After his thumping free-kick against Aston Villa, Arsene Wenger revealed the secret behind Mikel Arteta’s shooting: his unusually small feet. Well, rarely can such pies pequeños have been responsible for sending such reverberations through the Premier League. Arteta’s 87th minute strike has not only continued our propulsion towards Champions League qualification, but also seems to have handed the title to Manchester United.
On the evidence of yesterday, City do not deserve to be Champions. They played without fight, without passion, and with plenty of fear. When the game was poised at 0-0, they looked more scared to fail than eager to triumph. It was a curious twist of fate that this crucial defeat for them came against a side whose mental toughness has often been openly questioned. Anyone watching this game would be forced to conclude that it is City, not Arsenal, who have the flaky psychology.
As for Arsenal, the victory was fully deserved. Arteta and Song were the foundation of the victory – after City lost Yaya Toure to injury, they were unable to cope with the tenacity and technique of our midfield pair. Ahead of them, Tomas Rosicky buzzed around effectively, whilst Robin van Persie seems to be regaining sharpness – only the post and, comically, his own man denied him a brace.
We waited a long time for the goal, but in the end justice was done. There was justice also for Mario Balotelli, sent off for a second bookable offence after the referee somehow failed to notice his potentially career-ending lunge at Alex Song in the first half. Balotelli is a curious case: the press are loathe to condemn him because they love the soap opera. Why, though, has Mancini been so loathe to condemn him? It can only be because he shows ability on the training ground that makes the circus seem worthwhile. However, he’s never shown anything like that form on the pitch, so I’m not unsurprised his manager’s patience is wearing thin.
Arsenal now look ahead to a clash with relegation-battling Wolves. I say ‘battling’ – they haven’t shown too much fight in recent weeks, and look doomed. That said, it wouldn’t remotely surprise me to see them raise their game for our visit. Every match between now and the end of the season is a big one, and after losing at QPR hopefully the team have learnt that allowing concentration to drop in this league will almost always result in painful punishment.
I’m actually typing this from holiday in Mallorca, so am going to scoot off back in to the sun now. Happy Easter everyone.
What had happaned emirites was absulotly fantastic clearly domanating. I liked how everything was managed by arsenal players and the intellegence ‘s wenger
What a win!
Priceless seeing Balotelli sent off!!! Totally deserved it. What was it 1 red card foul + 7 yellow card offenses to finally get sent off!!! Fantastic ref was blind as a bat most of the game and almost lost us the game giving out instant yellow cards to Arsenal but letting mankies get away with anything.
Also great seeing us above Spurs again.
Furgie can also say whatever he wants but stats don’t lie Manu ends up getting above average pentalties: 1st spot 10 pens this season and few against them 2 pens (lowest number).
Thank God Arteta decided to shoot. We looked like we were going to drop 2 points. For the life of me, I still find it difficult to understand how Ramsey was a better option on the wing to Gervinho and AOC.
That decision made it harder than it was meant to be because Ramsey was unsuited to that role. Two times now, he has shot wide whilst RVP could have tapped in.
Great win. I felt the win was made more difficult than it should have. On another day we could have run out 3-0 winners. Beating those Mancs was a big statement.
Well done!!!
I think, this is a really good win. gunners 4life
Haha…what a Spurs capitulation…fantastic
So good.
Seems like the spurs trolls are keeping away for a while. Must be the fact that they are 2 points behind with Arsenal still having a game in hand. Arsenal probably only need 4 wins to secure 3rd spot now
Should be easy enough with our last fixtures. Spurs trolls must be mad they are going to have to fight for 4th ^^
Wenger is vindicated by not buying rubbish like Balotelli etc to try buy trophies.The Mankies have failed epic this season and will soon be of no relevance in the PL. The non-sustainable model of trying to buy trophies not working so well for Chelsea and Mankies ^^ good season for us. PS Barcelona will trash Chelsea in the CL.
I’m proud to say I shoot like Rambo. I’m coming on as a sub next.
Great shot from Arteta. Could see it coming the minute he rushed in and stole the ball.
C’mon you Reds!
In this model of buying success, the only winners are Man U.
We’re just surviving in the top 4. The shareholders’ pockets are certainly fuller than the trophy cabinet that much we know.
Arsenal is not many miles away from the clubs ahead of us in terms of quality players. Wenger with the right signings could transfer Arsenal into a World Class Team. What he has to do is to prune deeply and add quality players. He must not allow his heart to rule his head, but be willing to make wise decisions in the interest of Arsenal FC.
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It was fantastic news this morning to hear that Spurs lost.
What a turn around this season has been. Quite uplifting to experience an exciting surge in form at the tail of the season as opposed to the collapse we’ve seen previously.
It really bodes well for next season.
I can’t wait to hear the official announcement on Podolski. When does the German league end?
‘Loath’ not ‘loathe’.
where is the weg….
last seen swimming in the thames on saturday?
are you the trenton fella …weg?
24 hours and no comments…
are you reading this GS…
whats occuring, where are we going with this blog?
That blog was such a small one….
Abe – the site has been taken over by illiterate AKB’s (see post 1). Us old Gunnerbloggers can’t be bothered mate.
Tips for Aintree???
The Weg is upset and distraught at the moment, because he is in the process of breaking a girl’s heart. The Weg has blundered into a mistake of such fundamental stupidity and callous selfishness that the Weg is horrified and tearfully remorseful. So, the Weg is not currently in the mood to type witty asides about the Arsenal, Antipodean genitalia and various other topics that Englishmen might find interesting.
But fear not, the Weg will be back at a later stage, with all his usual flair and joie de vivre.
alright WG…
yeah i fancy either synconised or my stronger is shakalakboomboom.. what about you?
salso strongly fancy power for the 2000 guineas! thought it mat have had a run out by now to see how its faring…
what other arsenal sites you go on wg?
Looking at syncronised also mate, – see how the ground turns out. Also West End Rocker will love the soft going.
Don’t really bother with other Arsenal sites – read East Lower.
so weg,… she’s dumped you, for a bigger fella eh?
a link anyone pls? Fucking channels not showing the game!!!
Channel – 6816
you know who spurs remind me of? arsenal every recent season until now. an epic collapse and fading away with tail between leg, crushed under pressure. sounds like wenger’s teams.
i simply cannot believe that we are finishing the season, fingers crossed, in convincing and resolute fashion. is this arsenal? come on u gunners!
WG… will look out for that horse west end…
looking at the early entries there are som many horse that i seem to reconigse as being decent at some point, tyhe standard seems to improvr yearly..do you think a henderson or nicholss hoirse will win it ? it would be a first time for either would’t it?
thats why i fancy shakalakaboomboom…
but as you say quaility should prevail with synco..
so weg…
have you visited the hidden away stashing place you have for your adult art? or have you been Purveying the web looking looking for fine art?
Has anyone noticed that in Arsenal’s match v Everton some 4 weeks ago (0-1) Ramsey missed a gr8 chance…….
And Fabrice Muamba almost died the next day…!!!
haha gud observation