Sing Song Praises as Arsenal Could Play Chelsea
Super Star
By Boris Mellor
March 8 2009
Arsenal love playing in the Championship, and have only lost one game in it this season, and that was away at Burnley. Even at home they knock them in, these Championship teams are far more generous at the back than Premiership ones. Arsenal are also morphing into a cup team, better suited to the knockout competition than the consistent drudgery of the league.
However Arsenal fans are far more demanding and prefer the Premiership level, thus there were a good few thousand empty seats at kick off. Clearly quite a few season ticket holders had opted out, especially at Club Level. Earlier in the week the club was offering tickets at £43 each or above, obviously the punters preferred the cheaper ones.
It's grim down south
The day had seemed very pleasant, and sunny, as fans approached the stadium, by half way through the first half the torrential rain and cold wind forced many in the lower tier to flee for cover inside. Soaking wet many stayed in the circulating area for the second half, or fled home to dry out. Even sitting in the dry of the upper tier I regretted I had not put on more layers, and many fans, inadequately dressed, shivered away.
Goals warm the fans
Burnley play good football and they are not dirty, but for the first 23 minutes they kept Arsenal at bay with a solid defensive display. On 24 minutes Arshavin split the Burnley defence leaving Vela one on one with the keeper. His finish was cool, he chipped the ball leaving the keeper and defence stranded. Burnley were never quite the same again. "Carlos Vela Vela, Our Mexican superstar, He is better than Cantona", crowed the faithful; probably not, but it spans well.
Eduardo, Eduardo, Super Goal
The Gunners now dominated, but good keeping, and some wayward shooting, meant the crowd had to wait until the 51st minute to see Eduardo score the second. Song lobbed a pass into the far side of the area, the ball was slightly behind Eduardo, the Crozilian didn't bother to turn or trap it, he just caressed it in with the outside heel of his boot. It's hard to describe how brilliant the technique was, but this man is a natural born goal scorer. He lives to score and he has no nerves whatsoever in front of goal. This goal will be watched again and again.
All credit to Burnley, neither they, nor their fans gave up, and they gave the Arsenal defence a few squeaky bum time moments. Fortunately Song was there to cover for the defence again and again. Wenger prefers attack to defence, so he put Ramsey, RvP and Walcott on to step up the pressure. You could see the terror in Burnley eyes every time Theo slalomed into the area. Meanwhile RvP remained the king of the air shot.
Any doubts were put to rest on the 84th minute when an audacious Song's backheel sent Eboue clear on the right-hand side of the area, he smashed the ball home into the far corner. The crowd celebrated as the pair danced by the corner flag. "You've only come to see Eboue", crowed the crowd. The game was over, although in truth it had been over since the 24 th minute.
Song Man of Match
Song gave two assists, and also many passes that split the Burnley defence again and again. He also did a lot of sweeping up for a defence that sometimes lost focus.
Very satisfactory
There were plenty of reasons for feeling smug, the overall performance might not be the most important one, but the return of key players unscathed, some individual performances, Song and Eboue in particular, and the Eduardo supergoal, all are reasons to be cheerful.
It could be Chelsea
Let's hope they can keep it up at a higher level, not just in the Championship, for if the Gunners beat Hull it will be Chelsea in the semi final; as I said in the Bank after the game, no way would we get Everton.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:03:12:19:27:15 by Padre Pio.
And you felt the confidence back in the team with Eduardo, Walcott both back and Vela, Arshavin on form. With Nasri and Denilson rested, we can be confident going into the Roma game.
Vela great goal also Eboue was great today.
Arsharvin world class player going to be great for Arsenal.
Can not wait for Cese to get back and Thomas Rosicky to be fit again.
i can't resist to chip in; lets see song and his co-partners in crime boss a real good team not from the lower divison lol
keep up the good work Gooners
Almunia
Sagna
Toure/Djourou
Gallas
Clichy
Eboue
Diaby
Denilson
Nasri
Bendtner
van Persie
that guy is a real goal poacher and if he gets a chance in the box then he will most likely test the keeper
Those kickers in the team?
Better not as ManLeeds vs Everton may have lots of yellows..maybe 1 or 2 red.
But if we qualify for CL CUp semi, Wenger will not have so many option as people think as he needs a settled first-11 to battle it out with high-pressured games every 3 or 4 days.
Every premiership game is a "must-win" now.
By mid-April with all players fit, Wenger will need a settled First-11 that clicked as a TEAM.
AW will want to keep it tight and we might see Song especially with his good performance the other day. Song does provide a physical presence in the middle and is a better tackler and sweeper than Diaby. I have a feeling we will see a midfield of Denilson and Song in the middle, with Nasri and Arshavin in the wide areas and RvP/Vela with Eduardo.