It's a good weekend to be a Gooner, isn't it? We won another three tough points and finally did that when our top four opponents dropped points. We came through and took advantage. Currently we are sitting in second place, two points behind Chelsea and only six goals behind them in goal differential. Manure, though, are only one point behind us, drafting in third. Let's not bother looking over our shoulder yet, though. Let's enjoy what we gained for the next six days.
I thought the game started off very fast-paced with Everton attempting to beat us to lose balls and streaking down the sidelines during counterattacks. They pressed and harassed us and we, in the first half of the first half, seemed to be affected by it. Misplaced passes were common by us, which to the loyal watcher, should be most uncommon. I was hoping that around the 50th minute or so, the Toffees would show some fatigue. They did eventually. During that time of frenzy, though, it looked as though Everton were going box to box without being asked to stop in the midfield. There was not a lot of holding going on. I noticed Song surging ahead as usual along with Jack which left Cesc to clean up in the back. And he did run down a lot of the Everton players attempting to counter and pushing them toward the sidelines. He eventually got a yellow for his trouble though after colliding with Disten. Both had their feet stepped on by the other - and it seemed accidental. I think Webb gave the foul to Cesc because he looked to tackle just a tad late. Still, a soft yellow for a team trying to battle its way back up the Fair Play table. Again, it shows how discipline given by the ref can be subjective which means one can't take the Fair Play table at face value.
Finally we went ahead in the 36th minute when Sagna fired a shot on goal from a terrifically tight angle after being set up by Andrey. His all time second goal for Arsenal gave us just a bit of breathing room and more confidence. We went into halftime 1-0.
Coming out for the second half, I notice a strange phenomenon...Wenger was making a substitution? Denilson (sans corn rows) came on for Spiky Jack. There was a lot of speculation among my friends about why Deni was coming on. We mostly thought that Jack - who had received a few tough tackles during the first half - was being taken out as a precaution. Jack, along with Gibbsy and Theo, have been called up for the England friendly on Wednesday and we thought Wenger was being thoughtful in his change. After the game, though, Wenger was quoted as having said,
"I wanted a second holding player to win the second ball from headers".
And it worked. I can't say I noticed that we won more second balls off of headers. Still being a student of the game, I don't always pick up on those things yet. What I did notice is that Everton did not have free run of the pitch and that our midfield was holding more. It's nice for me to be able to write that Deni made such a positive difference. I'm not a huge fan of his and often his lack of pace or urgency last season drove me to the brink. But this season, I think he is taking his chances well when he is presented with first-team opportunities. We seemed to then play with more discipline and control, as we saw less errant passes and more intricate play. This was true especially after our second goal - scored by El Capitan.
Cesc had been guilty of mislaying his share of poor passes in the first half, but his leadership was not in doubt. He had been directing players, helping out on defense, and arguing with Webb the entire game. Right after the start of the second half, Denilson picked off a pass from Arteta, pushed upfield, passed to Cesc, who found Chamakh. The Chamak-atak then fed the ball back to Cesc who slotted it past Howard. 2-0 us in the 48th minute. Now all we needed to do was hang onto the lead.
We made a couple more shots on goal. Nasri had a great run nearly all by himself but Howard was up to the task. A few minutes later Cesc crossed a great ball into the box which Chamkah booted over after making a slide for it. He was wide open too. I really wanted that third goal just to make my breathing a little easier.
Everton did not give up. They did look tired after the 60th minute or so, but they had two fine chances to score and both were denied by equally fine goalkeeping. Fabianski kept out both Beckford and Pienaar's attempts. Everton finally got on the scoreboard thanks to their Aussie. Cahill was on the receiving end of a nice header from Saha at the far post and scored at close range in the 89th minute. Four minutes of injury time were added, but we held firm.
Some other things I noticed were:
1) Bendtner did not make the bench. There were rumors that he was ill and rumors that Wenger was trying to send him a message after his complaining about his lack of playing time. Wenger's post-match interview might shed some light.
2) Theo got no playing time for two games now...a dent in his aspiration's to play consistently and be match ready for the National Side.
3) This is the second game we've won in non-traditional Arsenal style. We tend to play possession football and we were in our territory only 43.4% while Everton was in theirs 56.6%. Last week we won against Wolves with us having 45.9% and the Wolves 54.1%. Does this mean that we are getting better at taking our chances, or is our defense getting better at staying firm until we gain back the ball?
4) Johann Djourou has a ways to go working off the rust but is beginning to win me over as he won header after header today. Well done DJ.
5) Tomas Rosicky who came on for Arshavin in the 65th minute made a great sacrifice of his body as he stopped Coleman from crossing. He chased the ball down the pitch racing Coleman for it and blocked Coleman from getting at it which resulted in him getting pushed into diving headfirst into what looked like gravel. Gritty move from our Czech. I bet he's got some road rash down the front of him after that challenge.
That's about all for now. I'm just going off to bask in the glow of our current position in the league. There's no mid-week match coming up as there are international friendlies going on. I guess we'll spend the week crossing our fingers about players possibly getting injured. I'll try and be back mid-week for an update on Arsenal news and an MLS report. I know. I've neglected them for months now, but they are in playoffs right now which could provide an interesting paragraph or two. Okay one. Until then my fellow Gooners...cheers.
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