A very early good morning to you all.
Apologies for the lack of blogging lately, didn't get much access to a laptop lately and the one time I did I had an entire blog written out, it was a preview to the Birmingham game and then the laptop decides to randomly shut off. Yes it was quite stomach turning to spend a good half an hour typing away and just like that it disappears but lets not dwell on it eh?
Anyways attentions to the game. Before the match I didn't care what the performance was like aslong as we grinded out the three points in the end, it was a bigger game and a harder task than people gave it credit for. The manager knew it, the players knew it and the majority of the fans knew it so it was important we got off to a good start and we did so, starting off as we do in all of our games with some slick passing, lots of movement etc but at times lacking the killer extinct.
The first chance fell to Chamakh, he exchanged passes with the sublime Wilshere but his eventual shot was well blocked. From there on it was a case of threatening to do damage, but never really going ahead with it and in typical fashion we were punished. A high cross from Keith Fahey finding it's way onto the head of one of our worst nightmares, a 6 foot 8 inch striker and of course he found the back of the net, Fabianski or the defence couldn't do much in all fairness.
I wasn't as worried as I was when we fell behind to West Brom game though, the reason being we were by far the better side, doing all the pressing, asking all the questions. Birmingham had barely threatened up to thos stage. Zigic nearly got a second a few minutes later, a long ball headed across the box by Roger Johnson, bounced in front of Djourou and Squillaci before the big man fired over much to the relief of the players.
That was about as good as it got for the Blues as far as attacking the opponents goal is concerned and once again we began to dominate. I knew a goal before half-time would get the andrenaline flowing and the opportunity finally presented itself when Scott Dann brought down Chamakh in the box. You have to admit he went down far too easily but there was minimal contact. Make up your own mind. Anyways up stepped the ever reliable Sammy Nasri and he dually converted, 1-1 and the crowd finally found it's voice. At half-time I was far more optimistic.
And boy was I right to be, we came flying out of the traps in the second half, and were rewarded sooner than I expected, Wilshere chipping a short pass into Chamakh, who did a random twirl confusing the hell out of Stephen Carr before rounding Ben Foster to finish and off I ran out in the garden celebrating like a kid on Christmas day, well perhaps a little wilder than that hehe.
From there on we absolutely controlled the game, there wasn't a hint that Birmingham would get back into it. The fans did however grow impatient with the lack of shooting, which was understandable, we didn't want the blood pressure going through the roof for once, surely not too much to ask. Wilshere drove an effort over the bar which never really had Foster worried. Wenger then brought on Rosicky for the disappointing Arshavin, little mozart looked fairly lively and had a decent pop at goal, infairness to the man, he is doing his part to stake his place in the team. Diaby and Arshavin, watch out! Bendtner was then brought on for Chamakh and failed to make an impact really, you could tell he was lacking match practice but that will come back to him no doubt.
The game ended on a sour note unfortunately, Wilshere mis-controlled a pass from Eboue and went sliding in with studs showing to try and win it back, he went over the ball and caught Zigic on the shin, staright red no doubts, we have to accept it. You can be assured the media will start bullshitting now about how Wenger talks about other players when he should watch his own. It is quite different, Wilshere is young, he has to make mistakes to learn from them and become a better player. I remember when Arsene first introduced Cesc to the team, he made a few silly tackles but he learned from them and look at him now, one of the most disciplined players in the Premier League. The players Arsene was pointing out were the likes of Shawcross and Paul Robinson. Experienced players who despite severely injuring several players continue to make wreckless tackles. There is no excuse, they will never learn and the FA needs to do something right now.
I know I drifted away from the game a bit there but the point had to be made, anyway we held on in the end, my heart could finally rest, I'm sure I speak for all of us there. Main thing was we had earned three valuable points and it got better, United threw away another two goal lead to draw with our old friends at West Brom and Chelsea were held by Aston Villa, in fact they were lucky to get a draw. So, ground made up but we need to stay focused and stick to our job, we have City next week at Eastlands, the only team to beat Chelsea so far, it's going to be a massive task to go there and take three points but far from impossible. We have the quality to beat them, Cesc should be back and hopefully RVP will play some part. We simply cannot afford to lose it thats for sure, I don't want to focus on it to much because we've Shakhtar midweek at the Emirates where a win would almost certainly see us through \and I fully expect the win.
I know theres a lot of news to catch up on from last week so I'll just briefly run through it. Aaron Ramsey returned to training with the first-team, you can see the pictures on the official website and I have to say, seeing him kick a ball again is great to see, I', delighted he's back and he himself is aiming to return to action next month. The other good news is that Bobby Pires is training with us at the moment so he can regain his fitness after being released by Villareal over the summer. Wenger has already ruled out re-signing him because of the whole squad rule thing now and he dosen't think he needs him.
Well I think thats about that for today, enjoy the rest of your weekend folks, I hope to be back with another blog before the Champions League game midweek, till then!
No comments:
Post a Comment