Arsenal 2 Bolton Wanderers 2: Lack of sparkle but run continues

Gardner getting away with murder

What b*llocks, in every match I’ve seen them play the ref has allowed them to upend players, trample on players, kick players and tug shirts till the cows come home. The prime example today being Ricardo Gardner who gave the ref no less than three booking opportunities in the first half alone.

That said Bolton came and played quite well on a windy day at Highbury in a typical Bolton sort of way. Wanderers battled, plugged away, made life difficult, scrapped and stuck to their game plan of working their rocks off and relying on headed set plays. Arsenal played the majority of the football and always looked the better of the two teams in open play but set pieces were a different matter. It was always on the cards that if Bolton scored it would be from a set play and it was also odds on that if they scored it would involve a header.

Lehmann appeared in his third new goal-keeping kit of the season. Today’s was an all yellow number because the Wanderers wore sky blue tops. It took Gary Speed less than 15 seconds to commit the first foul on Henry as Arsenal attacked the Clock End. The second foul came from Okocha on Vieira after 70 seconds. And that’s the way it was, they didn’t let us break, they didn’t let us settle and they didn’t let us flow too often. And they didn’t care how they stopped us. A bitty start saw Bolton pressing us back into our own half but I was surprised how slow our build up play was initially, especially when we countered. We were happy it seems to play it around at the back.

A break on the left from Henry looked promising but he failed to set up Freddie and the move ended with Lauren well off target with a left-footed shot. Arsene was out of his seat quite early in the match and didn’t look overly happy. One seriously good chance came when Reyes put Henry away behind their defence but Henry was unable to slip it past Jaaskelainen who saved well, a good chance gone begging. Then again not even the best player in the world can be expected to do it with every single shot. Bolton countered with long throws from Jay-Jay. ‘Stand up for the Champions’. Bolton came close when Nolan let rip from long range but his shot was the wrong side on Lehmann’s upright from his point of view. When we did break we couldn’t find the killer ball, partly because we didn’t quite flow, but partly because we weren’t all together allowed to flow. This was our second tough battle of the week.

Kolo had a fine game again and Pascal made some telling cut outs but let Davies out muscle him in the air. Freddie was taken out on halfway by Gardner, in what looked like a promising break, but referee Dowd effectively authorised the professional foul on any future Arsenal breaks by failing to book the full back. It was a certain yellow for my money. Pires had a good run from the left side but ran it out of play for a goal kick. Lauren had a driving run and a decent cross that won a corner and a lot of applause. Reyes took the corner and Pires saw his shot blocked. A crap decision against Kolo on their keeper followed. Cole was tripped wide left on the edge of their box and although it was quite blatant Wanderers moaned. They moaned about every single decision, Davies backed into Pascal and moaned, Compo held shirts and moaned, Hunt climbed all over Henry and moaned. Speed mouthed off the entire match. Henry hit it in the free kick from a narrow angle but it was headed clear.

A keeper to keeper ball was not altogether untypical of the Bolton long punt, a bit like Wimbledon of old but with a better class of player. When the opener came it was Pat who won good ball in midfield, played a swift wall pass and put Henry on a run. Thierry stayed cool enough to plant it low into the corner with a sweet left foot. 1-0 and a deserved lead on the football played.

Okocha fouled Lauren and moaned. Diouf then farcically stumbled and won a free kick that had the normally passive West Lower baying for the refs blood, as sh*t decisions go this one was up there with the best. Once again Bolton failed to judge the tricky wind that came from the south when it wasn’t swirling. Their wind assisted ball in went straight out of play. A fine Freddie steal set up Rob who fired a dipping volley that failed to dip. Diouf was caught offside and they all moaned some more. Gardner slammed into the back of Freddie but there was still no yellow card, just a whole load more moaning.

Vieira challenges JJ Okocha

Henry slipped and Cygan was called to stop their break. Compo hit Jose in the back for a booking, but there had been far worse fouls. Compo then tried for a second yellow with some perpetual moaning. ‘Shut the feck up you fat arsed little Harpo impersonator’ was the advice he received from someone near me. Kolo was absolutely brilliant against Davies, power skill and class all at the same time. Our final first half chance came with a Vieira cross from the left that Henry headed quite well but Jaaskelainen was equal to it. One more flowing move before the break and we went in at half time with a narrow lead.

