So what started out to be quite the tussle, ended in a rout. And a more deserved rout I’ve never witnessed.

I’ll start with what pretty much every other blogger is talking about. Was it worth the risk Cesc Fabregas to bring him in? When I first saw him limping, I thought no. But in hindsight, I think it was. That being said, I also feel that we were probably on our way to scoring had he remained on the bench. We had the momentum. You could see a massive improvement after the break. Was it another pep talk from the boss? From the captain? We may never know. But we transformed from a side that played well in the first half, to one that played great in the second. The attacking on the ball was just ruthless. As in, completely without Ruth. Whoever she might happen to be.

Aston Villa had their share of threats in the first half, but we pretty much shut down their efforts in the second. Manuel Almunia, when he had something to do, did it well. The back four were a wall. Not the tallest wall in the league, but a wall just the same. Andrey Arshavin was having a somewhat subdued match, but still played well. He doesn’t seem to have bad days. Have you noticed? He’s either good or great. Abou Diaby put in yet another very impressive performance. Could he be the next on the team to completely revamp his outlook? He’s certainly on his way. On that note, we’ve come to expect excellence from Alex Song, and once again, he did not fail to deliver. He will be sorely missed when he’s off to the ACN next week. I wish him success there as well as good health, but secretly hope his side get dumped as soon as can be managed. Come back to us soon, Alex.

At 57′ Cesc Fabregas came on for Denilson, who also looked pretty decent. He immediately made an impact, simply by being on the pitch. He’s a defender magnet. Within seven minutes, he was fouled about seven yards outside the area. He stepped up to take the shot, and curled it over the wall and into the left side of the net past Friedel at full stretch. 1-0 to the Arsenal. The celebration in the corner with the fans was a thing of beauty. At this point, Song seemed to be playing forward a bit more, with Cesc hanging back. I’m wondering if this was intentional to minimize risk of re-injury to his hamstring.

At 81′, Milner dumps the ball directly to Armand Traore, who decided to pop a huge diagonal up to Theo Walcott on the right side. Theo outstrips his man, as he’s wont to do, and slides the perfect pass in front of the onrushing Cesc Fabregas who simply belts it into the right side past Friedel, yet again. Job done. But… Cesc is now limping. He put a lot into that run to get into position and looks to have aggravated his hamstring at the least. Hopefully it’s not serious and he’ll be back soon. Luckily, the upcoming fixture schedule is somewhat kind to us, so hopefully he can find the time to heal up. No offense to Portsmouth, West Ham et al, but these are definitely the fixtures we want to have in light of our over-crowded treatment room.

Cesc goes off at 84′ for Aaron Ramsey to come out and Aston Villa appear to have been stunned. The defense is positively knackered as Abou Diaby takes the ball in the center circle at 91′, dances his way up to the area and puts in our third. A lovely shot from a man who is making his case to be included in every start. 3-0, match over.

It felt good beating Villa after recent experience with them. It felt good knowing they were beginning to fancy themselves giant killers, having done in the rest of the supposed Top Four. It felt good beating Martin O’Neill after his shenanigans last time around. He’s a fun character to frustrate. Aston Villa had previously scored in nearly every match since the season began, but left Ashburton Grove with nothing. No goals, no points… nothing. Apart from a sore ass, that is. An ass that, I’m quite sure Rafa Benitez and his men will enjoy taking up the task of plugging, when they come to visit Villa Park later today. Big fun.

So, we’re off to Fratton Park tomorrow. Given the travails of Portsmouth lately, it’s reasonable to expect full points from the match. Especially given the high we’re riding and the 2-0 whipping they took from the Hammers recently. And, if Wigan somehow pulls off a draw or even *gasp* a win over United, we may find ourselves in second position by 2010. Imagine that. At the very least, we should only be two behind United and four behind Chelsea. I like our odds… I do like our odds.

Come on, you Gunners!

Unlike most of the rest of the Arsenal Blogosphere, I’d like to take the high road somewhat in writing about Saturday’s result. Let’s give this a shot…

Push that up your hoop, Phil Brown! Now, give it a good twist.

