Arsenal put a bad week behind them with a 2-0 win against West Brom at the Emirates today.
Bacary Sagna was passed fit and started while Lukas Podolski made the bench, meaning Gervinho and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain flanked Olivier Giroud up front.
And the Ivorian had the first chance of the game after a corner was half cleared. Jack Wilshere headed it back in, the keeper came, half punched, and it fell for Gervinho who hooked a shot back across goal only to see it drift just wide.
Shortly after, good build up play from Arsenal set up a chance for Santi Cazorla, about 20 yards out, but for once his technique was less than perfect and he skewed it wide. The Spaniard was involved again soon after when Bacary Sagna played a fine ball over the top and down the line for Oxlade-Chamberlain, he raced onto it, fired over a first time cross which Cazorla met on the volley but hit it over the bar under pressure from the defender.
West Brom had their first chance of the game in the 23rd minute when Blunt fired not far over the bar, but a couple of minutes later Arsenal were ahead in controversial circumstances.
Steven Reid was adjudged to have taken down Santi Cazorla in the box. Certainly he took a wild swipe but made no contact, Cazorla went down and referee Mike Jones pointed to the spot. Mikel Arteta, who missed a last minute penalty to win the game against Fulham, stepped up and fired the Gunners into the lead. 1-0.
Arsenal could have been further ahead in the 38th minute when Gervinho got down the left, right to the byline, pulled it back across goal and Jack Wilshere came sliding in but poked it just wide from very close range. A real chance to double the lead.
Gervinho then forced Myhill into a good save when his shot on the turn caught the keeper slightly on his heels, West Brom managed to get it clear before Cazorla tucked home the rebound.
The second period started slowly, the most notable moment came when Santi Cazorla was clearly fouled on the edge of the West Brom box but Mike Jones, having been fooled once, waved play on. Giroud and Olsson were then booked for some handbags after an awkward landing, with Jack Wilshere jumping right in the middle to defend his teammate.
Gervinho then had a great chance from a Gibbs cross. He arrived perfectly to head it from the penalty spot but as we all know heading the ball is not his thing and it was easy for Myhill to stop it going out for a throw. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he then took a swing at a Giroud knock down but completely missed the ball from 5 yards out. Ridiculous stuff from any player, let alone at this level.
Arsenal then doubled their lead, again from the penalty spot and although there was no doubt about the award of the spot kick, West Brom were again unhappy, looking for a foul by Oxlade-Chamberlain in the build up. The player seemed to stop, Ox drove into the box and was taken down, and once again Mikel Arteta made no mistake from the spot. 2-0
Arsene Wenger brought on Francis Coquelin for the impressive Oxlade-Chamberlain in the 78th minute, a couple of moments later, after Gervinho was fouled, Arteta almost had his hat-trick, firing a free kick just wide. Tomas Rosicky then replaced the infuriating Ivorian.
Wojciech Szczesny was then forced into a good save from a rasping long shot, before substitute Lukaku Gervinhoed a free header from just 8 yards after a West Brom free kick.
Lukas Podolski, on as a late sub for Santi Cazorla, put in a contender for miss of the season. After being set up by Jack Wilshere, the ball bobbled a bit onto his left foot, but he somehow managed to smash the ball over the bar from just 7 yards out with just Myhill to beat.
It didn’t really matter though, Arsenal were good value for their win, West Brom had little to offer and three points were no less than the Gunners deserved.
How on Earth did you get that here so quick? Great job!
Was this article written before the game?
It’a is SATM – a simultaneous arseblog typing machine.
the parts describing Gervinho could well be ready to paste at any time!!! He really is the shittest player i have ever seen, I refuse to look at Chamakh, that’s why Gerv at top of that pile. Ramsey seems to be pushing them both hard though these last few months.
Anyway, 3pts thank u very kindly, i wonder if steve clarke didn’t wanna screw the team he could potentially take over!!
