january 10th
A smart, right-footed volley from Jose Reyes and a winner from Robin van Persie, both in the second half, were needed to see off Stoke in yesterday’s 2-1 win at Highbury. Stoke scored in first half injury time to give us a few nerves but there was no upset in the end.
Once again I couldn’t watch the game and had to listen to BBC Radio Stoke online (thanks to Seriera for finding the link) after the BBC bizarrely decided to televise the Newcastle game as well as cover it on Radio 5, so again it’s difficult to pass much comment having only seen highlights. Arsene Wenger thought we were lucky, particularly after referee Neale Barry ruled out an Ade Akinbiyi effort for a push on Philippe Senderos: “I have seen it again and, for me, there was not a lot wrong in there. It was a bit of a strong shoulder charge but that’s acceptable. But Senderos stopped because the referee had blown early, so I don’t know if he would still have scored. What would have happened if it had been against us though? I wouldn’t have seen it!” I doubt Stoke see the funny side because it did look fair enough, but fair play to the boss, it’s nice to see him mock the criticism he gets for his myopia.
Eboue had a solid debut and Reyes looked lively and scored a good goal. Apparently van Persie had ten attempts before scoring but it’s all part of him settling in. At least he’s in the right place to have a go. I’m not sure what Senderos starting with Cygan on the bench says about Cygan – maybe he wasn’t fit enough to start after his injury but it could be that Senderos has moved ahead of him. Lehmann only came charging out of his area the once but I don’t think he did enough to get back ahead of Almunia. Fabregas was class, yet again. For Stoke, Gerry Taggart was a fat bastard.
For those that don’t know already, Arseblogger will hopefully be back sometime this week so you won’t have to put up with my nonsense for much longer.
Back to work for me today – gah!
