Match Report: Arsenal 4-0 FC Porto
Arsenal kicked-off match day two of their Champions League campaign with a tie against FC Porto of Portugal.
The Gooners inside Ashburton Grove anticipated a much improved encounter than the poor performance and 3 points dropped against Premier League newcomers Hull City last weekend.
Arsene Wenger’s ‘sweeping changes’ involved replacing Emmanuel Eboue with Samir Nasri, other than that, the team was unchanged from Saturday’s loss to Phil Brown’s Tigers.
First Half
The Gunners started their game in nervous fashion. Several passes went astray but within ten minutes, the team in red and white started to get going.
Porto were on the back foot for much of the first half with Theo Walcott and van Persie both going close to opening the scoring.
But then the Gunners were given a real warning as Tomas Costa sped down the right wing and delivered a perfect cross to Cristian Rodriguez, whose diving header hit the ground before deflecting off the crossbar.
However, van Persie struck to give Gunners a real boost after 31 minutes.
Cesc Fabregas cut the Porto defence open and Adebayor picked out van Persie with a cross that the Dutch ace poked home at the near post.
Goal: Robin van Persie (31) – Arsenal 1-0 FC Porto
The experienced Portugese side were stunned. It was they who had the best chances of the first half but it was Arsenal who had provided the finishing touch to their own moves.
Little did they know, there was more to come from the flowing north Londoners.
With half-time approaching, van Persie returned the favour for Togolese frontman Adebayor by sending over a corner from which he rose unchallenged to power home for a 2-0 lead.
Goal: Emmanuel Adebayor (40) – Arsenal 2-0 FC Porto
Suddenly, the Hull City scoreline was completely forgotten about and Arsenal went in at the break with a superb lead over a tough set of Portugese stars.
Second Half
Another half, hopefully another batch of goals to come from the mighty Gunners.
It didn’t take long for the third to go in. Shocking defending by Porto, giving the ball away on the right hand side. Robin van Persie picked it on the edge of the box, ghosted past Freddy Guarin, and poked the ball into the far corner. Game over.
Goal: Robin van Persie (48) – Arsenal 3-0 FC Porto
It was a typical Arsenal comeback. Not only from the Hull match, but also at the critics dismissing the Gunners’ title chances.
Fabregas drilled a shot at Helton which he fumbled, before Wenger made his substitutions.
Bendtner > van Persie
Eboue > Walcott
Vela > Nasri
Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner was brought into the action immediately and caused Porto a threat with his gangly style.
Freddy Guarin hacked down Bendtner inside the penalty area and the referee pointed to the spot. Up stepped Adebayor and it was 4-0. Unbelievably comfortable for the mighty Reds.
Goal: Emmanuel Adebayor (70) – Arsenal 4-0 FC Porto
The whistle went for full time, a superb result for everyone involved with Arsenal Football Club.
Next up, Sunderland in the Premier League – watch out Roy Keane, Arsene’s boys are back.
Almunia (7) – Made a good save from Lopez in the first half, and even came out to punch a cross at one point.
Sagna (7) – Steady defensively, put some good crosses in tonight as well.
Toure (5) – Pretty awful at the back. Positionally all over the place and only wins 1 in 4 headers.
Gallas (5) – Showed no leadership qualities, never mind the much-required organisational skills of a captain.
Clichy (5) – Lost count of the amount of times he was drawn infield next to Gallas leaving his left-back slot completely exposed. Booked for a reckless and unnecessary tackle in the second-half, seems to be losing the plot.
Walcott (8) – A constant threat all night with his amazing pace and dribbling skills. The end product is still lacking but Walcott is a frighteningly good prospect.
Denilson (6) – Had a decent game despite his lack of defensive ability – he’s clearly not up to that specific job so no point blaming him for it.
Fabregas (8) – Much better today from the Spaniard, excellent range of passing – held the midfield together.
