Match report – By the numbers – Video

So, after the couple of weeks we’ve had we find ourselves 2-0 down at home. To them. Not a good place to be at any time, least of all following our cup exits and so on.

The Saha goal was a bit worrying, so much space for him to run into, but the finish was pure luck. Deflected off the bottom of Vermaelen’s boot and doing that terrible slow motion loop over the keeper which you know, despite it’s slowness, is still going to go in. Then a penalty after Gareth Bale, darling of the media, took a dive in the box.

Bale has been booked twice this season for ‘simulation’, which is the official way of saying ‘diving’ or ‘cheating’. People rarely mention the fact he’s an inveterate cheat because they’re too busy typing with one hand, Kleenex in the other, but he is, you know. He cheated yesterday, Mike Dean rarely needs an excuse to give someone else a penalty, and Emmanuel Adebayor resisted the Szczesny Screams and stuck it away to make it 2-0 to them.

We might have crumbled, instead we responded in epic fashion. I thought we’d played pretty well between their two goals, we were positive, energetic and should have been level through a van Persie shot which he volleyed wide. But then came a moment which I think defined the rest of the game for us. Walcott flicked a ball to van Persie, his shot hit the post, and when the ball came back out to Arteta he floated a left footed cross in.

Normally this kind of thing is bread and butter to a defence, but Bacary Sagna was having none of it. He attacked that ball, he really, really wanted it, beating Bale (who cheats a lot) to the cross and thumping home a header to put us back in the game. There was a quick, understated clenched fist in celebration as he grabbed the ball and went straight back to the centre circle with it. To me, that goal and that celebration set the tone for the rest of the game. It said ‘Right, I’ve had enough of these insufferable cunts, let’s get on with it, and let’s do them.’

A few moments later we were level. I’m hardly the biggest fan of Gary Neville in the world but he was positively creaming himself over the finish, describing van Persie’s left foot as ‘a wand’. He’s not wrong, the turn and finish from the edge of the box as good as anything we’ve seen from a man who has scored 50 goals for Arsenal in little over 12 months, ranging from the ordinary to out of this world.

It might have been one of those games where half-time came too soon, that our momentum was lost, but that wasn’t the case. We smelled blood and went for it, picking up right where we left off. Just 5 minutes into the second half we were ahead. Tomas Rosicky’s beautiful finish at the near post was his first league goal in over two years and what a time to get it. The move leading up to it was fantastic and Rosicky’s desire to keep going, and his effervescent performance overall, merited the goal.

Then Theo. I am not going to venture into negative territory this morning, we’ve had far too much of it in recent weeks, but it would be fair to say his first half was a bit ploppy. I wouldn’t have been that surprised if he’d been replaced at half-time but the manager says he kept him on for the runs he was making and, well, that was a decision and a half.

In the 65th minute he arrived like a DeLorean heading for 1955, van Persie, who had held up the ball brilliantly, picked him out, Theo’s touches took him away from goal slightly but his clipped finish over Freidel was first class. A few minutes later Alex Song ignored Bacary Sagna, who screaming for the ball on the right hand side, found Walcott through the middle with a wonderful pass, and this time he fizzed a low shot across the keeper into the bottom corner. Arsenal had scored 5 goals in 28 minutes and Sp*rs were broken.

Broken, battered, bewildered, befuddled and, most importantly of all, beaten. Harry sat on the bench with his gimpy sidekicks unable to do a thing about it. I suspect Clive Allen resorted to self-harm. Such was the dominance and superiority even a breakout of Oléing didn’t cause me the terror it normally does, but then normally we haven’t just stuck five (5!) past our neighbours without so much as a reply. We looted them. Demolished them. Set them on fire then put it on our Facebook wall.

All they had left was frustrated hacking. Sandra, the gumshield wearing flower seller, was booked and then Parker sent off. And while people might talk about his sportsmanship in making sure Vermaelen was alright after the crude and unnecessary foul which brought about his second yellow, you might argue that a real sportsman doesn’t commit two nasty fouls which end up with his studs on an opponent’s ankle. Still, I’m sure the media will pick up on that in the interests of balance and fairness.

So, full time, 5-2. Arsenal reminding people that beneath it all there’s a real team in there, there is talent and potential and ability and what better game to remind people of it? Afterwards, Arsene said:

Arsenal are alive more than anybody thought before the game. Today we gave a performance that on the spirit side, the technical side, the drive of the whole team, on the style of the game we want to play everything was perfect despite a very bad start. We had a good balance between offence and defence, between creativity and going into the space behind the defenders and good maturity. We had a great spirit.

No arguments from me. The response at 2-0 down was just what we needed. The result, the performance, the confidence you can draw from a game like this, all exactly what the doctor ordered. Yes, it is one result, nobody is saying that all our ills are cured by it, but this morning is not the time to worry, it’s the time to enjoy and take the positives from what was a fantastic day.

And for me the biggest positive of all is that we have seen a team that worked hard all over the pitch, that played with real desire and togetherness, and got their just rewards. Can it please, please, please be a lesson that we learn and take forward into the rest of our games? There’s more to football than that, of course, but it should be the platform on which our game is built between now and the end of the season. Playing at pace, making runs, taking some risks in the right areas, and everybody doing their jobs defensively and offensively, and you see what happens.

Before the game all the talk was how this was Sp*rs best team in 50 years and this was our worst under Arsene Wenger. Even if that is the case, it shows you that it will take more than one half-decent season for ‘balance of power’ to shift. Must we remind people that Sp*rs have won nothing? They might qualify for the Champions League but then we’ve done that every year under Arsene Wenger. Harry’s a genius for getting them to 3rd (maybe there’s a nicer trophy for that than the one for 4th).

But the season is not over, there’s a long way to go, for them and for us. We’ve got to approach the Liverpool game the same way as we did yesterdays. And then the game after that, and the game after that. This cannot be a one-off because of the opposition and circumstances. We ignored the blueprint after that Chelsea game (3-1) at home, let’s not do it this time because it’s obvious that if the team plays the way they did yesterday then they’ll have far more good results than bad ones.

Anyway, that’s trying to leech all the positives out of it in one morning. Bottom line is we bashed five goals past them, and the lift it’s given everything is incredible. The team needed it, the fans needed it, the manager needed it, Pat Rice’s shorts needed it, and the club as a whole needed it. That was an example of spirit, character and, dare I say it, mental strength.

It will provide us with as much to talk about this week as any other result we’ve had this season and I was so heartened to see as many positive comments on the match report as there are negative ones after a bad result. We can analyse the crap out of it as the week goes on but for now we have to sit back and bask in the warm glow of the kind of day that doesn’t come along that often, the kind of day when you have to forget everything else and just enjoy.

I love The Arsenal.

Finally for today – I just want to let you know there’ll be another Arseblog post a bit later on today. I’ll say no more about it for now but keep your eyes peeled.

Until then.

Banner pic by @Tottz82