Over the last few years there have been many criticisms of Arsenal, not least of which is the fact that we’re a ‘soft touch’ and that we can’t scrap out results when we’re not playing as well as we might. Often we’ve played great football but lost games. Yesterday’s game at Bolton was another example of the growing maturity of this team as we battled out a 2-0 win.
With van Persie, Walcott, Bendtner, Gibbs, Wilshere and Denilson all out injured, Eboue and Song away in Africa, the last thing we needed was more injuries, but the training ground brought two more casualties. Samir Nasri and Aaron Ramsey will both miss 21 days with hamstring and thigh strains respectively. It meant a first Premier League start for Craig Eastmond who played in the midfield anchor role.
He started well enough but Bolton realised if they put him under pressure he was likely to give the ball away and the longer the game went on the more he did that. It’s no slight on the young man, even Arsene Wenger said afterwards he’s not quite ready yet, but it’ll be a good learning experience for him. At left back Armand Traore struggled badly and we were exposed dangerously and too often down our left hand side. With Gael Clichy fit again the ideal situation would be for Arsene Wenger to have a tough decision to make about whether to bring him straight back into the side but Traore’s recent form makes that an easy one for the manager. Clichy will play against Bolton and Traore, like Eastmond, will have to get his head down, work hard and show that he can learn from his mistakes.
Tomas Rosicky came back into the side and in the absence of Nasri played in one of the forward roles. The best thing he did all game was to kick a Bolton player off the ball. It got a little niggly in the first half but I do wonder why the Bolton player who did exactly the same to Abou Diaby just a couple of seconds earlier got away without so much as a warning. Rosicky didn’t contribute much else but on that booking alone I was happy to see us get stuck in a bit and refuse to be bullied. Andrei Arshavin was more involved than in previous as Eduardo moved in the central striker position but was relatively quiet again. Eduardo himself looked a bit sluggish when asked to get strikes on goal but played a part in both the goals.
Defensively we were a bit at sea too. Off the top of my head I can remember four great chances for Bolton. Klasnic late in the first half, Cohen got on the end of a cross from our left back position but scuffed his shot – and if you watch the replays there’s a perfect example of the lack of communication in our defence. Almunia came out to collect the ball, obviously didn’t shout for it, and as he’s trying to catch it Sagna is trying to head it away. Poor. Mathew Taylor had two gilt edged opportunities also. One he spooned over the bar and the other he took first time when he should have taken the ball down and gone one on one with Almunia.
So we had our difficulties yesterday, no doubt about it. Yet what you constantly hear when United or Chelsea win like this is the character they show to play poorly and still win the game. Against Everton we kept going right to the end and salvaged a point. Yesterday we battled our way to three points and it’s fantastic to be able to do that. I’m not advocating us playing like that all the time but with the players we have absent and some of the players we have quite some way from their best form, to be able to go away from home and come back with the points is a real credit to the team.
One man stood out again though. Cesc Fabregas was brilliant on his return from injury and Bolton will be having nightmares about him. He scored the opening goal after great interplay with Eduardo and should have had a second but screwed a relatively easy chance wide. He also should have had two penalties in the first half. The first was as obvious a penalty as you’ll see all season. Eduardo played a ball from our right, Cesc got there first, nicked the ball away from the keeper who clearly tripped him up. Phil Dowd waved play on. The second was probably more difficult for the ref to see but the linesman certainly should have. And he should have seen Mathew Taylor leaning on Cesc’s neck with his leg, making sure he kicked him as he got up, then pulling Cesc’s hair. Hair pulling? What a fucking fanny. It made his misses all the more hilarious.
Cesc got kicked about by Bolton yesterday but he just got straight back up and got stuck in. If he wasn’t tackling them or blocking shots on the edge of our area he was pulling the strings in midfield. Bolton had a very good spell of pressure in the second half, the manager eventually deciding that Eastmond’s ‘interesting’ performance was quite interesting enough, bringing on Fran Merida and moving Diaby back to protect the back four. The change was effective and we got back into the game. It also brought about the second goal. Cesc took the ball in midfield, turned three Bolton players and played it Merida before being fouled once again. There was no time to lie around though. Merida fed Diaby, Diaby played it to Cesc who drove forward, played a pass to Eduardo whose cross nicked off a Bolton head but the oncoming Merida’s first touch was sublime and he finished with his right foot to seal the game.
It was an outstanding team goal and the younger Spaniard showed why the boss is so keen to keep him. It was his first Premier League goal and with the injuries we have at the moment he might well get more chances to show what he can do. There’s still no news regarding his contract but maybe time on the pitch and a quiet word in his ear from the captain might convince him his future lies at Arsenal, we’ll see.
The win means that we have the chance to go top of the league if we beat Bolton at home on Wednesday. Afterwards Arsene said:
We know that there is a long way to go. We are a big club and when you are a big club the most difficult thing is like what happened last year, when in October you know you will not fight for the title. Now we have a chance to fight for it so lets have a go.
And the captain, who rather pants wettingly says he can still get better:
I’m sure there will be teams that believe the same, that they can win the league, but there will be no team that wants to win it more than us, that’s for sure.
And that’s just the kind of desire and motivation we need throughout the squad. With that kind of attitude coming straight from the captain not one player should be in any doubt as to what’s expected of them. And the glorious thing about Cesc this season is that he’s not just talking, he’s doing in on the pitch. Thirteen goals so far from midfield is a fantastic return and you just feel as long as he’s on the pitch we have a player who can win games for us if others aren’t up to scratch.
On the other hand though the way the injuries are stacking up is a bit worrying. We simply can’t afford to lose any more players. It looks as if Nasri and Ramsey are going to miss the Villa and United games and with the next fixture after Bolton the FA Cup trip to Stoke the manager has got some serious thinking to do. The cup represents a good chance of silverware this season. United and the Mugsmashers are out so there’s every chance of going all the way if the draw is kind. On the other hand he can’t afford to take too many risks as the squad is thinning out like my hair. Perhaps he might be prompted to dust off the chequebook, perhaps it’s a chance for someone like Merida to show he’s up to the task, but Arsene certainly doesn’t have the luxury of a full squad to rotate. We’ll see.
Anyway, part 1 against Bolton successfully overcome. The return leg, so to speak, is Wednesday at home and while I’d like to see a more accomplished performance overall, I’ll take more of the same provided it brings the three points. So far so good, we’ve opened up the gap between us and 4th and closed the gap at the top. You can’t ask for much more and we’re still right in this league title race. I’m beginning to get stirrings in my stomach about this season.
Till tomorrow.
