Arsenal 6-0 Braga: Cesc Fabregas Masterclass.

When Arsenal got Braga in their Champions league group I was a little wary to say the least after seeing them put Sevilla out in the final qualifying round. In my preview of last night's game I predicted a 4-2 win for Arsenal as I thought Braga would sit back and attempt to hit us on the break. I did say that I thought Braga were suspect at the back and I thought we would certainly get a few goals.

I couldn't have been more wrong about their tactics as they appeared to try to play an open game and beat us at playing football. It's a mistake that can be very costly for teams if Arsenal are on their game and they were certainly on their game last night.

I was playing football myself at seven last night and it meant that I only arrived at the supporters club at half time. I had seen the team on Twitter and it was as I had expected with the exception of Nasri on the right hand side for Rosicky. I saw all of the second half and then I managed to catch the first half highlights later as well. The performances of Cesc, Chamakh and Wilshere were absolutely fantastic but the whole team played very well.

The first goal came after only 9 minutes when Chamakh was played in on the left hand side of the box. The keeper came out and Chamakh beat him to it but the keeper's momentum carried him onto Chamakh who he brought down for a stonewall penalty. Cesc stepped up and although the keeper went the right way, he placed it right in the corner to put Arsenal 1-0 up.

The second goal came on the half hour mark when Cesc played Arshavin in on the right again and he finished by the keeper's near post although it looked like he may have actually dragged his shot when aiming for the far corner. Arshavin did very little right in that first half as he struggled badly and nearly 50% of his passes went astray which is so unlike an Arsenal player.

Only four minutes later the third goal came after some lovely play by Arsenal when Wilshere was found in the box and he back heeled a pass to Chamakh who finished into the corner of the net through the legs of a defender who was trying to block him. I was delighted for him that he managed to get a goal with his feet as his other two goals so far this season were with his head and he had missed a few chances with his feet.

Half time arrived and it seemed to be a question of how many goals Arsenal would get rather than if Braga could get back into the game. I ate the cheese sandwiches that were supplied by The Strand and looked forward to more of the same in the second half. The second half started a little slowly for Arsenal but once they got going again they looked likely to score with every attack.

The fourth goal came in the 53rd minute after some good work by Arsenal yet again when Arshavin found Cesc six yards out with a cross and he headed home with ease. Ten minutes later the boss withdrew Chamakh and Song to give them a rest before Saturday's trip to West Brom and also to give Vela and Denilson a run out.

Vela was only on the field when he scored his second goal of the season. He was again played in by Arshavin and he clipped the ball over the advancing keeper to make it 5-0 with just over 20 minutes to go. Arshavin went off soon afterwards to be replaced by Eboue and he had a goal and two assists to his name despite the fact that he didn't play particularly well.

More chances came and went for Arsenal without Braga ever really posing a significant threat and Arsenal finally added their sixth goal in the 84th minute. Wilshere played a lovely ball over the top for Cesc who took it down beautifully and laid it off for Vela to stroke home. Vela has played less than an hour so far this season as far as I know and he now has three goals to show for it which isn't a bad return at all.

As it stands we have scored 19 goals in five games and only conceded three and Walcott is our top scorer on four goals with Chamakh, Arshavin and Vela just behind him on three. The football Arsenal played last night was a joy to behold and if they continue to play like that they will score an awful lot of goals this season.

There were questions asked about Cesc and his commitment to the club after all the summer speculation linking him to Barcelona but I have said it previously and I will say it again that I think Cesc is going to have a fantastic season for us. Last season he created a goalscoring opportunity in the league once every 29 minutes I think and that was the best of any player in the top five leagues in Europe.

Of course Arsenal didn't take all of those chances but it seems that he is creating chances a lot more freely this season already. I counted at least 12 goalscoring chances either created or scored by him in the last two games and that's one every 15 minutes. As long as Arsenal can put a fair share of those chances in our opponents nets we will have a fantastic season in terms of goalscoring.

I did feel for Rosicky who didn't get on last night despite playing so well so far this season but I'm sure he will give all he has when he does get his chances to impress. Wilshere looked like he was made to play in the Champions league last night and Chamakh and Nasri were absolutely top class too. Song did his job perfectly as well and the defence were pretty solid with Almunia very rarely called into action. Arshavin is a little odd as he was so poor at times last night that he looked out of place but he still got one goal, two assists and hit the post as well.

The Braga manager said that they have never played so poorly before but he should realise that it was also in part due to the way Arsenal played. It would seem that whenever we thrash a side somebody comes out and says they were never any good anyway despite any pre match hype about how dangerous they are.

I won't be getting carried away just yet and I still don't think it's an easy group with two trips to Eastern Europe to come against teams who will be very strong at home but I am confident that we can win our group. Our next Champions league game is in Belgrade against Partizan in 12 days time and thankfully we have five days to recover from it before our trip to Chelsea in the Premier league.

That's more or less it for today except to mention that I'm running a fantasy Champions league competition which can be found here. The code to join my league is 164121-27747 and if anyone else sets up a league just give me the code and I'll join their league too. After the first round of games Stephen Bradley is on top of my league with 109 points and he's in 13th position overall out of over 250,000 teams which is quite incredible.

If you haven't seen the match highlights from last night you can see them here.

See You Tomorrow.