Phew!!
Our boys don't half make things difficult.
Robert Green is awful for 36 games a year but seems to have absolute stormers against us and he continued this trend yesterday keeping us out with a string of top saves.
Despite having the likes of Fabregas, Nasri, Arshavin, Chamakh, Walcott and Bendnter all having chances it was Alex Song that stepped up to save the day yesterday, throwing his bleach blond noggin onto a gorgeous Gael Clichy cross with just two minutes left on the clock to put Arsenal 1 - 0 up. At first I had a mixture of relief and disappointment, as Arsenal fans we are far too used to dominating games and then not getting what we deserved out of them and for 88 minutes it seemed that horrible 'should of been' feeling was going to haunt me over the weekend yet again. But as that final whistle went and the three points were confirmed I realised that the fact we are used to losing these games means that today we proved again that we have grown as a team and are finally learning from lessons that are being taught to us. Maybe, just maybe we have turned a corner.
I won't go through the game minute by minute as you will find hundreds of news reports or blogs that will do that however I'll point out some key points we can take from the result. The old saying goes, and I'm sure it will be repeated over and over again, "this is a game that last year, Arsenal would have dropped points" and to a point, those people are right. In games against teams that fought as bravely as the Hammers did yesterday Arsenal very rarely picked up all three points, it's a horrible truth but a truth all the same.
Yesterdays three points could show that we can now win those games that last year we fell just short and with those extra points gained we can possibly see a real title challenge.
Another point that may get overlooked is that yesterday marked our third successive clean sheet. Real credit for a clean sheet must go to the goalkeeper and two centre backs so the fact that we have had different trios in each of those three games is even more impressive. Not bad for a team who are missing their best centre back and apparently don't have a goalkeeper good enough for premier league football.
As we come into November, which is traditionally not a very good month for us, we can look forward to a month of fixtures that are all games that we should win but at the same time not be overly surprised if we drop points. We travel to Wolves, Everton and Villa while we welcome Newcastle and the Spuds for a good old fashioned Emirates spanking. These are five games we could pick up a maximum 15 points from, especially if everyone stays fit and we don't have to worry about the Champions league qualification, however, 11 points from those games - dropping points to Everton and Villa wouldn't be surprising, realistically we should be looking to take maximum points from every game until at least December 13th when we go to Old Trafford, Chelsea and Man Utd will not drop too many points over the season and we cannot afford to drop needless points against teams like those named above.
Anyway, back to yesterday, three point is three points and I don't care how we got them. It's time to keep enjoying that winning feeling and look forward to officially qualifying for the knockout stage in the champions
league on Wednesday against Shakhtar.
Till next time Gooners,
Goonerfish.
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