The Brief Report
We grabbed 3 points today, albeit against a pretty lacklustre Reading at the palace Emiratia (The Emirates) this evening.
The First Half
Reading however showed some bite in the early minutes with Robson-Kanu winning an early corner but with Mariappa’s header drifting it wide. In the 5th minutes Giroud nearly put us ahead as he tried to flick on a subtle cross from Ramsey; it however went straight into S.Taylor’s hands.
In the 7th minute, David Rocastle’s image was shown on the big screen and you guys did me proud with your applause for the great player. And Mr forehead scored in the 11th minute. Gervinho tucked in a left-footed shot from Carzola which slithered across the goal.
The 15th minute saw Sagna give a brilliant cross which Gerv headed wide; two minutes later, Giroud was brought down in the penalty box by Staurt Taylor who sped out of his goal, we were refused a penalty.
*Thinking… we need to give these referees ice-lollies if that’ll make them do their jobs right*
Gervinho missed a couple of chances, lacking confidence in front of goal and kicking the ball wide. Ramsey nearly doubled our lead but Stuart blocked it for a corner.
We pressed Reading at every opportunity so that they were forced to defend deep, throwing bodies behind the ball and leaving Pogrebnyak ‘lonely with nobody to call his own’ up front.
Interesting to say that Gerv looked quick and dangerous in his runs forward. He was a thorn in the side of Reading’s defence, only, only, and I repeat, only his finishing left a lot to be desired.
Reading were lucky to leave the pitch at half-time with the score at 1-0.
The Match Moments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlsMI3MtbpM
The Second Half
The 2nd half was more eventful.
Carzola scored in the 48th minute with a sublime shot from a laid off pass via Gervinho’s assist. 2-0 (GIF). Reading looked flustered, who wouldn’t? Again Gervinho and Merte missed an opportunity to make it 3-0 from a Carzola pass.
However, Pogrebnyak evaded the offside trap in the 59th minutes and it looked like a certain goal but for Koscielny’s well-timed tackle.
The 67th minute saw Gervinho make a break from a corner and lay on an assist to Giroud who smashed it low into the Reading net. 3-0 (GIF)
Robson-Kanu pulled one back for Reading with a diving header after taking advantage of a cross. Nacho picked up an injury trying to stop Robson-Kanu diving for the header.
As you all know, Wenger loves the 75th minute (maybe he’s hinting that that would be his retirement age). Wenger brought on The Ox for Gervinho and Poldi for Giroud.
And so we got tripped again within the penalty box in the person of The Ox and this time (after gifting the referee 3 ice lollies) we got the penalty. Artets calmly put it in; 4-1. Job done. 3 points
POST MATCH COMMENTS
Arsene Wenger:
“We played with good collective spirit, technical quality and went always forward. We created many chances, that’s the most pleasant thing. We were quite serious. We defended well, had good discipline and didn’t become easy when the game became easy.” bbc.co.uk
[wp_graphic id=”ipad” type=”video” align=”centre” autoplay=”no”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjN3Pugipys&feature=g-all-u[/wp_graphic]
Reading Manager Nigel Adkins:
“I thought Arsenal were very good, they’ve come here and passed the ball very well. Unfortunately, we’ve made our own downfall on a couple of goals. We wanted to adapt a couple of changes, but any team who came here would have found it difficult today.”
“We’ll learn the lessons. We’ve only had a few days together as a group. We’ll have a full week of training now. We’ll analyse the game, there’s a lot we want to change but we can’t do it all in one game.” bbc.co.uk
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