ARSENAL 3 - 1 Burnley
Another week, another three points for Arsenal as our remarkable recovery after the defeats against Manchester United and Chelsea continues. With two months of the season remaining, Arsenal are in pole position to come up on the rails and make a fist of what has been the most remarkable Title Race in years.
March brings with it many things. For football fans it is watching games in sunshine, the reappearance if white balls on the pitch, and the sensation of being able to walk home after the game in daylight. All three were in attendance and despite having wrecked my knee playing footy 5 weeks ago, I decided to walk the three miles home rather than hop on the bus, such was the joy in my soul, the smile on my face, and how beautiful the world was.
Of course, it will all seem like a rainy weekend in November when we conspire to lose 2-0 at Hull next week, but that’s not the point...
But what of the game? Well, despite the incessant whinging of those sat around me on Saturday and some of the reports I have read elsewhere, I thought we played really well. As per the 2-0 win over Sunderland a couple of weeks ago, we stroked the ball around nicely, opened up and got behind the opposition on countless occasions and created chance after chance after chance. The only thing that was missing from both performances was the mass conversion of said chances, but that same charge was levelled against us when we had Henry, Bergkamp, Pires and Ljungberg in the side. So profligacy should not be a stranger to the Highbury Faithful.
We came out of the traps quick-smart, and created several opportunities in the first 20 minutes, with Fabregas releasing Bendtner for whom the ball would not come down for him to shoot, the skipper himself who rifled a shot wide of the upright, and Bendtner again, being denied by a fully-stretched Brian Jensen.
After that, the pace and tempo seemed to drop a little and aside from Clarke Carlisle being given the freedom of the park to put a header from a corner 30 foot over the bar (Silvestre giving away the corner AND failing to track his man within one, 30 second period. Marvellous) nothing further happened until 37 minutes when a thing of true beauty happened. Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri exchanged passes on the edge of the box before Nasri, seeing Fabregas making a perfectly-timed run through the defence dinked the most perfect little chip over the defence and into the path of his skipper who calmly slotted the ball through the on-rushing legs of the out-running Brian Jensen for 1-0.
At this juncture I would like to point out for the rest of the footballing world that Brian Jensen is a cunt. I pay £1,250 for my season ticket, and it is criminal that referees (Saturday’s imbecile being Chris Foy) allow fat-arsed, no-mark, Championship-belonging dross like Jensen run down the clock from the first minute. It does not take 60 seconds to take a goal kick. Nowhere in the rules does it say that the offence of ‘time-wasting’ can only be committed in the closing stages. Similarly, the rules clearly state that the goalkeeper is only allowed the ball in his hands for 6 seconds before having to release it. So why is Jensen allowed 10 seconds? Did a memo go around last week that somehow avoided my pedantic gaze? Why is it accepted that it is ok for players like Jensen and their gargantuan arses run down the clock? I can understand it when the score is 0-0 (although it is the referee’s prerogative to enforce the rules and caution the offender), but the guy was doing it when they were losing! Is the summit of a team’s ambition a 0-1 defeat Really? REALLY? Tragic.
Anyway – after going one up we then had to endure an episode of everyone’s favourite slapstick-laced sitcom ‘The Nicklas Bendtner Show’. Now, I love Nick. I really do. He absolutely runs himself into the ground every game, and gets into goalscoring positions better than anyone else at the Club... unfortunately he is occasionally prone to the odd Horror show in front of goal. Saturday was one such effort. The proceeding 15 minutes either side of half-time saw him miss 4 open goals. Absolute stick-on, 100%, must-score chances. All skewed wide, at the keeper or over the bar. But fair play to the guy, he kept running, kept getting into positions and kept giving it all. Sadly for Super Nick, it was one of those days when he could have played all night and not scored.
Which, of course, meant that we gave away a stupid goal and allowed vastly inferior opposition to equalise. A clearance from Tommy V was met by Clarke Carlisle who looped a header 40 yards, evading every Arsenal player and into the path of David Nugent who, despite completely gubbing his shot with his shin, managed to loop it beyond Fawlty Manuel for 1-1.
