Norwich 1-2 Arsenal: A Nervy Win That Signifies Progress

Grant Holt is fat. End of story.

Coming into this match, a lot of the regulars here were genuinely worried about how we would dispose of Norwich. All of the promoted clubs have done very well so far in the EPL, and Norwich have been arguably the best of the bunch. And the conditions for this match were less than convincing: We’re normally shaky after Interlulls, and we are absolutely abysmal on the road after Interlulls- a stat on the official site read that we’ve only won about 41% of our EPL away games right after Interlulls. Yikes. And the last time this season we had an away game after the international break, we lost in a horrendous fashion, 3-4, to Blackburn. Blackburn, people. Blackburn, people.

But, in a pattern that has is becoming commonplace this season, this Arsenal team defied the conventional wisdom and won. Shaky, yes, although I’ll put that down to bad finishing than anything else. Norwich have been an absolute fortress before today, with only Stoke and Blackburn coming away with anything from Carrow Road. But we came, we saw, and we van-conquered (the rotten tomatoes are at the back, folks.)

The first half was a perfect throwback of the Arsenal we’ve seen for the last few seasons- dominating, attacking play from the beginning, with plenty of chances spurned, only for the opposing side to get a dumb goal completely against the run of play. The second half saw us come from behind and take the lead, and put in a semi-solid display to see the game out with a precious 3 points.

The opening 15 minutes were chance after chance for Arsenal. 2-3 minutes in, a Gervinho pass found Walcott, who had his shot cleared for the corner. In the 5th minute, Andre Santos found van Persie with a great pass, but the captain’s shot rolled wide. Then, in 11th minute, Walcott would have put us ahead if it weren’t for an incredible goal-line clearance from Norwich Player. Walcott had the ball in the box, cut inside, and unleashed a leashed a good left shot that was acrobatically cleared. A let-off for Norwich, and you had the feeling that Arsenal were going to score soon.

And then, out of nowhere, Norwich scored. It seemed like their first attack of the match, really. In the 16th minute, a long ball over the top from Norwich, has Mertesacker covering it, with Vermaelen right next to him and SZCZ in front of him. Then, in a ludicrous sequence of events, Morrison has enough time to get right behind Mertesacker, effortlessly dispossess him, and force a 1 v 1 with SZCZ, which he settles into the bottom left corner. 0-1, a poor, poor goal to concede. Wenger was arguing with the linesman, claiming foul on Mertesacker, but to me it just seemed like bad defending from Mertesacker. And besides, the foul/not foul claim was shaky at best, and we’re away from home with Phil Dowd as our referee. Did we really expect any call to happen?

The game continued, with us as expected continuing to exert pressure on the game and create chances. van Persie missed a sitter right after the restart, where he had the ball about 5 yards out from goal, but he shot wide. Later, in the 22nd minute, van Persie had a looping header cleared off the line, although it wasn’t as spectacular as Walcott’s shot. We had our biggest chance yet two minutes later, when a superb pass met Gervinho, who was onside and already rushing ahead of the Norwich defenders. He was 1 v 1 with Ruddy, but his shot was well saved by the goalkeeper. Should have been 1-1, honestly.

But the 1-1 DID come. 27th minute, A neat play between Gervinho and van Persie had the Dutchman playing it wide to Walcott, who embarked on a run. He closed in on the byline and unleashed a great drilled cross that Gervinho missed completely but found van Persie , who tapped it into the net. It was no less than we deserved, and it was a great play from Walcott to create the goal. The game then slowed down a bit, as Norwich grew into the game and we exerted a little less pressure than we had in the opening stages of the match. Half time came, 1-1.

The second half thus started with both sides going for it. Norwich started the half with attacking intention, and to that extent they pushed us a bit farther than we expected. Still, though, we were creating chances, and had numerous attempts to go ahead. In the 50th minute, a rushing Vermaelen crossed the ball into the box, straight to Gervinho. As we would see a short time later, the Ivorian simply didn’t have his scoring boots today, as his header was soft and straight at Ruddy. Then about 5 minutes later, Gervinho had a shocking miss. A contender for Miss of the Season, in my opinion (although not that bad compared to Torres’ shit shot at Old Trafford). van Persie made a great pass to Gervinho, who again forced a 1 v 1 with Ruddy. This time, though, he rounded the keeper around the box, and just when he was about to pull the trigger, Ruddy got back to make a great save. Good from Ruddy, but that was just poor from Gervinho. When you round the keeper, you usually keep going to goal or simply blast it into the net. But Gervinho just… kinda sideshot it as he rounded Ruddy, pretty much straight into the keeper’s hands as he was diving back to save. Just…. ugh.

Still, we kept coming, and we had to get a goal sooner or later. And we did. 60th minute, Song gets the ball as we start an attack, with Gervinho to his left and van Persie to his right. Song made the right choice and played an exquisite pass to van Persie, who took it and chipped a sumptuous shot over Ruddy’s head, and into the near corner of the net. 2-1, from a simply brilliant finish from van Persie, for his 13th goal of the season and his 31st in all of 2011.

