A FREEZE MAY have gripped England this weekend but it couldn’t hold down either Manchester City or Robin Van Persie.
The league leaders got back to winning ways after their mid-week defeat to Everton by mechanically disposing of Fulham 3-0 while the Dutch striker hit that amount on his own, claiming the match ball as Arsenal annihilated Blackburn Rovers 7-1 to secure their first league win of 2012.
Impressive as Arsenal were in that game – and as important as it may be as regards their confidence and momentum – it’s difficult to read too much into the result given that it’s exactly the sort of match that their players thrive in: with Blackburn Rovers down to 10 men after Gael Givet’s deserved red card and with nothing really on the table, Arsene Wenger’s team finally produced the kind of football they should be capable of in more pressing situations.
The writing was on the wall for Blackburn, though, after just a minute. Arsenal retained possession before Walcott cut down the right to set up Van Persie. The template was set. And, although Morten Gamst-Pedersen guided in a supreme free-kick to equalise, it was a momentary scare.
Within seconds, Arsenal had gone back ahead through exactly the same route. Just before half-time, then, Van Persie turned provider as he set up Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
After half-time, the young winger got his second just after Arteta claimed his first, with Van Persie then hitting his hat-trick thanks to fine work from Francis Coquelin.
Completing the rout in every sense in injury-time, then, Van Persie exchanged passes with Thierry Henry for the Frenchman to score his first league goal since his return.
On the sideline, Wenger was smiling. It is imperative that he keep doing so.
There was no such elan at Eastlands as City functionally disposed of Fulham in a game that ceased being a contest within 10 minutes. Then, Chris Baird took down Adam Johnson for Sergio Aguero to dispatch a penalty.
And it got worse for the Northern Irish international as he deflected Johnson’s later effort into his own goal to secure City’s win on 20 minutes. In the dying stages, Aguero set up Edin Dzeko for a third. Although the opportunity was probably there, City never exactly whipped up the blizzard of attacking football that would reflected the conditions in the stadium.
As awful as the game was for the neutral, however, it was a creditable performance from Roberto Mancini’s team. These, after all, are the sort of performances Manchester United of the last two decades and Liverpool of the 70s/80s have specialised in: just doing enough without doing yourself any harm.
Just below the league’s top tier, Sunderland gave more evidence that a challenge for European places is well within the club’s grasp this season. Continuing their astonishing run of form under Martin O’Neill – the best in the league since the Irishman took over – they claimed a supreme win away to Stoke City, with James McClean scoring the only goal.
Indeed, the former Derry winger’s recent upsurge has gone in tandem with his club’s, with both seemingly perpetuating the other. As it stands, it’s going to be very difficult for Giovanni Trapattoni to leave the winger out of his Euro 2012 squad.
He was also given further cause for thought with the impressive return to action of David Meyler.
While we’ll probably be waiting a while for Trapattoni to move on his fixed ideas, however, there were at least a few ructions at the bottom of the table.
Blackburn moved down while Wigan closed the gap thanks to a 1-1 draw at Everton and Wolves leapt away after a superb 2-1 win away to QPR.
The latter’s victory was largely thanks, it has to be said, to Djibril Cisse’s moment of madness as he turned and grabbed Roger Johnson to get himself sent off with his team 1-0 up. Thereafter, and thanks to Mick McCarthy’s changes, Wolves were much the better team as Kevin Doyle eventually sealed the win.
Bolton’s recent upsurge in form, meanwhile, was checked by Norwich, who beat them 2-0.
