The Arsenal welcomed another Lancashire side, Bolton Wanderers after beating Blackburn 2-1 at Ewood Park two weeks ago. With a perfect record against owen Coyle's side last season, Arsene Wenger would want to repeat that record this season but was still wary with Bolton's threat as coyle's team has adopted the passing style which he brought from Burnley.
With most of Allardyce's signings are still at Bolton, the "thuggery" tactics can probably still be seen in this side. The same question would always be whether wenger's team can cope with the physical side and the newly added passing style of Bolton Wanderers. owen Coyle would have another agenda in his mind, plotting the downfall of the home side by capitalising on the Arsenal's defensive weakness.
Final Score...
With van Persie, Walcott and Vermaelen out, there was a starting berth in defence for wenger's final signing of the season, Sebastien Squillaci who pulled through a reserve game during midweek unscathed. The Frenchman also made a few notable changes, with fullbacks Gibbs and Eboue replacing Clichy and Sagna due to the busy schedule in the coming months. Rosicky took Walcott's place while Nasri and Vela only managed to complete the bench.
First Half
The visitors started the first half well with good passing which on ocassions have threatened the home side's defence. But the first real chance came within minutes of the first half when Rosicky sent Arshavin through with a superb defence-splitting pass which ended with Arshavin shooting the ball towards the Bolton keeper.
The Arsenal then slowly settled into the match. At the 24th minute, Koscielny scored his first Arsenal goal after a goal mouth scramble. The move began from a corner taken by Fabregas which eluded everyone on the far post. song took the ball and passed it to Wilshere, who then sent in a cross to Bolton's right side. Fabregas hit a low cross into the centre where Koscielny was at, encouraging the French defender to hit the ball into the net. with the Gunners' opener, the home side grew in confidence as it was very evident in terms of the team's superb passing.
At this moment, the visitors have no reply and the North London side crafted out numerous chances to score the second. The first was a Rosicky shot which was wide and another one was similar to the first real chance, but Arshavin got the ball wide and shot it wide as well.
At 1-0, the visitors could simply get back into the game. And they did. As Bolton sent the ball forward into the home side's area with a long ball, Koscielny headed the ball away from Bolton's Korean winger, but not far enough. Lee Chung song chased after the ball, pulling Almunia to run after him, and then crossed the ball to Elmander who couldn't miss a header to score Bolton's equalising goal. 1-1.
The Arsenal ended the first half with extreme anxiety and were probably glad to hear the blow of the half time whistle.
Second Half
The Gunners restarted the second half with the same anxiety as they had towards the end of the first half. Bolton tried their best to capitalise on this with a few threatening moments against the Arsenal's nervy defence.
The Arsenal though also worked hard to regain their lead with Fabregas putting in a through ball for Chamakh who was in huge amount of empty spaces but the Morrocan's shot was kept away for a corner. The Gunners were able to capitalise this corner kick as the Arsenal captain crossed from the left and the ball met Chamakh's head to put the ball into the net. 2-1 up for the home side.
The main turning point and talking point of the game after referee stuart Attwell sent cahill a red card after lunging into Chamakh with a fierce tackle from behind. It was clearly a debatable sending off, but it had definitely changed the complexion of the game no matter how. With the visitors having one man down, the Arsenal midfield were in full control of the game, passing around to spot open spaces in between the visitors' area.
The game turned a little bit ugly with Bolton putting in rough challenges and tackles at times. Just ask Diaby, who was the victim of a rough and tough tackle by one of the Bolton defenders. The Frenchman, who came on for Wilshere earlier in the second half, was then substituted by Brazilian Denilson.
Approaching the 80th minute mark, Fabregas again was able to spot a running Arshavin who then brought the ball into the box. With Song running into the box as well, Arshavin fed the ball to our Cameroonian midfielder, who then managed to squeeze the ball into the net for the killer third goal, following challenges from Bolton's keeper Bodgan and defender Knight. By then, the game was firmly the Arsenal's to lose. Wenger then sent on Vela to replace Chamakh who had a good game overall.
The classic Arsenal passing and attack came. A 24-pass move, which was started by Vela, ended by vela as well after the Mexican was put through on goal and picked his spot to score the Arsenal's forth. It was the moment to behold indeed. 2nd half ended with a huge roar from the Arsenal fans as the home side have once again wrapped up another important win which, according to Wenger, couldn't have been achieved two seasons ago.
4-1 is the final result.
Do not forget to follow us tomorrow as The Arsenal Press will post our final thoughts on the game. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
Follow us NOW!
To our future and current readers and viewers, feel free to join us by following us at
No comments:
Post a Comment