Tedious ninety minutes but a potentially huge point from the Arsenal

City and Arsenal this evening walked around a pitch for a bit doing absolutely sod all between them in a game reminiscent of a pre-season friendly. Almost certainly our most uneventful fixture of the season to date, and one that proved a right waste of a couple of hours for all who watched, i'm sure. The draw however does see us gain on Tottenham and disappointing game aside a point away at one of the Big Four should never be sniffed at.

Roberto decided to go with a midfield three as we thought he might, with Patrick Vieira replacing Emmanuel Adebayor. Pablo Zabaleta returned to the starting eleven at right-back in place of Nedum Onuoha.

Alex Song came back into the Arsenal side for academy graduate Craig Eastmond. Robin van Persie, who made an impressive comeback from injury in the second half of the defeat at White Hart Lane, started alone in attack. Mikael Silvestre kept his place in the centre of defence.

It's difficult to make such a dire serving of football sound at all interesting. At the break my notes simply read "Wayne Bridge injured, later replaced". An Arsenal team missing several of their key offensive players and whose hopes of the title had already gone really had no bite, and we sat back occasionally threatening on the break but rarely if at all actually troubling Fabianski.

It took forty minutes for the first real shot at goal - Samir Nasri hitting across Given from the left. To our credit we defended resolutely throughout the half, especially Kolo and Vince, but with the wingers stuck to their lines and nothing in terms of an attacking central midfielder Carlos Tevez ploughed a lonely furrow up front and we offered very, very little.

Even after the interval things didn't brighten up, though the introduction of Adebayor woke up the home crowd and when switched to 4-4-2 we at least began to keep the ball and pressure the opposition, but the whole affair had the feeling of a final day game in which neither side had anything at all to gain from winning.

The biggest talking point came just after the seventieth minute when a speculative shot from outside the area by midfielder Abou Diaby forced Shay Given into a relatively routine save down to his left. Sadly, the Irish centurion suffered what would appear to be a serious injury. Faroe Islands international Gunnar Nielsen came on for his debut and did okay under limited pressure, but losing Shay will come as a terrible blow.

I think we have to see this as a potentially vital point gained despite the fact that the Arsenal side we faced were down to their bare bones and generally off colour. Anything less than a draw today would have realistically meant we had to win all three of our remaining games, but it now should (though it might not pan out exactly this way) be a case of a win against Spurs and four points from the other six being enough.

The main plus point of this afternoon were the performances of the centre-halves, both of who were solid throughout. It's difficult to really point out any others, and i'm sure Arsenal fans would say similar about their side. At the start of the day i'm certain most of us would have taken Spurs losing and us not doing, plus a West Ham win means no final day six-pointer at Upton Park. Can't grumble.

Team:
Given (Nielsen '76), Zabaleta, Bridge (Richards '27), Toure, Kompany, de Jong, Vieira (Adebayor '53), Barry, A.Johnson, Tevez, Bellamy