Arsenal Put Porto To The Sword.

The doom merchants who thought the Gunners would find Porto a difficult task last night were just a little bit off in the end, as Arsenal thrashed the Portuguese side 5-0 at the Emirates to move into the Champions League quarterfinals with a 6-2 aggregate triumph.

There was talk about Arsenal not having overturned a first leg deficit in Europe in 30 years, but statistics can be marshaled to prove or disprove virtually anything. I had predicted a 3-1 scoreline but I did also say that it was a poor Porto team and they were worse than the team we beat 4-0 in the group stages last season. That proved to be the case and with Samir Nasri, Andrei Arshavin, and Nicklas Bendtner shining we were just too good for them.

The team was as I had predicted, except that Tomas Rosicky started instead of Theo Walcott. Nasri was given the chance to play in the playmaker's role that had earned him comparisons to the legendary Zinedine Zidane in his younger years (not that he's old now) and he thrived as he had on Saturday after Cesc went off injured.

There was some talk bandied about last night about how the club was playing better without Cesc, but if the players can put that much in when Cesc is back in the team then they will win their last nine league matches and take the title too. I'd still be worried that they'll be found out defensively in the Champions League, but I'm happy enough to have got this far and we will see what the draw holds on Friday of next week.

Arsenal looked very bright from the start and by the time the first goal came in the 10th minute we had already had a couple of chances to score. When Manuel Almunia kicked the ball long to Arshavin in the build up to the first goal he was definitely offside, but how the defender let a player who is approximately 2'6" beat him to a header I don't know.

The Russian headed it to Nasri who played him in on the keeper and as Arshavin, the keeper and a few defenders converged on the ball it fell to Bendtner who stretched his long leg to poke it into an empty net. After all his misses on Saturday he couldn't have asked for a better opportunity to redeem himself and he took it easily.

Arsenal continued to press and a few half chances came and went while Porto also looked to get back into the game and had some pressure of their own. As I have always said the opposition will create chances at this level and to expect them not to is expecting miracles.

The manner that Arsenal defended at times to stop Porto creating their half chances was not as good as it should been, but still produced far more gilt-edged chances than it allowed. The second goal came in the 25th minute when Porto tried to let the ball run out for a throw in but it stayed in play and was poorly cleared straight to Arshavin. He beat three or four players with excellent close control and squared it for Bendtner to tap into an empty net. The defenders let Bendtner go as they thought he was offside. But in my opinion you can't be offside if you're behind the ball when it's played which he certainly was.

There were plenty of more chances before halftime with both goalkeepers making saves although the Porto keeper had to make much more difficult ones. Arshavin also managed to put the best chance over the bar when he seemed sure to score. Halftime arrived and it was still 2-0 with Arsenal in a very strong position and looking to secure their spot in the last 16 with one more goal after the break. 

The second half started with Porto getting a lot more of the play. They had two good chances either side of Emmanuel Eboue's introduction for Rosicky in the 57th minute. Almunia saved the first when it was luckily hit straight at him, as anywhere else from Falcao was a certain goal, and Nasri did his job defending on the post for the second when he cleared a header from a corner off the line.

Shortly after that, Arsenal got the third goal that they needed to settle their nerves and it was a fantastic individual effort from Nasri. In the 63rd minute he got the ball near the sideline and with very quick feet he somehow beat three Porto players before drilling the ball across the keeper and into the far corner for 3-0.

Within three minutes it was 4-0 as Arsenal broke very quickly from a Porto corner through Arshavin, who fed Eboue as the Ivorian ran extremely fast to get ahead of him. Eboue drew the keeper, went around him and finished into an empty net to effectively finish the tie at 5-2 on aggregate.

After that most of the fight had gone out of Porto and Arsenal created and missed four or five more chances before  Eboue broke into their box in injury time and was pulled down for a penalty. Bendtner stepped up to take it and he stuck it in the corner despite the keeper's best effort, to wrap it up at 5-0.

After the game Bendtner was happy with his first hat trick for Arsenal but he said he will put it behind him and concentrate on the next game as he did when he missed all those chances on Saturday. Let's hope he brings that form into the trip to Hull on Saturday and bags a few more goals to help us in our quest for the title.

The boss was happy with the win and performance too and he said he doesn't mind who we get in the last eight. He also said we are not focusing more on the Premiership or the Champions League for the moment, but we are focusing on our next game against Hull already. He also said that Cesc is 50/50 to play in that game, but I suspect that we will see him rested and that we will see the same starting 11 more or less.

If they can play like that they will have too much for Hull. Personally I would choose to win the Premier League before the Champions League, but both would be even nicer. I can dream can't I? That's it for today.

Here's the highlights from last night.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.