Well, it’s top of the league for Arsenal with a 3-1 win over Bolton.
Games up there are rarely dull and yesterday was no exception. We started brightly but found ourselves a goal behind early on as our central defensive weakness was exposed again. From a corner William Gallas stood watching as Kevin Davies ran off him, leaving Kolo Toure with two men to mark, and the Bolton man got to the ball first to head his side in the lead. It was really poor defending and, without trying to take away from the result or the rest of the performance, we just have to do something about it sooner rather than later.
Still, it spurred us into action. Kolo Toure fired a shot just wide. Great play from Bendtner put Adebayor through and while he was unlucky his shot hit the post you want your strikers to finish chances like that. Then Alex Song hit the post with a header and Bolton were well and truly on the back foot. The goal had to come and so it did. Bendtner played a nice ball through to Adebayor but the onrushing Eboue, who was a bit offside, got there first and finished nicely at the near post for his first ever Premier League goal. Fair play to him, he’s doing much, much better this season.
The second goal was really a thing of beauty. A Denilson drag back and flick to Song, who played it to Eboue, who gave it to Adebayor on the edge of the box. He played a great little ball to Denilson who was charging down the left, he squared it for Bendtner and the big Dane got in front of two defenders to finish with aplomb. A really great goal.
Of course no game against Bolton would be complete with them trying to injure one or more of our players and it was their talisman, Kevin Davies who obliged. With Gael Clichy’s standing leg planted firmly on the ground he came sliding in, took the ball with one foot then with his studs up caught Clichy on the ankle then on the shin. It was a shocking challenge, one which received little or no condemnation elsewhere, but to my mind that was a red card. I’ve been saying it for the last few weeks, players are being allowed to get away with tackles that could seriously damage opponents. I can call to mind four against us since the season began for which a total of one yellow card has been issued, and that was to that fat cunt Davies yesterday.
I suspect nothing will change until one of our players gets a red card then the media outrage will be deafening and precedents will be set as our player is banned for 6 months or something. That Davies is so iconic at Bolton really sums up their football club, fat, ugly and a bit shit. Thankfully the injury didn’t turn out to be too serious and x-rays revealed only bruising. I think we can count ourselves lucky.
Djourou came on for Clichy in the second half and I was really hoping he’d slot in at centre-half alongside Toure, moving Gallas to left back where he’s most effective in my opinion. But Sagna moved to the left and Djourou to the right. Alex Song forced a good save from Jaaskelainen while at the other end Almunia was very good, I thought, as Bolton pressed for an equaliser.
We brought on Theo to counter their tired legs and he helped make the game safe. Taking the ball through the middle he dribbled at pace, fed Adebayor who fizzed it across the goal for Denilson to finish emphatically at the far post. 3-1 Arsenal, no less than we deserved and all three points wrapped up very nicely indeed. Afterwards the boss said:
They tried to intimidate us. But I felt we dealt very well with the problem. We were strong in the one-v-ones everywhere. We came back in a convincing way and I think we have show great qualities today. I believe everyone as a team were brilliant
And it was a good team performance. We showed good character to come back from a goal down although I wish we hadn’t conceded and against a very physical team we stood up to the challenge well. Alex Song did well in midfield as did Denilson who set up one and scored one. Both of them still have work to do but they’re certainly not allowing their chance to pass them by, something not lost on Cesc who said:
Denilson is doing really well, Alex Song too, the fans expect them to do well and, for me, they are doing more than well and these two were men of the match tonight.
He also spoke about Bolton’s tactics, saying:
We know every time we come here it’s going to be a tough game, very physical, they only look for corners, free kicks and throw-ins. But we know we are Arsenal. When we come to the North we know something like that is going to happen, and we have to cope with that. We want to play fair football. We showed great character, and even if the referee isn’t strong we have shown we will deal with that.
Good man, Cesc! He was booked after our third goal for apparently holding on to the ball and not giving it back, heh. I also thought Almunia had a very good game in goal, making some good saves and his distribution really is first class. He’s always looking to get us moving again quickly and with the pace we have in the team that’s important.
So overall a very pleasing day and given Liverpool’s 0-0 draw with Stoke we now (at the time of writing) sit top of the league. Chelsea can overtake us if they beat Man United this afternoon. After the Fulham game I’m not sure too many of us thought we’d find ourselves in this position but perhaps the lessons of that afternoon have proved to be valuable.
In a quick Sunday round-up Peter Hill-Wood says we wouldn’t sell Cesc even for £100m:
If someone gave us £100m we’d have to pay 40 per cent tax on the damn thing and what the hell are we going to do with the extra £60m?
Hah, love it. He talks more about the ownership and running of the club here and it all makes good sense to me. I do like the line about sugar daddies getting bored and deciding to get into horse racing instead. Wouldn’t that be something? The City of Manchester Race Track.
Next up for us is the Carling Cup on Tuesday where we’re likely to see the next generation of youngsters get their chance. Ramsey, Vela, Wilshere, Gibbs and more will all feature as the first team get a rest so more on that to come tomorrow and Tuesday. In the meantime enjoy your Sunday, remember you’re not a fat, ugly, Bolton cunt so life is good.
Till tomorrow.
