Arsenal 6 – 1 Coventry City

I know what you’re thinking from the score line, we got absolutely demolished, but I wasn’t expecting much to begin with due to the strong side and especially there attack Arsene Wenger put out. With 8000+ sky blue fans travelling down to London I wasn’t really expecting much just a great atmosphere and the sight of magnificent stadium, which I did. With Coventry not having the best of league starts unlike the Gunners who are unbeaten this season, it was a chance to forget everything and just go out all guns blazing, we did play well and I’m proud of everyone performance yesterday, just Arsenal outclassed us, easily the best team I have ever seen play, and that was there reserves!

The football side, new boss Mark Robins made five changes with Frank Moussa and James Bailey making their debut, Jamie Reckford getting his first start to, also Adam Barton and Stephen Elliot coming in. Kevin Kilbane, Steven Jennings, Billy Daniels, John Fleck and cup tied David McGoldrick and Arsenal loanee Connor Henderson all sat out but Fleck and Daniels were on the bench. Arsenal name a very strong attack with England national team players Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain both starting along with Olivier Giroud and Andrey Arshavin who all scored along with Ignasi Miquel. Other well named players in Johan Djourou and Andre Santos played in defence. The game started with Arsenal dominating possession with their passing style, which was amazing to watch, the first chance went to the away side with Frank Moussa ran down the left hand side who crossed was met by Stephen Elliot who headed wide on nine minutes and Adam Barton fancied a long range effort but It fired high over Martinez goal. Arsenal was too much to handle through the night on the counter attack as Arshavin ball into the box was inches away from Giroud. Richard Wood was next to have a crack at Arsenal goal when his looping header from Gary McSheffrey free kick went over the bar. Giroud nearly scored again when Francis Coquelin cut in side from the right hand side and his pass to Giroud who shot was comfortably saved by Joe Murphy. The man up front did eventually score when on the counter again Coquelin slid onto a loose ball which went to Giroud who beat the offside trap which led to a cheeky pass into Murphy’s bottom right hand corner, personally thought he was offside and the steward in front of me said that as well. The last chance off the half went to the home side again as Ignasi Miquel acrobatic overhead kick just went wide of Murphy’s goal again, sky blues were more than a match in that half, however it would soon change into a demolishing defeat by the Gunners in the second though.

The second half we were just outclassed all over the park, the encouraging thing though is we didn’t give up which I and hope Mark Robins see the positives. It could of went from bad to worse very quickly as Reece Brown backwards header was poor and Arshavin was there to pick up the ball, he was brought down and Referee Mike Jones had no choice but to give a penalty and a yellow card which was the only one of the game. Olivier Giroud who I guess was played to give him confidence in front of goal stepped up for the penalty. He had to wait though as 2 streakers ran on to the pitch and started a cops and robber chase with the stewards, funniest thing I saw after one of the stewards slipped trying to catch one of the streakers. I presume they were Coventry fans as they came from our corner, not sure though. When they were finally removed Giroud stepped up and his low shot into Murphy’s right hand corner was tipped round the post by the Irishmen, top save! Hadn’t cheered that much in ages! From the resulting corner Miquel header just clipped the top of Murphy’s goal. Coventry nearly went level as Richard Wood header into the ground from Carl Baker’s set piece bounced back up and just over Martinez goal. Richard Wood will be very angry with himself as the home side doubled their lead as Alex Oxlade Chamberlain long range  thunderous shot was unstoppable for Murphy, who I thought was too far out but I can’t fault his performance that game.  The Ox as nicknamed nearly scored a second as his shot was parried away by Murphy. The England International was involved in Arsenal third as his ball to front man Giroud who then played in Arshavin and the little Russian neatly controlled and passed it past Joe Murphy into his left hand side. Murphy was at full stretch again as Arshavin corner was met by Johan Djourou whose diving header was saved well by Murphy again. Very angry with McSheffrey again as for the second game he blazed over from inside the penalty area after Reece Brown flew a ball over the top to him, he could have squared it so wasn’t particularly happy with him. Coventry tried to change things around with John Fleck and Callum Ball coming on for Frank Moussa and Stephen Elliot, Arsenal made a triple substitution with Marouane Chamakh, Emmanuel Frimpong and Serge Gnabry coming on for Oxlade Chamberlain, Giroud and Coquelin, I guess he was gibing the goal scorers a rest as they have Chelsea at the weekend. Walcott made it four after the stoppage of the substitutions as he ran past Richard Wood leaving him behind who then blasted the ball into the far post of Murphy’s goal. Coventry had a few chances after that as McSheffrey pass to Ball led to the striker to shit just wide of Martinez goal. A curling free kick by Gary McSheffrey was the next City chance as Martinez was in full stretch as it just curled wide. The away side gave the fans something to go mad about when Carl Baker ball into the box was connected and slid home by substitute Callum Ball to send the 8000+ Coventry fans to go absolutely mental! The fans deserved it as they didn’t stop singing all game, unlike the Arsenal fans, 50000 of them and they were dreadful! It was only short lived as Arsenal regained a four goal lead when Arshavin’s short corner was sent into the box which was headed home by Spanish youngster Ignasi Miquel.  The hosts wrapped up an emphatic win when Walcott scored a similar goal to his first to certainly prove a point to Wenger when saying he wants to play up front. A very harsh result on Coventry, never gave up and their heads certainly didn’t drop, Arsenal just over powered them. I hope everyone like me will take the positives instead of the negatives out of the performance. Back to reality and crucial game away to Oldham Saturday. PUSB!