Hello, first of all if you’re reading this, thank you, it’s my first arsenal blog ever (despite reading almost every arsenal blog or article I can find, almost every waking hour. Ok, I kid, every waking minute, or at least 15). I’m a gooner from Malaysia, and have been arse-ing since my teens despite football not being a major sport in my childhood. Enough about me, on with the victory post.
It’s hard to stomach 3 losses in a row, so today has been a wonderful, wonderful reprieve from sucksville for the gunners. Sweetened all the more by a display of Wenger’s elusively talked about ‘mental strength’. The first win we’ve seen after going 2 – nil down since all eternity (I kid, wasn’t it chelski last?), this is Arsenal’s January Valentine indeed.
To be fair, the villains played rather well after our spirited first 10 minute assault. To be fair, fairness is for shit and Tottenscum, who don’t believe in fairness or anything resembling anything good on God’s green earth. We played some nice free flowing football, courtesy of a spirited Ox, a ginormous Rambo, and supported well by a competent back four with the Coq at rightback. Yet we conceded 2 goals. The first from a clever Keane position cross pass to Dunne who towered over Koscielny (who on replay looked like the only defender who jumped high enough to cover for anything) to put it pass flapjacks Joey Fabianskiani. A corner conceded. Now before you quote how horrible Arsenal are at corners, I thoroughly believe that Szcezny would’ve not only punched that corner out of the park, but have also put a fist sized crater in Dunne’s ugly mug. No surprise considering Fabianski hasn’t played much since getting injured in that one match, and quite a surprise why he was even on today considering that Chezzer would have a week’s rest even if he was on for the game. Comments from twitter (because I can’t be arsed to check back who tweeted what) do have a point that it may be a showroom performance to sell him better. After today I wouldn’t be surprised if Gazidis buys him a house and 3 donkeys just to ship him off.
The 2nd goal was a rebound from a shot from a clear break. Yes. A break. What the hell are Villa doing capitalizing on a break you ask? This coming in part from us playing a high line and trying real hard to equalize. The quality of the play may have been lacking but you could see that the team was trying to put in a good shift, so a villa counter with Song, Kos and Verm racing back didn’t look like it would come to much. TV5 slid across but Bent’s shot went through and bounced off the Flapjacksianski, Song tried racing back but bent got the rebound anyway. Kos did look like the stopped his run and strolled back, perhaps he should have boosted and intercepted the rebound but I’ll put my money on him actually having psychic powers and knowing the polish number 2 (see what I did there) would fail to stop it anyway.
Going in to half time 2 goals down to a lesser team was scary. And scary is about as much of an understatement as it can get. The nefarious ‘handbrake’ threatened to come on and give us a right thumping to a ‘lesser’ team once again but that was not to be. Not to discount the effort of the team in the first 45 minutes, but results simply didn’t show. The 2nd half proved the teams mettle. Hard run-ins and the same level of consistency saw Ramsey brought down clearly late by Dunce and that there was no second yellow was quite a screamer. Justice was served on a left-footed plate as Captain Vantastic gave us our first. Unsatisfied, the team drove further on and Walcott got a nice rebound into the net, proving that Shay Given really is shit.
Our 3rd goal may have been a slight bit of luck, with the T-1000 lookalike, Koscielny running all the way in and up and being brought down in the box by Bent. Luck not only being that it took one of our most consistent and stalwart performers but the fact that a defender could run all the way up, and be brought down on a only ever so slightly questionable tackle. (Bent did look like he got a touch on the ball, but the desperation of the tackle clearly showed the villains running out of steam). Robin Van Precious plants the penalty right where Given’s thick skull was a second earlier as the keeper dives right where the last penalty slid past. Done and bagged. I thought we’d get a 4th for sure the way our confidence coming back totally dominated the rest of the match. The scariest bits were any corner or chance that came close because of Fabianski. Other highlights include seeing the wanker Villa fans play beach volley with an out of bounds ball, and then seeing gooners do the same to drag time near the end. And a sneaky Robin elbow while fighting for a header. Heck, he probably figured that if Dunne didn’t get a second yellow, he’d get away with murder.
Now with my shoddy match recap over and done. What does this win signify? Well for one, it’s the first win in 3 losses. If that’s not a breath of fresh air then it’s a damn dose of laughing gas. No premiership points for this (title pun), but also, it’s a win on what may be our only chance for silverware this season. It’s a win coming in from a rather despondent first half where the team pushed and injected solid effort yet had 2 goals down to show for it. It’s a win that caught ‘mental strength’ by the fucking balls and dragged it all that way to shove it down Shay Given’s net. It’s a measly saving grace for the losses to Manure, Fulham and moneyball Swansea. It’s a win that saw further demonstration of the Ox’s bullishness and Mertesacker’s position-god status (yes. I hereby trademark it. Mertesacker. Position GOD.) It’s a win that saw our handsome-boy possession master Arteta coming back. It’s a win that saw one of our first choice fullbacks (yes, the kind of position player that seemed extinct in our squad for our last 2 months) it’s a win that saw Theo and Ramsey put in good productive shifts from a previous game where both looked tired and ineffectual. Screw the reasons. It’s a freaking win. That’s all that matters. For this week at least. Add the icing that we play Sunderland or ‘Boro after this round, Sunderland have our cursed Ginger bastard, and ‘Boro have a history of taking multiple goals against us. And we get OUR FULLBACKS BACK. The rest of the season DOES, once more, look that wee bit more rosy. J
Links to enjoy:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/422614_10150528238248580_327243013579_9145724_911463818_n.jpg
https://twitter.com/#!/Sagnaofficial/status/163702697386704897
http://www.footballistically.co.uk/index.php/2012/01/24/arsenals-defence-club-analysis/
https://twitter.com/ - !/Frimpong26AFC/status/163695958448799745
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lykohr3UIY1r6p4u2o6_500.png
