Archive for April 12th, 2009

Stunning turnaround makes it a very happy St. Totteringham’s Day

1 comment April 12th, 2009

Arsenal celebrate St. Totteringham's Day

Wigan 1 – 4 Arsenal (Mido 17, Walcott 60, Silvestre 71, Arshavin 90, Song 90+2)
Highlights here; Arsene’s reaction here

Every year Arsenal fans wait for the moment when they can celebrate St. Totteringham’s Day.  No-one knows when it will fall, but there is a neat irony about the fact that this year it has arrived at Easter weekend.  For what St. Totteringham’s Day means, as I’m sure you all know, is that there will there will be no footballing resurrection for Sp*rs, as it is now mathematically impossible for them to finish above us this season.

For much of the game it seemed that St. Totteringham’s Day would have to be postponed.  I was quite vociferous in my defence of our first half performance at Villarreal, but I am about to be equally forceful in my condemnation of our showing in the first forty-five at the JJB: we were dreadful – defensively sloppy, and lacking in imagination going forward.  We had started with Walcott, Fabregas, and Arshavin playing behind Bendtner, which ought to have been good enough to trouble Wigan.  However, our failure to create any chances of note meant fans were glancing hopefully towards a star-studded bench from about twenty minutes in to the game.

The goal we conceded was typical of the sloppiness we were showing – Ben Watson’s corner was nodded down by Paul Scharner, and the unchallenged Mido knocked an acrobatic but fairly gentle volley past a flapping Fabianski.  Things got worse when Johan Djourou was stretched off with what looked like a serious knee injury.  Arsene has said it’ll be “weeks not days”, and the signs (Djourou going to ground uncontested, being stretchered off, and covering his face to hide his pain) certainly aren’t good.  That leaves us with Kolo Toure and the man who came on to replace him, Mikael Silvestre, as our only fit central defenders.  From the way things looked yesterday, I’d be pleasantly surprised to see Djourou before the end of the season.

Kieran Gibbs also had some trouble on his first Premier League start, and was reportedly lucky not to be dismissed for a professional foul on Antonio Valencia.  I haven’t actually seen it myself yet, but he seemed to recover from the incident to put in an improved performance in the second half.

At half-time I was amazed that Arsene decided not to make any changes.  And yet, despite looking entirely unlikely, with half an hour to play an equaliser arrived.  A long clearance from the goalkeeper was nodded down by Bendtner, and a somewhat protracted one-two ended with Andrey Arshavin poking a through-ball as he fell to the ground, which Theo Walcott latched on to before lashing in his first goal of 2009.

Over the next ten minutes, Robin van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor were introduced to join Bendtner, Arshavin, and Fabregas in an incredibly attacking line-up.  It promised goals, and it delivered – though the most vital strike came from an unlikely source.  Arshavin nutmegged his man, and Cesc squared the ball for the onrushing Mikael Silvestre to score on his first appearance for three months.  Many have waited eagerly to see how Arshavin and Fabregas might combine, and this was a great example of two footballing artists unlocking a defence – Silvestre may have been the beneficiary, but the skipper ran straight to the little Russian to celebrate the goal.

Arshavin was on top of his game, and fired against the post from distance before adding the third late on.  It was a counter-attack from one end to the other in what can’t have been more than ten seconds – reminiscent of times past.  Adebayor did the bulk of the work, charging the length of the pitch before attempting to play in Cesc, who was in support.  His pass, however, came up short, and Jason Koumas intercepted.  Koumas then looked to give the ball to his defensive partner, but Arshavin had pre-empted the pass and thumped home a goal without taking a touch.

Wigan’s defence had completely crumbled by this point, and in stoppage time Alex Song underlined that fact by waltzing through the defence to fire home one of the goals that means we have now scored more away from home than any other team in the league.  It’s eighteen games unbeaten too, and momentum has carried forth into next week’s crucial cup ties.  The defence looked shaky but hopefully they will take confidence from this victory.  Going forward, Arshavin was outstanding.  The stage is all set for him to, as Arsene Wenger joked, show Guus Hiddink he deserves his place in the Russian national team in Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final.

Happy St. Totteringham’s Day, one and all.  And Happy Easter too, I suppose.


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