Arsenal got back to winning ways in the Premier League and welcomed back Bacary Sagna and Jack Wilshere as they beat QPR 1-0.
The first half was pretty quiet, Arsenal started quite well and dominated the ball in the early part of the game. An Andre Santos cross in the 9th minute almost presented a chance to Olivier Giroud but Julio Cesar hooked the ball clear before the Frenchman could react.
Wilshere and Sagna then combined to create a half chance for Aaron Ramsey, but the Welshman’s smart header looped onto the top of the bar. Podolski then shot from distance but it was always going wide.
Santi Cazorla was the next to combine with Wilshere, and the Englishman got the edge of the QPR before firing in a shot which Cesar parried away and collected before the Spaniard could tuck home the rebound.
Olivier Giroud was next to have a go, smashing a low shot from side of the area, the angle was tight but it was on target and forced Cesar into a save before QPR hacked it clear.
Almost everything good Arsenal did came through Wilshere and he was involved again in a move which saw Andre Santos shoot with his right foot from the corner of the QPR area, again Cesar dealt with it easily enough.
QPR had good spells of possession as Arsenal struggled to find their real rhythm but Mannone wasn’t tested anywhere near as often as his opposite number and Arsenal defended well to deny them goalscoring opportunities or the chance to shoot from distance.
Arsenal dominated the second half, but took a while to really start troubling the QPR defence. An early Mertesacker header from an Arteta free kick was well saved by Julio Cesar, the Brazilian picking up where he left off in the first half and he would go on to frustrate Arsenal time and again.
It got a bit scrappy and Arsenal did have to defend – Bacary Sagna making a vital tackle on Shaun Wright Phillips after Vermaelen was caught out of position.
Arsene Wenger replaced Wilshere with Walcott and Podolski with Gervinho (the Ivorian picked up a quick injury and was himself replaced by Arshavin), and Arsenal began to create chances.
Santi Cazorla should have put Arsenal ahead in the 76th minute, but with the goal at his mercy he fired over the bar from the penalty spot. It looked like it would be a very costly miss as Cesar made a string of impressive saves, and the visitors were then reduced to 10 men after Mbia’s petulant kick at Vermaelen.
Eventually though the goal came. Andrei Arshavin’s cross was headed firmly on target by Olivier Giroud, again Cesar made an outstanding save, Mikel Areteta headed the rebound onto the crossbar and when it fell to his feet he poked it in to make it 1-0. There was a hint of offside but, you know, who cares?
There was late danger when Jamie Mackie ran through the Arsenal defence, over some challenges, into the box and only a good stop by Vito Mannone prevented the visitors equalising.
In the end, however, Arsenal hung on through 5 minutes of injury time to take three points they probably deserved.
And Mark Hughes is sad but Mark Hughes is a cunt so fuck Mark Hughes. It makes for a better weekend folks, even if it wasn’t convincing, so enjoy it!
thank god for arshavin! i was tired of seeing gervinho cross the ball right into the defender marking him
Artetaaaaaaaaa!!!!!. Okay perhaps not like the citeh cracker but still so goddamn important!… Thanks!
on another site note, old red nose was in the stands today, that cunt. the last thing he is the last thing i want to see when im watching arsenal play
the last thing i want to see is him*
I suspect dutch skunk sent him to check our current “direction” in football. The only thing that skunk should worry about is frimmers! and vermaelen having him in his back pocket!.
Ramsey is great. Not. Ramsey is rubbish. Truth. We’ve turned to arshavin cause we’ve sold everyone else.truth.
I know right. Everytime Gervinho touches the ball I groan (or shout) because I know he is going to run (or walk) straight into the defender and the ball is speeding at us again.
If not that he miscontrols it and our attack is dead. I hope he is alright, but I don’t want him in the first team.
