Bolton 1 – 3 Arsenal
20 September 2008
Arsenal are top of the league after a resounding win over Bolton. Arsenal were dominant in the first half scoring 2 goals in 2 minutes after falling a goal behind early, to take a 2-1 lead into the break.
In the second half Bolton dominated possession for a 10-15 minute period and threatened but Arsenal fought off the challenge and then sealed the deal with the third goal in the 87th minute.
Cesc had an excellent game pulling the strings, dictating the pace, winning and keeping possession at crucial times, and he put in several dangerous crosses, with Song almost converting but being denied by the woodwork. He is definitely getting back to full fitness.
All the details are in the match report here. First of the match photos are here. You can also see a post match interview clip with Cesc below
Here are Cesc’s full comments:
“We know every time we come here it’s going to be a tough game, very physical, they only look for corners, free kicks and throw-ins
“The tackle on Gael Clichy, I remember last year Abou Diaby was sent off for even less than that.
“But we know we are Arsenal. When we come to the North we know something like that is going to happen, and we have to cope with that.
“Players like Theo, Gael, Eboue, they are quick, they like to run with the ball, and when you make tackles like that it is dangerous.
“We’ve had a bad example with Eduardo, and we don’t want it to happen again because if you look at Clichy’s leg it could have been the same.
“We want to play fair football. We showed great character, and even if the referee isn’t strong we have shown we will deal with that.”
Cesc also hailed Song and Denilson’s performance saying, “Denilson is doing really well, Alex Song too, the fans expect them to do well and, for me, they are doing more than well and these two were men of the match tonight.â€
Setanta and The Times didn’t agree with Cesc though, they rated him the man of the match. Needless to say, so do we!
On a sidenote, Cesc received a yellow card during the match, although it wasn’t shown on the TV. It seems he was booked during the goal celebrations, for the third goal which was scored by Denilson, for holding on to the ball!?!. Seems a little petty on the refs part…
Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that Gael Clichy is not hurt too badly. And keep them crossed for a draw at Stamford Bridge tomorrow too … although I’d settle for a Chelsea loss.
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Rose hon, it is impossible to over-react to a hair-band, on the list of fashion crimes, a hair-band is like the equivalent of homicide. I tell you between Almunia, Sagna and Cesc I need the fashion police on speed dial.
Mischa you can have any picture you want! The site uses gravatars, what that means is you go to gravatar.com and you assign a picture to your e-mail address. As you know when you leave a comment you have to put your e-mail address and then the pic you set up at gravatar.com will display. If you don’t have a pic associated with your e-mail address then the little triangle things display.
Hi Tracey, the FA has a new rule where there is a total ban on all jewellery, players used to be able to wear jewellery so long as they had tape over it, now they can’t.
I’ve noticed Cesc doesn’t wear a piece of tape around his finger to cover the ring his girlfriend gave him anymore. He used to wear it every match so have they broken up?
thankx! can I have pic not a funny triangle but pic of Cesc??
ha ha ha MJ you almost made me spill lemonade on my keyboard I was laughing so hard at your “I hope a hairdresser kidnaps him” comment lmao. I think that is perhaps a teensy weensy over-reaction! It’s less than a week since you said you liked his hair… poor Cesc you are so fickle and fussy!
You know last weekend he was the king of the pass-makers with 33 completed passes in the opposition half more than anyone else in the league. So he can do his hair anyway he likes in my book lol
Hey Sambo did you see Fergie said if Manchester United don’t win the league (and it is way too early to write them off) that he would like Arsenal to win lol – man, he must really really hate Chelsea and Liverpool, cos he doesn’t exactly love Arsenal
Welcome to the site Mischa, thanks for your comment about the site under the first post too. Believe me your english is great, I am hopeless at languages and admire anyone who can speak more than their own
I don’t like this hair look too I’m happy for resting him now he play better I am thinking for Hull with after a rest =) sorry for my english
Hi Frisch
You’re welcome!
Nice to see ya TA agree the midfield is looking good.
It’s been an excellent weekend of football and good results all round for Arsenal. Of course I can’t help but wish we hadn’t dropped those 3 points against Fulham so unnecessarily but no point crying over spilt milk.
Now mj leave his hair alone
Chelsea and Manchester United have drawn 1-1 so Arsenal is clear top of the table now having taken the most points of anyone from their first 5 games. Old purple noses team have dropped a total of 7 points from their first 4 games – considering how tight the league is they could really feel those 7 points next April. I don’t think Manchester United are going to defend their title. I think Chelski will be the team to beat but we always knew life was going to be tough with Scolari in charge of a team with a massive budget BUT we are going to win it. Yep just in case you were wondering, intelligent, beautiful, open, flowing, attacking, football is going to have its just reward. Go the gunners!!!
I don’t know if Cesc is growing his hair long but it certainly looks that way in which case we may be going to see quite a lot of the hairband. I know the main thing is that he plays well but the man who can rock the hairband look has not been born yet and I have to say I hope some kind and caring hairdresser will kidnap him, tie him to a chair and sort him out!
j/k
Sam, thanks for the posting.
unfortunatly, I didn’t watch the match….
so I couldn’t say in detail…-_-;;;
anyway, Arsenal wins!! congratulations!!!!!
Does Cesc want to grow his hair?
Roxy he was booked for celebrating because there are a lot of rules to do with celebrations now. I think if Cesc had not argued with the ref after the foul on Clichy then the ref might not have been looking to be so pedantic. As the rules relating to celebrations are enforced pretty inconsistently to say the least
Top of the table woo hoo it’s all good in the ‘hood!
how can he be booked for holding the ball? I don’t get it?
This is what Arsene had to say after the game
“I thought it was a convincing, united, classy performance with strengths everywhere.
“We were strong mentally, physically and technically. It was a complete performance.
“Even in the second half when we needed to defend more we showed resilience. There are aspects of our game that make me think the team is maturing very quickly.
“We can always get better, that is the positive thing. We want to improve. As long as your attitude is right, you can go forward. We did not panic after going behind and that is the pleasing thing.”
I was pleased to see Eboue finally get his first goal, good on him!
Glad to see Cesc play so well too! Sam, he is back to the 2005/2006 hair band so you never know, maybe he is going to bring back the mullett lololol
Great stuff from the gunners! The lad had a terriffic game, hes the little general alright. Absolutely owned the midfield. Denilson and Song are really shaping up well. Goes to show Arsene knows