Archive for the ‘Match Reports’ Category

What an exciting day of football for pretty much every one in the league… Congratulations to Robin Van Persie and the rest of the boys for pulling out an epic victory to claim 3rd place in the league, which guarantees us Champions League football next season…

Happy St. Totteringham’s Day

Indeed, the day where Sp*rs cannot finish above Arsenal…

Van der Vaart: “There is no chance of Arsenal finishing above Spurs. We’re better.”

And today is a great day indeed Vaartmeister…

And another look at the table please….

Now in all this excitement and all of these jokes about Sp*rs, I haven’t really commented on the game yet. A game which actually shows how far we are away from where we need to be. Yes, we without Arteta, Wilshere & Diaby… but there is a lot which needs to be done to this squad to get it competing on with the top two…

More to follow…

What a weekend of football it has been… Weekends like these, although good for the neutral, are hell for Gooners. Down at the Emirates with a whole host of friends, soaking up the atmosphere and ready to roll at 12.45 yesterday. The atmosphere was nervous, but confident. The line up was announced, and it was the same as last week, with Benayoun and Gervinho both starting on the wings:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Koscielny – Vermaelen – Gibbs

Ramsey – Song

Gervinho – Rosicky – Benayoun

Van Persie

My seat was in the North Bank, upper tier, behind the goal and it was a good view of the entire pitch.

And what a great start it was to see Benayoun score in the first minute. No doubt about it, the Israeli was a decent acquisition last Summer. Someone who can compliment the squad. We won’t have him next season, and hopefully we’ll have recruited the world class winger that we all want. But nevertheless, it was a great goal from the Israeli and our nerves were settled.

But then… Aaron Ramsey went nuts. Yes, it wasn’t only his fault – but he was so poor, positionally, next to Alex Song he was non existent. If I had to contribute a bad performance to any player during one game, this was the game, and he was the player. But Arsene didn’t really have a choice with Wilshere, Arteta and Diaby all out injured. But I doubt Arsene thought it was going to be that bad. When you watch the game for the first time, you can instantly see how poor Ramsey was, but it made Song look bad too. He was covering two positions, and it was just too much for one person.

We lost the first goal to a complete lack of midfield and really, we should have had more sense. It didn’t help that our vice captain Thomas Vermaelen decided to run up the field and leave Koscielny and Gibbs to deal with the Norwich striker force and midfield. For me, it was a nervous performance and one that lacked cohesion. Norwich looked like the Arsenal of old, and we looked like the Norwich out of the Championship.

Van Persie came to the rescue and turned 2-1 into 3-2 but even he missed a plethora of chances. At 3-2 up, we lost composure, and instead of keeping the ball, we panicked and before we knew it, it was 3-3.

Arsene spoke after the game, a very disappointed manager, but also acknowledged Aaron Ramsey’s bad performance:

He was unlucky with the first booking, it was a good tackle. It is part of learning your job, you have to deal with all kinds of situations and he will do that. He is very strong mentally and is going through a difficult period at the moment. But he will come off that stronger.

Arsene did go on to talk about how 3rd was no longer in our hands… but thanks to the sensational results today, where Aston Villa head Sp*rs and Newcastle lost at home to Man City, we’re still in 3rd. Something I really didn’t think would happen this time yesterday. It’s back in our hands and we have one game, a game in which we need to win, a game where a win would mean Champions League football, but anything but a win and it’s the Europa League.

Today my facebook status reads:

Dear Arsenal,

After a poor start to the season, you’ve shown me that you’re actually a decent side. It’s not been pretty all season, and I 8 – 2 say it but we’ve had some bad moments. We’ve also had some excellent moments (AFC 5 – 2 THFC, CFC 3 – 5 AFC)… but after our amazing March, you’ve lost it big time with 3 draws and a loss in the last 4. Sp*rs and Newcastle should have sped past us, butit comes down to the last game of the season. We’re 3rd. All we have to do is win. Win against West Brom and bingo, Champions League next season. We’ve got another chance. It’s a serious chance. Stand up, be counted, make it happen, and keep our talisman, Robin Van Persie… 1 game, 3 points. Fix up, look sharp. Til next weekend…

Regards,

Dev

Basically next weekend is a Champions League qualifier – one game – one win. The question is whether we can sort out the defensive frailties of the weekend and get the goals we’ll need to win. It was interesting how we ended the game, with AOC on the right, Gervinho on the left and Chamakh and Van Persie in the middle. We looked so dangerous.

