Arsenal 3 – 0 Liverpool: The Unlikely Lads
93 comments November 13th, 2006
An excellent 3-0 win for Arsenal arrived yesterday courtesy of goals from vastly unexpected sources. First Mathieu Flamini scored only his second ever Premiership goal, before Kolo Toure and William Gallas showed that even the centre-backs can get in on the act in this Arsenal side.
It’d be silly to say the win put’s us “right back in the title race”, but it certainly showed that we’re determined to cement our place in the top three alongside Chelsea and Man U. The team news saw Manuel Almunia and Flamini start, after Jens Lehmann’s flu added to Tomas Rosicky’s injury. Put it was Flamini who put Arsenal in the lead after Alex Hleb and Cesc Fabregas conjured a zig-zagging move that allowed Fabregas to square for a tap-in. Flamini, quite simply, couldn’t miss.
The second goal came when a flowing move saw Robin van Persie slide in Kolo Toure, who calmly nutmegged Jose Reina. Shortly afterwards his centre-back counterpart William Gallas headed home his second Arsenal goal from a van Persie corner. On both occasions, it was almost too easy. That’s not to say Liverpool didn’t cause us problems: they did, but critical defensive slips and clinical finishing (at last) proved the difference.
A mention for a few of our players: Kolo Toure, for starters, should’ve been awarded the man of the match award. He was outstanding, and everywhere. In he and Gallas, we have a potentially brilliant central defensive combination, and it was clear from their camaradery that they believe so too. If there’s any justice, Toure will captain Arsenal one day.
Alongside him, the returning Emmanuel Eboue was superb, and showed just what we’ve been missing in terms of penetration on the right. I am a big fan of Lauren, but Eboue’s partnership with the next man I’m going to talk about will be hard to break up…
Aleksandr Hleb just keeps on improving. He now seems confident using his left-foot to pass and shoot, giving his slaloming runs from the right from end product. It’s hard to believe how much stick he still gets.
All in all, a good win for everyone at the club, especially Arsene, who did sound ever so slightly embarrassed in his interview with Sky after the game. Still, it’s nice to hear from you again, Mr. Wenger.
