Arsenal vs. Norwich

3-1, Premier League, Emirates Stadium, 2013-04-13
Arteta 85 (pen),
Bassong 88 (o.g.),
Podolski 92

What. A. Game! Unbelievable stuff from the Arsenal... Just amazing! To turn the game around and even create a one-goal cushion with five minutes to go... This, if anything, shows why we should grab that fourth place, or maybe even the third place, before the end of the season. It is all in our hands now, either way, as we have one point more than Tottenham, having played the same number of games!

We started this game brilliantly, the first half was completely dominated by us (apart from a short span of approximately five minutes towards the end of the game where Norwich kept some possession and created some free-kicks as well as corners). Five minutes into the game Gervinho made a brilliant run but failed at getting the ball to Wilshere, right in front of the goal. Some minutes later Gibbs received a pass from Wilshere, yet the cross was just out of Cazorla's reach. The roles were reversed ten minutes later as Gibbs played a great ball to Wilshere, whose flick towards Ramsey went just too far for the Welshman to reach before Norwich 'keeper, Bunn.
   One of our greatest chances of the half came when Sagna provided a perfect cross into the box that was headed onto the crossbar by our towering striker Giroud! The next chance could easily have been a goal, but this time around Gervinho let the team and fans down as he collected the ball just outside of the Norwich box, but neither passed the ball nor got a shot away and Bunn could eventually take the ball from him. The Ivorian forward had another disappointing moment as he retrieved a stunning pass from Cazorla, the touch that would take the ball past the 'keeper was too rough, though, and the angle at which he was to score from got too tight and the ball went across the goal to end up wide of the target.
   Before the end of the half Giroud would have two more chances to score, one came from yet another decent Sagna cross that forced a good save out of Bunn. The second chance came in the last minute of the half as the Frenchman had a header towards the goal, but a defender managed to clear it. Cazorla had a shot on target from quite a distance, it was comfortably saved by Bunn though.

It is no secret that we have had far better second halves this year compared to our first halves, and this game proved to be no exception, even though it seemed unlikely for the majority of the half. To be fair, Norwich started the half better than we did. Five minutes into the half they had a corner which caused some distress in our box, fortunately we managed to clear it eventually. Before things took a turn for the worse for us Gibbs provided a dangerous crossed into the box, which was blocked but bounced back out to Wilshere, whose shot was blocked as well.
   With slightly more than thirty minutes left of the game, disaster struck as Turner headed the ball into the back of the net for Norwich, to no one's surprise it came through a set-piece. We were way to passive in defending the free-kick, no one covered Turner as he went for the header. This result meant that some changes had to be made, we needed to inject some speed into our game and the obvious player to introduce then is our top scorer, Walcott. He was accompanied from the bench by Podolski, another prolific goal-scorer this season.
   The impact of the double-substitution was immediate. Walcott made his way forward, but as he got the last pass to Podolski the German forward turned out to be offside. The rapid Englishman followed this up with having a penalty appealed turned down by the referee after being pushed in the box by a defender. The feeling of urgency to our came became more and more evident as we stacked up chance upon chance, Cazorla had a shot blocked and from that Podolski merely managed to head the ball to a Norwich defender. The German international would make an even greater mistake as Sagna's cross went past Giroud but met Podolski's foot perfectly, unfortunately the German striker seemed as stunned by it as everyone else and the ball went wide. Naturally the pressure we were building up meant that we opened ourselves to some counter-attacks and Fabianski had to make a vital save from one of those as Norwich created a chance.
   With approximately ten minutes to go Giroud and Podolski linked-up to almost create a goal, but Podolski did not reach the ball before Bunn. Then, within the same minute, the same pair linked-.up yet again, this time they were even closer to scoring as the Frenchman took the ball down with his chest for Podolski, whose powerful shot hit the crossbar with quite some force! Having hit the crossbar twice in one game began to feel as a curse when, at last, we got back in it! As Giroud's shirt was pulled when we took a corner the referee awarded us with a penalty! There was immense pressure on Mikel Arteta's shoulders as he stepped up to take the penalty, but take it he did and that absolutely vital penalty was converted by the Spaniard as the Emirates erupted into cheering!
   Now all that remained was to win the game, with five minutes left to play of the 90 minutes! It would have been the shortest five minutes to remember, had we not scored again so fast! Merely three minutes later we got the winning goal! Oxlade-Chamberlain provided a brilliant cross that was turned into his own net by Bassong. Though to be fair to the defender Giroud did put quite some pressure on him and would certainly have scored had Bassong not done it himself. No matter the fashion of the goal, a goal it was and what an important goal as well! Before the end we did get some reminders that one should never relax for a second against these teams fighting for survival, Fabianski was called into action twice during the following two minutes. The Polish 'keeper made a brilliant save with his feet as Norwich created a decent chance and yet another amazing save, this time from a header, as Norwich took a corner. However, we did get the last save as Lukas Podolski sealed the game during the extra-time. A pass from Walcott led to a wonderful shot from the German that ensured the three points and vital win for us!

You often hear that these final games of the season are all like a cup final, this game did most certainly not prove that statement wrong. To turn the game around in the final five minutes is quite a feat, it truly shows that we are ready to fight in these final games for a spot in the Champions League next season. And now that we have it all in our own hands, I would not bet against us!

Injury Update:
- Rosicky missed this game through a minor injury problem, should be back before long.
- Both Wilshere and Walcott were back for this game, the former started the game whilst the latter started on the bench but came on to replace the former in the second half.