Arsenal 2-1 Sunderland – Henry leaves with a bang and a leap into Fourth
This game was definitely a big one for Arsenal. This would set the tone for a monumental season-defining week for the Gunners. There was a lot of build up to the game simply because of its magnitude as well this fixture occurring twice in two weeks.
The first half saw good possession by the Gunners but nothing really to show for it. There was two penalty claims for Sunderland but were both waved off by the referee, fortunately for Arsenal. The game ended at halftime at 0-0 and it looked like a stalemate. This game was against a good organised Sunderland side whose recent form was one of the best in the league. It would take something special to win this game (and it definitely was!) but I’ll save that surprise until later.
The second half was underway and it was more of the same from us. Arsenal were on the front foot and the Black Cats were defending resolutely in numbers. The game was heading for a draw before Sunderland started to heap the pressure onto Arsenal causing an unforced error by Mertesacker which gifted them the lead. It was a good take by McClean with the angle against him.
From replays, it looked like Mertesacker stumbled over himself and as a result had injured himself. It called for a substitute and a return for Aaron Ramsey. He hadn’t been very sharp in recent games but he was soon to prove his doubters wrong. His first touch was a shot at goal which ricocheted off both post before spinning into the back of the net. Good strike from the Welshmen and Arsenal were back in it.
Wenger soon brought on Arshavin and Henry for Walcott and Chamberlain. We were soon to realise the tactical genius behind such daring substitutions. Sunderland were starting to look leggy as it hit the 80th minute mark. It was most likely the 120 minutes they had played to secure a 5th round match against the Gunners.
Arsenal looked hungry for the winner and in the 91st minute, Arshavin put in a crisp cross that got through two Sunderland players before landing between another two with a sandwiched Henry ready to open his boot and win it for Arsenal. Sheer brilliance from the subs and Wenger had got it absolutely right. The winner was amazing and the celebration by the Frenchman showed his love, dedication and commitment to Arsenal. It was a great way to end your final Premier League match for the club you love.
The effects of the win were compounded by results that had occurred elsewhere. Liverpool slips against a strong United side which puts them 4 points off Arsenal now. Just a comment on Suarez, what disgusting, vulgar man he is. He was the one who was charged with racism and yet he has the audacity to not shake the victim’s hand. I am slowly coming to hate the man. He has bit a man’s ear, destroyed a nations world cup dreams, and has been charged by the FA for racism and yet all Liverpool fans religiously stand by him……
Chelsea dropped even more points against Everton and looked convincingly defeated by a 2-0 score line. It’s good to know that the crumble is happening on the west side of London for a change. We are drawn on points with them but are 4th because of the numbers of goals scored (surely helped by the 7-1 thumping against Blackburn). As a write this, Newcastle are also 5-1 down against Tottenham and although I would have preferred a draw but I’m not going to complain.
All in all, a good week for the Gunners and a fitting departure from the Premier League for the King. The question is, can he do the same against Milan? It would make it his 230th goal. These things are written in the stars and all us Gunners anxiously wait for that mouth-watering encounter.
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Does this not prove that Arsenal need another proven goal poacher instead of depending so much on RVP? It would take a lot of the pressure off RVP and give him a chance to be rested for some games. Anyway, I dont want to sour the occassion, thank you TH12 and i hope you will get to sign off for the Arsenal with a special win against Milan.
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When Henry scored I couldn’t believe it, was absolutely amazing. Although the goals came late, it showed the teams spirit to keep pushing for a winner. Great determination.
These next couple weeks are huge for the team. An away draw or win is vital for us, then we need to beat Spurs, Newcastle and Liverpool to really secure that 4th spot.
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Henry has done wonders for our team in such a short space of time. Since the legend has been back he has a score ratio of 1 goal every 2 games! (Chamakh take note)
And since he’s been back our form has gotten better too.
I hope he gets his 230th goal for Arsenal against AC Milan but of course I would just love a win.
Now we are in 4th lets keep on winning and overtake Spurs!!! who haven’t had a bad patch this season, every year every team has a bad patch so I am waiting for theirs!!
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Good game and a crazy ending fom the god of premier league thierry!
