Football Update: Arsenal Wins at St Andrew’s Stadium
Alex McLeish’s side, Birmingham City hosted Arsenal at St Andrew’s Stadium for their first match of the New Year. In their last match, Birmingham stunned Manchester United by drawing the match after a late equaliser. However, the pressure had mounted on
the side because they were pushed into the relegation zone before the kickoff in their match.
The Gunners continued their good away form by winning this game against City. The hosts could not put the pressure that they had exerted against Manchester United and lost the match by 3-0. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Samir-Nasri-c32360
added the second goal for his team. Soon, an own goal was scored by Birmingham which completed their demolition at the hands of the Gunners.
Arsene Wenger made a grave mistake, last time around, by giving rest to most of his first team players. This time, all those players were called back as Persie, Nasri, Fabregas and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Theo-Walcott-c34873 were all present in the attack of their team. In the defence,
Sebastien Squillaci was put on the bench, as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 and it was obvious that Birmingham would have a tough outing on the second day of New Year.
Arsenal started dominating the match from the very first whistle. Cesc Fabregas has found his rhythm once again and he brilliantly controlled the midfield. Nasri and Persie made some incredible runs but they were having a rough time in finishing. Also, Birmingham’s
goalkeeper, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ben-Foster-c7445, made a couple of good saves to deny Arsenal their opening goal.
The first goal came in the 13th minute, from a free-kick that was awarded when Van Persie was brought down, just outside the box, by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lee-Bowyer-c21864 before going into the goal. Birmingham
had a chance to equalise after a few moments, but http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lukasz-Fabianski-c22910 saved the day by making a diving save from Sebastian Larsson’s free-kick.
There were other chances for Arsenal in the first half to double their lead. Samir Nasri played a great back pass to Van Persie, but the Dutchman could not do well to control the ball. Again, Cesc Fabregas played a through ball to Walcott, but the English
forward was let down by a poor first touch. Van Persie also had a one-on-one with Ben Foster but he failed again to make a good contact, while trying to chip over the keeper’s head.
In the second half, Birmingham came out with more energy but they were unable to find an opening. Arsenal also had some more chances but Theo Walcott and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jack-Wilshere-c17463 were the ones who failed to hit the target on two different occasions. Nasri was also
denied by Foster but he could not do much when the second goal was scored. The Frenchman had a good exchange of passes with Fabregas, before he put the ball into Birmingham’s goal.
After just eight minutes of second goal, Arsenal made it 3-0 after an own goal. Nasri played the ball to Fabregas whose shot was blocked by Foster. However, the resulting loose ball bounced from Dann and went into his own goal. Arsenal did not stop after
this and some good goalkeeping by Foster saved his team further humiliation. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Andrei-Arshavin-c5771 came as a substitute and was about to score but was unable to beat the keeper. In the end, the score line stayed 3-0 and it were three easy points for the Gunners.
With this victory, the Gunners have kept the pressure on the two Manchester sides who are sitting on the top. Birmingham has moved into the bottom three and are looking to go down if they fail to get results in the future.
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