Arsenal 3 Stoke 1
Man United 1 Man City 6
QPR 1 Chelsea 0
This was Gervinho\’s finest hour.
He scored the first goal, made two for substitute Robin van Persie, and was given a standing ovation when he was taken off near the end.
Ramsey played purposefully early on, held the team together when the forwards were non-existent, and almost scored when he fired a fine shot just wide.
The first half began mechanically with Stoke looking like a lethargic bunch of journeymen who couldn\’t raise their game at Sunday lunchtime. It was : We played Thursday night, we\’re not up for this. Neither side could string three passes together. At times, the lack of rotation and movement by Arsenal was quite amazing. Sometimes, with lines of static players across the field, it looked like table football, as if three players were impaled on invisible metal rods, fifteen yards from three other players impaled on their rods.
In spells, the game was mostly defenders passing to each other, with both teams pushed up, playing in a 40-yard strip either side of the halfway line. They lacked fluency, authority, a creative brain in the middle, and I was wondering when Jack would come back to glue it all together.
Then Gervinho suddenly zipped onto a nice pass from Ramsey and finished nicely in 27. 1-0 to the Arsenal, a welcome goal that came just soon enough.
When a free-kick was harshly awarded against Koscielny, when Crouch backed into him, Stoke won three headers and Crouch volleyed in from one yard to make it 1-1 in 34 minutes. They were level at half-time.
On arrival we had found that that the appalling Chamakh would start and that Song was captain.
At the Sunderland game I thought : Walcott should never play for Arsenal again. And here I thought :Andre Santos is not an Arsenal left back, not in a million years. He\’s so slow.
I took Caroline, who had not been in Club Level before.
After half-time she said, “That was the most civilised half-time I\’ve had since the QPR directors box.” A Gooner who doesn\’t live in London, she doesn\’t get to many games these days. But she expected to win this one and now declared, “I said 2-1 Arsenal. We just need one more goal.”
Arsenal were much more dangerous when Van Persie came on, lifting the atmosphere.
They also improved hugely when Walcott went off. After that, Gervinho was on the right, with Arshavin on the left, and when Gervinho danced to the right bye-line and cut the ball across, RVP nicked onto the ball at the near post and his flick somehow went through keeper Begovic for 2-1.
Then Arshavin released Gervinho on the left, and Van Persie stabbed in off Begovic again.
Two goals in nine minutes by the main man!
RVP’s conversion ratio makes Arsenal look like an efficient team. They had scored three goals and not missed a lot of chances. And Koscielny gets better and better with every game.
So Mr Wenger deployed his resources very cleverly against Stoke, who have always played badly after performing in the Europa League on Thursdays.
He has now won six of his last seven games. They haven\’t beaten anybody good yet but they\’re building a sequence and not conceding many goals.
Afterwards, waiting to link up with my son Michael and his friend Tobias, we heard a big cheer from inside the ground.
“That cheer must mean Man United have lost,†I remarked.
A young guy walking past us heard what I said.
“Three nil, it was, ” he said, laughing.
Then Michael and Tob arrived and Tob got the facts on his iPhone as we walked up to the overground station.
Remarkably, City had won 6-1 at Old Trafford after Jonny Evans had been sent off. What an astounding result !!
I thought Nani & Ashley Young might shade it in that game.
Father and daughter got home at 4.25pm to find QPR were beating Chelsea 1-0.
We sat down and saw Bosingwa sent off for tangling with Wright-Phillips, and then Drogba jumped two-footed into a crazy tackle and Chelsea were suddenly down to nine men. It finished 1-0 despite some phenomenal attacking efforts by David Luiz and eight others.
Of the starting eleven, only Cech and Mata didn’t get a card, says Pat Driscoll, my QPR-supporting mate, who just phoned to tell me what a rocking day Rangers fans all had in the pub, before and after the game.
Drogba\’s red card means he can\’t play against Arsenal on Saturday.
After the final whistle, Rob Hughes phoned from Heathrow and told me about the United-City game & we talked about Juventus 2 Genoa 2 and Sevilla\’s defiance in a 0-0 draw in the Nou Camp.
Rob\’s piece on Marseille told me stuff I didn\’t know.
His piece on Barcelona rightly calls Sevilla’s Kanoute a cheat.