Last night was pretty much the only Arsenal game I can think of where we had all the luck.
There were no unfairly disallowed goals, no wrongly awarded penalties, no objectionable bookings; instead the Italian referee held us gently to his bosom and protected us as best he could, scolding a toothless Scottish lout for crashing into one of his continental companions here, laughing off Bendtner's cheeky flick of the forearm in the penalty area there.
But one thing we didn't need luck for was putting the ball in the net - the goals were simply superb. Fabregas chipped a free kick towards the top left-hand corner; Gallas broke from the line and ran underneath it, stooping with all his might and gracefully lifting his rear. Flaunting technique Ronaldinho would envy, he curled the ball with the outside of his right buttock, and it spun for the bottom right-hand corner. The keeper had been fooled, 1-0 the Arsenal. We have finally perfected our set pieces in training.
The second was even better. Diaby played through Gael Clichy who, seeing that Bendtner was unreachable with Gary Caldwell closing the gap, knew he had to find an alternative. With the precision of John Parrott at the peak of his powers, Clichy played his cross off Caldwell's lunging foot into the near corner. 2-0 the Arsenal, another gem from the Wenger school of sexy football.
Meanwhile, there were some great individual performances at the other end. From what I've seen so far of Vermaelen, Wenger has made one hell of a signing, all the more impressive considering his track record of splashing out on attackers while blooding Swiss pre-teens in defence. The guy is the kind of centre-back the rest of the top four, indeed several below have always had, yet we've long been crying out for. His sprint back to prevent what would have been a certain goal is genuinely one of the most outstanding pieces of defending I have ever seen, and the non-Arsenal fans with whom I watched the game were impressed by his overall performance. He was either bloody brave or absolutely mental to throw himself headlong towards the outstretched boot of Scott Brown; either way, he's likely to get a great reception on his Emirates debut after two excellent performances. I loved Kolo, but you wouldn't see him doing that - even if he'd managed to track back, he'd have panicked, ran straight into the back of Brown and bundled him over, arms outstretched in the vain hope of escaping punishment.
Song was, again, superb. I was, and I suppose still am, keen for us to bring in Vieira, partly because any other defensive midfielder we were linked with would have most likely cut down Song's playing time dramatically. In fact, the current midfield of him, Denilson and Fabregas has worked brilliantly in the first two games, and I hope they can all stay fit. Song looks like he's bulked up even more over the summer - he's an absolute beast, and he just can't be knocked off the ball. On top of that, he juggled over an opposition midfielder's head. After a good cameo and a hand in the second goal, Diaby may have improved and may finally have his big season, but I've never seen him have the calm or the confidence to do that. Preferably he won't ever try: the ball might, with some luck, arc over his opponent's head, but his shin would almost certainly follow a slightly lower trajectory directly into the poor fellow's mouth.
I await the Portsmouth game with cautious optimism. Hopefully their takeover won't be completed before then, because it will be much nicer to play them when they're all depressed.
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