Arsenal’s B52 Bomber Sends The Wolves Packing
ByI’m contemplating starting a helpline for all the faint-hearted souls out there who can’t take this roller coaster torture that our beloved Arsenal is unleashing.
I’m too young to die of a heart attack induced by following the Arsenal who have developed an unhealthy propensity to score late in games. 18 goals in the last 5 to 10 minutes of matches with 3 of them coming with the very last kick of the game is not good for anyone’s heart.
I sometimes make a point of reading comments and thoughts Arsenal fans post on blogs and boards during the actual game, and these totally reflect the roller coaster emotions that we all go through. One second, folks are cursing out the team, the next second, the players are the best thing that’s ever happened to the club.
There was even a chap who decided to thank Jesus Christ for the last minute goal yesterday. However, a couple of fans took offence and quickly pointed out that the goal had nothing to do with Jesus Christ and it started from Denilson’s pass to Nasri, who exchanged passes with Rosicky before Walcott laid the ball off to Sagna to cross for Bendtner’s headed bullet into the net.
That’s what you get when following such an emotive game. Hindsight does help though, and you get to appreciate why you love to follow the Arsenal and the joy this team brings to us every day.
The most positive aspect of the game for me was that even with minutes to go, the team didn’t lump the ball forward and hope for the best. We patiently built our play and went about the business of wearing down the Wolves and it paid off.
At the end of January, I wrote a column on ACLF suggesting why Arsenal can do without buying a new striker
. My assertion was that a combination of Nicklas Bendtner and Eduardo was a better proposition for Arsenal than buying a striker because people thought that’s what we needed.
Bendtner’s 7 goal return in 8 games or so is a better return than any big name, big money striker we could have bought off the shelf could have guaranteed.
The thing is this though – Bendtner is scoring match changing goals. Whether it’s the first goal of the game, the equalizer, or the match winner, he is quietly but surely chipping in.
Not just this season, Bendtner also scored some very crucial match winning goals last season in very tight games that could have gone either way.
Some still argue that Bendtner has yet to prove himself. I personally think that it’s absolute nonsense to question what his contribution and impact to the team is. It’s not just about the goals, the Great Dane’s link play and influence in the team is paramount.
He was the provider for both goals against Barcelona, and yesterday he popped up again with that rocket into the back of Wolves net.
Mick McCarthy was already counting his point and getting ready to wax lyrical in front of the cameras about the performance of his 10 men. With 44 seconds to go before the final whistle, it was hard to see how Arsenal would come back.
The look on McCarthy’s face when shaking hands with Wenger was priceless. It was like someone had just stolen his family silver while grazing his testicles. He was a beaten man.
Considering that he decided to applaud his captain for a show of violent conduct, I have no sympathy whatsoever with McCarthy and his team. I’m just thankful that Tomas Rosicky can still walk without the aid of crutches.
It was great to see the Arsenal players remonstrate and fight for their team mate and the longer the referee delayed taking out the yellow card, the more it became obvious that Henry was destined for an early shower.
The title race is still on, and we still have the momentum. Most of us would have preferred a draw between Manchester United and Chelsea, but we’ll take a Chelsea win for now.
Let’s hope Tottenham and Liverpool are strong enough to assist us against Chelsea, and let’s hope we continue with the rich vein of form that we’re showing.
I’m still baffled though, by the Arsenal fans (actually – Arsenal customers) who decided that they’re not going to support their team to the end. They clearly don’t have faith in the team to complete a job, and perhaps they should go and support another team and give the opportunity of a seat in the stadium to more worthy fans.
I’ve said it many times and I’ll say it again. This team deserves better support than the fair weather plastics who can’t be bothered to wait for the final whistle.
Over to Saloner.
“1-0 to the Arsenal” rarely felt as sweet:
Virtually all the dailies this morning are reporting statistics that should hearten all Arsenal fans: We are unbeaten in the last 8 league games, seven of them wins; We have scored goals in the last 10 minutes in nine consecutive games now; We have scored the decisive goal in stoppage time in three of our last six games.
In the aftermath of our losses to Man United and Chelsea, speculation was rife about our ability to bounce back. Those statistics represent a decisive answer.
