Thursday, 24 May 2012
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Fabregas Inspires Team To Victory

By 2010/01/17 23 Comments

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Arsenal’s Spanish duo Cesc Fabregas and Fran Merida consigned Owen Coyle to defeat in his first match as Bolton boss.

The Gunners arrived at the Reebok Stadium unbeaten in seven matches, a run of form which has revitalised their title hopes.

And goals either side of half-time from Fabregas and Merida ensured Arsene Wenger’s side kept the pressure on second-placed Manchester United and league leaders Chelsea.

Coyle went into the game unbeaten in his last two matches against Arsenal – his Burnley side winning 2-0 at home in the Carling Cup quarter-final last season and drawing 1-1 in the league at Turf Moor in December.

And the home side came racing out of the blocks with Ivan Klasnic, on loan from Nantes, having his second minute strike ruled out for offside.

Arsenal soon found their feet and had a penalty shout turned down by referee Phil Dowd when Fabregas nipped past Jussi Jaaskelainen.

But Fabregas, pulling all the strings for the visitors in his first match since returning from a hamstring injury, broke the deadlock after 28 minutes in sensational fashion.

With seemingly no options available on the edge of a crowded box, the Arsenal captain exchanged passes with Eduardo before firing past Jaaskelainen for his 10th goal of the season.

The goal extended Bolton’s run without a clean sheet to 21 Premier League matches, their longest streak since 1928.

And Fabregas, continuing to conduct the Arsenal orchestra, had his second penalty appeal of the match turned down after being felled by Matthew Taylor.

Bolton began to show their physical presence in order to thwart the brilliant Fabregas and the match looked in danger of spilling over with Paul Robinson and Tomas Rosicky booked in quick succession for late challenges.

Coyle’s side had their best chance of the opening 45 in stoppage time when Kevin Davies nodded on to Klasnic who delightfully flicked over William Gallas but could not get the ball out of his feet to beat Manuel Almunia.

Bolton came out from the break with a spring in their step and were soon in the ascendancy but Taylor could only shoot over after being played in on his preferred left foot by Klasnic.

But The Trotters best chance of the match came when Taylor bent his run to beat the offside trap but inexplicably chose to shoot from distance with his tame shot trickling wide.

And the former Portsmouth man was left to rue that miss when Merida stroked home at the back post after 78 minutes to cap another fine Arsenal move with Fabregas and Eduardo combining on the left.

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  • USERNAMETOOLONG

    Sadly, we proved once again that we are a one man team. When Cesc eventually leaves to win things, we are fucked.

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  • Mohamed

    Eastmond has got a future in Arsenal.He has got that total football brain you need to succeed at Arsenal.

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  • Shava

    …You again? is that your game then? Going around to various Arsenal blogs spouting rubbish whilst pretending to be a Gooner? Sad times :sigh:

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  • LB

    Tougth game. But we won. And this “one man team” story is pathetic. We won lots of games without him before, and we will again. Arsenal all the way!!!!

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  • matt dred

    silly yid prick,with or without Cesc ,you twats will always be in our shadow ! ha ha

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  • Keith Swannack

    Win by 2 goals on Wednesday and we are top though too many players looked off the pace today Arshavin,diaby,rosicky also triore looks dodgy still need a striker who can hold ball up to stop it from comming back also why does Almunia keep kicking the ball up in the air it keeps comming back? we are one striker away from the title

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  • db10

    from the little we’ve seen of him i would have to agree.

    he got caught on the ball quite a few times but the only player i’ve seen in recent times who has come into the premier league and not been surprised by the pace of the game is cesc.

    given time to develop (physically as well as technically) and with more experience he could have a very good career.

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  • db10

    i actually thought arshavin was much improved playing on the left and despite jamie redknapps assessment of eduardo he did get two assists today.

    I also thought rosicky was quite good when he got the ball but he needs games to find his form and start producing goals and assists.

    It seems as though Diaby doesn’t bother when Cesc is playing cos he knows that Cesc can win the match anyway. On a positive note Diaby isn’t losing the ball anywhere near as much as he used to and he gave quite a few short simple passes instead of turning around in circles and eventually losing it like he used to.

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  • Durham Gooner

    You are such an idiot, it’s “fans” like you who have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA ABOUT ARSENAL, FOOTBALL, ARSENE WENGER and maybe even life itself.

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  • Mexican Gunner

    Almost every game I blame Almunia for his stupidity but today I have to recognize that he had a very good game.

    And what happened to Traore? he was realy good the last month and maybe seeing Clichy on the bench put him nervous. I was scared everytime he touched a ball.

