Faint hopes still glimmer

A performance that rather summed up our season, some fantastic football at times interrupted by some rather embarrassing lapses in concentration at the back. Derby tried hard, but effort without quality to back it up is rather useless and it always appeared that we had several further gears which could always be used if necessary.

Bendtner opened the scoring following a bit of Derby pressure, a neat one two with RVP and a cool slotted finish put us one up. RVP then missed a sitter, just before McEvely equalised as he was afforded far too much time and space to control the ball (possibly with his arm) and stab home past a helpless Fabianski. RVP then scored a cracker, a chipped ball through from Kolo sprung the Derby offside trap and he chested down, and neatly volleyed home into the roof of the net from ten yards, 2-1 at half time. Worryingly RVP came off at half time with yet another muscular complaint.

The second half saw us start very brightly indeed, some lovely passing and movement saw several glorious go begging with Walcott and Adebayor the chief culprits. Ade did make it 3-1 eventually when a tapped home following Eboue's stab on, only for Derby to pull another goal back, Earnsham's clever movement and Gallas' rather nonchalant defending combining to put Earnshaw through to slot home neatly. This spurred us back into life and three splendid goals followed, Walcott's deadly finish along with two tidy Ade specials, 6-2 it finished. Mind you with a less retarded linesman and some better finishing it could have been over ten.

Overall it summed our season up well, there's just something not quite right defensively. We seem to lack a bit of aerial prowess at times, although we do have plenty of pace, the disruption to the settled back four following Sagna's injury certainly hasn't helped. Song looks a great prospect, but is centre back his best position? If Flamini goes then the path may be clear for Song's arrival in the centre of the park. There's certainly no major surgery needed, but things do not seem solid enough for me at the moment. The Gallas Toure partnership has certainly been our best pairing and should be our starting combination for next year.

I was impressed by the bustling of Denilson, a clever footballer who reminds me a little of Paul Scholes, except he's not such an ugly c*nt. While Fabregas is such an outstanding player it's simply a pleasure to watch him play. Walcott has developed fantastically well this year, he looks an awesome player already and he is definitely more at home on the left than the right. I shouldn't forget to mention a certain striker called Emmanuel Adebayor who has proven his quality this season, a great goalscoring record and a great team player, he's imporving all the time as well. Eboue hasn'y been as awful recently, he worked hard and put in a few good crosses last night, but he remains the weakest link in our midfield and I really think a top quality right sided player would add tremendously to our chances next season. The future is bright nonetheless, come on you Gunners.