Arsene must look in the mirror

Firstly I am not going to dissect the details of our depressing 3-1 defeat to Manu today. It was a Manu side there for the taking, they had a very weak back four on show and an unconvincing keeper. We did create a lot of very decent chances and on a better finishing day we could have easily had four or five goals. The referee was woeful, allowing numerous tackles from behind to go without punishment, but this was not the reason for our capitulation.

The defensive naivety on show today was truly flabbergasting. The first United goal was awful defensively, Nasri didn't cover Clichy properly, Denilson's attempted defensive effort was truly pitiful, I don't blame Almunia as Nani's ball was almost impossible to defend. The problem was that when we went behind we threw men forward in the most suicidal of manners, we were frequently outnumbered on the counter attack, it made it easy for United to dismantle. There was simply no need to throw caution to the wind like this, we were only one goal down for God's sake. The second goal showed our rank defensive naivety as Nani broke, Vermaelen tried hard to cover, Denilson's casual strolling while Rooney motored past him was typical of his pathetic performance, Rooney finished well but it was far far too easy for him in so much space. Gallas was regularly going missing up the field, seemingly forgetting that his primary job is to prevent the conceding of goals.

The frustrating thing was that this is no great United side. Arshavin could have had a hat trick, as could Song, we opened them up easily without even having a proper centre forward up there. With RVP up there we could have cut them to ribbons. Song was the only midfielder really defending for the team, Denilson was wasteful in possession and as useful as a traffic cone in defensive positions. Overall in our front six we only have one player (Song) carrying a decent portion of water, that is simply not enough to get by in this league.

The third goal saw Gallas nowhere again, Clichy was left on his own and failed to close down Park quickly enough, it was another calamity of errors, conceding a third so early in the second half meant that game was over. There was just no need to leave ourselves so outnumbered at the back, serious questions need to be asked of the management as this defensive naivety has seen us attempt suicide in several games of late, the Everton game included in this and the Pienaar goal a classic example of this idiocy.

I do not mind us defending naively in the 89th minute when we are going for a key goal, but throwing men forward recklessly so early in the game is nothing but plain stupid. The lack of defensive players in the squad compounds this obvious problem, Song cannot lift planets alone. Denilson was awful yet again and does not have what it takes to make the grade at Arsenal in my opinion. The lack of strikers in the squad is also obvious, even if Bendtner and Eduardo were fully fit it would not leave us enough depth to cope with our fixtures for the rest of the season, a striker is badly needed in my opinion. Ignore the referee, ignore the great chances we squandered, the defensive naivety that we are playing with at the moment will never win us a league title, this was no great United side and we made them look rather good as a result. If Arsene does not look in the mirror soon then I really fear for our future.

O'Neill a sad and bitter man, Manure preview and Smalling's error

So Martin O'Neill continues his very inappropriate and personal attack on Arsene Wenger, his comments do nothing but make himself look rather reactionary and foolish:

"I believe we dropped two points [rather than gained one] because we had clear chances. On the other hand it was a very difficult game because they stopped us from playing when we had the ball and when they had it they played a very long-ball game and closed us down. We couldn't find our passing game."

Wenger added: "We know what you get when you come here and we weren't disappointed. It's a very efficient English game with long balls, and very physical. They did that very well and are a good side on counter-attacking, so when we took the gamble to go forward and they won the ball they are quick. That's why it was always us managing to create chances and them catching us on counter-attack or playing on [Gabriel] Agbonlahor and [Emile] Heskey with long balls.

"I wish them to have a good run now because they are quality. They are well-organised and have a strong spirit. They are very strong physically and the four in midfield do not stop running and all these players can score goals, so they have a chance. I think they have a very good chance but you have seven teams for four places."

The reaction from O'Neill and players like Collins is embarrassing. These people would rather react like children without thinking and without examining what has actually been said in context, O'Neill is having a kind of verbal epileptic seizure. Arsene has said nothing offensive, he has just stated a few things as a he saw them, of note he has also been very complimentary to Villa in a number of ways. There is no 'appalling insult' amongst Arsene's words, I can only think that the media have tricked the naive O'Neill into giving them a story that he should have been sharp enough to side step. Andrei Arshavin is typically honest in his assessment of this mountain out of a molehill. O'Neill is showing himself to be a very bitter and resentful man, actually rather unpleasant as well, strange that the media let him get away with such a vitriolic and personal attack on another manager in response to such mild comments from Arsene, shame on you Mr O'Neill.

