Arsene Wenger might say it wasn’t about revenge but I enjoyed taking the three points at Hull last night. I should say I enjoyed it in the end because during the game it was easy to feel the same frustrations that have dogged this season.
I thought we pretty much bossed the first half without creating too much. Robin hit the bar with a cracking free kick and only a fantastic tackle prevented Johan Djourou from opening the scoring from the rebound. We went in at half-time 1-0 up, the goal coming when Adebayor headed home Robin van Persie‘s corner. The only other real chance of note in the first half fell to Eboue and he hacked wildly wide.
The second half was much more interesting though. Adebayor had a left footed shot straight at Myhill and then Hull will feel rather aggrieved they didn’t get a penalty when Djourou clattered into Manucho in the area. If that had been at the other end and we didn’t get the spot kick I would have been more than a bit unhappy. Phil Brown, the Hull manager was very displeased, but then to me he’s just Son of Sam (Allardyce) and he looks like a twat with his stupid ear-piece so I’m not bothered.
Then Hull got their equaliser. A long ball came across to Bernard Mendy on our left hand side and inexplicably Gael Clichy simply stood off him, allowed him to take it down and gave him all the time in the world to make a cross. As it happened it deflected off Clichy, into the path of Cousin, who powered home his second header of the season against Arsenal.
I’m beginning to worry about Clichy though, I have to say. Now, let me stress I like him. He’s an honest player who always gives you 100% and will never hide on the pitch but the frequency with which he’s making very costly errors seems to be increasing. His defending, or lack of it, for the Hull goal yesterday was shockingly bad. There was no challenge when the ball came to Mendy and he actually backed away from him instead of closing him down to make a tackle, or at least make it difficult for him to put the cross in. I have no idea what he was thinking but somebody needs to sit him down and have serious words.
After that Hull got back into the game a bit more, we were on our heels a little bit, and Wenger responded by taking off the completely ineffective Eboue and putting on Nicklas Bendtner. It looked like it might be another frustrating result but on a day when late goals were the cheese, Arsenal grabbed two in the last few minutes to seal the deal.
Firstly van Persie played a nice ball through to Nasri who fired home with his left foot to make it 2-1, and a possibly offside van Persie completed his hat-trick of assists by setting up Bendtner to slide home his second in as many games. He was unlucky not to get another too when his header hit the post. Three points, three goals, and the first time we’ve won by more than one goal in the league since West Ham back in October.
Man of the match and a special word has to go to Robin van Persie – despite not scoring his influence on the game was obvious and it’s fantastic to see him delivering on a consistent basis. In the absence of Cesc he’s stepped up and become the creative hub of the team. The boss described his performance as ‘outstanding’ – long may it continue.
Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:
We had the mental resources to come back and win in a convincing way because we kept going, and kept going. I think we have scored 16 goals in the last 15 minutes of the last 33 games, and we did that again today.
It might be nice if we didn’t have to leave it so late but then that seemed to be par for the course yesterday. Chelsea scored two late goals to beat Stoke while United needed a late one to beat Bolton, so our struggles against the so-called smaller sides aren’t unique to us.
More worrying was the fact that Aston Villa seem to be leading a charmed life at the moment. They equalised against Sunderland with a James Milner handball then got the winning penalty for a foul that happened outside the box. At some point the devil is going to come looking for Martin O’Neill’s soul.
Still, we have to be happy that our unbeaten run continues, that we showed the character to keep going and get the win despite our sloppiness in letting them back into the game, and that we managed to score some goals. Next up in the league is Everton in 10 days time, coming after the FA Cup game against Cardiff next weekend.
Right, a look around at the Sunday papers to see what’s what.
The News of the World says Andrei Arshavin is ‘on the brink‘ of a move to Arsenal. They quote his agent, Denis Lachter, whose name reminds me of Dennis Thatcher so you should read the following in his voice:
The deal should go through this week. Andrei wants to go, Arsenal want him and Zenit accept they have to sell. It’s just a matter of sorting out the sums but the indication is it’ll happen soon, perhaps within days.
So nothing we haven’t really heard before then.
You might have read in the recent past about a young Brazilian called ‘Wellington’ being on trial with the club. Well, I can tell you he’s signed from Fluminense and will join us in the summer. Cue all manner of boot related quips.
And that’s about it. No other gossip, no transfer exclusives (not yet anyway), so I shall leave you to enjoy your Sunday.
