And that’s yer lot, for this Boxing Day at least. If Arsenal had only started this game with a one-man handicap, it would have been an absolute thriller. As it was they got there in the end, and the last 20 minutes were very exciting. Still, it’s something. Before that Arsenal were outclassing their opponents, with Alexis Sánchez brilliant once again at pretty much everything except penalty-taking. Then Giroud sent himself off, the referee gave QPR a soft penalty, and suddenly there was everything to play for and the visitors doing most of the playing for it. Arsenal deserved to win, but QPR showed enough to suggest they won’t lose every away game this season (their next, promisingly, is at Burnley). Cheers for everything. Bye!
A couple of player quotes. First, Flamini on the QPR penalty:
We’re not going to comment on the referee’s decision. I thought it was a bit hard on us, but we’ll forgive him. It’s Christmas.
And Rosicky on the red card:
I think Olivier knows what he’s done. When I was subsituted I went to the dressing-room for a while, and he knows he made a big mistake. He has to learn from it.
QPR, meanwhile, are just one game away from a round number of their own – and a Premier League record.
QPR equal the PL record for most consecutive away defeats (9) at the start of a season, previously set by Bolton Wanderers in 1995/96.
— Infostrada Sports (@InfostradaLive) December 26, 2014
Big news for fans of round numbers:
Congratulations boss! pic.twitter.com/d3eHKjakGs
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) December 26, 2014
Final score: Arsenal 2-1 QPR
And that’s the final action. QPR’s dismal away run continues, and the Gunners are back up to sixth.
90+5 mins: … but instead Kranjcar’s drive clears the bar.
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90+4 mins: QPR launch one final attack – Fer sprinting forward with the ball – and Coquelin ends it, illegally. He’s booked, and the visitors have a 35-yard free-kick. It would have to be a perfect shot …
90+3 mins: Kranjcar gets booked for curtailing another Sanchez surge from his own half.
90+2 mins: Another terrible cross from Hoilett goes straight out of play. Currently every other Hoilett cross is great, with the other ones being totally abysmal.
90+1 mins: QPR could have had another penalty, as Zamora is brought down by Gibbs as he tries to get on the end of a cross from the left from Hoilett.
90+1 mins: We’re into stoppage time – and there will be four minutes of it. Arsenal are defending desperately here.
90 mins: Cleared off the line! Isla’s near-post header is on its way across goal and would have gone in had it not hit someone – it looked like Zamora, actually, but could have been Flamini – on its way.
89 mins: QPR are huffing and puffing here. Isla’s cross ends up at the feet of Hoilett, and his shot deflects wide. Corner.
88 mins: Welbeck’s race is run – he’s coming off and Coquelin is replacing him.
88 mins: Kranjcar dips a shoulder, switches the ball onto his left foot and lashes the ball well over the bar from 25 yards.
87 mins: Sanchez’s brilliant first touch beats two players on the halfway line and he sets off again. He’s got support from Welbeck to his left, and someone else trying to catch up on the right, but he tries to go solo and loses the ball. A rare bad decision from the lad there.
86 mins: Hoilett tricks his way past Chambers on the left, earning himself all sorts of space, but his cross is pathetically poor and loops straight into touch.
85 mins: Austin miscontrols on the left touchline, sending the ball into touch, and roars at himself in fury.
83 mins: Rosicky is going off, and Chambers is on.
81 mins: Arsenal look happy now to defend their slender lead, rather than extend it.
Updated
GOAL! Arsenal 2-1 QPR (Austin, 79pen)
Austin blasts the ball down the middle, maybe three feet off the ground. Not a great penalty, but the goalkeeper dives out the way.
Updated
QPR have a penalty!
78 mins: Hoilett takes on Debuchy, who gets a toe to the ball. Hoilett falls over his leg. The referee sees the fall, but not the toe. Penalty!
77 mins: Replays show that an optimistic Arsenal penalty appeal a few minutes ago, when Mertesacker went over in the penalty area, might well have had something going for it. Leroy Fer definitely caught the defender’s boot, with the ball nowhere.
