Porto powerless against Arsenal’s free-form brilliance
158 guns March 10th, 2010
Arsenal 5 - 0 Porto (Bendtner 10, 25, 90 (pen), Nasri 63, Eboue 66)
Highlights | Arsene’s reaction
Take the conductor out of the orchestra and they start playing jazz. In the absence of Cesc Fabregas, many expected Arsenal to struggle for fluency. Instead, they were liberated, with Samir Nasri chief among the unexpected soloists.
Nasri’s goal was one of improvisational brilliance, straddling the dichotomy of timing and spontaneity. It arrived at a crucial moment. The game was poised at 2-0, the tie at 3-2, and Porto’s influence was increasing. And yet it was a goal born out of pure impulse. Arsene Wenger spends hours on the training ground forcing his players to play small-sided games in increasingly tight spaces, infusing them with the ability to do just what Nasri did: feint one way, jink the other, and emerge the other side of three perplexed defenders to bury the ball beyond a wide-eyed Helton.
The look etched across across the defenders’ faces encompassed both amazement and heartache: Arsenal’s third goal would win the game as well as the plaudits.
We had started at some pace, with Andrey Arshavin at his impish best. You know the diminutive Russian is on form when he starts attempting headers - his first produced a reflex save from Helton; his second our opening goal. Retreating from an offside position, he nodded the ball back to Nasri before chasing the Frenchman’s slide-rule pass. A lungeing Fucile diverted the ball away from Arshavin but in to the path of Nicklas Bendtner. The Dane buried the chance with a confidence ill-suited to a man who missed a hatful of misses at the weekend. Some accuse him of arrogance, but that same self-assuredness is what allowed him to return form so spectacularly last night.
Arshavin created our second, too. Receiving the ball outside the area, he buzzed past three defenders before firing a ball across goal that Bendtner couldn’t help but turn in to an empty net. I’m not sure I’ve seen a player so adept at beating a man as Arshavin. It’s a combination of factors: pace, technique, a willingness to embrace physical contact and that ever-so-low centre of gravity. There was the odd bum note (a skied chance to add a third springs to mind), but when Arshavin is enjoying himself he is enthralling.
Half-time interrupted our flow, and Porto took advantage, with Falcao offering a considerable threat against the all-action Vermaelen and a creaking but still talismanic Sol Campbell. And then Nasri produced ‘That goal’.
If Nasri’s strike was the one that killed the contest, there was still time for a couple of jubilant encores. First Arshavin broke from a corner, carrying the ball deep in to opposition territory before playing in substitute Emmanuel Eboue, who rounded Helton to tap home with his left-foot. Then, in stoppage time, Eboue was brought down to earn a penalty which Bendtner stroked home for his hatrick. A far cry from the weekend indeed.
I’m not sure how good Porto ever really were - we gifted them a victory in the first leg, and they were utterly outclassed this time round - but a 5-0 victory at any stage of the Champions League is a significant statement. We move on to the next round with confidence and conviction. Let’s see what the draw brings us.
Nursing his tweaky hamstring, Cesc Fabregas’ delight will have been tarred with a pang of jealousy. No-one would have enjoyed that victory more than him, and who knows what further havoc he might have wreaked on Porto’s defence. He’ll be itching to get back in time for Saturday to face his old foe Phil Brown - his chances are currently rated at “50%”, which coincidentally is the same % similarity between Phil Brown’s DNA and that of a tangerine.
For now, let’s applaud another outstanding result and a truly magnificent performance. Vermaelen, Song and Diaby provided a brassy robustness, Arshavin and Nasri wove melodic patterns, and Bendtner thumped home a percussive hatrick to silence his doubters. Play on, Arsenal.
9 Comments Add your own
1. Ashburton_Grove | March 10th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Got to love Nasri. I thought he was struggling in the first half but he really came alive in the second.
He is everything I like in an Arsenal player. Quick, skilful and determined. Can dribble with the ball, pass with precision and score goals as well.
He also has a trick or two as we saw last night.
Incredible player and he’s just 22!
2. Prashant | March 10th, 2010 at 10:39 am
Very eloquent blogpost - much like our performance yesterday. Thanks for this.
3. Marcus Lowery | March 10th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Great blog excellent captures the excitement of last game
4. Oskar | March 10th, 2010 at 11:31 am
I don’t know if you guys noticed but I thought the delivery from our freekicks and corners was superb today. Rosicky, Nasri, Arshavin and Eboue sharing the responsibility. I was particularly impressed with Eboue’s corners!
As much as I love Fabregas I think we have players better suited to take our corners and freekicks. What do you guys think?
5. Erichero | March 10th, 2010 at 11:33 am
I think Bendtner’s performance as a general team player has been significant too. One thing I always hated about Bergkamp was his refusal to compete for headers, while Bendy is always in the thick of it. What we are still missing right at the moment is the follow-up on what he wins in the air. So often he’ll out-jump a defender, but there’s no one to run onto the ball. (I’m talking about that zone around and in front of the D) This could be a really good area for Walcott to take advantage.