Fantastic 3 points! We needed it so badly. Also great to see Jack and Bacary back, they looked sharp! Got to say the look on Mbia’s face when he got sent off was hilarious.
it was disgusting watching qpr getting stuck in challenges, esp against jack where they even physically double-teamed him. Granero, mbia and diakite were especially reckless. Say what you want about the red card ‘saving’ us, but their game plan was reckless and they were lucky to have even 10 on the field – terrible and inconsistent officiating.
we deserved the win regardless. A fairer game and we would surely have put it to bed sooner.
So, in essence, you are saying that Mark Hugh’s game plan was to go kick our players for 90 minutes??
Shocking.
did you see him tracking back and putting in a tackle i was so surprised
Scrappy but who gives a fuck. 3pts is 3pts and we’ve got our Jack back.
Better than a kick in the orchestras.
Most definitely. Needed that win so bad. Sagna coming in makes a ton of difference as always!
Below par yet again.
At least Sagna and Wilshere have been a real fillip to the team!!
😉
Sagna is just pure class, forgot just how good he was somehow. Even with Jenkinson fine form, glad to have our bacary back.
Sign Theo up! Giroud came to life after Walcott came on.
I do think, with the weakness we’ve been seeing up front of late, perhaps it’s time to bite the bullet, admit defeat, and offer Walcott closer to the 100k mark. I’m all for contractual prudence and keeping the wage bill down, but I think it’s becoming clear that we need him right now. He didn’t do much today but we’ve missed his pace recently, and he adds depth to a surprisingly light forward line. Unfortunately.
Don’t know any gooner that can argue with that!
Giving him a pay rise would be cheaper than the cost of buying a replacement & paying their wages.
Unless we’re not planning on buying a replacement, that’s unheard of 😉
Was nice to see Giroud rise above that qpr defence and head the ball to start up the scramble for the goal. Ugly goal but I’ll take it. Arshavin entered the field of play and you wonder why was he second option to gervinho in the first place!. Thankyou little russian and ofcourse get back soon gerv. Cazorla why you miss that?. Almost had a henry-esque goal moment after that but cesar was there. He linked up well with Wilshere for the time he was on the pitch. Now who said wil needs atleast 1 month to get on with… Read more »
3 day ban starts now. Plus an extra day for being the first on the thread to say it.
And great to see the challenge Ramsay put in to make sure it stayed in the box, the kid who had his leg smashed by a Cunt two years ago. Credit due to him for his performance today and his recent criticism here
He played much better today! Very glad to see it. (Of course it helps when Wilshere, Arteta and Cazorla are in the midfield together…)
1:0 to the Arsenal!!!
boy was that scrappy 🙂 where has that Arshavin been??
Thank fuck for that!
Showed some guts today though.
I don’t care how we won. I’m just so bloody relieved that we did. Yes Jack!
Result good, performance still not good enough. It took a QPR red card and an offside goal for us to win at home to a bottom three side again!
We seem to be cursed perhaps with motivation against lesser teams, that plus team is lacking confidence. The win is most welcome but we had 71% possession mid-way second half but we didn’t seem to be able to do much with it.
Solution? I honestly don’t know, it’s really odd to see a team that was so good at the start of the season attack-wise to then become so poor.
excepting southhampton Arsenal have not been good offensively, lowest number of shots on goal for all teams in the champions league.
Maybe because of all the new players up front, or because of the quality of all the new players up front.
Dry up, we won and got 3 points. Could be the scrappy win we need to go on a run. Enjoy it dude
Heart of champions.
Can’t argue that Arteta’s always in it to win it. Started seeing him playing a bit further upfield in the second half, like he knew it was up to him to save the day.
They lads messed up my hair in the celebration! Apart from that I’m happy as f**k! 🙂
You must be an imposter, its not possible to mess up Arteta’s hair.
Heh!
Confused. That the hair talking?
Mine was too
Typo: Giroud is chiseled out of marble, not ivory.
haha!
Time to give Arshavin a start I reckon.
not so sure about that, but it’s definitely good to know that he still can have an impact. who knows, stranger things have happened than a player sorted out who fought his way back into the team..
Now that gerv is out I reckon we’ll see abit more of him starting tuesday against reading.
