John McCormick writes: I thought Arsenal were good today. True to form they kept trying to pass it into the net and true to form (our recent form, anyway) we kept them out. Had they tried shots from long range they might have had some luck but, I suspect, our now-coherent defense would have managed.
Overall, I was happy with our performance and satisfied with the point. I suspect our manager is, too, although he does have something to say about going for the win in the post-match letter he thoughtfully sends to Colin, and maybe one or two others, the minute the game ends:
Dear Colin,
It’s a lovely clean sheet again from the Lads, I must give them credit for that, keeping Arsenal’s front line at bay is no easy feat and we kept them very quiet today.
Keeping their attack quiet gave us the basis to go on and try and win the game, which is what we did in the second half. We had a number of chances and before that Patrick van Aanholt’s free kick was a whisker away from putting us in front.
We had opportunities to make it 1-0, but nevertheless it’s a great clean sheet and we’ve climbed out of the bottom three with that result for the first time in a long time.
I wanted to try and nick it at the end, we had a couple of free kicks across the box and I was hoping we could see the game off, but it wasn’t to be. It’s still a good day and a well-earned point.
We’re in charge of our own destiny and we need to make the most of that.
We’ve climbed a huge mountain in recent months to get where we are and the Lads need to take confidence and determination from that and stay where we are.
Our goal difference is strong. I believe if we keep a clean sheet next week against Stoke we can win that game, especially if we create chances like we did today.
I’d like to see as good a performance as we had today and to get the win to help us get further away from that bottom three.
Thanks for your support,
Sam Allardyce