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im a big criticizer of rambo n walcott. bt these two guys belong as an impact sub. bt ddnt suits into first team role yet.against organised dfence jst watch hw poor the right flank from walcott. ddnt provide much more from there for rvp espcially against an organised team.please walcott practice ur technique n finishing please.as for rambo myb he do hear some of the fans criticize stop with the pirouting when it doesnt necessary to use it. he must dvelope further. i think rosicky shud hold hes first team place n also gervinho in walcott place. so if we gt evryone fit.our best eleven wud be;
szczesny
sagna-kos-tv5-santos
song/arteta-wilshere
gervinho-rosicky-chambo
rvp
sub;
fabianski
mert
gibbs
ramsey
walcott
arshavin
park/chamakh
i nver doubt bout arshavin. even he cn only tkes 5 minutes to cross a beautiful ball for henry n mke an impact yet no one apreciate him for that. he wna prove somethng worth bfore he go. so do suport this litle magic rusian.bt stil wnt to see him playin thru the middle.supplying ball to the top three upfront.when walcott tkes it all day into 85th minutes with poor display n yet unconsistent performance bt consistent talker.
hope mert injuries were nt too bad n ddnt tke much long to heal. hope he cn be back by the fa cup games against sunderland. against milan cnt wait to see the lineup. n do u guys see song is even better as a centre dfence role. dnt u guys think that way??
sunderland plays til xtratime yet they looks strong n full with determination.cnt imagibe if they hvent gt that replay with middlesbrough. we realy dpending too much on rvp.myb we cn rest rvp on that fa cup tie 5th round. n play park please. with arshavin supporting him from bhind. the sunderland team wud nt wna lose the scond time n their place.so we shud chnge our tactics. play park upfront. with arshavin bhind him.i knw mr.wenger u wil play chamakh. no doubt bout that.hope they’re all are fit for these big milan match n mo more injuries except mr.mert. the pitch is horrible. luckily no more injuries. keeping faith for the milan match!!
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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Great write, after TGH departed this automatically became my favorite blog
… One objection though, and it’s not Arsenal related, I wanna be clear right away that as a Latino in the US I am NOT defending Suarez, he’s a Product of Uruguayand and similarly Argentinian culture and their idea of superiority thinking they are European (lol) NOT!!! I.e. they hate Mexico with a passion, anyway he did not destroy his countries dreams in the WC, he was actually the hero, and still considered so… Anyway Arsenal are due a good run and can’t wait to see it unfold, exited for the rest of the season
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I look at the league, how good would it be to close up on spuds.
Rosicky has heart of gunner, few mo games for him
and we should see the MOZART ART.
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hi i’d just like to say a little on the suarez issue, he didn’t shake evra’s hand but from what ive heard is that evra was the one that wound him up by calling his sister a whore, evra provoked suarez and suarez ritaliated with racist abuse because of this, then evra the big headed saddo that he is does a racism case against suarez when he (evra) was the one that started this whole problem, do people really blame suarez for not shaking his hand after what evra called his sister, this is what ive heard about this issue, if anybody knows any better then please could you clarify or rectify this issue.
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Yet another appalling performance from Walcott. Gervinho will be playing his AFCON final match today…..as soon as he comes back…..SHOW WALCOTT THE BENCH PLEASE ! So inconsistent….plays one good match,followed by appalling performances in next ten games !!!
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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hope this month cn be better than last month in january. im jst worried with rvp n some of our keyplayer. hope no more injuries. hope we hv a good nxt half of this season. nxt try to close the spudsy. pressure them n tried to overtake n leapfrog them. against spudsy is a must win! for them to shut their effin mouth.hope too a big win. r jst a 3 points. bt if we gt a big win 3-0 or 4-0 or even more i wud b more than happy! we hv sagna back. he cn keep bale off. n walcott to help back. or even gervinho wud be a major boost. hope he cn win the african cup n be back with a lot of cnfidence. so walcott wil drop to the bench. walcot n rambo suits as an impact sub. nt a first team player.
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@ankit
Walcott was double teamed today which means 2 men were marking him and on top of that the pitch was very bumpy and made it very hard for our players to play their usual free flowing game, the ox didnt get much joy too because he was mostly double teamed, sunderland defended in numbers and just played to counter attack us. it was a tough game for all the players. we should be thankfull to to subs and henry for getting us the 3 points.
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after henry’s goal. after the match ends. i straight away watch a dvd called ” Thierry Henry Legend”
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I could see the way arshavin ran on to the pitch that he had something to offer he looked a bit different somehow maybe he has started to see the silver lining in the dark clouds, I really hope his form improves from now on. Thanks to the king th12 I mean this guy does wonders for the club on or off the pitch.
