Wolves beaten before the game really started

Posted on by WalterBroeckx

By Walter Broeckx

What could have been a banana skin game turned out to be a very comfortable win. Arsenal started the game well on top and we took our early chances. Before we realised it the game was well won and we hadn’t even played 15 minutes.

Walcott started as if he was on fire and the Wolves defender Bassong brought him down when Theo was on his way to goal. Penalty and a red card was the only possible verdict. The ref did his job.

Up stepped Van Persie. As I have been following Dutch football since my childhood days (I always enjoyed the Dutch league that we could see on our TV in those long forgotten days far more than the boring Belgium league) I knew Van Persie when he was  a young rebel at Feyenoord. Since then I have witnessed a young but oh so difficult but oh so talented player develop in to a world class player. If only he could have been fitter in recent years.

When he stepped up for the penalty you could see a glimpses of that young rebel. A bit cheeky at times, a real boy from the streets of Rotterdam. A Pietje Bell they would say in Holland. (A character from a very popular series of books in my youth).

And so Robin went for a Panenka-conversion of the penalty. Robin let me tell you that is not a good thing for the heart. I think a few million Gooners will have felt their hearts skip a beat before the ball ended in the net. On the 2 dimensional TV screen it looks horrible when you see it live. After the 3rd replay you can start to enjoy the beauty but believe me the first time it seems like ages before you finally see the ball touch the net.

But this is Robin. He is (rightly) so confident of himself he just does it. Didn’t score in 4 games, he is not bothered or frightened at all to do what we expect from him and that is to score. What a stylish way to end that little blip in scoring goals.

With this goal he seemed to have tied a record in scoring goals against 17 teams in the PL. Wright has also managed to do this. However for me he has scored against 18 teams. Remember his goal against City at the Oilers stadium? It was a valid goal that was ruled out at the time but should have stood. So for me he has broken the record.

And we hadn’t stopped celebrating our first goal when the second came around. A nice combination between Theo and Robin brought Theo again through on goal. This time no defender to bring him down and Theo buried the ball in the net with a low and cool finish. 2-0 up after 11 minutes and the opposition down to 10 men. The ref could have stopped the game at that point. Of course he didn’t but the outcome of this game was known at that time.

And then came a thing that I thought had disappeared from our game but still can come back at times. We suddenly took our foot of the throttle and stopped playing. It was more as if we didn’t want to score more goals at times. Did our players feel sorry for the Wolverhampton players? Are we too nice at times? I think we are. We could and should have run riot against them and killed them with a high score. They were there for the taking but for some reason we just stopped and started passing the ball around without really trying to score.

We still had a few chances but we dropped our tempo and this made it easier for the Wolves player to keep the score at 0-2. I think Wenger was not completely happy with this attitude because at the start of the second half we put a little more goal-bound effort in our game. Resulting in a few chances.

Then came the most dreadful moment of the game that ended with a highlight for our goal keeper. Again we dropped our tempo and again we allowed Wolves to come in to the game. And when Doyle headed the ball towards goal after a rare Wolves attack most people in the stadium and at home were already swearing at how on earth did we let a 10 men Wolves side score a goal against us.   Only for our amazing young goalkeeper to make a safe that was amazing. He was going to his left already in the natural move to follow the flight of the ball and when Doyle headed it in the opposite direction it takes a enormous amount of skill and power to jump the other way round. Szczesny did all that and with his outstretched arm he produced a world class save. As a former goal keeper I can but admire that save.

But it was a sign for the Arsenal players to step it up a bit and then Benayoun got the ball from Song after Van Persie spilled it first, then got it back and played it to Song. Song gave the ball to Benayoun who went for a shot that the Wolves goal keeper wasn’t expecting and the game was really over. 0-3.

A few more chances, a few not-given fouls and some penalties for Arsenal. Some players getting tired or not tracking back any more and we gave the last chance to Wolves but again Szczesny produced a stunning save to keep another clean sheet.

