Wednesday. The mid point of the week. The best day to play night football. Yesterday’s game created everything for the neutrals. There were a lot of nail biting moments.
Arsenal took on Everton yesterday knowing fully well that any slip up would have been disastrous to their title ambitions.
Before kickoff, they were 5 points behind the Red Hell Owners. The message was clear, anything other than 3 points would have been regarded as “sheer disappointment”.
Sagna came back to the squad and played extremely well. Early on in the game, he was scythed down by an overweight Frenchie. The resulting free kick by rVp hit the wall and went out for a corner.
Hours before the game, Johan “Injourou” Djourou told his followers on Twitter that he’s enjoying his defensive partnership with Laurent Koscielny.
He showed it again when he latched unto rVp’s corner to flick the ball to Koscielny’s path. A second earlier and we would have been 1 up. Kos100%tackle missed by a lick of paint.
Clichy had a very outstanding game. He padlocked Everton’s “exciting” right winger and tossed the keys to the stands. He linked up well with his captain who in turn drove forward and gave a nice pass to rVp. rVp noticed that El Capitan was still on the move so he drew the opposition defenders to himself and sent a cheeky back pass to Fabregas. The finish however was poor.
rVp was everywhere on the pitch. He even had the time to do a “Marseille Roulette” on that Russian bloke, Bilyanovnovnov.
Walcott ran at the Everton defenders with real intent and even found himself one-on-one at the edge of the box when Alex Song won the ball from a bloke on blue. The Bald One was equal to the task.
The first major talking point of the match will undoubtedly be the officials indecision in letting Everton go 1 up.
Some chap had the ball in our half then sent a ball over the top to their lone striker, Brown haired Louie. When the ball was passed the Frenchie was clearly offside. Koscielny wanted to anticipate it but the ball somehow found its way in Saha’s path. The low drive he sent goalwards beat Szszsz and we were trailing.
The Gunners surrounded the man with the whistle hoping that he’ll reverse the decision to let the goal stand. He went off the pitch to have a little chat with his assistant referee. The man with the yellow flag didn’t help our cause so it was Arsenal 0 Everton 1.
There was no time to dwell on the goal conceded so we quickly took the keys of the game and hoped into the “driver’s seat”.
I was hoping with Andrei “Hotty” Arshavin would step his game up but he wasn’t even on the starting lineup. His able replacement TR7 sent a glorious through ball that the receiver (El Capitan) would have been proud of. With Walcott on the right hand side and Everton defenders on the left, El Capitan fired a shot that left Bald Howard relatively untroubled.
Our Whizkhid, Jack Wilshere sent another sweetly polished through ball to rVp. He was off balance so the finish was disappointing.
The Everton players played like an immature set of high school bullies. They were led by the bully-in-chief Marouane Fellaini. That bloke reminds me of WWE’s apple spitting Carlito.
Song got battered times without number in the game. This ensured that he missed the second half.
Johan Djourou fell heavily on his hand and can count himself lucky that it wasn’t dislocated or broken. An injury to Djourou would have been a very bitter pill to swallow for AW the Alchemist.
So at half time we were trailing by that solitary goal.
Diaby came in for the injured Song at the start of the second half.
TR7 showed quick movement to evade his marker but his volley went wide. You still tend to wonder when Rosicky will score his first in many centuries.
rVp had a good game yesterday. Even if he wasn’t in the scorer’s chart for the night, he probed well and played many dead balls. It was also good to see that he kept his temperament in check. He and his compatriot, Heitenga had some issues that were later resolved. The rVp of old would have gotten a red card at some point in the game because it was a game where tempers where flared.
He had a free kick that hit the blue brick wall. He also had a shot that was easy pickings for Bald Howard.
Arshavin came in for TR7 and made a big impact on the game.
He flicked a nice ball to rVp but our star striker missed the net with his right foot shot.
Diaby created some space for himself and fired wide.
With 30 minutes left on the clock, AW the Alchemist threw in his last ? , Nicklas “Wald Bezt” Bendtner.
His introduction added dynamism to our attack.
We got our deserved equalizer when El Capitan noticed that the diminutive Russian was lurking in the area. An cheeky through ball followed. Heitenga tried to anticipate the ball but headed it towards Arshavin’s path. The finish was calm. Quite odd for a player that had not scored in 9 games. But as they say,”form is temporary, class is permanent”.
As we pushed hard for the killer blow, a chance popped in the box for Bendtner. With defenders closing down on him, he unleashed a “Wald Bezt” bicycle kick. Bald Howard saved it though.
Another good attack led to a free kick on the edge of Everton’s area. Up stepped rVp to take the free kick. rVp’s last goal from a free kick came on the 7th of October, 2007. That was in the 3-2 win over Sunderland.
The free kick he fired curled round the wall and was heading to the top corner. Bald Howard made a fantastic save and fell into the net.
rVp went to take the corner. He swung it in beautifully to the box. Koscielny was the first to react and he nodded home to put us 2 up. His 2nd headed goal in 3 games.
We didn’t take our foot off the pedal and dominated the game from there on.
In the 77th minute, history was made. The EA Sports dashboard showed that in the “last 5 minutes”, Arsenal had 100% possession while Everton had…….0. The highest possession range I had ever seen was when Manchester United played Wolves. They had 90% while the Wild Bingoz had 10%. The shocking thing about that game was Wolves emerged victorious.
Rodwell had a good chance to leave us in tears but his header went wide.
Everton put up a late charge but their efforts where futile.
Match ratings
Szszsz (6.5) didn’t make any save throughout the game. Clichy (7.0) worked very hard in defense. It’s a shame that he chose to pass rather than shoot when he was one-on-one with the goalie. Sagna (6.8) would have wasted no time shooting. Injourou (6.7) put up a descent performance. Koscielny (7.2) scored the match winner. Whizkhid (6.8) showed good movement. Song (6.4) did okay before getting injured. El Capitan (7.0) created the first goal. Walcott (6.5) gave Crossy Baines a busy night. TR7 (6.6) had a lot of nice touches. rVp (7.1) was unlucky not to score. Diaby (6.4) dwelled on the ball too much. Hotty (7.0) scored his first goal in 9 games. Wald Bezt (6.6) showed good technique by executing the overhead kick perfectly.
In a night where Man Utd beat the Villans, it was good to see that the players worked their socks off to keep the pace.
It’s also good to see that the Cashlings have gotten their mojo back with a win against the team that disvirgined the Blue Bridge this season, Sunderland. They have two ties with the Red Hell Owners. I’m pretty sure that points will be dropped.
The tweet of the day goes to our Whizkhid, Jack Wilshere.
“@jack_wilshere: Great win. Great character shown tonight….we need to take this attitude into saturday and the rest of the season! The emirates was rocking”
You got that right son……
The Emirates is rocking.
Everton came to town. Thanks for giving us 3 hard earned points.
Sayonara