Oh and a job well done to the team for picking up 3 points against a stubborn sunderland team.
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Out of tune?. Like or Dislike:
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@ guns blazin
double teamed actually means two girls were performing on him. whilst the sunderland back 4 have a history of sexual assaults the main culprit was not there today.
i get your point tho but think u are being kind to walcott. he is a typical 22 year old wide man who is still not finding consistency. when u play wode it is hard to find that gervinho is a couple of years older and he still hasnt managed it. even wonderkid eden hazard struggles with. in fact name a wide player that isconsistent. i remember great players like ljunberg pires overmars rocastle armstrong struggling to do it on a regular basis. even now u look at those positions for the current england crop and it is.crying out for one of them to become the next ryan giggs who in my opinion is one of the few players to do it consiatently as a widean. adam johnson milner downing young lennon walcott pennant jarvis etherington england have a.dearth of inconsistent wingers. the trick is to find out which one is up for it on the day. wenger needs to do the same with walcott gervinho arshavin cjamberlain benayoun miyaichi. personally i would sell arshavin send yossi back to chelsea and stick with those 4 as my wingers but i would add henry and podolski to my wide choices to give us something different. i would use campbell and afobe as my back up to van persie or buy sturride if campbell cant get his visa. add hazard and mvila to th
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@Gunz Blazin you are talking abt yesterday’s game……tell me how Alex was able to make couple of good moves cutting across the centre backs(although unsuccessful)…..but he tried…….Walcott on the other hand gives the ball away so easily.He has the habit of taking his place in playing XI for granted,unless his place in the starting team is in danger…..he won’t value his place.Although, Walcott can work as an exceptional impact sub.
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I would like to see Coquelin play on the right side of attack. Will be interesting
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People doubted whether he had the sharpness of the past. He has now proved his love for arsenal. I hpe the rest of the team work hard after hd leaves. Good luck the t12. Arsenal’s Ligend
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Well we had a win against Sunderland but some are questioning the performance. I can`t comment because I didn`t see the match but I did watch Spurs v Newcastle (replay) and the score line flattered Tottenham. I think we`ll take them next week.
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@undisclose its now cryster clear how greedy you are. Jst forget about those you mentioned, go to emirate and sell all the players and the entire coaching crew also the madical staff then bring in those players you thought the club deserve.
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On the Suarez issue, the guy is a walking billboard in regards to appalling mannerisms and yesterday I tossed off the last shreds of respect I had for him. I strongly believe he made two other racist gestures that shouldn’t go unnoticed, firstly at halftime after Valencia touched his back he rubbed it off as if removing dirt out of his shirt and the timing couldn’t have been more wrong they were headed for the dressing rooms anyway. The second issue was his celebrations after the goal why did he choose to kiss his skin knowing very well the game was preceded with racist undertones? Well the ball is in your court FA.
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3 – 0 Arsene Wenger
1 = Ramsey comes in and scores the first goal
2 = Arshavin made the perfect assist
3 = King Henry scores the second goal
AW is definitely a GREAT tactician!!!!!!!!
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@ArsenaLova that team would beat any other team in the league but it does have 12 players in it. I feel that one player is still missing from the first team and that’s a top quality right winger. Also need a backup striker. I’d go for Hazard and Podolski for those positions but it angers me that the board won’t provide the money, we know they won’t. Wilshere is obviously the man to play in the Ramsey/Rosicky role but between the two I think it’s very close. Rosicky tends to tire towards the end of games due to his age and Ramsey shouldn’t play too many games or we’ll have another Wilshere situation so it makes sense to rotate them. It was a good performance against a well organised defence which set out to nullify the wingers and close the channels through the middle. It was gonna take a long range shot or the perfect pass under pressure to score and we saw both. Excellent result.
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@charlie: Like that mate it exactly sums the game up and exactly what was needed to score. So excellent result we knew how up break them down at the end and that is a valuable lesson to learn next time we are in this situation which will definetly find when we play them again soon. Was so nervous and couldn’t help cheer at 3:45am something horrible like that! Lucky it rained today reason to stay in bed
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RAMSEY;
scores against man-u, next day Osama is dead!
scores against marseille, next day Gadaffi is dead!
almost scores against man-city, kim jong 11 dies!
shawcross breaks his leg, earthquake measuring 8 hits Chille!
scores against sunderland, whitney houston is no more!!!!!!!!???????!!!!!!??????
