After 26 minutes it looked as if we had as much chance of going top of the Premier League as Sam Allardyce has of winning Slimmer of the Year. Arsenal started poorly, as is our wont at the moment, and we found ourselves 2-0 down before half an hour had been played.
The first goal came about through atrocious defending. A bog-standard ball into our box scared the crap out of our defenders. Diaby headed it up in the air, Clichy booted it straight up in the air, and as we stood around wondering who was going to stick it 100 feet above our penalty spot instead of clumping it downfield, Bolton reacted quickest and Gary Cahill dribbled a shot past Almunia.
At the other end, when we could get up there, our efforts on goal were tame and generally straight at the keeper. Bolton worked very hard, closed us down quickly whenever we had it, and did as much as possible to put us under pressure. Almunia made a good save from a Matt Taylor free kick but in the 26th minute we gifted Bolton another goal. I think it was from a corner, again we failed to deal with it and Denilson’s clumsy and stupid challenge in the box gave Taylor the chance to make it 2-0. Which he did, despite Almunia going the right way.
This was certainly not part of the script, unless the script was one of a great comeback, but nobody was really expecting that kind of action at that stage. We huffed and puffed, really struggled to get going, and when we did we let ourselves down. Cesc made a fantastic break through their midfield, drove towards the box and played in Eduardo for the kind of chance he used to put away without even thinking about. On his left foot he dribbled one straight at Jaskeleineineinen. He really needs to stick one of them away, you just feel it would open the floodgates. It wasn’t looking good, but somewhere, deep in the back of my mind, was the Standard Liege game earlier this season. If we could just get a goal before half-time. It didn’t look likely though.
Not until Cesc won the ball in midfield, played a little pass out to Tomas Rosicky who went into their area and from a fairly acute angle hammered one in at the near post. A brilliant finish. The keeper was dodgy as fuck but I don’t think he was expecting the shot, it was one of those with lots of power from little backlift and getting that goal just before the half ended was absolutely crucial. It gave us momentum and put the fear into Bolton who all of a sudden remembered how they’d been 2-0 up on us at home a couple of seasons ago only to lose the game.
The second Arsenal goal left Bolton unhappy and I can understand why. Gallas’s challenge on Mark Davies, who was impressive otherwsise I thought, left the Bolton man in a heap on the ground. It happened pretty much in front of the referee who waved play on, Arsenal did just that and Cesc broke through to finish between Jassybenayoun’s legs. Bolton were unhappy and I’m pretty sure if the tables were turned we would have been too. Owen Coyle described Gallas’s tackle as assault and questioned our fair play for playing on.
It wasn’t a good tackle at all but assault is rather over the top. It was late and unfortunate rather than malicious and whatever you say about Gallas he’s not a dirty player. As for playing on, it’s down to the referee to stop the game. If he thinks a player has been badly injured he should stop it, until then all the players, on both sides, should play on. He wasn’t far away from the tackle so if Bolton feel aggrieved it should be with Alan Wiley. I’m quite sure that if Arsenal’s players were aware there was a serious injury they’d have put the ball out. We’ve seen it happen to our players and it’s not nice but in the heat a match players pay attention to the ball, not the man on the ground.
When incidents like this take place I think you really have to question the influence that players like Didier Drogba, and others who feign injury all the time, have. There’s no doubt Davies was badly injured but how many times has a game been stopped only for the supposedly crippled player to get up, pretend to limp for a bit then carry on as if nothing has happened. They are the boys who cry wolf and have abused the putting the ball out convention time and time again so when a real injury occurs it’s difficult for officials. I’m not excusing Wiley by any means, but don’t all of us bemoan the fact that play is stopped so regularly when players aren’t really injured?
So while I feel for the player who got injured, and Arsene has apologised for the tackle, it’s got to come down to the referee. He didn’t give the foul that he should have and he didn’t spot that the player was seriously injured. Everton played on against Arsenal last week when we had a player down, we did exactly the same last night, and I’m sure Bolton would have carried on too, and rightly so. Update: Cheers to Norrie who reminded me of an incident a couple of minutes later when a Bolton player lay in a heap on the floor and the play went on … because they had the ball. Twats.
