Premier League - Arsenal go top

Eurosport - Sun, 21 Sep 11:10:00 2008

Arsenal went top of the Premier League after coming from behind to beat bogey side Bolton 3-1 at the Reebok Stadium.

FOOTBALL 2008-2009 Premier League Arsenal Song Sagna Denilson - 0

Kevin Davies headed the hosts ahead on 14 minutes before Emmanuel Eboue and Nicklas Bendtner netted in quick succession to hand the lead to Arsenal before half-time.

Theo Walcott, on as a substitute, created a third late on for Brazilian midfielder Denilson who secured all three points for Arsenal to make it four wins out of five so far this season.

Arsene Wenger's side will now stay top of the table overnight with Chelsea not taking on Manchester United until Sunday.

Bolton had won four of their previous five encounters with the Gunners at the Reebok and the match appeared to be following that rather well-worn script when Kevin Nolan forced a good save out of Manuel Almunia with a dipping 25-yarder early on.

That feeling continued when Davies opened the scoring on 14 minutes, the flat-track bully - so often a thorn in Arsenal's side - netting a simply executed goal by rising above Kolo Toure and heading Joey O'Brien's corner past Almunia.

But that was about as far as the story followed the script, as Arsenal immediately asserted themselves on the game and gained the upper hand during a thrilling 10-minute period of play which culminated with two goals in a minute.

Eboue registered his first goal in an Arsenal shirt when he slotted home from close range on 26 minutes. Replays showed the Ivorian was in an offside position when Bendtner's cute pass found him, but the linesman's flag stayed down and the goal stood.

And then just a minute later Arsenal took the lead, this time Bendtner sliding in to finish from Denilson's centre from the left.

Perhaps Bolton had not been prepared for the ferocity of the fight-back, but there was no doubting that it had been coming. The woodwork had twice been struck in the immediate lead-up to the goals, Adebayor hitting the base of an upright when put through on goal moments before the post denied Alexandre Song a header from a corner.

Bolton were simply blown away by Arsenal's fluent passing game but Gary Megson's side are a tough proposition, especially on their home turf, and they managed to carve out a couple of chances before half-time.

On both occasions, it was Nolan who went close to restoring parity, but the Bolton skipper was first denied by an excellent Almunia save before seeing a sidefooted volley bounce the wrong side of the post.

Bolton's frustration was borne out as the first half neared its conclusion, Davies lunging in on Gael Clichy with a shocking tackle that resulted in the Frenchman heading to hospital for a check-up and the Bolton striker picking up a yellow card. It could easily have been red.

Fortunately Arsenal confirmed later that Clichy only suffered minor injuries and was able to return to London with the rest of the squad.

Arsenal started the second half brightly, Song forcing Jussi Jaaskelainen into making a sharp save soon after the restart, but Bolton - backed by a constant wall of sound from what was a disappointingly small gate - began to come back into the game.

Mustapha Riga was introduced as a 56th minute substitute and summer signing from Levante nearly made a big impact soon after when Almunia had to be alert to tip his well-placed effort round the corner.

But Bolton's best chance of the game fell to full-back Gretar Steinsson, who was afforded a free header from a corner with seven minutes remaining. The Iceland international could only plant his header over the bar though.

Bolton were made to rue his profligacy as Walcott burst through the hosts' defence on 87 minutes before feeding Adebayor, who in turn centred for Denilson. The youngster had the easy task of sweeping home from close range to seal just the Gunners' second win in six attempts at the Reebok.

Mike Hytner / Eurosport

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  1. well lets see how long arsenal stay top.only 5 games played,lets not get carried away ladies,all the hard teams to play still,arse wenger should be worried if they win nothing for a 2nd season

    From !, on Tue 23 Sep 3:49AM

  2. @#$% Wenger moaning as usual. Its a mans game get over it

    From trotter, on Mon 22 Sep 10:33PM

  3. I know its early days and the Gooners havent played the other top 3 yet. But please note goals are coming in from all areas not just reliant on a single player - Drogba or Ronaldo.

    Also, if think you think of a business that continually loses money the business shuts down. With the new influx of petro dollars these clubs live like an Ostricht with its head down a hole. Pity the clubs cant play within their financial means.

    Gooner for life

    From timity, on Mon 22 Sep 7:25PM

  4. HI gunners, you really and spice to our weekends. CONTINUE WITH YOUR BEAUTIFUL FOOTBALL DISPLAY. We lead while others follow.
    MAXWELL.

