Back on Track
By: travis | October 2nd, 2008What a difference a few days make. After a pretty dreadful performance from Arsenal last Saturday, they were given a wake up call by some of Wenger’s threats prior to the game against Porto. Turns out his bark is worse than his bite, as the only change from Saturday was Samir Nasri in for Emmanuel Eboue. Nasri was by no means the catalyst for the quick turnaround, as he struggled to connect on passes on a number of occasions.
It was the work of the two strikers, Emmanuel Adebayor and Robin Van Persie that would get the goals. Van Persie showed great determination to get to the ball from Adebayor, as RvP was hounded by two Porto defenders, yet was able to get a boot on the ball and poke it home. The second goal, before halftime came off the head of Adebayor, who bounced it into the ground than over the keeper. Not a bad way to do it. None of the goals were spectacular, just good, solid finishing off of well orchestrated moves. Van Persie would get his second before coming off for Nicklas Bendtner, who in turn drew the penalty (really dumb play by the Porto defender) that Adebayor slotted home for a brace of his own.
The result really makes one wonder about what happened on Saturday. Hull City must be really good, or perhaps Paul Brown kept his team organized enough to frustrate the players on the pitch. Whatever the case, it is a rather strange sequence of events that now see Arsenal on the top of Group G in the Champions League. Fenerbahçe and Kiev drew 0-0, so a win in Istanbul can almost guarantee a top two finish in the group. The work is far from complete, however, and a few more performances like this one are required to make the knockout stages.
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Tags: Arsenal News, Champions League, Emmanuel Adebayor, FC Porto, Fixtures, Match Review, Nicklas Bendtner, Robin van Persie, Samir NasriSubscribe
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Comments
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“turns out his bark is worse than his bite” — actually no, not if you saw the way Ade, RVP and Gallas played. They played like they had Arsene’s words ringing in their ears. He definitely gave them his version of the hairdryer treatment, he kept them an hour after the Hull game to let them have it.
Not sure why you’re dissing Nasri, he played some superb football, defending as well as attacking. He gave the team such a better balance. He’s absolutely electric.
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