Sublime van Persie skill papers the cracks

Robin van Persie staked his claim for a regular starting berth alonside Thierry Henry yesterday with brilliant two-goal haul that saw Arsenal make up ground on Chelsea.

van Persie's second goal was the stuff of dreams - a sweetly hit mid-air volley from the edge of the box that somehow managed to find its way into the top corner.

Yet the skill of van Persie overshadowed Arsenal's unconvincing performance at the back, where an obviously unfit William Gallas partnered Kolo Touré in central defence. Justin Hoyte, being played out of position again at left-back looked shaky - again.

Arsenal started the game brightly enough, with Thierry Henry setting up Cesc Fabregas for a headed chance that the young Spaniard somehow hit over the bar.

Henry was attempting to be creative, but seemed to be isolated in Wenger's hybrid system of 4-5-1 and 4-4-2, with van Persie being employed on the left, but in a more advanced position to Alexander Hleb on the right.

Fabregas' missed chance would prove to be costly, as lack-lustre defending from the team in yellow saw Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink pick out Darren Bent to fire in. With more than a hint of offside, Arsenal were understandably aggrieved, but tighter defending (from Hoyte especially) would surely have seen the chance snuffed out earlier.

van Persie looked terribly out of sorts and was lucky to stay on the pitch after a tangle with Hasselbaink. Wenger's decision to keep him on paid rich dividends as he soon swept in Arsenal's equaliser.

Henry, marauding on the right flank this time, played a ball into Alex Hleb, who danced his around three defenders before launching a ball across the box to van Persie. The Dutchman took a touch to control before lashing his shot into the back of the net.

After the break, Arsenal took the lead from van Persie's goal of the season (so far). The effervescent Alexander Hleb slipped a through ball for Emmanuel Eboue, who was overlapping on the right. Eboue's cross seemed to be heading to nobody in particular but van Persie made the ball his.

Altering his footwork to reach the ball in time, van Persie lept and somehow shot at the same time, keeping the ball low enough to creep underneath the bar and beat the keeper at the same time. If you haven't yet seen the goal, I would strongly advise you to find a way to do so. I hear there is a well known video sharing site that has a copy.

Instead of galvanising Arsenal to push on and put the game beyond doubt, it was Charlton who seemed to be rejuvenated by the goal. Lehmann came into the game, making at least four match-saving saves from Charlton players.

Arsenal were even fortunate not to concede a penalty after William Gallas handled the ball in the area. But they should have extended the lead when Thierry Henry shot weakly at the keeper after Jonathan Fortune lost the ball to the Arsenal captain.

It would have been a shame had van Persie's efforts not won the match for Arsenal. But Arsenal's wastefulness in front of goal and their defensive frailty (injuries notwithstanding) will give Arsène Wenger something to think about over the International break.

User Comments

Rombosia

Posted on 2 Oct, 2006 at 09:03 AM - Reply

The writer of this article is really hostile to the team. Does he really expect Hoyte never to make a mistake? I think he played rather well, apart from 1 lapse and he was playing off-side trap n Kolo/Gallas played the other guy on.

Tw, Charlton were at home, does he expect them to just sit back n wait for you to beat them? Of course they'll try to score. If the defence clears doesn't clear, it's not necessarily that they r poor. The other guys are there to score!

Give credit where it's due. They weren't going for goal before, now they're shooting from all over the place, just that they haven't gone in.

The team played well.

Darren

Posted on 1 Oct, 2006 at 09:11 AM - Reply

The second goal - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui7fpiHwsIM

gt

Posted on 1 Oct, 2006 at 09:07 AM - Reply

I hope the French national team will let Gallas take a break. The worse situation is he got overused and injured while on national duty.

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