Booed off at half-time and full time, Arsenal had to endure a lap of honour in a stadium that was barely a third full. The fans continue to rage at next season's 6.5% ticket-price hikes, while the six-year trophy drought has fuelled discontent.
The team now face a battle to finish in third place; if Manchester City were to win their remaining two fixtures, Arsenal would be pressed into an unwanted Champions League qualifier. "It will be a big setback [to finish fourth] but we will adapt our pre-season preparations to it," said the manager, Arsène Wenger.
The post-match lap was excruciating, although most of the fans who stayed did their best to drown out the jeers. Wenger and plenty of the players looked like they wanted to be elsewhere and perhaps some of them will be next season. Uncertainty clouds the futures of Cesc Fábregas, Samir Nasri and Gaël Clichy, with each of the trio missing this game through injury. Wenger said that Fábregas had suffered a setback in relation to his thigh problem and was "out for three to four weeks", while he gave Nasri "very little chance" of making the Fulham game on Sunday.
Wenger lamented the "tentative" and "nervous" start that his team made, but his misery was Aston Villa's joy. Twice in the first 15 minutes, Darren Bent was given sniffs of goal, following sloppy Arsenal defending and, on both occasions, he finished in predatory fashion. The boyhood Arsenal supporter has made a habit of punishing the club. He now has six goals in 10 appearances against them, including the last-minute equaliser for Sunderland last September.
Bent's first goal was of the highest order. He leapt to control Kyle Walker's floated ball with his chest before, acrobatically and off-balance, dinking a right-footed volley past Wojciech Szczesny. The defensive inquest, though, would surely have been gory. Sébastien Squillaci, in for Johan Djourou, who is nursing an ankle injury, was guilty of ball-watching and he allowed Bent to tiptoe in behind him.
Worse was to follow. After Thomas Vermaelen, playing his first club football since last August, had slipped to allow Ashley Young to take James Collins's pass and get his head up, Squillaci once again allowed Bent in on his blind side and the striker side-footed home. Squillaci was substituted at the interval, with Wenger preferring to ask the midfielder Alex Song to drop back to fill the position. Squillaci's debut season at the club has been pockmarked by disasters. This was a new low.
"Bent has been class from the moment we signed him in January," said Gary McAllister, Villa's caretaker manager. "And Stewart Downing and Ashley Young were also electric. Two of Arsenal's back four were ring rusty and we caught them a wee bit."
Little went right for Arsenal. They rallied in the first half only to be denied a penalty for Richard Dunne's borderline challenge on Aaron Ramsey, while Van Persie watched a low shot hit the far post. Arsenal controlled the second half and they created a clutch of chances, but the substitute Marouane Chamakh had a header harshly ruled out for a push, and Van Persie's close-range finish, his 21st goal of the season, proved scant consolation.
The home crowd had voiced their frustration midway through the second period, after the attendance was announced over the PA system, together with the promise of the lap of honour. According to the official figures, the stadium was sold out, yet the empty seats showed that thousands had stayed away. The chant went up, "Six per cent, you're having a laugh," in reference to the price rises.
Villa's fans had a whale of a time but plenty of their counterparts had made for the exits long before full time and the players' shuffle around the pitch. "It was not a tour of glory," Wenger said, "but you have to respect your fans for turning up all season. It was not embarrassing. When people are not happy, they can show it."
Source: David Hytner, The Guardian on 15 May 11
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