So here we are. In third place with 5 games to go. 5 points clear from the teams in 4th place. Next Monday we will see Wigan come to the Emirates and let us not take this lightly at all. Their performance against Chelsea should have earned them a point and their win against United should make us aware of their ability for the moment and for their fight for survival in the PL. It will not be easy, unless we focus and produce like we did against Manchester City. It will be vital to take our chances.

Who would have thought that we would be in this position way back at the end of August? Who would have thought this at the end of January? We could have hoped for it. I never lost believe in us finishing in the top 4. Not even then in those dark days. But having a gap towards the teams in 4th place of 5 points was not what I expected at this stage.

It just is more evidence that what we are seeing is a very remarkable thing. For the moment we maybe don’t realize enough what a turnaround (copyright Bob) we are witnessing. This team without the terrible injuries we had to all our full backs is a team that can fight for the title next season. Just imagine having had a fit Wilshere and Diaby to add to this group of players. And then I even will not mention all those dodgy decisions that have cost us a lot of points.

For that very small but oh so noisy Wenger out brigade I can only say that the old man once again has shown that …well he just knows more than all of us together. Now the AAA is really a very small part of the Arsenal fan base. In fact it is only 1 % of the Arsenal supporters. And I can tell this from Arsenal.com. Because in a poll they asked where we thought we would finish at the end of the season. And it went from 2nd place to sixth place. And the vast majority said we would end in third place. But 1 (one) % said we would end in sixth place. I think it is fair to say that this 1 % is the AAA. Nothing more than a marginal 1%. Those are the ones that maybe predicted us in the relegation battle in August. Sorry guys you were wrong.

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87 Replies to “Wolves beaten before the game really started”

  1. and yes we did it 😀 we win now let us win over wigan cz afterward we have Chelsea

  2. “What a turnaround (copyright Bob) we are witnessing.”
    Walter I hereby disown my copyright and bequeath it to all gooner-gunners and fair-play minded fans and all who still wish to enjoy the story of this, our season,the NOT-Rednose XX -the story that forever shall be known as “The Great Turnaround” or “Le Grande Tournant”
    (I hope the French one is right! Everyone, please translate it into other languages and let the word go out) The plot not lost! The story of the season!

  3. p.s. to Amy Lawrence: please write this story, The Great Turnaround, under your byline in the Manchester Guardian’s football department section. You will then have my (and many others’) eternal plaudits and it will be a step toward restoring the good name of The Guardian from the dismal swamp into which the stenographers in chief there have led it. And, Amy, if you can manage to get it into print at the time of the inevitable and predictable and oh-so-boring Rednose XX hoopla-to-be, you will be ushered into the people’s pantheon as sportswriter of the year (indeed, for courageous work behind enemy lines).

  4. My impression from the match highlights was that after scoring two goals we were content to have Wolves chase the ball around without using too much energy ourselves. The team had but a lot into the City match and with only a few days rest before Wolves, they were probably a bit leggy. But, it was a good win an a priceless three points. However, while we are in a good position to secure 3rd place, it is not secure just yet, so as legolas has pointed out, we need to win against Wigan. At least the team will have a slightly longer rest before that game. Keep it going guys!

  5. In Bob’s words- Ntughari ukwu puruiche Thats Ibo language for ‘The Great Turnaround’
    God bless Arsenal and her fans.

  6. Bigsam,
    What a Beautiful title: Ntughari ukwu puruiche!
    Merci beaucoup! C’mon mates, bring on the translations!

  7. I witnessed the same thing with the invincibles at Highbury against Charlton; 2 goals in first 10 minutes and passing the ball for the rest of the game. I think the team does this to ensure 3 points are in the bag without risking any injuries.

  9. Maybe we could fill a whole article with just these words at the end of the season translated in every possible language our readers have given us from their own language?

  10. Walter,
    Yes! Let’s all keep the titles coming in and Untold will have the inspired story told in time for the real end-of-season celebration.

  11. Hindi:
    The great turnaround – Ek Mahaan Badlaav
    Coming back from the dead – Markar phir zinda hue

  12. @bigsam you beat me to that,am ibo,the smile on my face when i read your comment = PRICELESS,
    @walter and Bob keep up the good work
    @everyone else keep the translations coming,Gooner for life.