Alex Ferguson does not miss the opportunity to have a dig at Arsene as well, Fergie seems to think that the sun shines out of Darren Fletcher's arsehole, obviously Darren the cherub would never set out to foul another fellow professional, would he? He also wouldn't dive either, let's just ignore that booking he got for a blatant dive in the CL earlier this year, maybe Wayne taught him but obviously not well enough.

What a huge game it is. Manu will have been boosted by their win against City in midweek, Ferdinand's suspension for his vicious elbow on Fagan is thoroughly deserved and is a blow to them, I was rather amused by the FA's description of Manures appeal as 'frivolous' and by Fergie banning Sky from his press conferences, surely Fergie should be directing his rage at Ferdinand's nasty violent actions. Rooney will be their key man, he is on great form at the moment, it will be important that he is not given the room to do us damage. Fletcher is their key man in midfield and it would be nice to see him punished for any cynical indiscretions early by the referee, this can have a big impact on games.

Thomas Vermaelen will probably not be risked, meaning that it's a big one for big Sol, he's looked decent in his outings thus far, but facing Rooney and co would be a stern test of anyone's abilities. I'd hope to see Bendtner starting with Eduardo out, Arshavin leading the line would be playing into Manure's hands in my eyes. I'd be very surprised if Song didn't start in the holding role, Cesc will be alongside him in the midfield, Denilson may make up the trio but Nasri would be a good option for me. Then again Nasri may come into the front three with Bendtner and Arshavin, although Rosicky has been very useful in our last couple of games there. I really don't know how Arsene will play this one, all I know is that we will have to get in and amongst them, we will need to play with a real drive and tempo to unsettle the mancs.

Finally I'd like to say that Chris Smalling has probably made an error in joining Manure. Not only does he have to live up north near or in Manchester away from his friends and family, but he also is taking much more of a gamble with his career by trusting Ferguson to nurture him. Ferguson's record with developing young players has been good, but very erratic in recent years, I would argue that Arsene's ability in this area is second to none. Arsenal also have more space in which Smalling can develop, we have only one young top class centre back in his prime, Manure have Ferdinand and Vidic, as well as some good young prospects like Evans. The fee of around ten million pounds is a hell of a price for a kid who has barely played at the top level, it is a gamble in anyone's book, it remains to be seen whether he has the temperament to survive at the top level. Bringing in young players for huge money is always a massive gamble, for every Rooney there are more than a dozen Jeffers, Djemba Djembas and Bellions. Arsene is sorry to have missed out and wishes the player well, but how Smalling may come to regret his decision in time.

A point gained but inability to strengthen will cost us

A point at Villa park is nothing to be sniffed at, just can't help but think how sweet three points would have been, then again what's the point in wondering about all the ifs and buts, reality must be dealt with. It certainly leaves a lot of pressure on the home game against the mancs this weekend. It was an interesting game last night, slightly contrasting styles and some decent football, a mixture of poor finishing and some excellent defending meant that the deadlock was never broken.

It could all have been very different had Manuel Almunia not got down extremely well to a very firm Agoblahor shot in the first few minutes, he tipped it wide and this was a top notch bit of goalkeeping. Friedel was forced into a slightly less tricky save when Denilson cracked in a decent left footed effort from the edge of the box. The game was fairly rapid from one end to the other, Villa preferring to play on the counter than investing too many bodies forward at any one time. Thomas Vermaelen, in landing seemingly innocuously having jumped for a header, then hobbled off injured. Hopefully it's nothing too serious, he did try to play on for a few minutes on it which must be a good sign, fingers crossed. Defensively we coped reasonably well with everything that Villa threw at us, Gallas was particularly good, Almunia too, Young did catch Clichy out a few times.

The best chance of the game came when Cesc drifted past a couple of defenders towards the end of the first half, he shot low and hard against the base of Freidel's right hand post, Rosicky looked set to fire it home on the rebound, alas Ramsey got in his way. Dunne saved Villa with a vital last ditch clearance at the feet of Villa, Downing then headed wide with what was probably Villa's best opening of the game, Arshavin nipped clean through to be blocked by Friedel, Rosicky was terribly unlucky to see his effort crack back off the underside of the bar.

