Apologies for the lateness, I have a test this week and it’s hard to find the time.
A wonderful win at Blackburn on Saturday capped off a fantastic week for Arsenal. It was our third trip to the North-West in 7 days, and again we emerged victorious.
Now, I missed the first half, so I can’t comment to much on the game. I missed because I was coming home from the West Ham game, I did hear Toure’s goal on Five Live though, but it’s not the same as seeing it. It was a great goal and fairly unusual for Arsenal, a cross and a header. I must comment on Blackburns defending for this, as Toure the eventual goalscorer was the ONLY player in the box prior to the free kick being taken, so surely Blackburn would deal with the threat without a fuss. Well, it was a complete dogs up in my opinoin. Henry put in a perfectly weighted cross right onto the head of Toure, who placed his header perfectly, onto the post and into the net, Brad Friedel didn’t move. So 1-0 to the Arsenal at half time. Somehow, on Five Live Alan Green didn’t mention Gilberto’s sending off, during the short time I was listening to him. When I got home, the second half was just starting, and ever a few minutes I noticed that Gilberto wasn’t on the pitch, and then I finally realised that he had been sent off, much to my annoyance, as nobody watching the game at my house had the decency to tell me what had happened. Sods.
Anyway, onto the second half, I thought we looked shaky when crosses were coming into the box, and having seen the first half highlights it was pretty much the same with Blackburn having numerous chances from crosses. Having said that, Toure and Senderos defended very well, and Djourou will have to work hard to regain his place, however I do think Johan should play ahead of Senderos when either Toure or Gallas are missing. I have criticised Senderos an awful lot over the past couple of months, but in his last 2 games he has played very well and looks to have regained his form and shaken off that World Cup rustiness, he still has alot to do to convince me he can be a world class defender and ‘The Next Tony Adams’ but the last 2 appearances have certainly been a step in the right direction.
Despite Blackburn’s attempt at an equaliser we still looked dangerous on the counter attack, and like we could grab ourselves a second and the three points. We did just that on 71 minutes. Blackburn had a free kick, in a dangerous position, the free kick was shite, hitting Rosicky who controlled it and passed it to Henry, with Fabregas joining in attack, Thierry ran down the left and by the time he was in Blackburns half, it was 6 on 2, in the Northerners favour, Fabregas ran in every direction waiting for that pass, but Thierry Kept delaying it, until he got the near the box, and in a flash they worked the one two and when Henry got the ball back he unleashed yet another Wonder goal, unsaveable. Friedel got fingers to it, but it was never going to stop that ball, had the American stopper got his and to the ball, it would have taken it clean off, maybe?
Thierry did his usual Mr Cool celebration infront of the travelling Gooners, game over.
Thierry had another chance minutes later when Rosicky floated in a great ball, Henry brought it down and snatched at it abit, one he would usually score but the damage had already been done.
Not much else happened after this, and the game had been won. 3 valuable points away from home, and perhaps one of the biggest wins so far this season, considering the cirsumstances.
An awful lot has been said about the Red card, so Im not going to write loads about it, apart from stating the obvious that Robbis Savage is huge cunt. Fact.
Arsene will NOT be appealing the red card as he fears the suspension could be extended to 4 games.
Gilberto will miss the home match against Man United next Sunday, the first leg of the Carling cup semi-final at White Hart Lane and the FA Cup 4th round tie against Bolton at the Emirates.
After his recent form, the last thing we would want is Gilberto missing from the side, especially when we have battling teams like Bolton and Man United visiting the Emirates within the next 13 days.
I think we will cope, it’s highly likely that Flamini will take his place during his absence, well it’s a dead cert in my opinoin. He has proved he can do a job in the middle and I have alot of confidence in him that he will do his job against Man U, Bolton etc.
It appears that Arsene Agrees with me, which was nice of him -
“Gilberto will be missing but we feel that with the spirit and quality we have we can cope with that,”
“We have had three different teams in our last three games but produced the same quality. We are very proud of that at the Club.”
In other news, Arsenal Loanee Fabrice Muamba has been called up for the England Under 19-Squad to play against Poland next month, which is just another testament to Arsenal’s youth Policy, Fabrice’s current manager, Steve ‘My face looks like I’ve just walked into a bus’ Bruce wants to take him to Birmingham on a permanant basis, which I hope doesn’t happen. As he was a huge talent in last years reserve side, and this loan spell in the Championship is just buliding him up to bring him into our First Team next season.
This season, when we have lost, which has always been away from home, Arsene usually mentioned something about getting the right balance within the squad, well Le Boss now believed we finally have that long awaited balance -
“I feel it is a measure of the progress we have made, In some games at the beginning of the season we were not as committed as we are at the moment but we have learned a lot and are progressing.”
“We have improved, we have found the right balance between what is needed in the Premiership without losing our football. That is very important to us.”
It was one of the most satisfying performances because the spirit was strong, Our defence is maturing, we never panicked and never made silly challenges to give a stupid free kick away. We didn’t show signs of being under pressure and we won the challenges very well.”
“We had a great combination I feel between strength, commitment and real class. For me that shows the team is growing and you feel there is a strength coming from game to game. There is great solidarity in this side.”
A few words from Arsene there.
Thats me done for today, I’ll have something about the Man United game later in the week and If I have the time, perhaps after my exam, I will review our season so far. There have been many talking points already this season, which is our first in the Emirates stadium, so Im sure there will be plenty to talk about.
Thanks for reading.
Posted by romfordgooner 