ArseBeat for 10/22/07
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This past Saturday saw a visit from Bolton Wanderers to the Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal in a Premier League match. Bolton came into the match a bit rudderless. In the week's build up to the match Bolton sacked manager Sammy Lee. Lee had taken over at the tail end of last season when it was discovered that former manager Big Sam Allardyce was leaving the club to become manager at Newcastle. Now under Big Sam Notlob, er sorry Bolton, were a very physical team, preferring sometimes to kick their opponents more than the ball. Their offensive prowess mainly consisted of lumping the ball up the field to see if they find the head of whatever striker was playing that day, not very pretty on the eye but it did serve them well as they have competed for UEFA Cup places in the recent past. That all changed when Sammy Lee took over as he actually tried to get them play football, with passing and running. That experiment has now been declared a loser and interim manager Archie Cox took over and it was pretty much back to the old ways for Bolton.
For Arsenal there was not a whole lot of changes going into the match. Manuel Almunia continued in goal ahead of Jens Lehmann. In fact Lehmann was not even on the substitutes bench. Robin van Persie was out injured after picking up a knee injury while playing for the Netherlands during the recently completed internationals. The van Persie injury allowed Eduardo da Silva to come on and partner Emmanuel Adebayor up front. The match also saw the return of the skipper William Gallas to the Arsenal backline and the only other change from the side that last beat Sunderland was Emmanuel Eboue started in the midfield ahead of Abou Diaby.
As expected I suppose the first half was pretty physical and somewhat cynical as Bolton played five across the middle of the park. The clogged midfield broke down most of the creativeness of Arsenal as they looked for a way through. The boiling point was seemingly reached in the first half when at the 20 minute mark Bolton's Gavin McCann went in two footed on Bacary Sagna. Tempers heated and after a few handbags El Hadji Diouf, Cesc Fabregas were all shown yellow cards as well as McCann for the original infringement. All in all not a great first half as the teams ended the first 45 minutes level at 0-0.
The breakthrough for Arsenal came in the 68th minute. Bolton's Ivan Campo gave away a free kick when he fouled Fabregas about 25 yards from goal. What followed was one very entertaining moment. Mathieu Flamini, Fabregas and Kolo Toure all stood over the ball. They then proceeded with an argument over who should take it. All of a sudden Fabregas quickly shuffled the ball to Flamini who set it up for Toure to drive in a thunderous low shot that found the bottom corner of the goal. Perhaps that "argument" put the Bolton keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen just a bit off his game. Nevertheless, the goal forced Bolton to come out from their defensive shell. Arsenal saw more chances from substitute Theo Walcott and one from distance by Gael Clichy. Adebayor also found his way near to goal but somehow lost his footing as his chance went wanting.
Arsenal used two substitutes in the match. Theo Walcott and Tomas Rosicky came onto the pitch in the 62nd minute. It would prove to be a very useful set of substitutions as young Theo crossed a ball into the area in the 80th minute. The cross was met brilliantly by Rosicky who guided the ball into the back of the net thereby sealing the points for Arsenal.
Three more points and Arsenal remain at the top of the Premier League table 2 points ahead of Manchester United who also collected three points in a very impressive 4-1 drubbing over Aston Villa. Next up for the Gunners this week is a return to Champions League play as they host Slavia Prague at the Emirates on Tuesday evening. Next weekend sees perhaps the Gunners stiffest test of the campaign so far as a trip to Anfield to play Liverpool will surely be a match to gauge how far the young Gunners have progressed. Oh, and the reserves run out against Reading this evening.
