Sunday 12 February 2012

King Henry puts Arsenal on the path.

The karate kick.

Sure, all we wanted were the three points and that's we got, but to get it from TH14's karate kick goal was mesmerising. You couldn't have asked for a more valuable parting gift from him. Though he still plays at Milan, and I hope he repeats yesterday's feat, the important thing was the way the team reacted to the situation. This time it was the Russian sub again but causing havoc in the enemy camp!

How do you describe the perfection of the last 20 minutes? Perfect timing of the substitutions, perfectly timed equalizer, a perfect pin point cross and a perfect finish to finish off the game. To think that our goals involved 3 of our substitutes, the people who criticised Wenger, for the subs against Manchu, will know better now. Wenger has said that he has made 50000 substitutions in life and he knows better, well yesterday he proved himself correct.

We didn't complain about the sad nature of the pitch, nor did we shrug our shoulders, nor were they drooping. The resilience of the team survived us on the pitch yesterday. After Sunderland scored the first goal, it was always going to be difficult to get back into the game, with the Black Cats defending very well and keeping everything organised. You can't blame Mertesacker for giving up on the ball, he looked to be in real pain and I hope everything is alright with him. Anymore injuries can only push us on the edge, if we aren't already. The referee can't stop the game because of that, and even Wenger did not blame it on the referee, although we might think that he would be reacting differently if we had lost the game. AW said,

It was unfortunate. Mertesacker told me that he got a shot in his ankle and couldn't move at all anymore. We are a bit worried about his ankle I must say because he goes home on crutches. He has done some ligament damage, but how big that is we will have to check tomorrow. For sure he is out for Wednesday.
 Though we have TV and Kos for Wednesday and Gibbs is also back, there is not much to worry about. But I sincerely hope that he gets back to the game sooner. Per was upto the challenge most of the times, got his headers, defended pretty well. Yes, he was not facing world class strikers, but we definitely managed to keep Sessegnon quiet. There were some rumors that Arsenal are interested in him. But lets not speculate just yet.

One moment of brilliance from Ramsey and a bit of luck and help from the two goal posts, got us our equaliser. The rest has done him some good, though there wasn't much from him, he got us the all vital goal and opened our accounts. You might criticise Arshavin how much ever you want, but there is still a hint of the class you saw three years ago when he scored four against Liverpool. And as we always say, form is temporary, its just that in his case, this bad run of form has stretched too much. But no complaints about yesterday, we needed him to deliver and what a delivery he put in. Mignolet who had a decent match yesterday, just hesitated for a bit and didn't come out for the ball and it turned out very good. Maybe he might have been put off by Thierry's presence, but that's what a striker should do. There is a lot young strikers can learn from him.

Walcott was back to his normal self, inconsistent. I simply do not understand the problem with him, one day he can be the best player in the world and the next day he could be playing football alongside me! Sunderland did well enough to keep him off the ball, which cut the supply to RVP and even he had a rare dry game. Alex Song made some good tackles in the middle and stopped a lot of counter attacks. Even when he was put in the centre of defense, he came out when required to make that odd pass to the front, but in general a good performance. The Ox didn't do much yesterday but was stable enough. Bardsley did well to control him and it will be another valuable lesson learned for the youngster.

The best thing about last nights win was that, our competitors all lost yesterday and we have gained some good ground on two of them. We are level with Chelsea on points but ahead on matches won now, so we are back where we wanted to be, in the top four! Its our job to keep us there and rise higher, we do not have the liberty to give away what Chelsea have gifted to us. Our next PL encounter is with Rottenham and we need to keep our consistency.

Thierry bid the PL crowd good bye and all the the reservations people had about him losing his legend status if he doesn't do well, was put to rest. He is, was and always be a legend and not just for Arsenal! AW couldn't stop praising him after last night's display,

He finished the story of the legend today in the championship; I hope he will add some in the Champions League on Wednesday now. Certainly he got us the three points in a difficult game.
Off to the San Siro, and wouldn't it be a dream come true if TH14 scorches a winner there!
Once a legend, always a legend!



-Arsene on the importance of an away goal against Milan.
-The Boss recalls the last away win against Milan.
-Wilshere to come back sooner?

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