Song blast home for the winner!
It’s cliché to open with a cliché about yesterdays helping of football being a game of two halves. That’s not going to stop me though. It really was a totally mixed bag. The team was mostly massively changed from midweek. It was pretty much our first team from now until Christmas. The back 4 introduced Kieran Gibbs into the fold, the midfield was Rambo, Arteta and Song… the front three were Gervinho, Robin and Theo.
We found ourselves in trouble almost instantly, Gibbs guilty of casually ball watching from a cross was beaten to the ball by a Bolton head, Chesney had to fly across his goal acrobatically to claw the ball away. Not a great start from a defence that was yet to prove it could concentrate for longer than 16 seconds.
Gervinho had our best chance of the half down the other end, his perfect run was slipped in with a perfectly weighted Arteta pass, sadly a heavy touch towards the end of his gallop allowed Jussi to smother the ball.
Robin had a freekick opportunity. He was actually given two, he duffed his first one, standard these days, but due to wall encroachment (guess), he was afforded another crack at the whip. This time Arteta rolled the ball to him and his rasping left footed shop whistled narrowly past the post.
Our defence was creaking, Kieran Gibbs guilty of urgency fail. It’s like he doesn’t realise a game is going on sometimes. He was caught out a number of occasions the wrong side of the defence or a million miles away from his man. Chesney and Mertesacker were also having a bit of a nightmare with some very risky back passing. Twice the Pole put the German in a spot of bother with a casual pass. You know you’re in bad form when you’re putting yourself under pressure from goal kicks.
Overall our first half play was bereft of ideas, it lacked quality and you did wonder where the spark was going to come from. The sloppiness of play was something quite new to most Arsenal fans. Simple 8 yard passes weren’t finding there man. Gervinho and Theo both tried to force goals with speculative shots, both shooting over from distance. It was nice to see them having a go though…
The second half started and thank the lord I was so hungover I wasn’t in the atrium necking beer. Gervinho pulled off a lovely cut back in the middle of the park, he was crunched over, Ramsey picked up play and powered forward, he gave the ball to Robin on the edge of the box, he peeled out wide, launched into the box and fired inside Bolton’s near post. Oh and we roared!
Theo caused a lovely piece of controversy when he was played in through the middle by Ramdo, he ran across the front of Wheater, he was clattered like a freight train, and he went down. The ref had no choice but to award Wheater the red card. Ha. Ha. Ha. I hope the press label that clever play from Theo. I’m pretty sure Robin either fired the freekick 4 miles over or he fatted it like badly timed golf shot.
Robin was at the centre of a bit of a one man Royal Rumble. Robinson took one of his freekicks to his special area, which was pretty damn amusing, he was on the floor, but we continued to play, Theo taking advantage of the fact Robinson was playing everyone onside. Our shot eventually came off and we struck just wide. Then an argument kicked off because world-class sportsman Robinson was on the floor. Robin wasn’t having any of it, going after anyone in a Bolton shirt. What amazed me and summed up our team spirit was that no one from our team stepped in until Robin started pulling bits off the stand to fashion a shank. Eventually some of our players ran over and it was broken up. Superb stuff, the crowd broke into a chorus of ROBIN VAN PERSIE!
He was our hero.
We really started to open Bolton up, their 10 men were tiring from the pace of Theo and the absolute battering they were taking, Robin nearly made it two after connecting well from a Theo chip.
Zat Knight actually outpaced Gervinho to a ball, I’m sure I saw that happen. If anyone can confirm that I’d be pleased.
Theo finally landed himself on the assists board when he powered down the wing, cut in and crossed well enough for Robin to tap in for his 100th goal! Super stuff, the crowd went crazy, Robing Van Hero had secured the game and a fantastic milestone that took an age to get to!
We still had time to score one more, Alex Song created some space for himself on the edge of the box and picked out the top corner perfectly to complete our afternoon and continue our two game winning streak! The only sad bit of news was that Theo broke down with what looked like a hamstring injury. Honestly, I didn’t see that coming…
Conclusion…
A deserved win in the end against a team who are suffering almost as badly as us. We pulled ourselves out of a dreadful first half and delivered the home supporters 45 minutes of pure football value and we rose to 12th in the league! Hopefully the clean sheet and the return to goal scoring form from our captain will help spark us into action over the next few weeks. We have a relatively comfortable opportunity to extend our run midweek against Olympiacos, and then it’s the big one on Sunday. Spurs. Away. First North London Derby of the season.
This game is massive on many levels. I had a long and rambling debate with some football loving pals of mine last night and they were all conclusively of the mindset for the first time in 15 years, Spurs had a better starting 11 than us. I battled this point regardless of truth, but the frightening thing is, they do now have more players closer to world class than us. Do they have the team spirit? Do they have the discipline to keep the pace for 4th all season? We’ll see… everything this week is about that game though. As we’re all fully aware, form counts for nothing, but passion and fight does.
