Lime-green boots of Bendtner nick pointsfor off-colour Gunners
Arsenal 1 Bolton 0
Bolton Wanderers' Dan Shittu (L) tries to prevent a cross from Arsenal's Danish player Nicklas Bendtner (R) during the Premiership match at The Emirates Stadium in London on January 10, 2009. Bendtner scored a late goal to give Arsenal victory 1-0. Photo: Adrain Dennis, Getty Images
As Arsenal struggled desperately to break down the Bolton Wanderers barrier, the words of Cesc Fabregas in the match programme proved mildly provocative.
The Arsenal captain spoke repeatedly of going on "holiday" -- he used the word five times -- to recuperate from his long-term knee injury.
How everyone in the refrigerator that was the Emirates Stadium on Saturday wished that they could be joining him. Not only to escape the Arctic conditions in North London, but also to be free of having to watch the stifling, strangling tactics that visiting teams often employ and Arsenal's frequent, frustrating inability to overcome such limited objectives.
The fluid, pickpocketing talents of Fabregas, as he limps around on a beach somewhere exotic, will be sorely missed as the title race gathers momentum.
Still, Arsenal prevailed. Just. Gael Clichy released Robin van Persie and the Dutchman's cross was cleverly dispatched at the far post by Nicklas Bendtner. The substitute had opted for lime green-coloured boots instead of his favourite pink version.
"I am not convinced by them," Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, said. "But if he puts the ball in the net, I do not mind. He has scored a very important goal and I believe in him."
Belief is keeping Arsenal going. Just. So, too, the late, late shows.
In 33 matches this season, they have scored 16 goals in the last 10 minutes, which has earned them five extra points in the Premier League and three in the Champions League.
Without that return, they would be well off the pace in the league and would have been eliminated from Europe.
"When we don't score, we have to show a resilient side," Wenger said. "Many doubted the mental qualities of the team but it shows that they are there because we always score. It did look like it would go to 0-0, but we finished with an old-fashioned 4-2-4 system to win the game."
Arsenal could have broken through earlier, when Robin van Persie struck a post. Bolton could have equalised, Kevin Davies shooting weakly at Manuel Almunia.
Apart from Bendtner's goal, the rest was a mish-mash of honest endeavours from Arsenal and defiant defence from Bolton. Little end-product, little to relieve the monotonous grind.
Criticism of Bolton for their unambitious approach is futile. An attack policy would have left them vulnerable and their ranks were depleted, anyway, with Gary Megson, the manager, able to name only four substitutes. Injuries and suspensions had bitten hard.
"For a club of our ilk, coming to a top club, you don't have much choice in the way you look to play, certainly away from home," Megson said. "It's not a way that we like to play all the time but it was forced upon us today. In the end, we just ran out of legs."
Fabregas will return to the club next month to further his rehabilitation, and is unashamedly moping. "I haven't been following football much lately," he said. Yet at least he is warm. Lest his team-mates and the impatient, chilled Arsenal fans should forget, he is on holiday. (© The Times, London)
- Russell Kempson
