Arsenal score late goals.
And we expect them to score goals.We also expect them to score late goals against ten men.
On Saturday it was Hull 1 Arsenal 1 after 90 minutes and then Bendtner scored the winner .
Arsenal are top of the form chart in the last six games.
They are champions of the form chart and that’s good because what you did in October doesn’t matter now.
Chelsea have won 3 and lost 2.
Man United have won 4 and lost 1.
Arsenal have not drawn any of their last six games.
Arsenal have won 5 and lost 1, so they’ve taken 15 points while Man United have taken 11. Spurs and Fulham have also taken 11.
Six clubs below them have taken 10 points from their last 6 games : Aston Villa, Everton, Chelsea, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Owen Coyle’s revived Bolton.
What matters now is form and results in the next eight games.
Chelsea have nine games left but if they lose to Inter on Tuesday night their team will be devastated. that would affect Chelsea’s league form.
On Saturday, I thought Arshavin was sloppy. Magical at times, but sloppy. A player of genius should not miss the chances he has missed lately. Messi doesn’t, Rooney doesn’t.
I’m hoping the little Russian’s foot injury isn’t too painful and I’m really hoping he can sharpen up by 5% in the next eight games.
Having said all that, I think Arshavin’s goal in 14 minutes won the game.
Without that goal, the well-organised relegation battlers of Hull might conceivably have taken the lead and given Arsenal a very, very difficult test that might have ended in a draw.
That’s what I thought : the first goal won the game.
Arsenal’s first was a sweet 6-man move and an improvised finish; Vermaelen to Sagna, first time to Eboue, first time to Nasri, first time two-yard to pass to Bendtner, whose pass to Arshavin was his fourth touch. And the stocky, tricky Russian bamboozled two defenders and scored beautifully. That gave Arsenal the start they wanted and the belief they needed.
Arsenal’s second goal was bad goalkeeping my Boaz Myhill, who palmed out Denilson’s 30-yard shot to Bendtner in the 93rd minute.
For once, thuggery was suitably punished. Boateng stuck his finger in the eye of Bendtner, then kicked Sagna on the knee, and got sent off.
It’s a sunny Monday morning and I’m slowly getting back into the football after a whole week without email, phone calls, English newspapers or Sky Sports News.
I’m not on top of it and I won’t pretend to be. I’ll just cruise through this week and see how it goes.
We had seven nights away but I only missed one Arsenal game, as it accidentally worked out. Before the Burnley game I thought Arsenal would beat them by three or four goals, maybe by 4-1.
So I had Jan text our son Michael : Dad says please send Arsenal scorers and goal times.
Michael replied with : Ars 3 Bur 1 Fab 34, Walc 52, Arsh 94, Nugent 50.
When we came home my brother Paddy filled me in on some of the football I’d missed. I told him that I was surprised to find that fragments of news had been just enough. While Al Jazeera are showing you a flood or an earthquake, they put news headlines on the bottom of the screen, white capital letters on a golden ribbon that ticks across.
“It just said things like: Stoke City 0 Chelsea 2 and then Reading 2 Aston Villa 4. I was surprised by how much detail I could do without. But I admit I did wonder whether Reading had scored first.”
“Reading scored two first,” said Paddy. “But then Villa came out in the second half and scored three in 15 minutes.”