Theo, please be that awesome every week. Pic via Guardian.
Arsenal 6: Walcott 12, 39, 58, Arshavin 32 (pen), Diaby 49, Chamakh 83
Blackpool 0
Blackpool thoroughly enjoyed their first week of top flight football in thirty years last week, opening their Premier League season with a 4-0 thrashing of Wigan Athletic. Yesterday, Arsenal sent the Seasiders crashing back down to reality.
Alex Song returned to the starting XI, playing his first football since the World Cup, and played at center half instead of his usual position in the holding midfield role, deputizing for the suspended Laurent Koscielny. Samir Nasri's injury meant that Tomas Rosicky was plugged into the starting line-up, while Theo Walcott replaced Emmanuel Eboue, who dropped to the bench.
Play was back and forth from the start, but even early on, you could tell this was going to be a special day for Walcott. Blackpool's left back, Stephen Crainey, will be having nightmares for months after getting torched repeatedly yesterday. Crainey was nowhere to be seen when Walcott opened the scoring, wide open on the right wing to put Arsenal up 1-0 on 12 minutes. Blackpool should have equalized about two minutes later as Gael Clichy lost his man on a cross. Gary Taylor-Fletcher got his head on the ball and had an open net, which he missed just wide to the right.
The match was turned on its head when Blackpool's Ian Evatt was sent off for what referee Mike Jones ruled was a last man foul, as he tackled Marouane Chamakh just at the edge of the area. The position was debatable as to whether or not it should have been a penalty; Andrei Arshavin masterfully blasted the ball into the net, past the diving Matthew Gilks who had guessed right, and it was 2-0 Arsenal with the road side on ten men.
Walcott picked up his second goal of the match just seven minutes later to make it 3-0. Walcott picked up a pass from Jack Wilshere in triple coverage with his back to goal about fifteen yards out, was allowed to turn by the defense and slotted a powerful shot under the arm of the diving Gilks. Arsenal was coasting away with the win by halftime.
It's important to note that Arsenal never seemed to take their foot off the accelerator for the first 25 minutes or so of the second half. Abou Diaby made it four after some brilliant maneuvering from Bacary Sagna to set it up. Walcott picked up his first career club hat trick after a pass from Diaby, once again being allowed to fire a shot despite coverage from at least two defenders. Chamakh missed a sitter a few minutes later, classic Nicklas Bendtner against Burnley style; with a wide open net, the ball took an odd bounce at the last second and as Chamakh slid into the ball's path, he sent it high over the bar, in a situation where it seemed harder not to score.
As if it wasn't bad enough for Blackpool at 5-0, this is when Robin van Persie and Cesc Fabregas came on, though both are clearly still a bit rusty. Chamakh scored his first Arsenal goal in the closing minutes with a header off a van Persie corner and Carlos Vela had a few very nifty moves that could have already been a goal of the season candidate if he only could have gotten the shot off.
At 5:00 p.m. English time last week, Blackpool was sitting on top of the league. One week later, it was Arsenal on top of the table, for two and a half hours, at least.
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