How so much more beautiful the morning after can be after a stirring Gunners win like last night. Its like you look up in the sky and you can see that Sun in the telly tubbies series that wears a big happy smile. You walk by the park, and the birds seem to be chirping a lot happier than normal. May be its my imagination, may be not. I also know many get this same feeling too the morning after a date with a hottie goes according to plan..but one thing is for sure, things look brighter than they did same time last Sunday. much much brighter.
So as it turns out Arsenal went to the so-called ''Hell'' stadium,successfully dared the devil in his backyard, dinned with him with a short spoon, bullied him off his favourite chair in his living room and left with all his treasures back to London. Its pretty safe to say that we are now firmly one foot into the Champions league after we took a hapless Fernabache team to the cleaners. The game was simply one we had to get a result from, after our rather stuttering start to the season at home last saturday. The first Surprise wasn't the line up though, as the only change in that regard was Wenger starting Carzola, in the space vacated by the injured Oxlaide Chamberlain. Rather it was the unusual blue shorts. Never seen us wear that before, looks like an interesting season of not only transfers but kits awaits us. To the match proper, we left our host in no doubt of our intentions as early as the 3rd minute, when Olivier Giroud looked to play Walcott in but overhit the pass. The back four of Fernabache, consisting of the aging former eveton defender Joseph Yobo and the positionally clueless Bruno Alves probably knew it was going to be a long night, with the manner carzola seemed to be picking the run of Walcott across the right-hand channel with ease. I wrote in the preview that the midfield was the department of significance in this game as the duo of Ramsey and Wilshere would need to forge an understanding that would encompass both Attacking and defensive cohesiveness. Both had very good performances, with the former notching a goal and a Pre-assist. Ramsey may have his limitations as a player. He may not be your archetypal midfielder blessed with flair and veneer but one thing you can be sure to get from him is total commitment to the cause and a relentless spirit to deliver. His pass to set Walcott free in the box, who then laid the ball to Gibbs to put us one goal up was quite brilliant. He delivered a similar splitting pass to open up Man city in a pre-season game and if that is a sign of things to expect this season then his stock can only be heading in one direction. i bet Fenerbache will be happy to never set eyes on him again after their first acquaintance in 2008 left them similarly damaged. It was also good to see Wilshere put in 90mins and assuage any injury scare for the season. He looked slightly in this game like his old self, but you get the feeling those jinxing dribbling runs aren't at full potency. That will come with time.
The First half was a masterclass in possession football by Arsenal. We kept the ball well and often threatened the home side with our fullbacks overlapping with intelligence to stretch them at will.The chances were being created, but a bit of last ditch defending and the odd bad bounce combined to thwart them. The only threat from them was the occasional Dirk Kyt runs down the left channel but Ramsey did a job on him regularly tracking him. The second half began where the first ended with Arsenal dominating possession and looking to grab the vital away goal. it deservedly came in the 51st minute via Kieran Gibbs and at that point you immediately knew Fernabache were there for the taking. Walcott should have put us further ahead not long after but his 54th minute effort after a fine Wilshere run was saved luckily by the Fernabache Goalie. Arsenal could smell blood at this point and tightened the screw but the home team rode the storm. Injuries have worryingly refused to leave us alone this season already, and after Koscielny was subbed in the 30th minute following a horrible gash to the face, Szcezney was next to offer a scare as he stayed down after the same bloke who took out Koscielny almost gored him. Luckily he recovered and was able to continue. The knock out punch came in the 64th minute with Ramsey notching the second goal after letting fly from outside the area. That took out the fight from the hosts, so much so that by the time Giroud tucked away the penalty in the 77th minute after Walcott was brought down the Vultures had already been circling.
So we did the bounce back thing well enough and as Wenger said post match our transfer window with this victory is now officially open . What he means exactly by that is anyone's guess but i want to believe it has something to do with us now being in a better bargaining position with this win than we were before it. Top players want to be in the champions league after all. But we cannot afford to throw this lifeline away now. Aggressive pursuit of those players that can strengthen this very good foundation we have is now an absolute imperative. No pussying around, Chelsea,United and City have set the pace,so we must not let any gap build up in the title race. All the well publicised resources we have must in the next 12 days be channeled to that end. Next up is Fulham on Saturday lunch time, i'll be back with a preview.
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