The main concern I have from today is spark. We have very little of it in our team at the moment. Most of our creative play was centred around Theo’s pace yesterday. We have very few players in our side who can step up to the plate and make things happen in the way Cesc could. Our movement was laboured at times and our know how redundant. We’re still an alien side and the boys have yet to find an effective way of working together.
Player Ratings
Chezzer: Made one world class save in the first half that prevented a relapse and possibly saved the game for us. His shoddy passing from goal kicks frustrated me, he has to be careful he doesn’t put us under pressure from goal. 6.5
Sagna: Some solid defending from probably our most consistent performer. Still needs to work on his crossing. 6.5
Mertesacker: Too many people are writing him off as a dud signing. That for me is grossly unfair. He’s from a slower league and he’s been here a month. Yesterday he looked far more settled and he did what every few of our centre backs have managed over the last ten years, kept Kevin Davies quiet. A solid game. 7
Kozzer: Solid game from the Frenchman who is desperately trying to recover confidence. I think he’ll come good and I like that he doesn’t let previous bad games linger. 7
Gibbs: I’m not a fan of the left back. He goes to sleep far too often and he’s certainly no upgrade on Clichy at the moment. He needs to switch on and he needs to be made aware of how exposed his dozy play leaves the rest of the backline. 5
Song: A solid game in the middle of the park and a fantastic goal right at the death. 7
Ramsey: I like Aaron, but he is far to generous with his wayward passing and he has a tendency to run up blind alleys. He shouldn’t really be getting this much game time, but we’re in the position we’re in, so we’ll have to deal with the inexperience. He needs to tighten up put a little more thought into his play. He works hard though and he’s a massive improvement on Denilson. 5.5
Arteta: I’m still struggling to work out Arteta. He makes things happen from the middle of the park but his pace of passing is so much slower than the last Spaniard’s. He keeps things ticking over and he is a strong player to have in the middle, not spark yet, I hope that comes. 7
Robin: A super display from a captain I feel is isolated by our system and the players we have in it. He took his chances well and inspired us to a win. Someone should really have a word about those freekicks. 8
Gervinho: A bit of an anonymous game from the Ivorian. 6
Theo: Infuriating, then fantastic. He’s not the most naturally gifted when it comes to the mental side of the game, football doesn’t look as natural as sprinting and you can tell that by some of his poor decisions. However, that pace devastates and he doesn’t stop plugging away down that wing. Full credit to him, another assist to his tally. Shame he also has another injury to add to his terrible record. Bring on the Ox! 7
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http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/273503/West-Ham-1-Peterborough-0-Henri-Lansbury-s-a-hero-as-posh-pay-price
Lansbury getting decent reviews. Good that he’s made a good start. What it means for Arsenal? Great news because we might be getting a much improved player next season if he keeps this up. We live in hope then…
Josip
Ive been impressed with PG Tips, good flavour.
from yandi’s link….
The on-loan Arsenal midfielder must be the only Gunners player enjoying life at the moment after leading the Hammers to their best start in eight years.
He was outstanding as West Ham won at home for the first time in six months last time out against Portsmouth.
And yesterday the England Under-21s star won the penalty which gave them back-to-back league victories here for only the second time this year
cant we call him back???
lurch,
i had a shite day at the office, you’r quote really saved my day of it’s own misery
oh, Armand, what have you done?
Arsenal had agreements in place to sign Spain internationals Juan Mata, 23, and Santi Cazorla, 26, but chose not to complete as it felt getting them too early in the window would reduce the fees it could fetch for Cesc Fabregas, who joined Barcelona and Samir Nasri, who went to Manchester City. Arsenal earned maybe an extra £5 million ($8M) from that decision, and instead they bought Mikel Arteta and took Yossi Benayoun on loan
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/ben_lyttleton/09/23/arsenal.wenger/index.html#ixzz1YzAGETWy
is there any truth in that??
at least our ladies know how to deal with brummies
pity there is no audience to share the celebration, that also were very modest as you can see…..
http://www.arsenal.com/home
have another Bade,
“There is a definite form of ‘beauty’ in ‘filth’ because we are so intransigently drawn towards it”
i’d say we pulled out of Mata after we secured AOC.
How would buying Mata make Fabregas less valuable?
Sorry guys i didnt help you out last night .I was on the razzle and I am only coming round now.
Glad to see that the le grove theme tune got an outing!
Well done lads you know where its at!
lurch,
was that warnock or fat sam?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/sep/24/arsenal-conviction-deficit-arsene-wenger
an interesting first 2 paragraphs and alot of what is wrong with The Arsenal these days.
Elio had a mare on his debut.
And remember when Giovinco was seen as the new del piero or baggio? Now he’s at parma.
robin is fantastic!
8 app, 5 goals
you would think I’m thrilled with the 5 goals tally, well I am, but I’m more thrilled with the 8 games streak…. we didn’t see that to often….