Nasri (7) – Wasn’t at his best having just come back from injury, but clearly offers so much more than Eboue with his ball retention, creativity and passing attributes.
Van Persie (8) -Much better from Van Persie, who upped his work ethic and finished off some moves – although it has to be said Porto’s defenders bore innumerable gifts.
Adebayor (7) -Responded well to his poor exhibition on Saturday. Scored an easy header – but at least he was there. Missed some good chances as usual, but despatched the penalty calmly.
Subs:
Eboue (6) – Disappointed to see him come on, seemed pointless – but did OK.
Bendtner (7) – Looks a tad slimmer and therefore quicker this season, and is mentally alert to everything around him.
Vela (7) -Didn’t see the ball enough unfortunately, but did one amazing dribble to get into the box. Increasingly like the look of him every time I see him.
Gooner Talk Man of the Match – Theo Walcott – Exploited Porto with his blistering pace. Needs to improve on his end product but other than that, superb.
Great result but im annoyed with Ade all of a sudden. He didnt do enough to earn the penalty IMO. I would have given it to Vela or Nik. And i hate his dance when he scores, and did he kiss the badge? i heard someone say he did. DISGUISTING!
Cesc and Nasri were amazing together. Maybe Cesc just needed a bit of help in the playmaking aspect.
Good night overall but wanted JD to start regardless of the cleansheet.
good match but during the final 15 mins they start to get lazy and i dont like that everyone keeps losing balls .
Really wonderfull performace by Arsenal i enjoyed every minute. I wish they play like this every game 🙂
great match BUT honestly we should have won by 7 or 8 goals.
Theo had a good game BUT just like against hull, he cant shoot for shit.
as usual adebayor is a waste of space.
yes we won 4-0 and he scored 2 goals but before you ade supporters start, he scored with a deflected header and penalty.
he never fails to frustrate me with his constant offsides and the number of chances he miss every game is amazing. he can only hoold the ball and never ever beat defenders unlike walcott, vela or even bendter
did you guys see how impressive both bendter and vela was when they came on for the last 30 minutes? i think they did more than ade ever did in the whole 90 mins.
four goals, Ade & RVP stellar, maestro Cesc in midfield, wonderful result
good result and 4-0 is a solid scoreline..still though, could have been about 8 and our finishing is still reeally bad, at least 2 sitters missed yet again.kind of frustrating but ah well cannot complain at all as we won 4-0
Good performance after Sat. A great way to get the confidence up before a tough game away to Sunderland on Saturday. Vela and Bendtner looked good when they came on and our two strikers looked good tonight but the real star(s) of the show were Fabregas and Walcott. Since his hat-trick for England Walcott has just been suprisingly amazing.
good result and 4-0 is a solid scoreline..still though, could have been about 8 and our finishing is still reeally bad, at least 2 sitters missed yet again.kind of frustrating but ah well cannot complain at all as we won 4-0.
damocles, Bendtner was barely inmpressive when he came on. He managed to feed Adebayor for what could have been a hat-trick but the defending was awful and he got lucky to even be able to make the pass.
Adebayor was heavily involved in the opening goal, heading the ball down to Cesc and then passing to Van Persie for the goal.
Bendtner did win the penalty though so fair play to him for that, and he was never afraid to play with the ball.
wenger has seriously got to work on Adebayor’s movement and finishing so much good crosses by Walcot were wasted due to his poor movement but arpart from that great victory and Walcot was outstanding
Fabregas dad, which game did you watch. Bendtner was ‘barely impressive’, you mad or what. He played much more direct than ade n was more of a threat for the time he was on than ade did whole game.
What a difference Nasri makes. He was toying with them all match. His comfort on the ball and the flourishing partnership with Clichy are two of the many positives from this match.
