Arsenal Beat Partizan Belgrade 3-1 To Top Their Champions League Group

Arsenal made the long trip to Serbia last night for our second game in group H of the Champions league and after a night of dram and highs and lows it ended in success with a 3-1 win. The boss made six changes from the team lost to West Brom on Saturday as he looked to freshen the team up as well as resting a few players before the vitally important trip to Chelsea on Sunday.

Almunia was injured which meant that Fabianski started and the other players to miss out were Clichy, Koscielny, Nasri, Diaby and Eboue as Gibbs, Djourou, Wilshere, Nasri and Rosicky came in. In the early exchanges arsenal were looked very shaky at the back and Partizan had a few chances before we got a foothold in the game.

However Arsenal took the lead in the 14th minute when Arshavin ran at their defence and played the ball to Wilshere in the box. Wilshere controlled the ball and then back heeled it into the onrushing Arshavin's path and he smashed it home from 12 yards to put us 1-0 up. For the next 10 or 15 minutes Arsenal completely dominated the game and only a mixture of good goalkeeping and poor finishing prevented us from increasing our lead.

As usual when you don't take your chances the opposition get thrown a lifeline and this game was no different as Denilson inexplicably handled a harmless ball into the box as he looked to control it on his chest. I'm sure he didn't mean to handle the ball but why his arm was so high only he knows and the referee had no option but to award the penalty. The Partizan player stepped up and put Fabianski the wrong way to equalise with 33 minutes gone and all of our good work seemed to have been wasted. 

Half time arrived and the scores were still even but Arsenal certainly looked capable of going on to get the victory and the three points that they wanted. Arsenal looked very dangerous going forward in that first  half but equally our defence looked very vulnerable as Squillaci looked slow and Djourou looked very rusty at this level. Too often Arsenal defenders got caught in possession as they opted to try to play the ball when it was the wrong option.

Early in the second half Arsenal again looked like they were the more likely to score and we got our chance after only 55 minutes when Arshavin played Chamakh in behind the the Partizan defence. As he advanced on the keeper he was fouled and although he made a bit of a meal of his fall it was a definite penalty and the Partizan player received a red card too. Arshavin stepped up to try to restore our lead but his blasted penalty was saved by the keeper with his feet even though he had dived away from it.

Arsenal didn't really push home their numerical advantage until there were 20 minutes to go when a beautiful cross by Rosicky was met by Chamakh and his header was tipped onto the bar by the keeper. Chamakh was the quickest to react and he headed the rebound into the empty net to put Arsenal 2-1 ahead and leave 10 man Partizan with an uphill task. 

A few minutes later Nasri and Vela came on for Wilshere and Chamakh as the boss looked to protect them before the trip to Chelsea on Sunday. I thought that the two of them and Arshavin took a lot of punishment from the Partizan defenders and the referee must have thought he was refereeing in the Premier league as continually allowed their players to tackle from behind or the side and go through the player before  getting the ball.

With eight minutes left Arsenal got their third goal when Squillaci got his head to an excellent corner from Nasri and it looked like it was all over at that stage. However Arsenal's propensity to self destruct was again evident late on when Gibbs was caught out of position and in an attempt to stop his man there was a coming together in the box and the referee had no choice but to give a penalty. This time Fabianski guessed the right way to made a very good save and he was clearly delighted with his effort.

Only a few minutes later he made another excellent save and at the final whistle he had a broad grin on his face. The players came over to congratulate him at the final whistle and it can only have done his confidence a world of good. I've been a harsh critic of him myself but I was happy to see him do so well and I hope he can keep it up. 

It was great to see how well Arshavin played, particularly in the first half, as he looked like the player that we spent all that money on in January 2009. He scored one goal and could have had a few more but for some poor finishing and some excellent goalkeeping. He is now our top scorer with five goals in nine matches and if he keeps up that form he will become a firm favourite.

After the game the boss said he was delighted that everyone else got to see the keeper that he sees in training every day. When he was asked about the goalkeeping choices for Sunday's game against Chelsea he said he would have to wait and see and I imagine it will depend on how Almunia reacts to treatment on his elbow injury.

Ahead of that game against Chelsea the boss said that Cesc has a little chance of playing but that Vermaelen is definitely out of the game. The boss has a few decisions to make in his team selection and I'll look at them later in the week but I'll leave it there for today. Here's the highlights of last night's game.

See You Tomorrow.