Scary Kids Scaring Kids

Tonight was the most entertaining game I've seen at the Emirates yet. It was a complete performance from the back-ups, and the win was all the more satisfying considering that a) our teenage midfield completely dominated their more established opponents, and b) there is a stronger English contingent among our academy graduates.

We watched the Liverpool starting lineup during the prematch warmups, a tad worried about Dirk Kuyt and Martin Skrtel starting and Yossi Benayoun ready and waiting on the bench. With Andriy Voronin's successful spell in Germany playing on our minds, we watched him train, and were reassured within seconds that he would be of no use whatsoever to Liverpool. During a passing exercise between two teams of five, he looked confused (either by the tempo of the game or by what he was supposed to be doing, I'm not entirely sure) and stood completely still as his teammates exhausted themselves running around him and trying to connect with his wildly wayward passes. Meanwhile, Sammy 'Hammy' Lee said and did literally nothing throughout the training session, opting instead to wander around arranging the spare balls into triangles.

There was a great atmosphere around the ground, with plenty of genuine locals taking advantage of the cheap ticket prices, and the Scousers upped the stakes with their usual racket. Two of them did their best to corroborate the stereotypes by not only booking their tickets via Arsenal.com and, much to their surprise, finding themselves amongst the home fans, but then trying to nick our seats because they had bought their own seats several rows apart. Another, sat directly behind me, chipped in by singing along with all the Liverpool songs and screaming instructions to his team (this being the Emirates, no one was quite sure what to do about it) and then proceeding to knock his coke all over our belongings with five minutes left and running away. Lovely lot, Liverpudlians.

As for what was happening on the pitch, Merida showed why Wenger didn't want to loan him out this season. He has been marginalised in comparison to many other players at the club of his age, and another year in Spain might have led to a transfer. He has really bulked out, and looks like a complete midfielder rather than simply a weedy attacking player. Throughout the first half he was all over the place, shutting down Degen and Kuyt and playing a solid defensive game without sacrificing his contribution to the attack. His goal was outstanding, and just what he needed to make a name for himself with many fans, but even without it he was superb.

Ramsey pulled all the strings in midfield, and you can see why he's figured more in the first team recently - he has a good build for a midfielder and he has played with real authority whenever he has been given a run out. Out of all of our midfielders, he is the most similar to Fabregas, with the potential to play deeper.

The most interesting prospect for me was Craig Eastmond. On his debut he tore every Liverpool attack to pieces; he was strong in the tackle, controlled the ball well and didn't lose possession afterwards. Most of our attacks started with him, and he bagged a deserved assist for Merida's goal.

Fabianski was solid inbetween the sticks, but he rushes off his line far too often and opponents have learned from his colossal steps forward that they can benefit from closing him down. If he can iron out these weaknesses in his game, he will still be an exceptional 'keeper.

Gibbs and Gilbert both played well on their respective flanks, and Senderos had a great game, minus that moment in the dying minutes when the spirit of Jens Lehmann appeared to briefly possess him.

Even Silvestre played pretty well, but I'll choose to ignore that.

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Two Points for Honesty

Wenger's substitutions ruined us this week.

Why he thought he'd make do with a team that had done nothing of note throughout the second half and whose lead had been slashed to one goal, I will never know. It took until the 82nd minute, with the scores level, for him to throw on Bendtner for Eboue. It was clear from the kickoff that Bendtner was needed as the West Ham back four was beating us to every header in the final third. That said, considering Eboue had been by far the most effective of the front three throughout the game, the change in personnel was still wrong; Arshavin was having a day off and should never have stayed on for 90 minutes, and Bendtner would have offered much more even if he was being deployed on the opposite flank. We were fortunate to take a 2-0 lead, more so to maintain it well into the second half.

The refereeing was poor, and I'm sure the West Ham fans will agree. Foy made mistake after mistake, and exacerbated the situation by panicking and trying to account for them. I can only imagine his inner turmoil: chasing a ball around for 90 minutes at his age, with so many big players rushing past him, so many people shouting and so many rules to remember; the poor chap must have been confused.

The free kick which led to their first goal was particularly grinding. Foy turned down a fairly dubious penalty shout moments before and, seeing the fury on the faces of West Ham players and fans alike, tried to win them back at the first opportunity. Zavon Hines scampered towards the penalty area, where Diaby was standing twiddling his thumbs; his rhino-like 3-foot radius of footballing vision breached, the Frenchman lethargically moved to challenge Hines, but no sooner had he raised a foot than Hines had run face first into his chest. Frustrating enough that this somehow constituted a foul by Diaby - infuriating that Diaby let the 2 foot tall winger muscle him to the ground.

