Bolton 2-3 Arsenal – 29/03/08 – (Premier League) 30 March, 2008

Jesus Christ, that was emotional. 2-0 with ten men at half time, it was looking like a disaster but 3 goals in the last half an hour gave us all three points in an incredible come back. It was a horrible feeling at half time, I sort of couldn’t believe it, it was so bad to be true.

It was an amazing game, I didn’t get to watch it but I was listening on the radio, which made it even worse because I didn’t have a fucking clue what was going on.

We started with a quite mix-and-match team. Kolo was right-back, we had Diaby and Hleb on the wings and it was Bendtner up front partnering van Persie.

We started the game well; we were knocking it around with confidence and creating chances. We were by far the better team in the opening stages; I was thinking it’d be nice if we could get an early goal. However it was Bolton it took the fucking lead after 14 minutes. They got down the right and sent a really great cross into the box where there was just Taylor to aim for. He continued his run and beat Toure to the header sending it low down my Almunia’s side making it hard for him to react to.

We tried not to let it get us down though, we carried on playing. van Persie was out through just to the left of the box, he sent a cross in which was put out. From the resulting corner the ball found it’s way to Toure outside the box, he let fire and the ball took two or three deflections and ended up just agonisingly bouncing past the post; it could’ve gone anywhere.

Things went from bad, to worse 12 minutes from the break. The ball was passed to Steinsson who passed quickly but Abou Diaby has already committed his lunge in and we went studs first right into his standing foot. It was a stupid challenge from Diaby and he was sent off. Fuck. We had to play with 10 men for the last hour of the game, not the end of the world, but we were a goal down.

It looked like we were going to break one man, and one goal down…but then things got really bad. We had a throw-in, right in the corner of the pitch. We were passing it around to start an attack when Flamini was unaware of the pressure behind him and lost the ball in a dangerous position. Bolton picked it up quickly on the edge of the box. Diouf squared it and Taylor came running in and smashed it, Senderos dived in but it actually came off Gallas who was standing right in the way but turned his back deflecting it right into the corner out of Almunia’s reach.

Half time was a long 15 minutes. It must’ve been the worst half time of the season, 2-0 down to Bolton, with 10 men and it looks like we were stuck on this terrible bad run. As I said earlier, I found it hard to believe. For me, it was a mixture of depression, confusion and couldn’tgiveafuckness. I was just like, fuck this, I hate football, season’s over. Gunnerblog wrote his match report after just 45 minutes, he’d seen enough also.

We still had a whole second half to go though.

We nearly went three down early in the second half. Almunia gave away a free-kick out wide after charging out to clear the ball. A dangerous ball was headed out by Bendtner but from the resulting corner Almunia was forced to make a reaction save with his leg on the line. Jesus fucking Christ Arsenal.

An hour gone, and it was still 0-0. Something needed to be done. Wenger decided it was time for the change. A bit late in my opinion but oh well. Theo Walcott came on for Senderos and the rested Adebayor came on for Bendtner, who didn’t have a bad game, he just didn’t look as likely to score. It was a very attacking formation considering we had 10 men; we needed to go for it.

Their impact was immediate. Robin van Persie won a corner, which Fabregas took, he sent it deep and Gallas came running in to the back post completely unmarked to slot it in. It was comical defending, shocking from Bolton. 2-1 now, come on Arsenal, we can get another goal cant we? We ran straight back to our half for Bolton’s kick-off. Game on.

We needed another goal, and we didn’t have long to find it. However 6 minutes later, in the 69th minute, we won a penalty. It was a great attacking move from Arsenal with some great one touch passes which resulted in Hleb getting fouled. I was thinking, Adebayor’s going to take this and miss it, however van Persie placed it on the spot, the man who hasn’t scored since October had the hopes and prayers of the Arsenal fans on his shoulders. He stepped up and send the ‘keeper the wrong way smashing it to the right.

We’d done it! What a come back! No. No we hadn’t done it, a draw with Bolton wasn’t good enough. We didn’t have long but we still had to try and win this. It was going to be risky because Bolton can break but we still had to go for it.

It didn’t look like it was going to be though; we had a few chances in the final 10 minutes. The best coming to van Persie when Walcott did some great work down the right to send in a low cross to the near post but Robin smashed it high and wide. He had a similar chance from the other side a few minutes later, this time Flamini provided the chance but van Persie smashed it way off target again.

This looked like it was going to be 2-2, oh well, at least we didn’t lose. We had just a few minutes of injury time to get that winner. Come on Arsenal!

Clichy picked it up on the left, send a great through ball to Hleb who took it to the by-line. Fabregas was in a bit of space just behind him, and Alex cut it back. Fabregas shot, it took two deflections but somehow found it’s way in! We’d done it! FABREGAS! YESSSS! What a come back, what a fight! Come on Arsenal!!!

Everyone went mental! It was brilliant. Oh my god, we left it late but we’d done it. It went down as a Samuel OG but who cares?

3-2 final score, what a game. What an emotional game, why can’t we just win easily? I’m knackered just re-writing it all this morning. Jesus. Thanks for reading.