Arsenal v. Porto 4-0 30/Sep/08

A dangerous win at home was the Gunners antidote to the wave of criticism against the previosu EPL loss. This is dangerous I repeat, beacause this tell us that we are not seeing the Gunners, either at full strength or the real Gunners which I think are not the winning behemoths, but the meak fourth-spot contenders. This can be misinterpreted. The Invincible were mentioned this week by Wenger with the sole purpose of halt even more criticism against the London side. Obviously the current squad is far from that title-giant.
Defensive difficulties have been reviwed here at "Deviations" but Hubbard makes the distinction of why is the "Fake" Arsenal loosing when not suppossed to.
The danger of this win remains a question; which Arsenal is the true team? Against Hull or against Porto? We have seen both faces throughout this seaosn; Fulham, Kiev and Twente, Blackburn. This question will be answered next April and hopefully for all of us favorably and with silverware in our hands.





First half was really moving by both teams and a side-netting at 8' by Walcott, on a swaying movement around the box and another curled van Persie shot at 12', were amongst Arsenal occasions. Rodriguez over-bar header was a shy attempt by the visiting side, that was nullified from more than the first part of the first forty five minutes. Pacy Theo on the right side created inumerable chances for the home squad. A doubleshot by Lisandro at 28' troubled Arsenal for a few minutes when the "Permissive Arsenal" rose from dullnes. In a brilliant play by Cesc, followed by an Adebayor cross, van Persie gave Arsenal the lead at 31'. Certainly it was the Porto defense reluctance and later failed to mark the Dutchman on the entry through the box. Porto tried during the remaining ten minutes to compose their form but the fact it was the presence of Arsenal midfield that dissapeared the visiting squad. Adebayor headed the second for Arsenal at 39'. Cruising with no resistance the home side went on a fine definition after the first half.





Second half arrivals came with a very early goal. Robin van Persie managed to pass through Bruno Alves' mistake and with the outer part of the boot scored for the third mark in the score-sheet. A clear chance was missed by Nasri on a delightful run by Theo on 58'. And the game went calmly for the London side and approaching 70' Bendtner controlled the ball on the lingers of the box and fell by a foul. Adebayor capitalizaed for the Gunners and the four goal quota was covered. A shot on the bench of Arsenal after a play by Vela inbox showed no preocupation for the current state of the team by Mr Wenger. Arsenal won due to the terrible defending rather than a solid attacking display. There is no other way round. Bendtner at least had three chances but he was not as precise as in other cases. The mobile "Lanchero" Vela seemed established in the left winger position while undestanding really good with "Robosaur" Bendtner. The inertia of the game saw Porto pull more than in the previous eighty minutes but in the end the result was more than resolved.