Ok, I tried. I failed. But the Arsenal most certainly did not. We dominated from the start, kept it that way and never really needed to get out of second gear to see off Phil’s orange pestilence. I’m beginning to think they’re not going to be able to eke out 17th position again this season. They’ll likely go down the chute, Phil Brown and all. I wouldn’t mind seeing Hull come right back up after a season, particularly since they’ve got good people like Jimmy Bullard on board, but only if they leave Phil behind. Speaking of Phil… where’s that giant beige tube gotten to? The one that’s normally sticking out of his ear? Perhaps that went up his hoop too.

So, it was a nice little haul for the weekend, with both Chelsea and Man U dropping points. It was another classic 3-0 thumping at Craven Cottage for the Red Devils… oh wait, that never happens. Well, it did Saturday and that’s all I care about. They’re implosion is a lovely thing to watch. And the dirty Chavs cheated themselves into a point on a soft challenge in the area when they should have lost all three. But, at least we picked up two on them. They should keep diving and cheating the way they are, and hopefully football karma will bite them hard on the arse.

So, we’ve got that squeaky leprechaun this coming Sunday and his band of villains. Oooh… should be a decent match, actually. They’ve been on a pretty decent run of form lately and found themselves breathing down our necks at 4th in the table. And who doesn’t look forward to the touchline antics of Marty & Arsène? Until then… come on you Arsenal!

A very disappointing and tough match to watch. I was on my feet in front of the screen the entire time. Not due to nail-biting excitement, but from frustration at the bumbling display before me.

There was a decent stretch in the first half where we looked to be seriously up for it. Cesc was in attack mode from the start. Andrey was getting and taking chances. Cesc’s goal was a thing of brilliance. To twinkle toe his way through defenders like that, get a bit of luck, still come up with the ball and then hit the target… just excellent. But then, the life went out of us.

Cesc couldn’t even finish the final few minutes of the half, coming off with injury. I hope it’s not serious. But with him off the pitch, we just didn’t function the same way. We were already taking the foot off the pedal at 0-1, and didn’t find a way to put it back down once Cesc left. The penalty by Vermaelen was clear… 1-1. We can’t complain about that. And honestly… Burnley played the better overall match, I’d say. We were lucky to get out of there with a point.

So, now we’ve got Hull City at the weekend. If injury news continues in the fashion it has, this will be interesting matche as well.

I intend for this to be the only post in the Arsenal Blogosphere that will not haul out some tired cliche to describe this match. Such timless classics as “A Tale of Two Halves” shall have to remain in the barn. I won’t do it.

But that was one hell of a turnaround after a quick trip down the tunnel, no? Word on the street is that Arsène Wenger may have *gasp* raised his tone a bit in the dressing room. I hear there may even have been pacing involved. Perish the thought. For as many players to have come forward who have done so since the match, I’m willing to bet AW threw himself a right good old Fever Bitch at the lads. And it’s good and well he did, too. I don’t care if he had to sacrifice the life of a random Brazilian in front of the whole side to make his point, so long as it gets results like that. There’s talk that he may even have told the players they didn’t deserve to wear the Arsenal strip, judging by the way they were playing. And for the first half, he was right. We were lucky not to have gone into the tunnel down 3-0. If the official had been doing his job properly, it would have been at least 2-0. Can you imagine the tongue lashing they would have got then?

But he woke the dragon. Arsenal came out of the tunnel transformed. You could tell something was different in their entire demeanor. Possession was better, passing was better, challenges were stronger. Shots started to be on goal. And then, the small bit of luck we needed to really get things in motion… a cross bumbled into a scouse defender gets trundled in for an OG. Brilliant. We’ll take it. And not eight minutes later, the force of nature that is Andrey Arshavin let loose a ripping shot to the roof of their net. Reina had not the whisper of a prayer for stopping that ball. Andrey, who has disposed of his shhh finger-to-the-lips of late, went instead with The Gobsmack instead, much like he did after his fourth at Anfield last time around. This time, he leveled his Gobsmack directly at the Boss as he ran over to get his hair tousled. An excellent moment, and hope fully one of many to come between AA & AW.

The rest of the match was… how shall I say this… tense. Livuhpyool never looked as though they could recover from that second goal, and the life went out of them for the most part. But… after last year, after that match… I didn’t stop biting my fingernails until the whistle blew. Then, fists painfully clenched and thrust skyward, I thought to myself: “It’s on. Now it is well and truly on.” And I was right.