It was the perfect location, at Pride Park, where Derby were playing for pride after being relegated and Arsenal were playing for their bleak chance of finishing top in the Premier League.
Derby started the night firmly in control, quite determined and all, but it was Arsenal who opened the account in the 25th minute.
Darren Moore was the culprit as he mindlessly passed the ball behind to Bendtner, who calmly took the ball, exchanged passes with Van Persie, and drove the ball past Carroll into the bottom left corner.
Nicklas Bendtner, 25th minute, 1-0
Van Persie missed an easy chance in the 27th minute when Theo Walcott slid the ball to him, leaving just the goalkeeper in front of him. But he failed to convert the chance as he drove the ball wide to the left of the post.
Van Persie easy chance, 27th minute
Derby got a freekick in the 31st minute, which was taken by Savage. McEveley attacked Savage's freekick, resulting in the ball landing right in front of him. He quickly reacted by stubbing the ball past Fabianski, to cancel out Bendtner's opening goal and put Derby on level terms.
McEveley, 31st minute, 1-1
But that was short lived. Van Persie brought Arsenal ahead for the second time in the match, after he took Toure's pass on his chest and whacked it with his right foot straight into the net.
Van Persie, 39th minute, 2-1
The first half had many missed chances, with Arsenal having the first one when Toure sent a shot over the crossbar after Bendtner's cross, in the first 5 minutes of the game.
Emmanuel Villa scuffed a shot across goal from Tyrone Mears's low cross before Mile Sterjovski saw an effort which deflected wide of the post by Alexandre Song.
Many other chances missed in the first half, especially a few really easy ones by Arsenal.
Van Persie had a nagging hamstring problem, and was substituted by Adebayor, which was a very good decision.
Just before the hour mark, Adebayor pushed the ball into the net past Carroll after Eboue helped onto a Walcott pass from the right wing.
Adebayor, 59th minute, 3-1
A two goal cushion emerged, but it cut down to one as Derby substitute Earnshaw neatly finished of a pass by Andy Todd, which had sliced open the Arsenal defence. He did a little acrobatic stunt like thing after that( a dance maybe:P), which must have taken him the whole season to practice:P
Earnshaw, 77th minute, 3-2
But Derby's chances of an unlikely comeback were shortlived as two minutes later, Walcott bent a beautiful shot past Carroll to restore Arsenal's 2 goal cushion.
Walcott, 79th minute, 4-2
Arsenal extended their lead via yet another Adebayor goal, as he claimed his second goal with a close range finish from Clichy's left wing cross. Eboue and Adebayor celebrated with a little funny dance:D
Adebayor, 81st minute, 5-2
But the match was not over. Adebayor came back to score once more! He raced ahead of the Derby defence, rounded the ball away from Carroll, and slid the ball nicely into the net.
He came back to do the dance again, with Eboue, which was really funny:D
Adebayor, 90+1 minute, 6-2
Overall a very good match, but I didn't expect Arsenal would give away 2 goals. All the six goals were nice, and my favourites were the Walcott and the third Adebayor goal. Adebayor was the show-stopper, totally the player of the match.
The videos were courtesy ابو السيم
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