Arsenalist

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MOTD Highlights:

Vela fouled but no penalty given: Watch :: Download

Bendtner heads in an Arshavin cross (wish we had AA for Champions League) Download

Foul on Arshavin + Bendtner Penalty: Download

Vela scores to make it 3-0: Download

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Great second half performance. 9 points clear of Villa who are playing Everton tomorrow. If Arshavin weren’t cup-tied I’d feel a lot more confident about the Champions League. Silvestre and Djourou make me a little nervous, not exactly stable components in a back four. We were poor in our set pieces and that’s something that needs to be tightened for Wednesday. Let’s just enjoy this win for now. MOTD Highlights will be posted when they become available. Here’s the Match Report. Here’s the sponsor.

Arsene Wenger’s post-match interview. :: Another with Sky Sports

MOTD Highlights

First Half Highlights and their goal: Watch :: Download

Walcott 1-1: Download

Silvestre 2-1: Download

Arshavin 3-1: (Adebayor’s pass didn’t have enough weight but another Wigan mistake sets it up for Arshavin) Download

Song 4-1 (horrible defending): Download

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We had to keep pace, Man Utd, Aston Villa, Man City and Chelsea all won. Liverpool is yet to play.

Emmanuel Adebayor (corner assists from RVP) 1-0: Watch :: Download

Halftime Highlights: Watch :: Download :: Watch

Their goal 1-1: Who cares? I hate these shits.

Samir Nasri 2-1: Watch :: Download

Niclas Bendtner 3-1: Watch :: Download

MOTD Highlights

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It almost looked like those sneaky little rats from the north were going to get a point. The goal was a long time coming, Adebayor should’ve scored but decided to doodle around with the ball instead of firing and later RVP (best player on the pitch IMHO) struck the post. Bolton were officially playing a 4-5-1 but it looked more like a 7-3-1. I’m just glad we cracked it.

First Half Highlights: Watch

Nickas Bendtner (assist to RVP): Watch

Full Match Highlights: Watch

This guy has pretty good recaps!!! Here’s the Match Report and here’s Arsene Wenger’s post-game interview and here’s David Moyes.

MOTD Highlights

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Before the game:

Rafa’s going to miss this game because he has stones in his kidney…Nasri is back…a win will put the Gunners within 5 points off the leaders…Arsenal are 5th in the table after Villa won yesterday…This is Clichy’s 100th Premier League game

Arsenal Lineup: Almunia, Sagna, Djourou, Gallas, Clichy, Denilson, Fabregas, Song, Nasri, Adebayor, Van Persie
Liverpool Lineup: Reina, Abeloa, Carragher, Agger, Insua, Lucas, Alonso, Rieera, Gerrard, Keane, Kuyt

During the game:

Liverpool wearing some very hideous grey shirts with red shorts which doesn’t help watching this game.

RVP scores a cracker after a long-ball find from Nasri: Watch :: Download

Keane equalizes, we’re playing a tight line all game, finally got cracked: Watch :: Download

Alonso’s cunty tackle on Fabregas results in him being subbed out for Diaby. They’re talking about ligaments, not good. Watch :: Download

Adebayor is sent off for two of the softest yellow cards you’ll ever see: Watch :: Download.

Total bullshit. By this rationale Lucas should’ve been sent off about 8 times by now.

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After the game:

We played inspired football with our captain out and with 10-men, definitely something to be taken from this game. Probably would’ve won it with Fabregas and Adebayor in there for a full 90. The refs love Liverpool, what can you say, remember last year’s Champions League ties? The foul called on Toure and the foul not called on Hleb, that alone pulled Liverpool through and today they got more help.

Arsene Wenger Post Game Interview

Post-Game Analysis and Interviews – Adebayor included

MOTD Highlights

Here’s the Match Report.

After a slow start, Arsenal score off their first corner. Some bad marking fro ‘M’Brough leaves Ade open who powers a downward header. Arsenal look shaky but get the lead.

Adebayor: Watch :: Download

Aliadiere comes back to haunt us again. This little runt is very annoying. The goal is the result of a failed Clichy clearing:

Aliadiere: Watch :: Download

Watch MOTD Highlights

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We’re missing Walcott on the right side, the opportunities to carve them open were there but Denilson lacks the quality to take advantage. His passes into the box are usually lower than they need to be, lack pace and are generally of a poor quality. We didn’t have anybody who could run at Boro’s back four and they defended us rather comfortably.

Arsenal were in cruise control from the first minute of the game, almost expecting the goals to come and the 3 points to follow. Boro was the more motivated side and played with a zeal that the Gunners lacked. Wins against Chelsea and Man Utd are worth nothing if you can’t take care of business against lower table teams. The goal was the result of a bad clearance by Clichy and although he doesn’t make many mistakes, the ones he does make prove to be fatal.

Song makes me as nervous as Senderos used to and that’s no good thing. Him and Silvestre in the back line do not exude any kind of confidence in their play and they’re very touchy-feely in the way they deal with long-balls, runs down the middle and worst of all they leave their challenges rather late. January can’t come soon enough for us, we need to invest in our defense and midfield more than at any other time. Rosicky is out till 2046 and Samir Nasri is in and out of the lineup, leaving the talented by often anonymous Abou Diaby to fill the creative role and that’s not what he’s good at.

Eduardo is making good progress in training and could be part of our league fixtures late in the month so I’m not too concerned about our strike power, Walcott and Nasri’s absence makes them look poorer than they actually are. The game was low on chances for both sides and we have the lack of quality in midfield to blame for it.