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seeing all the comments above i got one thing to say:we always love to quarrel among ourselves even when something happy happens haha.GOONERS FOREVER
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@charlie
yeah cn beat anyone in europe. bt we jst need one holding midfielder. n we cn even rotate them. thats why i do arteta / song in that position. or even arteta or song.. song-wilshere / song-arteta / arteta-wilshere. n the most prefered one for me is arteta-wilshere.sory song cn turn into a world clas holding midfielder.bt for nw i think he suits more as a centre back. he hold the ball too long. n he cn intercept ball well.
as goes for u @undisclosed; this is february. u cn think about the market when the transfer window is on. so think the positive for now n the best for the team that we gt for now. koscielny is nt that good? he plays a lot for us. n do even see hes cntribution??vermaelen is a world clas dfender.bt stil he suits in the middle. santos in the fullback cn add somethng new dimension if he goes forward. i wish wilshere n santos to be back soon. myb early march?hope so n no more setback. now cn wait to gt the whole squad back first. hope mert injuries is nt a long term one. mylineup against milan;
szczesny
sagna-song-koscielny-tv5
arteta-ramsey
rosicky-arshavin-chambo
rvp
hope we cn win 0-1 or a cmfortable lead to bring to the emirates. n gve gibss 20minutes-15minutes.
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@Balongo
whot are you now implies thhat ramsey is? His goals is not the bullet that killed them oooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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YEEEEAAAAA Arshavin great assist, he should have come on earlier, he is a beast at times and hopefully he gets some time on the pitch against AC Milan. Cant wait for that match.
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lets hope ramsey scores next time tony blair is in the country!
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What a way for Thiery Henry to bid adieu to PL for Arsenal….
I’m just so impressed to see his influence on the pitch…hope everyone has seen the celebration on the pitch when he scored…RVP was the first one to embrace him & this shows how much we need Big names who can create an impact….
I don’t want to sound nasty, but in my dreams also I can’t see Chamakhs & BENDTNERS OF THE WORLD REACHING TO THAT CROSS…What a positioning amongst 2 tall defenders…
Arshavin’s cross was a beauty – I myself have een a vociferous critic of him over the last few weeks…but if he keeps getting some of them right & make us win games, I would rather have me being proven a fool or a failure to judge players
Fantastic win – actually a very very imp win given the context of features that we have….
Some of you have been flaking Ramsey a lot…ok I admit one goal doesn’t change anythig – but I would like to thank Ramsey for the work-load that he has taken after coming back from a horrific injury – and he had played almost every minute till we can find replacements…hope we remember that…he hasn’t put the game on fire, I agree, but he has been very instrumental on the field…
Overalll, I hope this win gives us lots of hope & we only now look fwd to get past Spuds….
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all the walcott haters are back again tell me one attacking player among the starters who played better than him yeah maybe rosicky and no one else chambo RVP plz stop kidding me they are class better than walcott but all the front three have disappointed equally
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@barongo so him scoring is a good thing or a bad thing?LOL
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While we probably don’t say this enough I think its only fair to give a well deserved credit to Ashavin for his impact in the few mins he played. Great tactical subs by the boss and all did well. Walcott should prob have been subbed ealier. Walcott either have a good game or bad. No middle ground so if he plays 20 mins and its one of the bad days I wouldn’t mind him being replaced. Ashavin did very well and bossed the wing hopefully the guy has decided to turn things around. Hope for more and pls Wenger do give the guy some playing time in the middle. Also whats up with Yosi Ben?
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What an assist! Andrey good job! That’s why Arsenal needs you!You proof everyone wrong about you. without his assist this blog would have different topic. Gunner for Life, and doesn’t matter if we loose or win, I will stand behind them!
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Patrice Evra called us boys a couple of years ago, now we realize he likes us because he’s a girl going through puberty, Suarez is a racist ignorant creep, but Evra is a bitch!!
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evry1 on suarez, what about terry? and ferdinand refuses to shake hands…
chelsea fans booed rio F. and then manu fans boo saurez.
inconsistent sh#t.
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@jumper
ofcourse it’s a good thing Ramsey scoring,but what scares me is…what would happen when he scores a hatrick!!!!!!!!!!
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@barongo we could only wait to see it
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