Arsenal Ring Out 2011 With Win

Joey Barton Looking Scared

Thanks to the Twitter family for providing the above picture.  Not only did we beat QPR at home for the last match of 2011, but we did NOT allow Joey Hard-Man -My-Buttocks-Barton to beat us.  No one was sent off or seriously injured by him.  Mickey may have a bad bruise, but let's hope that's all.

Gervinho, the last Arsenal player to have fallen prey to Barton's provocations, started the game on the bench.  Perhaps part of Arsene's plan was to provide him with some rest as there is but one day before the game at Fulham.  But I also don't think it's far fetched to imagine that our Boss was protecting Gervinho from having to endure another run-in with Joe.  One can hope that Gervinho learned his lesson the first time, but we have to remember that some of our players have gotten in a spot of bother over the same incident in more than one game (Diaby anyone?).  In addition, Arshavin received a chance to up his price tag to those watching if he played well.  And to be fair, he gave a sweet pass to Robin for our only goal.

Things were looking dire there for the entire first half.  Van Persie had a chance for a hat trick in the first half alone but could not convert.  Theo, who is just back after having the stomach flu, seemed to have difficulty with crossing, shooting, and just deciding what to do in general (I'm giving him another chance just because I know I'd be a bit out of sorts running up and down a field after throwing my guts up for days).  We had only four shots on target in the first half and eight in the second.  Two of those shots seemed to come in contact with the hand of a QPR player which begged for penalty calls.  Not surprisingly, we received none.  Other no calls for us was Arshavin receiving an elbow in the face from Taarabt and Arteta was on the end of mischief -making by Barton (he did get a yellow for that). 

QPR played us tough and scrappy similar to Wolves with the one exception being we kept a clean sheet and our defense held out remarkably well against a last ditch effort by the Rangers to boot things long and try to win corners.  The team last year would have conceded most likely in the 93rd minute.  This squad did not.  As a matter of fact, and on somewhat of a sidenote, I did some number crunching and found that if you take out the first three matches of this year - for obvious reasons- this squad has conceded 16 goals to last year's 19 (I also took out the goals conceded from the first three matches of last season).  Quite frankly, I do not need pure numbers to gauge the improvement of our defense.  The fact that I'm not a wreck everytime an opponent takes a corner tells me all I need to know.

More positives?  Robin got his 35th goal of 2011, we moved up to fourth thanks to Chelsea losing and are only 3 points behind third thanks to Tottenham drawing against Swansea (Spurs still have one game in hand).  Any Gooner can take away a plethora of positives from the match.  There were a few negatives however that deserve a mention of concern.

Vermie hobbled off with a strained calf muscle in the 54th minute and was substituted by the Coq (who held his own against QPR's desperate barrage).  Arsene is saying our Vice-Captain will be out for 3 weeks and so is going to dive into the market for a full back on-loan.  I really have not seen any names in the papers linking a full-back to Arsenal other than Wayne Bridge.  What I remember about him was that he was rotten in our game against West Ham last season.  But if we only need him for a few weeks, maybe it would be worth it?  It would also mean Mancini would loan out a player to a rival.  So, if he does let Bridge go to North London, I don't think that says anything good about Wayne's potential.  Silvestre anyone?

I guess that was only one negative.  Wonderful.  We have Fulham at the Cottage on Monday so I'll be previewing that next.  Until then Gooners, bask in the glory of another 1 Nil to The Arsenal, have fun, be safe and Happy New Year to you and yours!