  13. Bob
    In Welsh it’s “Mae’r trowch fawr oddeutu”. Well, actually that’s “The great turn around”, we don’t have a word in Welsh for turnaround…
    Great game last night again. I’m absolutely loving Theo’s performances since the Sp*rs game, he’s really turned a corner. Makes my proud to have not been in the boo gang against him. I feel the same about Rambo. Ok, he’s the Wales Captain, but even if he wasn’t, he’s a tremendous talent with such unbelievable determination, it’s vital he be allowed time to develop properly. When I was a kid, I took up skateboarding. Now, I’m not the most graceful person so me standing on a board with wheels was only going to end one way. It did and I hurt myself quite badly, never to stand on a skateboard again. That, to me proves the difference between an average Joe like me, and a Aaron Ramsey. After suffering a horrendous injury, the lad has still got the balls to get back out there, getting his foot in without fear. He will become a legend at Arsenal, he already is in my book.

  16. so proud to be a gooner, nt becos we win or lose, its about the bond nd unity among us. No club in the world can boast of this, thats why we are the gooners!
    @timmy, so proud of you mate.
    @all, c’mon fly high with pride your language with the translation. Lets show them that we are one!
    @untold crew, cant wait for the article. I’m so sure its gonna be mindblowing and emotional. Only few expected us to be where we are now.
    @bob, what a great idea!

  17. Bob
    Arabic, Al-istidar al-Kabeer
    We really are putting the UN in Untold today, COME ON YOU GUNNERS

  18. Tell me – what other website would have ‘the great turnaround’ in so many different languages?
    Wonderful stuff!
    Untold forever!
    Arsenal forever!

  19. In Indonesian we don’t have word turnaround, I replace it with rise, biggest rise?

    biggest rise – kebangkitan terbesar

  21. de greyt tun roewn-being 2nd gen black british thats the best i can do for jamaican patois.

  22. maybe great would be greight actually. its easier to speak than write thats for sure.

  23. Everyone,
    Brilliant responses! Bring it on! I’ve the happiest tears in my eyes at what we are all doing together. 🙂

  24. Walter, I agree with you that The Arsenal for whatever reason, take the foot off the floor, to use an American expression.

    I note that a Wolves player attempted, what I would call the “Gareth Bale” ploy of pushing the ball past his opponent and then of running off the field of play, to evade his marker(s), and thus collect the ball for an onslaught on the opponent’s goal. I thought that to leave the field of play during the game without the permission of the referee, was an offence. That is, an unfair advantage, or cheating by Bale? Am I of the old school or or is this “let the play continue”?

  25. In text speak da gr8 trna- 0 (I guess, but I’m a generation too old to know for sure)

  26. Walter, Dogface,
    Is it possible to expect typed-in non-Roman characters – in Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, hieroglyphics, etc. etc. – for the great turnaround to display on our pages?

  27. Always and will always be proud to be an Arsenal fan.
    @soglorious, I think I won’t be wrong that in Nigeria, Arsenal fans are the most numerous.

    Aside, I remembered once I counted all arsenal blogs and to my utmost dismay, there are over one hundred blogs dedicated to Arsenal alone: I don’t think any other sporting entity can boast of this.

  29. I have been reading this website’s articles for some time now and i’m never disappointed. this is my first comment. at the beginning of the season people i know that support tottenham, liverpool, chelsea and really to my annoyance a lot of Arsenal supporters were saying that we would finish mid-table, my only answer was “we will see about that at the end of season” one thing i know for sure is that by the end Arsenal are always up there and most people dont really get the full picture of the problems Arsenal face. My affair for arsenal started in the 2006/2007 season and i must say despite everything this is my favorite season because it feels like i am witnessing the beginning of something special so in portuguese “The Great Turnaround” – “A Grande Reviravolta”

  31. Arvind

    I don’t know man.. That translation doesn’t really say it right.. I mean badlaav is just change.. Turnaround has a positive meaning inherent in it.. I don’t know.. Sudhaar? Unnati? (which strictly speaking are improvement and progress- but I doubt Hindi has a direct word for turnaround) Google Translate says Prativartan (which again lacks the inherent positive connotation) Oh..Plus I’d use Maha instead of Mahaan. Mahaan is more personified greatness. But a great war is a maha yudhh.. Right?

