You know, it strikes me that there are three ways of doing things. The right way, the wrong way and the Arsenal way which is a combination of the first two.
In the cold light of day that was a great cup tie, full of incident, chances, goals, penalty misses and some great football. During the game though it wasn’t quite as enjoyable. Especially when they scored an injury time equaliser after Adebayor’s 13th minute goal had put us ahead. From a corner too which really looked about the only way Bolton would score.
Our goal to put us ahead was fantastic though. There was some brilliant work from Hleb and Denilson down the right hand side and as the ball was worked across goal it was deflected to Adebayor who took it on and his shot deflected in off Stelios. And our football in the first half was awesome at times. We had some good chances, none more so than for Julio Baptista who from start to finish had a game to forget – but in fairness to him he kept going and worked hard. But for all our possession and neat football we couldn’t get another goal and they nearly scraped an equaliser after a long throw bounced around and some cunt hit the bar.
In the second half Bolton were better, we didn’t quite click but we weren’t really in any danger. Then we got a penalty when Baptista was taken down by Ben Haim. Up stepped Gilberto and he launched the penalty over the bar, out of the ground and right about it’s halfway to Venus. ‘That might cost us’, I thought.
Bolton huffed and puffed but didn’t look dangerous. Freddie Ljungberg came on for the excellent Hleb who might have aggravated his hamstring, which would be a blow. Then we could have won it in normal time. Campo missed the ball on the halfway line, Adebayor went straight through, round the keeper and thwacked the ball … against the post! ‘That and the missed penalty might cost us’, I thought but with far more expletives involved.
And so it came to pass. In the second minute of injury time they got a corner, for the first time all night we switched off, left men free at the back and Campo’s nod back was tapped in by some big fucking cunt to make it 1-1. Bollocks. Shit. Fuck. Piss. Arse. Wank. Twat. Fucking cunting cunt. Just some of the words that went through my head.
So, extra time and we brought on Aliadiere for Rosicky and Hoyte for Djourou and to be fair to Bolton they could have gone ahead when Gilberto sliced a clearance onto the post before Kolo hacked it clear. But to be really fair to Bolton would be to put them out of their misery after hours of torturing them and peeling their skin off and stuff. And even then you wouldn’t be fair, you’d roll the cunts in salt and vinegar. The first half of extra time brought no goal but the second did.
Jeremie Aliadiere took the ball in our half and with his fresh legs took the ball up their right hand side. He jinked, shimmied, weaved and bobbed then played a ball through to Freddie Ljungberg who had made one of those runs that were his trademark for so long. He took one touch then fired a great left footed shot past Cuntacuten in the Bolton goal. 2-1 Arsenal and only Freddie could have scored it. Great credit to Aliadiere for a brilliant run and pass. Perhaps both of them are showing they’ve got something to offer this team and that was vintage Freddie.
After they had Ben Haim sent off for a second yellow they had a corner which Cuntacunten went up for, we cleared it, Adebayor went clear and was hacked down in the box by Anelka. I thought the ref did well all night but I can’t understand why Anelka wasn’t sent off. Up stepped Julio Baptista for the penalty and those Brazilians are just copy cats. He too sent his penalty into orbit which summed up his night perfectly. Somehow there were two minutes of injury time in that half and they got another corner. ‘Oh oh’, I thought.
Not to worry though. With Bolton pressing Baptista went through and for the first time in the 120 minutes something worked for him as he rolled it to Adebayor to score his second of the night and seal the game once and for all. Thank fucking God for that though. I couldn’t have dealt with us losing that and you have to credit the lads again.
Lesser characters might have crumbled after their late equaliser but we didn’t. We lost a big part of our game when Hleb and Rosicky went off but we kept at it. At the back we weren’t really troubled, Denilson again looks a great find in midfield and Adebayor haring back 80 yards to pressure the Bolton player and make him put it out for a goal kick speaks volumes about the work he and others put in.
A word for Bolton. Two words, actually. Fuck off. A half-empty stadium that only started making noise when they scored. Cunts. And what the fuck is that shit with the drums? They bang the drum and shout “CHEAT! CHEAT” when a decision goes against them. I didn’t hear them banging and chanting when Campo dived to try win a penalty. Pathetic fuckers and hopefully that’s the so-called hoodoo well and truly done with.
And as for that gum-chewing, walrus looking cunt on the sidelines, well, he came up against a good team and a ref that couldn’t be bullied and didn’t let Bolton get away with any of their typical sly, niggly fouls. Watching him bellow like some kind of spastic moose while spraying anyone in the vicinity with his vile spittle made me sick. I would love to send him a card with ‘HA HA HA HA HA, love, Arseblogger’ written in my own poo. Wanker. He bleated about missing big players while we had lads like Denilson, Diaby, Aliadiere and Djourou with Henry, Lehmann, Gallas and Cesc all missing. Cry me a fucking river (thanks to Luke for the picture).
Overall it was just a mad game. I can’t remember the last time we missed two penalties in one game. Has it ever happened before? The manager was happy to praise the character of the boys again, saying:
At the moment, we have an exceptional mental strength and the way we responded, after Bolton had pulled level, was fantastic.
And as hard as it was to watch at times as much skill and talent as there is in the side what the team have shown since November is brilliant spirit and determination which is very reassuring. I’m not going to go into a player by player analysis, check out Goodplaya for that this morning, except to say how impressed I was again with Denilson and that we are a much better said when Alexander Hleb plays.
So, beating those hideous bastards sets up a 5th round tie against Blackburn Rovers who are slightly less hideous but only marginally less bastardly. There’ll be a much fuller preview of that in the days to come.
Looking around at what else is happening … that’d be nothing.
Finally today I just want to mention tomorrow’s Arsecast which is sponsored by Savile-Rogue.com. As I mentioned yesterday there’ll be a very special guest and it’s not Arsene Wenger Hawkins’ girlfriend. I’m delighted to tell you that there will be an exclusive interview with the Arsenal chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, so make sure you ‘tune in’ to that.
You can download directly tomorrow or you can subscribe now via iTunes and it should update as to the schedule you set in your options.
And that, my good old friends, is that. How nice it is to be able to call Bolton names and while you mean every word you say they’re made all the sweeter by the fact we’ve beaten them. Har har har. Till tomorrow.
