The Hunt.

After watching the highlights of yesterday's win over Bolton and talking to some people who were at the game and others who watched it live on telly the general consensus is that we played poorly in the first half yet again but when Nasri went central and Vela came on we showed some creativity and eventually got the win we deserved. It wasn't pretty but it worked in the end and we got the 3 points we needed. We are on a 7 game unbeaten run in the league and we need to keep that going with a win at Hull next week who are on a downward spiral at the moment. We must attack them at every opportunity as their defence is bar far the weakest part of their team.

As for yesterday's game and our problems in midfield. What does Vela have to do to get a start at the moment. We are crying out for creativity and he is the one player we have available who can take on defenders and beat them. When he has come on recently he has helped to turn the games against Portsmouth and Bolton in our favour. Maybe the boss thinks he is best as an impact sub at the moment but I think he deserves a start.  Diaby had another poor game in a central position and Eboue did alright on the right. Is playing alright good enough for Arsenal though ? We need better players in our team and personally I would play Rambo instead of Denilson even though Denilson is playing alright too. I think that he gives the ball away too often and he doesn't play at a fast enough tempo for me. We need to move the ball about quickly as we have always done under Wenger but at the moment everything is happening at a pedestrian pace especially in the first half of games. When will we come out with all guns blazing this season ? This has always been another feature of Wenger's teams.

I thought Almunia made the saves he had to yesterday but his decision making and communication with his defenders still isn't good enough. Kolo played very well alongside Djourou and maybe the captaincy will help him to get his form back. Djourou, Clichy and Sagna all played well too which brings me to the strikers. RVP is in a very rich vein of form at the moment and he is becoming more and more important to us week by week. He played well yesterday and he made the goal with a lovely cross for Bendtner and he could have had a couple for himself too with a little more luck. Adebayor had another one of those games where he didn't seem too interested and he delayed his shot too long when played in and ended up having a sitter from 8 yards blocked. From all reports he seemed to drop back too often, play a pass and then stand back and watch the action without even trying to get into the box for crosses. I saw him do this against Wigan too and I can't understand why he hasn't been pulled up by the boss on it. As a schoolboy footballer you are always told not to stand back and admire your pass but to get on with the game but that is exactly what he does. I have been very critical of Bendtner recently and he wasn't doing too well when he came on yesterday until he scored the all important goal. He took it well but I'm still not convinced by him at all.

Bolton came to play defensively and it nearly worked for them but thankfully we got the win in the end. Worringly we switched off completely after we scored and they almost equalised immediatly. We have to work harder at keeping our concentration. Davies missed a very good chance for them and it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Here's a good picture of him on  with his hand, as usual, right in Clichy's face. The man is a thug and he always gets away with it.

We had over 70% of possession yesterday and we need to punish teams like Bolton who come to defend. The boss has said today that he thinks the English game is becoming too defensive. I don't know about that but at the moment teams know that if they defend with 10 men behind the ball against us they have a chance and it will continue to happen so long as we lack creativity and the ability to score from distance.

After today's games The Spuds are in the relegation zone again and have not won any of their last 5 league matches. Maybe Harry's plan, as an Arsenal fan, to get them relegated is working now after initially offering them hope that he was the messiah. In transfer news we have appearently had a bid for Arshavin turned down. It's time to up the bid but we all think at this stage that it will probably, as usual, go through at the last minute. Man City are rumoured to be in the running for also and even though they have piles of money I can't imagine that he would want to join them. We are also linked with Jimmy Bullard again and also Jack Collison of West Ham and Sebastian Battaglia of Boca Juniors. Who knows what truth is in any of these rumours. I'll leave it there for today. 

Here's the highlights of yesterday's game with thanks to Boxofficefootball again.

 http://www.boxofficefootball.com/ukbox/football-update/arsenal-1-bolton-0-highlights/

And to finish the title track from above which was used because of our continuing hunt for new players this month which is dragging on too much at the moment. We should get serious and get Arshavin in now and follow that up with 2 more top class signings. By the way the song is by New Model Army.

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

See You Tomorrow.