GRAY: Arsenal skipper's behaviour disgracefulby Andy Gray, RivalsDM
http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/7857128/'I-would-have-turned-on-Gallas...'The behaviour of William Gallas on Saturday beggars belief. In all my years in football I don't think I have ever seen a captain behave with such contempt towards his teammates.
A good captain would have been putting his arm around Gael Clichy and assuring him that one mistake didn't matter. Instead we saw him pathetically stood on the half-way line, far away from the action should the penalty have been saved and needed clearing.
If he had been my captain I would turned around and asked him if he was the same player who had been so poor against Manchester United the previous week - that he had no right to give anyone else grief after he had been torn apart by Wayne Rooney the week before. In that game, he was not only rubbish defensively, but petulant and a long way from what a captain should be.
I always wondered about Gallas as a captain - I thought it was an odd choice and a risky decision from Wenger when there has long been question marks about his attitude. Will that decison haunt Arsenal as the pressure is cranked up towards the end of the season?
Wenger may say that Gallas' reactions show that he cares - the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Mathieu Flamini and Emmanuel Adebayor care, but we didn't see them kicking hoardings 50 yards away from their team, did we?
Of course, the players were shaken by what happened to Eduardo but that cannot be used as an excuse in this title race. If anything, they should be using this as inspiration. The last thing he would want is for them to throw away the title.
If it were Manchester United who were three points clear, you would be saying that they had the title in the bag and rightly so. But because this is Arsenal, and they have a team full of players unaccustomed to winning titles, there's a slight niggling doubt.
They have an inexperience in those final few furlongs and we saw evidence of that in the second half on Saturday even before the penalty. There was a little lack of confidence that manifested itself in Emmanuel Adebayor failing to square to Nicklas Bendtner for a goal that would have made it 3-1. You just got the feeling that even with ten men, Birmingham would nibble away at them.
They will be happy with the fixture coming up on Saturday even though Aston Villa are in good form. They are at home, in front of 60,000 fans, on a lovely pitch suited to their passing style. Villa are also a team who are - almost to their detriment at times - not at all combative and will allow the Gunners room to play.
The pressure is certainly on though as Manchester United are at Fulham and you can only really see one winner there, especially with United playing with real verve as they did against Arsenal and then Newcastle.
It's certainly the ideal situation for us neutrals, with United as the hunter and Arsenal as the hunted. I still wouldn't discount Chelsea but their fate may depend on how well the club can cope with this week's problenms. If they can galvanise, they have a chance...