Overall we were a tad unlucky to only get the point, Villa never really opened us up, they put in some dangerous crosses which we defended well, but we looked the far more likely to score. The game was slightly cagey, Villa were never going to leave themselves open by playing like the traditional home side, on another day Rosicky's effort would have bounced the other side of the goal line or Ramsey would have moved out the way to allow Rosicky to side foot home. The spat between Wenger and O'Neill was nothing but a bit of media spin, in reality Arsene said nothing offensive, he just stated some pretty basic stuff that appears to have been twisted before being played back to O'Neill by some disingenuous hack

I am a great fan of Arsene Wenger, so what I say now must be seen in context, I really do fear if we do not strengthen by the end of the window then we will be jeopardising our chances of success this season. If Vermaelen is out for a few weeks then there is no doubt that we need another centre back on board, it is not good enough to have only Gallas, Campbell and Silvestre for the next couple of months, it's a simple as that in my eyes. The apparent collapse of the Smalling deal is a blow because he appears the exact kind of player we need to have floating around in reserve. We have both the Champions league and Premier League to fight for, we need more depth in the squad, it's getting beyond a joke. Even if Eduardo was not injured I would say we need another striker for the rest of the season, three strikers is a minimum number for me, so with Eduardo injured for who knows how long, Bendtner just back from a long lay off, it is absurd to not be lining up someone to fill this short term gap for a few months.

It really would be such a crying shame if were to leave such gaps in our squad before such an important run in. Buying in a couple of experienced pros in these positions would guarantee nothing, we may well end up with nothing even with them, but if we do not it will be so frustrating to be thinking 'what if we had strengthened' those blatant deficiencies in our squad. I agree with Arseblogger when he talks of the nonsensical arguments of stifling the development of the Velas and Walcotts of this world. All I am asking for is a couple of short term signings that will plug the gaps until the end of the season when RVP will be fit and when we can bring in another young centre back who can be groomed for a the future.

ps Great news that Thomas Vermaelen has no break and will be back fairly soon, also good news that Eduardo is only out for a few days with his hammy. Eboue and Song are also back in training and will surely be available for selection at the weekend.

Great result for Cameroon and other random rambling

At last Cameroon are out of the African Cup of Nations, Egypt beat them 3-1, and we all know what that means, Alex Song is coming home. Hopefully he'll be available for selection against Manu at the weekend. The Ivory Coast are also out, it will be useful to have the versatility of Emmanuel Eboue back in the squad too.

Apparently Jay-Z is a Gooner and his favourite player is Cesc Fabregas, I'm not sure if the lure of backstage passes for a Jay-Z gig will help motivate our players towards title success, but there you go. The Galindo deal is not as done as some would 'exclusively' have us beleive, while there are some more baseless rumours linking us with a French striker. Phil Senderos has gone out on loan to Everton for the remainder of the season, I have never understood how big Phil has never got a run out while the hapless Silvestre seems to be ahead of him in the pecking order, bizarre, something funny must have gone on behind the scenes.

Arsene has revealed that quite a few of the players that were rested could not have played against Stoke even if had wanted them to. Clichy, Vermaelen and Sagna were not fully fit, and could well have missed the Villa game if it had not been for the weekend off. Having had another 24hrs to calm down, it was a tight game overall and we weren't far off getting a result, Sol did well, Eastmond impressed me again.

The one thing we really lacked was a cutting edge up front, JET is not a leader of the line and Theo had an absolute shocker. I really think that if we are to challenge on two fronts in the Premiership and Champions League then we need three strikers, Eduardo and a fit Bendtner is not enough. I don't think Fabianski was that bad but he doesn't look like a future world beater to me, the only young keeper on our books who looks to have this potential is the young Szczesny. Mannone has just signed a new deal and wants to push for the no1 slot, fat chance in my opinion, he doesn't look good enough to me, maybe he'll prove me wrong with time. At least we're going to have a strong back four back for the visit of Villa, maybe Diaby will be fit, then we can bring in a whole fresh front three, come on you Gunners.