Thankfully for Arsenal, we have grown a great big pair of bollocks this season and learned how to pull our socks up and get goals back when this happens. And it was Theo Walcott who put us back in front with what can only be described as an Henry-esque goal. Out on the right wing, he dropped his shoulder and cut inside two defenders and moving along the edge of the box before curling the ball with his left instep beyond the outstretched paw of Fatty Jensen for 2-1. Marvellous goal.
We then did the classic Arsenal thing of totally dominating play for the remainder of the game, gifting the opposition a gilt-edged opportunity (hapless Almunia failing to punch the ball at a corner AGAIN and instead flapping the ball straight into the path of Steven Thompson who thankfully shanked the ball high into the Clock End), but settling the game once-and-for-all deep into injury time when the returning Andrey Arshavin and his haircut straight out of Rocky IV lashed the ball past Jensen at his near post and a fully-deserved 3-1 victory was assured.
Hull away next week will be tricky, despite their 5-1 hammering at Everton yesterday. It’s up north at 5:30pm on a Saturday and despite the horrifying events at Stoke last week, the opposition will undoubtedly set out to kick us / get up us early, let us know they’re there, whilst at the same time it not being forgotten that none of them are that kind of player. If we can keep the ball rolling and pick another three points, it keeps the dream alive for another week at least. Come on you Reds...
Star Man: After England’s win over Egypt on Wednesday, Theo Walcott was hammered in the Press on Thursday on Friday, (presumably for cheating on his pop star wife whilst on a pre-season tour with his Club, or looking at child porn whilst on early release from killing a toddler such was the level of abuse he received) and he answered the critics in the best way possible with a barnstorming performance. Arsenal have realised over the last few weeks that sheer pace scares the shit out of defenders, and have started putting the ball over the op 15 yards in front of Walcott for him to run on to, and it is providing devastating results. In the first half he got behind the hapless Danny Fox countless times despite Fox’s attempts to foul him out of the game, and only the final ball let him down. The second half was a different story though, and he was a constant threat; creating chances for Arshavin and Bendtner in dangerous positions, getting into the right place at the right time himself, and his goal was well-deserved and a thing of wonder. Hopefully this is the start of something even bigger and better for him.
Worst Performer: Serial offenders Silvestre and Almunia were awful again. Silvestre wouldn’t get into any other Premier League team, even as fourth choice defender, and his deployment as the left-sided defender served only to inhibit and reduce the effectiveness of Thomas Vermaelen who was uncomfortable throughout. Almunia made two decent saves, albeit to shots directed straight at him, but aside from that was largely poor making the wrong decision on every occasion without exception, and nearly gifting Burnley an equaliser. And the sight of him diving to save Burnley’s equaliser after the ball had hit the back of the net and Nugent was halfway through a celebration tells you everything you need to know about how bereft we are in the goalkeeping department.
Best moment: Nicklas Bendtner worked his absolute socks off all afternoon, but had one of those nightmarish days in front of gal where nothing was going right for him. Thankfully, we are a different team and a different set of supporters this year and after he sliced another opportunity wide it was a wonderful thing to hear the ground singing the ‘Super Nicklas Bendtner’ song, and Bendtner turning to us in the North Bank and applauding the fans before the corner came in. Footballers are often accused of being non-plussed by supporters, and not understanding anything about us, or the Club, so this was refreshing and made me smile. Also, if anyone has seen Denilson, please let the Club know. He was named in the starting XI on Saturday but I swear he wasn’t on the pitch.
Tactics: Spot on, although I would recommend using that tub of lard that appeared on ‘Have I Got News For You’ when Roy Hattersley pulled out at the last minute instead of Silvestre at centre-half.
Chant of the game: The entire ground singing 'One Aaron Ramsey' prior to kick-off (including Burnley fans, by all accounts) was nice to hear.
Oppo fans: Very nice chaps and I hope they stay up. At the expense of Hull, preferably.
