Gunners ruin Coyle bow

Fabregas and Merida combine to sink Trotters

Last updated: 18th January 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Gunners ruin Coyle bow

Fabregas: Celebrates opener

Man of the match: Cesc Fabregas ran the show all afternoon.

Moment of the match: Fabregas' two touches in opening the scoring were outstanding.

Attempt of the match: Fabregas fluffed his lines from close range in the first half.

Save of the match: Jussi Jaaskelainen kept out Eastmond's first-half volley with an excellent stop.

Talking point: Fabregas had two decent penalty appeals turned down. Should they have been given?

Goal of the game: Fabregas showed true quality with a fine opener from Eduardo's clever flick.


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Cesc Fabregas marked his return to the Arsenal side with his 10th league goal of the season and helped ruin Owen Coyle's first game in charge at Bolton.

The midfielder, who had missed three matches with a hamstring problem, put the Gunners ahead in the 28th minute by slotting home after some neat interplay with Eduardo.

The Trotters wasted several chances to get themselves back into the game, and Ivan Klasnic also saw his first-half effort ruled out for offside, and were made to pay 12 minutes from time when Fran Merida struck to put the result beyond any doubt.

Fabregas was the orchestrator, his surging run put Eduardo free down the left flank and the Croatian sent over a pin-point cross which was comfortably dispatched from close range.

Cesc Fabregas marked his return to the Arsenal side with his 10th goal of the season and helped ruin Owen Coyle's first game in charge at Bolton.

The midfielder, who had missed three matches with a hamstring problem, put the Gunners ahead in the 28th minute by slotting home after some neat interplay with Eduardo.

The Trotters wasted several chances to get themselves back into the game, and Ivan Klasnic also saw his first-half effort ruled out for offside, and were made to pay 12 minutes from time when Fran Merida struck to put the result beyond any doubt.

Fabregas was the orchestrator, his surging run put Eduardo free down the left flank and the Croatian sent over in a pin-point cross which was comfortably dispatched from close range.

Arsenal's victory, which saw then soak up plenty of pressure from a struggling Bolton side trying to play their way out of trouble, lifted them to within three points of league leaders Chelsea.

How Coyle, who swapped one relegation battle with Burnley for another with Bolton, must wish he had a player with half the drive and invention.

The paucity of resources available to the Bolton boss was evident by the fact he named exactly the same starting XI and bench as predecessor Gary Megson had done in his final game - the 2-2 league draw with Hull on December 29.

Initially he will have been pleased by what he saw as the new manager factor had an immediate effect with Kevin Davies having a close-range shot blocked and Klasnic drilling a 20-yard effort past Manuel Almunia only to be flagged offside in the second minute.

The transition from Megson's long-ball tactics to Coyle's football is something that will obviously take a while to get used to but there were fleeting glimpses of the 'new' Bolton.

Davies, Gretar Steinsson and Klasnic combined down the right in a short passing move to set up Tamir Cohen 20 yards out but he fired well over.

Arsenal, with Fabregas at the heart of everything, had struggled to create a clear opportunity until they took the lead in the 28th minute.

Steinsson slipped on the edge of the penalty area to hand possession to Fabregas and the Spain international capitalised, quickly exchanging passes with Eduardo before slotting a low shot past Jussi Jaaskelainen's outstretched right hand.

Arsenal's 19-year-old midfielder Craig Eastmond, making his first league start, almost doubled the lead four minutes later with a first-time shot from Fabregas' corner, which Jaaskelainen saved on the line with his legs.

Fab display

And the excellent Gunners captain should have had a penalty in the 33rd minute when he was caught by Zat Knight but referee Phil Dowd waved away claims.

Two minutes before the interval Fabregas missed his easiest chance from only seven yards from Andrey Arshavin's cut-back before Klasnic mis-kicked from even closer range in added time at the end of the first half.

Bolton began the second half as they had the first, with both Matt Taylor and Cohen causing Almunia concern in the early stages.

Lee Chung-Yong, Wanderers' best player, had caused Armand Traore problems all game and, having out-stripped the left-back once again, his low cross was deflected goalwards by William Gallas but Almunia collected.

Taylor was guilty of not testing the Arsenal goalkeeper in the 61st minute when Klasnic spun on the edge of the area to release him on the left only for his team-mate to blaze over.

Taylor was again the culprit in the 70th minute when he sprang the offside trap from substitute Gavin McCann's lofted pass but tried to beat Almunia from 35 yards despite being well clear of the nearest defender and ended up shooting wide.

Arsenal's response was for Thomas Vermaelen to curl a 25-yard free-kick on to the top of Jaaskelainen's net.

Fabregas had been quieter after the break but, when he did take control again, it set up the second goal 12 minutes from time.

