Arsenalist

In two weeks time Arsenal will travel to the Italian capital to try and continue their Champions League campaign, taking a slender 1-0 lead into the Stadio Olimpico. Some have questioned whether this lead will be enough against one of the great sides in Italian football. However, having witnessed the Gunners best performance for some months against Roma on Tuesday night there is plenty more to take away with us on the 11th March than just a one goal lead.

Many had expected, including myself, that Roma would come to the Emirates and defend for their lives having had such a poor record against English sides in the past, with their 7-1 defeat to Manchester United just a few years ago a possible stark reminder to what can happen to the Giallorossi on English soil. However they came to play on Tuesday night, certainly aiding Arsenal’s game plan, as unlike so many sides that come to the Grove now Roma opted not to try and grind out a result.

The game was as open as they come which suited Arsenal and the hope would be that if the game is anything like the first the Gunners can steal an away goal. Despite only taking a one goal advantage into the game my belief is that we will be more than capable of nicking a vital away goal, as long as the ball doesn’t drop to Nicklas Bendtner! It would be easy to criticise the Danish forward for his three missed opportunities but I won’t as I feel he has come in for enough stick in recent weeks and hopefully won’t get too much game time once Eduardo and Emmanuel Adebayor are back to full fitness.

I was extremely impressed by the way Arsene Wenger set up his team in mid-week as well, despite Bendtner having to play on the left wing. Samir Nasri reveled in his role just behind Robin van Persie and caused the Roma defence all kinds of problems. So as the old saying goes if it ain’t broke don’t fix it and I’d hope Wenger sticks with the French youngster in the same role for the trip to Italy.

The positives coming out of Tuesday’s game for me outweigh the negatives of not taking a bigger lead into the second leg. Arsenal’s injury plagued squad have enough quality to see them into the quarter-finals of the Champions League based on what we have seen. The Gunners have a mixed away record this season in Europe but always seem to pull it out of the bag when they are in Italy, last seasons win against AC Milan the prime example.

Arsenal’s Premier League title dreams have all but gone but the dream is still alive in Europe, as well as the FA Cup, and if they can get an away goal and then a kind draw in the quarter-finals with the big named players set to return before the semi-finals and final there is no reason why Arsenal can’t go one step further than the 2006 disappointment.

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Great win for the Gunners, hopefully this can spark us in the league. Great to see Eduardo back and healthy, he’s a clinical finisher and we could use him in the league. No more scoreless ties!

Eduardo: Download

Bendtner: Download

Halftime highlights: Download

Eduardo again: Download

Robin van Persie: Download

Full Match Highlights:

Carlos Vela is cooler than the other side of the pillow. And that second goal is too slick. Check the Match Report.

Watch the highlights which have all 6 goals and a few highlights.

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Good afternoon from Toronto.

Enjoy the goals from this slaughter. Bummer about their two goals, we could’ve had 25 if we wanted to. The game means nothing and wasn’t a good test, I’d like it better if we pick stronger opponents so that there’s some measure of success – games like these don’t tell us much aside from that we’re young and talented which we already knew. Match Report.

Jack Wilshire 1-0 ’1 (commentator is wrong): Watch :: Download

Nicklas Bendtner 2-0 ’14: Watch :: Download

Nicklas Bendtner 3-0 ’19: Watch :: Download

Carlos Vela 4-0 ’25: Watch :: Download

Nicklas Bendtner 5-0 ’30: Watch :: Download

Carlos Vela 6-0 ’33: Watch :: Download

Nicklas Bendtner 7-0 ’37: Watch :: Download

Carlos Vela 8-0 ’52: Watch :: Download

Jack Wilshire 9-0 ’65 (foul + penalty): Watch :: Download

Theo Walcott 10-0 ’69: Watch :: Download

If you’re some sort of a sick fuck who wants to see the other teams’ two goals, fear not, download them here.

