On a night when we had to win, simply had to muster key performances from several players… Arsenal came up big, with excellent performances from each and every Arsenal player to step on the pitch. When we play that way, no one can stand before us. No one.

I’m really glad that I’m not responsible for picking Man of the Match. I don’t think I could choose, when so many deserve the honor. I’ll start with Samir Nasri. He simply orchestrated this match like a seasoned maestro from start to finish, stepping up to replace the injured Cesc Fabregas. And, he did our Captain honorably, I’d say. Flanked by the excellent Alex Song and Abou Diaby, the midfield was ours. Add Tomas Rosicky into that mix, and it’s not hard to see why Porto were having trouble getting through the middle of the park. And, as if that weren’t enough, Samir managed one of the most skillful individual effort goals I’ve ever seen (this, coming from a man who was on-hand to watch Pelé play back in the late 1970s). SN8 simply samba’d his way from the right outside corner of their 18 yard box, through not one, nor two… but three defenders to expertly pound his shot in off the far post at an obtuse angle. The Porto keeper was perfunctorily put upon his ass. Breathtaking.

I felt this game coming in my old bones, I truly did. On Twitter, just minutes before the match, I wrote:

“Big games for AA, SN & NB. Come on you GUNNERS!”

And did they ever come through. Andrey Arshavin may not have been able to “make goal” last night, but he certainly created a few with his surgical footwork. Notably, the first two of Niklas Bendtner’s hat trick. They were both tireless at hounding the Portuguese defense, and it paid off. After missing a half dozen sitters at the weekend, The Great Dane came up large with three, marking his first premiership hat trick. And, was it not quite touching to see big ol’ Sol getting all up in Nik’s face and letting him know just what he thought of his efforts after the PK? If that sort of reaction from your teammates doesn’t inspire, nothing will. I feel sorry for the next defense that has to face Bendtner, as he’s probably chomping at the bit to tear another one open.

Speaking of Sol and the rest of the defense… what a fantastic effort by them all to get that clean sheet. Despite some nervy moments where it felt like Porto might actually come up with the goods to ruin our party, the central defense pairing of Sol Campbell and Thomas Vermaelen were like a wall before their attack. Herculean efforts from them both. Flanked by Bacary Sagna and the back-on-form Gael Clichy, we were simply too much for them. And, at a time when previously sketchy performances by some of our men have suddenly made a turn for the better, Manuel Almunia is putting in some solid work between the sticks. One can only hope this is a sign of things to come for him. Come on, Manuel! You know you’ve got it in you to be world class.

I’m saving the best for last. As much as I loved seeing Nik get his hat trick, and Samir positively confound the onlooking defense as he scored… my absolute favorite moment of the night, the one that made me literally do a spinning jump in my living room with fists raised… was seeing Emmanuel Eboue score his goal. A blown Porto corner saw the ball deflected up field, where Arshavin collected, seemingly set to run the whole length of the pitch alone… but all of a sudden, here comes Eboue, simply flying up the center of the pitch in support. Andrey once again took the opportunity to orchestrate as he got past the defense and dropped an absolutely perfect pass in front of Eboue. He took a touch, rounded the keeper and slotted home past a sliding Porto defender. I… fucking… erupted. How I didn’t wake most of my neighbors is beyond me. And what does Eboue do? He trots over near the corner flag, all the while waving his teammates toward him to celebrate… Together... Victoria Concordia Crescit. And did they ever. He was simply covered by Arsenal players in both red & white and training gear alike. He then extricated himself from the throng, put a hand to the Arsenal crest on his shirt, then saluted the crowd. Class. Arséne Wenger forwent his usual downward-double-fist-pump-whilst-skipping celebration (which I have to say looks a bit gay) and simply burst upward out of his seat, fists pumping skyward and a massive grin on his face. had I not been watching a recording of the match, it is entirely possible that Wenger and I would have both been airborne at the same time. Interesting, that. Yet, I’ve never seen him react so fiercely to the successes of his team… perhaps a bit of vindication? I don’t know… but it was great to see. Watch it again.

I, like many others in the Arsenal universe, was calling for Eboue’s head not all that long ago. I am ever so glad that I didn’t get my wish. I don’t know what, why or how he’s done it… but Emmanuel Eboue has performed a complete turnaround from the darkened depths to which he descended last season. Dare I say that there are very few who could have returned from such, and I wouldn’t have bet a red cent that he would or could be one of them… but he is. And he has. And… it is good. Well done, Manu. Well done.

