European Champions' League - Matchday #1

Arsenal 3 Fabregas, Van Persie, Eduardo
Sevilla 0

This morning my sahur was shifted 30 minutes earlier than usual and by 5.00 am I already had my butt in front of the tv. I was nervous. Yes, nervous.

Why?

Well, Sevilla is considered by Arsene Wenger as a team potentially to win the Champions League, despite this is their debut season in the tournament. With their coach Juande Ramos sharing the same attacking mentality with Wenger, I was somewhat a bit skeptical with the ability of our defence which did not look at all comfortable in recent weeks despite us chalking up wins.

Their speedy flankers Jesus Navas and Diego Capel should pose problems to Gael Glichy and Bakary Sagna repectively but by the end of the ninety minutes I came to the conclusion that our fullbacks are second to none, really.

The only position that I am concerned is at the centre of defence where Phillipe Senderos did not look all that comfortable against Freddie Kanoute and Luis Fabiano but Kolo Toure as usual did a sterling job in ensuring the sheet was kept clean.

Both teams threw jabs at one another. Navas tested Manuel Almunia with a long range shot but it missed the target. Robin Van Persie forced Andres Palop into action with a rasping shot with his right foot which the former Valencia man flapped behind his goal.

Matthieu Flamini was looking for his first Champions League goal went close but Palop stopped
his shot. The goalkeeper was unable to take it cleanly and Manu Adebayor went for it but the Togolese was deemed to have fouled Palop in the process.

Then came the first goal. It was totally out of the blue. When Alex Hleb fed the ball to Cesc Fabregas, he had a wall of Sevilla players in front of him. But the confidence that he found recently made him try his luck, and it turned out to be a lucky shot indeed. The ball hit Frenchman Julien Escude which wrong-footed Palop and went into the net.

Sevilla were stung into action but they lacked the telling pass that would have given their forwards the opportunity to test Almunia. Then just before the final whistle was blown for the half a floater from the left nearly found Kanoute with Senderos completely at sea.

The second half started on the same tempo but Arsenal were forced to make their first change with Abou Diaby coming on for Tomas Rosicky, who seemed to be limping as he walked into the dressing room.

Then just before the hour, Arsenal was awarded a free-kick after Flamini was brought down by Daniel Alvez. Fabregas floated the ball in and Sagna flicked it across the goal. Van Persie showed good anticipation to connect with the ball, sending it into the roof of the net.

Arsenal were two goals to the good with just half an hour to go.

So far the performance had been clinical and the team helped one another in preventing Sevilla from staging a comeback. Sagna showed why Wenger was willing to splash the cash for him as his positional sense is very good. His clearance from an Alvez cross prevented Sevilla from cashing in on a Senderos's miscued kick.

However, I must state here that the performance of Diaby was not up to the standards in recent matches. He lost easy balls and his touches have been poor. Perhaps, it was the effect from missing two easy goal-scoring chances against Portsmouth and Sp*ds recently. Furthermore, he is not playing in his favourite position.

As I have stated yesterday, I would like to see Eduardo starting the match but Wenger decided to stick with the Van Persie-Adebayor combination. The Croat finally came on for Adebayor with just under ten minutes to go.

But before the substitution, Adebayor had a wonderful chance to put his name on the scoresheet when he connected with a beautiful flighted ball from the impressive Sagna. However, his header was just off target with Palop well beaten.

Deep into injury time, a mistake by a Sevilla defender saw Hleb pouncing on the loose ball. The Belarussian found Fabregas at the edge of the box and the young Spaniard in return found Eduardo had mad a wonderful diagonal run into the box.

The precise ball found the Croatian who had the easiest task of slotting the ball home for his second goal for the Gunners.

The 3-0 scoreline was flattering but did not quite give the true account of what transpired on the pitch. Sevilla would remain a dangerous team and should get their Champions' League season on track against Sparta Pargue in Sevilla while Arsenal travel to Bucharest to meet Steaua.

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