Reading Report: 4-0 To The Arsenal

First Half

It started just one minute in with a beautiful strike on from Thierry Henry!!! Initiated with a great pass from our own territory by Gilberto, Cesc ultimately pushed the ball to the top of the box from a deep position within Reading’s box. It was a skillful one-timer for Henry to finish and put us up for what would be the rest of the match.

Henry lost possession while running at the defense at 2:55. The move was nearly promising, but ultimately disappointing. So close. In the 4th Fabregas had a shot on goal blocked after being released on the right with a short ball from Henry. This great chance could have easily been the second goal, and the game had just been played for five minutes. At 5:25, Lehmann got his first appearance and touch on the ball. The ref must have disallowed his knight’s helmet, but it looked like he did have knight’s helmet hair.

At 8:30 there was another flash of brilliant play along the right from Hleb, Rosicky, and Gilberto that ultimately gave Henry an open outside-of-the-box opportunity that rolled low and left. Had it been Rosicky maybe The Cannon would have been on target?

As the game moved on, Djourou escaped luckily after a mis-touch narrowly and accidentally (!) nutmegged a Reading striker. At this point Arsenal was dominating with 65% possession with just 10 minutes on the clock.

In the 11th Van Persie took a solo effort with a shot that missed just wide to the right on the counter-attack. Then at 16:20 Toure stabbed at the offense slowing down a counter-attack, and then headed the ball back into midfield from an early cross. Kolo was in his best form all night.

Three minutes later the ref had a small conversation with Stephen Hunt about a late challenge deep in our end. It was nice to see that he wasn’t going to tolerate shit from the goalie-remover. In a strange twist, Reading began to chant Jose Mourinho’s name as a taunt for his comments after last weeks match. What a bunch of cunts. But they are making fun of Mourinho… tough call.

In the 22nd there was some trickery between Gallas, Henry, and Cesc that lead to a point blank shot along the left from Gallas. Ultimately it was parried away by the American keeper’s chest. Passing in and around the box had been perfect and entertaining for us as chants of Arsenal could be heard in the 24th.

There was some sloppiness moments later as Gilberto tripped up in the box giving Reading a corner. The corner was tipped away by Lehmann and he was then forced to make a brilliant jumping save after immediately getting up. The next corner was then hit off target.

Van Persie then did well to dance around the defense on the left but takes a shot entirely too wide and high. Great individual skill but a poor finish.

Some how in the 29th a play was developed that allows Hoyte of all people through on the right. His shot ran low far wide to the left all the way across the box. The fact that Hoyte made it this far up was a bad sign for Reading. Then, there was a lovely play between Djourou and Lehmann in the back, but then Gallas gave the ball away horribly with an errant pass. The play fizzled with Lehmann scooping up the ball to a rushing Stephen Hunt, but not without Lehmann pointing his finger in Hunt’s face and giving him an earful.

A great chance developed from a Fabregas cut inside to Van Persie. The shot ultimately had little power and went for the keeper’s arms. The right side of Reading’s defense was crumbling under the pressure of Arsenal’s continuous runs and passes.

Henry earned a free kick at the 38th by nearly breaking through three Reading defenders. The announcers were talking serious shit, saying that Henry was ‘looking for something’. Horse shit. Van Persie’s free kick was a shot that ended several yards high, completely wasting the opportunity.

Hleb nailed home our second with a stunner in the end of the 39th. The Build-up came all the way from a thrown-in and ended with a Fabregas one-two to put Hleb in on the right. The shot deflected off the arm of the keeper but he had no chance. Amazing.

Justin Hoyte had a great game and single handedly shut down a threatening cross in the 40th. He played strong and close, not allowing the Reading defense any room.

Van Persie did well at the 41st to skip around the defenders on the left but his perfectly placed cross was met by a serious lack of red shirts. Hleb was also looking fantastic as he sprinted to pressure the defense from the midfield just afterwards. Strangely enough VP11 and TH14 were nowhere to be found, so the pressure from Hleb was needed.