A much better crosser of the ball and know how to release a first time ball when needed not like gerv; It’s rocket science to him me thinks.
Phew!!!
I don’t care how we got it, we needed that pretty damn badly.
Thank you arteta! and thank you Arshavin!
How you forget GIROUD. For rising above everyone and knick in a header to start the scramble.
I also noticed ramsey today in a good way and in a bit bad way too. It’s much more promising. Hope he really turns up for the united game like he did against yet another manchester club.
That was immense. The guy’s a mountain, a beautiful, chiseled mountain.
Ramsey had a real verve and energy about him all game. I’m just glad he’s got the likes of cazorla and arteta to learn the trade from now. The promised future duo of ramsey and wilshere is not far off anymore!
I don’t see Ramsey and Wilshere playing as a duo anytime soon — no way will he displace Arteta and Cazorla from their spots. But he did play well today (for the most part), and I’m thrilled to admit that, as someone who doesn’t always love his game.
A wins a win and all that, but qpr showed showed us the benifits of having a decent keeper.
Better performance than the last two but we still didn’t look anywhere near convincing up front again. We desperately need another quality striker that’s even if we keep Walcott. Let him go and stil don’t buy a striker then we are seriously going to struggle to score.
Arteta. Just Arteta.
We made hard fucking work of that but it’s three points, defence needs to waken up, well done arteta who drove us on and good to see sagna back and jack wilshire is class and not even fully fit
Very important three points – great to see Jack and Bac back who both showed why they’ve been sorely missed. However, I can’t help but feel after two months into the season that Arsene’s (whom I am generally very pleased with) experimentation with his selection is making life difficult for us. When we purchased Podolski I thought we purchased a hybrid forward/winger. His tenacity, proven finishing and determination make him useful centrally and wide and I feel he even be more dangerous centrally. Gervinho to me was always a winger. Indecisive, unpredictable and at times a handful but unproven and… Read more »
on a side note, shout out to the 100 year old arsenal fan in the stands today, old enough to have witnessed every single trophy the arsenal has won. now thats amazing!
You can always spot a true gooner by the toilet paper he uses.
Nice pic you got there Binda 😀
haha thanks man! got to put sp*ds in their place
Jack’s back.
Arsenal will not win anything with Ramsey starting. He doesn’t seem to be good at anything. Right side of front 3, he has no pace. Moved to the middle, and he’s not strong, can’t dribble, doesn’t have the penetrating pass and poor awareness. He still needs time to develop. Sub appearances is the best for him if Arsenal want to improve their attacking play.
I thought Ramsey did a lot better today, actually. Not that he was brilliant or anything, but he certainly wasn’t as dire as he was last weekend. Its not ideal that he’s starting no, I quite agree. Unfortunately Arsene seems to really favour him for some reason – I expected him to be dropped with Jack being back. I suppose we just have to hope Jack stays fit, and Rosicky is back asap – its too much to rely on Diaby sadly, its come down to hoping he’s fit for the occasional run of games these days.
Can’t rely on Diaby. Not a good gamble from Arsene. Even Rosicky is more reliable. The midfield is about partnerships and if Diaby is in and out it doesn’t help our attack. Subs for him too, if this team wants to achieve more than champions league qualification.
Ramsey?
On
http://arsenal-mania.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=249052
he got this one:
Ramsey: 3 – Shocking passing. Every long range pass he made went awry, and his through balls were executed with the touch of a rapist.
Anyone that uses the phrase ‘touch of a rapist’ is the kind of witless cunt who should be thrown off a tall buidling.
I once witnessed someone jumping/falling from a tall building, the sound of the impact will always be with me.
so maybe the type of person who uses a phrase such as “should be thrown from a tall building” could be said to have the touch of a rapist.
Thus setting off a circular series of cause and effect rivaling a terminator movie
by the way, Ramsey is not very good.
I agree, I just copied how some people are mental about Ramsey. Ramsey our captain! 🙂
I agree that we need someone to replace him as a starter, but I can’t fault him today… He definitely played much better than he has all season. (Would like to see us bring in someone new and then play Ramsey as a sub.)