Stoke bullying overcomes Arsenal second string

A few rather unexpected names are on the team sheet today. As expected Fabianski in goal and the back four of Coquelin-Sol-Silvestre-Traore, not a defense that will have ever played together before and that will be properly tested against a very physical Stoke assault. Eastmond is holding in midfield with Cesc and Denilson alongside him. Then a front three of Walcott-Vela-JET, I reckon Vela will be given the more central role but it may well be a more fluid system allowing the three to swap around a bit. Stoke line up with a robust 4-4-2 formation and the power of Fuller and Sidibe up top. A big test for Sol in his return, no doubt, but some real quality is on the bench if we need it in form of Rosicky, Ramsey, Arshavin and Eduardo.

Fabianski
Coquelin - Sol - Silvestre - Traore
Eastmond
Denilson - Cesc
Walcott - Vela - JET

Unfortunately the game did not start well, a long throw from Delap on the right wing saw a very pacey ball hurled in at a a low trajectory, Fuller nipped in and head it in at the near post, one nil to Stoke. Some people will blame Fabianski but it was a very tricky ball for him to attack given its height, it was more disappointing that none of our defenders managed to attack the ball or block Fuller's run.

There was little flow to the game early on, Stoke relying on some rather ugly direct football as usual. Sol made a few good interceptions, Eastmond was tidying things up nicely in front of the back four and winning a fair few aerial challenges. Our moves broke down too frequently from some rather loose touches and casual passes. Silvestre was lucky not to give away a penalty when Silvestre took his leg away in the box, we then broke excellently but it was wasted by a very poor final delivery from Walcott on the right, it was typical of much we had done over the half.

Typically the referee was letting far too much go. Cesc was chopped down at least three times well after he had moved the ball on, the ref played on, did nothing about the dangerous fouls and then never brought the play back for the fouls as no advantage had come. I simply cannot understand how a referee can allow players to slide in very late, get nothing of the ball and then escape without even a warning. As we grew into the game and our passing looked a tad crisper, another dangerous tackle was left unpunished by the referee Martin Atkinson. The rather uncultured Shawcross went in very late on Cesc with his studs dangerously raised, not much different in nature to the Gallas tackle in midweek which resulted in the hysterical media reaction. Atkinson's reaction? Not even a verbal warning for Shawcross, truly pathetic. The time being wasted by Delap taking thirty seconds before every throw in was also something the referee should have done more about.

We became more dominant as the half wore on, Stoke could not keep up their high pressing game and we were allowed a bit more time to knock the ball around. Just as the half had almost drawn to a close, a goal came when it did not appear that likely. A dubious free kick was given, although the arm was hanging away to the side of the body as it blocked Cesc's flick on, and Denilson took full advantage, it was cut back to him, his low right footed effort was heading low into the bottom corner, it was deflected but this didn't affect its direction much, into the bottom corner it went. A bit of pressure now built, a series of corners ensued in between another couple of late Stoke tackles from behind. Strangely only two minutes of injury time were played, even though Delap had wasted about five minutes all on his own. One one at half time it was, fair on the balance of the game but more sharpness was needed for the second half.

The aerial bombardment continued in the second half, it was certainly not an easy game for a goalkeeper to come in for, on the whole Fabianski dealt well with some very tricky situations. It was a pretty even contest, Atkinson continued to let some Stoke filth go unpunished, one thigh high lunge from Huth's studs on Vela somehow escaped a booking, numerous sliding tackles from behind continued to go unpunished. Cesc and Denilson were trying to get things going, a bit of joy came down the left, Vela and Traore gave us some pace and width which did cause some trouble at times. Walcott was having a stinker, ineffective, sloppy in possession and not probing the right channels. Jay Emmanuel-Thomas had a pretty solid game, of note he helped out in a few tricky defensive situations to good effect. Little was created, the only goal threat a belting Cesc thirty yarder that forced a Sorensen tip over.

A triple substitution came with twenty minutes to play, Walcott, Coquelin and JET were replaced by Arshavin, Ramsey and Eduardo. Coquelin had done well after a nervy first twenty minutes, especially given he was playing out of position. It looked worrying when Silvestre was hacked late (what a surprise) by Delap and went down holding his knee, luckily he recovered quickly. Vela was almost played in, just denied by a well times Higginbotham sliding tackle. Against the run of play Stoke went ahead again, the defensively dodgy Denilson was left on his heels by Sidibe, his excellent cross found Fuller's head which did the rest, to be fair this was a very well worked goal. A deflected Cesc free kick flashed wide, Ramsey's left footed drive blazed well over. Then Stoke scored again, Eastmond was wrestled over with some shirt tugging, Etherington broke and crossed expertly for the marginally offside Whitehead to slot home. Then a what would have been a fourth was disallowed for a clear Tuncay handball. Another cynical Stoke lunge from behind saw another dangerous freekick given, Cesc's effort hit the wall. Three one and the game was over, no FA Cup glory for at least another year.