75 mins: Hoilett crosses from the left towards Zamora, at the far post, and he nearly flattens Gibbs in his effort to reach the ball. He doesn’t reach the ball, though. Strong defending.
74 mins: Sanchez runs down the left and pulls back to Welbeck, whose shot isn’t great and is saved. The sending off hasn’t stopped Arsenal from attacking – indeed, they look more likely to score now than before, even if they’re also more likely to concede – and it has massively improved the game for the neutral. So thanks, Olivier.
72 mins: Debuchy attacks again, but his pull-back to Sanchez, on the edge of the area, isn’t precise enough to allow a first-time shot, and the second-time shot is off target.
70 mins: Arsenal break again, at the end of which Debuchy falls over, about 25 yards out, and Hoilett is booked. There was no foul there, none at all. Fortunately for fans of karma and justice and stuff, Cazorla’s shot from the resulting free kick flies high.
69 mins: QPR attack, and Isla cuts in from the left before shooting very tamely.
68 mins: Sánchez gets the ball midway into his own half, spins and sets off, with four QPR players running after him like terriers chasing a ball down a hill. He runs 60 yards, turns, and passes to a team-mate, much yardage gained and many supporters entertained.
67 mins: Sánchez did excellently well to create the goal. He may well have another man-of-the-match award on his mantelpiece tonight.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-0 QPR (Rosicky, 65 mins)
QPR’s new-found commitment to attacking gives Arsenal a first opportunity to break against a relatively undermanned defence, and it brings a goal. Sánchez brings the ball to the edge of the penalty area and then slides in Rosicky to his left, who shoots low first-time across and past Green.
Updated
63 mins: QPR are actually attempting to attack, and enjoying periods of possession that last longer than 20 seconds. The game has been transformed.
Updated
62 mins: A double substitution for QPR, with Hoilett replacing Traoré and Fer coming on for Henry.
62 mins: Sánchez cuts in from the left an curls a shot narrowly wide of the far post.
59 mins: Arsenal attack again, and Gibbs looks like he’s being pulled back by the shoulder as he bursts into the area. He stays on his feet and delivers the cross, but it’s cleared.
57 mins: In other refereeing news, Jordon Mutch has been booked for a foul on Sánchez.
54 mins: With more space behind the defence, Arsenal try to loft the ball over the top of them. Giroud is chasing it, Green comes out, and the goalkeeper gets there first – but his clearance smacks Giroud and rebounds towards, but about five yards wide of, goal. Giroud, though, thinks he’s been shoved by Onuoha at the vital moment, leaps to his feet and confronts the defender, putting his forehead into Onuoha’s. And the referee doesn’t like that one bit.
Updated
Giroud has been sent off!
Arsenal very nearly score a second, and a few moments later they’re down to 10 men!
Updated
52 mins: QPR do seem to be a little tighter in this second half so far, with the defence moving up a bit, denying Cazorla and his creative midfield chums the space to wreak havoc.
49 mins: Debuchy drives the ball low across goal, but Giroud’s path to a far-post open goal is blocked.
48 mins: So far Arsenal have controlled possession, but for Flamini giving it away a couple of times.
Peeeeeeeeeeeep!
46 mins: Half two is very much under way. Arsenal start it by giving the ball to their defence and knocking it about a bit.
The players are back out. More football imminent.
Half time: Arsenal 1-0 QPR
45+2 mins: It’s half-time. Arsenal lead, and deserve to be leading. QPR have had two attempts on goal, neither of them on target, and one of them extremely optimistic, taken from 30 yards and instantly blocked. They can only get better*.
* They might not get better.
45 mins: We lurch into stoppage time, of which we’ll have one minute.
QPR have a corner!
42 mins: Charlie Austin’s optimistic 30-yarder is deflected behind, and QPR have an actual corner. It’s cleared, but still – that’s got to be encouraging. An actual corner.
