Wow. What a derby! Everything you'd expect from a North London Derby was present on Sunday. Contempt, controversy, physicality... Do I even need to list them? Basically all the greatness of the most fiery of North London Derbies was present except for goals and the routine Arsenal hammering of the yids.
The villain of the day, Eboue, looked strong in the opening minutes, and even got a goal that was controversially denied by the officials. It wasn't long, however, for the hotheaded Ivorian to begin acting within his narrow character design who's main ingredients are immaturity, lack of professionalism, and utter stupidity. The first yellow card, for dissent, although a bit harsh and early, was a his fault. His demeanor towards the referee was hostile and he was pushing buttons. His second yellow was where he displayed his lack of thinking as he tripped Modric. The result of his sending off was leaving Arsenal a man down for sixty minutes and kept Arshavin from coming on as a substitute. Eboue, at the end of the day, cost Arsenal two points, leaving us within a Mr. Fantastic-arms reach of the top four.
The rest of the team delivered a great performance given that it was a ten man team. Aside from Toure, the defense looked very sharp. Both Gallas and Almunia had one of their strongest performances for Arsenal as did Alexandre Song. Song broke up play very well and marked very well. The midfield lacked creativity and obviously numbers as well.
What to say, what to say... The game was all in all disappointing... not sure what to think of it. As a result, it is incredibly frustrating, but being handicapped in your rivals' home for sixty minutes and shutting them out is a feat in itself.
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