Tottenham 1 Bale
Arsenal 3 Adebayor 2, Fabregas
Due to Ramadhan commitment I missed almost the entire first half. When I put my bums onto the seat it read 'TOTT 1 ARSL 0'. I whispered softly "Here we go again".
Last season we trailed by a goal, then fought back and led 2-1 deep into injury time. As I was about to celebrate the three points won, Jermaine Jenas long range effort crept inside the post which totally took the wind off my celebration sail-boat.
It was not often I would say this in regards of a Sp*ds player, but Gareth Bale certainly looked like a very exciting prospect. The manner his free-kick beat the wall and crept past Manuel Almunia showed a huge talent on dead ball situations for someone who is still 18 years old.
From the highlights shown during the interval, it was normal service for the Gunners as we came close with Manu Adebayor and Alex Hleb forcing Paul Robinson into making good saves while Abou Diaby continued where he left off against Portsmouth a fortnight ago, failing to convert clear chance into goals.
When the second half started, Arsenal continued to press forward in search for the equaliser. However, I had my heart at my mouth when Gilberto Silva was caught napping and Dimitar Berbatov raced through towards goal.
Almunia rushed from his line but the Bulgarian evaded his challenge easily and should have made the score 2-0 to the home side. But skipper Kolo Toure did a brilliant covering job and his tackle took the ball away from danger.
Robin Van Persie had a quiet match but it was Adebayor who I was so incensed with when he skied a perfect cut-back by Bakary Sagna with the goal at his mercy.
I was screaming for Arsene Wenger to take him off so that Eduardo could continue his rich goalscoring form, after netting three goals for Croatia during the Euro2008 qualifying matches against Estonia and Andorra.
Much to my surprise and dismay when I found out later that the Croat did not even make it to the bench.
Then in the 65th minute I screamed with joy when Adebayor's head reached the ball first before Robinson to put Arsenal level from a Cesc Fabregas free-kick. Despite his heroics all afternoon, Robinson should take the blame for not getting to the ball before the Togolese.
Almunia made a big save from Robbie Keane who tried to make the most from Matthieu Flamini 's error. The Frenchman miscued the ball towards his own goal after trying to take it off a Sp*ds' player.
Then from a corner, Gael Glichy made a superb on the goal-line stop with his chest from a Berbatov's effort. The Bulgarian got to the rebound first but saw his header went over the bar. Claimed for hand-ball were waved away by Mark Clattenburg.
Then ten minutes from time Fabregas had me screaming again. It was like a dream seeing the ball moving so slowly after leaving the Spaniard's boot. I remembered thinking "Dammnn... Robinson going to get it..." before watching the net bulged.
I screamed and screamed... it was such a superb goal. From the replay I saw that I was right; Robinson did get to it but was beaten by sheer speed and power from Fabregas's shot.
It was a bit deja-vu from then on.
Darren Bent came on and should have equalised with his first touch but the former Charlton striker failed to connect properly with the long ball from midfield. Then another opportunity came his way moments later but with only Almunia to beat he fluffed his shot wide, much to the disappointment of those wearing white today.
As if trying to silence his critics, Adebayor volleyed home the third goal deep into injury time after receiving another wonderful pass from Fabregas. He showed composure by flicking the ball upward and meeting it with a volley that gave Robinson no chance at all.
It was similar to what happened last season, the match produced a fourth goal deep into injury time, but this time for Gooners all over the world, it went into the right goal.
We are top of the league!!!
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