SPORT

- reported by Osiris.


Arsenal are still without a win after having played 3 games in the Premiership. Having drawn once at home and lost at Manchester City last week, many would have felt this would be the match where Arsenal will commence their winning form, especially with the arrivals of Baptista and Gallas.

With Justin Hoyte preferring to play on the right-flank, it was up to experienced French defender Gallas to take the role as left-back. The Frenchman who is able to play on all positions across the defence made his debut on the starting line-up.



William Gallas makes his debut for Arsenal.








The gunners started brightly with a succession of corners, with Gilberto Silva glancing a backward header across the face of goal. Boro keeer Mark Schwarzer produced a couple of fine saves to deny Thierry Henry's curling effort, and the defenders managed to block shots from the Gunners, desperate to find a goal in this match.

But just after Freddie Ljungberg's shot was blocked and Alexander Hleb had his effort saved, Middlesbrough shocked the home team with the lead. Morrison made progress down the right, getting the better of Gallas. He played a nice one-two with Jason Euell on the edge of the Arsenal area before dispatching a cool finish under Jens Lehmann.

Arsenal have now trailed in all 3 of their Premiership matches, plus the second-leg of their Champions League qualifiers against Dinamo Zagreb. This sure is worrying sign of the defence - without the mighty and experienced Sol Campbell and the other defenders who have been on the injury table, the backline seems to be Arsenal's Achilles heel.

The home side remained calm, patiently waiting for a chance to get back into the game. Van Persie should have levelled the game 18 minutes before half-time when Emmanuel Eboue cut the ball into his path, but somehow managed to stab the ball wide.

In the second-half, the Gunners still pressed on and dominated possession, but could not make the most out of the ball outside the Boro penalty area. Their shots were still unable to find the back of the net, and Middlesbrough were holding the line more rather than attacking. Then in the 64th minute, Captain George Boateng was sent off for a tackle on Ljungberg. He had been cautioned 2 minutes earlier for protesting with the referee about Henry's freekick, which had been taken while Schwarzer was still lining up his wall.

With 23 minutes left, Eboue was brought down in the box by Steven Downing and Henry made no mistake by converting the spot-kick. Clearly lifted by their equaliser, Arsenal went all out to grab the winner, with Wenger substituting Van Persie, Ljungberg and Gilberto for Emmanuel Adebayor, Baptista and Tomas Rosicky. But 10-man Middlesbrough would not let the Arsenal into the box so easily, and the game ended with a draw.

Wenger was certainly concerned about his team's performance. "When we fail to win a game we have dominated, it is always worrying and I am now aware that this is our worst ever start in the Premiership."

"It was one of those games when we had all the ball, and the chances against a side that refused to come out and play, but we got ourselves into trouble by falling behind and gave ourselves a mountain to climb."

"We lacked sharpness because half of the team has been away [on international duty]."

However the Arsenal manager insisted that the team had 'so much' potential to do so much better.

Perhaps it is Arsenal's play that is giving them problems. Their style of play is always a 'beautiful counter-attack'. While holding off the opposition, when they finally get the ball, they quickly make their runs and that beautiful passing before making the perfect finish. That was the case in Europe last season. With the other teams all pressing for a winner, the counter-attack method worked. But in the Premiership, especially with smaller teams, it is not a full-fledged assault. So while Arsenal may dominate the possession, they lack the wit to finish. And when the opposition manages to score and take the lead, they quickly defend strongly and not let Arsenal break through. This makes Arsenal finding an equaliser difficult, lest say a winner.

Arsenal have a mid-week Champions League tie against Hamburg away before visitng Old Trafford on Sunday. Manchester United have made it four wins out of four, and are currently at the top of the table, after beating Tottenham Hotspurs 1-0. Given the Red Devils current form, it is hard to imagine Arsenal winning them. Perhaps a draw will do, unless Arsenal can produce that winning form they had lost, after losing so many key players.

Elsewhere in the Premiership ( Saturday ) :

Everton 3 - 0 Liverpool

Chelsea 2 - 1 Charlton

Newcastle 1 - 2 Fulham

Sheffield Utd 0 - 0 Blackburn

Portsmouth 1 - 0 Wigan

Bolton 1 - 0 Watford


Playing on Sunday:

West Ham v Aston Villa

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