Arshavin the spark to light Arsenal fire
Aresenal 4 AZ Alkmaar 1
Andrey Arshavin gets past Stijn Schaars of AZ Alkmaar during last night's Champions League clash. Photo: Getty Images
Thursday November 05 2009
For all the recriminations about Arsenal's failure to win a trophy since 2005, Arsene Wenger should soon have a rather more favourable statistic to recite to his critics.
Barring a truly extraordinary sequence of results, last night's resounding 4-1 victory over AZ Alkmaar has ensured that his team have now qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League in each of the past 10 seasons -- a record that no other English club can match.
Once again, Arsenal's progress was built on the class both of their captain Cesc Fabregas and record signing Andrei Arshavin. Fabregas scored twice to take his tally for the season to eight while Arshavin delivered yet another master class in creativity by providing the assist for three of the goals.
Samir Nasri's ideal position remains a matter of some conjecture. However, with Theo Walcott and Nicklas Bendtner injured, he filled an attacking role in support of what has become Arsenal's 'Holy Trinity' of Robin van Persie, Fabregas and Arshavin.
Immediately Nasri was involved, helping to feed Van Persie, who had found space to unleash a powerful shot just wide of Sergio Romero's right-hand post. Under further pressure, Romero then inadvertently handled a back-pass to provide Arsenal with a free-kick from the edge of the six-yard box that was blasted straight into a makeshift wall by Van Persie.
penetrate
With Emmanuel Eboue again preferred to Bacary Sagna for the Champions League and Kieran Gibbs deputising for the injured Gael Clichy, Arsenal appeared to lack a little of their usual width and initially struggled to penetrate a crowded midfield.
Ronald Koeman, the Alkmaar manager, had been accused by Wenger of adopting defensive tactics when his PSV Eindhoven team eliminated Arsenal in 2007 and his players were again well organised.
The game plan was simple: deny Arsenal space and, where possible, feed high balls in the direction of Graziano Pelle, a towering 6ft 4in presence whose aerial strength had provided the assist for Alkmaar's equaliser in Holland two weeks ago.
It worked well for 25 minutes and, when Arsenal's possession was rewarded by a goal, it owed most to a goalkeeping mistake. William Gallas had unexpectedly burst forward and laid the ball into the path of Fabregas, who simply cut inside Mendes da Silva and then looked as surprised as anyone when his shot dribbled inside Romero's near post.
The Fabregas goal had encouraged rather more adventure from Koeman's team and, while Moussa Dembele caused occasional problems for Gibbs, the flip-side was rather more space for Arsenal's most creative players.
This was duly exploited when Arshavin split the Alkmaar defence with a cute through ball for Nasri. He still had work to do but, showing no hint of his recent lack of matches, brilliantly turned inside Hector Moreno and then shot beyond Romero.
With Arsenal continuing their record of scoring in every match this season, the only slight surprise had been Van Persie's failure to get among the goals. The pre-match compliments had certainly been plentiful. Koeman said that he was currently Holland's best player while Wenger, who always wears rather rose-tinted glasses when it comes to his own players, declared that he was currently the leading forward in the Premier League.
The key to Van Persie is not his goals, but rather the way he links play and creates space for others and, while not directly involved for the third, his run off the ball was still important. Arshavin again provided the assist, guiding a pass to Fabregas, whose finish was utterly emphatic. Arsenal, though, were still not finished, with Abou Diaby making it 4-0 when Arshavin (who else?) produced another defence-splitting pass.
However, Wenger will have been more than a little irritated by Alkmaar's late consolation. Manuel Almunia had made one outstanding save to deny Maarten Martens but, with the Emirates beginning to empty, was beaten at his near post by Jeremain Lens. (© Daily Telegraph, London)
- Jeremy Wilson
Irish Independent
