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79 mins Some head tennis in the Arsenal box ends up with the vast Zigic caught offside as he tries to butt the ball home. Wilshere and Walcott go off, Arshavin and Denilson come on. Jerome is also off. Kevin Phillips, amazingly, comes on. Yes that Kevin Phillips. The one from the 1990s.
77 mins Arsenal are showboating a bit now and doing their Harlem Globetrotter bit in midfield. That might not be a good idea. No need to rub it in and make people cross.
75 mins Walcott gets in on the right again where Ridgwell has had a tough game and Foster gets down well to save. It's very easy for Arsenal now. Walcott then attempts a cheeky chip from outside the box that totally fails. Steady Theo: you're not quite there yet.
72 mins It has been hard for Birmingham playing Man Utd and then Arsenal so close together. The high-energy way they play against the top teams must take a lot out of them. They do look a little less than sprightly here. Ben Dunn writes: "Hleb is a perfect example of a player leaving Arsenal and not being quite as good as the Wengerball style made them be. Is Cesc intelligent enough to see this trend? He does have the Barcelona contacts and must know Henry and Hleb's contribution to their Spanish world-conquering cause was less than central." Fabregas is in a different league to Hleb. Think he knows a bit more about Barca too.
69 mins Birmingham looked a little bewildered at the back there as that goal went in, perhaps disorientated by having to defend so deep against so much possession. Zigic has come on for Bowyer. So perhaps no real change in tactics on the cards.
66 mins GOAL! Birmingham 0-3 Arsenal It's a slightly comical own goal off Johnson in the end but that was wonderful football from Arsenal in the build-up, Fabregas and Nasri combining really nicely, Nasri on the overlap slipping in a pass very close to goal that Dann scuffs on to his centre back partner. Who then deflects it into his own goal. Nothing he could really do about that, but some lovely attacking play in there.
63 mins Wilshere is hobbling about after a stiff tackle from Gardener. When was the last time Birmingham scored twice in half an hour? They need something fairly sharp-ish here. Fabianski gets a free-kick for a very minor nudge by Jerome that he managed to turn into a spectacualr cartwheeling flip.
61 mins Hleb has just come on for Birmingham. They really do need someone to hold the ball a bit in midfield. Could the disapponting Belarussian be the man?
58 mins GOAL! Birmingham 0-2 Arsenal. That was a brilliant team goal, scored by Nasri but set up by a passage of about 25 passes across midfield, followed by a perfectly timed little lay-off from Fabregas into Nasri, who turns and passes it into the corner. When it works like that, Wengerball really does look great.
55 mins Nasri sprints through into a one-on-one with Foster, who makes a good tumbling save. "Carr doesn't dare touch him there or it's a pelanty," says Chris Waddle.
53 mins Bowyer stamped on Sagna's leg just before that free kick by the way. It was quite clear and would have been a card if the ref had spotted it. Meanwhile Arsenal tee up Wilshere with a spell of high speed jinky beach football but his side-footed volley flies over the bar. Lovely approach play but that was a wasteful finish, far too casual with the game still 1-0.
52 mins Nothing has really happened yet this half. Walcott is dragged back by the arm by Dann, who gets a yellow card. That was sneaky rather than malicious and now Arsenal have a free-kick that they load into the box. Expertly defended and headed away cleanly by Johnson.
49 mins Carr puts in an early second half reducer on Fabregas just as he nicked the ball away from him. Pow. That was a full body tackle, but fair enough in the end. Saltuk has a good idea: "Why don't the two teams settle the game as follows? Birmingham punters are granted 15 set pieces, 5 from the right, 5 from the left and 5 from the center. If they can't score and equalize, then the game ends 1-0 to Arsenal. In that way, everyone saves time and the players don't have to pretend in this god-awful weather."
46 mins Birmingham kick off again, their first set piece of the half and perhaps the only one they won't lump into the Arsenal box. Here's to many more. And there is the first long free kick punted forwards the Arsenal penalty spot. It's a foul and a free kick to Arsenal but they do always looks a little shaky when that ball comes booming in towards Birmingham's assorted giants.
Nicholas writes: "Possession is fairly equal, Arsenal's goal is controversial, blown penalty call, bad misses by Johnson and Van Persie and you say Arsenal deserve its lead and should have scored 4?" Could have scored four. Not should. Could. There is a big difference. Birmingham could have scored two, possibly, if they'd had that penalty and Johnson had shot on target.
James Wells has been having a think: "I don't understand why there is so much disagreement over what constitutes a bad tackle. It seems like if you keep at least one foot on the ground, with the other foot not going over the half the height of the ball and do
so while the player still has the ball it's not a foul. Taylor should have been sent off, not for breaking Eduardo's leg, but because he was entirely in the air and hit Eduardo mid-shin. Shawcross too. Wilshere should not have been sent off for his foul on Zigic because his feet never left the ground. He should have gotten a yellow for being late. Fabregas should have been sent off for his tackle on Ward because he was way late and his feet were off the ground. Eboue should always be sent off because his tackles are so, so late. We expect players to pull out of challenges on goalkeepers, why should it be any different with dangerous tackles on outfield players?" Yeah. What he said.