    From wainaina, on Mon 22 Sep 3:32PM

  5. GO GUNNERS .
    JAYMO

    From wainaina, on Mon 22 Sep 3:29PM

  6. Damn gazfox what a racist jerk..cant ppl have trheir own saying ?

    From Julio, on Sun 21 Sep 9:00PM

  7. As a long life fan it was frustrating to see arsenal loose already so early on in the season but we are starting to believe,come on the gooners any arsenal fans get in touch with me lets rip tottenham

    From smiffygooner, on Sun 21 Sep 5:48PM

  8. Arsenal are reppin alday everyday!! Some gd news at last people!!!

    From JAMAHYL, on Sun 21 Sep 12:20PM

  9. ajibola....err...what success is that ? i dont seem to remember any in the last 3 years...oh yeah, success in the papers, with words like worlds best football (harrumph).. but not on the pitch or in the record books, you mug... SUCCESS?... portsmouth and spurs have had MORE THAN ARSENAL...you keep trusting in @#$%

    From GARY, on Sun 21 Sep 11:52AM

  10. GENIUS redboltonhorse is such a rocket scientist he cant even spell his own team WANDERERS correctly ...lmao wot a noob

    From lindabroadbent328@..., on Sun 21 Sep 11:34AM

  11. Redboltonhorse, many thanks for your erudite and lucid explanation of how Arsenal managed to win yesterday. If I were you I would see if the Sunday Times has any vacancies on it's sports desk.

    From Natanya_uk, on Sun 21 Sep 11:04AM

  12. I cant beleive the kind of football being created at the emirate stadium.Its great to be an arsenal fan.With our own credit crunch thanks to our renewed economist Prof. Wenger we are still able to use what we have to get we always wanted.Money cant buy sucess all the time its only team spirit,even if we fail to win trophy we still proud of the galant spirit of our boys.Welldone Walcot I av always seen you coming,good things wait for those who wait!

    AJIBOLA(LONDON)

    From ajibola, on Sun 21 Sep 10:10AM

  13. Even with six of our guys absent with ijuries and most of them our top players we still manage to churn out amazing footie. The squad is even better and more confident than last season where injuries and bad decisions by biased refs saw us lose by only a few points! to all you knockers 'green is what you and ignorance is bliss' - Arsen has spent wisely and we are seeing the results.

    From RIK P, on Sun 21 Sep 10:01AM

  14. I loved the comment. Arsenal Top, Spurs Bottom.
    This itself is a major highlight of Spurs "Glorious 155 yrs".

    Life is beautiful :)

    HAMAD from Dubai

    From Hamad, on Sun 21 Sep 9:35AM

  15. cheats arsnel are cheats in fact scum time wasters @#$% ed who need to get a life

    SAME OLD ARSNEL ALWAYS CHEATIN

    WANDERES WANDERES WANDERES

    From redboltonhorse, on Sun 21 Sep 9:20AM

  16. Love watching the Gunners,but have doubts about their resilence

    From mrstyches, on Sun 21 Sep 9:09AM

  17. WENGER THE MASTER OF ENGLISH FOOTBALL.AND IT MAKES ME PROUD BE AN ARSENAL FUN SINCE THE DAYS OF IAN WRIGHT,DAVID PLAT AND THE CO.HERE WE DONT BUY STARS,BUT WE INVENT THEN AT AN EARLY STAGE.THIS IS THE SEASON WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR,TO TAKE WHAT BELONG TO US.WE CANT PLAY AND THE PLAY,WE PALY AND THEY WATCH.WHAT A FANTASTIC BALL GAME.

    From musa, on Sun 21 Sep 9:00AM

  18. i hope and pray for aresnal gooooooo same away.

    From azharul Islam, on Sun 21 Sep 8:59AM

  19. go arsenal!!

    From ShahRay, on Sun 21 Sep 7:49AM

  20. Beautiful football, nice set-pieces, quality entertainment and football at its best. That is what arsenal are. I pity those who think last season will be the same with this season. You better wake up from your slumber. It was injuries that affected our play last season and the dangerous tackle on Eduado that killed our morale. We are back this season and it is surely for good. Watch out Chelsea, Man U & Liverpool. Gunners for life.

    From tunde, on Sun 21 Sep 7:49AM
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