41 mins: Cazorla releases Giroud, who didn’t look offside to me either live or in slow-motion replay, but then I’m not standing pitchside with a luminous flag.
QPR have an attempt on goal!
39 mins: It’s a cross from the right, which Caulker heads just a foot or so wide of the far post.
Updated
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 QPR (Sánchez, 37 mins)
They have the breakthrough! The ball is worked from right to left, and as it happens Sánchez drifts off the right touchline into the penalty area, while his marker – Traoré – has a little snooze. Eventually Gibbs crosses, and Sánchez is totally unmarked, six yards out, as he heads into the goal.
Updated
35 mins: Traoré deflects another cross for a corner, which Caulker clears with Mertesacker lurking. A few moments later, at the other end, QPR come closer to a goal than they’ve managed so far, when Szczesny slightly miscontrols a back-pass. But then he clears it.
32 mins: Arsenal still can’t create the killer chance. This time Giroud, 19 yards out, tries to curl one left-footed but it hits Ferdinand and goes out for another corner, which Debuchy heads over.
Updated
30 mins: Arsenal are in total control here, as QPR defend their penalty area and pretty much leave the ball alone. It all ends, though, with Debuchy’s shot cross being deflected out for a corner, and the corner being cleared.
29 mins: Ooooh! Giroud takes the shot, and he gets pace and dip as it flies over the wall, but it’s not close enough to the corner of the goal and Green dives to push it away.
27 mins: Sanchez and Welbeck combine again, and this time the Englishman goes down with Ferdinand nearby. Ferdinand is booked (a bit harshly), and Arsenal have a fine shooting opportunity, pretty central, level with the edge of the D.
Updated
26 mins: Sánchez tries a 25-yarder. Giroud had one too, a couple of minutes ago. They were both pretty hopeless.
25 mins: Welbeck goes down in the area, and Arsenal want another penalty. This time, Martin Atkinson is unmoved. Moments later, Sánchez prods the ball towards the run of Welbeck, but Ferdinand gets in the way of it.
23 mins: QPR attack! Or, at least, they have a cross. Szczesny catches it.
20 mins: Welbeck runs down the left, but his cross is cleared for a corner. Arsenal are attacking at pace and in numbers here, and looking very keen to, um, do well. Back to that penalty, though: Cazorla was criticised for his Panenka against Newcastle. Could that really be why he didn’t take this one? Surely not?
Surprised to see Sanchez take pen. He missed last one for Chile at WC & I don't think ever scored one for Barca, Udinese or Colo Colo
— Ben Lyttleton (@benlyt) December 26, 2014
Updated
17 mins: The battle between Traoré and Sánchez has been the key to this first 17 minutes. The defender has got the better of the last couple of exchanges, as Arsenal keep trying to pass beyond him to the Chilean.
13 mins: Didn’t Arsenal at one stage have a rule that whoever wins a penalty isn’t allowed to take it? When was that abandoned?
12 mins: Arsenal are predictably on top, but will the effervescent Sánchez be dulled at all by that miss?
Arsenal had scored their previous 10 PL penalties before today. The last miss was Arteta v Fulham in Nov 2012
— Orbinho (@Orbinho) December 26, 2014
Arsenal miss their penalty!
9 mins: Sánchez does something badly! His penalty is sidefooted low to the right, but nowhere near the corner and if Green guessed right he could hardly fail to stop it. He didn’t fail to stop it.
Updated
Arsenal have a penalty!
8 mins: Gibbs gets to the byline on the left, and then it all happens. He thinks his cross is handled, but the referee doesn’t. Then Welbeck’s shot hits Sánchez in the arm, but the referee doesn’t mind that either, and then finally he’s fouled by Traoré as he’s running away from goal. This the referee does mind.
Updated
6 mins: Isla has the ball, standing in the Arsenal half. And he still has the ball. And he still has the ball. And then Giroud takes it off him. Isla should really have tried passing it, I think. Or at least had a go at running.
3 mins: More lovely work from Sánchez, but his attempted one-two with Giroud ends at one.
