When tickets for this game went on sale, all of my group forgot about it. When we eventually remembered, there were no seats left in our usual favourite North Bank. So, we were forced into a (thankfully occasional) visit to the West Stand, where the only noise is from people shouting "sit down" whenever the game gets exciting enough to stand up. Still, being close to the away fans is always entertaining, even if Bolton do their best to destroy any entertainment with their football.
After an excellent win last week in Birmingham, and with no game since then, the stay-at-home Arsenal fans were unusually buoyant (unusual because a home game after an away win has been very rare this season!). Also, there are only 10 days to go until Real Madrid away in the Champions League, so any return to form couldn't be at a better time.
But, as is the story of the season so far, just as things start to be looking up, along comes another unwelcome banana skin. This time, it was in the shape of a physical and well-organised Bolton side, who took maximum advantage of Arsenal's inexperienced defence, and wobbly recent form, as well as capitalising on their status as bogey team in chief at present. An utterly awful first half saw them go in at half time a goal ahead.
In the second half, Arsenal could again have scored half a dozen times, but a combination of poor finishing, lack of final ball, and inspired goalkeeping, all contrived to deny us. Bolton's incessant timewasting and playacting also threatened to deny us the chance to watch any football, making it an extremely frustrating game to be at. Finally, 2 minutes into injury time, Gilberto connected with a ball into the box to score. A relief at the end - although a point from the game doesn't help us enormously, it is a whole lot better than what we were 2 minutes away from ending up with.
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