At Gun Point S2-06: Goal-fest!
Two masterful performances as Arsenal swept aside Bolton and Braga with disdain.
Abhishek Mehrotra
I love Cesc Fabregas. In a purely heterosexual sense, of course. But having witnessed Mascherano's sulking at Liverpool and Robinho's pouting at Man City, Fabregas' attitude is refreshing - and brings home the fact that not all footballers are muscular babies who throw their toys out of the pram as soon as things don't go their way. Barcelona wanted Cesc and Cesc wanted to go - but Arsenal refused. Like a true professional and more importantly, as a decent human being, the skipper has put the whole saga behind him to concentrate on doing his best for the Gunners.
And what a spectacular "best" it was! Two goals and five assists for the midfielder as Arsenal ran rampant over two games at the Emirates - scoring ten and conceding one. Just writing that sentence has brought a rather demented smile to my face. People around me look quite scared.
So, moving on swiftly. The weekend started with a potentially tricky game against Bolton - a team not averse to tacking hard and rather brutishly, as Abou Diaby's ankle would agree. We started the game in superb form with Fabregas and Jack Wilshere leading the Wanderers on a merry midfield dance. Asrhavin missed a one-on-one before Laurent Koscielny bundled in to get his first goal in Arsenal colours.
Now it's clear the Frenchman has received good parenting. "Always share with your playmates," his mother would say. "Never be partial son", his father would add. So that is exactly what dear Laurent did. Having scored one goal for his side, he only thought it fair to allow Bolton an equaliser. A weak header back to Almunia allowed some chappie to nick the ball and chip it across the box for another chappie to head it in.
Now I confess my first thought was "Here we go - Almunia has done it again" but that was being blatantly unfair. He was left in no-man's land and could really have done precious little to prevent the goal. So 1-1 at the break and a most unfair scoreline, given our domination.
Things righted themselves soon after though, when the increasingly impressive Chamakh nodded home a Cesc cross to put us back in the ascendancy. Then Arshavin played in Lionel Messi, who nutmegged Zat Knight with his first touch before delicately chipping the keeper for a two goal lead.
Oh - that was Alex Song you say? My bad - I must have been blinded by the brilliance. Anyway, by that time Bolton were down to ten men after Gary Cahill had mistaken the Emirates turf for a water-slide and taken out Chamakh with both feet.
Three points were secure but then, then came the goal that led to 29,253 incidents of heavy-duty drooling across the world. In addition, 40,675 jaws were broken after they dropped so low as to hit the floor.
Twenty-odd passes, each of them cheered by the entire stadium culminated in a magnificent lob from Fabregas to Vela - who finished with aplomb. Grown men cried, babies gurgled in delight and women everywhere gave thanks for the existence of such beauty in the world.
That, friends, was the sort of goal which makes believers out of all of us - the sort of goal that has enabled fans to live through five barren years and yet swear by The Arsenal.
So 4-1 it finished and the high-flying start to the Premier League season continued. A word on the tackling in the game as well. Admittedly, Cahill's tackle was 50-50 - some refs may have given it, some may have not. Personally, it was more the fact that he went in with both legs that saw him sent off.
But Paul Robinson's tackle on Abou Diaby later in the game was quite horrendous. If you look at the replays, Diaby's ankle could have been easily broken but there was not even a yellow card forthcoming from the referee!
Every time something like this occurs, managers and pundits trot out the same worn out excuses. It's a contact sport, injuries happen, no one does it on purpose and so on. They seem eerily similar to all the excuses that are given for "collateral damage" in a war.
Forgive me for the highly exaggerated analogy, for football is of course a mere game, while war is, well, war. But the comparison holds. Just like one cannot get away with "oh it's a war - people get caught in the cross -fire sometimes", one cannot say "Oh it's a contact sport, players are maimed sometimes". Teach better tackling, give harsher punishments - don't brush it off as a non-issue.
Whew! Rant over.
Moving on the Champions League game - let me first admit I did not watch it live. Now before you start pelting me with rotten groceries, hear me out. I've been sick, dear readers.
Oh yes, a nasty fever has me in its grip (I am currently accepting medicines, greeting cards, cookies, bouquets and suitcases full of cash. Contact me at abhishek.mehrotra@espnstar.com to make arrangements for delivery) and that makes it rather difficult to stay up in the wee hours without hallucinating about scoring a 70-yard goal at the Emirates.
I did manage to catch the highlights though and let me just say it wouldn't be surprising if next season Portuguese teams simply refused to come to the Emirates.
Last season, it was Porto (AGP's image is from that game - Bendtner got a hat-trick I think) who were thrashed and this time it was Braga's turn.
I can imagine players from Portugal adopting foetal positions and sucking their thumbs - refusing to get on the plane even though the final boarding call has been made. Who can blame them?
It was pleasing to see Arshavin finally have a major impact on a game, although his first-half performance was quite poor from what I gather. By all accounts, Jack Wilshere was outstanding along with Fabregas. This Arsenal midfield just keeps getting better and better doesn't it? Sebastien Squillaci seems to have been solid too.
As you can see, this is all information I've gleaned from second-hand sources. Please inform and educate me further on that magical Wednesday night in the comments section
So that wraps it up for this week. Sunderland beckon next and the Stadium of Light was a dark venue for us last time, so let's hope we can make amends for that.
Other than the knock to Diaby, there is thankfully nothing to report on the injury front. Thomas Vermaelen should be back and Samir Nasri - who played against Braga - should start too with Rosicky on the bench.
Here to another three points! Until next week, look after yourselves. Especially with this wicked flu in the air.
Lucie Safarova beat Melanie Oudin to move into the semi-finals of the WTA Tour 
