Arsenal 2-0 Wolves – Can’t Ask for Anything More

There were only two things we could really ask from this game – three points and no new injuries ahead of Barca.  It seems we got both of those and on top of that we got a clean sheet and a pretty easy game that didn’t zap us of too much energy before Wednesday.   It was overall the perfect response to the horror of last week.

There are bigger tests to come and the opposition made it a little easy for us.  No disrespect to the lovely Wolves fans that I met yesterday, but their team is really dreadful.  They fully deserve to be bottom of the league judging by yesterday’s performance, which makes their result to United even more amusing.  But we can only play what is in front of us and we did everything that was required of us.

In the wake of United’s earlier win over City, we put out a strong team.  It was the right thing to do.   Cesc started the game with a bang by scoring in the opening seconds but it was disallowed as there had been a foul on Wilshere.  Van Persie hit over the bar a couple of times but then came our first.  A great cross from Cesc and Van Persie was able to put it away into the corner of the goal, surprisingly with his right foot!

The chances kept coming in the first half.  Djourou’s header deflected over the goal, Arshavin shot wide, Fabregas had an attempt cleared off the line and Van Persie shot straight at the keeper.  Both sides had penalty shouts, but overall we had been the best team by far and their keeper had been their best player.  We needed another goal to settle all nerves though.

We started the second half brightly too.  Walcott had a great chance early on but shot wide after some great set up play by Jack.  When the second goal eventually came it was spectacular.  A range of passes, Fabregas to Walcott to Robin and bang!   Van Persie’s 11^th goal of 2011 and it was Wengerball at its finest!  We still had some great chances after that, but once the subs had come on you could see that we knew we had done enough to secure the points and so the focus had switched to saving energy for Barca.

It’s a shame that our second goal hasn’t been focused on because of Rooney’s bicycle kick.  He scored a great goal sure, but he has been attempting it for a while so it was pretty lucky more than anything.  The player himself admits this and it’s not like it’s never been done before, but we know the media overhype everything the guy ever does so I’m not taking it very seriously. 

It was obvious from this game how much we missed Song and Djourou in the second half last week.  They give the team so much confidence and it’s also interesting to see what a difference it makes to Koscielny’s performance when he is partnered with Djourou.  Song’s passing was exceptional too.

Van Persie is such a special player – I could literally watch him all day.  How we have needed him but it’s like Chinese water torture to think of the trophies we would have won if he had been fit.  Best not to look backwards.  He took quite a knock in this game before the second goal which got me worried but luckily seems to be ok.  Robin and Theo are also becoming quite a deadly duo together.  I was quite pleased with Chamakh for the chances he created when he came on too.  I think he just needs a goal to get back his earlier form.

If I have to be really picky, my only issue yesterday was that Theo needs to make better decisions ahead of goal and Arshavin and Wilshere and Cesc can also step it up a bit when it comes to their finishing.   Luckily it didn’t matter today but against better teams it could.  They all worked hard though, and Jack bossed the midfield like someone twice his age. 

Back to the positives and McCarthy’s comments after the game really do deserve a mention:

“We’ve had a slapping, there was a murder going on out there. I admire the way Arsenal went about their job and for us to get better and aspire to that level of performance, they’ve slapped us.”  Lol.

And finally, after my reporting during the week of Bendtner’s confidence test scores, here is what he says about Barca “We have to fancy our chances this time because we can beat anyone on our day. We have shown that”.  You have to love him for it!  I hope all our players feel the same way; we need to be confident because for once we have almost a fully fit squad against them!  The full preview will be out later in the week.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend guys.

Lots of Love

Highbury Honey xxx