Showing posts with label Marouane Chamakh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marouane Chamakh. Show all posts
Thierry Henry made a fairytale return for Arsenal as he came off the bench to sink Leeds United in a 1-0 FA Cup third round win at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal had dominated possession against a stodgy visiting side but needed the predatory instincts of Henry - who had replaced Marouane Chamakh on 68 minutes - to seal their progress in a competition they have won 10 times as the on-loan French striker slipped the ball beyond Leeds keeper Andy Lonergan with 12 minutes left.
Henry and his team-mates will face Aston Villa in the fourth round at home on the weekend of January 28/29 courtesy of the club icon's 227th goal in an Arsenal shirt.
The scenes of celebration were something to behold after Henry bounded onto Alex Song's pass to beat Lonergan with a trademark finish with his right foot that was an item of real beauty from inside the area.
He is only on loan from New York Red Bulls until the outset of March, but the short-term deal already seems to be a masterstroke by manager Arsene Wenger, who joined in the staggering moments of joy that saw Henry mobbed by his team-mates with the home supporters celebrating like they had lifted the FA Cup.
The watching former England skipper David Beckham looked as delighted as Henry, but Leeds will feel hard done by having seemed likely to force a replay despite coming to London to defend stoutly and hit on the break.
With the Dutch forward Robin van Persie rested, Arsenal looked to Andrei Arshavin and Marouane Chamakh to cut the Championship side open, but the pair suffered a frustrating night in front of goal as they huffed and puffed with little success.
That was until Chamakh made way for the bearded Henry, who is now a sprightly 34 with a statue cut outside of the stadium to honour his first stint at the club.
Arshavin had squandered a glorious chance to find the opening goal on five minutes as he walloped a shot wide from Chamakh's pass before Sebastian Squillaci nodded past a post from Mikel Arteta's corner on 14 minutes.
The outstanding Aaron Ramsey then lifted a shot over the bar from distance with Arteta slapping a shot wide from 20 yards as the general theme of Arsenal pressure and palpable frustration among the home supporters continued.
Leeds' best moment of the first period saw Luciano Becchio slam a shot over from inside the home area after a energetic run by Mika Vayrynen, but that was a rare moment of adventure from a visiting side whose general stubbornness belied their average age of only 24.
Arsenal continued to binge on possession in the second half with Lonergan diving low to his left to claw out a shot by Arteta on 53 minutes before doing likewise to repel a vicious effort by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as the home team continued to tot up their unsuccessful attempts on goal.
Leeds could have saved the game after Henry's big moment with substitutes Ross McCormack and Mikael Forssell forcing Wojciech Szczesny to make his first real saves of the night in the death throes of the match before the celebrations began as Henry raised his arms to the sky in celebration amid further scenes of unfettered joy.
It was little wonder Wenger said the dressing room was full of 'euphoria' in describing the mood among the Arsenal players at full-time.
Arsenal had to ride out a spirited second-half performance from Aston Villa before claiming a 4-2 win at Villa Park in the Premier League.
After enduring a week to forget with a derby defeat followed by a loss in Europe, Andrei Arshavin and Samir Nasri scored at the end of a first half they dominated, despite the absence of talismanic captain Cesc Fabregas.
Youngster Ciaran Clark scored a stunning goal - his first for the club - soon after the restart to pull a resurgent Villa back into the match, only for Marouane Chamakh to restore Arsenal's two-goal lead soon afterwards.
Clark then bagged another with 20 minutes remaining, but Jack Wilshere scored his first league goal for the Gunners in injury time to help Arsenal move top of the table for a few hours at least.
Ex-Arsenal winger Robert Pires made his full debut for Villa against his former club, but the 37-year-old's advancing years showed. The Frenchman made nigh on 300 appearances for the Gunners during the most glorious period of their history, and had trained with his old club before joining Villa on a short-term deal, but he could not exert the influence of old that helped the Londoners to the double and their unbeaten title-winning campaign of 2003-04.
Chamakh, one of seven changes to the Arsenal side following Wednesday's 2-0 defeat at Braga, almost opened the scoring in the first minute when he dinked Arshavin's pass over Brad Friedel, but defender James Collins was on the line to clear the ball.
