Isn’t this season just amazing? Down and out one minute, right back within touching distance the next. You have to wonder how many more times the pagan gods to whom I’m sacrificing babies and puppies will allow us win and ensure United and Chelsea drop points but time will tell. We all hoped for a win last night, and the greediest of all hoped for both United and Chelsea to drop points, so the results couldn’t have been better. They even threw in a hilarious win for Wolves over Sp*rs for dessert. Lovely.
If I can address the first half first. Shit. That’s about it. Probably the worst half of football I’ve seen all season long. I do not want to dwell on it. Suffice to say Liverpool were set up to stifle us and we played like a team that is low on confidence and had just lost two massive games in a row. They didn’t even need to do any stifling, we took care of that ourselves. One Bendtner shot is about all I can remember.
The second was a much more interesting period though. We had an opening when Arshavin got behind Carragher and instead of crossing tried a shot from a rather ridiculous angle which naturally went wide. They went up-field and created something for Lucas but his shot went over the bar. It wouldn’t be an Arsenal performance without us getting caught on the break and when N’Gog was sent through and got past Vermaelen I feared the worst. Gallas’s sliding tackle in the box was a thing of majestic beauty though and we got it clear. That moment aside we were a lot more solid defensively than the last couple of games.
Tomas Rosicky was played in by Arshavin but with Bendtner lurking at the back post for a tap-in the Czech’s touch was the equivalent of being anally violated by Hellboy and the chance went begging. Rosicky kicked the post, I thought he might miss. Bendnter had a run and shot which Reina saved, Rosicky fired one over from just outside the box and Arsenal were asking all the questions. In the end Diaby answered. Bendnter tried a lobbed pass to Cesc inside the box, it rebounded back to him, he played it round the corner to Rosicky who made up for his previous with a brilliant cross and Abou Diaby’s fantastic header made it 1-0 to Arsenal.
Diaby had been about our best player all night and the goal was another sign of how his game has improved in the last few months. He’s managed to stay relatively injury free, he’s added some real graft to his play and it has paid dividends. That was his 7th goal of the season, a very decent return from a central midfield player, and only one less than Andrei Arshavin. Make of that what you will.
We sat back a bit then and invited Liverpool on but frankly, without Fernando Torres, there’s not a lot that would scare you in their team. There’s always the worry one of Gerrard’s dives, which are never spoken about by the commentators, might cause a problem, but not much else. Manuel Almunia did make one excellent fingertip save from Ryan Babel. It clipped off the bar and that was as close as they came all night.
There was a late free kick which appeared to strike Cesc on the arm as he jumped in the wall, they wanted a penalty, it would have been well within the bounds of Howard Webb’s crapness to give it, but he didn’t and blew the final whistle a few moments later. Not a brilliant game, not a bad performance, but three points that were absolutely crucial. Not just because of the results elsewhere either. We needed to show we had what it takes against a big team, and whatever about their struggles this season the ‘smashers are still ahead of the likes of Sp*rs, City and Villa for me.
We have shown good togetherness, good discipline as well, and then we got that little goal which makes a massive result for us tonight. Nobody realises what it is to play Man United, Chelsea and Liverpool on the trot. Physically and mentally it is very demanding, especially with two massive disappointments. It shows the team is solid, mentally strong and determined.
And the other results mean we’re back in the title race. 5 points behind United, 6 behind Chelsea, and the fixtures mean that it’s inevitable they’ll drop further points. It also means we’re going to have to be nigh on flawless for the rest of the season but it’s a much happier position to be in than it might have been this morning. Credit to the players, it must be difficult to lose two games they way they did and then face a team like Liverpool. With more or less a week off now until we play Porto there’s plenty of time to compose ourselves and get prepared for the rest of this rather incredible league season.
There were a couple of injuries. A hamstring problem for Arshavin and Nasri felt unwell after a bang to the head but hopefully nothing too serious and we won’t worry about them for the moment.
Now, you might have noticed I have not mentioned any of the Cesc stories that have been flying around since we lost two games and it has become easier for the fiction to become fact. The captain was asked last night about a supposed ‘verbal agreement’ which was reported yesterday. Barcelona somewhat perfidiously denied it but Cesc told Sky last night:
They denied it. I denied. I just want to focus on Arsenal. I think Arsenal Football Club is above everything, above every single player in its history, and the fans, the club and myself, we deserve a little bit more respect.
It hasn’t stopped the stuff appearing this morning. There’s more from the insufferable Xavi about Cesc’s Barcelona DNA but every time they come out with this stuff, Cesc shoots it down. And that should be enough, at least for Arsenal fans. I don’t expect anything from the mainstream press who have to sell papers and what have you, but when you see Arsenal blogs run ‘Cesc makes verbal agreement with Barcelona’ stories just so they can rack up a few hits from NewsNow, it’s a bit pathetic. They either have no understanding of the game that’s being played by the Spaniards or they just don’t care and are happy to perpetuate the lies and bullshit. Either way, since NewsNow took Rocky‘s brilliant idea of being able to hide specific sites, it’s easy to deal with.
And that, my three points enjoying friends, is just about that. The gloom has lifted, thankfully, and we can all go back to being as confused as can be about this team and it’s uncanny ability to stay in the title race this season. Now, where did I leave that bucket of babies?
Till tomorrow.
