Signed, sealed, delivered

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
11 Apr	3:00 PM	P	Wigan Athletic (A)	4	1	Win

This has to be quick today. Mainly because I'm leaving for Gatwick in about half an hour, but also because all I saw of the game yesterday is what Match of the Day deigned to show us. So we had Mido's goal from an early Wigan corner and Keiran Gibbs getting lucky in the view of Steve Bruce and Alan Hansen when he brought down Valencia who was through on goal. Though this view neglects the fact that the referee might have blown for a foul on Gibbs in the first place. He didn't and in the context of that, then yes Gibbs was lucky.

Luckier still that the resulting free kick van Persied off the post and out and that he was still on the pitch to effect a goal line clearance from Mido after Silvestre and Fabianski got in a bit of a mess.

Then, Arsenal scored four goals as Fabregas and Arshavin came to the fore.

The first, from Walcott, owed to the persistence of Arshavin digging the ball out for Theo to lash home. The second came from Silvestre, who had replaced Djourou in the first half- a bad knee injury apparently - after neat interplay between Cesc and Arshavin culminated in Cesc playing the ball across the six yard box where the defender lashed in. van Persie and Adebayor arrived from the bench to beef up the attack, Arshavin hit the post and van Persie netted the rebound, from an offside position. Not that MotD showed this, but I was paying attention.

The points were signed, sealed and delivered in the closing minutes as Arshavin capitalised on a poor pass on the edge of the box by Koumas to lash home and then Cesc fed Song, who danced throuh to the penalty area before thumping home the final goal of the game.

Arsène had the following to say post match: "I feel we have shown great character again. This young team has a lot of mental strength. We have shown some qualities that make it very interesting for the future.

"Wigan were very strong and committed in the first half. We had problems with their man-to-man marking. But I felt in the second half our technique took over. We looked dangerous every time we had the ball."

Which may or may not have been a fair assessment of the game. Looking ahead to Villarreal, a central defence of Touré and Silvestre seems guaranteed. Nasri had a good rest yesterday - interesting that Theo seems to be getting the starts ahead of him at the minute. Once again, we are saved by our second half, I don't think we can afford another slow start on Tuesday.

User Comments

sabas

Posted on 13 Apr, 2009 at 03:12 PM - Reply

i think wenger was resting Nasri because he is one of the player who played most games apart from Sagna and clichy, theo was out ofr 3 month so its fair to rest one each game and use another but for villareal they will all be in there

GunnerJay

Posted on 13 Apr, 2009 at 01:01 PM - Reply

Good assessment overall of the match. I managed to watch it via online stream since neither FSC nor Setanta showed it here in the US.

Just wanted to point out to avoid confusion that we play Villareal on Wednesday, and not on Tuesday. I thought Tues as well until I went to set my DVR last night.

Quinster

Posted on 13 Apr, 2009 at 01:03 AM - Reply

Nasri does the left & Theo does the right.

Theo's keeping out Eboue very well at the moment I think - Eboue's in his best form of the season while Theo Walcott once lacked match fitness.

Meanwhile, Arshavin & Nasri are working out things ever so nicely on the leff.

So it can only be frustrating when Wenger plays Denilson, or Bendtner, on the left (or anywhere for that matter).

Regardless... I'd go for Arsenal 2-0 Villareal.

Thank you very much & goodnight.

denhen

Posted on 13 Apr, 2009 at 12:36 AM - Reply

I think Wenger should stop continuing using this young team has belief or others. It is not a young team anymore as there are few older players on the field such as Silvestre, RVP, Sagna, Toure, Gallas(not in this game but in previous matches).However, I must give credit to the real young players like Song, Denilson,Walcott and Cesc(not sure he is considered a young player anymore after playing few seasons.

All the best to this team,hope they do well this Wednesday's Champions League QF.

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