@Damien: Surely Gervinho isn’t the shittiest player you’ve ever seen, but none the less he has seriously got to get his shit together because many of his decisions made (some under pressure, some not) are just appalling. Not to mention he is adding whiffing the ball to his bag of tricks
gervino is the worse player in a arsenal shirt everytime i see him play i know he is going to get chanchs and runie them so bad, come on this guy doesnt even know when to cross he is complete rubbish, and isnt quality enough to get in to the liverpool team.
Gervinho actually played really well today. Skpped through on many occasions behind their back line and with a bit more luck/ composure could have gotten on the score/assists sheets. But hey, Ramsey wasn’t playing so i guess he’s the second in line scape goat. But wait, we won! So don’t need a scape goat. UUURGHHH!
3 points, 2 goals, and a clean sheet. Can we just be happy for today before we get back to crapping on the team?
“2 goals for “Captain” Arteta, vastly improved individual and collective play, more creative play and real shots on target, almost zero lazy back-passes, back up to 6th and only 5 points from 3rd…that’s what I call a phucking brilliant weekend!!!
COYG!!
yeah, well done arteta for those 2 penalties under a lot of pressure
3 points, a solid clean sheet and lets just move on to the next game, one step at a time
The negative from the game : giroud got angry ‘WHAT WHAT WHAT’
i understand your notions there and i imagine all arsenal fans like myself are happy/relieved with the win, but let’s not kid ourselves, we are still in a rut at the moment. this temporary relief shouldn’t blind us of our deficiencies, the same ones we’ve had for countless years now, our squad quality is seriously lacking, period. And for those that thumbed me down for earlier reply above, come on, i know i exaggerated a little, but the likes of Gervinho hav cost us many points in last few years and he doesn’t seem to suffer his incompetency by losing… Read more »
Yesssss 3 Fxkin points… Well played although santi had suarez spirit by diving nevertheless we got we wanted. !!!! 🙂
Never compare our Santi to that cunt.
*racist cunt
Suarez cunt? yes! Diver? yes!.. but still a very good striker something that arsenal lacks..
We got a Man U @ Old Trafford result today. Delighted, and couldn’t give a fuck what the rest say.
Can we just say Santi understood the importance of a win today. He took it too far, but united get it every time and it helps them win the league.
I’ll take that dive if it is to propel us nearer to fourth place.
How many penalties we had last season? It’s about time that we get some. It is really hard to say cos why he won’t pull his leg if he will be kicked? Remember Eduardo!
you would take a penalty that was given to us from a dive? that’s spurs level shit right there.
@Binda
preach son, preach
@binda.
Lol you seem disgusted, yah we all are. But I tell you what the dive got you the three points. It’s a cruel world my friend, you should expect this atleast once or twice in football, hopefully cazorla learnt something.
“when you dive, make sure you’re NOT in an arsenal shirt!”………spain is okay.
Oh dear, Binda, do you act just as painfully sanctimonious when someone pulls a shirt or raises their hands in the air for an imaginary offside, or produces the hands-up “I did nothing wrong even though I did” gesture?
Because all of the above are no different from diving in that they’re trying to con the ref into making a decision in their favor.
I eagerly await your response the next time these actions occur.
Spare me. Either be consistent in your moaning, or just shut the fuck up, please.
Criticism should be be constructive and based on truth. Santi dived and that’s not Arsenal. He shouldn’t have done that. I could have understand it if it was the 98th minute and 1-1. It was unnecessary.
Anyway, seems like Arsenal is getting back to its old self. Besides the obvious final third problem, loving the passing and as far as I can remember no unnecessary back-passing. Sweet. Roll on December.
Sweet rolls in December? yes please.
When I first saw the replay I also thought it was a dive, but I found the vid online and I think there was a small amount of contact. I am not saying it was enough for him to fall over like he did, but i think he felt it and that’s why he went over. How many players have gone over unnecessarily feeling contact in the box, too many to even count. I don’t think it was quite as bad as people are making it. Calling it embarrassing and all the reactions I think are bit extreme.