Joshua Schaefer objects: "So just to be clear, Van Persie dived, the free kick was then deflected in, Birmingham should have a penalty and also missed a good chance and this translates to all Arsenal?" I'm a neutral but Birmingham have barely strung two passes together. Arsenal could have had four goals quite easily. They deserve to be leading.
ESPN's Burley and Parlour are saying Johnson should have been sent off for his tackle on Fabregas. Parlour is clearly an Arsenal fan, but Burley is also adamant it was a naughty one.
Adrian Cooper writes: "Is Lennon actually as fast as we think he is, or does he just look so fast because his legs are so tiny? He probably has to take two steps for every one of a normal height player, or four steps just to keep up with each flex of Peter Crouch's little toe."
45+2 mins HALF TIME Birmingham 0-1 Arsenal. A deserved lead - Arsenal might have scored four even though, to be honest, they never really looked like scoring four. Birmingham have shoulder-barged a chance or two from the sky and will point to Van Persie's clear handball in the box, but Arsenal are ahead on merit for their enterprise. I'll be back in a few minutes, at which point the word "analysis" will start to flash in your peripheral vision as I paste in some emails.
45 mins Carr launches a long throw into the box but it's nodded out. There's really only one side playing any football here. Two added mins of this.
43 mins All Arsenal at the moment. They own the ball. It's just a question of what to do with it.
40 mins More wild thrashing Birmingham pressure as another long high "pass" finds its way into the Arsenal box. Djourou is down injured holding his side after an aerial roughing up by Gardener. Arsenal broke again there and almost got through on Foster. There are goals here for them if they can get the last pass right. On speed I believe no one can match Walcott. He has a proper sprinter's style, all effortless gliding. Lennon waggles his arms a lot, giving the illusion of extreme speed, but he seems to stop accelerating after six or seven strides.
37 mins Terrible miss by Johnson, right in fornt of goal. It came from another punted free-kick, flicked on by Jerome to Johnson unmarked six yards out and he shinned the ball over the bar. Birmingham may have just one tactic, but they are very good at it. Ben Dunn writes: "The stats guys can tell you how far a player has run, exactly where he has run and some other less important statistics actually related to football. But will they ever be able to throw out who is the fastest? Walcott over 20metres, and Lennon over 5 I'd say. Barry would probably be discovered to be an actual statue with robotic kicking legs."
35 mins Djourou is booked for not-very-much and both managers look very cross already. Birmingham punt in a deep free kick and there's some wild appealing for a handball as the ball is cleared chaotically. And blimey - that was a blatant penalty. Van Persie punched the ball away with his arm. No idea what he was thinking, or how the ref missed that. Amazingly, back down the other end Van Persie then misses another sitter, right through on goal. What an extraordinary game he's having.
32 mins Arsenal are in total charge of the between-the-free-kicks actual football side of this match, but you just get the feeling they can still do something silly. Conal Huetter writes: "After Johnson's challenge on Fabregas, the commentators were giving him grief for showing his studs. My question is, and this applies to countless other challenges as well, is how do you NOT show your studs when slide tackling in such a manner? It seems that when tackling a player from the front (which is apparently the only legal way nowadays) you'd have to twist your foot around quite awkwardly to avoid showing the bottom of your foot." It was very minor, just a peek of studs. I'm not sure it should have been a yellow card.
29 mins Ridgewell has just been booked for fouling Walcott. Van Persie swings in the free kick and Djourou, unmarked, seems to back away form launching himself into a diving Andy Gray-style header and it just sort of bounces through to Foster. Odd, that. Big Eck is still very cross, this time about a handball he feels Blues should have had.
26 mins A massive scramble in the box ends up with Beausejour launching a comical mis-kick volley that bobbles sideways harmlessly. Back down the other end Van Persie has just missed a sitter after great work on the left wing by Nasri. Blimey Nasri is quick with the ball at his feet. Poor old Barry Ferguson was running backwards there trying to keep up.
24 mins This is getting a little spiky. Nasri and Larsson have a really weedy slappy kind of tangle that they're rescued from by the ref. Not exactly Jonny Giles and Peter Storey, that.There isn't much happening out there right now. But here's a set piece. Johnson and Dann lumber forward.
21 mins Walcott goes off on a run. Jerome tracks him back. That was a decent race. Jerome won. The ball bobbled out of play. No actual football happened, just some sprinting.