Gunners drop two points, title chances keep fading. I have some match highlights but don’t feel like putting them up, what’s the point. MOTD Highlights will be posted later, check the Match Report.

Everton 1-0: Bad, bad defending: Download :: Watch

Samir Nasri equalizes 1-1: Download :: Watch

RVP Header 2-1: Download :: Watch

Theo Walcott 3-1: Download :: Watch

1st Half Highlights: Download

Match Highlights: Download

Match Report

MOTD Highlights

Arsene Wenger and David Moyes post-match interviews

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Arsenal are top of the table pending the Chelsea vs. Man Utd result. Goals from Eboue, Bendtner and Denilson. The game was basically decided in the 20 minutes after Bolton opened the scoring. Arsenal changed gears and dominated with dazzling displays of passing, missed chances, struck posts and finally, goals. Bolton tried to get physical in the second half but Arsenal were tough enough to respond, just like they had done last year at the Reebok. The Davies’ challenge on Clichy was harsh, he got the ball but there was so much more to it. Reminded me of Barton’s tackle on Nasri from a few games back – somewhat legal but unnecessary physical.

Van Persie and Walcott were rested in favor of Bendtner and Eboue. Walcott was brought in late and unleashed on the tired Bolton defense and he had big part in the Denilson goal. Denilson had an excellent game which was only marred by one or two bad tackles and bad passes, something that’s become the norm for him. I thought Walcott made the wrong choice when he laid it off to Adebayor on the right side instead of looking for Denilson initially but it turned out to be the right decision as he was serving as a magnet for the entire Bolton defense. The goal punctuated a fine afternoon for the Gunners.

MOTD Highlights

Davies ’14: Watch

Eboue ’26: Watch

Bendtner ’27: Watch

Denilson ’87: Watch

Match Report

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First off an announcement, I will not be covering the final match of the season away to Sunderland. Sorry. Thanks for visiting the blog all season long, I’ll try to do the same next year if any legalities don’t come in the way (in other words, if they don’t shut my ass down).

The first half was where most of the chances came but it was the second half where Bendtner scored after latching on to a pinpoint cross from Traore. Adebayor probably should’ve scored in the first half but he’s got a habit of missing easy chances – by my count his goal to sitter-missed ratio is about 1:3. He’s had a great season but I can’t help think he should’ve scored more.

Everton played for a scoreless draw because they only needed a point to qualify for the UEFA Cup and it almost looked like they were going to get it. In the second half they just sat on the 0-0 scoreline and didn’t bother doing anything but put 10 men back. The result serves them right, bloody thieves trying to kill the game.

This was crazy Jens’ last game for Arsenal and he got a nice little send-off as Wenger brought him in to replace Fabianski midway through the second half. Say what you will about his off-the-field issues, he’s been a great goalie for us. It’s a pity he can’t accept the backup role, but he does have a point, he’s still better than Almunia.

I think the turning point of the season was the Birmingham game where Eduardo suffered his injury and where they were awarded a late penalty which prevented us from going 8 clear in the standings. With a little more maturity and experience we could’ve won the title. Bacary Sagna’s injury really hurt us more than anything, it forced Senderos to play against Liverpool in the Champions League which simply killed us.

All in all it was a great Arsenal season where they played excellent football and if it weren’t for some very bad luck and some very bad officiating, we could’ve come out with a trophy or two.

Thanks for reading, see you next season!

Arsenal.com Match Report

BBC Match Report – Ends up having Wenger’s post-game interview

MOTD Highlights: Watch

First Half Highlights: Download :: Watch

Nicklas Bendtner 1-0 ’76: Download :: Watch

Nicklas Bendtner Post-Match interview: Download :: Watch

Jens Lehmann send-off and analysis by two old white men: Download :: Watch

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A very routine Arsenal win against Reading, the team’s still putting out the effort even though there’s no chance of a return from this season. We’ve played some great football this year and were competing for the title up until mid-April, that’s a huge improvement from last year where we were out of it in November. This team’s a striker and an experienced defender away from a title, Song’s a nice enough player but he’s not close to being our first-choice CB. Senderos is a great guy but I’m not sure he’s even Premier League worthy. Wenger needs to address those issues.

Walcott started this game and looked like he deserves to be named first-team starting next season. I just don’t see what exactly Eboue does great that would warrant a starting spot. At least with Walcott you know you’re getting pace and creativity and the expense of some control. Eboue’s a hard worker but he always makes me nervous about getting sent off with his ill-advised antics.

We’ve had a lot of injuries this year but by far the one that hurt us the most was missing Bacary Sagna against Liverpool and Manchester United – I would even say he is the anchor of our defense ahead of Toure or Gallas. As Wenger said, we were unlucky, hopefully next season that changes.

I was excited to hear about David Villa wanting to play for Arsenal, he’s a composed striker that could help finish off those chances we end up wasting. However, Wenger denied any interest.

Anyhow, a nice Arsenal win. Enjoy it.

Robin van Persie is the Top Gun.

• BBC Match Report: Ends up having interviews.
• Arsenal.com Match Report
• This blog’s Arsenal feed.

MOTD Highlights: Download :: Watch

Adebayor 1-0: Download :: Watch

Gilberto 2-0 + some great Arsenal chances: Download :: Watch

Stretch of play where Robin van Persie hits the bar and a minute later, Walcott does the same: Download :: Watch