Robin van Persie’s spectacular second half volley was enough to beat a stubborn Everton side as Arsenal secured three vital points on their 125th birthday.
The Dutchman’s effort lifts Arsene Wenger’s side into the Champions League position for the first time this season and sets the Gunners up nicely ahead of a tough away fixture with Manchester City.
As expected Thomas Vermaelen was handed the responsibility of covering for Andre Santos and Kieran Gibbs in the left-back position, Laurent Koscielny partnering Per Mertesacker in the centre of defence and Johan Djourou starting on the right. The midfield and attacking unit was the same that beat Wigan 4-0 last week.
After an emotional tribute to legends of days gone by, the first half was a pretty forgettable affair; the sight of messrs McLintock, George, Wilson, Limpar, Pires, Henry failing to inspire the class of 2011.
Time after time Arsenal attempted to penetrate Everton’s high line with through balls, but despite wriggling free of his markers Theo Walcott too often found himself offside. On the one occasion the England winger did time his run he opted to pass to Gervinho who squandered the opportunity.
The Ivorian nearly made amends minutes later but despite hitting hard low angled drive, Tim Howard got down well to save. Aaron Ramsey further frustrated the home crowd by clipping the cross bar having wriggled free in the box.
Everton hadn’t mustered a shot on target by half time with Wenger’s four centre backs looking calm and composed on the ball. Louis Saha looked relatively disinterested up front for the Toffees while Tim Cahill and Marouane Fellaini produced below par performances.
You hoped the Gunners might up the tempo in the second half, but aside from a couple of tasty dribbles by Walcott it looked increasingly likely that Everton would follow Fulham’s lead in holding out for a clean sheet. That the away side opted to replace Saha for defender Distin just after the hour mark pretty much summed up the extent of their ambition.
In games like this you sometimes need something special to make the difference. Van Persie’s left foot was that difference today. After a 69 relatively low profile minutes the striker came alive. Picked out by a beautiful lofted diagonal ball by Alex Song, the club captain followed the line of the ball before perfectly arrowing a low volley in off the post. It was an extraordinary goal and arguably one of the best the Emirates has witnessed. Even Thierry enjoyed it – the Frenchman standing to his feet with the net still rippling.
Very little happened in the last twenty minutes. Van Persie nearly doubled the lead with a header from a corner before Everton sub McAleny flashed a cracking effort just wide of Szczesny’s goal in the dying moments.
Relief washed over those supporters who braved a bitterly cold afternoon to see the game through to the final whistle. It wasn’t a memorable match, but it was a memorable goal on a day all about remembering the past.
As former manager George Allison once said: “It’s one-nil to The Arsenal. That’s the way we like it.”
How fitting.
One-nil to The Arsenal!!!
Thumping finish does justice to one nil to the Arsenal. With legends in attendance from those halcion 1-0 days, I think its rather apt. Sure final ball could have been better in first half but so what. Win is a win…etc. Seven in eight wins, who would have thought that in September, lets face it most of us had sold our souls to the devil already just for respectable mid table. Can only give serious credit and kudos to the players, they’ve stood up and have definately been counted. Up to 4th, I’ll take a scrappy win over a honourable… Read more »
That finish made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. And yes, I am currently rolling around in my Van Persie shrine.
Robin Van Persie, a God amongst mere mortals.
Well that’s Goal Of The Season wrapped up then.
Aaaaaaah
pretty sure it was a full volley.
Definately sure up to this point nobody has posted it was anything but. A low volley isn’t a half volley mate, just lower that a high volley which incidentally is 100% more of a volley than no volley at all.
He said ” second half” volley. Meaning the volley took place in the final 45 minutes of the match. Jack ass
Every replay of that goal shows Henry standing up and clapping … The old legend of Arsenal recognises the new
How amazing was it to see so many generations of Arsenal’s finest all stood side by side! Seasons gone by we’d have lost games like that. But this class of 2011 seem to have inherited the spirit of the old guard! Back four and Song deserve great praise!…
As for RvP? I think Wojciech said all that needed to be said
Money cannot buy 125 years of history. It can’t buy tradition. It can’t buy class.
Three things that make us THE Arsenal. Three things that make me proud to be a Gooner.
To the first 125.
A frustrating first half with Gervinho & Walcott a bit scared of taking up the responsibility to shoot, instead looking to pass it. I think it’s a classic sign of “maybe little bit lacking confidence”. Gervinho especially needs to practice one-on-one situations with keeper. There’ve been too many occasions where he’s shot along the ground straight at him, held onto it for too long or just tapped it too far. If he can perfect chipping over or blasting it at an awkward level for the keeper we could be onto a winner. He has the potential to make a huge… Read more »
Three points that’s what mattered. Well done you Gooners…..
It was a frustrating 70 minutes until RVP drove his gem in. It was fortunate our youngest grandkid wasn’t over or he would have added “oh shit!” to his two year-old vocabulary.
Weren’t that convincing with our final ball today. Build up play was great especially when we broke down Everton in the middle and moved the ball forward quickly. Just couldn’t get the final pass/shot right. We missed some width with our fullbacks today – especially on the left where Santos’ adds a bit more flair to our attack. Then up pops Song and RvP. What more is there to say? We battled hard and took the points. Being able to win when you aren’t playing so well is something we haven’t been able to do over the last few seasons.… Read more »
Thats true enough mate, the only worry for me on that front is that we wiil have no natural full backs to pin back their full backs, i genuinely think that if we are going to beat those bastards we need to be right in their faces. Hope springs eternal.Always does.
