Arsenal thrashed Portuguese club Porto to get their home campaign in this year’s Champions League off to the best possible start. They put Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to underdogs Hull City behind them with a great display of attacking football.
Although the Gunners dominated the first half, Porto had the best chance of the game and after 20 minutes hit the crossbar. However, in the 31st minute, Dutchman Robin van Persie slid in to convert Emmanuel Adebayor’s cross to open the scoring after Cesc Fabregas had put him thorough. In the 40th minute the Dutchman’s corner was headed in by Adebayor to make it 2-0. Fabregas needed a bigger key-ring as Porto had given the key to the pitch. The Spaniard was terrific all the game, with his vision being fantastic. Time after time he put the Arsenal forwards through. Although he still looks like one of the 14 year old kids auditioning for The X Factor. Van Persie scored his second on 48 minutes after some defending from Porto that would not have looked out of place in a Benny Hill show. Then after a challenge on substitute Nicklas Bendtner, Adebayor’s clinically dispatched a penalty to make it 4-0.
Wenger was obviously pleased with the way his team responded from Saturday. The Frenchman said, “It is the response I wanted. Maybe it was our most complete performance this season. We could have scored a few more but most important was to win and respond in a convincing way. I didn’t make many changes because sometimes you have to give a team a chance to respond quickly.”
He was right to be pleased. A great game from the Gunners.
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Shoe in for a win 2morrow