    So I would translate it as Maha Prativartan/badlaav/sudhaar ..Would you agree with any of that? 🙂

  32. El Gringo

    Sorry my Spanish is rusty so forgive me if I’m wrong, but shouldn’t it be ‘la gran vuelta’? Vuelta grande means Big change.. again.. sorry if I am wrong, but I really do enjoy the differences and little nuances of languages, so i can’t help but be pedantic about it at times 🙂

  33. Bob, I’m also trying to do some work behind the scenes and am asking all the persons I know worldwide to give me a translation.

    Should be fun

  34. I have not witnessed the trophy winning years, The Invincibles and I have to admit that I do not know much about Arsenal’s past (I’m trying to correct that) but since I came to the UK I fell in love immediately. Arsenal makes me feel the same way Benfica makes me feel and I find that both have a lot in common one of the things being that Benfica also went through difficult times (8 years without a trophy and we even finished 4th and 6th in the League) supporters were turning on the club and we were being made a mockery of but in 2004 was “Benfica’s Turnaround” and we’ve been on the up since the team spirit and the club unity has been really high and I feel now the same starting to happen with Arsenal this present team really makes me feel happy even had the chance to go see a game at the Emirates. i dont listen to the media and the doomsayers I only listen to my love for Arsenal.

    P.S. it was a dream to go see the game between Benfica vs Arsenal in the Estadio da Luz pre-season Eusebio’s Cup, my two favortie teams on the same pitch, made me really happy.

  36. “The Great Turnaround” in Kriol(West African Language from were I am from)- “Garandi Luta di Rekuperasson”

  40. Shard, Walter,
    For nuances (I love them too, Shard!) perhaps we could try to somehow bring in dialects from different regions too. What a display!
    And if we could have anyone try to write in here on a non-English keyboard, for a test at least, that would special as well. Anyway, such a fun victory party in the making…

  41. @Shard: You’re right…I couldn’t get one for turnaround but yeah…yours sounds cooler. Maha Parivartan sounds the best I think.

    And I think we all need to apologize to Walter and Tony for turning the Wolves postmortem thread into a global language class : D… Although considering Walter also is partaking happily in things..I guess we’re ok. Lets blame Bob instead ; )

  42. @Shard

    As best I understand it, the only difference between “la gran vuelta” and “la vuelta grande” is the word order, gran/grande being relatively unusual in that it changes lexically but not semantically depending on if it comes before or after the noun.

    “Vuelta” is one of those words that mean a whole lot of things. In one sense it’s the past participle of the verb “volver,” “to return” (which is how I was taking it, since there’s the implication of returning to an accustomed place); a return flight is called the vuelta. It could mean “a turn” as in, “take a turn to the right.” It could mean (if I remember right) change of the sort a cashier makes. And those are just some of the senses I remember from growing up in Costa Rica and Venezuela. I’m sure other countries have plenty of different meanings for the word.

    “Cambio” would be a much better translation for “change” as far as I’m concerned. There may be a better translation for “turnaround,” but I can’t think of a directly corresponding word, so it’s down to functional equivalency, which always allows for some friendly debate!

    I hope you’re not bored yet. I’m loving all these languages, no questions there. Adelante, Gunners!

  43. @El Gringo

    I wasn’t disputing the vuelta. I don’t know if Spanish has any direct translation for turnaround, and my vocabulary in Spanish certainly isn’t anywhere near acceptable. I just vaguely remember one of the lessons while I was learning Spanish that Grande is more in terms of referring to the size of an object, such as maybe the Great Wall of China (though it could be argued that its greatness doesn’t lie just in it’s size), while gran referred to greatness as a characteristic.

  46. @Shard,

    I’ve just had a look at the grammar again. Seems we’re both right. I got the grammar, you got the meaning…which of course means you’re righter than I am and that “la gran vuelta” is what the Gunners are doing.