Given that injuries have left us short of full strength virtually throughout the season, and that key players – Eduardo, Rosicky, and Vela most importantly – are yet to find form, those statistics become the more impressive.
Whatever our shortcomings, character we possess aplenty. For a young team maturing painfully from adolescence into adulthood, that’s a good place to begin from.
The match, for all practical purposes, turned out to be Hahnemann Vs. the Arsenal, and that’s not to deride the rest of the Wolves’ squad. But for him, we should have been out of sight thirty minutes into the game, perhaps 5 goals to the good.
Eduardo not yet being at his best didn’t aid the cause either, though it is heartening we can yet throw in Nasri and Bendtner and hope to snatch games late in the day. Player availability, and our fixture list, being what they are, we really can’t be choosers.
When earlier this season, we held our nerve in the aftermath of Ramsey’s injury to win at Stoke, quite a few voices suggested the result was a decisive one in our title chase. We at SCA, by contrast, have opined that every game post Chelsea was equally important to our quest.
But last night I genuinely felt that the team turned a decisive corner in the title race. Something about the reactions of the team, Wenger, and the entire coaching staff suggested that now they genuinely believed – When was the last time one saw Wenger run to Pat Rice and embrace him?
Well aware that a draw would mark the funeral of our aspirations, we refused to give up in the face of Hahnemann’s obduracy and the near extinction of our hopes well into stoppage time.
Dear readers, I think we are home to a team of champions. Yes, there are lots of aspects that need addressing before we become the finished article; but spirit isn’t something you can coach – teams, and players, either have it or they don’t.
We can agree, I hope, that this team has the commodity in truckloads, and that’s 90% of the job done.
I must digress to thank one of our older readers who alerted us to this team’s potential while I, at least, was ambivalent about their prospects.
Flint McCullough, who has followed the Arsenal longer than I’ve been alive (I’m 36, for perspective), was way ahead of the pack when he quite firmly maintained, often in the face of frustration, that we were indeed witness to a champion team developing at the Arsenal.
I decisively came around to his view last night. I owe you one Flint; your loyalty and perspective set an example for us younger fans. Thank you.
Looking ahead, we play Barcelona without Arshavin, Fabregas and Gallas. If Diaby, Rosicky, and Song raise their games – and I’d be surprised if the team haven’t been hard at work on these in training – I think we can, against the odds admittedly, do the job at the Camp Nou.
There seems to be a lot of talk about starting with Vela and Walcott as pacy wingers, but Vela has yet to find his feet, and I favour starting with Rosicky, off his best though he is, for his experience.
As with the first leg, we, as underdogs, have little to lose. The fact that we braved a terrifying assault and snatched a draw suggests it isn’t a lost cause by any means either. I hope the side go out on the day and give it their all; I, personally, won’t ask for more.
We know well, especially with this team, that it isn’t over till the Fat Lady packs her case up and leaves. Here’s to more of the same spirit come Tuesday.
Tue 13th September 2011; 19:45, Dortmund
Great post Darius.
Absolutely spot on.
The fair weather plastics are also reflected in the blogosphere and media.
It is absolutely incredible that we are 3 points off the top of the table and yet we are sneered at by the mancs and chavs loving press. Even more incredible that a core of our supporters continue to write obituaries of our season, and essays on the mistakes that Lord Wenger has supposedly made in the last two weeks.
The biggest vindication that Arsenal have got it right comes from the failure of Martin O’Neill at Villa. I don’t know what the actual figure is, but this guy has spent a lot more than we have since Lerner came in.
Where are they in the table ?
If Villa or say, Everton i.e. a team who were seen to be mid table, started punching above their weight, like threatning a top 4 place, it would be heralded as a magnificent achievement. Yet because we do it, it is called over achievement !!! WTF ?!
The Alan Green’s of this world need to have their words rammed down their throat. Not only that, they need to be exposed. Exposed as charlatans with no clue, no wisdom, no ideas for the english game. And exactly the reason why the england team has been in the wilderness for so long. The emphasis on physicality and roughing up opponents. The “don’t like it up them” approach. The emphasis on the good old english number 9. The mutual masturbation of stars like Lampard and Rooney, who are very seldom talked about on the continent.