David Oudôt, http://www.onlinegooner.com and http://taxloser.blogspot.com
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West Ham United 1 - 2 BOLTON WANDERERS
No, it isn't a typo. Bolton actually won away from home! It's been six long months since we won 2-1 at Birmingham and with few wins at home too, three points and back-to-back wins for the first time in a year were very welcome!
Kevin Davies and Jack Wilshere got the goals, Tamir Cohen was sent off and Owen Coyle gained his first ever away win as a top-flight manager. All in all, a good afternoon for the Wanderers.
We started well (or did West Ham start poor) and were in front after 10 minutes when Kevin Davies caught the Hammers defence sleeping to head home a brilliant cross from Lee Chung-Yong.
Davies caught them out again five minutes later, managing to beat James Tomkins and hook the ball into the area where Cohen knocked down for Wilshere to volley home.
2-0 up away from home? Surely it wasn't going to last! West Ham were poor though and Bolton should have extended their lead with Elmander the main culprit, wasteful in front of goal on numerous occasions.
Only after Cohen was sent off for two silly tackles did Gianfranzo Zola's side come into it. Alessandro Diamanti scored the goal of the game late on, before both sides hit the crossbar in just over a minute.
Bolton just about held on for the win, although if West Ham had got themselves a point, it would have been one of the most undeserved points in the league this season!
Sunderland away next, they're due a win!
Star man: Kevin Davies. He's taken some stick recently and many of the Bolton fans have started to have their doubts about him, but he was back to his best on Saturday and terrorised the West Ham defence all afternoon.
Worst performer: Tamir Cohen. He started the season well and then got injured. He's struggled for form since and looked off the pace on Saturday. I thought his first yellow card was a little harsh but there are no complaints about the second. We're another central midfielder down now!
Tactics: We look good playing 4-4-2. With Elmander dropping short behind Davies, or Davies moving to the right and Elmander pushing on we have options. Unfortunately neither striker is prolific in the goals department. It would help of course if Elmander could score from 8 yards!
Chant of the game: "Can we play you every week!" Six straight wins over West Ham for us Trotters. It has to end one day!
Oppo fans: They like to boo a lot! Luckily for them, the useless gits on Match of the Day didn't put them through it again and decided to completely ignore the fact that Bolton had won for once. Cheers BBC!
Best Moment: Jack Wilshere's goal. He's come in and done a good job for us so far. He supports West Ham and what better occasion to score his first Premier League goal!
Chris Mann, www.burndenaces.co.uk
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Arsenal 3 - 1 BURNLEY
This in the end was the usual routine win for Arsenal but they made hard work of it.
The difference in quality and class was plain for all to see at the Emirates and they were simply too strong for us in every department. You get what you can pay for or in our case get what you are not willing to pay for! It could have been a painful for Arsenal had they been able to shoot or head straight. Bendtner is clearly going for the ‘Miss of the Season’ competition and had at least three attempts that could be in contention for the award by the end of 2009-10!
We are never going to beat the likes of Arsenal though away from home unless you believe in miracles and they never happen to clubs like ours fighting like hell to survive in the top flight.
However at least we made a go of it this time despite having less than 40% of the possession and the quality of our play was much better than in the recent past.
A very well taken goal in the 34th minute by Fabregas gave the Gunners just a 1-0 lead at half-time which has to be seen as some sort of success from a second from bottom side still looking for its first away win of the season playing against the Mighty Arsenal!
We had one particularly good spell in the second half but it was never going to be enough. The equalising goal by Nugent after 50 minutes shut them up for a bit, well at least for 10 minutes until they regained the lead that is! The Clarets heads though at least did not drop after that unlike at Villa and they actually put some nice moves together in an effort to shock the footy world again and get another equaliser. You always sensed though that Arsenal were just too strong and on the break we were punished time and time again. They stormed forward we plodded forward
We held them at 2-1 though up until added time which was some achievement considering Arsenal were after a 4-0 win to go top of the Premier League. Their third goal by substitute, Arshavin in the final minute of four minutes of added time was a little cruel to be honest but a 3-1 defeat was still a respectable result in the end. The Arsenal match day programme cruelly reminded Clarets fans that not only were we still seeking our first away win of the season but in terms of most goals conceded away from home in the Premier League we were heading quickly for a record nobody wants! Leeds United let in 48 goals on the road during the 2003-4 season but it looks like the Clarets are about to break that unwanted record with ease since after the Gunners game we have now let in 46 goals with four away games still to play this season! It could have been far worse at the Emirates yesterday but we contained them enough to avoid a tonking.
