Dortmund See Double Dutch

Arsenal faced German champions Borussia Dortmund this evening at the Emirates with the chance to secure passage through to the knockout stages of the Champions League; all we needed was a win. Unfortunately I worked late tonight and ended up missing the entire first half. Luckily it didn't matter one bit as I got home just in time to see van Persie head us into the lead and then score again just before the end to wrap up the win, 2-1 to the Arsenal (Dortmund got a late consolation thanks to some sloppy defending).

I'd only been watching for less than 5 minutes when the first goal was scored. Man of the match and fan favourite Alex Song picked the ball up near the half way line and went on a scintillating run, teasing and twisting the Dortmund defenders inside out. After skilfully making his way past his last opponents, Song chipped a delightful ball into the box where the prolific Robin van Persie was waiting to dispatch a powerful header down low into the ground. The ball was headed with such force and so low to the ground that the Dortmund goalie couldn't keep it out despite his best efforts: 1-0 the Arsenal and it gave the entire team the boost they needed. Momentum favoured the Gunners then and we looked more and more dangerous as Dortmund were forced to push harder and harder for an equaliser. The game was still in the balance until, with only 5 minutes left, Arteta's corner wasn't dealt with by the Dortmund defence and van Persie was perfectly positioned to sweep home his and Arsenal's second goal of the game. Game over (well, let's forget about that crap Dortmund consolation) and three points in the bag. Group winners and progress to the knockout stages ensured, exactly what we needed.

With tonight's win Arsenal are the first English team to make it through to the next round of the Champions League, with a game to spare as well. With the other English clubs struggling this year, (Chelsea lost tonight to Bayer Leverkusen, Man City fell to Napoli and United limped through to a draw with Benfica) it only makes tonight's achievement even more impressive. After our well-documented struggles early on in the season, Arsene and van Persie have really righted what once looked like a sinking ship. Our progress in Europe is just another part of this mini resurrection we're currently enjoying. The squad are certainly firing on all cylinders, especially our Dutch captain, and with the form in the team are in right now, we look unbeatable. Here's hoping the good times keep coming, all the way to the end of the season!

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Cleaning Out The Canaries

Real football resumed at Carrow Road this afternoon after another predictably boring international break; Arsenal didn't lose a step since their last game at home to West Brom way back on the 5th November, coming out on top against Norwich with a 2-1 win and yet another brace from our irrepressible captain. Van Persie added to his tally of 2011 Premier League goals and is up to 31 now, joining the elite company of Thierry Henry and Alan Shearer as the only players to score 30 or more in a calendar year. The guy is untouchable at the moment and is easily the most in-form and deadly striker in world football, certainly the Premier League. It's not just our star man on form but the team are responding as well. Today's victory chalks up another win and 3 more crucial points in what's turning out to be one of the closest races for 4th place in league history. I'd obviously like us to push for higher than 4th but the way the season is going and how good the top teams are playing, 4th place will probably be quite an accomplishment come the end of the campaign. 

Anyway, one step at a time and all that, but obviously every win helps and team morale probably hasn't been higher this year. Here's hoping we ride this momentum into Wednesday's game against Borussia Dortmund; beat them and we secure our place in the knockout rounds of the Champions League, the highest priority right now. Wenger ought to name a full strength team and I'll be very disappointed if he doesn't. Only time will tell...

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Gunners Keep On Rolling

Arsenal's comprehensive 3-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion on Saturday makes it four consecutive Premier League wins on the trot. The boys from N5 are really on a roll at the moment, banishing the early season memories. After that horrible start we've really turned things around and the whole squad are on top form right now, especially the man up front leading the attack, captain Robin van Persie. The flying Dutchman scored one goal and created two more this weekend - everything is clicking for the guy and the squad feed off this. Van Persie is having the season of his life and his goals are up to double digit numbers already. Naturally this is incredible news but every Arsenal fan out there, though enjoying our recent success, is also petrified of van Persie picking up an injury because be honest, who else have we got? Chamakh, as much as I want the guy to do well at the club, just looks lost out there every time he takes the field. Park Chu-Young? After a well taken goal against Bolton in the Carling Cup he stumbled around against Marseille in the Champions League, looking extremely rough and not quite ready for the big stage. Both players need match time to build confidence, but neither look close to filling van Persie's enormous shoes should the unimaginable happen and he get hurt. Past experience shows he will eventually - let's just hope he can stay healthy for all the important moments because we need him desperately. 