I love ARSENAL!!!
Yesterday…I had no TV access for the match, no decent stream…and i sat infront of my PC, on the livescore.com website, looking at:
90′ Arsenal 0 – 0 Wolves
I was waiting (begging god rather), for that 0 to change to one…with the page auto refreshing, thanks to that piece of metal ball pressing down the F5 refresh key, then it CHANGED!
Then it soon read:
FT Arsenal 1 – 0 Wolves
Man, did I scream my lungs out!!!
VIVA ARSENAL – Go for it lads!!!
You sound pretty cross Muppet.
Can’t imaging why….
one nil to the arsenal! one nil to arsenal. watching this in a pub in wimbledon with rather posh types who could’nt understand why a professed arsenal fan spent the first70 mins. of the game laughing of the lack of killer instinct on display when all were losing patience with the team. i have to say darius, it was becuase wolves were offering the equivalent of a carrier bag to our punch and what was amusing was that the lack of counterpunch was driving our boys mad. i think there is a lesson to be learnt there. we took the ball too close to their goal which meant all their players were in the box so the slightset mistake meant they got to play it away the championship is definitely ours next year. this team can only go from strength to strength.i am sure that people may laugh at wenger when he talks of patience esp when you look at the wham bam thank you ma’am goals clubs like villa and even we used to score but this is about the next stage of our total football development and i think almost all the chances theo squandered to cement his starting place were due to that tired old tactic of running into the corner chucking one into the mix, easy to say, but had he crossed the ball rather laid it off to sagna we might not have scored. i suspect he did it b’se he could’nt let himself squander another chance and passed the buck, thankfully, but i hope that will be a chat the weng has with him. talking of development, it is worth mentioning sagna took all our corners (with both rosicky and eboue on the pitch) from the right and they were’nt half bad. lucky lucky arsenal. they are all coming out now! have yourself a brilliant easter and lets hope we can be just as patient and win against the ‘catalan shitbags’ and perhaps nick another gem from their academy. one nil to the arsenal , one nil to arsenal……
Muppet, I am completely with you. I cannot believe how biased the media is. Nobody said anything when arsenal did the double over man u two seasons ago but still won the title, just as if they win the title from here, I doubt anyone will say that their loss to chelsea sours the victory. The whole point of having a league and not a cup is that it is 38 games, not individual ones. Why then is this “manu and chelsea both beat arsenal” shit constantly thrown around? it baffles me…surely it is an indicator of how spectacular we have been outside of those 4 games?
I’ll just bring this article to everyone’s attention…it is one of the worst articles i have read in a long time:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/storyid=765748&sec=england&root=england&cc=3436
@ugandagoon: I think that Walcott played the ball back to Sagna so he could run into the middle, he wanted to atone for an earlier miss and was going in to pick up any scraps – a good attitude, in the event unnecessary because B52′s header was nigh-on perfect.
This is a corpse that just won’t lie down and be buried. There are qualities in this team that I have never seen before, not even under Wenger. The odds are still very much against us winning either trophy, but I don’t think anyone will be too surprised now if we do!
By the way, I’m 55 and supported Arsenal since I was 6. I’ve seen years without trophies, and years of very ordinary football so will the plastic fans who think that not winning every year is failure, please fuck off?
Darius. Brilliant synopsis of the game, B52 ‘Enola gay’ to the rescue yet again, the boy’s done good. Watching the Arsenal play is always good but this season, I’ve been totally enthralled and equally entertained, Whatever happens come May, I’m very proud of our efforts and the direction in which we are going.
C’mon you Gunner
Vindication, Darius. F*cking vindication. Many of us been saying for the past four the “yutes” will come good, give them time. Wenger is a genius, just give him time. It aint east and it ain’t pretty, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
If you show unwavering belief, you will surely be repaid with vindication, Darius. I was insulted and verbally assaulted for daring to belief in Wenger and our boys. Now, the steel in these young men is even beyond description.
I promise I won’t rant. But even my 16 months old grandaughter shouted goalllllll and started dancing when that header flew into the net. Must take after his grandfather, I suppose.
Darius,
Another top post – kudos to you.
