Three goals conceded, three consecutive draws as Arsenal slip up again

Arsenal 3 Norwich 3

Benayoun 2, van Persie 72, 80; Hoolahan 12, Holt 27, Morison 85

In the end, the villain of the piece was Kyle Naughton – the defender on loan from Tottenham, of course – who had a hand in the final result. Literally, as his shove in the back on Robin van Persie in the dying moments of the game denied the striker a dramatic late winner. But the truth was Arsenal had no one to blame but themselves, as they were fortunate to finish with a point after a pulsating 3-3 draw with Norwich which featured shockingly amateurish defending from a side which hopes to play in the Champions League next season. Their fate is now out of their hands, however, as the weight of expectation passes to Tottenham tomorrow. It is a burden which proved too much for Arsenal here.

The week in numbers: w/e 8/4/12

Jayawardene scored his 31st century and the 2,000,000th Test run

2,000,000 – Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene scored the two millionth run in Test history en route to his 31st Test century on day one of the second Test against England in Colombo.

1 – Having lost all four previous Tests on their winter tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, England finally won in Colombo, as Kevin Pietersen hit 151 and 42 not out to lead England to an eight-wicket victory.

6 – In a race which had to be restarted halfway because of the intervention of a swimmer in the river, Cambridge won the 158th Boat Race to maintain their perfect record of having won on all six occasions when the event has been held on April 7th – although victory came courtesy of Oxford suffering a broken oar in a clash shortly after the restart.

The week in numbers: w/e 30/10/11

McIlroy walked away with a cheque for $2m (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

2,000,000 – In dollars, the prize collected by Rory McIlroy for winning the inaugural (and non-official) Shanghai Masters – $560,000 more than he earned for winning the US Open in June. McIlroy beat Anthony Kim in a sudden-death playoff after squandering a three-shot lead going into the final round.

16 – By setting the fastest time in qualifying for the inaugural Indian Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel recorded Red Bull‘s 16th pole of 2011, a new record for one team in a single season.