But lets not dwell on the future we have no control over and can't possibly foresee. Instead let's celebrate the comeback of Thomas Vermaelen, certainly one of our best players and don't we just look a lot better with him back in the side? With the Verminator running the show in defence alongside the excellent Koscielny and the physically imposing Mertesacker, our defence are starting to tighten up and the entire team look more confident. Vermaelen is of course a huge factor in our recent run of wins and his performance on Saturday was typical of the effect he can have. Solid at the back and ridiculously dangerous in attack you can't not love the guy. We really missed his leadership last year and especially his beautifully taken goals; he really does strike the ball like a centre forward and his goal against West Brom was a perfect example. Every Arsenal fan must pray that both he and van Persie can put their history of injury woes behind them and continue their fine form for a long, long time. If we can keep our best guys fit, which we haven't managed to do in years, then this team has the ability to win things. I still feel we lack depth to challenge for the title but an F.A Cup or a Carling Cup is never out of reach and if everything slotted into place perfectly then maybe even the Champions League (I'll keep dreaming about that one...).

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Speechless

On this historic day, I will let the pictures tell the story. By now you already know what happened and if you don't know, you will soon see. What a magnificent game. Enjoy it Arsenal fans, this one will live long in the memory.

All photos belong to Zimbio and their respective photographers. Probably the best site to get sports photos, always use them, they're great.

Rambo To The Rescue

Arsenal left it late last night to record a win in Marseille, an Aaron Ramsey goal in the 92nd minute making the difference and taking the Gunners to the top of Group F in the Champions League. With time almost up I was content with a 0-0 draw; a clean sheet and a point away from home would have been a good result, especially against the team who currently sat top of the group. However our Welsh midfielder Mr Ramsey didn't want to settle for a draw and so he popped up unmarked on the edge of the box and delivered Arsenal all 3 crucial points and well-deserved victory in the south of France.

To be honest there's not a great deal to write about. We were never seriously troubled in defence all game. There was the odd panic moment but Szczesny didn't have any miracle saves to make all evening. Altogether we looked unusually steady and secure at the back, a sentence I didn't expect to utter after Marseille had beaten Dortmund so convincingly only a couple of weeks ago. Going forward we lacked that cutting edge, Walcott squandering our best chance in the second half, firing an off-balance shot which Marseille keeper Mandanda parried away with his outstretched leg. It really did seem like Marseille's clean sheet would remain intact. But Arsenal wouldn't relent. Djourou swung a hopeful cross into the box from the right which fell to Gervinho who couldn't quite get control of the ball; intentionally or not the Ivory Coast winger knocked the ball out to Ramsey who had cut in from the left and was completely free and unmarked. The Welshman calmly controlled the ball, switched it onto his right foot and rifled a shot past Mandanda and into the corner of the net. 1-0 to the Arsenal and game over, gotta love those last minute winners! The win puts us top of the group and in a very good position to progress to the knockout stages; just have to keep grinding out results like this one. 

Altogether a satisfactory night. Not a classic by any means but an away win in the Champions League is still a fantastic result.

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The Verminator Commits

Thomas Vermaelen, our quality but often injury-ravaged defender, has committed his immediate future to the club it was announced today. It's believed that the Belgian centreback has put pen to paper on a deal that will see him remain at Arsenal until 2015. Good news for the club and a boost to hear that our best defender on the team has reiterated his commitment to the club with the signing of this contract. In this age of football the length of these modern contracts are meaningless, as has often been proven over the past two decades. If a player wants out, he merely has to say so and then can proceed to pursue a move to a new club, regardless of how long term his previous contract was. Nonetheless this is still excellent news and its good to know Vermaelen has his head in the right place. Now all we need is for him to shake off this injury curse and have a prolonged spell in the starting eleven, because our defence plays like an under 11's side when he's out of action.