Ugandangoon,
Whereabouts in Uganda are you from? I was born in Jinja but my family left when I was very young. Do you know what it’s like now?
First of all, top post Darius, as usual. With guys like you, Arseblogger and Tony Atwood around it is easy to see why Arsenal is generally acknowledged as having the best football blogs.
Now, on to the game itself, and one of my pet peeves with a section of the Arsenal support: the morons who leave the Emirates early. If we have learned anything this season, it is that as far as this team is concerned, the game is not over until the ref has blown the final whistle. They will not quit, they will not surrender, they will fight until there’s no more fighting to be done. We all know that getting away from the Emirates after a game is not easy, we all know that the transportation needs some serious sorting out. With that knowledge in your possession, why oh why would you stump up for a ticket if you’re not ready to make the sacrifice of waiting until the game is done? What is the hurry?
If you want to leave with 5 minutes left and we’re losing a game 6-0, well not too many will begrudge you your decision or your right to make it. But not when it’s 0-0 with 15 minutes on the clock! With all the whingeing on blogs about how Arsenal’s tickets are the most expensive on planet Earth, and how paying these high prices has somehow mysteriously conferred on the buyer the right to boo his own players during a game, it is astonishing that you lot are unwilling to squeeze the last full measure of value out of your tickets!
I wonder how those who stormed out after Theo fluffed that chance felt when they heard the stadium erupt behind them. Did they curse their own impatience and stupidity, or did they curse Arsene for assembling a team which waits for their ilk to leave before rewarding the true supporters?
It is a constant accusation of you lot that you don’t realise how privileged you are to go to the stadium and watch the team live. And it is the truth, you are indeed privileged. But like pigs sniffing at pearls, you have no idea what you’ve got.
Support your team you goddamn plonkers, or give up your seats to people who will.
Well written Darius. I am still on a high from yesterday – that was indeed spirit of the champions. Although it seems to have given poor old fuckwit Myles Palmer some heartache who thinks we are lucky. Why doesnt he just choke on something and die ? That bitter twisted old hack.
I am feeling a lot of anger too against the media. I was watching the Sunday Supplement today and even people like Terry Venables think that Karl Henry shouldnt have been sent off. WTF ? Its clear he didnt get the ball until he scissored Rosicky’s legs and despite that they call it over sensitive on our part. Hell yeah !! Keep trying our patience.
I think we have surprised too many people this year and rather than focus on our spirit and winning mentality, they want to draw everyone’s attention to our hypersensitivity. Anybody who thinks its all a part of the game should just see Eduardo’s game now – he is afraid of any 50-50 situations and his confidence is clearly shot. I hate to see that happen to one of the most natural goal poaching strikers we have had.
As for the early leavers, given that we are now scoring in the last 10 minutes of the games, they are clearly the ones who are missing out on the action. Its a bit like getting out of theatres before the plot is revealed. Hope they curse themselves afterwards
One cannot deny the development of this team-forget what those “pundits” say. I have a lot of respect and love for this team. Can anyone imagine Chelsea w/out Terry/Lampard/Drogba, or ManU w/out VDS/Ferdinad/Rooney and still be in competition for the title? Watching the streaming yesterday from here in Charlottesville, I kept on believing that it was a matter of time before we scored(ok, I was despondent on 94 min).
But I cannot help but look back to points dropped at Birmingham and Burnley in december! All those hacks would be quiet now!
Bentner so reminds me of the development of true Arsenal great John Radford. His early years were a bit hit or miss but he never gave up, he had a penchant for last minute goals too, notably in each leg of a League Cup sf against Spurs.
Bentner is a good example of what I seem to remember from the conversation you are referring to, Saloner. You thought the current squad lacked the character & determination of previous Arsenal teams.
What I tried to get through was that you were looking back at finished articles, not remembering the struggles & setbacks also involved then & comparing them to the current far from fully finished side.
I think, if this current squad can stay together & remain motivated, then it can achieve things I never thought I would see from an Arsenal side. My argument on this & other sites is that we need to show patience with the team & the individuals involved. Just enjoy the football it is capable of & see where it takes us. Trophies will come, hopefully very soon but if that is all you want then like any other supporter of any team you will be disappointed more often than not.