Bolton 2-1 Arsenal

The photo that sums up today and our season. 

Bolton defeated Arsenal 2-1 at the Reebok Stadium in yet another disappointing match this afternoon. Our title hopes are now well and truly over and we are now in a battle for second place along with Chelski. We are now nine points behind United and with only four games remaining. Therefore it is going to be very difficult to catch United but the players shouldn't give up and they should give their all for the fans even if it is just to finish second. We have four games left and finishing the season on a high is crucial for the team. If we lose a couple more games even more people will turn against Wenger and this is the last thing the side needs. We need to stick behind the manger as he has been a brilliant manager over the years. Despite spending hardly any money we have consistently been in the champions league and have recentely moved to a magnificent stadium. Compare this to Tottenham and Liverpool and it's clear how good a manager Arsene Wenger is.

We started today's game with the exact eleven that defeated Barcelona at the Emirates Stadium. Therefore Jack Wilshere returned to the starting eleven replacing Abou Diaby being the only change from the Tottenham game. This was therefore a very strong starting eleven which should of beaten Bolton comfortably. The only first choice player missing was Vermaelen but we missed him a lot today.

We started the game very brightly with Theo Walcott breaking through the Bolton defence on a couple of occasions. On one occasion he was tackled in the penalty area and the replays showed it was a stone wall penalty, however all we got was a corner. Throughout the rest of the first half we created some chances but we wasted much of the possession we had. Cesc Fabregas was finding gaps inbetween the defence and midfield and was linking up well with Van Persie. Nasri and Theo however were struggling to get on the ball and this was where we were struggling. Bolton were also creating lots of chances however and Lee was very unlucky not to have scored two by the half time whistle.

 A goal did eventually come but it was for Bolton and in all honesty they deserved to be in front. However they should never of been able to score such an easy goal. It was a Daniel Sturridge header from a corner kick. Originally Gary Cahill had a header supposedly cleared off the line. He was being marked by Alex Song but it was the worst attempt at marking a player I've seen in a long time. Gary Cahill simply jogged away as the corner was being taken and Song went away even further. This then meant he was jumping against Clichy and he was always going to win the header. This is once again Arsenal getting the basics wrong. It happens so often and it must simply be a lack of concentration. Wenger and his coaching staff aren't stupid and it must just be that Song lost concentration as many other players have done at crucial stages this season.

Another superb goal from the flying Dutchman. 

The second half began and within the first minute Bolton were awarded a penalty. Djourou got the wrong side of Sturridge and there was contact made between the two. Sturridge clearly made a meal of it however and the ref fell for it. For example Rio Ferdinand's 'tackle' on Anichebe yesterday was a far worse tackle but wasn't even awarded a penalty. However after all it was at Old Trafford. Luckily Arsenal's super keeper Wojciech Szczesny came to the rescue and confidently saved Davies's penalty. It was a weak penalty but was still a good save under immense pressure. If there are positives to be found this season Szczesny is definitely one of them as he looks an amazing keeper already and he looks set to be our number one for many years to come. Shortly after the penalty save Arsenal equalised with a brilliant goal. Van Persie was the scorer and this was his 17th goal in his last 17 games and his tenth consecutive goal in away premier league games. He is in unbelievable form and may just be in with a shout of challenging for the golden boot. He's 6 goals behind Berbatov but he is in the form of his life and I'm sure he is aiming to win the golden boot. Fabregas was involved in the build up for the goal and we once again saw how well the duo can play together. We can only imagine how different our season would of been with them playing together in every game. Shortly afterwards Chamakh came on for Song and we switched to a 4-4-2 formation. We were clearly going for the much needed win and we created plenty of opportunities to grab a vital winner. Samir Nasri was especially wasteful and had two fabulous chances to win us the game. However the goal never came for the Arsenal and once again we were punished by a corner kick. Tamir Cohen scored an unstoppable header late in the second half and it was too late for Arsenal to respond. The game was then over and our title chances were over as well.

 It is difficult to see how we lost the game today. In recent weeks we have been criticised for throwing away our leads, but we never even in front today. It was more a case of being wasteful in the final third and not capitalising on our domination of the game especially in the second half. All that is now left to realistically fight for is finishing second in the league and defeating United at the Emirates. The players should still continue to give their best and the fans need to stay behind the players and more importantly the manager. If you remember back to the beginning of the season, the majority of the media were saying we'd struggle to finish in the top four. They have all been proved very wrong as Wenger has guided us to yet another top four finish. I'm sure he will however spend money in the summer as he is also desperate to bring silverware to the club. He has tried to do this in his own way but it hasn't quite worked out and with a few transfers in the Summer we will once again mount a strong challenge for the title next year.

 Im currently working on a major article about transfers in and out of the club in the Summer and hope to have this live on my blog by the end of tomorrow.