The Verminator on TV, Newcastle dead and burried « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
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By Walter Broeckx
Well sometimes playing good football isn’t enough to win a game. First of all you just got to take the chances when they come. And if you don’t take them you can drop points.
The game against Newcastle was heading for a one of those games feelings. Lots of chances to win the game. But no real end product. A very big effort of the whole team but with not much to show for it at the end of normal time. But when the going gets tough, the tough get going and that is what some of our players did. But first let us begin with the begin.
Newcastle with only one real striker in their team was out to stop us play our normal game. They came for a point and who knows a lucky goal left or right and nick the 3 points away from us. And after 14 minutes they suddenly found themselves 0-1 up. A little bit of wasteful ball play from Arsenal and Vermaelen his pass went straight at a Newcastle player. The ball went out to Ben Arfa who was given too much time by Gibbs and he buried the ball at the near post. Szczesny seemed to touch it slightly but could not stop it. A goal that was avoidable from both defence and keeper it seemed.
For the 4th time in a row Arsenal was behind in the game. Could they come back this time? Of course we can and Newcastle had hardly stopped celebrating of who other than Captain Van Persie to level the score. A nice move on the right hand side gave some space to Walcott. Theo gave a low cross to Van Persie who turned past his man with a lovely control and move and buried the ball past Krul. Justice being done at that time.
What then followed was a master class in time wasting from the Newcastle goalkeeper. It got on the nerves of Robin Van Persie who on a few occasions told his compatriot what he thought about his time wasting. But Krul continued to do what he did and to my surprise even Webb decided it was a bit too much and he signalled to Van Persie he would add time for this. 2 minutes in the first half which I thought was fair. Apart from the time wasting it was also chances wasting. Not too many chances in that first half but we could have gone in front but it was all level at the interval.
The second half was a one way game. Newcastle played to get the point and doubled their effort in defending. Arsenal got chances to win the game. And this is from the back of my head I remember chances for Van Persie, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Vermaelen, Walcott, Gervinho and maybe the biggest chance of them all for Rosicky who just messed up his shot completely when standing in free in front of goal. That would have been a way to celebrate the new contract Tomas.
There was always a body, a leg, a head or a goalkeeper in the way for Arsenal. Krul wasting time as never before and I really was curious to see if Webb would do anything about it. He could give a yellow card at some stage or warn him to stop it. Maybe he did those things but they weren’t visible on TV. What was visible on my TV was that at the end of the 90 minutes the 4th official showed that there would be another 5 minutes to play. A fair assessment of the time wasting Krul and Newcastle.
But in the first 2 or 3 minutes Arsenal looked dead. Newcastle seemed to be in control and was holding the ball up in play and trying to get the draw back home. And then came the magic moment on my TV.
If you ever get the chance to review the goal you must look at the start when we gained possession. And try to find where Vermaelen was. I think you will not even see him in the picture or very much to the right (depending on how wide your TV is)
When Song played the ball to Walcott you will see on your TV that TV was in our own half some 20 meters behind the ball. And then suddenly he started racing and racing and racing and when Theo crossed the ball and it felt lose at the second post Vermaelen came racing and shot the ball past the Newcastle time keeper Krul. It was an amazing effort from the centre back to do this after some 94 minutes play.
Krul was so disappointed he had a go at Van Persie. Van Persie might have said something to Krul about his time wasting and so the atmosphere between the two Dutchman was a bit tensed. I don’t like that behaviour that much to be honest and the result was two yellow cards and I think those are the most stupid cards to get. And it gave the chance to Webb to add some 3 minutes extra after the 5 minutes. But Newcastle didn’t look as if they could create anything and so Webb decided to call it a day. But I can understand Van Persie as he is also a lover of the beautiful game and doesn’t like the negative football and time wasting at all.
A win of 11 man on the pitch wanting to win. A win that should have been sealed long before that. But in a way this was the best way to punish a time wasting keeper and team. There was no chance (apart from the extra minutes Webb gave them) to come back after that.
5 wins in a row. 4 times in a row coming back from behind to win the game. It is saying something about the character and the mental strength of this team. We are never beaten till it’s over. They fight till the last minute and beyond that last minute.
Theo got a great game and was dangerous the whole game long. Newcastle had to use two players in an attempt to stop him but with two assists (in my books anyway) he was very influential. Rosicky could have gotten the man of the match award if he had buried that golden opportunity that he got.
And as a board member of the Arsenal Benelux supporters club I can tell you that this was an Arsenal Benelux victory. Van Persie from the Netherlands part of the club and Vermaelen from the Belgium part of the club. So well yes, I do admit that I also was proud of our own guys from over here who did the job on the day. Maybe they will be the most talked about but this was all about the whole team refusing to accept not winning a game. So thank you my Gunners for keeping us right on track. Oh and when you go with the underground in the coming days: don’t mind the gap.
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