I'm not entirely convinced by Wenger's defence of how Mannone handled the free kick, but he's been exceptional until now so I will stand by him. I don't think any of our players can be blamed for how things transpired, even though I think the penalty was a fair shout and Song had panicked.

Obviously, with the scores level, Foy realised he had upset us so tried his best to make amends. He chose the right player to send off in Scott Parker - he just forgot to find a justifiable time to do so.

Know Your Enemy

It looks like Kroenke is serious about putting in a takeover bid for the club. His new shares take him up to 28.9% of the club - less than 1.1% away from the required amount for a takeover.

There is speculation that he is merely trying to fend off interest from Usmanov on behalf of the entire board. If this is the case, I would commend him. Usmanov is the absolute worst thing that could happen to Arsenal right now - we're playing well, we've developed a good culture at the club and a great vibe in the dressing room by selling our troublemaker to the new moneybags team in Manchester. I would much rather keep faith in what we have (the odd signing here and there to reinforce the first team) than to let him splash his cash, jeapordise Wenger's position at the club and sign expensive players who don't fit in... like Barndoor.

However, I think this is a genuine attempt at a takeover. And while the rules don't allow another bid for 12 months if he reaches the threshold and fails, this can be overturned by the board who, at the moment at least, appear to be in favour of Kroenke ownership. His transformation from small shareowner to boardmember has been too smooth (and kept too quiet) for a future takeover attempt to be perceived as hostile or destructive by the rest of the board.

Anyway, some entertainment for the interlull. There's a Spurs blogger who has been making animated shorts about the Scum on YouTube, and the best is undoubtedly the one he made a few weeks ago in anticipation of the North London Derby:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHk1_C53d1s

There's a few little digs at us but nothing too harsh, and it's had a good response from Gooners. Much to my chagrin, I think it's brilliant.

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Frog and Toad

That was the best Arsenal performance in years, and Big Fat Sam was, as ever, gracious in defeat during the post-match interview.

He slammed Vermaelen for his physical tackle in the area and implied that referees should be more sensitive to such challenges by declaring that our centre-back was deserving of a red card. He's got a point: his teams have traditionally received little protection from referees, with flair players such as Kevin Davies, Gavin McCann, Sean Davis, and Christopher Samba, as well as honest characters such as El Hadji Diouf and Morten Gamst Pedersen, cheated out of the results they deserve by aggressive route one teams such as Arsenal and Liverpool.

If his demands for video technology are met, Blackburn's fortunes will surely turn around.

Onto more positive things: Fabregas was simply unstoppable today, and not even Allardyce's henchmen or an overweight goalkeeper could get in his way. With four assists and a goal, he was so good that I suspect he had something to do with the sixth despite not being on the pitch.

His goal was an absolute screamer; twice he tried to pass to a teammate and ended up with the ball back at his feet, both colleagues having failed to control the ball with one of Blackburn's orcs breathing down each of their respective necks. His response was to give up and resort to the easy option: smashing it on the volley with his weaker foot, from 20 yards, over three defenders and into the top corner of a helpless Paul Robinson's net.

Van Persie put on a masterclass in playing as a target man (watching, Barndoor?) and put away his goal with a tight shot against all odds. A similarly clinical finish aside, Arshavin had a quietly industrious game until he exploded into the final third to create Walcott's goal. Rosicky was superb and deserved an assist for his outrageous cross on the outside of his foot - Cesc's downward header was the only blemish on his almost flawless performance.

Although we conceded two - we twice let long balls slice our defence in two - each of our defenders had a decent game. Vermaelen did it again, and I'm beginning to wonder if he is the 30-goals-a-season signing we've been needing. His goal seemed to defy even the physical restraints of a slow motion replay - the ball may as well have been superimposed onto the rest of the video.

As for the Blackburn goals, the first came about because Mannone and the rest of the backline weren't defending deep enough to handle Robinson's freekick, but the fact that the former is a 21-year-old with a handful of appearances under his belt may absolve him somewhat. The second was a freak goal caused by a deflection, for which no one can be held accountable - however, the build-up would have been quashed if the defenders weren't so high up the pitch. Against stronger opposition, that sort of positioning will make us more susceptible to counter attacks.

The first goal aside, Mannone did have a decent game. He pulled off a world-class save from Olsson's whistling long range shot, and did well to block an effort by David Dunn, who in fairness had a pretty good game.

Credit must also go to Paul Robinson, who turned in a better performance than I thought possible for a goalkeeper who retrieved the ball from his net six times.

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