When I wrote "Putting the Hurt On" yesterday afternoon, I couldn't have imagined that William Gallas would take the title so much to heart and that his tackle on Mark Davies would be the single, solitary reason that Arsenal are sitting top of the Premiership pile this evening. Not another vital goal from Tomas Rosicky who followed up last week's late Everton equaliser with the goal kick started Arsenal's fightback yesterday evening and it was certainly nothing to do with another inspirational performance from our Fab captain. That is, if you believe you read everything you read in the paper.
Have a look at this, from The Mirror's Darren Lewis, I can almost feel the tears that must have soaked into his laptop as he wrote it. He says: "Shame on Alan Wiley for allowing himself to be bullied into ignoring an injured Bolton player so that Arsenal could equalise last night.
"Shame on Wiley for helping to perpetuate the widely held belief that the big clubs get the decisions while the smaller ones can go and get stuffed.
"Shame on the Arsenal fans who cheered when that injured player, Mark Davies, had to be carried off on a stretcher.
"Don't stop play while he lies there in agony. Don't give him any attention ref, don't you knows there's a match to win? For the record, TV replays showed William Gallas had trod on Davies' ankle and that play should have been stopped immediately."
There's just so much wrong with this it's untrue. Point by point, then.
Where and who were the Arsenal players bullying Alan Wiley to continue play when Davies went down? It was a bad tackle, true, but the ref didn't see it that way and waved play on. End of.
Big clubs getting decisions? The same big club that has had three nailed on penalties turned down in 180 minutes against that same small club that Lewis says can go "get stuffed"? That big club, Darren?
Whilst I would never condone Arsenal fans, or any fans for that matter, cheering an injured player off, the simple fact is Arsenal fans are fully aware we support a club where one of our players could be hacksawed in half and the opposition fans would still serenade his entrails falling out of his stomach as he lies dead on the floor, with "Same old Arsenal, always cheating!". So, er, draw your own conclusions. I hope he's not badly hurt though, really.
Darren fails to spot the obvious flaw in his argument in that final paragraph. He's right, tv replays did indeed show the Gallas challenge was a poor one - so poor that Arsène, having initially played it down, was moved to apologise like so many managers would have I'm sure - but Alan Wiley doesn't get a TV replay on the pitch, does he Darren? And I'm sorry; but the amount of times I've seen Arsenal win the ball and break, only for an opponent to fall to the floor because he's tripped over his own bootlaces, and put the ball out to concede their advantage only to see the opponent bounce to his feet and jog on as soon as the ball goes dead fully justified their decision to play on. It is the referee's decision and his alone to stop the game, as the ref last week chose not to stop the game when Denilson collapsed and Everton nearly scored, so Alan Wiley chose to play on. As he also chose to ignore the foul on Cesc in the penalty area.
This is all, of course aside from the idea of Bolton, the team that once kicked our title dreams to shreds, complaining about rough treatment at our hands, Bolton the very team whose fans derided Fabregas as the "softest player" in football after Sunday afternoon. He who lives by the sword...
And, half an hour later, I hope we can leave it there. The real story really should be about a typical Arsenal performance last night. Faced with the tantalising prospect of the league leadership, until Saturday at least, they nearly blew it. I got out of the shower to see we 1-0 down and briefly considered the lucky retro shirt to pull us through and then decided it probably wouldn't work with the game already in progress. Manuel Almunia probably wouldn't have saved Cahill's low strike even if he'd been able to move his concrete boots, but did he have to watch it trundle in with such admiration? Of course, this goal meant that he kept up his run of conceding from the first shot on target that has been going since 1967.
By the time I'd eaten dinner, the second Bolton goal, a penalty needlessly conceded by a rash Denilson tackle had gone in. Surely Almunia could have done better with a very saveable penalty, I think he knew it too. Quite why the hair puller felt the need to celebrate in front of the RedAction boys I have no idea, he probably wishes he hadn't done so now. I've not been very nice about Almunia this evening, or more generally, but he made a good low save from a free kick that almost certainly kept us in it. Before I stuck episode six of Generation Kill on, Tomas Rosicky had given Arsenal a glimmer of hope, with a fierce strike after being fed by his mate Cesc. Cesc seemed on a personal mission to win the match on his own, it was almost as if he remembered his rough treatment up north 4 days ago - fancy that! He'd already had a good shot saved and weaved through the Bolton defence before teeing Eduardo up with a wonderful disguised pass but he had to do it himself to score that controversial equaliser.
Arshavin was heavily involved and a few Michael Thomas style ricochets helped Cesc on, before he fired the ball through Jaaskelainen's legs. Soon after, his corner was headed on by Abou Diaby and it fell for Thomas Vermaelen to end his goal drought. Yes, our centre back hadn't scored since the beginning of October and this one was almost as good as the Blackburn exocet, letting the ball run across his body, he adjusted and smashed the ball in off the post with the outside of his left foot.
Andrey Arshavin had the last word, scoring one of those goals he seems to love scoring; crowded penalty area, quick feet, smash it. Goal. Maybe it was with that in mind that he chose to ignore a very handily placed Theo Walcott, who returned - for one night only, no doubt - as sub, and went it alone, only to be denied by Jaaskelainen.
Rarely can the Grove have seen such a dramatic two goal victory, but I think everyone knew what was at stake for Arsenal last night. Ok, so it's early days in the title race, and it would be rash and unwise to read too much into the victory. But the people who were questioning Arsenal's character and resolve under pressure are a little quieter this morning. Arsène had talked beforehand of the psychological importance in taking leadership of the division, with such a good opportunity to do so. Tacit in that is an acknowledgement that had we not done so, the consequences may have been grave. However, in a manner not unlike the drama of Middlesbrough in the summer of 2004, or Liverpool just four months previous, we came through and we did so in style.
The good news is that William Gallas will not face further action from the FA after that tackle, but there is some bad news. Abou Diaby has aggravated a calf injury and will be out for the next week (including the Villa game), Bac Sagna has a shoulder problem that will see him miss the Stoke game and worst of all, Keiran Gibbs has been ruled out for the season as he will have further surgery on his foot. I was only saying the other day about the lack of cover at right back for Sagna as well. I never thought I'd say this, but I hope Eboue comes back soon! It's getting a bit bare bones, isn't it?
Oh, and one more thing (yes, I've got my Colombo mac on), I believe it is now 59 games and couting since those Champions League wannabes, Tottenham, last won a league match at the home of one of the traditional big four. Fifty nine games! That's the kind of achievement that makes our 49 game unbeaten run look puny by comparison, doesn't it? Well done, Tottenham, it's good to know your strong bench is serving you so well...
http://arsenal-mania.com/articles/3107984/No-sympathy-for-the-devil.html