Arsenal 4-0 Porto – 30/09/08 – (Champions League) 1 October, 2008

That was better.

It’s incredible how we can pull a performance like that out of the bag on demand after what we saw on Saturday. Hull was a bad, bad result and we needed to bounce back from that quickly. Arsene Wenger would have told the players this and he got the reaction he wanted.

In the players interviews afterwards it’s mentioned a few times about how they owed the fans after Hull. On Saturday there was no inspiration or commitment, last night we were overflowing with it.

It was a great performance, it need to keep that up now becasue there’s no use going on a nice little run then playing like shite and losing again. After Fulham we bounced back well but then we went back to our old ways last weekend and was punished for it. It can’t happen again; we lost 3 times last year and came close to winning the league, we’ve already lost twice this season.

Earlier this week Wenger said he might change the team around after Hull’s performance but he went for a change of attitude rather than personal. Nasri started ahead of Eboue, that was the only change but that was to be expected.

Adebayor and van Persie remained the chosen strike partnership and they rewarded the manager for his faith in them. They both scored two each and put in fine all-round performances.

It was a cagy start with both sides seeing attacks. We seemed to have more of the ball but Porto were equally as threatening. We had some decent chances in the first 20 minutes or so, Theo went clear in the box but he was at a bit of an angle and only managed to find the side netting and van Persie produced a low-curling effort from outside the box but that was saved well.

Porto were unlucky not to be ahead early on. They broke really well getting numbers forward, the ball was fed down the right wing and crossed in early. Cristian Rodriguez met it with a diving header into the ground beating Almunia but luckily it hit the bar. A few minutes later they hit a long-range shot which was well saved by Almunia and then from the resulting corner we somehow managed to not concede as Clichy cleared off the line.

It was getting tense, we needed a goal. So we went and scored.

Fabregas’ through ball sent Adebayor beautifully through on goal. He took it down the right to the by-line drawing the ‘keeper to the near post. Ade held it up waiting for van Persie to make his run into the box and it was a simple tap-in for Robin’s first Champions League goal in a year.

In the 40th minute we were two up. It was van Persie’s corner from the right which found Adebayor who had a simple standing jump to head home.

So we went into the break cruising 2-0 and playing well. We had a couple of scares with that counter attack and Clichy clearing off the line but once we scored on the half hour we were cruising.

Just three minutes into the second half Robin van Persie secured the win making it 3-0. He picked the ball up outside the area and made his way through the Porto defense with skill before poking it low into the far corner. A great individual goal and that was it, game over. There was still nearly 45 minutes to go but with the way we were playing you just knew it wasn’t long before we added a forth.

It really should’ve been 4-0 a couple of minutes later when Toure’s cross found Walcott about 5 yards out. Somehow he managed to put it wide. Minutes later Nasri found himself in a similarly good position but he missed too. Quite incredible we missed both of those, really should’ve been 5-0 so early in the second half but we carried on in search of the forth.

van Persie and Nasri were substituted after 65 minutes. Both had good games in my opinion, Nasri looked a little off his best but you couldn’t say anything bad about him. Those two were replaced by Bendtner and Eboue.

In the 71st minute we finally made it 4-0 after severely battering the Porto defense. It came from the penalty spot after Bendtner was stupidly hacked from behind on the edge of the area. Adebayor stepped up and made it four.

Vela came on for Walcott jsut after that and he looked very lively for the remainder of the game. He had one great chance late on when he took on most of the Porto defense only to lose the ball a few yards out. If we needed the goals I’m sure he would’ve passed it earlier but you could see he wanted his 4th goal in only his second appearance. Bendter almost converted the loose ball but it wasn’t to be.

So it finished up 4-0 to The Arsenal, smiles all round. A significant reaction to the Hull loss and you could say we’re back on track already. Next up it’s Sunderland away on Saturday which isn’t going to be easy but if we play like that we should be fine.

Make sure you check out the blog tomorrow as I’ve got a competition for a brand new Nike football.

Thanks for reading.