Arsenal Kids Dispatch Wasteful Portsmouth

By: Martin | May 3rd, 2009

Well, yesterday saw us send off Portsmouth fairly easily, 3-0 (highlights here). I say “fairly” because despite the clean sheet, our backline had several breakdowns, and the shutout was preserved only by the combination of a couple of good saves by Fabianski and poor finishing by Pompey.

The most obviously good news from yesterday was that it clinched 4th place, and a spot in the final qualifying round for the Champions League next year. I’ve said it before, but it’s really remarkable that we did this with 3 games to spare given that it looked unlikely to happen at all just 2 months ago. The other good news that we managed to win with a squad of more or less reserves, meaning we didn’t suffer any further injuries ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League clash.

But what I found really most rewarding about the match is that it gave us a glimpse into what looks like a rosy future for the first team. Bendtner scored two goals, one of them on a penalty. Vela notched his first league goal, and really terrorized Pompey’s defense all game long. Wenger rates the young Mexican very highly, and I do, too–he’s not far away from being a good Premier League striker, and his flair and creativity are perfectly suited to the way Wenger likes to play.

Aaron Ramsey also looked good in his first Premier League start. You’ll remember there was quite the bidding war between us and United over the young Welshman’s services last summer, and he was widely touted as the next big thing. But frankly, in the glimpses we’ve had of him this season, mainly in the Carling Cup, I couldn’t understand what the fuss was about. While he wasn’t spctacular yesterday, he showed a lot of energy and composure, which is quite a feat at the age of 18. I really think he’ll continue to develop, and could overtake Denilson and/or Diaby in Arsenal’s crowded center midfield picture as early as next season.

We also got looks at youngsters Mark Randall, Fran Merida, and summer signing Amaury Bischoff, all of whom looked up to the task in brief cameos. The bottom line is that, especially at the end of the game, we were essentially fielding a team of Andrey Arshavin plus our Carling Cup team, and still managed a decisive victory over a team that’s been playing quite well lately. We’d be crazy not to take a fair amount of encouragement from that.

As I mentioned, Bendtner scored his second on a penalty given on a foul by Sean Davis on Arshavin. Davis did initially get a piece of the ball, and it looked like Arshavin was wagging his finger at the referee signaling that he didn’t think it was a foul after the penalty was given. Portsmouth fans were incensed at the decision, and it definitely looked a bit harsh. However, earlier in the game we should have had a penalty given when Sylvain Distin was pulling Vela by his shirt in the box. So I guess these things even out. Frankly, it’s a little hard to get too worked up over it–we were going to finish 4th no matter what happened yesterday, and Portsmouth was going to finish in the bottom half but clear of the drop no matter what happened. And it wasn’t like it was a 1-0 game, so it’s hard to see it making too big of a difference.

Not too much more to say, I guess. It really went as well as we could have hoped–the kids played, looked good, won decisively, and no one got hurt.

United on Tuesday, preview coming tomorrow.