Another Comeback at the Reebok

Bolton 1 Davies
Arsenal 3 Eboue Bendtner Denilson

Arsenal went to the top of the Premier League with this comeback victory at the Reebok Stadium against what used to be their bogey team, Bolton Wanderers. It was a delight to watch the slick passing of the Gunners overcoming direct football deployed by the home team who relied on dead ball situations to pose problems to the Arsenal defence.

Despite using the direct route for most of the time, there were some moments of flair from Gary Megson's side. Kevin Nolan's long range effort in the 3rd minute ensured Manuel Almunia was on his toes throughout the match.

The visitors created a host of chances but much to the delight of the majority in the crowd, Bolton went ahead in the 14th minute through Kevin Davies who capitalised on some loose marking in the Arsenal defence from a Joey O'Brien's corner. It was a typical Bolton goal against Arsenal.

Then Manu Adebayor and Alex Song hit the post as Arsenal pressed forward for the equaliser. Then Kolo Toure saw his effort went just wide after Nicklas Bendtner had chested down the ball for him.

The Danish striker played a huge part in the equaliser by threading the ball for Manu Eboue to shoot home past Jussi Jaaskelainen. Replays suggested that the Ivorian was offside when the pass was made but this time the decision went Arsenal's way.

Barely a minute later Bendtner got his name on the scoresheet when another sweeping move on the left saw Denilson sprinting clear before delivering a low ball into the box. The tall Dane attacked the near post and managed to connect with the ball and turned it past Jasskelainen.

Toure and Almunia then combined to prevent Bolton from going to the interval on level terms. The Ivorian defender clean tackle robbed the ball from Ricardo Gardner who was poised to pull the trigger inside the box. Then Almunia dived to his left to push away Nolan's effort after the midfielder was set-up by Joey O'Brien.

Then a hard tackle on Gael Clichy by Davies saw the France international being taken off during the interval and Johan Djourou came on for the second half at the right-back spot while Bacary Sagna moved to the left to take Clichy's place.

Song nearly made the contest over in the opening minutes of second half with a good shot from outside the box but Jasskelainen denied the Arsenal midfielder with a good save.

As expected, Bolton would always be a threat with a single goal lead and they came close in finding the equaliser a number of times in the second half. However, Arsenal defended stoutly and when substitute Theo Walcott's pace led to another quick counter-attack Bolton were exposed.

The youngster found Adebayor who ran to the right. The Togolese delivered a hard low ball across the face of the goal and Denilson who came in from the blind side side-footed the ball home to ensure the three points going Arsenal's way.

For the moment, Arsenal are on top and hopefully they would remain there.

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