We came from two goals down to earn a point at home in a surprisingly difficult match. Portsmouth took the lead just before the end of the first half, stemming from a bad referee decision – Portsmouth gaining a free-kick. They went on to double their advantage almost immediately after half time.
Arsene was sent from the dug-out for giving the officials a friendly word of advice at half time but he continued to influence the match by sending messages to the coaching staff from his seat in the stands. These messages proved to be of vital importance when he ordered the substitute Adebayor on, resulting on him pulling one back for us after 58 minutes.
Aliadiere was given his first league start of the season up front with van Persie, but I cannot understand why Arsene didn’t go with Adebayor who has been playing out of his skin and greatly improving match-by-match (in the absence of Thierry). Arsene gave the reason of a groin injury for leaving out Adebayor, but when he did come on he showed little sign of any such problem.
Adebayor was again involved two minutes later when his cross paved the way for Walcott to set up Gilberto for our second to draw level.
Going two goals behind at home was a huge disappointment, and to make matters worse Ljungberg looks like he injured a hamstring in a tackle – hopefully he will not be out for too long.
We could have, and should have gone on to win the match with van Persie shooting into the side-netting and another Gilberto’s effort going just wide, but overall we showed good fighting spirit to come back from what would have been a damaging loss.
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