  47. @Shard y El Gringo:

    Yo estoy de acuerda con (I agree with) “la gran vuelta” 🙂

    In Catalan, it would be “el gran retorn.”

    Felicitats, bob 🙂

    And felicitats Walter, on a great article.

    (“felicitats” is Catalan for congratulations)

  48. I also can speak Jawa (Java) language, this is one of Indonesia local language. But I can’t translate “turnaround” into Java language (not Java script). Maybe we must asked to profesor in Leiden University (they have many profesor in Java language).

    I try to write Chinese charater:

    大 (da) – great

    My Chinese is very poor, I don’t know to translate turnaround.

  53. Durham never ceases to amaze me..he hates Arsenal with a passion and just when i think he cant sink any lower he spews even greater shit seriously though what can we expect from a guy who wrote a whole article to say city`s squad better than invincibles and that Aguero was better than Bergkamp

  55. Ok, here’s the list we have so far. Can you tell I’m really enjoying this? 🙂

    “The Great Turnaround,” as translated by Untold readers from around the world, to the best of our various linguistic capabilities:

    Arabic: Al-istidar al-Kabeer

    Bengali: Moha Prttyabarton

    Catalan: el gran retorn

    Dutch: De grote ommekeer

    French: Le Grande Tournant

    German: Die grossartige Wende

    Hindi: Maha Parivartan

    Ibo language: Ntughari ukwu puruiche

    Indonesian: kebangkitan terbesar

    Jamaican patois :de greyt (greight?) tun roewn

    Kriol (West African Language): Garandi Luta di Rekuperasson

    Portuguese: A Grande Reviravolta

    Spanish: la gran vuelta

    Swedish: Den stora omvändningen

  58. I believe its high time we have some LIKES here. Too many likes!!!!!

  59. Bob – in japanese, you might say “Okina hoko tenkan” which means something like a great conversion or change. – 大きな方向転換

  61. Anne,
    Uno mas:
    Tram gave us a sample of text-speak. Surely there’s room at the inn:
    da gr8 trna- 0

  62. In Finnish :
    The Great Turnaround = Suuri käännös (that is 2 a’s with 2 dots and o with 2 dots, if you can’t see them).
    But I’m not really fond of it as it could translate as great translation too (funny language).

    Great Return would be Suuri paluu (I kind of prefer that one.

    Shard, Gringo and Anne my translator translates Great turnaround in Spanis as Gran Viraje does that sound correct or is it one of those translator mistakes?)

    I try to remember to ask my Thai co-worker to write it in Thai for me tomorrow.

  63. Taeryn, Walter,
    So we can display non-English typed characters –
    this truly is the UN-told party of this season!
    In six weeks time, it’ll be our victory parade!

  64. In Japanese
    奇跡の大逆転 = Miracle Turnaround

    I don’t know much Japanese, but this is what I see as headline when the have a great turnaround in sport. I can understand it because those words have meaning in Chinese…. if someone know its wrong please point out.

    In Chinese
    傳奇性的大逆轉 = Legendary Turnaround

    I am Chinese we have the word “Great”, but we don’t really apply it in turnaround. I hope the words can be show probably.

    Cheers Gunners!!!

  65. We can display any character in web (IE, Firefox, Opera, etc), but if you want to display it on word processor like Microsoft Word, you need to install the font.

    The easy way to display non-English character is using online keyboard.

  66. Courtesy InterTran. The problem in translating, is “turnaround”, which others have noticed as well.

    Serbian: Određeni član velik preokret

    Hungarian: A nagy körülforgás

    Russian: Грамматический определенный член великий оборот с учетом времени на погрузку и выгрузку

    Italian: Il grande ritorno

    Finnish: erinomainen kääntymispaikka

    Icelandic: mikill snúningur (no The)

    Courtesy of the CPAN module Acme::LeetSpeak.

    Leet: ThE 9REA7 T|_|r[\]aRO|_||\|D

  67. Anybody from Malaysia here?
    I think the translation is almost same with Indonesian, kebangkitan akbar?

    Helo, pakcik? Makcik?

