Birmingham 0 – Arsenal 3: Arsenal Pull Away in Style After Nervy First-Half (UPDATED with Player Ratings)

Arsenal feeling good again after getting 3 points in a must-win game to ring in 2011, and getting the momentum going back in the right direction ahead of this week’s crucial clash with Manchester City.

And this really was an excellent result. It was 3 points, which we badly needed. And we beat a team that is very, very tough to beat at home — I believe it was only their 2nd home loss in almost a year and a half. And we did so pretty comfortably. There is also the history in this match — Almunia’s howler last year, and the Eduardo/Gallas match in 2007-2008. The away fans, who were excellent as usual, clearly felt like something had been exorcised, as multiple times the away fans could be singing the name of “Eduardo” — of course he had his leg broken, and the next time Arsenal returned, the classy, classy Birmingham fans sang the name of “Martin Taylor” the thug who broke Eduardo’s leg with a violent tackle.

It was Arsenal’s first clean sheet in our last 8 league matches. And it was good for the team to see that we can win when we need to, and we can hold on to a lead once we got it. To put it simply, the things we have done wrong this season, today we did right. And it feels great. New Year’s Day is all about turning the page on any unpleasantness in the past and looking forward to a better future — and today, Arsenal might have given us just a bit of hope that we might just be on the cusp of a brighter future.

The first half was an unexpectedly entertaining, tense affair. For a team that can be a pretty boring, hoof-it-up the pitch side, Birmingham provided plenty of action and chances on both ends.

The bad blood came out pretty early, when Roger Johnson saw yellow for leaving the ground to go in on Cesc when he had lost the ball. Cesc was writhing around for a bit (it looked like Johnson caught him on the top of the foot/bottom of the shin), but eventually got up and seemed fine. Johnson was complaining quite a bit, but I thought yellow was fair — when you leave the ground for a tackle and catch a player in the leg, you have to expect that.

Not long after that, we had a really good chance when we got an indirect free kick in the corner of the box when Ben Foster picked up a back-pass. We designed it exactly correct, and van Persie had a very good chance, and his shot was a very good height (knee high — very tough for a keeper to save), but right at Foster, who saved comfortably.

Just a few minutes later, controversy erupted when we were awarded a free kick just outside the box when Scott Dann was adjudged to have pulled van Persie down. van Persie did go down, but it looked to be a dive. The camera on the feed I saw didn’t have a great view of it, so I can’t say for sure. But if I were a Birmingham fan, I would have been pissed. Their anger was raised any further when van Persie converted the free kick. It’s so weird to see Arsenal score from a set piece, and it wouldn’t have gone in had it not deflected off Lee Bowyer in the wall, because that wrong-footed the keeper and the ball bounced inside the near post. But it was well-taken, and it put us in the lead. 1-0, Arsenal.

Birmingham nearly struck back almost immediately, when former Arsenal player Seb Larsson put in a beautiful curling free kick that forced a finger-tip save from Flaps, who did very well to push it outside the far post. Not long after that, Nasri was battling Larsson for the ball pretty hard, and the ref awarded Birmingham a foul (didn’t look a foul to me, Nasri was just trying to get the ball), but it was a combatative enough encounter that Nasri and Larsson went chest to chest and Nasri put his finger in Larsson’s face, which further threatened to set things off.

Soon after that, Brum had another great opportunity when Beausejour got the ball unmarked in the corner of the box, but his shot was awful and harmlessly scuffed. Flaps picked it up and threw a very good ball out wide to Theo to start the counterattack, and the end result was van Persie getting the ball unmarked with his back to the goal right on the edge of the six-yard box. It should have been a great chance, but his first touch completely deserted him and Foster gratefully fell on the ball.

Just a few minutes later, the referee showed Ridgewell yellow for rugby-tackling Walcott. The free kick was from too far out to shoot directly, but van Persie’s ball onto the far post was very good, and had Djourou not stumbled in his run, he could have possibly gotten a head to it. A few minutes after that, Arsenal saw yellow, wrongfully, as Cameron Jerome ran into the back of Djourou and fell down. Djourou was simply holding his ground and did not initiate contact at all. It was the wrong call, but fortunately it wasn’t a last man/clear scoring opportunity because Koscielny was in position to cover had Jerome stayed up.

Then things got really interesting. Larsson’s free kick after the yellow was headed back across the box. van Persie went to head it clear, missed it, and the ball ricocheted off his elbow. Birmingham were justified in calling for a penalty, and we can feel that we got away with one a little bit there. Just a minute or so later, van Persie was put straight through on goal, was comfortably on the ball facing the goal, and it was as good a chance as you can ask for. van Persie looked like he may have thought he was offside (he wasn’t) and given up on the play, and just tamely scooped the ball into Foster’s arms. A good chance wasted.