So now… onward to that shithole picturesque and tranquilly scenic Hull City, to face that angry orange fellow with the complexion of a worn leather belt Phil Brown and his poxy bunch of twats cheery band of fellows from up norf. They’re desperate to find some points, and they’ve probably got it in their minds that they’ve been able to get some off us before, so why not this time? It should make for a good match. Rest up, Gunners. Go north, and come home having first draped yourselves with tiger pelts.

Not quite the double digit goal-fest that some were expecting, but a good solid performance from the squad, a fair scoreline and the required three points. I wasn’t quite comfortable throughout the match, even at 2-1, with Chris Eagles on the pitch. When the ex-Manc is on his game, he can cause problems for just about any defense. How funny is it though,  that his name is Eagles, he has sharp angular features like a bird, and went so far as to underline these facts by doing a bird dance of some sort with Nugent and Co. after their goal? Squawk?

Speaking of their goal… whiskey tango foxtrot, Defense? It was a great header from one of their boys to put our clearance right into Nugent’s path. His shin pad chip over the Spanish Mule Deer in the headlights Manuel Almunia was well played, but I don’t think even Nugent thought that ball was going in. Almunia seemed to be calling for offsides for some reason, spent a crucial second waving his arms around, then reacted far too late to do anything about the shot. He seemed to leap for it long after it went in. Not that he got any help from the central defense on that one. They were merely bystanders. So, yet another stupid goal leaked when we should have had a clean sheet.

No matter, because we still managed three excellent goals, each one quite fun to look at in replay. I wound up finally getting a copy of the match at nearly midnight. It was decent quality, but the commentary was in Russian. Interesting, I have to say. I was my own commentator in my head. Cesc’s goal was a thing of stark elegance. It started with some excellent footwork by Samir Nasri, who then had the balls of stainless steel prerequisite to then chip not one, two or three, but five Burnley defenders and drop the ball in the one and only place where that play could have worked: exactly in front of the right foot of Cesc Fabregas, who made the ensuing nutmeg of their keeper look like he does this each day. Lovely.

Theo Walcott answered his critics of late, with an overall excellent effort throughout the match, but capped with a lovely little run from the right corner of the 18-yard box, dancing along the line toward the center to shake off the defense and powered  left footed shot into the far side of the goal. Professional. He did some sort of gesture pointing to the empty place on his wrist where there’s usually a £25k watch as he ran over to one of the trainers. Not sure what that meant. It’s “Theo Time”? I sure hope so. More of that, please.

Andrey Arshavin, who came on late in the match, was disappointed that he was not able to make goal any quicker than 30 minutes on the pitch. But when he did, it was a doozy. While his teammates seemed satisfied to jerk around with the ball near the Burnley corners to burn off the clock at 2-1, Andrey simply wasn’t having that shit. He plowed in, stole the ball from that mess, powered toward goal and positively threaded a fucking needle at the near post. I’ve watched the replay several times now and I still can’t see how that ball went in. It seems to go through the post. Accuracy. His celebration said it all. “2-1 isn’t enough, 3-1 is better. 20 more minutes on pitch, I make goal maybe three more times.” Please see out your career with us, Andrey, you Lilliputian beauty.

Niklas Bendtner… yes, he missed a lot of chances. But, man… do I ever like this guy’s work ethic. He is reallly putting in the effort out there. He could have put five goals in yesterday if the winds were blowing in his favor, but alas… it was one of those days. It was nice to see that the fans recognized him for that, too. I think we have yet to see the best from Nik, so I hope he stays in an Arsenal shirt so we get to watch him bloom. He’s close.

Speaking of fans… those banners for Aaron Ramsey were a matter of pure excellence. The Setanta feed I had started a good few minutes early, even before the Elvis song, and they kept showing close-up shots of the One Aaron Ramsey, the Arseblog Do It For Aaron and the other Do It for Rambo banners. And, the players walking from the tunnels in the Get Well Soon, Aaron shirts was a nice touch of class. Well done, Gooners. Well done.

The only other downside of the match is that they took Cesc off pretty early with a potential hamstring issue. I sincerely hope it was a preventative measure, with one eye on the Porto match. I suppose we’ll hear by Monday if he is to play. To lose Cesc for any length of time now would be awful, but the boys carried on quite well without him yesterday. All in all, a great showing by the Gunners. Let’s keep that momentum going and force the other two horses in this race to be on their toes (hooves?) in they want to keep us from overtaking them.

I’ve spent the past few days since the match at Stoke just sort of taking things in, absorbing. The aftermath is somehow… not unexpected. The fact that much of the media are siding with Shawcross is not surprising. It’s simply another way for them to get more attention, which is how they make their money. I just wish so many people didn’t actually believe the tripe they peddle. There are some in the media who are not scum, but they are certainly the minority. To expect otherwise is futility.

I’ll not spend any time writing extensive analysis on Aaron’s injury or the fallout in the media. That’s already been done, and it’s been done in most excellent fashion by the likes of Arseblog (more than once), Yogi’s Warrior, Goonerholic, GilbertoSilver, Lasagnechef, Goodplaya and The Man from East Lower. Any one of those excellent posts will put into stark clarity this horrible incident that the mainstream media seem to be attempting to purposely bungle.

I will say this… I hope Aaron Ramsey will heal up and recover as quickly as possible, and is given all he needs to rest as comfortably as is possible. He’s an excellent talent, and I look forward to watching the rest of what I’m sure will be an excellent career once he’s navigated his way around this incredible stupidity that’s been perpetrated upon him. And, I’m quite sure I’ll have the same tear in my eye that I had for Eduardo when that day arrives and he steps back on the pitch in Arsenal strip. Get well soon, Aaron.

As for Ryan Shawcross… I liken him to that stupid kid we all knew growing up, who would poke and prod at something potentially dangerous, all the while chuckling with a stupid grin on his face, until said thing turned and bit him, or blew up in his face, or the bees came rushing from the hive. It’s only then that this type of kid will learn a lesson. Written word or instruction fail him. I never met a child with a healthy fear of fire who hadn’t first put his hand in it. Shawcross is such a child. I don’t know him, and rarely do I judge a book by its cover… but to look at him I see a man-child with a room temperature IQ. Sweet though he may be, I fear the lights are certainly on… but alas, no one is home. He has a history of bad tackles, getting stuck in, playing them hard… whatever you want to call it. This was just another in a string. He went in with intent to harm, but not intent to maim… just like Smith, and just like Taylor. When he saw the result of this intent, it sickened him and he went off the pitch in tears. What do you do to the crying kid whose got a few dozen bee stings after he’s poked the hive? You give him a right hard slap to his stupid fucking gob, perhaps two, just to underline the message.

As to the managers who perpetuate this sort of play, all the way down to the pee wee leagues… the blood is on your hands. Football should and hopefully will always remain a contact sport. But the teachers of this game have a responsibility to show their students the difference between good contact in the sport and recklessness. These kids need the tools to know the difference and the skills to avoid these sorts of accidents. It’s absolutely fine to tell your side to play the opposition hard, get stuck in, if first you are sure they know how to go about it without seriously injuring someone. But, if you’ve trained up a bunch of clueless thugs who don’t have these skills, and then tell them to get stuck in? Well, then you as a manager are just as guilty as if you had made the tackle yourself when a leg gets snapped along with the career of the player who’s been maimed. Tony Pulis is directly responsible for this incident. Forget Shawcross. Pulis knew what sort of a player he had on his hands and he told him to play this way. And to think he had the audacity, the balls, to sit there and defend Shawcross when he himself is the true criminal behind this. Charles Manson never stabbed anyone, Tony. He had his idiots do it.

As for the Arsenal… I felt an enormous amount of pride at not only seeing them come back from the draw and put in two more to seal the points. And then, to huddle together at the end in a show of solidarity. The message was clear: “We’ve been here before. This time it’s different. There’s a title there to be won, now let’s go out and win it.” They wanted it before their teammate was hurt, but now they want even more. Recently, I mused about how Cesc is showing his frustrations by berating his players. This display after the match at Brittannia was a massive step back in the right direction as a captain, as someone who can lead not only during the match, but before and after as well.

COME ON YOU GUNNERS!

As far as the performance goes from last night, well… it’s all been said. Our goalkeeping situation is nothing short of shocking. I know for a fact that both Almunia and Fabianski are better than what they’ve shown of late, but for some unknown reason… neither of them are stepping up. Can Arsenal afford to wait any longer to do anything about it?

As for the shit officiating… are we surprised? I’m not. At least he was consistently bad on both sides of the ball. And, have you ever seen so much diving? It was worse than playing a pack of Italians. I don’t believe that video review during a game would be a good thing. It would slow the game down. But, why can’t we have post match reviews for blatant cheating? We have some review for spurious goals and such, so why not video review after the fact when someone dives? Fucile could be given a nice three game ban for trying to deceive the official.

But, there’s another situation brewing that concerns me deeply. Cesc Fabregas. As a player, I love him. He’s not on his absolute best form just now, but as an attacking midfielder, there’s very few who could fill his shoes. My concern is over him as a captain. I get the feeling it’s not going so well. I was as happy as anyone when he was given the armband, and I really do want him to stay and be successful with the club. Yet, on several occasions now, I’ve seen him show his displeasure with the team in a most un-captainly way. Of course, the team has given him plenty of reason to be upset of late. But to me, an extremely important quality of a captain, in my opinion, is to inspire. And a side being beaten and making mistakes all over the pitch needs that inspiration more than anything. Yet, I don’t see it coming from Cesc. Actually, quite the opposite. The latest example was last night, after a blown corner from the left, Cesc’s reaction toward Bendtner said it all. Did he offer advice? Did he try to encourage? No. He berated Bendtner, who I might add probably had a better game than Cesc, like he was a child. And the manner in which he did was the furthest thing from inspirational. He was petulant, derisive, condescending, even insulting. Those are not good qualities to have in a captain. You’re certainly not going to get your best performance out of your players that way. Especially not when they’re already on the backfoot. And, Bendtner is one of the few players out there who seems like he really wants it! He’s running his ass off trying to make something happen, and he gets shit from Cesc. Where was this sort of reaction when Wutang popped two goals into our own net for Porto? Maybe he just doesn’ get on with Bendtner? Perhaps it’s a sign of his own immaturity? Perhaps, and rightly so, he’s a bit frustrated and dreaming of his triumphant return to Barcelona. But, why belittle your teammates? By all means, get angry at them, show them how pissed off you are and how much you require them to turn things around. But condescension and schoolboy reactions won’t get that out of anyone. Lead by example, and grow up a bit first.

It’s going to be an interesting summer. *sigh*

That was more than a bit disappointing. And not that the team didn’t play well, it was a fairly decent effort, it was just… disappointing. Depressing, even. To see the team you love trying so hard and just unable to come up with the goods is just tough to watch.

I won’t do the finger pointing that a lot of others are doing. We know we’ve got issues that need to be addressed. Bitching won’t change that. And I hate to sound like those afflicted with blind faith, but the team needs support just now. Not whinging. Things will get better. Some players will go and some will arrive. We may only have a fight left for third or, perish the thought, fourth place… But it could be worse. There are worse things in the world than third place in the Premiership. Now, onto more important issues at hand… Liverpool.

This is a match we can’t afford to lose. That might be an apt description of nearly every fixture left on the list. They’re coming off a good run of form, but also have some injury and suspension issues. It should be a good match. I read earlier the suggestion that Campbell should come in at center half and let Gallas or Vermaelen fill in for Clichy. That’s not a bad idea at all. Perhaps it would give Gael the time he needs to get back up to form. We know he’s had his troubles of late, but I’m still hopeful he can turn it around and perform at the levels we’re used to seeing from him.

As for Almunia… I’d be quite surprised if Wenger replaces him. Stunned, actually. So, I really hope this is the match that he finds his form again. I think it’s more of a mental thing with him. The press he’s probably been hearing about him hasn’t helped, I’m sure. But, we need to stop leaking goals for stupid defensive mistakes, of that there can be no doubt. If we’re outclassed by a world class striker, so be it… but the stupid defensive errors have cost us the silverware this season. To have scored 60 goals in 25 games and have to think that we’re going to come away again this season with nothing? It simply boggles the mind.

Up front, I really do hope Bendtner can start, but I imagine we’ll start the same way we did at Stamford Bridge. Poor Andrey will have to go it alone up top. But, he’s had some luck against Liverpool in the past, we all know. Could we see the tongue lolling, shhh blowing Russian of yore? I hope so. And a cracking game from Cesc wouldn’t hurt, that’s for sure. Not that he hasn’t been playing well, but he’s gone a bit quiet on the goal scoring.

So, we’re set to start in about 45 minutes. It’s a crisp 32°F at the Grove, and could drop a bit more. Let’s hope the fire’s are burning on the inside.