Morning Gooners,
Isn’t it lovely to have some football back on the TV?
I’ve enjoyed the Euro’s so far, cagey opening games are quite standard in an international tournament but many games have been exciting enough with both teams pushing for the win.
In terms of Arsenal interest, it hasn’t been a great tournament for our boys. Szczney sent off; RVP off form against Germany; Podolski quiet; Rosicky off injured and Mertesacker benched. However the man who has excited Gooners all season, is now the source of excitement for England. Oxlade-Chamberlain’s slightly surprising debut against France has resulted in glowing praise for the 18 year old from the manager and media. While he may not have had the performance he would have liked, he provided drive and intent every fan wants to see from a player either representing their country or club.
Moving on to part 2 of the end of season poll results:
Goal of the season:
Five goals made up the nominations for this category, four of them RVP goals! We’ve had some classic strikes this season and when your player of the season is RVP, you can expect a few wonder strikes along the way.
Two goals led the way:
RVP vs Everton & RVP vs Liverpool:
The winner for goal of the season, with 38% of the vote, was the wonder strike against Everton. A fitting goal on a day the Club chose to celebrate 125 years of the Arsenal.
My seat is in the corner of the ground where that goal was scored (right of the keeper). Thinking back to the goal, I can still see Song clipping the ball over the defence, my initial thought was ‘what’s the point of this’ and then I remember watch RVP watching the ball fly towards him while adjusting his body accordingly. By the time the ball had arrived to RVP his body was in line and he knew what he wanted to do; a crisp volley into the opposite corner. Howard just admired the strike with the rest of us. What a goal.
For those that thought it was a one off strike, RVP and Song repeated the trick at Anfield in the final minute. You can actually see me as the goal is scored as I was in the front row of the away fans, RVP’s body movement was exactly the same. I still believe Reina thought RVP would strike across goal similar to the Everton goal and had thus taken a small step to his left; instead RVP side footed the volley into the near post deceiving Reina. What a goal.
The moment of the season:
I have commented in a few of my blogs that this season has been like no other; as well as enduring a number of horrendous lows, we leave the season with a number of classic and heart warming moments.
Here are a few:
Beating Tottnum 5-2:
Wow, what a day that was. After being 2-0 down and 13points behind them at that very moment, our season pivoted on quick fire goals by Sagna and RVP. A second half wonder performance by Walcott finished off a truly unforgettable day.
Beating Chelsea 5-3:
At 3-3 you would have been forgiven for thinking we were about suffer another defeat but a beautiful slip from the scum of the earth, John Terry, allowed RVP in to put us 4-3. Before you had time to get nervous, Arsenal broke from a Chelski attack and RVP fired a beauty into the top corner past Cech. Cue pure screaming from every Gooner all over the world.
The first half versus Milan.
After being thumped 4-0 away from home, many of the fans in the ground arrived to potentially watch the last champions league game maybe for a short while. What unfolded in the first half was nothing short of magical. Koscielny, Rosicky and then a RVP penalty suddenly made the impossible possible. The noise and atmosphere after that 3rd goal was unforgettable. The players were sung off the pitch as hero’s at half time, why? We recognised the effort, we loved the reaction and we believed. The dream didn’t pan out the way we would have liked but the effort at 4-0 down will never be forgotten.
The winner of moment of the season:
What a f*cking moment. This one moment will always rank highly in my all time favourite Arsenal moments. Just re-watching that has given me goosebumps.
Henry returning was amazing enough, just seeing him back in the Red & White of Arsenal was special but scoring the winning goal from the bench in a Monday night FA Cup tie… shoot me now cause I must be in heaven.
I’ve watched the clip above about 50 times before posting it; words still can’t effectively describe what a special moment that was.
Next week I’ll continue the moments of the season, next up the lowest and the funniest moments.
Have a great week and lets hope for some goal scoring form from the Euro Gooners!
Have a good one.
~ @Tottz82
