Arsenal 2-0 Bolton: Kolo finally gets one

Under Sam Allardyce, Bolton were a dirty, cynical, and dangerous team. In the post-Allardyce era, they are no longer dangerous. And so Arsenal faced a dirty, cynical Bolton on Saturday. With Sammy Lee already sacked (his "more expansive" style of football essentially = crap), coach Archie Knox was appointed caretaker, and he did what so many teams do against Arsenal - clog up the midfield, and get his players to kick and scrap as best they could to keep the scores level.

Shorn of Nicolas Anelka, their only genuine attacking threat, through injury, Bolton never once looked like threating, and although they managed to keep the scores level for an hour, Arsenal were already in their second half ascendancy when they took the lead.

And that moment was all about Kolo Toure. Those who've followed the Arsenal steadily for the last two years or so would have noticed an ever increasing tendency by Toure to take speculative thumps from anywhere between 30-60 yards out. From time-to-time they'd force the 'keeper into a save, often even resulting in rebounds for the strikers. But most of the time it would just leave you wondering why perfectly good free-kick positions were wasted; it was always a familiar pattern, someone standing on the ball, and Toure running in to thump it high, wide, or into the wall. So often the entire sequence was messed up, and there would be missed kicks, or the coordination problems, and he couldn't even get the shot away. Yet Kolo still seemed to be on a mission to thump in a long ranger.

Well, last week against Sunderland he thumped one that came back out off the post, and that was perhaps a sign of things to come.

Yesterday, without the prodiguous left-foot of Robin Van Persie, they needed to improvise for a free-kick outside the box. 3 Arsenal player waited patiently around the ball when the free-kick was given. Then, when the whistle blew, Cesc Fabregas rolled it to Mathieu Flamini, who cushioned it into the path of the onrushing Kolo, who in turn drilled a low hard shot perfectly into the bottom far corner of the goal. It went through the legs of two defenders, and the Bolton 'keeper had no chance.

And that was, as Ian Grant descibred, the "unblocking of the drain". The football flowed after that - Adebayor wasted two chances, one with a poor shot, and the other with an absolutely horrendous messup. Gallas had chances, and Theo zipped past 4 Bolton players before putting in a low cross that no one was alert to.

But the second goal did come, and it was the two substitues who combined for it. Hleb showed great awareness to play the ball to a just-onside Walcott. It was a hard, high pass, and Theo did fantastically well to control it, turn a defender inside out, and then square another low-cross in from the right. Rosicky had made a great run in, and he showed excellent technique to deftly flick the ball across the keeper into the far post with his instep. 2-0 to the Arsenal, and that was the game.

Hleb was oustanding, and the team played well overall. Eboue continues to look uncomfortable on the wing, and Adebayor was extremely, extremely wasteful, but had an immense team contribution over all. 11 straight wins now, but the real tests will come over the next two weekends - with games against Liverpool and Manchester United.