EPL News: Arsenal Strong Against Bolton Wanderers with 4-1 victory Analysis
With Manchester United slipping against Everton, at Goodison Park, Arsenal had a chance to take a lead in the Premiership table. Wenger and his boys faced Bolton Wanderers at Emirates Stadium. The match would have been easy for Wenger, but he was facing a lot of injury problems with his players, which meant that he had only little options in Arsenal’s attack.
Nicholas Bendtner was already facing a few weeks off due to an injury, but Wenger strengthened his team’s attack during the summer by buying Marouane Chamakh. However, during the recent international break Wenger had two back to back set-backs, which proved dreadful for Arsenal in coming weeks. First, Robin Van Persie got himself injured, and after that Theo Walcott was pulled away on a stretcher, in opening minutes of England’s match against Switzerland. Walcott was a key injury for Wenger, as the young forward was Arsenal’s top scorer in the season.
However, undeterred by the injury woes, Arsenal’s young lads played an amazing game of football against Bolton Wanderers. Two of the new signings by Wenger, i.e. Laurent Koscielny and Marouane Chamakh, found the net, while Alex Song and Carlos Vela added two more goals, to give Arsenal a comfortable 4-1 victory over Bolton.
The match took place after a series of comments made by Arsene Wenger during last week, warning referees of the ‘rugby tactics’ used by more physical teams like Bolton. The match was refereed by Stuart Attwell, who drew controversy as well at the end of match. It started well for Arsenal, as they found plenty of opportunities to go ahead in the match. In the opening minutes, some clear chances were missed and an effort by Andrei Arshavin was superbly saved by Adam Bogdon, Bolton’s goal-keeper.
Arsene Wenger played Jack Wilshere in place of his injured players and the youngster proved him right as he was crucial in Arsenal’s opening goal. It was his cross that found Cesc Fabregas, who placed the ball for Koscielny to score the first goal for Arsenal. Arsenal kept on attacking for the rest of the half, but an error at the back, by Koscielny, gave an opening to Bolton. The cross was headed in by Johan Elmander to score the equalizer for his team.
Second half started slow for both teams, as they started to play defensively in order to avoid another goal. However, Arsenal had a few chances involving their captain Cesc Fabregas, Arshavin and Chamakh. But, the Gunners fans had to wait till 58th minute, when a cross by Fabregas was headed in by Chamakh, to give Arsenal a lead for a second time in the match.
After that goal, Gunners were assisted by a foul on Chamakh, made by Gary Cahill. The Bolton’s defender was shown a red card because of his rash challenge, while his team was made to play with ten men for the rest of the match. Arsenal’s youngsters exploited this weakness as Alex Song scored from a tight angle to give a two goal lead to Arsenal. In the 83rd minute, substitute Carlos Vela scored the fourth goals for Arsenal and put the game outside the reach of Bolton.
The red card shown to Gary Cahill became controversial, as Bolton’s manager Owen Coyle criticized the refree after the match. Arsenal’s defender, Kieran Gibbs fouled before that challenge, but referee did not notice it. Therefore, in the build-up Cahill fouled in frustration and was immediately sent off.
On the other hand, Arsene Wenger was quite happy with the performance of his young squad. Wenger did not have the happy memories of Bolton from his last fixture, but this time his side scored a relatively easy victory. However, despite the red card shown to Cahill, Wenger was critical of the referee, as he said that there could be more than one red card, and his team was denied a penalty as well. Nevertheless, Arsenal is sitting in second place behind Chelsea. Still, they have already played against Liverpool at Anfield, which holds them in a more comfortable position than Chelsea right now.
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