Arsenal ended the month of August on a very bad note following a humiliating 8-2 loss to Manchester United so the club had to turn on a new leaf in the new month.
The Gunners began the month with an unconvincing 1-0 win against Swansea City and this was followed by the club’s first Champions League encounter for the season that ended in a thrilling 1-1 draw.
Arsenal visited Ewood Park when Blackburn was at the foot of the table but the match turned out to be a shocking affair for the Gunners because they lost the game despite scoring 5 goals. They were offered a breather when Shrewsbury Town visited the Emirates in the Carling Cup 3rd round and there were goals for the new boys.
Arsenal hosted Bolton in its last Premier League game and ran out as 3-0 winners before ending the month with a 2-1 win over Olympiakos.
At the start of every new month, I’ll create a post like this reviewing all the matches played in the previous month and the posts could be found in the newly created awards category.
The best part of such an article is that it was created from the votes of my esteemed readers in the polls I created at the end of the month. These votes will go a long way because it would influence the end of the season review like the 2010/11 Season Review that I created last season.
Here’s a full list of Gooner Daily’s awards for the month of September created thanks to the votes of the blog’s readers.
SAVE OF THE MONTH
Arsenal played six games in the month and conceded seven goals thereby averaging a goal a game and this raised a lot of questions in the defense. Wojciech Szczesny was the custodian between the sticks for five games while Fabianski had to settle for the Carling Cup encounter to make his first Arsenal start for the season.
The nominated saves were Szczesny’s save from Hoilett when Arsenal lost to Blackburn and Szczesny’s wonder save from Pratley’s flick when Arsenal beat Bolton
The results were:
Szczesny save from Pratley’s flick (24.09.11): 61.54%
Szczesny save from Hoilett’s shot (17.09.11): 38.46%
“Bolton was the first to draw first blood when a Chris Eagles cross was nodded into the dabger area by David Wheater. Pratley got on the end of the ball and produced an amazing save from Wojciech Szczesny.”
Culled from Arsenal 3 Bolton 0: Captain van Persie becomes a centurion
ASSIST OF THE MONTH
Arsenal scored only five goals last month but the Gunners scored 13 goals in September.
The nominated assists were van Persie’s lovely cross for Chamakh in the 3-4 loss to Blackburn, Song’s delightful through ball to Gervinho in the same game and Walcott’s assist for van Persie when Arsenal drew with Dortmund.
The results were:
Walcott’s assist for van Persie (Dortmund) (13.09.11): 61.54%
Song’s assist for Gervinho (Blackburn) (17.09.11): 23.08%
Van Persie’s assist for Chamakh (Blackburn) (17.09.11): 15.38%
With halftime looming around the corner, the deadlock was broken after Bender lost the ball in midfield to van Persie. The ball got to Walcott then he sent a sumptuous through ball to van Persie. Arsenal’s captain picked his spot and finished aplomb.
That was his 15th goal in 16 away games dating back from last season. If that’s not amazing, then I don’t know what that word means.
Culled from Borussia 1 Arsenal 1: They deserved it
GOAL OF THE MONTH
Arsenal was quite impressive this month with 13 goals shipped into the oppositions net. The nominations for goal of the month were Song’s well taken goal when Arsenal hosted Bolton, Oxlade-Chamberlain’s solo effort when Arsenal defeated Olympiakos and Arteta roofer when Arsenal visited Ewood Park.
The results were:
Oxlade-Chamberlain’s goal against Olympiakos (28.09.11): 71.43%
Song’s goal against Bolton (24.09.11): 14.29%
Arteta’s goal against Blackburn (17.09.11): 14.29%
Shortly after receiving the ball, Oxlade-Chamberlain made a mazy run that saw him evade two markers before slotting it past the goalie that was rooted to the spot.
MATCH OF THE MONTH
Arsenal had a good run of form that saw them win four games in a row after the draw at Dortmund and it was only befitting that three games where going to be selected from there. The nominees were Arsenal’s 2-0 victory over Olympiakos, Arsenal’s convincing 3-0 spanking of Bolton and Arsenal’s win over Shrewsbury.
The results were:
Arsenal 3 Bolton 0 (24.09.11): 91.67%
Arsenal 2 Olympiakos 1 (28.09.11): 8.33%
Arsenal 3 Shrewsbury 1 (21.01.11): 0.00%
At the end of the whistle, Arsenal was home and dry and had propelled five places up the log to be placed at 12th position. The weekend also had its fair share of records with van Persie entering the 100 club, Peter Crouch scoring in his sixth different club and Fernando Torres scoring in his second game in a row since the days Merlin was the chief wizard of Britain.
Culled from Arsenal 3 Bolton 0: Captain van Persie becomes a centurion
WORST MATCH OF THE MONTH
It was relatively good month for the Gunners but a game stood out as the worst match, they tie against Blackburn that saw Arsenal concede two own goals.
WAEC Mathematics past question,
1a) In a football match team A scores 5 goals while their opponents, team B, score 2 goals. Team B wins the match. How is this possible?
(5 marks)
1b) what is the final score for this game?
(2 marks)
Note: if u don’t know question 1b come back next year.
Culled from Arsenal defies the laws of football mathematics lose despite-scoring 5 goals
MOST IMPROVED PLAYER OF THE MONTH
Wenger used a lot of players this month because of the club’s numerous injury worries but there were three players that impressed this month. The nominees for this award were Kieran Gibbs, Wojciech Szczesny and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
The results were:
Wojciech Szczesny: 53.85%
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: 38.46%
Kieran Gibbs: 7.69%
Szczesny had an 8.0 rating against Swansea, a 7.5 rating against Dortmund, a lowly 5.5 rating against Blackburn, a 7.0 rating against Bolton and a 7.0 rating against Olympiakos
Overall he had an average rating of 7.0 in the month of August.
Pretty Impressive.
MOST DISAPPOINTING GUNNER OF THE MONTH
Despite the fact that some Gunners did very well in the month of September, there were other Gunners that played below par throughout the month. The nominees were the usual suspect Anfrey Arshavin, Gervinho and Aaron Ramsey.
The results were:
Andrey Arshavin: 50.00%
Aaron Ramsey: 28.57%
Gervinho: 21.43%
Arshavin won the award for the most disappointing Gunner last season and he was also the winner of the most disappointing player award last month. I hope that his fortunes will end soon.
GUNNER OF THE MONTH
This is the award given to the best player in the month of September. It’s also the award where the winner gets his picture uploaded in the Gunner of the Month section of the blog in the sidebar on the right hand side.
The nominees for the prestigious award were Mikel Arteta, Robin van Persie and Alex Song.
The results were:
Alex Song: 57.14%
Robin van Persie: 42.86%
Mikel Arteta: 0.00%
Song missed the Swansea game because of his suspension, a 7.0 rating against Dortmund, a 6.5 rating against Blackburn, an 8.5 rating against Bolton and a 7.0 rating against Olympiakos.
The African gem amassed an average of 7.25.
I would like to express my profound gratitude to every reader that participated in the exercise. At least, we know what to expect for the month of September when I write the season review and the season awards come May.
Feel free to check out the 2010/11 Season Review and the 2010/11 Season Awards at your spare time.
Let’s do this again next month.
Sayonara.
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