Arsenal 3-Celtic 1 (Updated with Highlights)

By: Martin | August 26th, 2009

Well, that’s it–we’re through to the Champions League with room to spare (5-1 on aggregate). Several things to talk about in this one, so let’s dive right in.

I suppose there’s no choice but to start by talking about Eduardo’s penalty. It was absolutely not a penalty, and absolutely a dive. I like Eduardo, but I won’t mince words–he should be ashamed of himself. Diving is cheating, and does a lot to undermine the integrity of the game. And if I’m going to criticize Gerrard and Drogba for doing it (which I do), I’ve got to be even-handed about it. I hate seeing it, and I especially hate seeing it from someone on my club. I hated it when Eboue used to do it on a regular basis, and I hated seeing Eduardo do it today. And I won’t defend it or justify it.

But. Having said that, I think it’s pretty unrealistic and naive to suggest that it really had a dramatic impact on the tie. We had a 2 goal advantage and we were playing at home against a team which has been pretty dreadful about scoring and getting results away in European competition. We were in control of the match from start to finish, and we were going to move on to the group stages whether Eduardo gets the penalty call or not. It’s as simple as that. So I’m not particularly interested in blindly naive theories about how it “changed the course of the tie” or some other such nonsense, which the announcers wouldn’t shut up about.

We created a bunch of chances, and could have scored 5 or 6 if it weren’t for Artur Boruc, who showed himself to be a world-class keeper today. Celtic hardly tested our backline, and I don’t remember Almunia being really tested at all.

The second goal was a superb team effort, with Eboue finishing the move nicely. It capped a good game for Eboue, and the goal was deserved. Arshavin came on and made a brilliant move to get the ball far enough away from a defender to get an accurate shot off by Boruc. Celtic midfielder Massimo Donati then scored a pretty amazing goal to pull one back in injury time. On to the ratings:

Almunia 6.5. Didn’t do much at all. Can’t really remember him even being involved much–there was one time when I remember him yelling at the guys on the wall, I guess that was pretty good.

Sagna 6.5 Didn’t do anything spectacular, but had a solid performance and didn’t make any mistakes.

Clichy 7.5. Good game for Gael. Did a good job containing McGeady all game, and put himself in a couple good positions to put balls into the box.

Vermaelen 7.5. Yet another solid, mistake-free performance for TV5.

Gallas 8. He didn’t score, but he got forward and made some dangerous runs on several occasions. Has Gallas ever had a run of form this good?

Denilson 7.5 Provided good cover for the back, and made a couple of great passes to put guys through. Really seems to be blossoming this season.

Song 8. A couple of good defensive headers in the box, as well as being a ball-hawk in the middle of the field.

Diaby 6.5 Decent performance, but was pretty inconspicuous the whole match. Will have to do better to be a regular first-team player.

Eboue 8 Man of the match? Showed what he can do today–made dangerous runs, looked dangerous down the wing, distributed the ball well, and tracked back. Virtually unrecognizable from the Eboue of years past.

Eduardo 5.5. Generally looked dangerous, but poor finishing and diving to earn a penalty spoiled the performance for me.

Bendtner 7.5. Best game of the year for St. Nick, although that’s not saying a whole lot. Great play to set up the second goal, although he squandered several great chances to score. Still yet to find the scoresheet this season.

Arshavin 8. Bringing him in was a risky move, but something tells me that Alex Ferguson, who was in attendance, won’t be sleeping all that well this week after seeing Arshavin turn a defender off his hip and coolly finish a placed shot past Boruc.

Ramsey 6 Picked up a knock almost immediately upon coming on, and had trouble getting going. Did make a good run with the ball into the box, but couldn’t quite chip it over Boruc.

Wilshere 6. Pretty anonymous in limited action.

So we’re through. We managed to avoid the embarrassment of missing out on the Champions League. More importantly, now we’re guaranteed the Champions League money, which hopefully means Wenger has a little extra money to spend in the next week.

Group stage draw tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll do well with that. It’s done by coefficient, and we’re in pool A, so we’ll avoid the other elite teams. Hopefully we’ll get a decent draw and have a clear path to the knockout stages. I’ll update after the draw. And then it’s on to Manchester United on Saturday for a massively important early season matchup.