I really do hope we can use AOC next weekend from the beginning as he really did make a difference. I prefer him on the wing right now – I know Arsene says he can play down the middle, but so can half the other team. Without Walcott, AOC really can bring some pace and precision to the right side. He linked up very well with Coquelin, who stepped in for the injured Sagna and looked very good.

Next weekend sounds like an eternity away now, but right now, we need to focus, prepare and get ready for the biggest game of our season.

Til tomorrow fellow Gooners, keep calm.

Today, both the player and the selling club announced that Lukas Podolski has been sold to the Arsenal. For the first time in many many many many years, we have acted early, focused on planning before the end of the season and targeted a player of stature, to add to the team.

Personally, I am absolutely delighted with the signing – he’s proven at various different levels, internationally and at club level, that he has the class that we need at the Arsenal. He’s quick, mobile, ambitious and could really compliment the team.

The player spoke about the move to Arsenal:

 ”The move to Arsenal provides a great opportunity for me to gain experience in international competitions at a top European club. I have made this decision not against FC Cologne but for this great opportunity and the good of my own individual development. This was not an easy decision for me at all, as Cologne, our fans and the city are something special for me. I will always carry FC Cologne in my heart. We need to pool our strengths now and have to be fully focused on our survival in the Bundesliga.”

And I think the player is very excited about playing in the Premiership and playing for a team like Arsenal. I think he’s a perfect fit into our squad and the big question now is how / where he will play – can he play along side Robin Van Persie? What does that means for the formation?

He often plays at a lone striker, and his finishing is Van Persie esque…

But to play along side Van Persie would require a reversion back to 4-4-2 or require either Podolski or Van Persie to play on the wings, which I don’t think either will do with any decent effect. Perhaps the early buy indicates a change of formation, as it will take a lot of pre-season to do this.

Next season’s line up with all our players and Podolski, could be:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Koscielny – Vermaelen – Gibbs

Wilshere – Song

Walcott – Van Persie – Gervinho

Podolski

Could it work? Is it too attacking? Rooney currently plays that role behind Wellbeck, with Nani, Valencia etc on the wings, so why not? Arteta, Ramsey, Rosicky, Diaby, Frimpong offering strength in depth. Benayoun surely won’t be around next season.

Now that Podolski is in the bag where else can we or should we strengthen?

This time 2 months ago, with the same players, I’m pretty sure we would have scored at least 2, if not 3 goals. But right now, after our run of wins, we are looking jaded, devoid of ideas and generally, we’ve got no petrol in the tank. In fact, it’s not just us – Sp*rs are actually suffering from the same thing. We’ve got a small squad – i.e. a small starting XI – if fit, we pretty much know who would be selected.

Prior to the Wigan game, we had won 9 out of 10, but throughout this period, we had used virtually the same XI. Plaudits have been coming in about Walcott, Song, Van Persie and Arteta… but as we have got closer to the end of the season, those players have either got injured or are off form. Arteta’s recent injury sounds like a mix of the “red zone”, fatigue, and over-use, a little like Jack was last season. Walcott has been ruled out for the rest of the season now too – and Van Persie and Song are definitely off-form. The tank is empty.

Whilst our tank is empty and it looks like Sp*rs are in a similar situation – Newcastle’s recent addition of Cisse and recent come back from injury for Hatem Ben Arfa – they have two players who are fresh. For Chelsea, they have such a large squad, that they rotated 7 players and still looked very good.

For us, Rosicky has been very good, he has played a lot in the second half of the season, but no so much in the first half. And that’s probably why he stands out at the moment. For the rest of the season, I can only presume we’ll see more of Oxlade and Gervinho, considering the recent injuries. We do have Diaby back and if he can stay fit, then he’ll be a welcome addition considering our recent spout of injuries.

Today’s game showed a few things – we can create openings and chances – but our passing is off, and our shooting is definitely off. Van Persie had a few golden chances, but fluffed them all.

Arsene had a lot to say:

It was a very unfair result but it is a result. I think [we should have had a penalty], I think also we had chances. At the end of the game we had the chances and they had zero. I cannot remember them having one chance. Having said that it was a little bit of a strange game because before the game I thought it would be an open one – we had to win, they had to win. They decided to lock up the game and catch us on the break only, with two wide players who are quick, and Torres.

