 27.12.2009 December 27, 2009. London. Emirates. Arsenal - Aston Villa 3-0
The third and the fourth team of England clashed in the central Premiership match. Matchday 19. Both teams had scored 35 points. We should not forget that Aston Villa had been one game ahead. Taking into account recent matches between these clubs and keeping in mind the tournament table and success of Aston Villa in the current championship, Arsenal supporters were a little apprehensive before Sunday's game. One could almost feel tension and struggle in every patch of the pitch. The first half did not reveal the winner. Only in the second half the hosts managed to beat their guests. The worth of such win is obvious. The matches like this one show the real strength of the team. The supporters either feel a great pleasure from the victory or an awful
bitterness from the loss of any hope to climb on top of the tournament ladder ... Andrey spent the entire game on the pitch. He tried to combine a lot, stroke the gate. When Cesc Fabregas went out on the pitch, he became more active. These two gunners managed to organize a penalty kick that led to the first magnificent goal. This win of Arsene’s team allowed them to almost catch up with Chelsea. Well, the season 2009-2010 is going very interesting.
arshavin.eu: Andrey, have you felt any particular excitement before this game or maybe there was some nervous tension in the camp of the London Club?
AA: Arsenal felt no nervous tension. We were absolutely calm, everybody here has already got used that any Premiership game is always difficult. The excitement before the game was due to the Christmas; many players’ relatives came and wanted to see the match. There has always been a problem to get tickets to "Emirates", but these days, especially.... Those who watched the game will agree with me, we won a difficult match. Our opponent was in good physical condition. It’s enough just to have a look at their statistics this season and see how they played their last games. I think they won six or seven last matches. Moreover, they were able to beat the top-ranked teams of the League: Liverpool and Manchester United on away games. Anfield and Old Trafford wins are valuable. Even Chelsea lost to "Villa" 1-2 in Birmingham. We assumed that the game would be difficult, well, I guess it turned out to be an interesting spectacle. We had our moments; our rival’s game was based on set pieces. However, Cesc changed the course of the game... You know, I wish I could play like him. - go out for twenty or thirty minutes, score some goals and go away (laughs). No kidding, he was great. I hope that his old injury relapse won’t last long and he’ll start playing soon. Now I am glad that we were able to get the much desired victory. Perhaps, "Villa" did not deserve a major defeat, but then it was not important for us, the most important thing now is that we got closer to Chelsea and further from our today's opponent.
arshavin.eu: You stroke the gate in every time.
AA: There was nothing dangerous in the first half of the game, I went over the defender, but did not strike very hard. In the second half, there was a really good combination. I think that if the left leg was "mine", and the ball went a bit harder, the goalkeeper would not be able to react.
arshavin.eu: There were some other moments when you could have arranged something dangerous ….
AA: Well, anyway, we scored other goals.
arshavin.eu: Cesc scored twice and Diaby once. You were discussing something with him in the beginning of the second half.
AA: We recalled the first half, those episodes when he passed me in such way that the ball was taken away from me immediately. We discussed how to avoid it in the second half
arshavin.eu: Congratulations on the victory, and we wish Arsenal a victorious game with Portsmouth on December 30
AA: Thank you.
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