Can’t wait for Rosicky to get back pitch-side. Fabregas, Samir and Tomas has to be one of the most creative midfield axises out there.
good performance, but equally frustrating… if they had played with 50% of the tempo and energy they played with tonight against Hull, we would have won that match.
if they only want to turn up in the glitz and glamour of the CL then that is not good enough.
more work to be done to make things right as far as i’m concerned. the next 5 league games are where they earn our respect back, not a 4-0 win against a frankly appauling porto side.
Overall, top performance. Whilst we blew a few good chances (ahem…Ade) in attack, I am more worried about our defence to be honest…there are still some crucial errors being made and it was a big reason for our loss to Hull.
However, with Nasri back in the line-up it really shows how much of a difference he makes to our team…especially as it appears Fab needs another “top class” midfielder to help him perform at his absolute best. Fab is amazing, but there is only so much he can do…
Let’s hope the lads take this more positive attitude to Sunderland this weekend and prove to us they are still legitimate contenders this year.
Go you Gunners.
some of you lot seriously need to get off ade’s dick,its getting silly
Agreed, toure tribe. These guys don’t know a thing about the game. Arsenal — 24 shots, 10 on goal, 4 scores. ManU — 27 shots, 10 on goal, 3 went in. And the percentages would have been worse if Ronaldo played.
I saw Theo try to play defense today, that was a great thing, completely different from when he gave the Brazilian at Hull all that space to score.
Arsenal will only go as far as Ade can take them, so get used to it — he is as critical to this team’s success as Cesc.
By the way, Robin is PK-taker number one; Ade is number two. Robin was off by then.
I think Eboue is number three, tee hee hee.
@ Damocles and TUGZ
Get off Theo and Adebayor’s backs.
They are both top quality players.
The Adebayor debate should be over by now – yes he has his off days, but he scored 30 goals last year and is doing well this year. I don’t know why people think he is so bad.
He isn’t Henry – but he is a top class striker.
Theo – still learning – only 19 years old. He has started to prove himself and get goals – only more practice in games will bring his confidence in shooting up. I was at the game tonight and thought he looked good.
Wankers who critcise players who did well after good victories don’t do anyone any good.
Sorry, but I am fed up with the over grown expectations of Theo – and the neverending criticism of Adebayor…
I wrote an article on Ade here http://arsespeak.wordpress.com/2008/06/06/adebayor-arsenal-legend-in-the-making/
The facts show that he is a good striker….
Oh, I forgot to add. This also shows a big problem with Arsenal, their attitude.
The only reason they can lose to “lower” teams is because they can be all too cocky. Look at the end of the match, yes, they are tired, but they started being sloppy because they knew they had a 4 goal cushion. Still, the most evident example of this was last week in Hull. Arsenal thought they could just play around, and only awoke in the final 10 or 20 minutes or the game, where it was too late already.
Joel Cairo
Yes of course Ade is critical to this team success.
Arsenal can only be successful if he is OUT of the side.
Cheers
I know facts can prove anything and are not everything but I would be interested to know how many goals Ade has scored in his Gooners career up to now..
Can anyone help?
addywanker missed a hatful of chances again and was offside countless times , a deflected goal and a penalty, he needs a kick up the arsenal and dropped, give nb and vela a chance who both looked useful last night
any gooners out there living in ko samui????????????
adebayor has scored around 40+ in around 80+ games. a goal every two games. he’s good but people hate him and he can still get better. barca and milan wanted him 30 mill yet we still don’t rate him?
So 40+ goals in 80+ games, one in two and yet he misses hat fulls of chances, just think if he could improve on his goals per chance ratio even slightly
you lot chat shyt,ade works for the team,dont you watch football? we was slagging off thierry a couple years ago for sulking and standing still too often,now were slagging off ade for bein the oposite pretty much just coz he asked to be paid the going rate boo hoo hoo why dont you lot get coaching badges and apply for the managers job? you bunch of whinging little bitches
Samui Gooner…. I am coming to the island in 2 weeks. Going to be working there…
Where do you watch the games….
Burkster