His surging run into the penalty area allowed Eduardo to cross to the far post where Merida side-footed home to clinch victory.

Bolton WanderersTeam StatisticsArsenal
0Goals2
01st Half Goals1
4Shots on Target5
7Shots off Target5
5Blocked Shots5
2Corners4
13Fouls8
3Offsides2
1Yellow Cards2
0Red Cards0
59.6Passing Success76.2
28Tackles19
75Tackles Success84.2
41.1Possession58.9
51.7Territorial Advantage48.3

Comments (10)

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Steve Baker (Arsenal fan) says...

great result today from the gunners. this is a potential banana skin from a team that like to upset arsenal's rhythm. this is the kind of match where you need to grind out a result if you are competing for the title. i think we are a couple of quality players short to win the premiership though.never the less great first half of the season(apart from the chelsea game).

Posted 22:26 17th January 2010

Nana Osei (Arsenal fan) says...

I still believe Arsenal can win it although a lot of sports pundits plus Sir. Alex thinks otherwise. Come on Gunners!!!!!

Posted 22:21 17th January 2010

Kenny Agoro (Chelsea fan) says...

I think it is time for Arsenal fans to come to terms and proper understanding of football and stop saying Arsenal kids. They should understand that there is nothing like kids in Professional Football especially Premiership football. When millions of pounds are paid into their bank account, they are no arsenal kids, but when beating by a better opponents, then they become kids and worst of it all, is to say they are bullied on the pitch. Example was when they were outplayed by Chelsea and beaten 3-0. I think its time they get their heads together and improve and learn from their errors and stop making deformatory comments about opponents who outplayed you.

Posted 22:16 17th January 2010

Caleb Arogundade (Manchester United fan) says...

One major problem of the fans of Clubs who have failed to win any major silverware for the past four years or more is that rather than focussing their attention on the performance of their Clubs, they busy themselves with 101 o/o attention on Man U. Unfortunately for them, Man U is operating on UHF (Ultra High Frequency) such that is is difficult if not impossible for them to catch up. Last season, there were a lot of permutations as to how Man U failed to win in the past after leading the table for a considerable period of time. It's like people will not learn from other people's mistakes. The only Knighted Manager in the Premiership today is SAF. Ask those who criticised him yesterday, they are now 'walking alone'. A referee decides whether to award a penalty or not based on his own judgement whether at Old Trafford or Emirates or Reebok Stadium. Whether Arsenal can manage to win a silverware at the end of the season, only time will tell.

Posted 22:00 17th January 2010

Gary Hider (Arsenal fan) says...

If we continue to grind out results like today with a weaked midfield, surely the title will return to the Emerates come May

Posted 21:52 17th January 2010

Graham Done (Bolton Wanderers fan) says...

Being a Bolton season ticket holder I was at the game as ever today. Overall I was relatively happy with our performance, as David Reid said, our finishing today left much to be desired, namely from Matty Taylor who had several good chances but squandered all of them - on another day it could've been a different story. At the end of the day we were outplayed by a much better side, and the outcome will most probably be the same on Wednesday, however the future looks much brighter under Coyle.

Posted 21:35 17th January 2010

David Reid (Arsenal fan) says...

A very good result for the Gunners against a Bolton team that reverted back to their usual physical tactics when their passing game failed to produce results. Two decent penalty shouts but I understand it was too difficult for the ref to call but I still can't help thinking that if it were Wayne Rooney & Man U they would have probably got at least one with the same ref and circumstances. Traore looked very vulnerable, also in the Everton game, Wenger will have noted, Clichy needs to get back 100% asap, big games coming up. I think Bolton will try the same tactics again on Wednesday but hope that their finishing will be much better, as that is what let them down today. Good game all round, well done Arsenal for digging out a win, had my doubts before the game.

Posted 20:31 17th January 2010

Uko Akpatang (Arsenal fan) says...

I hear my children call Fabregas two different names today, one says he is Dr. Fabregas the other calls him Distributor I call him Tormentor in Chief.

Posted 19:34 17th January 2010

Mark Johnes (Arsenal fan) says...

I watched the game and believe arsenal were lucky but that is football. You can clearly see the difference between top teams and lower teams. Lower teams rarely take there chances while top teams are more consistent. That is the only difference.

Posted 19:20 17th January 2010

Vaughn Rajah (Arsenal fan) says...

Dogged, brilliant performance by a steadily improving and wiser Gunners side. Last season, this could have easily been 3-1 to Bolton but, through a combination of luck and tenacity, we ground out the 3 points and, hey, that's exactly what is needed to win the Premier League. Sign of things to come? Sure hope so(as he listens to 'More than a feeling'). Go Cesc, Go Wenger, GO MIGHTY GUNNERS GO! ;)

Posted 18:48 17th January 2010
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