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Gunners win after thrilling comeback
STILL IN THE HUNT:
Trailing 2-0, Arsenal were reduced to 10 men when Abou Diaby was sent off, but three goals in the last 30 minutes turned the encounter on its head
AFP, BOLTON, ENGLAND
Monday, Mar 31, 2008, Page 20
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Gary Cahill of Bolton Wanderers, second right, attemps an overhead kick past Arsenal's Kolo Toure. left, and Bolton's Grzegorz Rasiak, second left, during their English Premier league match at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton, England, on Saturday.
PHOTO: AFP
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Arsene Wenger believes Arsenal are still in the hunt for the Premier League title after their stunning recovery to win 3-2 at Bolton Wanderers.
Trailing 2-0 to two goals from Matt Taylor, Arsenal were also reduced to 10 men following the dismissal of Abou Diaby and facing a sixth league game without victory on Saturday.
However, goals from William Gallas, a Robin van Persie penalty and, in the final minute, an own goal from Jlloyd Samuel turned the outcome on its head and kept Arsenal in contact with Manchester United and Chelsea.
"In all my time here I can't remember a better comeback than that -- 2-0 down, with 10 men, with half an hour to go," Wenger said. "But we knew at halftime that even 2-2 was not good enough for us. We had to really continue to believe, to show mental strength and play our game as much as we could. That wasn't easy."
With Wednesday's Champions League quarter-final against Liverpool looming, Wenger would also have been encouraged by the performances of substitutes Theo Walcott and Emmanuel Adebayor who helped change the outcome of the game in such dramatic fashion.
Bolton opened the scoring with their first meaningful foray into opposition territory. El Hadji Diouf took possession from a throw-in and slid the ball down the line for overlapping full-back Steinsson.
The Icelandic defender delivered the perfect cross for Taylor, who sped in ahead of his marker and headed past Manuel Almunia from the edge of the six-yard box.
Bolton doubled their lead two minutes before the interval.
Mathieu Flamini was caught in possession by Gavin McCann, allowing Diouf to square the ball to Taylor, on the edge of the Arsenal area, and the resulting shot took an unkind deflection off the back of Gallas before flying into the bottom left-hand corner.
In the 62nd minute, Gallas arrived unmarked at the far post to convert a Fabregas corner.
Then, just five minutes later, a superb back heel from Adebayor set up Flamini, whose shot was brilliantly saved by Al Habsi only for Gary Cahill to concede a penalty for a trip on Hleb.
Robin van Persie made no mistake with a clinically taken penalty, before a Cesc Fabregas shot deflected off Samuel late on to clinch the points.
Results elsewhere did not fall kindly for the losing manager and a stunned Gary Megson wore the appearance of a man who knew his team's last chance of survival had been thrown away after the game.
Other English Premier League results on Saturday:
* Birmingham 3, Man City 1
* Derby County 2, Fulham 2
* Portsmouth 2, Wigan Athletic 0
* Reading 0, Blackburn Rovers 0
* Sunderland 2, West Ham 1
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