And on Van Persie’s poor form he said:

He played his 50th game [of the season] today and he gave absolutely everything again today. He was unlucky in the first half, he had a free kick he deflected and it was a clear-cut chance. Then when he was through I think he rushed his decision making a bit, when he took it with his right foot, because he had Diaby coming in completely on his own. It was not easy for him because he was completely on his own at some stages with not enough support. And he was caught offside one time and I am not sure he was.

There are three games left – we face Stoke next Saturday (away), Norwich at home the following week and then WBA a week later. Some would say they are easy games, but in reality, they’re not. We need to cross our fingers that results go our way and we need to find our form.

I’ll be back tomorrow for some more analysis, but for the moment, let’s sit back and watch the rest of the footie this weekend…

Just when you think the Arsenal are safe from a collapse, just when you think we’ve secured something of importance for the season (i.e. third place)… bang, the most unexpected loss occurs, and takes the winds out of our sales. Last season, we were leading Wigan 2-0 with 15 minutes to go – at their ground – and ended up losing that game 3-2. We never recovered and went on to finish 4th, in a season where we could have finished 1st or 2nd had we kept our gusto. This season, Wigan again have been the team that seem to have derailed us.

The question is why? Why do we let ourselves get into this position? Why do we fail to win when it really matters? Am I being harsh considering we’ve actually won 9 out of the last 11? Or am I correct in thinking we really should have beaten Wigan, considering our home advantage and reasonably low injury list?

After the game, Arsene felt we were not sharp enough…

We have given a lot over the past two or three months and we were not sharp. Is it mental or physical? It is hard to know why. I felt in the first half we had quite a good response to being 2-0 down, but in the second half there was not a lot to come. We finished with Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rosicky, Gervinho and Van Persie offensively and we didn’t create a lot.

Personally, I don’t think Oxlade or Gervinho contributed a lot. Gervinho is short of game time & confidence – Oxlade thought he had to do it all by himself every time he had the ball – and Theo – well, he had one of those very frustrating games. Arsene says we weren’t sharp enough – why not? Ramsey hasn’t played a lot of games, why isn’t he sharp? Gervinho came on with bags of energy, but no end product…

Wigan played midweek, and had a very energy consuming game against Wigan. Surely we should have been more energetic and sharper than Wigan. The problems we face now are also psychological – can we pick ourselves up – without Arteta – who has been our linchpin – and survive the rest of the season?

“It is an ankle problem. It looks quite a serious one. It is too early to say tonight. But it doesn’t look a little ankle sprain. It is a serious one,” revealed Wenger. Unconfirmed reports have since emerged claiming the Spaniard has in fact suffered a broken ankle which will come as a devastating blow to the Gunners who are already without another of their midfield stars, Jack Wilshere, for the rest of the season.

Ramsey will need to up his game considerably and the worry now is whether we can get back into shape for the game against Chelsea. Chelsea are back into some sort of form under Di Matteo, with a resounding 5-1 win over Sp*rs in the FA cup – yes, they play Barcelona tomorrow, and they should be more tired than us by the weekend, but that doesn’t mean anything.

The good thing for us is that Gibbs and Koscielny will be back into the starting up against Chelsea and they seem to add some structure to the defensive unit. We play Chelsea on Saturday, an early morning kick off – at the Emirates – the onus is on us, we’ll be the favourites, we need to ensure we don’t lose, and keep up the pace with a win if possible.

More analysis tomorrow, but for the moment, enjoy Bayern vs Real Madrid… and don’t forget Tottz will be back tomorrow for his Wednesday piece!

Til then…

With Wigan and Chelsea coming up after today, Arsene decided to rotate a little bit, whilst not changing too much. The in form Rosicky was rested and Koscielny had an enforced absence – which meant that Ramsey started in midfield and Djourou at the back. Benayoun kept his place after some good displays. Gibbs’ absence meant hat Santos started too, in what was our 18th different back four combination of the season.

The line up was:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Djourou – Vermaelen – Santos

Arteta – Song

Walcott – Ramsey – Benayoun

Van Persie

Although Ramsey

The opening exchanges were in our favour with a determination, and within 10 minutes, Wolves had a man sent off and we had a penalty. The penalty was won when Walcott cut inside, passed to Van Persie – who then chipped in it back into Walcott path, who made a darting run into the box. Ex-Sp*rs defender Bassong pulled him down, red card for the defender… Penalty to Arsenal.

