Post Birmingham 1/1/11

Birmingham 0-3 Arsenal

A new year and the first game of 2011 for the Gunners! We came into this game 2 points behind Manchester United and Manchester City, who were also playing today. Before we look at those games we have a look at how the Arsenal got on.

Birmingham -v- Arsenal

Kick Off: 5.30pm 

Venue: St Andrews

   Weather: Very Wet+Rainy

Line Ups

Arsenal: Fabianski, Sagna, Clichy, Koscielny, Djourou, Song, Wilshere, Fabregas, Nasri, Walcott, Van Persie. (subs: Arshavin, Bendtner, Denilson, Eboue, Rosicky, Squillaci, Szczesny)

Birmingham: Foster, Carr, Ridgewell, Dann, Johnson, Ferguson, Bowyer, Larsson, Beausejour, Gardner, Jerome. (subs: Derbyshire, Fahey, Hleb, Jiranek, Taylor, Phillips, Zigic.)

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The Arsenal kept up the pressure on the two Manchester sides with a convincing 3-0 win over Birmingham City. A Robin Van Persie free kick gave Arsenal the lead, Samir Nasri's 13th goal of the season and an own goal from Roger Johnson wrapped up what was a great win.Cesc Fabregas was as always pulling the strings in midfield, while Walcott and Nasri worked the flanks, with RVP up top.

Arsenal were on top and in the 13th minute when Scott Dann brought down Van Persie, we took the lead. Van Persie set up the free kick and struck it off Lee Bowyer at the edge of the Brum wall. The ball hit his elbow, and deflected into the back of the net, 1-0 Arsenal.

The chances came and went for Arsenal. Jack Wilshere should have marked his 18th birthday with a goal, but missed with a side footed effort from 8 yards out. Foster did well to block an effort from Nasri but it was no surprise when on 57 minutes the Frenchman made it 2-0.

8 minutes later it was 3-0, an own goal by Roger Johnson. Nasri set up Fabregas whose shot was blocked by Foster, then hit off Dann, then Johnson, and into the back of the net.

The win keeps Arsenal third after Manchester United beat West Brom 2-1 at the hawthorns, and Manchester City beat a resilient Blackpool 1-0 at home.

A nice bit of good news arrived on The Arsenal Website on new years eve with wenger confirming that Emmanuel Eboue has signed a new long term contract at the club. I am personally delighted with this as i think hes been a great player over the last season or two and is always improving. Great to keep the current squad together and build on it, well done Wenger.

Eboue signs long term contract

!!QUICK NOTE!! Please bear with me over the next few weeks or so, the layout will chop and change, and ill end up putting up a little poll or something so the very few followers i have can vote on whice one ok? ill also be updating more frequently soon enough, and even more frequently through the transfer window as gossip or news comes in.

Thanks for reading, Jay.