But Brum quickly returned the favor the next minute or so, when off a set piece Roger Johnson had a one-time volley from around the six-yard box that he put over. All he had to do was keep it down and it would have been a tie game. As it was, it was a tense, back-and-forth, entertaining first-half which ended up 1-0.

First-Half Stats:

Possession: Arsenal 51% – Brum 49%
Shots (on Target): Arsenal 7(3) – Brum 3(1)
Corners: Arsenal 0 – Brum 1

No changes to either side at the half. And Arsenal came out and basically just took control of the match. A couple of minutes into the second half, Scott Dann saw yellow for a pretty blatant foul on Theo, who would have been by the Brum defense had he not. He could have no complaints about the call.

A couple of minutes after that, there was incident where Lee Bowyer blatantly stomped on Bacary Sagna’s leg after the ball was sent elsewhere. The referee, following the ball as he is supposed to, didn’t see it, so there was no foul or card, but if he had, it certainly would have been red, and it might be the kind of thing the FA wants to take a look at after the fact. Dirty play, and I lost a lot of respect for Bowyer for that (he also came in pretty late and clipped Sagna later in the match).

But at that point, Arsenal just grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and killed it off. First Theo sent a long cross across the box, Nasri sent it back into the box for Wilshere, who was unmarked in a very dangerous spot, and missed a birthday goal by sending it high. Then, just a minute after that, Nasri was put through on goal, did very well to get on the ball and fight off the defender, but his attempted toe poke was well-saved by Foster. Very good effort by Nasri, though, who would get his reward soon enough.

Just a few minutes later, in the 58th minute, there was some brilliant interplay between Cesc and Nasri and Nasri got the ball on the edge of the box. He took the ball towards Roger Johnson, who, on a yellow, played off Nasri. Big mistake. Nasri waited for Johnson to come onto him, and, when that didn’t happen, he dipped his shoulder just enough to get Johnson leaning the wrong way, and ripped an absolute cracker of a shot just inside the near post. It was a deceptively good goal — the composure, the feint, and the shot were all first-class. They say the great ones make it look easy, and that’s exactly what happened there. It looked like an easy goal, but it most certainly was not, and to do it right in the face of Johnson, who I consider one of the top center backs in the Premiership (though he obviously didn’t have his best game today), was excellent. 2-0, Arsenal.

Several minutes later, in the 65th minute, Arsenal produced another goal with some beautiful team play, again mainly through interplay between Nasri and Cesc, which resulted in Cesc being through on goal from a very bad angle. But for once, an Arsenal player who didn’t have the best of angles just ripped a shot anyway, which I always say I wish we would do more often instead of taking the ball back out of the box and resetting when we’re not able to walk it into the goal. And this is why — Cesc’s shot was saved by Foster, but it was so hard that it ricocheted past him, and Brum’s center backs, usually excellent, had a Bad News Bears moment, when Dann for some reason passed it too hard to Johnson, who reacted poorly as the ball ricocheted off his shin into the net. 3-0 Arsenal, and while it was an own goal, Arsenal do deserve some measure of credit for the interplay leading up to it and putting Brum under such pressure.

After that, the match got boring. In the best way possible. All too often we’ve seen Arsenal struggle to maintain a lead, but we looked exceedingly comfortable in this one. Theo took a good shot from pretty far out that was well-saved by Foster. Late sub Arshavin unleashed a cannon shot at the near post that Foster pushed out from a corner, and we generally controlled possession and kept control of the match.

The only thing even remotely resembling a scoring chance I can recall Brum mustering was very late on, off a set piece (of course), when a high, looping header from Zigic actually could have gone in, as it brushed the underside of the bar and bounced in front of the goal before dealt with by Clichy. And that was that. 3-0, Arsenal final.

Full-Time Stats:

Possession: Arsenal 50% – Birmingham 50%
Shots (on goal): Arsenal 19 (11) – Birmingham 6(1)
Corners: Arsenal 5 – Birmingham 4

A really good performance and result. After this, and the Chelsea match, I don’t see how anyone can really doubt that this is pretty much our strongest lineup and configuration. The four-headed attacking monster known as Theo van Nasregas around these parts seems to work together much better than any configuration containing Arshavin, Rosicky, Bendtner, or Chamakh. All four of those players contributed a lot today. I would like to see them all start again on Wednesday, which is why I was a bit surprised that Wenger left 3 out of the 4 in the game for 90 minutes, even though we were up 3 goals for the last half-hour of the match — it would have seemed to make a lot of sense to me to bring at least 2, if not 3, of them off for at least the last 20 minutes of the match so they could be fresh and ready to start against City.

