Archive for April 16th, 2009

Torpedo Walcott sinks Yellow Submarine

31 comments April 16th, 2009

A proud Arsene looks on
Arsenal 3 – 0 Villarreal (Walcott 10, Adebayor 60, Van Persie (pen) 69; Eguren sent off 68)
Highlights here; Arsene’s reaction here

The modern torpedo is described as a self-propelled explosive projectile weapon, usually launched from surface ships, helicopters, naval fortresses and the like.  Last night, Arsenal launched one from their right-wing straight into the heart Villareal’s Yellow Submarine.  The weapon’s name?  Theo Walcott.

Walcott sparked the fire that burnt in the form of a uniformly strong display across the team.  From the very first minute he terrorised the left-back Capdevila, bursting beyond him at every available opportunity.  The principle quality that allowed that this Arsenal team clearly possessed in abundance over their Spanish rivals was pace – and no-one has more pace than Theo.  They couldn’t live with him, and it was no surprise when he latched on to Cesc Fabregas’s stepover to give us the lead.

What was perhaps a surprise was the nature of the finish.  Whilst speed has long been a hallmark of Walcott’s game (well, relatively long in the scheme of his brief career), composure hasn’t.  Too often he’s burst into great positions and then seemed to panic at the vital moment.  Last night, he finished with all the apbomb of the man from whom he inherited the number 14 shirt, calmly chipping the goalkeeper to score a second goal in consecutive games.

Whilst we seemed to have control of the first half, punctuated by that stunning Walcott finish, in the early portion of the second we looked nervous and struggled to keep the ball.  The next goal was vital – a Villareal strike would level the tie up, whereas an Arsenal goal would leave them needing two and, barring a comeback to rival Liverpool’s attempts at Stamford Bridge, all but out.

Fortunately, the goal fell to us.  Cesc’s lopping header found Robin van Persie, who swivelled and slipped in Emmanuel Adebayor.  The Togonator had spent most of the match up until this point either on his heels or offside, but showed killer instinct to take the ball into his stride and fire into the far corner off the outside of his boot.

Villarreal seemed to know the game was up, and their capitulation was complete with the help of the referee, who incorrectly gave a penalty for a foul on Walcott, then prompty gave the Villarreal defender a second yellow for his protests.  Robin van Persie dispatched the kick with gusto to pull one goal away from Ade in their private goalscoring competition.  Three nil against ten men on the night, and 4-1 on aggregate: game over.

Walcott, Van Persie, and Adebayor all got brought off for a little breather ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final with Chelsea, and we might even have grabbed a couple more on the break as Villarreal chased a lost cause.

As heart-warming as our goals was the fact we managed to keep a clean-sheet with a makeshift back-line.  A virus kept Bacary Sagna out of the game at late notice, so Emmanuel Eboue came in to join Kolo Toure, Kieran Gibbs, and Mikael Silvestre in a defence that stood up well to the threat Villarreal occasionally posed.  Behind them, Lukasz Fabianski swept up well to cover for Silvestre’s evident lack of pace.

In midfield, Alex Song showed why at the moment he is the best option to partner Cesc Fabregas (who returned to a deeper role), and Theo Walcott had one of his best games in an Arsenal shirt.  Van Persie and Adebayor’s performances were variable, with the Dutchman the strong of the two, but at the end of the day it’s their goals that we’re thankful for.

We now move on to face Manchester United in a two-legged semi-final.  What an incredible prospect.  As Arsene puts it:

“I believe that both teams produce always very exciting games. Both teams like to go forward so it will be a promising Semi-Final. We are up for the challenge and it will be very interesting. It is always difficult to play an English team because of their quality. Psychologically it is not difficult but at the moment I believe that if you want to go far you have to play an English team at some stage.”

In his programme notes Arsene suggested last night’s match was the biggest in the Emirates’ short history.  I’m absolutely certain it will soon be overtaken by the second leg of the United tie.

We’ve built up plenty of momentum now, and we just need to keep it rolling over through until the end of the season.  There is no game that we can afford to write off – I remember well how essentially throwing that 4-0 FA Cup tie at Old Trafford derailed our league challenge by knocking our confidence.  Every game is big and every game is worth winning.  We’ve face an instant reminder of that at Wembley on Saturday, in what is a huge match.

Last night, Robert Pires was applauded off the pitch by fans who still adore him.  Between now and the end of the season, there is just a chance that some of the current crop of Arsenal players could make themselves heroes of similar stature.  What an incentive.


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