2 mins: Kranjcar nicks the ball off Flamini, who kept the ball too long, 10 yards outside his own penalty area. The referee gives Arsenal an extremely charitable free-kick – I didn’t see a foul there.
1 min: A lovely early bit of ball-juggling from Sánchez on the right, and a lovely cross to follow it, but Ferdinand just about deals with it.
Peeeeeeeeeeeep!
1 min: We’re off!
Inferring from what Harry Redknapp said, and the fact that neither of the two players he said were unable to play both today and on Sunday are in the first XI here, he’s concentrating on Sunday’s home game against Crystal Palace. Which probably makes sense. Anyway, deep breath now.
The players are out and busily shaking hands. Football imminent.
And here’s what Harry Redknapp has said to BT Sport:
Joey Barton’s got a little bit of a hamstring. It’s only a slight hamstring, but certainly not fit enough to play today. It’ll be touch and go in three days. It’s difficult Ray, this time of year. One or two of the lads, two games in two days or whatever, it’s not possible for him. Richard Dunne, Bobby Zamora. We’ve got to juggle around a little bit with them. We’ve got a few long-term ones, so it’s 16, 17 fit players and we’ve got to juggle around with them a little bit. It’d be a great place [to get a first away win]. We had a great week last week. Another big game today.
Wenger on his team:
Basically we have rested Chambers because he has played many games. Chamberlain is injured so Rosicky comes in. So overall it is stability with two different players. These teams [Chelsea and City] have a strong run at the moment, the only thing you can do is keep as close as possible. At the moment you just focus and try to reach the next game.
Arsenal are eighth at the moment, down two places as a result of the victories earned by Tottenham and Swansea this afternoon. The best they could do here is return to sixth, though with Southampton playing Chelsea on Sunday they could be looking at ringing in the new year in the top four.
The teams!
Here are the teams. Can’t talk much, I’m busy minute-by-minuting the United game, but I’ll be back shortly:
Arsenal: Szczesny, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Monreal, Gibbs, Rosicky, Flamini, Cazorla, Sanchez, Giroud, Welbeck. Subs: Podolski, Ospina, Walcott, Chambers, Campbell, Coquelin, Bellerin.
QPR: Green, Caulker, Ferdinand, Onuoha, Isla, Kranjcar, Henry, Mutch, Traore, Vargas, Austin. Subs: Hill, Phillips, Fer, Wright-Phillips, McCarthy, Hoilett, Zamora.
Referee: Martin Atkinson
Updated
Hello world!
“I believe 2015 can be very exciting,” said Arsène Wenger, looking ahead to this game and indeed the remainder of the season. Huzzah!, shout the Arsenal hordes. That sounds excellent. We love very exciting. But wait a moment, there’s the rest of the sentence to get through first. “I believe 2015 can be very exciting,” Wenger said, as we’ve established, “if we manage to get our injured players back and have a good run.”
Oh. So “2015 can be very exciting if … we have a good run”, eh? Well I believe the same is true of literally every team in all of football. Still, I also believe that Arsène Wenger isn’t wasting any time believing in things that can’t come true. Absolute rationality, that’s the very least that we’ve come to expect from him (except in the transfer market, obviously).
And the fitness thing is hardly a given either, what with Arsenal currently without Laurent Koscielny (calf), Aaron Ramsey (hamstring), Mikel Arteta (calf), Mesut Ozil (knee), Abou Diaby (calf), Jack Wilshere (ankle) and Serge Gnabry (knee). Still, word is the first two of those could be back for Sunday’s trip to Southampton.
And on, then, to today’s game. “We expect a QPR with nothing to lose. They will come and have a go at us,” Wenger said. As for Harry Redknapp, his expert analysis indicates that “they have some excellent players, although they have had lots of injuries. The pace that they play with, the movement, the passing – they are a good team to watch.”
In statistical news, Arsenal have scored precisely once in each of their last five league games against QPR, and kept three clean sheets. The other two games ended in a 1-1 draw and a 2-1 defeat.
