Wednesday 4 March 2009

Well that makes a change from 0-0, doesn’t it!

Ok, after my fruitless attempts of following last night’s victory at West Brom online I’m going to write this as I watch the highlights.

FIRST HALF

  • No club has ever drawn 5 top flight games 0-0 in a row, another record I guess! =)
  • As I said on my tweets before the game, with Song, Denilson, Eboue in midfield and RVP rested I really thought Wenger had thrown this one
  • Good movement from the off tonight
  • Oh, that’s class! Good work from Nasri to earn the corner, Denison does well to control the ball from the clearance and Bendtner, well, there was a first touch, a bit of dribbling and a sublime finish! Piss test please! 1-0 Arsenal!
  • EBOUE! IF YOU’RE GOING IN THE WALL DON’T MOVE OUT OF THE F**KING WAY WHEN THEY TAKE THE FREEKICK!!!! Just one step to his right and the ball goes where he was. Twat! 1-1.

  • Quite end to end this. Should we be end to end against a championship-bound club? Moving the ball well though.
  • Oh, you can see why WBA are heading back down. Great ball into the box from an Arshavin free kick finds Kolo Toure totally unmarked to head into the bottom corner. He’s not been great this season but since the turn of the year has steadily re-gained form, so great to see him score. 2-1 Arsenal.
  • Great finish from Bendtner! Can we have a piss AND DNA test please, I don’t believe this is the same guy we’ve been watching the last few weeks. A long ball from Toure finds Bendtner, who’s marker is watching planes in the sky or something, takes the ball well on his knee (First touch!! He’s developed a f**king first touch!) and lashes the ball in from a tight angle! Sublime finish. 3-1 Arsenal

SECOND HALF

  • Kolo off injured for Diaby, lets hope it’s not too serious.
  • Bendtner is playing really well! Sets up Arshavin who should have scored but Carson saves.
  • Gooners behind the goal making plenty of noise. Well played.
  • Bendtner, you’re not Bendtner. Seriously. Who the f**k are you? He’s gone past 2 players, a nice bit of footwork before playing the ball to Arshavin who missed the goal by a whisker. Actually, that’s a good save from Scottie Carson.
  • Diaby bursting forward as he’s been doing more recently, shimmy and shot but deflected over. Denilson did well to win the ball initially.
  • Bendtner hits the post after more good foot work on the edge of the area and cutting inside, his left footed effort comes back off the base of the upright. Please Nick, stop now, I fear this may be all the creative goodness in your body coming out in one game!
  • Good give and go between Bendtner and Eboue but the latter shoots straight at Carson. On target I suppose. How many times have I written Bendtner in this! 9 already? And none of them have had the words “touch”, “rapist” or “f**king donkey” near them? I’m scared…..
  • WBA spring our offside trap but the shot is tipped wide by Almunia. Done well when called upon tonight.
  • The Ole’s are ringing out now.
  • Arshavin forces a good save from Carson. Getting better with fitness for certain.
  • F**k me, I thought our place emptied out early but this place is deserted before full time!

FULL TIME: WBA 1 – 3 ARSENAL

So, what have we learnt from that? Well, Arsenal play better on Tuesday nights, that’s for sure. But more than that, there’s seems to be a decent, skilled and most importantly, hungry footballer in Nicklas Bendtner. Tonight he had pace, strength, movement, an eye for goal and a first touch (I still can’t believe I’m writing this). I’d actually say at times some of his touches and movement was akin to Henry.

Ok, I’m going to sit down now…..

Lets think about this more. Yes, Arsenal were good last night, straight from the off we went at them, got the early goal I mentioned a few blogs back (yeah, I called that one!), moved the ball around really well with some great one touch passing. It was like the Arsenal we all know and love.

But, as good as it was last night, it has to be taken in context.

This was West Bromwich Albion. We have to remember that this lot concede goals for fun, not as many as Derby but they’re having a good go at it. And without Jay Simpson in attack they were pretty toothless as well. This lot are probably going down and there’s a good reason for that, they’re not good enough for the top flight. As a result of their poor play we were able to take advantage and play our football, albeit with extra motivation and sense of urgency that has been so so badly lacking in recent weeks.

Sorry to piss on many bonfires, but lets see how we follow this up in the against Roma and Blackburn (sorry to discount Burnley but in terms of comparison they’re more akin to WBA than other future opponents) before we declare that Arsenal are back.

One final thing, I think we’ll all be Citizens tonight as Man City (minus Bellamy and Robinho typically) play Villa. Come on City, help us get the challenge for 4th back on!

Red Army!

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