The rest of the game settled into a sequence of Arsenal attacking, but with Norwich always there to threaten. A 66th minute cross from Norwich’s right side fizzed across our goal, and to be honest a Norwich player should have been there to pop it home. At the other end, the likes of Arteta and Gervinho had their shots go wide or saved, as we kept trying to get a 3rd to end the game. As the 80th minute neared, you had the feeling we were going to pull out of this one successfully. But Norwich had different plans. They kept winning dangerous FK’s, and we were thankfully alert to clear any dangers. In the 88th minute though, Arsenal fans’ hearts almost stopped when Fat Diver Grant Holt got hold of the ball deep in our box, let Mertesacker win it from him, and simply barged into Mertesacker, falling down and demanding a penalty. A simply astounding dive from Holt. Good on Phil Dowd to not give anything and book Holt for his dive, and I have to say that from a luck perspective, that was a big let off from us. Not that we did anything wrong, Mertesacker cleanly won the ball from Holt, but we’ve seen this type of situation before in away games where the home side dives or otherwise plays unfairly, and is rewarded for it. I remember this happening in our farcical 4-4 draw with Newcastle last season, also refereed by… Phil Dowd. The times are a-changing.

Anyways, the rest of the game saw nothing happened, and full time came with a 2-1 win for the Arsenal. Should have been 4-1 or 5-1 had Gervinho cared to finish, but nonetheless a great result as we continue our revival.

Match Stats
Possession: Norwich 38%-62% Arsenal
Shots (on target): 7(4)-21(14)
Corners: 1-6 (teehee!)
Fouls: 11-9

On to the ratings:

Szczesny: 6.5 Didn’t have much to do today. He could have probably done better on Norwich’s goal, but I’ll put that down to ‘Sack’s mistake more than anything else. Showed just how crucial he is to this side by easily claiming Holt’s last grant FK, from 30 yards out.

Koscielny: 7 His first game at RB, I believe, and he was pretty good. He was only beaten once, in the second half, and did ok going up front, even though he wasn’t as energetic as Sagna and Jenkinson are. Not a bad option when we have injuries, but he’s so much better at CB. I think we may have to just risk Djourou, because Kos-TV5 really are a rock at the back for us.

Metesacker: 5.5 Whelp. A poor, poor mistake by him led to Norwich getting an undeserved goal in the first half, and seriously threatened our chances of winning this one. He had all the time in the world to clear it, or give it to TV5 or SZCZ, but instead he dallies on the ball and lets Morrison rob him and poke home. Aerially, he isn’t the greatest either. Not a bad defender, and certainly a much, much better option than the days of Disastre and Squizz, but Kos needs to come back to the center where he belongs.

Vermaelen: 7.5 Simply masterclass. Norwich couldn’t get anything past him and he did his best to drive the team forward from the back with his surging runs. He oozes confidence and reminds me a bit of Vidic and Puyol. We need to win something so everyone can finally recognize how awesome he is.

Andre Santos: 6.5 Seems to be improving, although to be fair Norwich weren’t seriously threatening from the flanks. Could have gotten an assist for van Persie in the opening stages, but our captain shot wide. Sadly from our perspective, no embarrassingly hilarious Twitter typos after this one.

Song: 6.5 Not one of his best performances, but good nonetheless. A bit sloppy in possession, particularly when he did his little pirouette/ball shielding combo. Nevertheless, a great assist to van Persie for the winning goal. His passing has improved tremendously this season.

Arteta: 6.5 Not as influential as in our previous games, but that’s ok. His positioning and pressure were, as always, excellent. There was a comment on Twitter than Arteta does basically what Flamini did in 07-08, but with a little more flair. I’m inclined to agree.

Ramsey: 7 Ever since he was put in the “Not-going-to-name-him-because-he-doesn’t-matter-to-us-anymore role”, our attack has really improved. Seemed to be everywhere, and provided a good option for Walcott and Gervinho’s surging runs. Almost scored early on in the second half.

Gervinho: 5 Was lively in attack, as always, but it’s obvious he still needs to improve on his finishing. His 1 v 1 against Ruddy in the 1st half was what you could say was a half-great save, half-bad miss- the shot was going to the far post, but it should have been much stronger. His miss early on in the second half, though, was inexcusable. Has grown since his mediocre start to the EPL, so let’s hope this one was just a one-off.

Walcott: 8.5 Co-Man of the Match I’m usually fairly critical of Walcott, but fair play to him, he took advantage of his surroundings today and gave a great performance. Norwich pushed up throughout the match, so Walcott was given acres of space to operate. His surging runs and accompanied crosses were excellent, and would have gotten more than one assist had our players finished better. Deserved a goal, and nearly got one at the end, but hit the post. Arguably his best performance of the season so far.

van Persie: 8.5 Co-Man of the Match What more can you say? We’re running out of superlatives to describe this guy. The effect and influence he has on this team are, at the moment, unmatched by any other player in the world- except perhaps Messi. 31 league goals throughout 2011. 6 more, and he breaks the all-time record for the most league goals in one calendar year.

Subs:

Benayoun: N/A Came on for Gervinho for the last 15 or so minutes. Kept up the passing.

Djourou: N/A Came on at the death for Walcott.

We ended up getting a win at a very, very tough away place today. Our 5th straight win in the EPL, and ever since our horror show at Ewood Park, we’ve won 10 out of our last 12 games. What crisis, English Tabloid Hack Pundit? We’re currently 6th with 22 points, level with Chelsea and Spurs, although Spurs have 2 games in hand. Tomorrow, Chelsea take on Liverpool, so we’re guaranteed to either keep the pressure on Chelsea in 4th, or distance ourselves from Liverpool in 7th. And Newcastle finally lost today, so perhaps the wheels are about to fall off the Tyneside Van. Things are looking good for Arsenal at the moment, and it’s incredibly important that the team keeps their heads together, realize there is still much more work to do, and go on the pitch in midweek and thrash Borussia Dortmund to win the CL group. Have a good Saturday!

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