Yesterday, even the most pessimistic Arsenal supporter would have managed "Finally a double-figured goal difference". The class and the intensity of the performance was such that maybe it would have surprised Wenger even. That was anything but mediocre, and all those who said that Arsenal are tending towards mediocrity are already eating their own words(including me).
The ease with which Rovers were battered, it could have been anyone, even Barcelona. Its not that the Rovers performed too bad, just that they were too smitten by the awesomeness with which Arsenal played that they went too much in their shells. The goals kept coming at regular intervals, and it was looking like it would be more of a cricket score.
RVP scored his second hat-trick of the season. The first one was off a low cross from Theo and a simple tap in and the second one almost a deja vu of the first. The third one came with another low cross, this time from Coquelin and a RVP's right foot did the rest. That one of the best goals of the game and not many can do that with their wrong foot. We have been crying for goals from some one other than RVP and this time we had three others contributing to the massive score. The Ox did not fail to impress again and his first goal in the Premier League was a testament to his class. Who needs Nasri when we have The Ox? It was a superb finish and at his age he has got the calm and composure to do that. Certainly he's going to be a legend for Arsenal and its up to Arsenal to keep him in the future. Arteta scored Arsenals fourth with a strike from just outside the penalty box. The icing on the cake was the seventh from TH14, and you couldn't have asked for more.
Rosicky had a good game, couple of strikes that reminded us about the player that we brought in 2007. The defense didn't have too much to do, for most of the game they were playing higher up the pitch. Just one mistake just outside the penalty box from Kos cost us a goal from a Pedersen free kick. Givet was sent off midway through the first half for his two footed challenge on RVP and AW almost had a heart attack seeing his top goal scorer down. Givet apologised to AW for the foul but the damage was already done and Rovers played with 10 men.
For now we are back to the 5th spot in the table, and we'll soon find out if we keep the places when our 5th place competitors play their games tonight. Chelsea battle Manu at the Bridge and Manu have had problems in the past playing there. Liverpool play Rottenham at home and Newcastle at home against Aston Villa. All we can do on our part is to stay consistent, no one will be expecting a repeat of yesterday but the 3 points matter. Finally we added to our goal difference and took our tally of "Goals For" to 46 which is currently the third highest in the league. The problem has been our defending and with our fullbacks returning, there's some hope that those problems will be minimized. There are still 14 games, 8 of them at home, to be played in the season and I see no reason why we shouldn't finish in the top four. The desire is there in the team, they want to compete, they look to excel.
The season will turn on from this point and the team that holds their nerves will reap the rewards. You just hope that our lack of depth in the squad just doesn't come to haunt us back, touchwood. Arsene rightly has advised his team to keep their feet firmly on the ground, if winning 1-0 gives us 3 points, winning 7-1 is still 3 points. We have to earn these 3 points in every game we play and show the same class we showed yesterday. After the match, AW said,
"I felt that recently we had quite good performances but did not get the results. Today we got the performance and the result, which is ideally what you want. I do not give much importance to the seven goals, it is just important we won and played well."
And rightly so, we haven't performed that bad, we just lacked in some areas and failed to finish off the games. The credit has to be given to the mental strength of the team with the way they have handled failure. Success is only for people who are mature enough to handle their failures, which is what the team have shown. The Arsenal board are lucky to have this team, it might not be big enough in numbers but certainly higher up in the class.
Upto Chelsea, Liverpool and Newcastle now...
-Wenger on the team's permformance.
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