Arsenal defeated Portsmouth 3-1 in a lively encounter at the Emirates to move up to second spot in the EPL standings. The goals came from Adebayor, Fabregas and Rosicky for Arsenal, while Kanu scored for Portsmouth.
Arsenal started with a 4-4-2 with Clichy, Senderos, Toure and Flamini at the back and Rosicky, Gilberto, Fabregas and Hleb in the middle while Adebayor partnered Van Persie upfront.
The first goal came early in the 8th minute when Adebayor converted the penalty which was awarded when David James brought down Van Persie when he was sent through. An early goal was just what Arsenal needed and the lesser pressure due to it showed as we played comfortably.
The second goal came from a corner when Gilberto’s flick on fell into Fabregas’ path and the Spaniard showed quick reflexes and sharp finishing to slot it home. The score stayed like that until half time with Arsenal looking very comfortable.
The second half started with two substitutions from Pompey as Harry Redknapp tried to bring his side back into the game. Early in the half, Senderos was sent off for bringing down Kanu when the Nigerian was through. The ref without any hesitation, showed the red card and Senderos was off. Almunia produced a good save from the resultant free kick, but the ball fell in front of an opposition player who shot it over the bar.
The sending off saw Arsenal change their formation as Gilberto moved to center back and we looked like playing a 4-3-1-1 with Van Persie playing behind Adebayor. Then in the 59th minute came the third goal when Rosicky’s shot from a quickly taken free kick ended up in the net. Rosicky was unmarked and the quickly taken free kick really caught the pompey defense by surprise.
Even before the celebration’s of that ended, Kanu scored at the other after a lucky deflection, but it was down to some poor defending from Clichy who failed to cut out the attack.Further substitutions followed as Hleb was replaced by Denilson and Van Persie was replaced by Diaby. Eduardo came on for Adebayor late on. Pompey tried their best to score, but they never converted their chances and Almunia was very good in the goal making some very vital saves. It ended 3-1 as neither side troubled the scores after Kanu’s goal. The full match report is here.
In his post match interview, Arsene spoke about how the is super-ambitious and that the team always tries to go forward.
He also spoke about the reason behind signing Diarra,
“He was only one year to go at Chelsea, and when he didn’t extend the contract I thought, he’s a player we rate, so it happened very late. I would have thought that in the end Chelsea would extend his contract but when it didn’t happen we found an agreement with Chelsea.”
The signing was really unexpected after Wenger himself had told some time ago that we have too many midfielders when asked why Wilson Palacios didn’t sign for the club. Anyway, if Arsene rates him and if he’s available for decent price, there is no reason why he shouldn’t be bought.
Caming back to the match, i feel we might have made some record by playing the most number of center midfielders at the same time in a game. At one time we had Diaby, Denilson, Fabregas, Rosicky, Gilberto and Flamini on pitch, playing at various positions. Thats six out of the nine outfield players. That just shows that our squad contains many versatile players.
Regarding the red card, i feel there was no doubt that it was a red card offense, but it wasn’t entirely Senderos’ fault. Some claim thats it was due to his bad positioning, but they forget that Kanu would have been offside if Flamini had positioned himself a little forward. It’s a shame that he’ll have to sit out for some games. He is a good prospect and he needed some matches to get back his confidence. This sending off also means we’ll have to play Gilberto at the back for the next game which is away at Spuds. An important game it’ll be and our defense will be put to a tougher test at the lane.
As another Game week got over, Spuds dropped points again after dominating at Fulham, while Chelsea lost to Villa at Villa park. Liverpool thrashed Derby, while Man U sneaked past Sunderland. Another team that has been doing pretty well is Everton. They have signed Yakubu and this time around they’ll give a tough time for any opposition.
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