18 mins What a save by Fabianski from - yes - a Birmingham free kick, taken by Larsson about 20 yards out. He gave him the eyes, he put it to the keeper's side, not the wall's, and Fabianski leapt back across his goal to palm it away with a decisively non-limp wrist. Mike Down writes: "Birmingham are like a hard boiled egg... hard to beat! Chelsea had about 30 attempts on goal to Birmingham's ONE and lost 1 nil! This one's got nil v nil written all over it." I thought you were going to say surprisingly spongy and full of yellow gunk. I think we'll have more goals. Set pieces you see. Plus Arsenal are having so much of the ball they've got to create something.
16 mins Arsenla are having most of the ball, moving the ball very nicely, with the odd rampaging Blues counter-attack when they manage to nick the ball. Set pieces. It's all going to come down to set pieces.
13 mins GOAL! Birmingham 0-1 Arsenal Van Persie has a third strike at goal from a free kick. It's not that much better this time but he does manage to hit Lee Bowyer in the stomach and the ball is deflected past Foster who had no chance. Van Persie won the free kick himself with a rather theatrical dive. Big Eck isn't happy, with some justification.
11 mins foster handles a back pass and it's an indirect free kick inside the area. Fabregas rolls, Nasri dummies, Van Persie punts it goalwards and Foster leaps on top of it and holds on too. Adrian Cooper says: "Are Birmingham actually as bad as everyone seems to be saying at the moment, or are they just lacking goalscorers? Weren't they being feted as great last season at stages last season? And despite being 18th, their goal difference is only -3. There are plenty of other teams around them that are surely far, far worse." I reckon they're currently the 18th best team in England.
8 mins Oh dear. Johnson leaps into an absolutely shuddering tackle on Fabregas in midfield, leading to a mass chest-bumping posse around the writhing Spaniard. Johnson is booked but it really wasn't that bad a tackle given that you are allowed to try to win the ball. Fabregas is OK. Interesting that, you could really see the difference in slow-motion between a proper red card foul and what Johnson did there, going with one foot at ball height, just following through a bit too much.
7 mins Arsenal free kick 25 yards from goal after Fabgregas is tripped. Van Persie wallops it right into the wall. Not even the top of the wall. The shins of the wall.
5 mins "We have some drizzle, which may help the players," says the man on ESPN. Why? Already sensing some stuff about greasy pitches and slick passing and the ball "gathering pace on this wet surface" coming up.
3 mins Walcott has an early scamper for Arsenal down the right, easily burning off Ridgewell but shooting into the side netting. He should be able to run past Ridgewell at will this evening. It's just what he does with it after that.
2 mins He's already done it again. Whump. Miles. Tussle, head, bounce throw-in. Repeat.
1 min Arsenal kick off and poke it about a bit at the back. There's an early touch for nice, slightly confused-looking Ben Foster who hoofs it miles very hard and flat down the centre. More of that to come you'd think.
Nick White writes: "I see Birmingham have fielded the exact same team that they started in their previous game against Manchester United. Is there even the slightest chance that we'll see anything other than the negative tactics that they deployed in that game?" Maybe not, but they were playing the league leaders and a 1-1 draw isn't a bad result. Would you suddenly start trying to play like Hungary 1953?
The teams are coming out of the tiny little cramped tunnel made of old plastic piping. Arsneal really are quite small, Djourou aside.
Ian Copestake is also here all week: "Arsenal can confirm their championship credentials if they get a result here. 2-1 to Birmingham then." It is a big game for Arsenal, the kind they often make a mess of. But this is also a very nice looking - albeit quite small and slight - Arsenal team with a midfield made up of skilful scampering gnomes.
Interesting to see that Almunia has been told he can catch the next plane out of North London if he wants to. The only problem is... he'll probably drop it. I thank you. Flappyhandski plays again today but surely none of these goalies are good enough. Birmingam have some very tall men in their team. I predict a "bombardment".
So Larsson plays against his old club, as could Bendtner and the hapless Hleb, who really did make a poor decision.
Your teams tonight:
Birmingham Foster, Carr, Johnson, Dann, Ridgewell, Larsson, Ferguson, Gardner, Bowyer, Beausejour, Jerome.
Subs Taylor, Phillips, Derbyshire, Fahey, Zigic, Hleb, Jiranek.
Arsenal Fabianski, Sagna, Djourou, Koscielny, Clichy, Walcott, Song, Wilshere, Nasri, Fabregas, van Persie.
Subs Szczesny, Rosicky, Denilson, Squillaci, Arshavin, Eboue, Bendtner.
Hello and welcome to exclusively typed live coverage of the final game of the day, Birmingham v Arsenal. Arsenal can inch ahead of Spurs again if they win. Birmingham can scrabble further out of relegation trouble. This could be a spicy game, one of those clash-of-styles numbers that involves Arsenal being jostled and jounced and generally shoved about more than they'd like, but then complaining about it slightly too much if they end up losing. St Andrews is looking a picture as ever. A really depressing, grey, brutalist, Soviet era kind of picture.
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