These games against the Top 4 clubs are not important you write them off before you even come on the pitch at least on the road. It was a damage limitation exercise for us yesterday and we succeeded in that aim. The next two games ARE crucial and if we can not get maximum points against Stoke and Wolves at home it must surely be game over.
Star man: Both Chris Eagles and David Nugent get an honourable mention for the effort they put in yesterday but you know what sort of game it was when you give the star man award to your keeper. Brian Jensen might have been arguably at fault for Arsenal’s second and third goals but he saved us from a tonking time and time again although he was also helped by the fact that Arsenal couldn’t shoot for toffee!
Worst performer: Our weakness all season has been at left back. Danny Fox came to rectify that problem in the January transfer window and guess what our weakness is still at left back! All the opposition know it and Arsenal certainly did!
Tactics: Considering our top scorer, Steven Fletcher was sidelined due to a painful broken bone in his hand the combination of Nugent upfront supported by Eagles and Paterson seemed to work quite well on the rare occasions we could muster an attack and get out of our own half. The main tactic must surely have been don’t let Arsenal get four goals more than use and go top of the League! That was their motivation and we somehow stopped them achieving it.
There were definitely some positives we could take from this game after that awful performance at home to Pompey last week but positives don’t at the moment make points and we badly need some!
Chant of the game: I don’t remember anything original from either set of fans. Clarets fans had a resigned feeling this was always going to be nothing but a defeat, so much so I think we supported each other with humour for most of this match. We were certainly laughing when just for a moment the cocky Arsenal fans had the smirks wiped off their faces when we had the audacity to score!
We were only allowed a little corner of the ground and about 1400 Clarets filled it, trying to do the best they could to get 59.000 Arsenal fans to make some noise and provide some atmosphere in the soulless ground that is the Emirates.
Oppo fans: This was billed as a game where the Arsenal fans would be shouting their hearts out in support of Aaron Ramsey sadly out for the season with a broken leg following a clash with Shawcross in their previous league game against Stoke. I am now wondering whether the library or the church best describes the setting for the level of noise they made. Must be boring being a Top 3 club.
Best Moment: Our goal of course but only getting beat 3-1 was a great relief!
‘Turfman’ Phil Lea www.burnley.vitalfootball.co.uk
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Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 - 1 MANCHESTER UNITED
Manchester United regained the summit of the Premier League with a hard-fought victory in the midlands. With Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen injured, Sir Alex Ferguson deployed Dimitar Berbatov as the lone striker as Paul Scholes' goal 72nd minute was enough to take three points. It could so easily have been different.
Ferguson's decision to isolate the Bulgarian almost backfired as Wolverhampton Wanderers missed two glorious chances at Molineaux.
If the Scot cannot play two strikers against relegation threatened Wolves - who played a full reserve team at Old Trafford earlier this season - then when can he?
Indeed, the animated Scot spent much of the opening period gesticulating wildly at his players as the Bulgarian cut a desolate figure, with Antonio Valencia and the returning Nani unable to offer support from wide areas.
United at least created chances even if the team lacked penetration in the opening minutes, with Nani and Darron Gibson firing wide in the first quarter.
But it was perhaps the home side with the best opportunity of the first half as Steven Ward headed straight at van der Sar when a goal beckoned for Wolves' left-back. How he lived to regret it.
With Gary Neville on for Wes Brown at half-time, and a few choice words no doubt spoken by the manager, United looked more purposeful in the opening minutes of the second period.
On the hour Ferguson finally introduced a second striker with Senegalese youngster Mame Biram Diouf coming on for the disappointing Gibson and United pushing four players into attacking areas. It perhaps should have happened earlier.