Van Persie decided to do a little cheeky chip to score – not something I’m a fan of, especially when it’s 0-0 and it’s such an important game, but he did score – and it was his 34th goal of the season. Guess how many goals Wolves have scored all season? 34… you got it!

Arsene was also a little surprised at the choice:

It was a surprise to me because I have never seen him doing that. It was just what came into his mind at the last second he said.

And 1-0 became 2-0 very quickly, when the same combination and one two between Walcott and Van Persie saw Walcott through the middle and he slotted it past the keeper to make it 2-0.

The rest of the first half was a little run of the mill – we had a lot of possession and Wolves were quite frustrated, nothing really to write home about, it was all second gear.

Wolves had a bit of pressure in the second half and you felt it was self inflicted. We did get the safety third, albeit late on – Song played a slightly more advanced role today and when Van Persie set him down he left – his cut back found Benayoun and he Israeli got his name of the scoresheet to secure the points.

In the end, the scoreline was comfortable, and despite a little bit of pressure, it was a relatively straightforward game. Arsene summarised the game…

We started well and then had a situation where we could control the game. Did we push on or not? After that we played a bit with the handbrake on, they played deeper and defended like mad with a great spirit until the end of the game. If they keep that spirit then they still have a chance of staying in the league. On our part we controlled the game, although they actually had a spell in the second half where they created chances. Szczesny made a good save but after that it was a comfortable win.

We now return to the Emirates for the game against Wigan – who beat Manchester United today – and they are fighting for their lives. Their win against United actually moved them out of the relegation zone. No matter how much we think we’ve achieved, or how easy the opposition will be, we have to ensure that we focus and do our utmost best. We did so against Man City and Wolves and we need to apply the same tenacity to Wigan.

Til tomorrow, my friends, til tomorrow…

An excellent day for everyone connected to the Arsenal. Our seventh win in as many games – three different scorers, a very good performance all round – what else do we want? It’s a great sight to see us in such an elevated position. Languishing in 17th after a few games and then just after we got to the top 4, we lost a few on the trot… so to come back and win 7 out of 7 is an amazing feat.

Arsenal 3 – 0 Aston Villa

We played well, but at the same time, Villa were poor. The team line up was nearly what was predicted, but Rosicky was given the nod ahead of Ramsey and the line up was:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Djourou – Vermaelen – Gibbs

Arteta – Song

Walcott – Rosicky– Gervinho

Van Persie

Now I really don’t know where on earth Mr. Rosicky has got this new lease of life, but he has been immense in our revival, effectively keeping Ramsey out of the team. He was immense again today and he seems to have a free role which means it’s impossible to mark him for the opposition and it drags the opposition all over the place.

The first goal was scored by a very unlikely goal scorer in Kieran Gibbs – but some excellent interplay with Gervinho saw him in  good position and he hit the ball at goal and it kind out went through Shay Given – who you had to think could have done better. Of course, he did actually get much better throughout the game. How nice is it to have Gibbs in the team and having had a run of games? Awesome isn’t it? And it was 2-0 before the break after a lovely ball into the air, over the defence by Songinho, and a great finish by the man in form, Theo Walcott – 2-0 to the Arsenal.

Having had two games in 4 days, the second half would be a little tougher, and Villa bettered themselves a little, more so by the removal of Emile Heskey. The second half was tighter, we were still good, but it looked liked it was going to be goalless… that is… of course, until Mikel Arteta stepped up in stoppage time. It was a free kick, but it was dispatched into the back of the net like no other free kick has been dispatched today – MOTD baby!

Arsene spoke after the game and commented on the excellent performance of the team:

I felt it was a very dynamic, fluent performance in the first half with top technical quality. It was a controlled performance in the second half, we controlled the game and managed not to concede a goal. Our fatigue came in a bit because we gave a lot at Everton on Wednesday night to win the game. Overall I am very happy, very pleased because we managed to score goals and not concede any. We have consistency at the moment, so let’s go home and wait for the next game.

It is very important now to continue the run and look up rather than down. If we think the job is down then we’ll fall into our own trap of thinking we’ve made it. We’ve seen how quickly everything can turn around, so we need to ensure that we keep our feet on the ground, concentrate on the next game and the next game only.

