Arsenal banish a few demons at Villa Park
65 comments November 28th, 2010
Aston Villa 2 – 4 Arsenal (Arshavin 39, Nasri 45, Clark 52, 70, Chamakh 56, Wilshere 90+3)
Highlights | Arsene’s reaction
A few years ago the BBC carried out an experiment where they attached heart monitors to several Premier League managers to measure their stress levels during the game. If they did the same with a selection of English fans, one imagines the machine attached to the Arsenal supporter might just overheat. I’d say that we don’t like to make things easy for ourselves, but it sounds a little trite. So instead I’ll say that we like to make things very difficult for ourselves.
And it had been so easy. The first half was an absolute stroll. We dominated throughout, almost scoring through Marouane Chamakh inside the first minute, but weren’t able to find a breakthrough until the 39th minute. A Lukasz Fabianski goal-kick drew Luke Young out of position. When neither Young nor James Collins cleared the ball, it left space for Andrey Arshavin to zoom in to the Villa half. He still had plenty of work to do, but he did it in exemplary fashion, cutting in from the left and firing low in to the bottom corner.
He almost created a second just moments later, slicing open the Villa defence with a pass that Samir Nasri took around Brad Friedel. Unfortunately, his balance was off and his shot on the turn hit the side-netting.
No matter – our advantage was soon doubled. Friedel produced a stunning save to deny a Chamakh header, but from the resulting corner Arshavin looped a pass to Nasri on the edge of the box. The Frenchman’s volley was true, and a deflection off Young made it all the more unsaveable.
So, 2-0 up at half-time and seemingly in complete control… WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG???
Being Arsenal, plenty could go wrong.
The problem with throwing a game away in the manner we did against Spurs is that it gives future opponents the belief that they can always come back. Villa should have been dead and buried, but had an undue amount of confidence derived solely from our capacity to throw away the match.
Not that we did much to dissuade them, conceding within seven minutes of the restart. Ciaran Clark’s volley was superb, but should never have happened for two reasons: the first being that Gael Clichy should have taken the opportunity to close him down, the second that John Carew was stood in an offside position right in front of Lukasz Fabianski.
Fortunately, unlike against Spurs, we were able to respond, with Tomas Rosicky weighting a perfect through-ball for Chamakh to poke under the advancing Friedel.
We weren’t finished of course, allowing Clark to score again from a corner before Jack Wilshere sealed it in stoppage time with his first Premier League goal in an Arsenal shirt. He celebrated with some badge-kissing, and from him you really believed it.
A big win, and an important one too. Hopefully they way we recovered from a couple of set-backs will remain with the players over the crucial coming months.
In the absence of Cesc Fabregas, it was important that other senior players stepped up, and they did. Alex Song and Jack Wilshere dominated in midfield, but it was the front three who were particularly impressive: Arshavin, Nasri and Chamakh.
Whatever Arshavin did in his week off (probably a few extra fitness sessions with Tony Colbert) certainly helped him. His goal was his sixth of the season – not a vast total, by any means – but his assist for Samir Nasri was, according to ESPN soccernet, his seventh in the league and tenth in all competitions.
Speaking of Nasri, what a season this man is having. Fewer assists – just the three – demonstrate a newfound single-mindedness in front of goal. He now has nine in all competitions. He’s in such a rich vein of form that I just hope he manages to steer clear of injuries. Yesterday there were some moments of exquisite skill – one in particular where he lobbed the ball over a defenders head before storming on towards the penalty box. On a day when we were united with Robert Pires, a passenger until he was withdrawn at half-time, Nasri gave further evidence that he could emulate Bobby’s goals from midfield.
Marouane Chamakh, meanwhile, moved in to double figures for the season, which is a fantastic tally for a player still supposedly in a period of adaptation. Chamakh came in for criticism from some fans after he failed to capitalise on a couple of opportunities against Spurs, but their jibes are complete nonsense. He’s been a fantastic signing, and is now our first choice striker. Robin van Persie has a lot to prove if he wishes to reclaim his place.
The win took us top of the table, but only briefly. If there was any suggestion Villa’s poor performance was down to Gerard Houllier’s decision to lie down for his ally Arsene Wenger, Sam Allardyce determined to go one better and allowed his Blackburn team to capitulate at Old Trafford.
Attention now turns with an unusual degree of focus to Tuesday night’s Carling Cup tie with Wiga, with starts expected for the likes of Nicklas Bendtner, Van Persie, and Theo Walcott. A win would take us in to the two-legged semi-final, and one step closer to winning a trophy in February.
For now, however, I’d just like to quote the Backstreet Boys and plead with Arsenal: Quit Playing Games With My Heart.