Although the sprinklers came on at half time by the end of the match it sprinkled from the heavens with some good old late summer drizzle that was blown into the stands.

Bolton opened with an Okocha shot that deflected off Rob for a corner.

Bolton are a pain in the arse side to play against, they harry, they battle and they keep it up for the whole game. Cygan did hit one fine pass, to Reyes, but that one was in the minority. Silva was another who couldn’t match his recent fine form. A good break by Arsenal who played more football in the second half but Freddie who was in space was not spotted. Henry and Reyes broke with some classy one-twos but Jose was called marginally offside. Diouf and Davies were replaced by Pedersen and the ever-popular Ferdinand who arrived to derisive jeers. Nolan was just wide after play had been waved on, then they moaned because they wanted the free-kick which would have been given for an accidental collision in any case.

Jay-Jay did Cole to win a corner and Arsenal pulled everyone back. Speed was seriously late on Pires before a Lauren charge on the right won us a corner. Reyes cut inside from the right and fired one into the side netting. Pires chopped Compo. Arsenal were pegged back for a bit and after some aerial clearances Pat conceded a corner. Okocha took it and Jaidi headed home with power. 1-1 and their airborne threat finally paid off.

Cole crossed too deep as the rain came down. Jay-Jay shot wide. ‘Come on Arsenal’ Reyes won a free kick which he took quickly with a great ball to Freddie wide right. Ljungberg took it on, beat his man and crossed hard and low towards Pires but the ball fell slightly behind the advancing Frenchman. Despite this Rob managed to wrap his foot around the ball sufficiently to trickle it into the net. 2-1 to Arsenal ‘Super Rob’ and Edu arrived to replace Gilberto. Speed late on Pat. Hunt was holding on to Henry as if his life depended on it, but it was not seen by Dowd. Bolton had a spell of corners and Arsenal had a spell of counter attacking play.

Bergkamp replaced Reyes. Two good and necessary blocks by Vieira. Dennis headed clear. Long throw followed long throw by Okocha, this was an ongoing ploy which has nothing to do with quality football, and everything to do with getting the ball in the box anyway they could. It was tedious but effective. Hierro replaced Compo in midfield as Arsenal went into a bout of passing them to death. Free kicks from the centre circle were pumped in at Lehmann. Ferdinand took down Cole for a yellow card. Shortly after Freddie was clear on the right and yet again Gardner took him out. At last he got his overdue and deserved yellow card, but Allardyce was going apeshit. ‘You fat Bar steward’ ‘Fat boy, fat boy what’s the score?’. How the hell he had the nerve to moan about that particular booking was beyond belief. Gardner was committed to fouling Freddie when he was still ten yards away. It had free kick and yellow card written all over it.

Henry - On the scoresheet yet again

Henry pressed and Bolton screwed up for a corner. Clichy replaced Pires and so by now two key players, Gilberto and Pires, who’d won a lot of headers were off the field. Dennis hit a cross that had Freddie diving to head home but it went wide, it looked a decent chance. The ref was then seemingly talked into giving Lauren a yellow by the ever moaning players in light-blue and the ever moaning Bolton bench. The free kick was wide left, the header was a flick on, the inevitable goal was a low shot from Pedersen that was well taken. 2-2 and to concede such a goal would have caused GG to pull the entire squad in for about 24 hours of defensive training on the Sunday. The goal celebration seemed to take a good ten minutes and was followed by a seriously slow meander back to their own half.

Time-wasting with five minutes to play was rampant. We had a handball appeal ignored and an off target Edu shot. Our best late chance came when Lauren found Dennis and a good cross saw their keeper grab it at Freddie’s feet. A pitiful two minutes of added time was not enough. The ongoing run had been extended but two points had been thrown away. Bolton deserved the draw for their attitude but they were no better than tedious in a hard fought match, we were not at our best but then again we can’t be brilliant every week despite what some fans seem to think.

Just to really piss everyone off the Piccadilly line wasn’t running either as we left the stadium.