West Brom 1 Arsenal 3: Bendtner at his best - report and ratings
A VERY quick one as I’m writing this on Tuesday night and have to be up at 5am on Wednesday (ie six hours). I’d sat through 360 agonising minutes of league football without a goal.
Then when one finally came, I was parking the car outside the pub after getting stuck behind a particularly stubborn temporary traffic light (something London based readers will sympathise with).
Bendtner had got the goal, cutting in from the left and finishing very neatly with his left foot. It was a shot the both curled delightfully along the ground and fizzed a fair bit too.
Sadly, before long our record of not conceding went too.
And it wasn’t pretty as a low free-kick went through our wall and past the blameless Almunia, who quite justifiably assumed the wall would cover that part of the goal. I’ll give Eboue the benefit of the doubt and say it was keenness to attack the ball that saw him leave his station in the middle of the wall.
We then weren’t particularly pretty for quite a while, with very little coherence to our play. Their partnership restored, Song and Denilson were not complimenting each other, Nasri was very quiet (particularly after receiving treatment for a kick), Eboue was sporadically interesting and Bendtner was trying hard enough but scooped one great chance over. Arshavin had nice moments here or there but wasn’t seeing much of it.
Then the Clich, on one of his better forays forward, won a free-kick on the left. The marking wasn’t great and Kolo stole in to head home. But sometimes you get poor marking.
The point is that however poor it is, if the ball in is rubbish, it won’t really matter (ahem Cesc).
As it was Arshavin’s ball was a peach, pacey, curling and dipping and perfect for Kolo.
A third followed from more questionable defending. A long Kolo ball for once worked and Bendtner took it down on his knee and fired away a thumping half volley that the keeper could only palm in. Good work.
We started the second half on fire and Bendtner and Arshavin combined well, with each going close and neither guilty of any glaring misses. The Dane was particularly unfortunate when one effort cannoned off the post.
I really should go to bed so I’ll wrap up the playa ratings here: Almunia was very sharp and blameless for the goal, making a very decent low save early on and tipping one wide brilliantly near the end (8). Sagna was solid as ever (7), Kolo looked good enough and got a goal (7.5), Djourou a little rusty on his return (6.5) and Clichy fine but not at his swashbuckling best and still hit and miss with crosses. (6.5)
After the break Alex Song moved back to replace Kolo and did better in defence than in midfield (7), Denilson was solid enough and won some balls well (7), Nasri was very quiet, particularly after his kick (6) and the longer his debut season goes on the more it feels like Pires’ first. (Albeit he is five years younger).
Eboue got involved well enough but was a bit hit and miss (6.5). Ramsey replaced him on 66 and barring one disastrous backpass scrapped in a way it would do us no harm if more players did. (6.5) Diaby officially replaced Toure and despite a couple of lackadaisical moments, the vast majority of what he did was positive and he almost scored a fine goal, but for a deflection. (7)
And congratulations to Fran Merida on his Premiership debut. He did well I thought and looked a bit stronger than in the Carling Cup. (7)
Up front, Arshavin got his first assist and while he missed a few chances, the quality is obviously there (7). Bendtner didn’t just score two, he also set-up a fair bit, ran hard, jumped for headers and generally worked far more impressively than at times in the past. I can accept those who criticise him for slacking off at times (I am one) but I’ve never got those who rubbish him for his ability. (8.5)
His contributions are frequently decisive ones and last night the travelling hordes sung his name loudly and deservedly so.
All in all, a good night’s work and if we looked a little nervy late on, that can probably be forgiven.
4 March 2009 at 12:41 pm
good work from the team, and to the travelling fans-u guys were awesome. bring on burnley!
4 March 2009 at 1:04 pm
I hate to see english players in the team.
They are not good enough, simply rubbish.
That english snob, ramsey nearly caused us by passing the ball back so far away.
shit, englsih players are stupid!
4 March 2009 at 1:48 pm
Despite not being called Williams, Jones, Evans or Davies, anyone with a basic education knows Ramsey is Welsh.
4 March 2009 at 2:00 pm
Dont jum on him Old Git. Bloody english never got a basic education.
4 March 2009 at 2:19 pm
Precisely.
4 March 2009 at 3:18 pm
You forgot to rate the 12th man — the fans. I’d give them a 3. They continued to show no desire, passion, understanding of the game, or leadership in creating a positive atmosphere for the team.
4 March 2009 at 4:51 pm
Pride & Poise - what in particular are you mad at? Lack of songs - wrong songs etc. I watched and the crowd seemed loud and proud to me…
Where you there?
4 March 2009 at 4:54 pm
not sure about your memories of Bob: to me he seemed to get stronger as the season closed out. In fact, the Semi v. Spurs was the game where he gained my full confidence. I don’t yet feel we’ve seen Nasri show what he could make this team do.
4 March 2009 at 10:49 pm
Away supporters are fantastic.
Take away the statues and booers/moaners at home and our support is pretty good too.
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