If you want to know how important Ramsey is you need only go back to the Chelsea and City games. Boy is class but is also just that…a Boy! Ramsey is vital for ball retention, when AW took him off against Chelsea our midfield literally collapsed and couldn’t string two passes together in the middle of the pack or pass the ball outside our own half. Again against QPR when he switched back to central mid when Theo came in our shift from midfield to the final third was enhanced. Expect him to start at UTD again this saturday.
Who cares how we played today we Fucking won ! Gervinho take note of arshavin for the goal tat is wot wingers do get to the line and cross it! Jack was outstanding for 66 mins can’t wait til he is 100 per cent match fit!
sagna didnt even miss a beat out there today
Last 5 minutes I was agitated as fuck, good result though!
“Supporting” ManU and Liverpool by default tomorrow.
Never ever support Man U, they’re the definition of cunts. All their fans are glory hunters.
Chill out, I wrote “supporting” and “by default”. I hate those cunts.
The way the top 4 looks like now, is probably gonna end up that way in May. If ManU, Chelsea, ManC can fuck it each other with the points and thereby making the top 4 more close, then let them have a go.
Not me!!!
I’m supporting the referee to give 22 red cards tomorrow at Stamford Bridge! 😛
Didn’t know we have a Handsome Ivorian Bloke by the name of Giroud too O.O
From watching the match, I think that some Arsenal fans should apologise to Walcott he gives us something that we need pace and directness. As much as he wants to be a striker he plays most like a winger in the whole team. The Ox almost always drifts inside so does Podolski and Gervinho is far to unpredictable to know what he’s gonna do. I think this win will boost our confidence but to be honest we lack attacking prowess, that’s due to the lack of proper wingers that can help out Giroud. I wish we didn’t loan out Ryo… Read more »
I agree, and I have never been walcotts biggest fan, but with the way we are playing and the worrying lack of goals and options up front, I now feel that it’s almost Imppossible to imagine letting him go in January.
He is important to us now because of the situation we are in as rvp was last season.
Arteta, Wilshere, Diaby, Rosicky, Cazorla looks very promising. Walcott with them, hope he will stay. With Szcz, Sagna, Jenks, Per, Kos we have a good basic. I am not sure for anybody else anymore. Even Vermaelen today went nowhere again and again.
I forgot Ox, Miquel and Gibbs, and some other youngsters as well.
Thank god we won. I have one negative thing to say, And its not “Wenger out” or ” fuck ramsey” like most fans. I was just shocked that even when we went 1-0 up on two seperate occasions we had defenders running up to the QPR box. Andre santos passed the ball and ran all the way, and for the corner, both our CBs went up. I was just hoping for a bit more professionalism and the ability to safely close the game out. am i the only one that things this?
This bothers me as well, and its not just Santos that’s at fault, unfortunately our captain is making rather a habit of this and its something that desperately needs to be sorted out I feel.
yup. definately not just santos. it was santos, mertesacker and vermaelen. They must be doing it under orders from the coaching staff though
I’d like to see how Arshavin could do on the wing combining with Giroud. In his final Arsenal appearance last year and his few opportunities this year I have been really impressed with the quality and accuracy of his deliveries, which would seem to be a perfect match for Giroud.
Yeah, Arshavins delivery leading up to the goal was pure class.
I’m not convinced he can play an entire game, but we have not seen him try, have we?
Also think Wenger needs to shake things up with Cazorla, play Cazorla on the wing and Arshavin in the center, see how that works out…
Cazorla problem is that he is lacking players to play with. Walcott is benched, Diaby/Rosicky injured, Arteta at the back, Wilsher is back 🙂 but they need time so I hope soon, at least, we ll have a great midfiled.
Wenger seems to be making a habit out of leaving players out of the team for so long people forget about them. good to see Arshavin for a change. a lot more composed on the ball than gervinho and a much smarter player.
The players were stepping up their performance on this match. Santos, Ramsey, Vermaelen are players who in the last two match had been making a costly mistakes but in this match, they were particularly good.