  69. This is utterly amazing…. we are a few hours since we started this idea and we already seem to have some +30 different translations of the Great Turnaround.

    We will put them in a separate article once the season is finished. Just keep sending them in if you want your own language in the article.

  70. To see “The great turn-around” translated into the various languages is funny and delightful.

  71. Some other silly dialects from http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/
    Some programmers don’t have anything better to do, than come up with some strange programs for fun. 🙂 I tried to get Klingon, Vulcan and Romulan, but the site doesn’t seem to work for me (Universal Translator Project).

    Swedish Chef (aka bork): Zee Greet Toorneruoond

    Cockney: The chuffin’ Great Turn’round

    Elmer Fudd: De Gweat Tuwnawound

    Other translation sites (legitimate ones):
    http://babelfish.altavista.com/
    http://www.freetranslation.com/

  72. When we put this all together that will be the summary of Arsenal all in all…A club supported by people from all over the world

  73. Walter and Tony, you see, Arsenal has fans in many country, thats way now internet media, specially media that the fans can interact is very important.

    Because with internet we can connecting, no matter where you are.

    The media like Untold is very important, because we can see and understand Arsenal in different angel.

    With discussions in this blog, we more understand how difficult for Arsenal to stay in top 4 for many years, with budget not as big as our competitors, we still can compete with the other big teams, not only in English but around Europe because we always pass the groups stage at Champion League under Arsene Wenger (SAF can not do this).

    With this blog, we also can share our joy, it was amazing, sharing joy makes you happier than take it yourself. We can compare this with watch the game on home, alone, and on the public place like pubs with the other fans.

    So, thank you very much (terima kasih banyak in Indonesian) for all of you that makes good articles in this blog.

    Thank you.
    Terima kasih.
    Xie xie.
    Kamsia.
    Matur suwun.
    Matur suksma.

  74. Ken, Ong Bing,
    Several of the characters didn’t show up accurately.
    Ong Bing, would you have a link to give people to an online keyboard or two. That will encourage eveyone.
    Cheers 🙂

  75. Prasanna Veeraraghavan,
    Oh, so like you mean like when he said like the Great like Turnaround, like? (It’s true, we need something for everyone to come play!)

  76. @ Mahdain
    In general I try not to listen to talk sport or 5 live simply because (A) The analysis they provide is rubbish
    (B) They are biased
    And finaly what andy durham knows about football could be written on the back of a postage stamp he is a fools fool pay no attention to him.

  78. The Great Turnaround in Vietnamese (by the words commonly used in football): “Cuộc Lội Ngược Dòng Vĩ Đại”.

    Never have been more proud or happy being a Gooner. Cheers! 😀

  79. For Malaysian translation would be “kebangkitan terhebat” which is the same as the Indonesian translation 🙂

  80. lol@Gord… Trust you to use Perl to get a translation : D. I had an idea of querying translate.google.com for all its languages using LWP too but then thought .. too much work : D

  81. Gord that Finnish one you wrote does not really mean great turnaround. As it’s back in English Excellent turningpoint (as in place you can turn your car around). That is big problem with using internet translations they translate word by word (usually) and the idea.

  84. To all Arsene faithfuls.see what runs in the mind of the master when he picks a footballer
    Classy witty,distinguished,genius.there is only one arsene wenger!
    someone stole my tamil transalation!!!

  85. Ong Bing
    I’m glad to find another Indonesian Gooner here. What city are you from? I’m from Yogyakarta (Jogja).

    As of the translation of The Great Translation, considering the word is ‘Great’ not ‘Greatest’, I think the more accurate translation would be Kebangkitan Besar, rather than Kebangkitan Terbesar.

  86. @FinnGooner

    While machine translation of documents is getting better, it is always suspect. I would expect that Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic to all be “wrong” in similar ways.

    But, native speakers of all the languages the phrase has been machine translated into will probably both understand what was said and probably have suggestions for a better wording.

    But, it was a fun exercise.

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