Not long afterwards Tomas Rosicky flashed an effort across the face of goal, and the tone was set for a half of Arsenal dominance.
However, after that early flourish, the Gunners struggled to turn that hogging of the ball into many more clear chances.
Villa were reduced to going at the visitors on the counter-attack, but for the most part Pires provided an outlet bereft of pace.
Their first opportunity came midway through the first half, when Stewart Downing's cross from deep was flicked on by Clark to Ashley Young at the far post, but the England winger was beaten by the bounce and could only steer the ball over the bar.
Arshavin ended his 11-match run without a goal on 39 minutes. Collins and Luke Young got in each others' way as they both went for Lukasz Fabianski's long ball upfield, and the Russian had plenty of space to eat up before cutting inside and firing a strike that Friedel could only tip on to the far post and into the net.
Nasri fired into the side netting almost immediately from the restart, before Friedel made a good reaction save from Chamakh's header.
However, Nasri was not to be denied, and his volley from a corner took enough of a deflection off Luke Young to deceive Friedel and go into the bottom corner.
Pires was withdrawn for Nathan Delfouneso at half-time, and Villa emerged with renewed vigour. Clark gave the home side hope when Barry Bannan's cross was headed away by Sebastien Squillaci, but only as far as the 21-year-old, who was given enough space on the edge of the box to control with his chest and lash a stunning finish into the top corner.
Chamakh put Arsenal clear again soon afterwards when he beat Friedel to Rosicky's through ball and prodded it into the empty net for his 11th goal of the season.
However, Arsenal were far from home and dry, and Clark got his and Villa's second when he flicked Richard Dunne's header from a corner in off the underside of the bar.
The final 20 minutes promised much for the vociferous Holte End support, but in the end Arsenal's class shone through, and Wilshere sealed the result in the 93rd minute when he met Chamakh's chipped cross with a close-range diving header.
The spirit shown by Gerard Houllier's young side will encourage the French manager, but ultimately the result means Villa remain in the bottom half of the table.
We could not maintain our focus nor our urgency for 90 minutes on Saturday because some players dropped their level. At the same time if you look at the stats and the numbers it's very difficult to understand how we lost the game.
There was a drop of concentration, some basic errors, some bad luck as well because I don't think it should have been a free kick in the build-up to the penalty. But overall I was speechless after the game; it's a mystery how we could lose it like that.
We were in control in the second half as well as the first half. It was a free kick for us and then a goal for them. We were caught on the counter-attack at 2-0 and after that we were punished. We dominated Tottenham but we lost it and we can only look at ourselves.
I believe what is difficult to accept is that when you are 2-0 up, you have a free kick and you are caught on a counter-attack. That is very difficult to understand. Once a team comes back to 2-1 they have hope again. And we couldn't take our third chance. We had plenty of chances to score: we had Chamakh, Koscielny, one or two shots, but we didn't take those chances.
I don't think we lacked focus - if we had not started the game well maybe you could say that. But I felt some players who played midweek - who played Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday - could not maintain the pace in the game so we had some heavy legs in the second half.
Obviously three defeats at home is too many. In the first two games against West Brom and Newcastle we didn't deliver the performance and we can only say that we got what we deserved. On Saturday we delivered the performance but what is worrying for me is that we had an opportunity to go to the top of the league and when we had to deliver we couldn't.
That's worrying because that's part of our job.
Tottenham Hotspur pulled off an incredible comeback to win 3-2 at the Emirates Stadium and claim their first Premier League victory at Arsenal since 1993.
Arsenal led 2-0 at half-time thanks to goals from Samir Nasri and Marouane Chamakh, but Spurs levelled it up through a fine Gareth Bale finish and a Rafael van der Vaart penalty.
Younes Kaboul scored a late glancing header to complete an astonishing turnaround and silence the Emirates.
Tottenham came into the game without an away win against the 'Big Four' in a staggering 68 attempts. And it looked like that run would continue as the Gunners eased into a commanding position.
There was a suitably combative start. After Nasri refused to shake his former colleague William Gallas's hand in the pre-match formalities, the Arsenal man was released in the first minute, only to be dispossessed by a muscular Gallas challenge.