A win to welcome Sagna and Wilshere is the best way to go. Next week will be a game that could turn the tide for the better for us.
Onwards and upwards to Arsenal.
Ramsey, really? Must have been watching a different match…
I saw a number of passes and crosses that wre intended for what must have been an invisible arsenal player.
Ramsey stepped his game up and didn’t make near as many mistakes today. I always give him a hard time, but he was OK today. (Not great, or one of our top performers, but it was OK.)
Are you blind or paid by The Football Asc of Wales? 🙂
You annoy me.
I could say the same of you. He had more shots on target than anyone but giroud and once he returmed to the centre he was brilliant. Definitely better than cazorla who i felt was off his game today
Arteta and Giroud are in sync here
https://farm9.static.flickr.com/8191/8127993877_8e47de0920.jpg
Wow dude they are totally in sync. Wonderful snapshot this.
Two of the most handsome men in the premier like that?. Earth tilts just a wee bit to awesomeness!
If Giroud picks up and injury then Walcott will finally get his chance to play the (mostly) center striker. I don’t know if Gervinhos injury is cause for concern or a blessing in disguise. Game was scrappy, crisis over? I recently criticised Jenks for being an offensive dead-end, I was happy to see Sagna return, he was much more dynamic coming forward, tried to beat his man occasionally (and did), and put in better crosses. I like Jenks, I think he has a great future, but he is not the player Sagna is and people wondering if Jenks should retain… Read more »
A 1 nil over the worst team In The league and the crisis is over? Heh.
you must have missed the ?
I hardly think the crisis is over, in fact, Arsenal have failed to convince yet this season. Second worst start for Arsenal under Wenger, says it all.
When was there a crisis to begin with?
couple of thoughts: so nice to have jack and bac back. thought wilshere was as good as anyone on the pitch for stretches. ramsey wasn’t overly poor, but you can see how he improved when moved back into the middle.
scrappy win, but as blogger points out – any day we fuck over mark hughes is a good one. and i always personally savor any match in which the opposition wastes time all game, only for it to blow up in their faces with less than 10 minutes left. up up up the fookin arse.
Arshavin over Gervinho any day.
Julio Cesar is MOTM I think. & I still can’t believe a team like QPR can get a hold on a player in that caliber.
mikel arteta = jesus christ
an unconvincing display but a great platform to build upon. lets take it a step by step from here on.
and yes Good to see Jack back!
a injury to Gervinho has propelled Arshavin into a potential starting berth now. Its up to Arshavin to prove to himself and everyone that he is better than what he has shown thus far. His directness and lack of hithering and dithering when approaching defenders has undoubtedly won us this game. I missed the first half so i don’t know how the lads played but from what i saw of Jack, its good to have that option to give Ramsey a breather (who had a decent half from what I saw). If only we had won our last 2 games… Read more »
We have struggled as hell against the worst team in the league. Only goal was a true picture of where we are. It looked like we are untalented as QPR and this is our only way how we can score! We can and must do much much much better. But not with some players at all. Sometimes I really think The Football Asc of Wales is paying Gazidis for Ramsey to play! How somebody that lost can be an Arsenal starter? Again Ramsey play is maybe a mind blueprint of where whole team is at the moment. He is a… Read more »
I called Bullshit. I agree Ramsey hasn’t been great so far this season but I feel he is undeservedly criticised at times. Credit where credit is due, he was quite decent today.
Ramsey Vs QPR
1/3 Shots on Target
1/3 Shots hit Woodwork
4/8 Successful Dribbles
2/4 Headed Duels
2 Key Passes
85% Pass Completion
lapidarij, you’ve critisized ramsey no less than four times in this one thread alone. we get it, you don’t like ramsey.
Need our jack back for good..
We look more menacing with threat from the flanks as well as wilshere/caz danger from the middle.. We need Gibbs back for Man U or the best we can hope for is draw.
Gerv’s injury could be blessing in disguise for giroud just like sagna’s was for jenkinson..
