Arsenal Gunners Keep Firing

Arsenal kept on scoring and won again on Saturday, this time at home to what must now be a shell-shocked Derby County. Liverpool put six past them a few weeks ago now Arsenal scored 5. It’s not doing much for their goal difference, although I suspect goal-difference is really going to be any kind of factor in whether they stay in the Premiership or not.

Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor scored his first hat-trick for Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium adding more evidence that he is more than ready to replace the Gunners former captain and main goalscorer, Thierry Henry, as the team’s attacking talisman.

The win consolidated their position at the top of the Premiership table. This was another performance that left me in no doubt that Arsenal are in no way missing Henry, who of course was sold to the Catalan giants Barcelona in the summer.

Adebayor, still only 23, has flourished since being given his chance to succeed Henry his the Gunners main attacking option. He struck once in the first half and then twice in the second as, what can only be described as a hapless Derby, were yet again easily swept aside.

After the game Arsene Wenger the Arsenal manager said, “Yes, he [Adebayor] has great potential. But we have him and Robin van Persie scoring goals and we have others who are also very capable of scoring. Now it is down to us to prove we can go on and go as far as we want to. We kept our focus after the Champions League [an excellent win in mid-week against high flying Sevilla] and it was nice to see the players enjoy the game so much.”

There is no doubt, Arsenal are playing very well at the moment and it was all started by French defender Abou Diaby when he opened the scoring for Arsenal with a powerful diagonal right foot shot from 25 yards after only 10 minutes. From there it was nothing but one way traffic, with Derby permanently on the back foot.

Diaby celebrates Arsenal’s opening goal with his team-mates.

It was then Adebayor’s turn. He ran onto a pass from Cesc Fabregas to score the first of his three 15 minutes later. His second came early in the second half by way of a penalty. His third came 10 minutes from time but before that it was Fabregas who scored the fourth with a long range swerving shot. Fabregas is another Arsenal player in a rich vein of form at the moment, one of many it must be said.

So what of one of Arsenal’s major threats for honours this season, Liverpool. After an excellent start to the season the last week, following the international break, has seen the Reds drop 4 points in the Premiership and two points in their Championship League Group. Last week Benítez went yet again for squad rotation for a tricky away fixture at Portsmouth and yesterday he did the same at home to Birmingham by leaving the club’s record signing Fernando Torres on the bench.

I have to say I don’t quite get it. You pay all that money for a top quality striker and expect him to score at least 20 league goals a season to help you win the league, and what do you do with him? You leave him on the bench! Torres is in his early 20s, surely he can manage a couple of games a week! Plus, no disrespect to Birmingham, but aren’t these the type of fixtures you can put a player like Torres on for the whole game in the knowledge that there is a good chance he will score a goal? Goals mean confidence, not just for the player but for the team as a whole. Confidence breads momentum and momentum breads success. I’m not a Premiership manager and you can’t really argue too much with what Benítez has achieved at the club, but I don’t think that “rocket science” myself!

Anyway, Liverpool never looked like they turned up on Saturday. Birmingham arrived at Anfield with a specific game plan of containment and to be fair to them, they were well organised and carried it out perfectly and frustrated a far more talented side. Benítez said after the game, “It was very disappointing. When you have that much possession and chances, you need to score, but sometimes it can be very difficult against such well organised teams.”

In other games on Saturday, Reading beat potential fellow strugglers this season Wigan Athletic 2 - 1 thanks to a late goal by James Harper. It was the result of a very clever little reserve pass from Dave Kitson. It was also Kitson that put Reading ahead in the first half before Marcus Bent, who also hit the bar, equalised with a header from a excellent cross from Jason Koumas.

In the North East derby at Middlesbrough, Roy Keane’s Sunderland earned a point in a closely and hard fought game, after sub Liam Miller, scored with a left foot volley for the Black Cats in the 89th minute.

It was Keane’s 50th game in charge as manager and he said after the game, “I am very happy with the result because we looked to be buried before that goal. I was not so happy with the performance, but we did show great courage.”

There was a thriller in the later kick-off on Saturday as Danny Murphy scored a late equaliser for Fulham in an excellent 3-3 draw with Sven Goran Eriksson’s Manchester City at Craven Cottage.

Simon Davies put the home side ahead and after Martin Petrov levelled for City, Fulham went in front for a second time through Hameur Bouazza.

Emile Mpenza quickly equalised again for City before Petrov slammed in his second of the game, only for Murphy to beat Kasper Schmeichel for a share of the points.

On Sunday, the defending Champions Man Utd welcome Chelsea to Old Trafford without a certain Jose Mourinho! Unless you’ve been on the moon all week, you will know about Jose’s sudden and very unexpected departure from Stamford Bridge and that he has been replaced by that well-known manager Avram Grant. Huh? The man who isn’t even a household name in his own living room! I love that quote! Anyway, here is Sunday’s full fixture list:

Aston Villa v Everton
Blackburn v Portsmouth
Bolton v Tottenham
Man Utd v Chelsea
Newcastle v West Ham

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