Still, Bolton complaining about fair play is a bit like a burglar who tries to sue you when you clatter him across the head with a baseball bat when you find him in your house. Ask Matt Taylor about fair play when he knelt on Cesc’s neck, when he ensured his leg made contact with his head and when he pulled his hair in the first game. Ask Kevin Davies about his dangerous and late challenge on Sagna while the Arsenal full back was jumping for a header last night. And if they want to complain about the referee, and I fully understand if they do, perhaps they’ll bear in mind that Arsenal were not given three stonewall penalties over the course of the two games. I thought, that incident apart, Wiley gave pretty much everything to Bolton and was quite lenient with one or two of them when cards might have been produced.
So controversy will reign no doubt, and I saw one headline last night that said “GALLAS FURORE SOURS ARSENAL SUCCESS“. Erm, not for me, chumps. With the bit between our teeth we really took the game to Bolton and went ahead through Thomas Vermaelen after a Cesc corner. He allowed the ball to go across him before rifling it home with his left foot. The commentator remarked it was his first goal in 19 games, which tells you everything you need to know about the centre-half’s goal threat.
The game went a bit flat then, Bolton did have their dangerous moments, although any time the ball gets anywhere near our penalty box I start to sweat a little. We wrapped things up with another in the 85th minute when, after what seemed to be a series of little touches made milliseconds before the tackle, Arshavin bundled his way through the Bolton defence to fire past Jasstheonlywayisup. The Russian really ought to have added an assist too, he turned brilliantly past one of their players in midfield and with Arsenal two on one he rather greedily went for the shot instead of squaring it for Theo Walcott who would have had a tap-in. Even nice as pie Theo looked most cross indeed and I don’t blame him.
In the end a convincing win for us and by the two goals needed to make sure we went top of the league on goals scored. It’s 59 goals in 22 league game so far this season, which is a fantastic record and it’s nice to be where we are even if Chelsea have a game in hand. Afterwards Arsene said:
We faced two cup games and our mental strength, our physical strength, were deeply tested in both games.
At 2-0 down I was looking for the much spoken of ‘mental strengffff’ and to their absolute credit the lads responded. Perhaps today is not the day to talk about why we needed that so badly due to the goals we like to give away, so let’s focus on the positive. From 2-0 down to 4-2 up is a fantastic comeback by any stretch of the imagination. When we played Standard Liege earlier in the season I wondered if, despite the careless goals we gave away (sounds familiar), if it wasn’t worth it due to the belief it would instill in the team. It had been a long time since we came back from that kind of a deficit and I think it proved to the team they could do it.
We’ve come from behind to win at Anfield this season, Blackburn went ahead twice at the Grove in October and we didn’t panic and went on to win, we were 1-0 down in the FA Cup against West Ham and 2-1 down into injury time against Everton before salvaging a point. There’s no denying that this is a team that has a bit of balls about them now because last season and perhaps the season before you wouldn’t have had much faith that they could do that. Last night we were 2-0 down and won the game, and as much as that gives our players belief that a game isn’t over, it also means the opposition, whoever they might be, won’t feel safe either. They’ll have seen this Arsenal team not give up, drag themselves back into games, and that’s not something we’ve had in our locker, so to speak, for a little while.
So while there’s closer analysis to be made, further injury problems to cope with as Diaby suffered a calf problem, and still the thought that we could do with a bit of strengthening, today is not the day for it. It’s a day to doff your cap to the manager and the players who, as little as 6 weeks ago were 11 points off the pace and being written off by pretty much everyone bar the clinically optimistic. Now we’re top of the league and they deserve huge credit for it. Well done lads, this is The Arsenal we love to see and long may it last.
In a brief look at other news Everton are reportedly renewing their interest in Philippe Senderos and Gilles Sunu could be off to Derby on loan. The Live Blog thingy seemed to go quite well last night, thanks to everyone who tuned in. I hope it was useful, especially for those stuck in work or without streams, and it’s definitely something I’ll do again.
Finally for today the winner of the Modern Canvas Art competition for the Andrei Arshavin canvas. He scored his first goal against Blackburn and the RNG has picked Alex Jena as the winner. Well done to you, I’ll be in touch for your address etc. Bad luck if you didn’t win but do check out the Modern Canvas Art site, they have some very cool stuff on there.
So, that’s that. I’m off to bask in the warm glow of being top of the league. I suggest you do the same. Till tomorrow.
