Arsenalist

Following the Sevilla demolition this had to be considered a bit of a letdown but even so it was a deserved victory. Fabregas amazingly missed a complete sitter early in the game and after that I was thinking that those chances might come pretty often. But Steaua was resilient and tightened their defense until it was unlocked by Adebayor’s centering pass, which after being whiffed by Fabregas, was slotted home professionally by RVP. We dominated the game for the most part and deserved a result although we were lucky when Almunia was caught way out of his line and had his hide saved by Toure’s clearing header late in the game.

As the match report points out half the seats in the stadium were empty which is shocking considering what a rarity Champions League football is here. But that didn’t stop Steaua from mounting a strong challenge forcing Arsenal into using all the grit we had. As Wenger says, Arsenal have shown maturity, last year this easily could’ve ended up 1-0 against us (as it did in Moscow):

“Steaua defended very well and we couldn’t find the openings, so we had to show patience. Patience is linked with maturity and we were conscious of that at half-time. I’m pleased because we kept going, we were intelligent and in the end scored the goal which gave us a deserved win.”

The Mail’s gone as far as calling this a “historic win” given our failings in Eastern Europe over the last decade but I just call it some really bad luck. All in all it’s a good win where we once again fought through some adversity and came out with a result. Everyone’s favorite whipping boy, Adebayor deserved to score a goal, he was a real presence in the box and had a big role in creating almost all our chances. He’s starting to have an impact on games without even scoring which says a lot about his development as a center forward.

Almunia looked a little shaky today, he had the “Deer Caught-in-Headlights” at least twice, once when Toure was forced to clear the ball and then again when Constantin Iacob wasted a chance on a 2 on 1 with Almunia being the 1. But then again when you have a clean sheet things like these get lost in the shuffle. We should all thank Robin van Persie for having the best finishing touch on the team, when a shot needs to be taken that requires both accuracy and power, he is the best we’ve got. On the defensive side of things Sagna is becoming what we thought Senderos might be, a strong physical no-nonsense presence. A great summer signing which perfectly complements the forward-thinking Eboue and the stay-at-home Toure. I think it’s fair to say that after Toure, he is our best back.

On a completely different note I was made very happy when I learned that the new Champions League intro has the Alessandro Mancini’s insane stepover against Lyon in it, check it out.

Grab the feed, highlights below.

Robin van Persie ’76: Download

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French Highlight Pack Download 14.5 MB

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Check Arsenal Goals Clips and Arsenal Clips for more.