North London is Red

Top of the morning to y’all

I have always wondered what it meant for the match confidence level meter to be at its fullest in the football manager game. Whenever I defeat Sp*uds – which I do every time- on the game, the meter just fills up and I would wonder if we can get a situation such as that when Arsenal play Sp*uds in real life. Yesterday, we got it.

The best part of yesterday’s victory was the pay-back feeling I get when we think about the fact that last season, right at the Emirates, we were two goals ahead and still went down to lose the game. Going two goals down in a football match is never an easy task and for the team to just fail to give up gives some credence all the talk this season about their spirit and character.

We definitely couldn’t have started in a much worse manner as one journeyman found another journeyman and the journeyman’s shot wickedly deflected off Vermaelen for their first goal just after four minutes of play. I couldn’t have wished for a worse start. Despite that though, the lads put a committed performance fighting for every ball and tackling superbly in midfield but instead it was our opponents who got the second goal of the game against the run of play as Mordric found Bale who took the ball into the box before showing off how hard he has been working on his swimming lessons with a great dive which thoroughly had Mike Dean fooled while Adebarndoor dispatched the resulting penalty. Two nil against us and considering the recent run for the gunners, most people thought it was done and dusted. Not me though. The team was playing well and creating chances and that was something to be hopeful about.

Turning Point as Robin Scores a beauty

The turn-around started just five minutes after conceding the second goal as Walcott exquisitely flicked the ball into the part of Van Persie and the Dutchman’s effort cracked against the woodwork and bounce clear only for Arteta to pick up the loose ball and deliver an inch-perfect cross onto Sagna’s head and the Frenchman made no mistakes. If you have ever wondered why a seemingly untall Tim Cahill always seem to be an aerial threat at Everton, it’s because of such perfect crosses like that. If we had to get anything out of that game, we had to score in the first half and if the half  had ended like that, I would have been glad. But the lads really wanted this and the turning point came when Robin curled a shot into the left corner. That's what a world class player would give. Unforgettable moments.

Sp*uds could have decieded not to come out at all for the second half as we overran them all through the park. Rosicky got his first league goal in 2 years after a good 1-2 with Sagna and Theo Walcott completed the rout with two calm finishes. Scotty parker was sent off after a  second booking and it was a surprise to see everyone in the stadium produce their own red cards as he walked down the tunnel.

It was a spectacular performance and Arsene said after the game

We were always on top of the game. We were 2-0 down but refused to lose the game and kept going no matter what happened. Once we were back to 2-2 you could see that if we maintained the pace, we would win the game. We had a good balance between offence and defence, between creativity and going into the space behind the defenders and good maturity.

You cant argue with all that but upon further thought, I would have loved to see either Park or Chamakh get some game time yesterday when the scores was at 5-2. I mean what harm would it do to give either of them a run to test theirselves against quality but already destroyed opposition. Even against Blacburn when we were leading by 5 goals, the manager still couldn’t bring either man on. I think there is more to their issue than just form cos you need game time to get you out of a bad form and that just dosent seem to be happening. We risk over playing Van Persie and I really think wenger should give them a chance to prove themselves at some point. After all we got them and we might as well use them. On the other hand, it was great to see Jenks back. The young man was really beginning to come into his own before his back injury and his performance against West Brom last year seem to epitomise his development in recent months.

On a sad note, we seem to have lost Vermaelen and Rosicky to injuries during the game but for how long is still not clear, I just hope its not too long though as they are both very important players. Not much seem to be going on this morning other than players going on internationsl duty and fans savouring the derby win.

That's right about it for today folks, be back on Wednesday for a new one. If you have enjoyed this post, please share on your Facebook and Twitter pages. You can also follow on twitter @nigeriangunners. Enjoy your derby win gooners.

God bless the Arsenal Iree o.