Arsenal 4 - 2 Bolton: We Are Top of the League!

Arsenal 4: Rosicky 43, Fabregas 52, Vermaelen 65, Arshavin 85
Bolton 2: Cahill 7, Taylor 28 (pen)

Dear Chelsea,

We are not going away.

Love,
Arsenal

WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE, SAID WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE!

I didn't think I'd be typing that after half an hour of football had been played at the Emirates today. Of course, this is not without controversy. Let's get started:

Bolton struck first early and this time, unlike Sunday, it counted. What I recall from this goal was that Manuel Almunia gave approximately zero effort to stop the shot. My initial reaction was along the lines of, "FOR GOD SAKES, AT LEAST MAKE AN EFFORT TO DIVE FOR IT!"

Then, Denilson's obvious penalty set up Bolton's chance to go up 2-nil, and they did not waste it. At least Almunia dived this time and got a hand on it. That said, he should've stopped it, but it was off the hand and into the net. Two-nil down with only 28 minutes played.

For the next ten minutes or so, all I could think about was how poorly this day was going (but I risk digression into my personal life here). That's when Tomas Rosicky hit a marvelous strike to get Arsenal on the board, and suddenly it was all Gunners. It looked like Arsenal might even get the equalizer before halftime, but that was not to be.

Ah, but then some controversy. 50-50 ball in the midfield sees William Gallas collide with Mark Davies of Bolton, clearly in the line of vision of the referee and no foul is called. Gallas collects the ball and moves forward with it, while Davies writhes on the pitch in agony. Bolton is incensed and play continues. Arsenal, for lack of a better term to describe their precision passing, arsenals the ball forward to Cesc Fabregas, who slips the ball through the legs of Bolton's goalkeeper (whom I will still refer to as Umlaut Machine) to tie the game. On replays, it's quite honestly obvious, Gallas fouled Davies and I think should have been booked. Arsenal also would've been more sportsmanlike to kick the ball into touch upon seeing Davies in such pain (given that he was taken in for X-rays, it could've been a broken ankle).

From that point on, Bolton's defense buckled and broke. Vermaelen put Arsenal ahead off a corner kick at around the midway point of the second half and Arshavin gave the Gunners the necessary two goal lead required to go to the top of the table after a good amount of arsenaling and an amazing finish.

Sure, Chelsea has a game in hand (hey, they could lose to Hull...) and Manchester United plays on the weekend since they got Leedsed out of the FA Cup (I'm going to stop using team names as verbs and also, hey, they could lose to Hull...), so we Gooners must enjoy this while we can.

WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE!