Arsenal 3-1 Everton: It's Party Time!

I feel like celebrating tonight. We are officially back in the title race and we passed our first major test this season. Does this mean I now think we're so much better than we were, all our worries are gone, and we will sweep away our opponents and win the league title with ease? No, not in the least. But for now at least, I'm really happy to be an Arsenal supporter.

We showed good character and determination to come back to win today. My worst fears as to the difficulty of this match were confirmed when Everton scored within ten minutes because of some really sloppy defending. I like Silvestre and felt he had a good match today, but on the fist goal, his defending was pretty poor. he was totally fooled by the player and left him plenty of room to shoot. But considering the fact that he should have been marked anyway, I don't hold Silvestre at too much fault. He's better than certain other French centre-backs who shall remain nameless (cough....#10...cough).

Throughout the fist half we were dreadful. but then after the break things turned around. Whatever Le Boss said to the lads in the dressing room seemed to have sunk in and we were on the attack straightaway. And almost right away we were level through Samir Nasri's strike outside the box. I have to say, it has proved to be one of Arsene Wenger's best ever business deals to replace Hleb with Nasri. Nasri can both dribble and pass (just like Hleb), but best of all HE SHOOTS! I think we may well have found the next Robert Pires.

After the goal came the really stupid refereeing decisions. I've forgotten the name of who was refereeing, but he was extremely poor. First he denies Van Persie a stonewall penalty. The Dutchman was pushed straight to the ground as he tried to meet a cross but the referee either didn't see it or hasn't taken a class on just what constitutes a foul. But the worst came a few minutes later. Denilson won the ball fairly from Everton, then the defender Hibbert came sliding in and fouled Denilson. Clichy picked the ball up for the free kick and screamed at Hibbert for fouling Denlison. Then Hibbert lashed out, grabbed Clichy by the throat and screamed back at him. It was truly despicable, but the referee decided he would only punish the tackle and promptly dished out a yellow card. He booked Clichy as well for screaming at Hibbert, but seemed to ignore the choking. I could not believe the referee. I said to my mates that if we were going to beat Everton we'd have to beat the referee as well.

Thankfully we shortly got the lead thanks to Van Persie. The build-play was sloppy and Adebayor seemed determined not to shoot (I thought he was awful today, really awful) so he passed to Fabregas, whose shot was saved by Howard. But Van Persie arrived and scored a follow-up header. We were 2-1 up, but with the regularity that we give up leads nowadays, I wasn't thinking game over.

But it was. We controlled possession and kept Everton chasing the ball. As a result they didn't have another serious goal-scoring opportunity the rest of the game. I hope we can hold onto leads this effectively all season. I think if we can, we may well win some silverware, but if not, I'm a lot less optimistic. Anyway, we finally wrapped the game up just before time when Theo Walcott slotted a shot through Tim Howard's legs after a cut-back from Diaby. Theo really deserved that one, as it was his introduction at half-time that really changed the game in our favour. He's been in excellent form, and hopefully he continues to be this prolific for both club and country for a while. Can't say enough about him.

So that was the game. I could review every player, but sufficeth to say, Walcott, Nasri, Van Persie, and Silvestre were good; Adebayor and strangely Fabregas were not at all good, but Ade was the worst. Maybe next game we can replace him with Carlos Vela. I'm not sure how the RVP-Vela partnership would work (not well I suspect) but surely Vela would do better than Adebayor, he was dreadful.

That's it for now then. I'll be back next week with an article or two in the buildup to Fenerbache in the Champions League. Until then I'll be basking in the glory of this vital win, hoping that we can continue to show this much character for the rest of the season.

Fab 4