Fireside Chats: What they said about Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Arsenal

Bolton played very well in holding Arsenal to 0-0 at the Reebok Wednesday, and many who watched the match felt that Bolton very easily could have won it. Unfortunately, most of the headline writers for British sporting news outlets did not watch the match.

Sky Sports News in ubiquitous. They are probably the most popular English language source for Premier League news in the world. Their headline read, "Battling Bolton Snatch Point." The post-game comments from Owen Coyle cetainly did not match the headlines;

"There were two teams going all out to win, with good chances created at either end.

"For our part, I thought we were terrific. The intensity and tempo we played at was fantastic.

"Arsenal have world-class players and we had to defend well at times, but equally on the counter-attack we were a real threat.

"We are delighted with another valuable point because every one is crucial. But late on I felt we could have had the win.

When he says that late on Wanderers could have won, he is most likely referring to Mark Davies being taken down in the box, and no penalty being given. Arsene Wenger, as one might imagine, saw the match a bit differently. Check out the jump to learn how.

Wenger wrote the following on Arsenal's official Website;

We feel we have dropped two points because we had chances to win the game. But we produced a decent game against a difficult opponent who gives you the ball, marks tight and waits for their chance. We took all of the risks and we were a bit unlucky as well because we hit the bar, the post and missed some great chances. In the end we took a gamble to play four strikers and we nearly got caught in the last five minutes from a Bolton chance.

I love that he thinks we were giving the ball away on purpose. Other than that, I am not quite sure what match he was watching.