As the half-ended we were up 2-0 and looked like upping the goal count even further in the second. The first half saw two attempts and only one shot on target from Reading, while Arsenal had eleven shots and five on goal.

Second Half

Late in the 47th Lehmann caught yet another corner from Reading. The second half had started with much less activity than the first, but this wouldn’t last long as Arsenal were looking to add more goals to their current tally.

At the start of the 49th we had another brilliant play from Henry to Hleb to Van Persie ending in a great goal. There was no stopping The Arsenal at this point as Robin Van Persie chants filled the stadium. VP11 had little to do with the finish by the time he was given the ball as he was nearly dead center 3 yards out with the keeper nowhere to be found. We were passing so brilliantly through their defense that they looked like statues.

Reading nearly equalized on the turnaround with a late cross that almost ended in an own goal from Gallas as he stabbed at it with his foot. The ball dribbled across the net and out for another failed corner.

Henry had another shot on target as he was put through by the industrious Fabregas at 53:30. The American keeper Marcus Hahnemann did well to parry the shot wide and Rosicky flubbed the rebound attempt. Rosicky’s attempt should have been a goal if not for Hahnemann’s well timed and fearless save.

Reading had more opportunities throughout but were unable to finish when it mattered.

Henry played a purely magnificent through ball into the box, weighted with precision, to Fabregas at the 70th. Hahnemann did well to come out but just caught too much of Fabregas for the ref not to not call for a penalty. Henry netted a powerful shot off the post low and to the right. Hahnemann had no chance. Thierry Henry, Thierry Henry, Thierry Henry, Thierry Henry.

One minute later Hahnemann shined yet again and prevented a Rosicky strike from slipping past. At this point it looked like Hahnemann was doing all the work for Reading. He prevented another Henry strike from finding the back of the net at the 72nd as well.

Walcott and Adebayor came on late in the second for Hleb and Van Persie respectively (although the order was switched, oddly enough). Both players looked great for the rest of the match, adding some relief to the tiring team.

Alex Song came on for Rosicky in the 77th, and I’ve no fucking idea why. His movement off the ball is at times intrusive, and on the ball he looks lost for ideas. His performance today confirmed that. Note that after he came on, Reading experienced their most possession and opportunity for the remaining 13 minutes. Can one man, even Song for Hleb, have an affect like that? I think so.

From the 88th to the 92nd minute, Arsenal were just torturing Reading with smart and consistent passes that made up for a lengthy period of possession. You could have even called it rude of us.

The final whistle blew and Reading was finally put out of their misery. 4-nil to the Arsenal.

Player Recap

Rosicky looked tireless throughout the match. He pursued balls and created chances consistently.

Gilberto did well to clean up after the defense when there were problems. There weren’t many, but his role is crucial to our success. He had some errant passes like the Moscow match, which were a bit worrisome at times, but hopefully he can overcome this in matches to come.

Fabregas was integral in nearly ever attempt. His holding game is improving and he is still connecting beautiful running-on passes with the forwards. His post match comments sum it up:

All the team played really well, especially in the first half. We played some very good football and we were lucky to get the first goal early in the game because the confidence is quite high at the moment. When we play like that, I don’t think a lot of teams can do anything about it against Thierry and players like that. The important thing was that we played as a team, we defended as a team and we’re really happy with the performance today.

Henry looked as masterful as ever, but perhaps came down too hard on his players. I like that he is talking to his team after failed attempts, but I don’t know that his body language inspires confidence. Henry stated that this win wasn’t a message to the league leaders.

Theo Walcott is really, really fast. Speedy Gonzalez fast. He’s like The Flash.

Toure was great in the back and his recent form has just been getting better and better. His injury scare sidelined him for a couple of minutes but after rubbing some dirt on it he walked it off.

Man of the Match

I’m going to go for Alex Hleb as my man of the match. He scored the second and created the third, essentially burying the hatchet. He was consistent and I’m not even sure he had any turn-overs or failed passes. And then when Song came on for him the game drastically changed for the worse.