The pair apparently did not speak during Gallas's final season at the club, when he was relieved of the club captaincy, and the defender inadvertently caught his rival in the face with a flailing arm in the act of winning the ball.
But Tottenham's optimism soon turned into a familiar sinking feeling as Arsenal seized control of the game and the visitors went behind to an eminently avoidable goal.
Heurelho Gomes had already flapped at once cross when Cesc Fabregas sent Nasri through the middle with a fine, raking pass.
Nasri's first touch was heavy and Gomes appeared to have the situation under control as he slid out to claim the ball - but his challenge was limp, the ball squirted free and Nasri finished from an outrageous angle, rolling the ball in deftly from the left.
Arsenal grew in confidence, and exploited a Tottenham side missing a designated defensive midfielder with some slick passing.
One particularly excellent move was started and finished by Fabregas, as Arsenal worked the ball from left to right and back again, before the Arsenal skipper dragged his shot wide.
It was two on 27 minutes as the home side launched a magnificent counter-attack that culminated in Andrei Arshavin crossing low from the left and Chamakh touching the ball neatly past Gomes from eight yards.
Tottenham eventually grabbed a foothold in the game, even though Bale found his space restricted and Van der Vaart cut a frustrated, unhappy figure.
The Dutchman had a couple of long-range sighters while Luka Modric shot straight at Lukasz Fabianski, and a succession of corners came to nothing.
Jermain Defoe, returning from an ankle injury, replaced Aaron Lennon at half-time and Spurs attacked with a narrower formation as Van der Vaart cut inside from the right.
Within five minutes the move paid off as Defoe surprisingly won a header in midfield. It fell for Van der Vaart, who chested down and played in Bale, who steered a delightful finish past Fabianski into the left corner.
Arsenal continued to dominate possession, but they failed to test Gomes, and were made to pay following an inexplicable act of stupidity from Fabregas on 67 minutes.
Van der Vaart hit a free-kick towards the wall, and the Arsenal captain raised his arm to stop the ball. A blatant and unnecessary handball, and a penalty.
The Dutchman stepped up and sent the ball into the left corner as Fabianski dived the other way.
Arsene Wenger responded by replacing Chamakh with Robin van Persie, and his team soon had the ball in the net through Sebastien Squillaci, though it was rightly chalked off for offside.
Fabregas volleyed over from the edge of the box, and finally worked Gomes with a curling 20-yarder that looked destined for the right corner before the keeper tipped it athletically behind.
Laurent Koscielny was then guilty of a terrible miss, sending a free header over from six yards after a Van Persie cross.
And Kaboul made the Gunners pay, with Van der Vaart again the creator. His curling free-kick from the right was glanced on by the Frenchman, and it nestled in the left corner of the net past Fabianski's desperate dive.
The big talking point from Saturday was Jack Wilshere's red card.
He mistimed his tackle and he got what he deserved. But it was his first tackle in the game and you have to acknowledge that he didn't spend the whole game kicking people. He played football and was one of the best players on the football pitch.
Unfortunately he committed a bad challenge but I think it was borne of frustration, he mistimed his tackle. We do not complain about his red card but you cannot say he had a dirty game.
Aside from the sending off Jack showed that he is a complete player. He played defensively well, offensively well, and I believe that overall he had a very good game, a very influential game. He was very reliable defensively and very creative going forward.
Overall it was imperative to get the three points against Birmingham. I believe we played quite nervously - you could see our fluency was affected by the fact that we had not won for two games. We played a little bit with the handbrake in the final third, especially when we were 2-1 up, and it was never comfortable.
When we went 1-0 down it was backs to the wall considering the state of the Premier League table. We had absolutely to win so it was even more difficult to concede first, but I cannot fault anybody too much on the goal we conceded because it was a wonderful header like we used to see in England 30 or 40 years ago. There's not a lot you can do about that.
Marouane Chamakh scored the winner and since the beginning of the season, if you look at how many times he has been decisive at 0-0 or 1-1, you will be surprised. He is very influential in the team.
It was good to have Nicklas Bendtner back from injury but he doesn't look completely ready yet. He needs a few more weeks. He has not played regular football for a long time and you do not come back straight away like that into top-level competition.