Wenger says fans not showing up is because of economic issues but that’s not the whole story.
Take-away the fact that much of the season is already sold out from ST sales, the main issue is that Arsenal are not providing value for money anymore.
Before we could get away with charging 60 pounds plus for a ticket because of the level of performance and the talent on display.
The real worry is that I can’t see it getting easier. 4 top players will be in the final year of their deal next summer and I don’t expect any of them to stay, especially as 4th seems less than certain.
What you have got to question is, how on earth are we not progressing as a football club? Our revenues are twice that of spurs and are wage bill is nearly double theirs, yet we are talking about them having more depth than us and possibly a better XI.
Arsene Wenger is definitely no miracle worker in the transfer market anymore. He’s finding poor players and overpaying their wages. He’s also nicking young players from other sides, giving them a go and taking credit for ‘developing’ them. I bet everything Walcott has shown in Arsenal shirt was developed by southampton as his game hasn’t moved on at our club at all.
10 games checkpoint:
5 wins, 2 draws, 3 losses, goal difference 16-16….. wow really slow
Bade…the filth quote?
neither… a fashion (porn) photographer I follow on twatter.
i love the comments under that article geek pie
a real akb fest
also the thierry ennui quote…
booooooo
well lurch,
that explains it all!
ok people, i know it’s hard to cope with out me, but try to hang on for a couple of hours
i’m sure you have the qualedee and the mental strengz for zat!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REKuFOBtpes
Gambon
Bloody keyboard!
Just watched the first of the final series of Spooks…..You just know that agents little girl is going to get kidnapped or killed.
“A player reaches his peak performance at around 23 and it lasts maybe until 29.”
That’s complete bullshit Wenger.
depressing zeus
Agreed Lurch. That video is so fucking depressing.
Remember all the retards saying we wouldnt miss Cesc.
Haha, yeah that worked out.
rvp is doing what cesc and nasri didnt,putting pressure on wenger and the board to keep him
he’s definately the heartbeat of the team,loved how he was ready to have a go at the bolton players, I’d say it was more a half time team talk from him that set things going in the second half not wenger
cough.few folks suggested we should sell RVP as well.cough.
@albo
The reason why our best players flirt with other clubs is because we pay them peanuts compared to what they could get elsewhere and before the usualy greedy jibes start there is nothing wrong in wanting to get paid what you are worth. I doubt anyone reading this blog would accept lower pay from one employer if they knew they could get double elsewhere.
The way Arsenal is run drives our players right into the arms of our rivals.
Cesc was the best player in the PL, Robin is about the 4th best striker.
Huge difference.
it appreciate the logic, but its pretty well established we don’t replace our best players, selling RVP despite his arguable quality would in no way have furthered our cause, even if he’s limited to 20 starts a season.
*I appreciate
We rarely had the strikers to match his talents..
I found Happy Feet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wTWWjYTe1I
Pedro,
Are there any more photos to the Le Grove Instagram?
I like the Song goal picture. Is that from your new seat?
Let’s just hope Guardiola decides to leave Barca, come manage us and re-sign Cesc. One can only dream…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2040773/Andy-Carrolls-agent-reveals-footballs-dirty-secrets.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Haha, Traore got a roasting.
Chozzer, I stuck a few on today, take a look if you get the chance!
“But you have to wonder whether Arsene Wenger made a mistake letting Lansbury leave the Emirates because he looks like a hell of a player.”
looks like he’s doing well
Hello again Grovers,
I just red, we should sell RVP!!! The only real class we have left.
By the way, dont forget RVP’s nickname: “Mr. Arsenal”, yup thats how they call him off field. He wont go anywhere, unless Arsenal forces him to quit. Plus he will sign in January a new contract to show his commitment.
I can visualize one day Bergkamp as the head coach and RVP his assistent. And Wenger taking over the youth department, where he truly belongs and wants to be. No 1 can doubt this one.
Lurch:
I can ensure you that there is unity in the team. As long they get together to play fifa and for bbq’s, nothing is lost.
RvP in 2011 26 goals in 31 games not bad eh?
RVP is commited for the meantime but in the long term as long as they carry on showing no ambition and keep losing key and influential players regularly, he is not getting any younger and wants to win some big trophies.
Cesc has gelled in so well at Barca already even without Pre-season but it helps to be surrounded by top quality and world class players.
Also a manager with excellent coaching methods.
Warnock is not happy with Traore he might be getting fined even though they got a point in the end, I didn’t watch the game though.
wenger on van persie leaving from goal.com:
“If you are in Robin’s place and you see Nasri going, Fabregas going, then you can be worried of course.
“But now he is on the way out? No, I don’t think that really. Robin is not from Barcelona,” Wenger quipped.
whoops sorry if i offended but i swear that was the whole song. defo got alot of love for rvp always thought he was our best player even when cesc was around