@PAGooner Agreed. It’s not like Santi has a reputation of diving. My point is that recently I read an article on the BBC that some bloke was defending that scum Bale. It’s that what me sick. That people actually defend diving. Just scandalous. And here on Arseblog news, there are some people who think we should play football like ManU. The fucking insanity. ffs, me being an Arsenal fan throughout, is for a greater part that Arsenal has at least one distinction from other clubs. That is class. For some reason, I think Wenger would be the only manager who… Read more »
@big chief-unfortunately,diving/cheating & the hilariously FIFA/UEFA/FA sponsored ‘simulation’ mean we have to join ’em to beat ’em…while it is very sad that we win a game courtesy of behaviour more becoming of Bale,Rooney,Suarez,Gerrard & all the other cheating fuckers in the league,I’ll take the points today & any other day!
Need dodgy penalty decision given to you at home? There’s S.A.F for that.
I hate how every time a foreign player dives they get eviscerated by it (the BBC liveblog thingy was destroying him over it), but yet every time a British player dives (Bale, Ashley Young) they just kind of laugh it off as a foreign import. This sort of bias is ridiculous, even more so than the biannual “We have a chance this year of winning the Euros/World Cup”.
santi shouldnt be diving and i hope wenger mentions that butalso there was the West Brom sub who dived even worse than santi but they didn’t say shit.
Well it’s the British media after all.
“Of course, it’s common knowledge expected of any good patriotic reader of the Daily Mail that Arsenal invented diving. Suarez and co. only dive because Arsenal. Bale doesn’t dive, he anticipates challenges because he runs oh so fast and if he doesn’t jump out of the way people will break his leg.. oh and because of Arsenal. We love Spurs.”
What more can you ask for as Fan than for the players to show PASSION,HEART, and DESIRE to get the job done.. I Love what I saw today.. I Love Arsenal
i dont care if santi dived, it gave us the boost we needed and at times we were playing excellent football, wilshere was fantastic and we were defensively sound, lets hope swansea was true the low point and we can push on from here COYG!!
also, fuck me you posted this quick blogs, cheers
Agreed at times the football was excellent. Most of it after Rosicky came on. Rosicky is just what we needed, someone who speeds up the whole game.
Jack was sensational.
first lol seriously
okay played well not amazing but looked alright going forward.. gerv played fairly well as did the ox. The midfield was really good but three sitters missed by jack gerv and the pod. The less sid about santi’s dive the better not that it’s something that happens all the time but lets hope not again.
How did you get it up so quickly? Nice one. Wilshere MOTD?
Jack made Gervinho play good… its how well he played today…
Glaring miss(es) aside, I thought Gervinho had a good game. He was lively, energetic, direct, and tracked back well enough. He’s a fashionable scapegoat these days, but this game showed that he can be a dangerous player.
Gervinho made much better decisions today, and was much braver. Finishing was tosh, but otherwise he was dangerous and effective.
We played well today, and should have scored a few more!
Every single player worked their socks off & if we play every single game with this attitude we’ll climb up the table rapidly.
We all can agree that apart from the miss Gervinho had a very good game!
Lets hope, he & the team can keep up the good work.
Yes gerv missed easy chances and we know he does that.before he came to this club we knew he was a good dribbler and not so much of a finisher thats what player and the coach has to work on.dont make him another scapegoat he tries like ramsey does but isnt coming off.and he does get inside the box very easily which is good thing and its always a threat for opposition.he was good defensively and after the second i thought he was looking more dangerous.
On a good day Gervinho is adequate but I’m done holding my breath.
The thing about Gervinho – surely, surely given our resources we can afford a player who offers a similar degree of penetration but who has the required neural wiring to make his foot connect with the ball. I’d get bollocked for missing that shot at futsal. It’s not good enough at this level for an attacking player. I don’t think you can make excuses for it.
MOTD?
Man Of The Decade?
Cazorla should issue an apology to west brom, disgusting.
But of course, this is all the papers will focus on, not the good performance
Why ????????
And what for their own player. Ridgewell?. Like he had been shot by a fucking sniper!
