Barclays Premier League update: Trotters gunned down 4-1

The Gunners continued their unbeaten run in the premier league with a 4-1 drubbing of Bolton Wanderers at the Emirates stadium. iSporter Jigar Mehta shares his views about the game. Find out more!

The Gunners went into the game with some mixed news, Thomas Vermaelen was to miss out with an Achilles injury, ace striker Robin Van Persie and the in-form Theo Walcott would be sidelined for more than a month, both suffering from an ankle injury and with some good news that Samir Nasri had recovered from his injury ahead of schedule.

The new signing Sebastien squillici was handed his debut in place of Thomas Vermaelen & defenders Clichy & Sagna were left out on the bench keeping in view the mid-week Champions league tie.

For the Trotters goalkeeper Adam Bogdan replaced the suspended Jaaskelainen.

Going into the match both teams were evenly placed with 7 points each from 3 games.

Arsenal started the first half brightly and nearly got their 1st goal as early as in the 5th minute when Rosicky slipped in a splendid outside of the foot pass to Arshavin which saw him miss a simple chance despite being one-on-one with the keeper.

Meanwhile Bolton were playing a very physical game and it got a little bit dangerous as Davies was yellow carded for his reckless tackle on Jack Wilshere in the 18th minute of the game , lucky not to have received one a few minutes earlier.

Arsenal's continued to press forward with Fabregas and Rosicky being the liveliest of the lot and were rewarded with a goal in the 24th minute when Wilshere clipped in a superb over the top ball inside the box from the right wing towards Fabregas who headed it back across the goal towards the new comer Koscielny who by hook or by crook managed to put the ball behind the net after an initial save from the Bolton goalkeeper.

The Bolton goalkeeper was kept busy throughout the whole half as first Fabregas’s and then Rosicky’s attempts on goal were saved by him.

Fabregas was at his best as he slid in wonderful through balls to Arshavin on two occasions with Arshavin side-netting on both the occasions in the 31st and the 40th minutes of the game.

But against the run of play Bolton snatched a goal just before the half time as a mistimed headed clearance by the Arsenal goal scorer Koscielny was latched onto by Bolton’s Lee Chung-yong who managed to chip the ball back across the goal only to be headed in by Elmander at the far post.

The second half saw Arsenal continue their domination and Fabregas was again in the thick of things as he slid in wonderful through balls and was rewarded for his efforts as a desperate Arsenal regained their lead in the 55th minute with some brilliant play down the left flank as he got to the by-line and chipped in a left footed cross to Chamakh who headed it into the net comfortably.

The game got a little bit spicier, at first with a bad challenge from Davies which saw dreadful clash of heads, then in the 64th minute when Gary Cahill was controversially sent off for a challenge on Chamakh, a red card seemed to be a little bit harsh and in the 69th minute a really bad tackle from Robinson saw substitute Diaby injured and had to be substituted again.

The 10 men Bolton were really struggling now and the question was can they resist this arsenal attack?

The Answer was no as Arsenal put the game to bed with a 3rd goal in the 78th minute with some brilliant passing by Arshavin inside the box to Song whose brilliant first touch saw him get ahead of Knight and followed it up with a superb tight angled chip into the net, a goal definitely worthy of an applause!

Then came the moment of the game in the 83rd minute when a move which included more than 20 passes in the build up to the 4th goal saw the star of the match Fabregas loft a superb ball to the substitute Carlos Vela who buried it into the net in a one-on-one situation with the keeper.

The wave after wave of Arsenal attacks continued and Bolton Wanderers were just praying for the final whistle to be blown and they were grateful that at the end of the game that the score-line was only 4-1!

All in all it was deserved victory for Arsenal with another 3 points in the bag but a worry for Arsene Wenger as he had another bitter blow with Diaby being injured and also with the Quality of finishing being not that good!

As for Owen Coyle, he might consider himself a bit unlucky being down to 10 men in the game but a worry as his bad performances in the away games continues and to add insult to injury, eight straight defeats to Arsenal in the Premier league!

Man of the Match: Cesc Fabregas: The little Spaniard was back at his best and was just outstanding throughout the game. He was instrumental in 3 of the 4 goals scored by Arsenal as his contribution accounted to 3 assists and would have been more but for some bad finishing!