Arsenal hosted West Bromwich Albion today at the Emirates stadium and with both teams secure in their places in the table the match felt more like a slumber party than a football match.
It took 16 minutes but Arsenal were the first to wake from their sleep when Cazorla’s corner found Giroud’s head and the ball found Mulumbu’s leg before finding the net. It was a dream start and Arsenal’s 8th goal from a set play this season. Liverpool have 23 goals from set plays and Man City have 19. That’s not counting penalties. Counting penalties Arsenal have 11 goals from set plays, Liverpool 33, and Man City 25. I say that for no other reason but to make you angry and because I am 7amkickoff, this is what I do.
Up 1-0 and slumbering through the game, West Brom nearly woke Arsenal in the 32nd minute when Dorrans the Explorer took a wicked shot from outside the box. The ball dipped right in front of Szczesny and he spilled the ball right to the onrushing Berahino. Berahino’s shot found row z and he was spared blushes when the sideline official brought fourth the flag.
The game stirred for a minute after West Brom forced another turnover in Arsenal’s final third, this time on Özil, and Bearahino had a curling effort go straight to the same fans he just shot into. Maybe he hates those people? Maybe it’s a message? Dreams are often hard to interpret.
Arsenal responded with a quick counter. Koscielny tackled the ball away, Flamini cleaned up the garbage and played forward to Özil who spotted Podolski steaming in to the West Brom box, a neat little pass put the German in and his drag-back found Cazorla at the top of the box for a shot low and in the corner which was well saved.
From there, the game slipped back into a dream. Flamini and Sessegnon had a little talk after Sessegnon tackled his ankle instead of the ball. Flamini was angry but quickly realized a stupid foul would mean he missed the FA Cup final. So, I think he asked Sessegnon nicely not to tackle his ankles or he will have to blind him.
Both teams peeked at the clock, 33 minutes gone, and decided to slap the snooze button.
The second half started the same as the first. West Brom stirred a bit in their pyjamas, scratched their nether regions and then rolled over. Arsenal yawned and realized they should probably get up and brush their teeth.
Did I just see Özil sprinting back to cover on defense? His touch has been dreamy all day but covering on defense too?
Arteta gives way to Kallstrom amid great applause from the Arsenal crowd.
We have been informed that Loic Remy is watching in the stands, Mandzukic is rumored to be watching at home on TV, Draxler is listening to the game on the radio, and Diego Costa is going to read about the game in tomorrow’s paper.
Oh man, Özil just did this neat little dribble down the touch line. What was that? And a slide tackle? What is going on? I thought Arsenal were supposed to be asleep. Is it me? I did get up late.
Arsenal bring on Rosicky for Cazorla. More applause.
Özil is easily the man of the match here. He has a nice little shot, tried to be cute and chips it just wide. He plays in a cross for Giroud to head just wide. Podolski finds him with a through ball and he crosses to Olsson who passes to Podolski. Poldi hits the crossbar. Özil is everywhere. Özil is everything.
Nacho off, Vermaelen on. Amalfitano off, Anichebe on. We are informed that Anichebe likes to score against big teams.
Anichebe gives Arsenal a little scare, in the 92nd minute, backing his ample frame into Sagna and then turning to shoot. It took an intervention from Mertesacker to prevent a shot.
The contest comes to a close as Arsenal open one eye, roll over, and decide to have a lap around the kitchen. Searching for a cup of coffee, whilst whistling about “going to Wemberly”.
@7amkickoff
Good game! Could have been better but we got the winning goal and kept a clean sheet and that’s what is important. Giroud MOTM for me. Szczesny gets a well deserved golden glove now at the end of the season, it’s tied with Cech at the moment, but a clean sheet next game should see him being the only winner!
P.S. Loved the way they cheered Arteta when he was coming off, good to see that people still appreciate the work he does! 🙂
Also Loic Remy was in the executive box at the Emirates stadium watching Arsenal today, he could be just watching the game, but I guess it means we’re signing him. Transfer window hasn’t opened yet, so it seems like Arsene is in the mood for getting done with transfers early on which is great.
Speculative to say the least, but I hope you’re right.
I could be wrong, but doesn’t him being seated at the executive box mean we invited him?
Wenger categorically said after the match “I did not invite him.” As far as I know Wenger is in charge of all transfers at AFC, but then again it’s not the first time he’s said “I’m not interested” in a player before signing him. Could be useful backup, so as long as he isn’t more than about £8M he would be a good signing.