Almunia, Eboue, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy, Gibbs, Song, Nasri, Ramsey, Diaby, Rosicky, Arshavin, RVP, Bendtner, Eduardo- these are the 16 players who did not start this game for various reasons, it shows that this Arsenal side was well below a second string eleven. Overall it was a very even game, the real difference was the fact that we lacked a proper striker to lead the line and that Stoke showed more quality than us in the final third. The referee Marin Atkinson's incompetent leniency made the game much easier for Stoke, they were allowed to tackle from behind all day without even one yellow card being shown, the fact that Shawcross' stamp down Cesc's calf escaped even a verbal warning symptomatic of the way in which Atkinson's incompetence allowed thuggery to prosper. Jay Emmanuel-Thomas worked hard but it was a big ask for him to lead the line, if we had had a recognised striker the outcome could have been very different.

Fair play to Stoke, you can't blame them for playing the dire negative over-physical football that they do, they are a small club and would be killed if they tried to play pretty stuff against us. I can't say I like the way they play but it is effective, especially when catalysed by lenient refereeing that allows their largely illegal pressing game to work. Stoke committed 20 fouls (that Atkinson spotted) to our 8, some of which were rather cynical and/or nasty, they got not one booking. Our squad has not been quite strong enough to maintain the challenge on this front, with the Villa game coming up on Wednesday Arsene obviously didn't want to gamble with the fitness of a few key players, some of whom are fatigued and others only just back from injury. Stoke away is a tough game, most of the youngsters gave a good account of themselves, Eastmond in particular, Sol had a pretty solid afternoon given his recent lack of competitive action. On the negative Theo Walcott had another afternoon to forget, he would do well to take a long hard look at himself rather than being so aggressive towards the officials at times, the manager's patience with Theo should not be infinite. Our eggs appear to be amassing in one basket, whether resting so many key men today was the right decision remains to be seen.

Bolton fallout continues and Stoke 'rough up'

Firstly at least one person from Bolton, Owen Coyle their manager, has seen sense and realised that his initial words were over the top regarding the Gallas tackle. The clear media bias can be seen in this Star article as the tackle is called a 'horror' tackle. In reality it was just a foul with studs up and nothing more sensational, as can be seen on video and from the photo above Gallas had his leg bent when he made contact, he did throw his body weight into the tackle, he quickly changed direction and got on with the game, it was just a mistimed clip with the studs up. It is unfortunate that Davies was injured as a result but we see a lot of yellow cards given every week for tackles that are far worse, Robinson's on Sunday for example. The reaction from certain sections of the media and some Bolton supporters has been both hysterical and inconsistent.

Arsene has acted very objectively whilst many around him have been throwing toys around and wetting the nappies that they should have overgrown by now. The Sun has today picked up on Arsene's words and shown the clear malice that was present in Taylor's off the ball efforts on Cesc Fabregas. If the ref could see this on video then I am sure most would have given Taylor a red card, poetic justice was far away though, Taylor was rather happy when he celebrated his penatly at 2-0 on Wednesday, maybe the thug should have saved his gloating for the final whistle. Arsene has also quite rightly nailed Sky for their gutter standards in 'brainwashing' viewers with their lazy sensationalist journalism.

Sky have a long history of highlighting the innocuous while ignoring the much less innocuous. One example of this I could never forget is a Van Nistelrooy off the ball right hook into Freddy Ljungerg's stomach, it was caught on camera and ignored. Sky's intellectually challenged pundits like Andy Gray and Jamie Redknapp are clearly not objective in their analysis of events, they will ignore leg breaking tackles if carried out on teams and players that they do not like, while if Sir Wayne Rooney or Sir Steven Gerrard jump in two footed then it is nothing but a good firm tackle. The hysteria created over Eduardo's dive was utterly ridiculous and was typical of this media brainwashing, an even more blatant dive by Darren Fletcher which the ref punished with a yellow card a few weeks later was completely ignored by our noble objective media.

