Birmingham 0-3 Arsenal - and one very annoyed Lee Bowyer

As you may have been able to tell, my previous two posts were pre-set to publish over the weekend last Thursday as I was away for a fantastic new years weekend. I hope you enjoyed the finale of the festive season as well.

I took in the game and forgive me for saying this, I was slightly nervous and not at all confident we would grab the points – even when we went ahead we missed chance after chance to make it 2-0 with some faintly ridiculous finishing. And I mean that in a bad way.

Within the first few minutes we saw Roger Johnson pull off the type of tackle he condemned so much back at the Emirates when Jack Wilshere flew into Nikola Zigic, as I said at the time that tackle was a red card and on another day Roger Johnson would have seen red too, however the referee was satisfied with handing out just a yellow card and overall, I thought Peter Walton did a pretty good job.

There were a couple of mishaps, both possibly involving Robin van Persie… the first he fell over, albeit over-dramatically and it really isn’t the type of thing I like to see our players go. The old song “Same old Arsenal always cheating” rang around St.Andrews and its events like that that will never make that song go away. The contact was not enough to knock van Persie over and he was very lucky to open the scoring with the resulting free-kick, and just as lucky not to be adjudged to have handled the ball in his own penalty area later on in the game. As you may be able to tell, I wasn’t best pleased with the guy’s performance. Love him and his attitude most of the time, however, he really does get away with murder.

We really defended well I thought, during the last few games we have played Koscielny and Djourou we are far less susceptible to the long ball over the top and they look to be forming an extremely promising partnership at a time we really need one. I just wonder if it will ward Wenger of bringing in another defender. I think it might. However, our set-piece vulnerability remains.

The game was put beyond doubt when Samir Nasri produced a majestic finish from outside the area, it looked so simple in its execution but it takes a hell of a lot of skill to do that, its like he has that ball on a string sometimes and can just send it wherever he damn well pleases. I wish I could play like he does. A truly wonderful player to watch.

Samir also had a massive part to play in the third, it looked like his Porto goal all over again, however the ball someway made its way into the Birmingham goal via a deflection off a defender, don’t know who, nor care!

Birmingham however, seemed to be a little bit angry for the entire duration of the game, the spiky Samir Nasri got involved in one confrontation and a collection of quite reckless tackles left Cesc, Wilshere and Sagna flailing. The first two tackles were far from necessary and Roger Johnson dived in two footed on Cesc who was lucky to get away with his leg being in one piece – Lee Bowyer however, will steal the show for a show of moronic thuggery.

In a separate incident the thug also took it upon himself to stamp on Sagna’s achillies, as if stamping on his thigh wasn’t enough. Liam Ridgewell also studded Theo Walcott in the small of his back and he would do wisely to take Sagna’s lead – get up and get on with it – it is a far stronger show of strength to see a player do that. Bowyer was subbed after his days destruction was done. There is talk of a six match ban.

Arsenal easily bullied? heh. Not these days.

Back to my earlier point about Robin van Persie getting away with murder: He was clean through on goal, he could have blasted the ball into the roof of the net or curled it around the ‘keeper, however, he decided to chip him. The ball was taken easily by Ben Foster.

The game was teetering on an edge, Arsenal were only one goal up yet one of their more experienced players decided to try something flashy. It is that type of stuff that is just completely unnecessary. If that had been Arshavin who fluffed that attempted chip at 1-0 there would have been a riot, as it is, van Persie gets away with it relatively scot-free. There is the argument that he scored the first (a fluke), however, isn’t that the same rod they use to smash Arshavin over the head? Its double standards in my book and those that claim van Persie is still feeling his way back from injury need awakening – its been two months since he was declared free from injury. He has simply not been physically fit enough (his fault). Like I said, I love his attitude towards the club and think he can produce moments of magical skill, but, I really don’t like the love he gets compared to some of the bile directed at Arshavin.

We have to face Man City in a couple of days and that is now our biggest game of the season so far, they are ahead of us having played more games but are starting to gel and looking like a very strong unit. City are big contenders and the day they win the league, which they will at some point I am sure, it will be a very sad day.

Til tomorrow.