In the pic it looks like V Persie’s leg is crooked or bent. Scary, but brilliant nonetheless
Shin pad and a slight shadow.
Thought Vermaelen was immense at LB today. I mean, RVP deserves MotM, and Song keeps reminding us why he’s the best DM in the Prem (Europe?), but I was just so impressed with Vermaelen. A captain’s performance from a non-captain (but a future one).
Clubs usually give their best to present their culture,values and character on 125th anniversary.
Arsenal did that by managing the famous scoreline of 1-0 whereas one particular club celebrated their 125th anniversary by conceding four goals!!!!
Those through balls from song WOW!!!
He seems to have mastered the art of putting his passes and through balls just in front of the man he’s passing to. One thing that frustrates me is that so often a fast Arsenal break stumbles to a halt as a player has to run back to collect a ball passed behind him instead of in front of him. Hope somebody looks at that in training because speed is one of the important factors in getting around parked buses.
And it’s times like the entire day of yesterday why we pour our lives into this club. From thousands of miles away this club still manages to give me goosebumps on a daily basis.
3 points. 125 of pure class. Nothing else to add. Cheers.
Fantastic! Everything about today was just pure class from our club. The statues, the legends, the fans, the pass from song to the goal from RVP and the result! I love this club and here’s to another 125 years of pure class, hard work, courage, pride and success! COYG!
A beautiful birthday with a wonderful birthday gift from the team to The Arsenal Fc!
That goal made me jump off the couch with such exuberance it was unbelievable. It was rather reminiscent of Di Canio’s volley, that goal is such a difficult skill it just oozes class. The other part that I liked about that goal is that he ran to the bench to celebrate, he is clearly revelling in his new role as club captain, absolutely love the guy at the moment! Let’s get a result next weekend, and we’re in strong position for the remainder of the season. City, United, Chelsea, Spurs, all have to come to the Emirates in the 2nd… Read more »
Arsenal till I die.
That is all.
Arsenal need to start manufacturing RVP chocolate legs. Delicious. They’d sell in their droves. If only he were Belgian it would be even more apt.
They named a beer after him Dutch Gold
i know its been said many times before, but i don’t care, i’m gonna say it again
what a goal!
[…] Match report […]
Anyone who watched the el classico knows that we need to do to city what madrid did in the first half, ruthlessly Pressig every player, after 20 seconds 3 players closed down a back pass to Valdes which led to a goal, if we do this to city I’m confident we won’t lose. COYG
But Real lost to Barca!
We need to do what Barca did to Real, kick city’s ass in their own ground!
An early red card to 1 of their CB’s like last season should do the trick! Where’s Chamakh when u need him?lol
COYG
We made it hard for ourselves yesterday by not putting Everton away in in the first half. Both Walcott and Gervinho have had excellent seasons in terms of their attacking play, but neither of them are natural finishers; had they been then the Toffee men would have been chewed up well before the break. The winning goal, when it came, was a piece of awesome skill by a man who must now be the best striker on the planet. Henry, Wright or any of the watching legends would have been proud of that goal. The overall performance wasn’t great, but… Read more »
See when you put it like that, people don’t rush to vote you down into oblivion! 🙂 But yes I agree with you and hope that RVP goes through the entire season injury free with a new backup striker signed up anyway. In case things go bad and he’s out hopefully the backup guy can do the job to a certain extent because at this rate even Messi himself will have a tough task of keeping up with Robin! A second quality striker is definitely needed, someone ahead of Park but certainly behind RVP in the pecking order. Finding one… Read more »
Like I said before: I really don’t care too much if people thumb me down. I love my club and will say exactly what I think, even if it upsets a few people. The problem That I have now is that I don’t trust Arsene Wenger. He has made far too many insane decisions recent years. Here are a few: Not replacing Jens Lehmann with a quality goalkeeper when the German left. Instead promoting the hopeless Manuel Almunia to number one. Not buying a centre-half last winter when we had lost Vermaelen for the season. Staying loyal to rubbish players… Read more »
Can we get one of those doctors that does brain transplant. Just harvest that ganglion in Vela’s brain that says ‘Chip’ and put it through Gervinho’s forehead. Then we would have an hybrid of Thiery Henry and Van Persie.
We need to do to citeh what we did to the chavs. Plain and simple. 🙂
Look how fucked up his leg looks in that picture, it really does look like it’s been broken many times before and is held on by string.
Yes, RVP is great but can we please celebrate ALEXANDER SONG for a few minutes
Best goal of the season from the premierships best striker. To all Arsenal fans this was never in question. He was always the best only injury held him back. Please stay injury free. Up the arsenal
Speechless that’s how .ȋ̝̊̅̄ feel when .ȋ̝̊̅̄ watch the replay of that vantastic goal!!! Thumbs up tø̲̣̣ Alex for that “fabregas-pass”. Α̲̅πϑ he is a DM, what more can we ask for? Up gunners for life. .ȋ̝̊̅̄ BLEED RED!!!