Arsenal 3 - 0 Bolton Wanderers: You are not seeing things, we actually won

After a decent mid-week display from the kids and fringe players, it was time for the much maligned first team to play against fellow strugglers Bolton in front of the Arsenal faithful.

Arsenal made two changes from the team that lost to Blackburn. Kieran Gibbs returned at left back in place of Andre Santos. Theo Walcott was restored to the line-up in place of Andrey Arshavin.

Bolton surprisingly left Kevin Davies on the bench, while Gary Cahill missed out due to illness.

Frustrating first half
The attention this season has mostly been focused on Arsenal's defensive problems and rightfully so. However, for perhaps the first time this season Arsenal experienced very little problem at the back. Instead, the problems were going forward and Arsenal's first half dispay was very reminiscent of the Arsenal of two or three years ago; the one that would all the posession and shots, but not make the breakthrough.

Bolton posed very little threat as an attacking force and spent the whole of the first half defending. They had clearly come here for a draw, which was surprising considering our vunerabilities in defence. They happily conceded posession to us and sat back with a bank of four and a bank of five. Arsenal found it difficult to play their way through and test Jasskeleinen in goal.

Bolton did well to block off Arsenal's main threat, which was down the flanks with the pace of Gervinho and Walcott. The centre was too congested for them to cut inside, while frequent poor descision making hampered their delivery into the penalty area.

Arsenal suffered from poor decision making in the final third for the entirety of the first half and this, coupled with Bolton's strong defensive performance, meant the score was 0-0 at half time. More frustration for Arsenal.

Dominant Arsenal finally score
Arsenal broke the deadlock pretty early in the second half. Aaron Ramsey drove forward with the ball and played in van Persie, who made space for himself before slamming the ball past the ever-reliable Bolton keeper. From here on it was all Arsenal.

Bolton managed the odd counter-attack but Arsenal were rarely threatened, mainly because both full backs didn't advanced forward as much as they usually did and provided extra cover. Another noticeable tactical change was Aaron Ramsey playing higher up and closer to van Persie. It paid off since Ramsey had much more of an effect on the game in the second half.

Arsenal's most dangerous threat came down the right hand side. The slow Robinson couldn't keep up with Walcott's pace and intelligent movement, and even though he was quite wasteful overall, it was Walcott who set-up the second and all important goal. His cross found van Persie, who did something an Arsenal player rarely does - make a run to the near post to meet a cross.

The third goal was pretty much a bonus. I've yet to see the goal, but I hear it's a beauty from Alex Song, of all people.

"We are staying up!"
That was the chorus from the Arsenal fans after the second goal. I don't think anyone actually thinks we'll be in a relegation fight this season, but with the way things have gone a win really was needed.

And today's win was a very comfortable one, in the end. We had all the ball and all the chances while Botlon seldom threatened. I'm sure it'll do a lot of good for the teams confidence ahead of a tough trip to Spurs.

Robin van Persie: 100 Arsenal Goals
The guy has been plagued with injuries throughout his Arsenal career, but the captain has still managed to squeeze out 100 clubs goals from the Arsenal. He becomes the 17th player to do so for Arsenal, and joins some of the finest strikers in Arsenal history. It's a great acheivement and we all hope he can continue scoring.

Player Ratings
Wojciech Szczesny - 6
Laurent Koscielny - 6
Per Mertesacker - 6
Kieran Gibbs - 6
Bacary Sagna - 6
Alex Song - 7
Mikel Arteta - 7
Aaron Ramsey - 7
Gervinho - 6
Theo Walcott - 7
Robin van Persie - 8

RVP, Song, walcott, Gervinho and everyone deserves

YAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!

I'm not happy with Ramsey's performance though

Good result, but would we have won against 11 men? Interesting.

Van Persie is god (even if he needs to work on his fks)

Walcott hamstring is only bad news

Finally.. A convincing win.. Salute to the legend who scored his 100th goal.. :worthy:

First half we were really meh, which was to expected considering our awful form.

Second half, the early goal from RVP gave us a massive boost. The red card took off massive pressure, and the 2nd goal took off some chains and let us play our football.

Ramsey was shit in the first half, but good in the second. He got an assist for VP's 1st, and his beautfully weighted pass forced Wheater to take the red card.

Good result, nothing short of what was expected.

great win i like!!!

We can't just have a good victory always have to be soured with injury.....
AoC or Ryo may get a chance off the bench now on the bright side, still have Arshavin and Benayoun.

Emaharg wrote:We can't just have a good victory always have to be soured with injury.....
AoC or Ryo may get a chance off the bench now on the bright side, still have Arshavin and Benayoun.

wenger isnt playing AOC or Ryo. arshavin's starting and gervinho's switching wings.