With the Euro’s coming up this summer, there has been a lot of fan and media interest in Theo Walcott’s performances and after his dip in form earlier this year, many were questioning his place in the Arsenal team. But February and March have been good months for Theo and today, he showed it all – movement, tricks, passing, skill and he scored a goal. His previous few appearances have also seen quite a few assists too…

Arsene singled out Theo in his post match interview:

Theo had a very good performance and scored a great goal. You have to give him credit for that. But I would like to give credit to the pass from Song, because it is not the first time he has done that. You do not see many defensive midfielders [do that]. If you look at the assists that he has made this season, you will see that his numbers are top in Europe.

Consistency for Theo is the key, and that goes for the whole team. We’ve got QPR at Loftus Road next weekend, and we’ve seen what they’re capable after they beat Liverpool earlier this week, so we will have to be very much on top of our game…

Til tomorrow my friends, til tomorrow…

Yesterday’s game was a good old fashioned 1-0 to the Arsenal, although the way in which we started, you’d think we’d have gone on to win by a greater margin. But on hindsight, the margin didn’t matter, the three points was all that did. The game itself was in stark contrast to the game at White Hart Lane, where Sp*rs had 25 shots versus Stoke’s 6 and finished the game with a draw. Our game was slightly more balanced, but we held on for three vital points.

We’re now into third (who would have thought?) and above Sp*rs. Life is good.

The starting XI was an interesting one, with Ramsey deployed on the left of midfield and Rosicky retained into the team, with both Oxlade and Gervinho on the bench. The plus point was the that the back five was our first choice back five and that was also very important. We’ve been on a great run recently and it’s no wonder that that has coincided with the return and of and consistency that having a solid back five brings – with full backs!

The line up was:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Koscielny – Vermaelen – Gibbs

Arteta – Song

Walcott – Rosicky – Ramsey

Van Persie

Although originally deployed on the left of midfield, Ramsey found himself floating into the middle and Rosicky seemed to have a free role. A little unbalanced defensively, but from attacking point of view, it was exciting to see the runs of all the players in all the different directions.

The goal of the game came just 8 minutes in when Thomas Vermaelen nodded in a Van “He assists when he wants” Persie corner. Great start, our third chance of the game and 1-0 to the Arsenal. I expected us to go on from there, but sometimes you have to battle it out for the win, and that’s exactly what we did.

1-0 to the Arsenal!

Arsene spoke about yesterday’s game and also the recent run of games and form we’ve experienced.

I felt if we scored a second goal maybe we could give a psychological blow to Everton. We had a brilliant start and slowly Everton got back into the game after 30 minutes. In the second half, for the most we did hang on until the last 15 minutes when we started to create chances again. But it was all Everton [until then]. We were resilient, focused and with a great desire to defend. Our defence played very well tonight. I felt it was a bit psychological – we refused to play because we just wanted to keep the score. Credit to Everton they played very well in the second half. I was always optimistic, because if you look at our results from October onwards we only had one bad spell when we lost three times on the trot because we had no full backs. The attitude of the team was always good, so I felt we could bounce back. We needed to be strong because we were under a lot of pressure and we will need that until the end of the season. Where we come from, we know what suffering means because in some press conferences I had to answer ‘are you playing not to go down’. We know we have a difficult battle in front of us.

We were 17th in the form table and now we’re 1st. That shows a great turn around if I do say so myself. But the job is far from done. We have a long way to go. We’re third now, but we’ve got to keep third and start to create some distance between us and Sp*rs. We were fortunate with other results, Liverpool, Chelsea & Sp*rs all dropping points, but it goes to show that we can also drop points if we’re not on top of our game.

It’s Aston Villa on Saturday at the Emirates. A win there would get us higher up the table and with Sp*rs and Chelsea playing each other on the weekend, as long as we get the three points, we’ll increase the gap…

Foot in mouth, nail biting, nervous twitch and a mild heart attack – that is what the current Arsenal team to do us. A goal down, a come back and a last minute winner, and we’ve done it four times in a record breaking go now! With the league our only competition left, you would think it would be easier for us to focus on the games, and Arsene looked very focused, and he also handed Oxlade another start ahead of Gervinho.