6. Erichero | March 10th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Another observation is a greater willingness to shoot from distance. It looks like Wenger has been encouraging it. Nasri is getting closer and closer to a long-range daisycutter, and I’m sure Rosicky has a piledriver up his sleeve too.
7. arsenalicsanonymous.com | March 10th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Great post…I completely agree with your point about Nasri’s goal being both brilliant and clutch at the same time. It didn’t seem to me that many of the pundits gave him the credit for icing the match at such a pivotal moment. Porto was just starting to get some confidence going forward and then they were put in their place by a clearly superior Arsenal squad playing in a beautiful rhythm.
8. Jack Scurvy | March 10th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
Yet another great post! Out-jump is right. Remember this? http://bit.ly/cZvMJO No problem getting Nik in the air at all. He might actually create a contrail at some point.
What an all-around great performance from the whole squad last night. I thought Sol did quite well. I guess I didn’t notice the “creakiness”. I wonder what prompted that silky Nasri goal. Perhaps another rousing dressing room talk from the gaffer at the half? Someone needs to get a webcam up in the ceiling tiles so we can watch.
9. Andrew | March 12th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
were you watching Espn Press Pass too why do these people always write us off
anyway you focused on this season I focused on what they said about our future and importantly what they said about us being too light upfront
So I started thinking what will our team will be next season considering as things stand now
I took into assumption that gallas and Merida will renew their contracts and we sign Chamak and Stefan Savic and wont sell any of our first team players
So lets start from Attack
these are the players we should have next season Upfront
Bendtner, Van Persie, Chamak, Vela, Eduardo, Arshavin, Nasri, Walcott, Rosicky
Arshavin ———————- Chamak —————— Van Persie
(Nasri, Vela) ——— (Eduardo, Bendtner) —— (Walcott, Rosicky)
that’s plenty of height upfront and a good amount of cover if one gets injured.
These players should be Sold – Simpson (Celtic) and maybe Murphy
Players who will be Loaned – Sunu, Watt and Barazite (high hopes for him)
Now lets go to the Midfield
these are the players we will have in the middle
Denilson, Song, Norvedit (possibly), Cesc, Diaby, WIlshere, Nasri, Merida (I dont want to include Ramsey in their because as we know it take a lot of time to fully recover)
———————————– Song
————————–(Norvedit, Denilson)
———- Fabregas ————————————– Diaby
(Wilshere, Merida, Nasri) ————————– (Wilshere, Denilson)
Players who could be SOLD – Randall, Nortvedit (possibly)
Players who should be send on loan – Lansbury (EPL side), Merida (6 months), Frimpong, JET, Eastmond
Now lets go to the Defense
these are the players we will have in the Defense
Sagna, Eboue, Sol (upto wenger), Vermaelen, Gallas, Djourou, Stefan, Clichy, Gibbs, Traore
Sagna ————————– Gallas ———————- Vermaelen ———————- Clichy
(Eboue, Djourou) ——- ((Djourou, Sol) ————- (Stefan, Djourou) —— (Gibbs, Traore)
Players who should be RELEASED next season —- Silvestre, Sendros, Bothelo, Gilbert, Hoyte
Players who will be Loaned Next Season – Coquelin, Bartley
So this what our team would look like next season
—————————————————– Almunia —————————————————
——————————————- ( Fabianski, Martinez ) —————————————-
Sagna ————————– Gallas ———————- Vermaelen ———————- Clichy
( Eboue, Djourou ) —– ( (Djourou, Sol ) —– ( Stefan, Djourou ) —– ( Gibbs, Traore )
—————————————————— Song ——————————————————-
———————————————( Norvedit, Denilson ) ——————————————
—————— Fabregas ——————————————– Diaby——————————-
——-( Wilshere, Merida, Nasri ) —————— ( Wilshere, Denilson )————————–
—— Van Persie —————————- Chamak ——————————— Arshavin —–
—– ( Walcott, Rosicky ) ————– ( Eduardo, Bendtner ) ————— ( Nasri, Vela )
SO these are all the players who will be Sold – Simpsons (QPR), Murphy, Randall
Players who will be Released – Silvestre, Sendros, Norvedit (possibily), Bothelo, Gibert, Hoyte
Players who will be Loaned – Mannone, Wzscheny, Bartley, Coquelin, Lansbury, Merida, Frimpong, JET, Sunu, Watt, Barazite
PHEW
that took a while WOW I guess Andrew I wasn’t going to do it first but since you did something like this I thought I will chip in as well
One final comment we are going to KiCKA$$ next season I would love to see so called pundits from Soccernet Press Pass try and write this team off.
We are at least 3 man deep in every position and our attack is as lethal as you can be in EUROPE. Next season lets go for FA CUP, Carling CUP, EPL and Champions League.
But the imporatnt thing is to focus on this season lets try and win EPL and CL and we can try and better ourselves by winning 4 trophies next season.
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