Arsemal:
          Almunia
  Lauren Toure Campbell Cole
 Pires Vieira Flamini Clichy
van Persie (Bergkamp 78) Henry

Clichy also started, in front of Cole on paper, although more often than not it was Ashley on the overlap that was getting forward.

Overall, Arsenal had the better of the first half, but failed to capitalise. Then the home side came good in the second half, and had a few decent chances before Sol scored against the run of play: showing the strikers that you don't always need to pass the ball into the net.

The first big chance came on 11 minutes when a corner landed at Vieira's feet. His first touch was nice, but his standing foot slipped as he took the shot and it went well over.

Fifteen minutes later and the Pompey keeper came for a corner and missed it which let it through to Flamini. But he didn't see it till too late and it hit the side of his head and went out beyond the far post. (two chances from corners? what's going on?)

Moments later van Persie was set up by Henry after strong forward play by Cole on the edge of the box, but he blasted it high.

Another chance almost fell to Henry after his own great control started a move. He fed Vieira who played a blind pass into the box. Henry burst through to get onto it but it was a trifle strong and the keeper was able to come out and get there first.

Towards the end of the first half there were signs of things to come. Lua Lua's long range shot went wide, and then the ref played a good advantage (good for Pompey) after Toure clattered into someone in the centre-circle. The ball fell to a blue shirt and was hit forward for O'Neil to chase. Toure did well to give chase but O'Neil got there first, and hit his shot a foot wide.

Ricardo Fuller was put through but his first touch was a bit heavy and Toure chased well to distract him. Almunia came out to get a touch on the shot and deflect it wide.

Straight after the break Fuller was put clear on the keeper again, by Berger, but instead of shooting he cut back to try to get on his right foot, and ran into the defenders who were following him up.

Van Persie's nice turn got the ball onto his right foot and his shot was weak. Vieira got caught in possession in the centre circle and Yakuba (on for the wasteful Fuller) ran on only to see Almunia coming out fast to clear.

Berger's good run finished with a shot from a narrow angle which Amunia parried.

With 15 minutes to go we were passing the ball around on the halfway line. Vieira got it in the circle and Flamini and Bergkamp made runs to drag defenders forward and create a big space in front of Paddy to his left. Sol came forward to receive the ball and as he strode forwards no-one came to close him down. So he whacked it, and the ball bounced low in front ot the keeper and inside the left post. Like I said before, the kind of effort we often neglect. It's probably fair to say that if it had been a striker on the ball he might not have been allowed all that space.

Minutes later Sol was making a big clearing header from a free kick. The resulting corner was half cleared then knocked back in. Stone's shot from the edge of the box bobboled in front of Almunia but he got something (his chin?) in front of it, then jumped to his right to make a superb save from Lua Lua to whom the rebound had fallen.

Pires broke well. His touch was too strong as he approached the box but he did well to get to it first anyway, and slip it to Bergkamp in space on the left. He tried to chip inside the far top corner but got too much on it.

Almunia made a nice save from Berger's long range shot, and then the Pompey keeper did well to get down and save a low shot from Bergkamp.

It wasn't all that pretty, and Portsmouth will feel that their second half play deserved a draw. But we've got to be happy with this one. A few weeks ago we were drawing games like this. The only real negative was van Persie's game of 2 halves. Almunia is looking more and more impressive.