The very impressive Rosicky remained in the starting line up and we played what could be considered right now (on current form & including injuries), our best eleven

Szcznesy

Sagna – Koscielny – Vermaelen – Gibbs

Arteta – Song

Walcott – Rosicky – Oxlade

Van Persie

Newcastle are no mugs, and they set up well, playing 4-5-1 with Demba Ba up front – when Arsene bought Nasri from Marseilles all those years ago, it was a match up between buying Nasri or Ben Arfa, and at the time, Arsene chose Nasri. However, the other Frenchman went on to sign for Newcastle, and himself, has been quite impressive since he joined them. One career threatening injury aside, he has shown that he’s a very good player. And it was his trickery and valiant left foot that caught us out, going past Gibbs and Koscielny and slotting in at the near post past Szcznesy… normally an area any keeper would be disappointed to concede through – but the pace and direction of the shot were worthy of the goal. Arsene – here’s an idea, send Benayoun back to Chelsea, sell Park, and buy Ben Arfa. Nice.

53 seconds later, Van Persie got onto the end of a cross from the impressive Walcott, who seems to be doing a few more things right nowadays… and lashed the ball past the annoying Krul (who got more annoying as the game continued)… smack, bang, wallop, goal 33.

After that goal, any confidence that Newcastle had and any frailties we had disappeared. It was Arsenal all the way. Oxlade was marshaled well, making him relatively quiet. This is what happens when you have multiple dangers in your team – the opposition have to mark certain players, giving space to others.

Newcastle did defend well, and sometimes bent the rules in terms of aggression, but as always it’s us to us to try and get the winner and after various different exchanges, an exciting game to say the least, the vice captain stepped up to the plate on the final minute of stoppage time to bundle the ball in to make it 2-1.

Arteta spoke about the winner and said:

“We all kept believing, we were all at it and we had the chances and thankfully in the end we got the points. ”It was massive [to get the equaliser when they did] because the longer the game goes on without it, the more frustrated you get. ”It was a great move and a great finish again from Robin. Credit to the team because we never give up even when we are losing. The crowd were fantastic again, so thanks to everyone. ”We are now only one point behind Tottenham and three ahead of Chelsea, so we are in a much better position than four or five weeks ago. We are really happy.”

And Arsene took time out to talk about one player and one player only… Mr Theo Walcott:

“Theo Walcott was outstanding. From the first to last minute he was great. I feel it was his best performance for us. Against Milan, Theo was hitting top form and he has continued it tonight. He played with intelligence and power. Newcastle gave the impression of a strong team and to come back quickly was important,” the Frenchman added. The equaliser was provided by Walcott. We speak many times of many other players and he deserves great credit this time because he was exceptional.”

Whereas we may find Theo a little frustrating at times – he tally of 13 assists and 8 goals this season has been vital, especially when 11 of those assists were scored by RvP… Theo is only 22 so we can expect more from him, more consistency, but the good thing is that he is coming to some sort of form now….

That’s it from me today – over to Tottz tomorrow for the Wednesday digest!

Beating Milan 3-0 at the Emirates is an amazing feat. Beating them under the pressure to beat them is another thing altogether and getting so close to overturning such a big deficit is a valiant effort to say the least. It was an uphill task in the first place and it had “frustrating game” written all over it.

We were depleted and the only team we could play was the one that we all presumed we’d play:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Koscielny – Vermaelen – Jenkinson / Gibbs

Song – Rosicky

Walcott – Oxlade – Gervinho

Van Persie

It made sense.

The stadium was electric with hope. It was focused, excited and the crowd had belief. The belief increased after 6 minutes and beyond everyone’s expectations, Koscielny nodded in from a corner. 1-0 to the Arsenal and so early on, game on friend. Milan were potent in the previous round and a lot of that was due to our inability to perform. They do have players capable of scoring at any time and Ibra was trying his best to ensure Milan got one goal, a killer punch, but our defence was solid and credit to Szcznesy for some good saves.

But then it was 2.

We’d been attacking well and a marauding run by Walcott ended with a cut back which was only cleared to Rosicky who scored his second goal in the last three games. Bang wallop in the goal.

Wave after wave gave the crowd hope and before half time, an excellent run through the defence saw Oxlade being brought down in the area and after some deliberation, the ref pointed to the spot. Van Persie duly tucked away his 32nd goal of the season.

Half time, 3-0.

Three goals before half time meant that there was a buzz about the Emirates – a real hope that we could do the impossible. But that is where the blog ends – the second half was that “frustating game” that we all didn’t want. Arsene threw on Chamakh and Park but nothing we could do could penetrate Milan’s defence in the second half.

We had chances, for sure, with Gervinho striking at goal and Van Persie unable to turn in the rebound. There was an inevitability about the last ten minutes where we looked exhausted, we gave a lot a spirited performance, but not enough. We ended the game 3-0 and the fourth was a goal too much.

