I didn’t manage to catch the game but what I missed was a nine goal thriller, I went to Arsenal 10, Barnet 1 a couple of years ago, that was good. The game saw Reyes, Fabregas, Van Persie and Gilberto all had their first appearances this season with RVP getting two of the goals. The other goals came from Johan Djourou, Kolo Toure, Nicklas Bendtner, Alex Hleb and two from Emmanuel Adebayor. Schwadorf were very exited for the game, they are only a third division team and the local town was full of excitement about to play the runners up in Europe.

We started brightly though and nearly took the lead in the fourth minute with Gilberto the bar with a header from a Jose Antonio Reyes corner. However in the sixth minute it was 1-0 to the Arsenal; Van Persie got around the goalkeeper and simply finished into the empty net. In the tenth minute we nearly scored from a corner again, this time Toure from a Reyes corner which Thomas Reitprecht had to clear off the line. 5 minutes later though Reyes provided another great corner and Djourou made it 2-0 with a powerful header. Nice to see Arsenal producing the goods from corners again. The home side nearly narrowed the lead with Christian Schandl going just wide of the target twice and Oliver Lederer forced a fine save out of Almunia. However the home fans hopes of bringing it down to a one goal lead were shattered when RVP put in Adebayor who beat the keeper to make it three. Then with the last play of the first half he got another goal to take Arsenal in at the break 4-0 up.

Wenger reshuffled the team with seven changes at the break including Armand Traore who I have been very impressed with recently, Song who had a great game the last time he played in Austria and Hleb amongst others. Two subs provided a goal almost immediately after coming on with Hleb and Song working a good play for Van Persie to finish with a nice half-volley. It was nearly 6-0 four minutes later when Thomas Zingler blocked a shot from Aliadiere which was going in at the far post, despite Zingler’s efforts to keep his team going down further, it was 6-0 a few minutes later when Kolo Toure’s deflected free kick went into the back of the net.

Arsenal had a succession of close shaves after that with Poom having to run back to his goal and then make a save from Labaska’s shot, and then from the resulting corner Karol Schulz smacked it against the inside of the post. Nearly a goal for the home side who would so desperately love a consolation to reward their efforts. With half an hour to go, Wenger brought off all the players that were left on from the first half, one of the players brought on was Nicklas Bendtner who scored from close range after being set up cleverly by Alex Hleb. Then on the 84th minute, the scorer and provider of the seventh switched roles with Bendtner setting up Hleb to make it 8-0 to Arsenal.

There was a bit of a fairy-tale finish for the Austrians with Labaska scoring from close range with only three minutes left on the clock, the home crowd loved it and all were happy at the Sportzentrum Stadium. It was good for Arsenal to be back on form but if you think about it, beating an Austrian 3rd division side by seven goals with Eboue, Toure, Gilberto, Fabregas, Hleb, Reyes, Van Persie and Adebayor in your team isn’t that amazing; but still, it was nice to see Arsenal banging in some goals. Our next matches are on the 4th August, where we play AZ Alkmaar and my home town of Borehamwood in the same day.