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Sunday, December 24, 2006

Arsenal 6-2 Blackburn

... And THAT was a game to be added to the video archive of all Gooners - as the game summed up this current Arsenal side completely.

GOALS AT THE WRONG END.
Arsenal gave up a goal inside three minutes after Kolo Toure knocked over ex-Gooner David Bentley in the penalty area and Blackburn's Shabani Nonda put the visitors 1-0 up.

SLICK PASSING GOONERS.
That seemed to strike a nerve within Arsenal and the next 30 minutes we were treated to some of the slickest passing that I've seen in the Premier League as Fabragas Cesc pulled the strings and really made Arsenal play some beautiful stuff.

Surprisingly though Arsenal's equaliser came through the air, as Toure headed onto the crossbar and from a second corner Gilberto Silva was left free to head in from the back post. 1-1

Then Robin Van Persie and Adebeyor created a goal chance for Alexander Hleb who converted sweetly (2-1) and then Lucas Neill bundled over Van Persie for a home penalty which Adebayor stroked home. (3-1).

COASTING INTO PROBLEMS
The second half started well with Tomas Rosicky almost scoring when his effort was deflected onto the woodwork, but then Arsenal seemd to relax and Blackburn got back into the game - this time through an overhead kick by Nonda. (3-2).

Then Arsenal were grateful for the agility of Jens Lehmann who saved brilliantly from Pedersen to preserve the lead and it looked like it was gonig to be a nervous last 5 minutes.

GOAL RUSH SHOWS WENGER KNOWS HIS FOOTBALL
But Arsene Wenger does seem to know how to produce a side full of invention, and suddenly the Gunenrs switched back on to score three more goals in five minutes (plus injury time).

Van Persie started it with a great shot after running around several Blackburn defenders (4-2), before Arsneal and Cesc produced a magnificent move to set up Van Persie again (5-2), and there was even time for Mathieu Flamini to make it six, after he reacted to the rebound off a Cesc shot (6-2).

ALL WELL THAT ENDS WELL - THIS TIME
So Arsenal dish up a Christmas treat for all Gooners, and all neutral viewers, but in several patches they just seemed to drift off and on another day we could possibly have been cursing our luck and staring at a 3-3 draw !!

MERRY XMAS
All that remained was for the home fans to stream out of the stadium happy - and for Arsenal fans everywhere to remember to raise a glass (of French Claret?) on Christmas Day and toast what was - in the end - a hugely enjoyable match.

Have a great holiday period guys - see you all on Boxing Day.



Here's a video of the highlights (10 minutes or so).

1 comment:

Gooner said...

Six of the best ...
:) :) :) :) :) :)