Written by George Sezer Sunday, 05 December 2010 03:36

GunnerTalk Blog

By George Sezer

It has been 34 years since Arsenal lost 3 home games in a row in the league which also means it hasn’t happened in the history of the EPL. No wonder AW looked a little bit more nervous than usual before the game and same can be said about me.

It was the same line up as the last Premiership game and only Koscielny and Wilshere survived the changes from the midweek’s Carling Cup Quarter Final winning team. That meant Rocicky replacing Fabregas as an attacking midfielder and as the captain.

With Wilshere playing like a seasoned centre midfielder and Arshavin in the mood, the team looked like they were determined to improve our poor home record this season. They were in the thick of things for our first of many chances during the early stages of the game; the Englishman providing a great inwards curling cross from a free kick from the right and the Russian volleying it straight at the goalkeeper from close range. The little midfielder (the Russian one) then found Nasri’s ‘Ljunberg like’ diagonal run with a’ Bergkamp like’ pass but the Frenchman pulled his shot wide.

This week the whole team donated their day’s wages into Centre Point Homeless Charity and the time had come to stop being charitable during this game when Nasri factor took over. The boy has talent, skill, balance, vision, attitude... the whole lot and tons of it. It was all there to see when he received a cute ball from Arshavin just inside their 18 yard box. Mr Twinkle Toes side stepped two defenders like a ballerina, putting them on their arses along the way, before smashing an unstoppable shot high into the net in the 14^th minute.

We were in full flow now, creating chances almost at will. The best or the worst one was when Arshavin found Chamakh with a gorgeous ball inside their box, ok he was facing the wrong way but all he had to was turn and be one on one with their goalie, instead he decided to lay the ball back. He obviously has joined the club in every sense.

Sagna, playing his 150^th game for Arsenal found Nasri via great sliding tackle who in turn played an unorthodox 1-2 with Song; although the return pass wasn’t good enough he made it his and somehow out skilled their left back before showing him a clean pair of heels. He then had presence of mind to play a dangerous low cross into their 6 yard box, only a last ditch interception and a great goalkeeping stopped us going 2 -0 up.

It was almost a one way traffic and apart from a long over the top ball to Kamara which he was wrongly called off side, Fulham didn’t cause us any concerns.

Nasri running things released Rosicky on the right but his pin point cross was volleyed wide by Song. The French international was playing so well, their left back Briggs had to be replaced before half time and it was just matter of time before we scored the second and you know what happened next, THEY SCORED!. Same old, same old...

Koscielny and Squillaci went for the same ball, heads clashed, Koscielny got dazed, space opened for Kamara to run into and found by Dempsey, one on one with Fabianski, 1-1 and the whole game changed. It wasn’t because of Djourou who replaced concussed Koscielny, on the contrary he had a very good game, it was the whole team. We became hesitant, anxious and the fluency from our game disappeared.

We still created a chance or two, one of which was a clear goal scoring opportunity when Chamakh headed straight at the goalkeeper from Sagna’s wonderful cross, but they were coming at us as well and missed a great opening when Kamara was put clear all too easily with a through ball. Fortunately Fabianski came out and blocked his shot with his legs, great save and very timely just before the break.

Started the second half tentatively but slightly better than the way we finished the second half. There wasn’t much to shout about in the early stages of the second half apart from a decent volley from Rociscky which sailed wide. Long time since he last scored - 34 games to be precise.

Apart from some wing wizardry from Nasri not much was happening until the man of the match found Arshavin deep inside their box. The little Russian turned and swivelled and created a space for a low drive at the near post but was save well by the Arsenal’s summer target.

Van Persie’s introduction in the 63^rd minute was a signal for the crowd to get behind the team and for the team to hunt for a winner. We also replaced Willshere for Walcott soon after, Nasri dropping back to centre midfield position.

What a good substitution it was; Mr Twinkle Toes started the move which turned out to be the winner by finding Arshavin in centre mid forward position. Arshavin played a smart pass to Van Persie at the edge of the box; the Dutchman saw Nasri’s darting run from midfield and laid a perfect little ball into his path, the rest was a motion in poetry, trying to describe it in writing wouldn’t do it a justice. Let’s say he waltzed in around their defenders and goal keeper before doing a 360 degree turn and putting the ball into net from a very tight angle in the 75^th minute. It was all about angles, degrees and balance, even Einstein would have enjoyed the geometrical beauty of it. You just have to watch it over and over again.

It was a tense finish to the game as you would expect from this Arsenal side with Fabianski pulling out a great save in the dying minutes of the game but some of the football we produced was stunning at times and that makes it even more puzzling that we had to endure the emotional torture for the last 15 minutes of the game.