The Mail's headline "Angry Arsene Wenger hits out: You are all out to get Arsenal!" gives their agenda away, rather than actually looking at their very own slack journalistic standards and useless sensationalist gutter standards, they try to make a joke out of it by portraying Arsene as a paranoid fool. The Guardian covers things in typically more objective fashion, at least not all papers and TV channels rely upon appealing to the lowest common denominator to sell their wares. Some Bolton fans continue to amuse me with their tear jerking whining, a particularly bright spark thought publishing an article entitled ' a visit to the grubbiest club in football' would not create a few rather angry responses. I think this author would do well to refrain from call Arsenal fans 'cerebrally challenged riff-raff ' and 'mentally disadvantaged', it is obviously not going to encourage a reasoned debate. This author clearly realised he cannot win this argument with objective reason, he would rather stir up hatred with his puerile insults, a bit sad really.

The way the media condone teams deliberately fouling and injuring Arsenal players in order to beat them while criticising Arsenal players for relatively mild foul tackles shows their rank bias and hypocrisy. Ricardo Fuller's words in the Star demonstrate this point very nicely for Arsene. I remember the media were strangely quiet last year when Stoke put three of our players out injured with bad tackles, the one on Adebayor by Shawcross was a clear red card tackle and made Gallas' look like a kiss on the cheek. This was probably just good old 'English play' I'd imagine, if we were to do the same to anyone it would be 'dirty Arsenal' cheating their way to victory.

Anyway away from the hysterical nonsense and onto the business that is Stoke away on Sunday. Stoke are struggling to score goals this season and if we can defend the aerial balls well then I think we will come away with a result. It seems that Eastmond or Coquelin will replace Sagna who has a dodgy shoulder. I'd guess that Fabianski will play in goal, Traore may give Clichy a break as he has only just returned from injury, we may see Silvestre and Bartley at centre back. Injuries and absentees (Song, Diaby, Ramsey, Nasri) may well force Arsene's hand in midfield, Denilson, Eastmond and a.n.other might well make up the three. Then I'd chance my hand that Vela, Eduardo and Walcott will play up top. Given our injuries and the number of key games we have coming up I think Arsene has no choice but to rest the key players, it will be a big test for the young lads though. Elsewhere William Gallas' contract talks are going well, Big Phil is set to join Everton on loan (does anyone know when his contract runs out by the way?) and Bolton fans are still indulging in a lot of hypocritical whining.

Unfortunate Gibbs, Smalling and Bolton's war crimes

Kieran Gibbs' run of bad luck has continued with the news that he is to undergo surgery on the first metatarsal fracture that he sustained against Standard Liege in the Champions League back in November. From a medical perspective it is slightly strange that he has a non healing first metatarsal fracture, given that it was operated on initially. If the fracture was bad enough to need surgery initially then one would have expected the fracture to have been fixed at that point to improve the chances of it healing. Either way it is very unlucky for Gibbs as 1st metatarsal fractures rarely have problems healing and the the surgery that he now requires is a much bigger deal involving bone graft and several months waiting for it to heal. There is a small chance that the fracture will in fact have healed when it is opened up for the surgery, this can sometime happen, stranger things have happened.

The above interview with Arsene Wenger is well worth a viewing, his comments about the infamous and rather nothingy Gallas tackle are full of sense and perspective, the exact opposite of Bolton's manager's, players' and supporters' comments since the game. If Gallas' tackle was an assault then I think Bolton should be put on trial in Le Hague for the war crimes that they have committed in previous seasons against us. Rather interestingly Arsene was very coy when asked if he had made enquiries about Chris Smalling, the young and powerful Fulham defender, Arsene said it was important that nothing came out until a player had been signed, he had a rather large grin on his face, so watch this space. There is some good injury news in that Abou Diaby's calf injury is only minor, so he shouldn't be out for too long, Bacary Sagna has a dodgy shoulder so he will also miss at least the Stoke game, who on earth will play at right back against Stoke is anyone's guess?

Finally in Africa Cameroon have drawn their final game against Zambia, while Gabon have lost to Zambia, this leaves three teams on four points: Cameroon, Zambia and Gabon. All these sides have won and drawn one amongst themselves, and all three sides have a balanced goal difference of zero. I presume Gabon will go out based on their lower goals scored, damn that means Cameroon squeeze through to fight another day.