• Brian

  hey guys, just got back from watchin game at pub (gotta love those with foreign satalite, they show every game) and im stoked, as great as being top of the league is thats ot whats important about tonight, tonight was all about grit and commitment, something we’ve lacked far to often in the last few years, and at 2-0 down we could of been well out of it, but for the first time in ages this arsenal team showed the steel and grit that could well make us champions come may. Again Cesc was class, by far the premier leagues best right now and an absolute joy to watch. unfortunate bout diaby’s injury but didnt look too severe so fingers crossed, but for the first time in a while i think we can genuinly say were in with a title shout.

• debs

  Being top of the league feels awesome! I felt so high after the game! Why on earth do people do drugs, when there’s football?? Lol. Even though we were 2 down, I kind of expected us to win, because we did the exact same thing to Bolton 2 seasons ago, and then we were down to 10 men. But it was still unbelieable that we won. And we didn’t just win, we ARE top of the league! Woo! Can’t wait to see highlights

• Francis

  Yeah kudos to the boys…for a moment i thought we had choked when it mattered most but thanks to the experience of rosicky…cos many teams think that arsenal never shoot as the bolton keeper was priming himself for a cross…

  we could get so many goals if our midfielders shoot early…

  @ Debs yeah i still cant figure out how and why people do drugs…i got my low and high from this game!!!

  and i hope the tabloids do not make a meal out of gallas’s tackle as bad as it was, we all saw the mauling that cesc went through during the first game at bolton…no one talks about it…bcos its arsenal its o.k to kick lumps out of us..

• jeffvip

  Yea, forget the drugs. I kind of saying Gallas is correct in this instance, we need to show them we can play rough games too. All the while, player of Bolton, Stoke or Birmingham just come in and tackle us like nothing happen. WE CAN TACKLE THE SAME WAY AS YOU ALL DID ON US.

  I just saw a comment from man utd fans saying is easy to reach top but hard to maintain. BTW, is Man Utd reaching top b4 in this season? I wonder? HAHA

• http://worldofarsenal.co.uk Josiah

  excellent buzz.

• CON-MAN

  obviously we’ll talk more about gallas tackle when devday does the match report but Arsene had a point after the game saying vs everton, they could of kicked the ball out after denilson collapsed but didnt and it could of been 3-1 to them at the time. so either way it just comes down to the type of person you are. a few seasons ago di canio stopped play but as you saw last night we didnt. if id been an arsenal player (and even as a fan) i would of carried on anyway

  good win nontheless, hope we can maintain!

• Richard Buxce

  Owen Coyle believes that the referee made a mistake. Yeah. A mistake, something none of us are immune to. But then he goes further and makes two unfair criticisms. One is that Gallas’ foul was assault. Not really fair. Gallas wasn’t looking at Davies’ leg when he committed the foul, it was a bad challenge, deserving of a red perhaps, but not intentional and not assault. Whereas Coyle has a short memory, if we recall Matt ‘let’s stamp on his neck and see what happens’ Taylor, and Paul ‘I’m not very good so I’m going to kick Fabregas even after he’s fallen over’ Robinson. Hypocrisy, thy name is Owen. And as for calling us not full of fair play because we didn’t stop the play, well Wenger said himself that he had no problem with Everton carrying on and trying to score against us the other week when Denilson fell over. And in that situation, Denilson had the ball, so it was obvious something was wrong with him, whereas our players weren’t looking at Davies and didn’t know he was badly injured. But if you kick the ball out every time someone falls over the game would be in chaos – this is why it was made the referee’s discretion and players were told to play on unless the referee stopped the game, as we did. Coyle is a manager I respect a lot, but he should think before he opens his mouth to make stupid comments like that. Perhaps he has felt very hard done by and fairly so in fairness so you can understand. But an apology from him to the referee and to Arsenal wouldn’t go amiss.

• will

  Arsenal v Bolton: Mark Davies paid the price for breakdown in trust between footballers

  When Bolton’s Mark Davies was laid flat-out at the Emirates last night with what immediately looked like a serious injury, the natural human reaction was to want Arsenal to roll the ball out of play.

  Arsenal, though, played on and duly sparked controversy by scoring an equaliser at what was clearly a pivotal moment in the match.

  So who should we blame? William Gallas? Referee Alan Wiley? Or maybe Arsene Wenger for encouraging his team to always play to the whistle? While Gallas is clearly accountable for a bad tackle, I would say responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of every player who has ever deliberately disrupted or slowed down a match by feigning injury.

  Before such blatant deception became widespread, football operated quite happily on a mutual understanding between teams that players would only stay down after a challenge when they were genuinely hurt. It worked, rather like the way umpires in cricket could rely on batsmen to walk if they got an edge.

  Yet just like some cricketers, footballers began to exploit this spirit of goodwill. A player would go down and stay down not because he was injured but as a means to stop play and deny the opposition an advantage. It became so widespread that it was eventually decided by Fifa that the referee should be the sole arbiter of when play was stopped.

  In fairness to Arsenal, they had no complaints when Everton almost scored earlier this month after Denilson lost possession and went down with a back injury.

  Now that the situation is reversed, it was understandable that Wenger should defend his players for continuing when Wiley did not see a foul. Should Gallas have disobeyed his manager? Did he even know how much damage his studs had inflicted on Davies’s ankle? Probably not.

  In truth, in the vast majority of incidents, the only person who really knows the severity of an injury is the player himself. That is why it was so much better when players could rely on the good faith of each other.

  It is also why the delay in getting treatment to Davies has to be blamed on those occasions when others have blatantly cheated. Quite simply, there are times when football pays the price for some of its past dishonesty.

  http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/jeremywilson/100004932/mark-davies-paid-the-price-for-breakdown-in-trust-between-footballers/

• Nick

  What a match! If anyone watched that match and saw us come from 0-2 to win and doesn’t think we’re the class of the Prem then they need their heads examined.

  The Gallas foul. Yes it was bad, deserved a yellow. Is it up to the players to keep playing until the ref blows the whistle? Yes! Did they do that? Yes! Could the ref have disallowed the goal? Yes. But we leveled and went on to win. It’s a mans game and sometimes people get hurt. Usually it’s Arsenal on the receiving end and that’s OK with everyone. Anyone who watched the match over the weekend and saw what the Bolton Cavemen did to Cesc will attest to that.

  Anyone else feel the frustration on Eduardo’s face during the game? He can’t buy and goal right now but his form is starting to improve. Just feel bad for him.

• Kuka

  …Gallas’s faul on Davies was harsh. But am not sure you can take away the two goals (by Vam and Arshavin). I do not think we were about to loose the game. We came into the 2nd half blazing and it was going to be a matter of time before we score….

• Nick

  according to reports Gallas will escape FA punishment for his tackle.

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