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A point rescued. We were still feeling the effects of the Birmingham nightmare and weren’t at nearly our best. For every one pass forward, we made two back hoping to create a “better” channel. This of course gives even more ammunition to those commentators who continue to mercilessly point out how we pass too much for our own good. Although they’re all closet Man U supporters sometimes they do have a point. Arsenal were a little too methodical in this one and never applied real pressure towards Villa who were only too happy to run at us on the counter.

The crosses were off, the passing wasn’t crisp and if we we had lost it would’ve been fully deserved. Many thanks to Adebayor for finding Nicklas Bendtner who slotted one home on the last kick of the game. Man U beat hapless Fulham which means we drop two more points but still stay on top of the league. This Arsenal squad hasn’t faced adversity like this before, injury to key players, pressure at the top of the table and emotional distress from the fallout of last week. Hopefully Bendtner’s goal will put a stop to the bleeding and spark the return of the Arsenal side that was playing so well earlier in the year.

Nobody is expecting us to get a result in Italy but a win there would give this team the confidence and belief that it so desperately needs right now.

Cesc Fabregas was scoring goals at an unsustainable rate earlier in the year but the goals have dried up for him and it’s not a surprise, however he should’ve scored towards the end of the first half but instead shot it high. With Eduardo gone and RVP missing, we sorely lack a predator who can also create on a dime with traffic around him. Arsene Wenger pointed out that RVP is almost ready for training which is great news, it’ll pull the pressure off Adebayor and add the creativity we’ve been missing inside the area:

“We will not rush Robin van Persie back, but the news is quite good. It is difficult to say, we go step by step, but he should come back into normal training very, very quickly now.”

10 games left and the two mammoth fixtures at Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford will ultimately decide the title race. Even though Arsenal are top of the league, they are the underdogs to win it.

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• Arsenal.com Match Report
• BBC Match Report – Ends up having Post-Match interviews
• This blog’s Arsenal RSS Feed.

MOTD Highlights

Senderos Own Goal ’27: Download :: YouTube

Final Stretch + Bendtner ’90: Download :: YouTube

Maloney Shot that hit the bar

Fabregas’s chance just before the break

Walcott’s chance

Flamini shot

Isn’t Turf Moor the coolest ground name in English football? I think so. Anyway, Eduardo continues his fine form with a calm, cool, collected, composed, compassionate and creative finish. Did you expect anything less? In all seriousness, we played like shit and are lucky to have survived the Burnley pressure after they were whittled down to 10 men. I’m not too sad to lose Eboue to the ACN after this one, as the halftime guy from ESPN (idiots, all of them) pointed out, “It’s like he’s wearing a colored uniform, keeps giving the ball away every time”. Eboue needs to understand what his limits are abide by them, his departure will mean more time for Walcott who is just about due to score his first league goal – I can’t take the suspense anymore!!

Senderos didn’t look completely shaky which gives me some confidence that he just might be able to fit Kolo’s size 50 shoes while he’s gone. The thing that’s scary about Senderos is that he has that look about him that says “you know I’m going to screw up sooner or later and when I do it’s going to be large” and every time I look at his mug I think back to last year’s FA Cup against Blackburn. This is usually where the Senderos supporters point out his contributions in the CL in 2006 and I say yeah, but what have you done for me lately? I know, I’m a bitch.

This might be the last we’ve seen of Jens Lehmann who I’ll be sad to see go. He’s done mulling over an offer from Dortmund which he’s a fool to reject because it doesn’t look like Wenger will ever forgive him for his early season gaffes. The man sure holds a grudge. Here’s the Arsenal.com match report but you also want to check out Third Gen – he likes to write and write and write.

Many thanks to the Arseblogger for finally adding a link in his sidebar. Feed.

Eduardo ’9 Download

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=unQck2Ip5e0]

Bendtner ’75 Download

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=hCsLroC6HcY]

Match Highlights: Mega Video