Before the match I'm sure I wasn't the only Wanderers fan who died a little inside when hearing that Robbo had retained his place ahead of Marcos Alonso, and the only changes to discern today's team from 'that game' a week ago was to bring back the goal machine up front and give Petrov a well earned kick up the arse by replacing him with Matty Taylor. But the men in white played the kind of football we have become so accustomed to seeing at the Reebok, artful, flowing and pacey. Colin Murray had expressed before kick off how for any reporter, Bolton against Arsenal was a golden chance to watch some real quality football, and he wasn't wrong. Danny Sturridge and Lee were a constant source of trickery and for the first half Bolton smothered Arsenal, pressing whenever they were in possession, and as a result the Gunners never really started. A half hearted appeal for a penalty from a Taylor challenge on Walcott was really the only chance they had of forging an opening in the first 45 minutes.
How we would have coped if the Vela deal had gone through and we never signed Sturridge in January I don't know (especially since Vela headed for West Brom and promptly flat lined in terms of goal threat). He is a player born to score goals, sublime or scrappy, we'll take whatever we can get but today's was certainly the latter. A corner (won from good link up play between Lee and Sturridge) whipped in for Cahill to head at goal, cleared of the line only to cross the line when Sturridge met it for his seventh goal of the season.
The second half started so well, a penalty in the first minutes, Davies with his 100% record from the spot, what could go wrong? The tamest of penalties, saved by Szczesny, then gave Arsenal momentum. It was possibly the worst thing for us, Davies seemed to spend the rest of the game lamenting the miss and Arsenal quickly went on to equalise and the Reebok had that feeling around it once again. But even Wenger's wet blankets couldn't put out a Bolton team on fire at home this season, we weathered the storm; Knight and Cahill looking immense, heading, kicking and charging down anything coming their way.
If we were going to win it, it looked like it would be from the break. Late on, the tireless front line earned the corner, cue substitute Tamir Cohen to rap up all three points. What followed was a touching and thoughtful tribute to his father and ex-Liverpool defender, the late Avi Cohen who had passed away in December of last year, taking his shirt off to reveal the tribute and picking a yellow card in the process.*
For me the man of the match has to be Zat Knight, whilst Cohen could have picked up my so widely sought after accolade for his monumental impact after such a difficult season, it was Knight who was at the heart of our 'you shall not pass' attitude that ultimately picked us up the points. Kudos.
This meant we had to throw away the consolation pizza of course (optimistic, ain't I)... luckily, we had the celebration pizza to hand.
*Aren't these rules getting ridiculous? The 'no taking your shirt off rule' was introduced to prevent players enticing the crowds, how would that get anybody riled up? Ludicrous.
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