I am pleased with a win and 3 points however it came today. If not for cesar we could have won 3 or 4 nil.
What a win! And we really deserved it. Some Man City supporting commentator at Abu Dhabi Sports was screaming that Arteta was offside when in fact he wasn’t as there was a QPR player outside the post and the last player who actually touched the ball was QPR player. We didn’t create many chances in the first half but the second half was all about us. Jack Wilshere showed what we were missing during his absense. His movement and will to go forward and do something is impressing. Also Bacary was good. I don’t know what happened to Gervinho but… Read more »
Awesome. We’re in a trophy winning position again then…
but seriously, thank fuck for that! Made hard work of it but we got what we deserved. We needed a bit more quick direct penetration today.
I feel we’ve been missing Diaby a little bit at times. He looked awesome at the start of the season.
We definitely looked brighter after the changes.
and I thought Giroud started blogs . must have been in a parallel universe where Terry isnt a Cunt… wait what?
naaah… Terry is and will always be a cunt no matter which universe.
Even if the three points is a good relief and makes it a better week-end, it is very worrying to see the lack of dynamism and creativity of the Arsenal side for the last three games… Hard to identify the problem : tiredness, players (who?),… ??
If anyone has an analysis of such situation….
So is arshavin our savior? I hope not. Glad to get the three points. Sagna showed what a proper world class full back is today. He’s been out best, most consistent player up till his leg broke. With a good run of games he will offer us the stability we need at the back on the right side. I think him and per compliment each other perfectly. As for the left side of defense???????? Going forward we looked a bit better , but nowhere near a trophy winning side. This January is make or break for Arsene and Ivan. Let’s… Read more »
Our club runners already had a make or break… it was this very summer… but you were somewhere in the pond then – black, slimy and small… a simple tadpole.
But then you raised to a frog. Great life. Enjoy!
If you really like Arsenal go to some Spurs forum, and write rubbish there… Fight the enemy! 😉
One word. Arsenal is still a cunt so f**k the team!
That wasn’t one word and there seems to be no point to your post.
You’re Spurs fan then?
Forgetting my ‘a’s’. I feel terrible. 🙁
One words……then goes on to explain in long sentense of utter horse dung. Oh ye spuds, illiterate fucks!
Aaron Ramsey is a shockingly mediocre player. Just not good enough for Arsenal in my humble opinion.
Yeah!
This snap is gold. Nothing like two beautiful gunner men celebrating a precious goal.
Gunners on the road!
3 points, Jack’s back… Bac is back… Finally a reason to smile
Where’s the video, bloggs?
Click the links in the report
QPR held Chelsea a 0-0 draw and don’t conceade a lot of goals and their defense is not as bad as some fans here claim.
We won the game and that’s what matters. I don’t understand some of the people who comment on here.
Also Ramsey played well. He didn’t make mistakes and he was one of the players who tried to score.
Still piss poor… Nice to have 3 points in the bag and Jack showing why we put to much fate in him, but we can’t have Santos and Ramsey in the same line-up. I’m sorry, but neither one of them are starters on a contending club. I don’t understand why Vermaelen wasn’t inserted in LB and Koscielny in CB… Not claiming im smarter than Arsene, but it would have made some sense.
It’s probably because vermaelin is a terrible lb. how quickly we forget last year eh?
Could he have been terrible coz of maybe his natural position is CB. Verm helped us with LB at times last season. We would be asking the extraordinary is you’d have expected him to be perfect!.
anyone still fancy that headless chicken Gervinho ahead of international veteran Andrei Arshavin,seen him put such lovely balls in for Russia from left side so many times as recently as Euro 2012 where Dzagoev made most of it.There is that other dimension to Arshavin that Gervinho does not have,he will allways try to dribble his way into the box and will fail with 99% success rate,he will never put a dangerous cross in while Arshavin can do both quite effectively,actually Gervinho’s injury was a blessing in disguise for us,I am 100% sure we would have got nothing with Gervinho,we already… Read more »