£8m? He got a price around £15m.. Besides this deal is depending on whether QPR will fix a premier league contract next season or not, they’d probably not sell their main striker otherwise.
Top investigative work!
Remy is a good player, he would be welcomed to Arsenal of course but is he the top class striker we are looking for? I don’t think so.
Loic Remy is a shitter Lukas Podolski
That’s nothing to be excited about, I personally find it quite depressing that we look to buy a £15m striker which scored 14 goals in the league during the 26 games he played.. I am gonna be honest, I can’t really see how this would improve our chances for the next season.
Spend money on some real quality instead Wenger…
Don’t get me wrong Remy is a good player but he’d not produce more goals than Giroud did for us this season. Wenger strikes again…
Remy is not the type of signing that we need.
Another bargain bin signing, like Gervinho, etc.
We are gonna complain about our strikers again next season at this rate. Stop drinking kool-aid. No need to get excited about Loic Remy
I’m first!
Egg on your face.
Bet you feel like a right John Terry
i think i heard those “Are you John Terry in disguise chants” when someone fell flat on his face
It was “Are you Steven Gerrard in disguise” when Berahino(?) slipped over
You piece of shit!
No, you’re not first. You are a piece of shit though.
Yup. COYG!! Saw Remy in Emirate…
“I am 7amkickoff and that’s what I do.”
That could be a song. Was that your dream as a child?
Sagna and Flamini were poor and we should have scored more. Also, Wenger should have played Jenkinson today.
What game were you watching?
Nah, knowing it may or may not be Sagna’s last home game, it’s a nice gesture to play him. Let’s hope he doesn’t go to another English club, and that even if he does, he gets a good reception from us no matter what (unless it is Chelsea or Spurs)
Better play better than that in the Cup final!!!
That’ll do boys, that’ll do
This is why our Arsenal is the classiest club ever. Already securing Champions League spot, yet still delivering such an explosive performance for the fans.
Best group of players since the Henry era to me.
& “Ozil is everywhere. Ozil is everything.” Spot on.
As much as I love Arsenal, labeling that performance ‘explosive’ is pushing it.
Really? I thought some of our offensive displays are quite brilliant, tbh.
Yep, Wenger should definitely have played Jenkinson instead of Sagna, on his last ever game at the Emirates. For sure. I mean, who would want to see one of the most legendary right backs we’ve ever had, absolute warrior and loyal club man, on his last game at home for the club. Pffft, seriously, what was Wenger thinking.
Forgettable, lacklustre performance against a a very average Albion. Typical end-of-season game.
We will have to up our game by a few notches at Wembley (but we probably will).
Now shall I watch the Chelsea game, or clean behind the fridge?
I’ll clean behind the fridge.
Disappointed not to see Sanogo
Thought him and/or Diaby might’ve played a role if we were 2-0 up at least
Loved the write up 😀
And did I see Poldi attempting several sliding tackles :O I don’t think any were successful, but still, it’s the thought that counts…
Blimey, Arteta and Podolski lead Arsenal with 3 tackles each! WTF!
Podolski can’t tackle properly!
Maybe it’s not that he does’t cover his left back, he just suck at it!
Typical end of season game with nothing at stake. Big positive for me is Ozil has given us a glimpse of what we can expect from him next year in these last few matches.
Where was the impassioned diatribe against man marking? Arsenal, one of the poorer clubs in the league in scoring from set pieces, score on a set piece and WBA was MAN MARKING. I hate man marking, it’s clearly inferior, and WBA should’ve been zonal.
Seriously though, our poor scoring from set pieces has bothered me all season. We also have not scored directly on a shot from a free kick all season. With as many highly technical, skilled players we have we ought to have a few of those.
Ozil made me officially retire from football today.
We should be allowed take part in the same sport.
Ridiculous
Die junge haben heute gut gespielt
Hate Stewart Robson! Constantly criticising when it’s unwarranted as well as coming out with lines like “Sessegnon just stamped on Flamini’s ankle there, that’s better from West Brom”
Cut his fucking throat so he can’t commentate anymore
I can’t believe this is the same WBA team that pushed us to our limit in October and made us feel happy about getting at least a point from that game.
Arsenal were listless today, but WBA were woeful. If they had put up even a bit of a fight, they would have taken a point from this one.
Negredo, Ramsey and Sterling have 9 league goals each, but Ramsey has done it in the least time. Ramsey is scoring faster than Negredo! Ramsey is also joint fourth for assists and joint eleventh for goals.
Giroud is joint fifth for assists and fifth for goals.
