Written by George Sezer Sunday, 17 October 2010 20:36

GunnerTalk Blog

Arsenal 2 – Birmingham 1

By George Sezer

Being in some kind of a sticky patch recently and having not won in the PL for over a month made Saturday’s result even more significant and made me nervous before the game.

But needn’t fear our young gun Jack Wilshere was here. Yes, among all the house name stars Jack was the man, he ran the game from start to finish, well almost but for the sending off not long before the final whistle.  It was a rush challenge on their giant forward after he lost the control of the ball when his first touch let him down for the first time on the day. No complaint for the red card but it is a shame that we will miss him for 3 games. He does have that fieriness to him, like so many great players have, which is good to see but he must learn to keep it under control.

He started the games first mentionable move when he delightfully lifted the ball over a tackle in the centre midfield position, played a one-two-three with Chamakh at the edge of the opposition’s box, but the big man’s goal bound shot was blocked.

Diaby who also had a very good game in midfield made a strong run towards their 18 yard box before finding Arshavin, who did not have good game yet again, but Foster came out well to save his shot.

Squillachi headed in what looked like a legitimate goal after Nasri’s free kick, but it was disallowed by a harsh off side decision. Our captain of the day seems to have a very useful knack of scoring headed goals from set pieces, long it may continue.

Birmingham was not in the game as we continued to create half chances. You just knew what would happen next; with their first worthy attack they scored from a header from their 6’.8” forward Zigic. I have been through this too many times and wished for a reply before the half was over. I should have wished for a lottery win as a clumsy challenge on Chamakh in their box by their centre back Dunn made it come through. Nasri duly converted the resulting free kick to make it 1-1 before the break.

Wilshere started the second half from where he left off, by creating our second goal shortly after the break. He chested a high clearance from their defence to Song, the defensive midfielder flicked the ball back to him with his heel, the young man had a presence of mind to slide a dangerous little ball towards Chamakh. The Moroccan international pounced onto a loose ball after a mix up in their defence via a 180 degree swivel and had the class to touch it around the rushing out keeper before passing it into an unprotected net, 2-1 to Arsenal. My fears were unfounded; it wasn’t going to be one of those déjà vu days, we were on top and did not give Birmingham a sniff until the end even when they started launching high balls into our area.

Fabianski had a solid game, looked comfortable with all the highballs most of the time and for one of the balls he came out to dive low and got hold of it under the feet of their incoming forwards, deserved him a kiss from Alex Song.  I hope it doesn’t deter him in future from coming out for crosses.

In truth we should have finished them off before the aerial bombardment at the end but who is complaining, we got the 3 points.