    And if Diaby keeps playing like this Im sure that he will has a place in the starting IX of France in the summer.

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  • Durham Gooner

    Delighted with the win Mexican and I’m a Diaby fan but I thought today he was back to his ‘vacant’ self. At times he was slow to release the pass and got caught with the ball like he was a few weeks ago.
    He improved as the game went on but it just proved that Song sitting behind Diaby and Fab is our most reliable formation. Generally though Diaby has done well this season!

    Big props for Craig Eastmond too, he looks like class. Excellent.

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  • Mexican Gunner

    I think he was good playing in the center next to Cesc but when Merida came and Diaby played in the place of Eastmond he was a bit erratic but anyway I think he can do the job there until Song back from Africa,

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  • Berg10

    Diaby did nothing for me.

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  • TJ14

    I think you are being very harsh on Diaby. I was at the game and even though Eastmond was playing in the holding role, Diaby was always there, helping him and breaking up play. Clearly Diaby was told to curb his attacking instincts for this one. Am sure you will see a much improved Diaby on Wednesday. You need to also bear in mind the pitch was terrible. Very bumpy and a poor surface to play football on. This doesn’t help Diaby’s game which involves running with the ball.

    As for Eastmond, he did really well for the first half, but in the second half he was beginning to get a little lost and the game was passing him by. When Merida came on, we looked a totally different team again. The difference between the 2 players is quite big. Merida is very comfortable on the ball and he helped control the game. Eastmond is still very raw and with time he will prove to be a good player, but I would start with Merida on Wednesday.

    Almunia having a shocker early on and fumbling the ball for the corner was a good thing. It sharpened him up and after that, his decision making and handling was better than for a long time. He still kicks like a drunk Jonny Wilkinson.

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  • John in Norfolk

    TJ14,
    Even a drunk Jonny Wilkinson can kick better than Almunia! :lol:

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  • Berg10

    TJ, honestly, I thought Diaby was slow on the ball, the fact that you say we will see an improved Diaby on Wednesday means he wasn’t that good on Sunday no?

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  • TJ14

    You had to be there to see how bad the pitch was. It was affecting the players control and ability to dribble. This impacted Diaby more than most. But he put in a shift in a more disciplined role and for most of the second half, he had to hold his position. Remember this is totally against his way of playing.

    When he plays at home, we will have much more possession, on a much better pitch and therefore will show more of what he is very good at. he had a good game yesterday, but for different reasons.

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  • Berg10

    So, 3-0 Wed. then? LOL.

    On Almunia, nice guy but not good enough for us, (not conviced on Fabianski either), why is his distribution so poor? When other defenders pass back to their keeper more often than not their keeper passes to another defender in space, and we did have that option yesterday but he aimlessly boots it up field where it is more often than not picked back up by the oppos, this would be a more understandable tactic IF we had an imposing centre forward.

    Hopefully the rumours of us targeting Hugo Lloris are in fact true, a good keeper would be more beneficial than a new striker at present.

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  • db10

    To be fair traore doesn’t get alot of help from the winger in front of him whether it is arshavin or eduardo in this new formation. its not really his fault because even the magnificent clichy was caught out earlier in the season (remember man city).

    It would make sense to put Nasri or Rosicky ahead of him because they both work very hard getting back which is partly why sagna doesn’t get caught out (the other reason is that Sagna is amazing at defending).

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  • db10

    lloris would be good but unfortunately he will end up being too expensive and Lyon don’t tend to sell their big players straight away.

    I have to say that i would have given Fabianski the chance before christmas and given a run in the team i think he could do very well. But its difficult to start playing him now seeing as we have such a hard run of games coming up

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  • TJ14

    I would give Fabianski a run also. I am just worried it is going to take a mistake from Almunia that costs us the game before he gets dropped.

    What AW needs to do is buy a proven keeper for around £10M. If he gets one around 25 years of age, then we get 10 years out of him, so it works out £1M a year to sign them. If you get a top keeper it saves you 7-8 points a season or more and could be the difference between winning the league and coming 2nd.

    Am gutted Merida is out on Wednesday as he would have come in and played really well.

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  • Jim

    How funny was it when Bill Gallas gave Almunia a death glare? He looked completely lost like the guy at a party that doesn’t know anybody :lol:

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  • Mexican Gunner

    Yes I think the same, Fabianski could save us a lot of money and even that I think he has the potential but not ready yet I will love to see him for this months to see if he could be our No. 1 and if not so go in the summer for one betwen Adler or Neuer who are around 10mill.

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