Has 11 goals this season after his brace against Fulham

Two sensational goals from our magical Frenchman secured the three points for the Gooners and put us top of the table. Both of Nasri’s goals took full advantage of his great close control as he waltzed into the box, evading Fulham’s challenges, before blasting the ball into the net.

Arsenal started the game very strongly, with Arshavin, Nasri and Rosicky at the heart of everything. Five minutes in, Schwarzer made an excellent point blank save from our little Russian. A few minutes later, Andrey put Samir Nasri through on goal with a delightful through ball, but our number 8 could only push the ball wide of the post. But he made amends soon after. Arshavin was the instigator once again, making a powerful run from midfield and pushing the ball to Nasri when it looked like the Russian had lost control. Nasri stepped inside one challenge, dummied the second before smashing the ball high into the net.

The next 15 minutes continued in the same vain with a glut of great opportunities to score, the best one falling to Song who managed to side foot a volley wide of the goal. At the time, I said that we may live to regret the missed chances as Fulham were beginning to pass the ball around themselves. They were also sneaking the ball behind our defence, which was playing a very high line (not entirely sure why – it was clear that Fulham were trying to beat the offside trap from about 20 minutes in, we should’ve been flexible enough to change our tactics for a deeper defensive line). Kamara was called offside when through on goal, although really he was just on. But only minutes later, he got his reward for his tireless running. Our central defenders had an absolute disaster, head-butting each other in the face, leaving Koscielny dazed. The ball fell to Dempsey, who played a clever ball through the Koscielny-shaped whole in our defence, leaving Kamara to slide the ball past Fabianski.

It felt like Spurs all over again. After some periods of beautiful football, a stupid and unnecessary mistake led to an inferior team being able to get back into the game.

The first half ended to boos from the Gooner faithful, which I thought was rather distasteful. The second half began with the fans really getting behind the team, with lots of cheering to egg the team on. Everyone knew we were the better side in the first 45 minutes, except for the scoreboard.

We pressed hard for half an hour, but to no avail. It took another piece of magic from our superb Frenchman to get the winning goal. Nasri played it to Arshavin who slid the ball to RVP. Van Persie dropped his shoulder and moved towards the centre of the box and it looked as if he was going to shoot. Instead, he tapped the ball to Nasri, who danced into the box and rounded the keeper. It looked like he had gone too far wide and that he would be unable to score despite having taken the keeper out of the game (much like he did against Villa and Wigan). But Samir did a wonderful pirouette and managed to squeeze the ball into the net.

Arsenal suffered some pressure towards the end of the game. Wenger brought on Theo, probably hoping that he would help to end the match with his pace. He managed to get down the line, past the whole Fulham team, but failed to do anything with the ball on three or four occasions, most embarrassingly running the ball off the pitch on one occasion.

With Chelsea and Tottenham drawing, and the Man Utd game being postponed, it was a good weekend to be a Gooner. And an even better weekend to be Samir Nasri.

Player Ratings

Fabianski – 7   Made some good saves but flapped at a few crosses.

Clichy – 7.5   Defensively sound and attacked well.

Squillaci – 6   Not very solid, at fault for the goal after his miscommunication with Koscielny.

Koscielny – 5.5   Looked out of his depth and was taken off after his injury.

Sagna – 7   Kept Fulham’s wingers relatively quiet.

Rosicky – 7.5   Effective in the first half, not so much in the second half.

Song – 7   Inconsistent. His passing was poor, but defensive heading was good. Should’ve scored when the score was at 1-0.

Wilshere – 7.5   Had a good first half, passing was excellent. Faded in the second half.

Nasri – 9   MOTM Brilliant.

Arshavin – 8   Lively and direct – another good performance, but also faded towards the end of the game.

Chamakh – 7   Had a few chances on goal but didn’t take them. Held the ball up quite well.

Substitutes

Djourou – 7.5   An improvement on Koscielny, looked strong.

RVP – 7   Not great, but not too bad either. Needs to have more of an impact on the game.

Walcott – 6    Great speed and control, rubbish end product. Needs to start some matches.

TOP OF THE LEAGUE!