Arsene was very proud of the performance, as I am sure we all are…

They can only be proud of their performance. I felt we were a bit short. We had no midfielders at all on the bench. We suffered a little bit when we got tired in the second half. We were a bit more fatigued. I’m sure we would have scored two or three more goals in the second half. But to put the performance in is fantastic spirit and restored some pride after our first tie. Unfortunately we go out.”

Arsene also singled out Oxlade and Rosicky as two outstanding players on the night, and I’d have to agree:

For a guy who has never played at the top level in central midfield, he started in a Champions League game and he did well. He tired a bit in the second half after his injury, and he got less of the ball than he did in the first half. When he got the ball, you always think something could happen. He can play all of the places across the pitch, in midfield to wide. You could see he has suffered physically, but also that he has the class to be in there. I have to give credit to Tomas Rosicky for that. He was again outstanding here. In all of these games, he was one of the most influential players, and he does not always get the credit he deserves, so I would like to take this opportunity to give him credit.

We are on a good run at the moment, and today’s game was testimony to the form we’ve been in recently. We need to take this form into the Newcastle game this weekend and keep at it until the end of the season.

All I can say is well done boys…!

Our form is a so variable, we are becoming very unpredictable. Before the start of the Liverpool game, the commentators literally said “I wonder which Arsenal will turn up”… Our form changes through out the game too – one minute we look like we’re in total control, but the next minute, we look like we can concede any time the opposition go forward.

When you look at the squad, you don’t know why we have such inconsistency. We have had such a disrupted squad in the last couple of months, going from no full backs to no centre backs. Even in yesterday’s game, Diaby’s short appearance, Oxlade playing in the middle etc – it does make for a consistent outcome… One thing is for sure – having a Gibbs and Sagna in our team does make a huge difference… Will the Arsenal ever have a consistent team playing week in and week out, I don’t know.

However, we do have Robin Van Persie.

And that means, even against the run of play, we always have a chance. A chance that we can score. RvP’s form has been sensational this season and his two goals from two shots yesterday – both sublime in different ways. Accolades have to be given to Alex Song and Bacary Sagna for two excellent assists – both players scoring 8 out of 10 in the post game player ratings.

Arsene spoke on RvP after the game…

I must say we will do anything to keep him. I cannot say much more because I have said that many times. I am very proud that he has grown after having seen him arriving here timid, and today being the player and leader he has become. He is playing under big pressure in every game because he knows he has to score. He has shown exceptional development, not only as a player but as a human being. He is up there with the best players in the world.

If we do lose RvP this summer, I am sure there will be a fans backlash. As a team, I am pretty sure we can’t afford to lose him. We need to build a team around him. The boy has scored 31 goals this season – in our worst season – and that says something.

Arsene confirmed what RvP said after the game – it wasn’t one of our best games – but we have to dig deep and the moment of quality from Robin proved the difference.

It was vital for us to win the game. Liverpool had a very good first half and we were not in the game – what was flattering for us was to be 1-1 at half time. The second half was much more level. We had some good chances as well, they had maybe one from Martin Kelly. But they had no clear-cut chances in the second half. They had to win the game, and we know that we have Van Persie who can deliver something special. Overall it was not one of our best games, but we refused to give in and we played as well as we could. Our goalkeeper and centre forward made the difference.

With Sp*rs losing at United today, there is a real possibility that we could catch them – we are fourth on 49 points and Sp*rs are 3rd on 53 points. Personally, I didn’t think we’d be anywhere near them at all, but the results have gone our way more recently and suddenly we can look up instead of down the table.

We have Milan midweek in a game that is all but lost. We have quite a few injuries at the moment too, with Arteta, Diaby, Wilshre, Ramsey, Rosicky, Benayoun, Djourou, Squillaci, Mertersacker and Gibbs all out injured. So we’ll have to look at playing a slightly different team and / or formation…

We look decimated after the game. I don’t know who will be available on Tuesday night. Maybe I will play with six strikers as we have to score goals!

At least the boss has got a sense of humour. But whoever we play on Tuesday night, it is going to be an uphill struggle. Scoring 4 past Milan is not going to be easy, well we’ll have to score 5 to win. And not concede!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a Milan preview… but for the moment, enjoy the rest of the weekend. Arsenal win, Liverpool, Chelsea and Sp*rs all lose.

Adios for now….