We aren’t them. That should be the difference. I hope Arsene tries knocking some sense into him. As much as I love Cazorla, this is pretty digraceful
yeah definitely not looking forward to the media circus. It’s ok when it’s about Suarez, because he desires every single bit of misery he can get (the cunt), but this is gonna be the Eduardo thing all over again
Its an Arsenal media circus 90% of the time, I don’t know why people bother still
For example all that wank about Sol not being a gunner because he wasn’t clapping at the time the cameras were on him. What shite.
The media has a few “templates” from which they choose to base their commentary on Arsenal. The one that’s been used the past few weeks has been obviously “Arsenal in crisis”, and the one that will be used this week is probably “dirty foreign scum”. I’d happily take the latter though, it means spurs cunts/people in general are jealous and scared of us (although we still have a lot of work to do).
How come when we do get penalties they are always controversial. The handball against Fulham wasn’t a pen in my opinion, Cazorla’s dive today and The Ox foul before the actual pen. But when Ramsey gets hauled down in the box almost every other game the refs wave play on. Referees are strange creatures.
For the record, there wasn’t much in the “foul” in the build-up play before the second penalty. The WB player stood over the ball and the Ox pressured him a bit – it would have been soft for the ref to call it.
Actually Santi did dive against Swansea as well. He better be careful.
oh really
then we expect
bale, young suarez, torresr and alot more
to come out every game and give out an apolagy
If we keep this up do ya think they’ll still sing ‘Dirty Arsenal, always cheating”?
Santi hasn’t scratched the surface of what Suarez and Bale get away with
I’m waiting for a hand-writing apology from Suarez and Bale.I’m still waiting dam it!!
Blogs I really don’t knw how you do this..that was damn Fast!!
If you notice, his commentary in the Live Blog is less, during certain parts of play, then in Live Blogs past – he’s writing the article as the game is happening. You also notice that some ‘phrases’ in the article are mostly word-for-word with a few commentaries during the Live Blog. He also does this for the article he writes for ESPN FC, except he will go back many times and flourish the ESPN article so that’s it’s more professional and readable.
I make no faults with this – just explaining how it’s done is all.
Better.
Man I havent seen this Arsenal in a long time. How so very something special is that Jack. At no point at all in the match did it feel like we were gonna concede even a corner!!! COYG!!!!
Agreed. Defensively we looked good.
Does anyone else here think Wilshere is ready to take Cazorla’s place (behind the striker) and Cazorla goes on the wing? I swear Wilshere was on a Bergkamp hype with of all that ball control and flicks *jizzes*
I was over for game today with my lad and jack was fucking excellent and he takes no shit of no one, delighted with the win and going home happy
Hey Lukaku, how was Per’s back pocket? Good game, Good game…
west brom are a decent side. u can see why they’re doing so well in the league. however, arsenal were clearly the better team in the game. the boys worked hard and deserved a few more goals. wilshere was a boss in midfield and the defense was solid.
well done!
He did nothing wrong. Santi cazorla expected a challenge, almost like instinct. And tried to evade it. Unlucky/lucky enough the ref thought it was a penalty.
but then his was on the floor holding his leg in agony !
🙂
I suppose the rolling around on the floor afterwards was to evade all that machine gun fire eh? Heh. It was an awful dive, let’s get over it and hope he doesn’t do it again. We don’t want to sound like the spuds desperately trying to defend Bale’s awful diving week-in week-out.
Wenger says that Santi says he was touched. Could’ve been just a tap. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Yeah… and then he touched his leg like it hurt. A dive is a dive. And a win is a win so.
Plenty of heart, passion and desire…brilliant !!!!…Podolski, whoops !!!!!!!
We looked a hell of a lot better when we took off the ox, gervinho and cazorla and brought on coquelin, rosicky and podolski.