David Silva and Ozil both have nine assists, but Ozil has played fewer minutes. Both have a passing accuracy of 88%, but Silva’s average pass length is 14m, Ozil’s is 16m.
the average pass length is counted for successful passes or attempted passes?
Worth noting Giroud has 22 goals this season and 16 in the PL which is 7 more than Negredo, on par with Aguero and with more assists to boot. AND he is more robust.
AND he’s better looking
@ Petits Handbag, I’m guessing you meant “shouldn’t”
I felt the same way after watching Bergkamps goal against Newcastle.
That was the moment I realised I could never be good enough to play professional football 🙁
So what happened to Ramsey? I hope he is okay
Thigh strain, just precautionary
Protecting him for the FA cup.
Honestly we could have afforded a bit of rotation with this one.
Like to see Wenger play Jenkinson and Bellerin in either half. Not that I don’t think we need someone like a Seamus Coleman to replace Sagna but worth the while assessing the two young pretenders.
I think had we been 2 or 3 up, Wenger would have given either of Jack or Diaby a quick run out in the final 10 minutes.
Would have been good for Sanogo to get 15 minutes plus too being Giroud has had a lot of games.
As Jack was in his suit that would’ve been a touch disrespectful
Job done in an unspectacular manner. Nonetheless, 3 more points. Keep the momentum going. Winning is a habit. 2 primary targets achieved. St Totteringham’s day & 4th place trophy. Now the 3rd one left. Clinch the FA Cup and go on an open bus parade. Long time since that happened. COYG!!
7amkickoff should note we are ten points clear of Spuds this season. That should be progress too and they are again out of CL despite 100m and a slew of ‘progressive’ managers.:) 4ths spot trophy and the FA cup will be better than 3rd spot (or indeed 2nd) and nothing. BBC kept airing tweets with people complaining about our boring performance winning by a goal when Chelsea came up with a blank for all their efforts against relegation fodder Norwich (Even United beat them) We won this on a canter. Probably stuck in neutral gear. Chelsea couldn’t find the keys… Read more »
Both announcers kept referring to Rosicky as Rositsky. One can mispronounce but both? Or is it me that doesn’t know about some Czech pronunciation that adds syllables to names?
How does asking for the prenounciation of a name warrant 3 thunbs down?
Because he’s wrong. See Kasia below.
the announcers are pronouncing it right. the “ck” in czech makes a “ts” sound, so it’s ro-sits-ki. slavic languages are weird.
source: am polish
@DLDC
It’s pronounced “Rositsky” mate.
I like Rozitsky but not sure what the merit of playing him (or indeed keeping him on) is to us. He is 33 and won’t get less injury prone with age. Much prefer we bring in someone like Konoplyanka as a replacement, someone who has pace and trickery to beat a man or two out left and ambidexterous enough to cover across midfield (switch with Santi and Ozil in a game) That said, he is priced likely 15-18m and may be out of reach particularly with our main focus on the 3 possible replacements at RB, CB and GK plus… Read more »
10/10 to Norwich for making Mourinho a specialist in failure. I think that little cunts going to regret those remarks come may 17th when we lift the cup.
Too bad it’ a draw, I was hoping Norwich would sneak one past them and kept our chance for third position open.
We still have a chance at third. We have to beat Norwich 9-0 and Chelsea have to lose 0-9 to Cardiff. We’d be tied on points and tied on goal difference, but we’d win on goals scored. Simples.
“I’ll quit if we don’t win trophies, you won’t have to sack me.” Jose Mourinho, 17 Aug 2013. “I think boring is a team that plays at home and cannot score a goal.” Same cunt, 25 Dec 2013. The man’s a bloody hypocrite I would not expect him to backtrack on these comments let alone honor them. Absolute cunt of a manager, fits in perfectly well with Terry, Cole et al. The two most decent players there are Mata and Hazard, one’s already gone and the other looks set to follow suit (I hope we bid for him), that then… Read more »
Mourinho, takes small man syndrome to the extreme. If we lift the cup would love Arsene to aim a thinly veiled barb in jose’s direction. However our manager is to classy for that.
The sky interview that they did with Wenger and Geoff Streeves before the game I found very interesting. The full version is on youtube if anyone wants to watch it but what stuck out for me was Arsene’s intense ambition and desire to get the club back to winning ways and I am 100% certain that he is the right manager to take us forward and hope he stays for many many years. COYG!!!!
The Spuds spent £2m last summer for every PL goal they have scored this season. Ha Ha Ha
That is a fucking brilliant find! ∞ thumbs up!