Bolton Humbled

It was supposed to be business as usual for Bolton Wanderers manager and alleged Arsenal bogey man Sam Allardyce. Sit smugly upstairs in the first half with Chairman Phil Gartside, head bowed, instructions constantly muttered into the lapel to be relayed to trusty little assistant Sammy Lee. Get in Arsenal’s faces and, well, watch them squirm – then spend a happy second half on the touchline snarling, pointing and chasing a petrified bit of chewing gum round your seemingly ever open mouth.

Unfortunately it didn’t go entirely to plan, because although Allardyce’s boys played out of their skins the Gunners not only stubbornly refused to squirm, they blew Bolton away with football so brilliant it seemed to have come from another world entirely. The result was a game that was so embarrassingly one-sided that at times Bolton’s only chance of getting the ball was to wait for Arsenal, or the referee, to give it to them. And the only reason it went into extra time was that Arsenal’s ability to take chances never matched their talent for creating them. A misfiring Julio Baptista could easily have outstripped the four goals he scored against Liverpool. Somehow Arsenal managed to squander two penalties. And on top of that Rosicky, Gilberto, Denilson and Hleb came close and Abou Diaby missed out when clean through. As for Bolton, at best they might have managed four goals, including Meite’s scrambled equaliser in time added on, but against the shedload Arsenal ought to have scored it would have been hopelessly inadequate.

At the end of it all it was regrettable that Allardyce, the self-styled master tactician, couldn’t bring himself to acknowledge publicly the superiority of Arsenal’s performance. But privately he will know that this was a day when thousands of spectators and millions of television viewers were treated to a standard of football which lies far beyond the wildest dreams of Bolton and their manager. It was Brass v Class, Artisans v Artists, and therefore no contest – for the very good reason that, as Arsenal’s loyal fans were quick to point out, there really is ‘Only One Arsene Wenger’.