If i were wenger for the next premier league game i would play:
Szczesny
Sagna BFG TV5 Gibbs
Coquelin Arteta
Cazorla Wilshere Rosicky
Podolski
Coquelin adds strength with Arteta. Wilshere is released further forward where he flourishes. Santi gets more space on the wing. Rosicky brings the technical ability that Gervinho will never possess and Podolski up front in his favoured position. I like Giroud but I’d drop him.
A tasty team – not sure why you’d drop Giroud though.
Even when he is diving
he showed skills, when you look at it from different angles it’s like an optical illusion
Got a win, and saw a bit of fight back in the team. All positives today – especially Jack
I love football, I love Arsenal FC, hate fucking diving…
Jack was awesome.
What a miss Podolski! Made me laugh 😀
Much better from the team.
COYG
Looked like the best position for the goalie would be actually on-field. And leave poldi all alone with the goal!
bad miss
but great play
comes on for few mins
could of had 2 goals
Will be interesting to see if as many people post today now Arsenal put in a comfortable win and a generally impressive performance (apart from a dive and Gervinho becoming a verb for bad finishing).
ONWARDS!!
Smartass Santi ! Yeah we are learning to win dirty.. like!
Good victory now lets build on this.
How good was gervinho today!! Proper footballer that lad is.
I reckon your comment is going right over some people’s head frog.
Man, if we had even a decent player in his spot we’d have won by at least 5 goals.
Worst thing is mate we are stuck with him and he’s just another of dead wood to add to the forest that we are planting.
Just hope arsene can see it quicker than he did with dennison or vela.
Ray Charles could see it. He is the worst player I can recall playing for the arse. He’s worse than silvestre.
Okay he’s not THAT bad
Nobody is worse than Fishface Silvestre. Gervinho is Pele by comparison
One of the worst buy- Gervino…
Wilshere was brilliant today – ggreat technical play and showed, as we’ve come to expect from him, some real fucking passion on the pitch. Which is always nice to see.
Taxi for the Gerv.
Bit harsh I know, but he really was poor today. Good to see him putting the effort in but I wouldn’t mind Arsene mixing it up a little up top. He isn’t playing well enough to deserve a starting berth but I think the boss sees his pace as too valuable to miss at the moment.
I thought he was quite dangerous, made some decent opportunities for teammates. His finishing was bad, but his overall play wasn’t.
An ability to finish is what you look for in a forward. But not in this case, apparently
Santi knew what he was doing, but I have a problem with people calling it a dive. It was gamesmanship. The defender took a wild after a brilliant skill move by the spaniard, the defender fell for it and Santi reacted accordingly.
We’re not spurs fans defending Bale. It was a dive and I really hope he doesn’t do it again.
Happy Gooner again…that was more like it.
From the LiveBlog 87min.. “Gervinhoed it”.. Awesome.
This may get thumbed down, but I dont think Arsenal players should behave like their scummy man united counterparts.
I have diving, and find it embarrassing that we won thanks to that.
Aren’t we all about “class”?
There, I said it.
I get your point, but when you’re struggling like we have been you take anything you can get to dig yourselves out of the hole you’re in….it’s 3 points and come the end of the season it will be long forgotten..
we would of probely won even with out that penalty
we looked a different side
the goal looked like it was coming even before the penalty. ….but thats football
other teams have won games agains us by diving
If Bale/Suarez do then it is a dive, If Santi does it – It is a f*cking piece of strategy. Wenger should drop Cazorla from next PL game, weed it out quick.
are you high ?…..
he dose it ones probely coz he though the play was going to tackel him but he pulled out..
bale, young, torres dive week in week out no one even comments to much on it
corzola dose it everyone wants to hang him
We are the Arsenal. We should not encourage players who cheat. A dive is a dive, no matter how you defend it. I’d rather have the club handle it internally and keep the moral high ground rather than FA step in and slap a three match ban.
just like i come on here and have a go at Wenger and the players when they don’t perform. gotta now say that today was a very good, professional performance. wasn’t too happy with the dive but as a gooner, i’ll take whatever comes our way. not like he does it every week
as i have been saying our main problem is giroud
he dose not fit ourt way of playing …
this game he was worst player in the game yet everyone else was playing there best game.
giroud is one footed can only use his left
and only wants crosses.
as a team we looked good no more of that tippy tappy in our own side of the pitch.
now watch the game again and see how many balls did Giroud bring down and then played on, e.g. to Gerv.
and he does that a lot.
