucking doomed. Later.
Wow, what a letoff. The two Germans who were most at fault in the first half combined to even things up on a corner early in the second. Mustafi's header from the very good corner (Ozil's set pieces were all good, I thought) earned us the point in the end, though City had the better of the play, no question. They had more chances. They had 56% possession, 15 shots to our 8, and 5 on target to our 3. Credit to Gabriel, who was solid. I am ashamed for doubting him--I just had flashbacks to what happened in both Munich games when we lost Kos.
Monreal was great. I love that guy. I have criticized Mustafi, but he had a hand in both of our goals. Kos was his usual wonderful self. I thought Bellerin was good. Xhaka and Coquelin put themselves in a box with early yellows. They did OK, but I expect more from two defensive midfield specialists; City had their own way in midfield. Ozil was a disappointment. Alexis had his usual flashes of brilliance, but they were all too far from the goal to mean anything. Walcott did very well at times, but he's not involved enough on offense or defense. Welbeck was easily marshaled up front, but that was not his fault. I thought he did his job. Giroud may have made a difference had he started; hard to say. Alexis may have been able to score were he up top too. Iwobi looked good when he came in.
Well, the bottom line is that this was not good enough. We need three points from every home game at least. Great game to watch for a neutral, but torture for me. We did not look real good, but it was nice to get some good fortune.
In a game I did not watch, DC United beat Philadelphia Uniion 2-1 for their first victory. Whew.
In the early game, my man Rudy Gestede missed a golden opportunity to be a Middlesbrough hero with a last-minute header.
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