Delightfully Dramatic Derby Day

So once again that time of year is upon us, no not Christmas, it is of course the North London Derby. Always massively important, always unpredictable, always dramatic and this year it was no different.
Like last year, this derby was hugely significant. Both teams were coming in off the back of some pretty shaky form so both teams were desperate for a win. The boy Chesney made his glorious return from injury then promptly had it spoiled in the first ten minutes by dropping a clearance into Emmanuel Adebayor's path after some sloppy defending rolled out the welcome mat for him. But as we all know Emmanuel Adebayor is not the most calm and consistent of people and the occasion proved too much for him. He got carried away and dived in with a horribly reckless high challenge on Santi Cazorla.The referee had no choice but to send him off. It was a completely unnecessary challenge and Spurs had started brightly up until that point but obviously and inevitably the red card changed the game. Arsenal took full advantage of having an extra man and really stamped their authority on the game. Big Per Mertesacker made amends for his earlier mistake with a magnificent header to draw us level. I was so proud of him, I think he really deserves his moment of brilliance after putting up with some difficult times since his arrival. Lukas Podolski scored to put us 2-1 up with a deflected shot and Olivier Giroud made it three before half time. Santi Cazorla scored a lovely goal to make it four after a sustained period of Spurs possesion. There was a slight onset of nerves after Gareth Bale pulled one back but Arsenal were not going to capitulate on this occasion. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott combined wonderfully to seal it with a fifth. It  was an excellent win and an excellent performance too. It was exactly what we needed, a big result in a big game to fire all the players up and help them to kick on. Ok our defence weren't exactly flawless but our creative players were brilliant. Santi Cazorla was back on scintillating form, Theo Walcott looked sparky and used his pace well as did Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in combination with him, Lukas Podolski stepped up his game and looked much more like himself than he has done. And Olivier Girous was once again impressive, making chances and getting himself in the right place. It was a  brilliant, brilliant game and all of us at HQ were cheering like mad for all our goals, it  was so good have that much to cheer about again. Well done boys.