Arsenal move within 3 points of premiership leaders Chelsea

Arsenal won 1-3 at the Brittania Stadium yesterday after a magnificent comeback. They now lie within a point of Manchester United and a win away from league leaders Chelsea.

Arsenal were under pressure early on when Alex Song was forced to put the ball out for a throw in. You can guess what happened next. Rory Delap with a long throw into the penalty area which Arsenal could not deal with eventually saw Danny Pugh at the back post on 8 minutes to head home into an open net.

It was then Arsenal's turn to put pressure on. Arsenal got a throw, Eboue threw it to Fabregas and then delivered a beautiful ball into the box where Nicklas Bendtner headed home on 32 minutes to score for the second time in as many games after coming back from injury.

The score at half time was 1-1.

Arsenal and Stoke continued to put efforts on goal in the second half until the match was overshadowed by Ryan Shawcross' tackle on Aaron Ramsey. Shawcross was sent off and Ramsey was stretchered off with fractures to the tibia and fibula in his right leg.

Nothing much then happened until Danny Pugh handled in the area to give Arsenal a penalty on 90 minutes. Cesc Fabregas stepped up and scored to wrap all 3 points up for the Gunners.
Arsenal didn't stop and on the last minute of added time Thomas Vermaelen fumbled the ball into an empty net after Fabregas had managed to stab the ball into the box.

My man of the match goes to Cesc Fabregas for his urge to get forward all throughout the match.

Almunia and Song return as Arsenal move within 2 points of Manchester United

Arsenal needed a win on Saturday to make sure they were still in with a shot of challenging for the title. They did win. 2-0 thanks to goals from Nicklas Bendtner and Cesc Fabregas.

With Fabio Cappello watching from the crowd Theo Walcott needed to make a good impression right from the off, and he did. He got an early chance to spread his legs and got 2 shots on goal but he shot wide and into the hands of Craig Gordon in the Sunderland goal. Bendtner also had a great opportunity but his effort was deflected onto the bar.

Arsenal kept creating chances from Eboue and Walcott on the right but the ball would just not go in. Finally Arsenal scored on 27 minutes through a tap in from Nicklas Bendtner after great work on the right hand side again from Emmanuel Eboue.

Arsenal had been comfortable for most of the first half but Kenwyne Jones managed to sprint through the Arsenal defence but his effort was saved and then cleared.

The score at half time was 1-0 to the Gunners.

The second half Arsenal sprang into life again as chances kept on coming through Eboue and Walcott. Great chances also fell to Ramsey and Nasri but they could not be converted.

Sunderland also had their chances from Frazier Campbell and Darren Bent but they failed to hit the back of the Arsenal net luckily for Manuel Almunia who had returned from injury.

Arsenal had to wait until the death when they finally sealed all 3 points when Frazier Campbell fouled Cesc Fabregas just inside the penalty area. The captain Fabregas took the penalty and slotted the ball into the goalkeepers left hand side despite Gordon diving the right way.

The final score was 2-0 Arsenal and Man Utd losing to Everton 3-1 meant they are only 2 points off them in the race for the title.

My man of the match goes to Theo Walcott for his return to form and great work on the right hand side in Saturdays match.

Andrey Arshavin's First full year at the club

Just over 12 months ago we witnessed the signing of the Russian Andrey Arshavin to Arsenal. He signed for the Gunners on February 3rd from Zenit St Petersburg for a fee thought to be around 12-15 million pounds.

Arsenal got to see him in action for the first time against Sunderland on February 21st 2009. He made a good impact and came close to scoring a number of times. However his first goal in the red of Arsenal came almost a month later from a very tight angle in a 4-0 win against Blackburn on March 15th.

Arsenal fans got to see him play 14 times in the 2008/09 season where he scored 6 goals in all competitions. 4 of them came in the 4-4 draw at Anfield with Liverpool where he was untouchable and Arsenal fans got to see his full potential. What a great job Arsene Wengar had done in bringing him to the club for such a bargain. Unfortunately we could not see him in champions league action because he had already played for Zenit in the earlier stages of the competion despite them dropping out in the group stages.

So far this season (2009/10) he has played 27 times plus 4 coming on as a substitute, he has scored 9 goals. Andrey's best game this season has surely been the 4-1 win in the champions league at home to AZ Alkmaar in November where he provided assists to 3 of the Gunners goals. Andrey at the moment has a hamstring injury and will be out for the Sunderland game at the weekend.

In Arshavin's first full year at the club he has played 41 times plus coming on as a sub 5 times and scoring 15 goals.

We hope Andrey will stay at the club for years to come as he is a great player and definately deserves to be playing in the red of Arsenal.

Arsenal lose from quick Porto free kick

Arsenal lost 2-1 in controversial fashion against Porto at the Dragao on Wednesday in the 1st leg of the first round of knockout matches. Arsenal had 3 key men missing for the trip to Porto but still managed to field a pretty strong team.

Arsenal went one down on just 11 minutes when Silvestre Valera's cross was fumbled by Lukasz Fabianski into his own net.

Arsenal then equalised 7 minutes later through a Sol Campbell header. Fabregas delivered the ball from the corner where it passed through everybody to the back post where Rosicky was ready and waiting to head it back into the middle for Campbell to head home.


It had been a pretty even first half when strong claims for a penalty for Arsenal was turned down by the Swedish referee Martin Hansson. His last match he took charge of was the world cup play off match between Ireland and France where Henry had cleary hand balled and then crossed for William Gallas to head home!

The score at half time was 1-1.

Events at the Dragao suddenly changed in dramatic fashion on 51 minutes when a back pass from Sol Campbell ended up with it being in the hands of Fabianski in the Arsenal goal. It was an indirect free kick but Porto took it quickly and Falcao who had been scoring goals for fun in the Portuguese league put the ball past the despairing Fabianski much to the shock of the Arsenal team. Another match deciding incident which the referee would be involved in.

The final score finished Porto 2-1 Arsenal.

Arsenal will at least have an away goal to take into the 2nd leg at the Emirates where Arsenal will hope to have a few big names back.

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