There is a big battle for forth place going on in the Premier League between quality teams Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Newcastle. You would think that every team would fight tooth and nail every game to grab every point they possibly could. Today, this was not the case for Arsenal.
For the first twenty minutes it was a one way battle for the Gunners, they were pressing and trying to create a lot of chances up top. With Arteta in the midfield distributing, Oxlade-Chamerlain on the wing, and RVP as striker they looked quite dangerous. That intensity seemed to fade as Bolton's David N'Gog nearly converted some nice play into a goal. Arsenal given that lifeline began to ramp up the intensity with a very nice pass from the young Alex Oxlade to Walcott who had a clear breakaway, but failed to convert with his usual lack of finishing (and the guy thinks he can seriously play striker).
Frustration began to take hold for the North Londoners as no one wanted to try and make any attacking play. The game became a stalemate. The second half wasn't much different as until RvP, as usual, tried putting the team on his back but was unfortunately first denied by the post, then later denied by the cross bar on which would have been a beautiful chip shot.
Things did look brighter for the Gunners as Henry began warming up on the sidelines and eventually came in. The problem with this? Wenger in his infinite knowledge subbed Oxlade-Chamberlain off rather than Walcott. It seemed like deja-vu as Arsenal failed failed to score any goals. Arsenal now only taken 1 point from their last three away matches as they now drop to 7th place in the Premiership.
Cue the Oxlade-Chamberlain song!
D Bent scores his 100th Premier League goal
Not too far away from the Arsenal-Bolton fixture was the Aston Villa- QPR game at Villa Park. This match from a neutral standpoint was a ton of fun to watch. Lots of fast counter attacking play, everyone making runs, and everyone playing their heart out.
The match started strong as Djibril Cisse scored his first goal, on his first game, for QPR with a very well placed strike inside the eighteen to go back corner of the net just twelve minutes in. Things look even better for the Rangers as Aston Villa scored a very unfortunate own goal from Stephen Warnock. From the replay it looked like he waved off his fellow defender but completely miss judged the clearance with his head as he sent it into his own net.
However Villa wouldn't go away quietly. They quickly began turning things around and began attacking viciously, they really wanted some points. Right before the half Aston Villa marched down the field with some clever passing and Darren Bent slotted him his 100th Premier League goal.
Second half Villa still came out swinging, they certainly began putting on a show as they tried attack after attack out-shooting QPR 26 - 4 and out possessing them 70% - 30%. Even though Aston Villa kept attacking, after a half hour they just couldn't seem to get by the QPR defense, no thanks to the referees who failed to catch a very clear handball in the box. In the 79th minute Villa's luck changed as Petrov sent in a beautiful cross to Charles N'Zogbia who expertly finished off the volley.
With the score 2-2 Villa continued the intensity but in the end were unable to convert another goal and had to walk away with just 1 point today. Overall this was a very exciting fixture for both sides and you gotta credit Villa for never giving up even when they were down two with an unfortunate own goal.
Highlights from all of today's fixtures can be found here
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