Wished we scored more goals .

lenear1030 wrote:

Emaharg wrote:We can't just have a good victory always have to be soured with injury.....
AoC or Ryo may get a chance off the bench now on the bright side, still have Arshavin and Benayoun.

wenger isnt playing AOC or Ryo. arshavin's starting and gervinho's switching wings.

I know but when he makes subs for the wingers late in the game they might get 10 minutes.
Since Benayoun is out at the moment too.

Not thoroughly convincing match against a very weak and too respectful opponent by the gunners.
Would've been much narrower if Bolton had finished with 11. Hopefully the turning point, that gives Arsenal more confidence

Match stats:

FT Stats Arsenal v Bolton Shots 27-3 On target 10-2 Passing Accuracy 86%-74% Fouls 8-8 Duels Won 48%-52% Possession 63%-37%

Key fact - First half Arsenal zero shots on target. Second half Arsenal 10 shots on target.

-----------------------------

Seriously, I don't get why everyone was riding Rambo in the first half. He didn't do anything "wrong", he just wasn't doing anything particularly "right". It was a tidy display of passing; nothing more, nothing less. In the second half, he sprung to life, made through balls, runs and some good shots. People where whining for no reason as far as I was aware.

Heck, our performance in the first half wasn't even bad. We were lacking the final touches in the attacking third, but everything else was there. The passing, the dribbling and reaching the goal...but then we were let down by a poor touch, a nice save, a last ditch tackle or a super-block. It wasn't a worrying performance, and we had performed much worse before.

Walcott, while a bit wasteful, has become very important to us. His dribbling has improved, his runs have improved and he stretches defenses all the time. He switches flanks all the time now, but his finishing today wasn't there. Even then, his shooting wasn't poor and was very close to scoring in the first half.

I also don't get this 11 man crap. Bolton were of no threat in the first half, and even less so in the second half. 3 shots all game...that says it all about their "threat". The was only one instance in the second half where they could have scored, and that was after they had lost Wheater. Before losing wheater, they were not doing anything with the ball.

The sending off only eased the result, but nothing would have changed. Had they not gotten the red card, we would have probably scored the second goal. Really, it made no difference so I don't get why everyone has to be pessimistic and look for an excuse as to why we won. We were the better team all throughout and in every single aspect of the game, and we dominated them. Be happy ffs

bolton had a chance or two in the first half, but we had 0 shots on goal.... i think game would've ended 1-0 to us had it been 11 vs. 11 but its a great confidence boost

and how could walcott miss that 1 on 1?

Eman wrote:

polar bear ? Lol..

A verYyyy important win finally..but i'm not satisfied as much 2bh(it's personal..my prediction !..damn it...LOOL.)..! well i didn't see tha game ..soo..i'm just CURIOUS to see player ratings !pls

KMD wrote:bolton had a chance or two in the first half, but we had 0 shots on goal.... i think game would've ended 1-0 to us had it been 11 vs. 11 but its a great confidence boost

and how could walcott miss that 1 on 1?

0 shots on goal, but 10 shots in total. That shows that we were lacking in front of goal, but it also means that we were able to get into positions where we could shoot. How many times did they make a last ditch tackle? A last ditch block? How many times did a bad touch from a player (A la Gervinho) ruin an easy chance? We were doing well, but we weren't sharp. They had 1 chance in the first half, and that was in the first couple of minutes. That was it.
We should have won this game by 6 goals really, but a combination of great goalkeeping, bad decision-making and not-so-good finishing stopped us. To say that this was all down to Wheater stopping Walcott and RVP from a one-v-one chance (and getting a red card in the process) is illogical
27 shots people. 27. That's more than a shot every 4 minutes. Take that into consideration, will you?

Sorry I haven't completed the write-up yet. I got caught up in more important thngs i.e. applying for a job.

Will try and get it done a.s.a.p.

3 goals, 3pts and a clean sheet.

Good Weekend.

Wilson37 wrote:

Eman wrote:

polar bear ? Lol..

Bear!!!! but it ain't POLAR

Good display. The team is gelling together and I was very impressed with Arteta. We were sort of wasteful in front of goal, but I am surprised we actually started shooting from afar, something completely lacking in our game.

The defense was solid as shit, Bolton had no clear chances on goal apart from some very difficult angles. Sagna a rock as usual. Kos and Merts forming have a better understanding. Gibbs has been solid, which is not what I expected of him. If Gibbs is fit, then I would start him over Santos always.

VP, nuff said. I still want to see Park play! Hopefully Walcott's injury isn't tough because he's been KEY in our game this season.