Arsenal 2 Bolton 1
Test of faith – for the players and the fans and perseverence which was often in greater supply than finishing ability won the day.
Arsenal lined up in a 5-1-4 to start. And Bolton put ten behind the ball. The home team started OK, using dinked balls into the area for Ljungberg and Adebayor to run on to.
But Adebayor cleared sloppily from a Bolton corner – and Diouf had a free shot at goal in the first few minutes.
There was a seventies German film by Wim Wenders, full of angst: The Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty. Watching Bolton attack the Arsenal defence, it summoned up something similar – The Arsenal Fans’ Fear of Conceding the First Goal at The Emirates.
Bolton looked threatening with Diouf and Anelka. On 11, following a Diouf dive for a free kick, Arsenal failed to deal with a bouncing ball in the area from Hunt. It went over Toure and Davies and Nolan was free and tried to head over Lehmann who parried – but only to Anelka who rammed it in with the aid of an attempted goal-line handball clearance from Gallas. This was the fourteenth time Arsenal had gone behind at The Emirates.
Rosicky was busy, and the central driving force for attacks and he fired a close shot on the turn.
Ljungberg fired a free kick agonisingly wide, after being fouled by Nolan.
Adebayor had a one on one, set up by Ljungberg, but he shot straight at the Finnish keeper.
Rosicky fired in another shot, and Ljungberg wasn’t sharp enough to connect with a beautifully crafted Fabregas ball which cut out most of the Bolton defence.
Talking of the past – at times it was like the Rix-Brady shuttle service, such was Arsenal’s passing dominance.
And on 31 Adebayor broke onto the right, and dinked a dangerous ball. It came off Hunt – and there, surprisingly was Rosicky, acting like a traditional centre forward, picking up the rebound and tapping past Jaaskelainen.
The vocal support went up a couple of notches, from a rather muted beginning for a game of such importance.
But Arsenal didn’t have it all their own way. Nolan managed to head dangerously from the right, and only a last minute intervention by Gallas saved the day.
And Anelka was played onside by some sloppy defending, and it was only Gallas again forcing him wide that minimised the danger.
At the start of the second, a Gilberto through ball down the middle found Fabregas. He cut inside and outside and picked his spot beautifully past Jaaskelainen. His celebration for his first Premiership goal this season, looked like it relased a lot of frustration – double punching the air several times.
Another intricate move saw the ball come back from Ljungberg to Hleb who tried to measure his shot – but it went the wrong side of the upright.
Allardyce, who at times looked like a conductor, wildly gesticulating in his white shirt and black tie and trousers, sensed his team were being outplayed and sent on Andranik Teymourian on 56 to shore up the centre. Soon after Diaby came on strangely to play a striker’s role instead of Ljungberg, who had a fiery game. The Frenchman is not really a natural striker – and did drop back into midfield at times, when danger threatened.
Baptista came on for Hleb, who looks to have lost some confidence, and had a below par game. The sun was pouring down and Baptista had the ball at his feet – and three times in the space of eight minutes there were two misplaced passes and one lack of control. One could have set Adebayor away but it was over-hit. This man is just too beefy for his own boots.
Lehmann fumbled a back pass and Arsenal, unbelievably, after all the hard work, went to sleep at the corner and were lucky to escape.
Campo got a second yellow for clattering Rosicky – and Arsenal started finding more holes in the Bolton defence.
There were some jittery moments at the other end as Bolton performed their routines of balls into the area, fighting for knock-downs. There was a demonstartion of the dark arts of penalty box shenanegans as Bolton forced two corners, with Davies slyly hitting Lehmann’s head. Anelka had a misplaced shot from one such move.
A long ball into the Arsenal area over Davies seemed to hit Eboue on the junction of arm and shoulder, and as he lent backwards he controlled the ball with his hand. Very lucky not to be given.
Adebayor who was enjoying a lot more freedom down the left ran to the touchline and dinked a great ball in for Diaby who headed wide when he should have scored.
And as if to emphasise the dearth of striking experience Arsenal have to hand at present, a through ball saw Diaby and Baptista fighting for a chance to get in, one on one with Jaaskelainen – actually pushing each other. Diaby won that battle but proceeded to hit it straight at the Finnish keeper.
Then in third minute of injury time Diaby was free on the right but dinked his effort well wide.
This was a very important victory. It was important to bounce back morale-wise after West Ham, and the team stuck to their task all game, with great chasing back and harrying from Diaby and Adebayor in particular.
Secondly, in a practical sense, it puts Arsenal in a good position to finish in the Champions League spots – and even catch Liverpool, two points ahead in third place, but with other things on their mind.
Arsenal: Lehmann, Clichy, Eboue, Toure, Gallas, Fabregas Gilberto, Ljungberg, (Diaby 60), Hleb (Baptista 81), Rosicky, Adebayor Subs not used
Almunia, Senderos, Aliadiere
Bolton Wanderers: Jaaskelainen, Meite, Faye, Hunt, Gardner (Andranik Teymourian 56) Nolan (Thompson 76) Campo, Speed, Davies, Anelka, El Diouf (Ricardo Vaz Te 61) Subs not used Al-Habsi Stelios:
Attendance: 60,101
Referee: Rob Styles