Can't wait to see him back on the pitch. Thanks for reading.

Can't Live Without The Captain

What would we do without our captain? This afternoon Robin van Persie put this Arsenal team on his back and carried them to victory single-handedly, scoring both goals in a crucial 2-1 win against Sunderland. It was essential Arsenal walked away with all 3 points today at the Emirates; any other result against this lacklustre Sunderland squad would have been disastrous. The Black Cats are really struggling this season and lack any significant firepower up front so anything but a win would have sent the Arsenal faithful home shaking their heads and muttering curses once again.

In the programme before kickoff van Persie put an end to the speculation concerning his future at the club: 'I am committed to Arsenal, and that's how it is, despite people (in the media) making up stories.' It's wonderful to hear those words from my favourite player but I haven't been losing any sleep about the prospect of him joining Manchester City in the near-future. Stories like this are 99% gossip most of the time and we'll cross that bridge when we come to it anyway. I have no worries that Robin will leave us and I expect him to sign another contract. You can read more about his pre-game programme notes here.

It didn't take the Dutchman long to back up his words: 29 seconds to be precise, the fastest goal of the Premier League season and what I believe ties the record for fastest goal in Premier League history. Van Persie let a sharp pass from Gervinho roll across him until he got it onto his right foot before unleashing an unstoppable drive into the bottom corner leaving Sunderland 'keeper Mignolet helpless. 1-0 to the Arsenal and just the start we needed. Ten minutes later and the captain nearly doubled the lead, and in the most spectacular way imaginable. On the edge of the penalty area, van Persie received the ball onto his left foot with his back to goal, before suddenly spinning away from Kieran Richardson and audaciously chipping the ball over Mignolet with his right foot. The ball hung in the air for an age before it hit the inside of the post and crawled away from goal to save Sunderland's blushes and preventing what would have been an absolute classic of a goal. The move to free himself from Richardson was incredible, Bergkamp-esque in every way, and if the ball had just drifted slightly to the right it would have been one of the best goals in Arsenal's history. Watch it here, mesmerising stuff...

Unfortunately the Gunners couldn't grab that important second goal and whadda you know, Sunderland go down the other end and score. Former Arsenal man and current darling of Swedish football Sebastian Larsson curled in a delicious free kick that instantly made me regret us ever getting rid of him. It really was a peach of a goal and credit must go to Mr Larsson because he didn't celebrate the goal; you could see he really made a point of showing respect to his former club. If I'd have been in his situation I'd have gone absolutely mental with joy at having scored such a brilliant free kick. Within five minutes of going level Sunderland nearly took the lead, but for a marvellous save from Szczesny, saving what should have been a certain goal, point blank stuff. The young Pole kept us in it for sure.

With Arsenal being typically wasteful and consistently suspect in defence, the game had Sunderland stealing a late winner written all over it. Yet it wasn't to be and it was the home side who were destined to grab the late lead, Arsenal scoring the winner with only minutes left. With roughly eight minutes left and the score level, van Persie had a free kick from just outside the box. He proceeded to produce a trademark beauty, curling his left peg around the ball which whipped over and around the wall and into the top corner. Cue celebrations and huge sighs of relief all around, Arsenal had finally taken the lead to make it 2-1 and it was all down to that man again, captain van Persie.

Overall a much needed 3 points and a morale lifting victory. Van Persie has been on fire this season and if he can just stay healthy this Arsenal squad will be so much better for it. Without him we are sitting ducks, dead in the water, and our hopes of playing European football next year go out the window. God forbid anything happen to our star striker and my favourite Gunner. I will literally cry...

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