Arsenal cruised into the Champions League pot after a moral boosting victory over Steve McClaren's shambolic Twente at the Emirates. Goal's from Theo Walcott, Samir Nasri, William Gallas and Danish striker Nicolas Bendtner capped a far from convincing performance where the Gunners should have won by a even more convincing score line.
The game started with Arsenal pressing Twente hard in search for the goal that would effectively kill the tie. Arsenal welcomed back the midfield maestro that is Cesc Fabregas who had missed the last two premier league games with a slight hamstring strain, with Fabregas back in the centre of the park Arsenal looked a different side that wimpered to defeat against Fulham on Saturday evening, a confidence was definitely back in the side. Again underlying the importance of the young Spaniard for the Wenger Boys, Theo Walcott also looked like a completely different from the player whom was playing on Saturday against Fulham. Constantly running at left back Jeroen Heubach whom looked completely out of depth against the sheer pace of Walcott, even the commentary of Mark Lawrenson noted the complete ineptitude of Heubach by branding him "awful" and that Twente only had ten men down to his shambolic performance.
But the Gunners were constantly pressing and the break through came on the 27th minute from a surging Walcott run into the box who cut the ball back to Samir Nasri, he preceded to calmly dummy three Twente defenders before shooting, and getting a lucky deflection that sent Twente keeper Nikolay Mihaylov. Moments later Van Percy missed a glaring opportunity for Arsenal spurning an open goal which he agonisingly curled wide. Leaving the Gunners coming in from the first half only 1-0 up.
So in the half time break I had the joy of listening to the views of the two Alan's and there views of the Arsenal, which to every reasonable football fan would understand that Arsenal are in dire need for a defensive midfielder. Names have been mentioned of course; such as Miguel Velso of Sporting, to Xabi Alonso of Liverpool but it seems that for the learned Alan's that don’t quite understand this special youth policy which seems to be in force at Arsenal. Which I feel is unique for any other major club that will be performing on the big European stage this season.
Simply it's Arsene Wenger's drive and emphasis on the team mentality at Arsenal and this has come about from two reasons. Firstly financial Wenger's hands are tied when it comes to spending big in the transfer market, grated he did splash out £11 odd million on Samir Nasri, but this was after he knew that Alexander Hleb made it clear that he wanted out, especially when Barca came a calling. So a like for like replacement then but also in the past Wenger's fingers have been burnt when spending big with Arsenal the main example being Jose Antonio Reyes, who came with a hefty price tag making him Arsenals most expensive signing, however after initially starting well those goals against Chelsea in the F.A cup spring to mind. He slacked off and started to sulk after missing his home land, eventually was sent on loan to Real Madrid only two years later. So i expect Arsenal not to land any big name players before Monday, and even through Chelsea may have the likes of Robhino and Man U the likes of Berbatov donning there teams colours come Monday, im sure Arsenal will have enough within this young side to at least have a good push for the title, it's expected and after all Wenger Knows! So enough of the Alan's and back to the game.
Arsenal came out the second half again with more purpose and more desire to score, obliviously to exercise the ghosts of the Fulham and to get the confidence back. Arsenal then struck up a 2-0 lead through captain William Gallas, who scored a similar poacher's goal in the first leg; it initially came from his own run into the box. The ball then deflected to Bendtner who's subtle first touch took him past the defender and his rebounded shot came into the path of a running Gallas who bundled the goal into the net. Now it was damage limitation for Twente who started to continually pass about the defence and midfield for sustained periods of the second half, which lead to ironic cheering from the 3000 Dutch fans who came over for the game. It definitely seemed that Twente had failed to turn up tonight particularly after playing so well in the first leg. But it was also clear that they had missed the bite of Aussie "danger man" Luke Wilshire who was once of Bristol City who had recently been sold to Russian team Dynamo Moscow.
Arsenal struck again on the 66th minute with a fantastic effort goal from Theo Walcott, which was deserving of his superb performance. It came from a rather hash one-two with Bendtner in which he picked up and ran at pace at the Twente defence before a glorious curved effort into the bottom right corner. The goal certainly had shades of Henry to it, noticeably the pace, the drive and the finish. By now Arsenal where cruising, and it showed again tempering with Twente who where still enjoying a healthy chunk of the possession. Arsenal scored there forth through Bendtner who had endured a mixed evening up-top, the big Dane had missed a number of chances suggesting a lack of composure, however he couldn’t miss from 8 yards out after a clever back pass from young Brazilian DenÃlson who had a solid game.
Ill leave you with Arsenal game Correspondent Lee Petryszyn (pictured with CCS front woman Love Foxx) for the final views.
“Performance wise The Arse was far more of a team with superstar Fabregas back in the midfield engine room. Was also a solid performance at the back, although Twente where not much of a threat & where more concerned about keeping the score down. That said small amount of Gooners in the ground at the final whistle left happy, whilst the Wally with the brolly was left to touch up on his fluent Dutch!"
Super Sami grabs number 1
Willy gets involved again.
Bit of Dutch Fun with Steve!