Just as United looked to be heading for a disappointing draw, Paul Scholes came up with the crucial goal. Although the former-England international rarely ventured forward the midfielder latched onto Nani's pass and took full advantage of some poor defending by Christophe Berra to fire home from six yards.
Wolves threw on three more strikers in former-Red Sylvain-Ebankes Blake, Andy Keogh and youngster Sam Vokes but although the home side tried to apply pressure United's first-choice defensive pair of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand stood firm. Just about.
Then, as injury time ticked down, Vokes blew the chance to equalise as the Welshman fired over from just six yards with only van der Sar to beat. It would have been a devastating blow to United's hopes. Such are the margins between Premier League glory and disappointment.
Star man: It has to be Scholes, who scored his 100th Premier League goal for United. Zinedine Zidane regards the genius as the best midfielder of his generation. Who can argue with that?
Worst performer: Darron Gibson had a really disappointing day, wasting possession and shooting wildly. He's young but there has got to be doubts about his overall quality.
Best moment: Scholes' goal in an otherwise disappointing performance from United.
Tactics: Berbatov is not and has never been able to play up front on his own. He's not dynamic enough, doesn't like playing with his back to goal and doesn't have the pace to stretch defences on his own. The tactics handed the initiative to Wolves in the first half. The Reds improved in the second half but only after a second striker was added to the attack.
Chant of the game: The Glazer family was told in no uncertain terms where they can stick their debt.
Oppo fans: Wolves' fans have plenty of passion and they're a credit to the Premier League even if their team isn't.
Ed Barker, http://www.unitedrant.co.uk
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WEST HAM 1 - 2 Bolton
Life can be so cruel! There we were contemplating how our home form was going to be the basis of our survival form and of how a competent display would see us set a new Premier League record, for West Ham, of five successive clean sheets at home.
Then along came a brute called Kevin Davies.
With only ten minutes on the clock Davies, the player who has committed the most fouls in the Premier League this season, rose superbly to head a cross, from Lee, past Robert Green.
Never mind, the record might have gone but there’s still time to rescue this one we all thought.
Six minutes later, we suffered another kick in the unmentionables. James Tomkins tried to keep the ball in, that brute Davies out-muscled him and clipped the perfect ball back in for Jack Wilshire to score his first goal on loan for the Trotters since joining them on loan from Arsenal.
What wag suggested we were playing like Del Boy Trotter against The Trotters!
Still, with over three quarters of the game left was there time to rescue something, a point maybe?
Well not the way we were playing. West Ham were off the pace and unable to break down a Bolton defence that normally looks so fragile. In fact if Elmander had packed his scoring boots we could have been dead and buried by half time.
Stung by our total ineffectiveness Gianfranco Zola brought on Kieron Dyer for the second half and the injury-prone player almost got us back into things but couldn’t quite reach a cross.
Bolton, leading 2-0, threw us a lifeline when Tamir Cohen was sent off but it took our lot a good ten minutes or so to realise that all was not lost. Spells of pressure finally paid dividends when Alessandro scored with two minutes left and with the crowd drifting away from Upton Park, Junior Stanislas could have put his name up in lights with a cracking eighteen yard drive that smacked against the bar, in stoppage time.
Would a draw have been fair though? Probably not but I’d have taken it wouldn’t you?
Star man: Alessandro Diamanti – Continues to be our source of the unusual, if things are not going right give to Diamanti, he’ll conjure something up but you have to wonder just how many tricks he can pull out of his bag!
Worst performer: Every last one of them in that dreadful first sixteen minutes, the sloppy nature made it mission impossible to come back from 2-0 down!
Best moment: The Stanislas strike, it may have only hit the bar but from the instant it left his foot I couldn’t have been the only one who thought it was going in!
Tactics: Gianfranco Zola now faces real pressure with trips to Chelsea and Arsenal to follow, he needs to get stuck into this lot, he needs to tell them that those first exchanges were not up to scratch and that mistakes need to be cut out
.
Oppo fans: Were there any there?
Ross Charles, www.vital.westham.vitalfootball.co.uk
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