Premier League - Match #9

Arsenal 2 Toure, Rosicky
Bolton 0

It was good to watch a 'live' Arsenal match again after international break, which brought mixed fortunes to Arsenal players who were involved in getting their country to the Euro 2008 and also the African Nations' Cup in January next year.

Sadly, Robin Van Persie sufferred another injury, this time against Slovenia which would see him out of action for at least a month. The Gunners' topscorer's place was taken by Eduardo da Silva but the Croatian striker struggled to impose himself during the match.

For those who have their case against Manu Adebayor, the Togolese's performance during this match simply provided more ammunitions for them to fire their criticism in his way. The lowest point of his outing must be when he was through with just Jussi Jaaskelainen to beat but his heavy teach took the ball away from goal. Then while trying to re-position himself, Adebayor just simply fell.

Bolton came with a gameplan and stuck to it to frustrate Arsenal for a long period of time. There were several times when the creative players such as Cesc Fabregas and Alex Hleb found themselves having to deal with two or three Bolton players around them.

But after the interval Arsenal stepped up a gear and the urgency was more evidence in their passing. Manu Eboue could not take the opportunity that came his way in the opening minute of the second half. A mistake by Gavin McCann fed the ball into the Ivorian's path but he simply lashed at it, and it went high and wide.

The introduction of Tomas Rosicky and Theo Walcott put the visitors under more pressure and began to concede free-kicks due to their physical approach to the match. They were made to pay in the 67th minute when Kolo Toure blasted home from after Matthieu Flamini had set him up after receiving a tap from Fabregas.

Bolton did come out a bit were not able to do much against the back-line of Toure and William Gallas, who resumed his duty as captain. The absence of former Gunner Nicolas Anelka in the Trotters front line could also be a factor why Arsenal defence had it easy this time around.

Arsenal should have been a head by a bigger margin but with chances being wasted, there was always a chance for Bolton to spoil Arsenal's day. A second goal was badly needed.

England youngster Walcott began to show his true capability in Premier League matches. His superb take from a Hleb's pass allowed him to beat two Bolton players and delivered a low ball across the goal which the unmarked Rosicky deflected past Jaaskelainen.

The way the Czech Republic international sneaked past the Bolton defence certainly reminded me of Robert Pires and hopefully he would also be able to emulate the Frenchman goalscoring feat as well as creating chances for other players.

One thing about the Arsenal line-up this evening that could be significant was the decision to keep Manuel Almunia in goal. He was calm throughout the match and did not even react to the foul by Kevin Davies early in the match.

I am sure that Jens Lehmann would have reacted differently had he been playing. The calmness of Almunia certainly helped the defence and this could be a factor which would see the German leaving the club comes January.

But January is still far away and there could be plenty of matches to be played and who knows, we could be talking about the German shotstopper in two months time.

For now, I am quite happy with us being at the top of the table, a position that I wish to be come the end of the season.

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