Actually, a better title for this post might have been "Norwich vs. Robin Van Persie. He seems to be the only gunner capable of finding the back of the net, but as far as they're concerned, at least somebody is I guess.
Arsenal came out absolutely on fire. They set up Van Persie in the area within the first minute, but he inexplicably hit his shot wide. It wouldn't be the only close call of the first half for Norwich though. Defender Russell Martin cleared not one, not two, but three balls off of his own goal line in the first 25 minutes.
However Norwich managed to take the lead in that first 25 minutes. How, you ask? Well of course through a characteristic Arsenal defensive blunder. In the 16th minute, Per Mertesacker failed to get to a ball into the area. In all fairness, it looked like the big German was just asleep. Norwich's Steve Morison jumped on it and put the shot into the net to make it 1-0 to the home side.
Arsenal's offense didn't skip much of a beat though. Robin Van Persie made sure of that. In the 26th minute, Theo Walcott found the captain in the six. Van Persie equalized with an easy tap in and we went to the half tied at 1-1.
The second half was mostly Arsenal, though both sides were a little sloppy. Arsenal seemed to just be comfortable and it was like they thought they could score anytime they wanted. That contributed to the sloppiness and choppiness of play. Norwich had their chances as well, but it was Robin Van Persie who put it way for Arsenal. A little past the hour, he chipped in over the Norwich keeper to make it 1-2 to the Gunners. They held on to win by that score.
All in all it was a less than convincing performance for Arsenal, especially on the defensive side of things. However, once again Norwich played hard but just didn't have the tools to deal with Van Persie or the weapons to create a ton of chances. Good match though.
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