You couldn’t be more clueless than if you picked Col. Mustard, in the study, with the pipe wrench. Giroud is not our problem. The guy hustles, has very good movement off the ball, tracks back to defend, covers on corners, and creates chances for his teammates. The problem is that we have been too slow with our pace of play. We have to be more direct, we have to be quicker and more decisive on our counters and decision-making. Once we speed up our play and decision making, I think the situations that force many of our back passes will… Read more »
Almost every close call had something to do with gerv, its like he is a ball magnet, but only he can find such skillfull ways to MESS IT UP!
YESSS, a bit of luck is just what we needed, now we can send the young guns to crush Bradford and rest the big players for another whole week, it’s a massive boost having Rosicky back, the only thing that worries me is an injury to Giroud, I’m sooooo glad he’s okay.
Blogs I saw what youu did there, playing down the Cazorla dive. As much as I think cazorla’s dive was shameful, I already envisage the media cunts lapping this up like stray dogs.
Better performance from the team, more pressing, more energy, deserved win.
Jack is a gift from God. I missed him so much.
Let’s take it from here. Tear Bradford a new one midweek. COYG
thank god for that, always shit myself when we play, even when we’re two up with 30 seconds remaining
but gervinho, what an infuriating player…but, if he could somehow miraculously find out how to finish, he wud easily be in double figures for the season! he always manages to find himself in great posititons…maybe, just maybe, theres hope for him yett as frustrating a player that he is
a much needed 3 points….now for a domestic and european cup treble
COYG
Good result, much better performance, Gervinho still bad.
Onwards and upwards. Shame about the dive but he will get slaughtered because his name is not bale.
Jack was outstanding today.
Gervinho is very confusing.
santi dived, so fucking what ?
We won, and that’s all that matters
A very much improved performance by Arsenal. Hope we get to see more of this Arsenal side for the remainder of the season
A dive is a dive. Three points is three points. Now let’s get back to within 6-7 points from the top with ten games to play and see what can happen.
Also liked Titi being at the game. The man is a fan!
COYG!!!!
No one should complain about Gervinho – he had a good game..
Thought one big difference today was the amount of pressing everyone did – we won the ball higher up the pitch and forced a lot of hurried clearances by the WBA defense which we then picked up in midfield/defense. Instead of our players looking hurried on the ball, it was a nice change to see the opposition being pressed into making mistakes. It’ll be interesting to see the stats on ground covered today vs. last week when I thought we looked too passive and let Swansea have too much time.
Best comment so far. The difference was the pressing. WBA barely had any possession as Arsenal forced them in to mistakes straight away and won the ball back. I just wish every week arsenal would press like this. It plays a huge role in Barcelona’s success
Wilshere was excellent so he was the MOTM. Gervinho wasted a few chances, our finishing has got to improve. Good to see The Ox back in form. Santi needs a rest (and a talk about not diving, we are The Arsenal!).
Lets go on a run now!
Much better today. Loved the midfield three. Jack is most definitely back. Wot a boy.
Amazing performance apart from the disgraceful dive by cazorla. We’re supposed to be better than teams that have cunts such as dani alves, bale, suarez, and young. I’m happy about the win but can’t help but feel that our class was compromised today :'(
Szcz – 7
Sagna – 8
Mert – 8
Verma – 8
Arteta – 10
Wilshere – 9
Santi – 9
Ox – 9
Gervinho – 8
Giroud – 8
I’m afraid of even visiting various football sites. I know various tabloids around have already made a meal of the situation.
We’ll hopefully move on from this and Cazorla should not be surprised if decisions go against him in the future.
Come on arsenal, a clean sheet. I doubt the pundits will make a big deal out of this, when it is!
Gibbs 8.
Good team effort!