So this leaves us just 2 points behind the Manchester teams — we have a game in hand on City, but United have a game in hand on us. We’re 3 points ahead of Tottenham, and 5 clear of Chelsea, although they, too have a game in hand on us. But we’re back in the thick of things, and while this doesn’t completely wipe out the disappointment of what happened at Wigan, I think if you had told us before Christmas that we would take 7 points from these 3 holiday matches, we would have taken it no questions asked. So there’s that.

Enjoy the weekend. Happy New Year. On to the ratings:

Flaps 7.5 Much better. Made a great save at full-stretch from Larsson’s free kick. And generally was very commanding in his area, coming out and punching several set pieces clear. Also is much improved at starting the counterattack, showing some great, quick distribution down the flanks. Probably should have been more cautious on Zigic’s late header — he would have looked really foolish if that ball had in fact gone in.

Sagna 7 Having to rate Sagna for these games every week is kind of like being a weatherman in San Diego. How many ways can you find to say “80 and Sunny?” That’s what this is like. He covered his area well, didn’t get caught out of position, tackled and headed well, and provided good support for the attack. Again.

Clichy 7 Very solid. Didn’t make any of his usual mistakes, and helped a lot going forward, getting to the end line several times to send balls in.

Djourou 7 Dealt very well with the physical threat of Jerome, and always looked solid defensively, particularly in the air. I think most of us thought of him as first-choice (at least until Vermaelen comes back) coming into this match, and he certainly didn’t do anything today to dissuade us of that belief. Really has had a remarkable season — he is playing as well as he ever have after taking several games to shake the rust off, and I’m not sure how many of us thought he could or should get back to this level.

Koscielny 6.5 Also very solid — did what was asked of him pretty well. Djourou and Koscielny seem to have struck up a good partnership. If I’m not mistaken, I think the only goals they have conceded were the one against Spurs in the Carling Cup and the one against Chelsea.

Song 6.5 While he didn’t quite reach the heights of his performance against Chelsea, he did his job effectively. A player like Song, when he’s doing his job, is never going to have as much to do against a team that hoofs it like Birmingham do, because the ball usually goes directly over his head, and he just doesn’t have nearly as many chances to break up attacks through the middle.

Wilshere 6.5 Worked hard, but probably should have done better with his one-time chance, and should have done better one time in the first half when he got the ball in the box but tamely turned it over to Birmingham. But generally worked hard, chased the ball, and supported the attack.

Cesc 8 Co-Man of the Match. The rudder of the Arsenal at the top of his game. Absolutely pulled the strings for the Arsenal attack the entire match. His interplay with Nasri was directly responsible for both the second and third goals, and he was an integral part of several other scoring chances as well. Let’s just hope he can stay healthy for a bit, because on his current form, he’s going to cause opposing teams a lot of problems.

Theo 6.5 Not at his best, certainly. But his pace is always a factor, and he did create several scoring chances. But even when he’s having a slightly off day, you can see how much distress he causes opposition defenses. Certainly think he did well enough to keep his starting spot, and hopefully his being taken off is a signal that Wenger aims to start him again.

Nasri 8 Co-Man of the Match. Every game he seems to cement his candidacy as the Premiership’s player of the season. Was involved in both the second and third goals, scoring the second brilliantly. Could have had another on a breakaway. And he doesn’t get enough credit for his work ethic — he tracks back and harries and chases after the ball as well as anyone on the team.

van Persie 6 He had a weird game. He almost certainly took a bad dive to win the free kick, which I hate. But then took the free kick well to score the goal (although he got a bit lucky). He should have conceded a penalty with a clumsy missed header. He missed several golden opportunities, and his finishing obviously hasn’t come back from his long lay-off yet. On the other hand, though, his skill and creativity are so effective in the way we play and the formation we play in, and his ability to quickly pass the ball off to either side adds so much to the attack that isn’t there if Bendtner or Chamakh are playing in the middle. So I generally thought he was poor, but what he did do right reminded me of why I think he’s clearly our first-choice striker going forward.

Arshavin 6.5 I thought he was pretty good. Created a couple of good scoring chances in his brief cameo, and run a lot more than he usually does. Maybe he’s best as an impact substitute, but I prefer to think that being benched has convinced him that he has to work a lot harder if he wants to be in the starting XI at Arsenal.

Denilson 6 Pretty anonymous.

**********

Don’t forget to follow the Arsenal Offside on Twitter for the latest news, links, and updates: www.twitter.com/arsenaloffside

Kanye West Tweet of the Day: Fur coats and shit

Some Related Stories:

Category: Arsenal News, Birmingham, Fixtures, Match Review, Premiership