Arsenal 3(5) – 1(1) Celtic – 26/08/09 – Champions League Qualifier 27 August, 2009

My day start at 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon, setting off nice and early from Bournemouth to get up to London in good time for the match. Or so I thought. The radio was telling me that the section of the M25 I needed was completely closed thanks to some stupid gas leak and was causing long tailbacks on the M3. To cut a long and pointless story short after a lot of stressing, maybe a little bit of speeding and a whole lot of panicking I made it up to Hertfordshire to collect my tickets and back down again to North London just as the game was kicking off. How – I don’t know but I’d made it and after a quick jog to the ground I was very happy to be in my seat.

Last night I was sat in the upper tier behind the north goal, not my usual or preferred seat but what a view it was from up there. You could see a lot more of the game compared to my usual seat in the 4th row in thecorner and it gave me a much better chance to witness some good individual performances.

I had heard the team on the radio and was surprised that Arshavin and van Persie were joining the injured Fabregas on the sidelines. Instead we chose Eduardo, Diaby, Bendtner, Denilson, Song and Eboue with RVP and Andrey ready to come on off the bench if needed.

I thought it was a little risky but the players who had come in took their chance well and were very impressive. Eboue looked very good and even got a very well taken goal in the second half.

I was most impressed with our centre backs though, from the height I was at I could see how every play was cut out and how well they were reading the game and clearing everything that even came close to threatening Almunia’s goal. I’m am quickly falling in love with Thomas Vermaelen and William Gallas is continuing the good form of last season into this one. I am extremely happy with our back four for this campaign – I just hope they can stay fit.

Anyway onto the game itself. Before the match everyone was saying how the first goal was going to be important. Well we knew that and you could see that we wanted it. We had a few chances but it eventually came just before the half hour mark from the penalty spot. Eduardo who scored it, calmly putting it down the middle.

However it’s not the goal that everyone’s talking about today, it’s the penalty decision. Even though I was hundreds of meters away, I did think at the time it looked a bit soft; it looked as if Eddy was searching for the foul and was running out of play anyway. Texts started coming through from friends at home saying it was an awful dive and I finally saw the replay this afternoon. I do agree, it was a dive and it shouldn’t have been a penalty but I have to follow on what most other Arsenal bloggers have been saying today. Everyone has been going mental about this, branding Eduardo a cheat, calling it a disgrace etc etc…

There’s never usually this sort of uproar when a member of another English side goes down like that is there? It’s only because it’s Arsenal… you don’t get this sort of reaction when it’s Steven Gerrard or Wayne Rooney. I’m not going to go on and on about it because I’m sure you’ve read similar stuff elsewhere but if Eddy does get a ban then so be it, he should be punished for it, but this is not the first time this has happened and everyone’s reacting like we’ve fucking bribed the referees or something.

I liked what Arsene Wenger said in response last night:

“We got a penalty against us two years ago in the Quarter-Final of the Champions League that made the difference when Babel dived. Nobody ever apologised to us, it was a blatant dive and nobody spoke about it.”

Anyway so we were 1-0 up after half an hour and that was pretty much game over, Celtic needed three to get back in it and it was never going to happen.

The away side did have the ball in the net before half time when McDonald turned in Fortune’s cross but it was ruled out for offside. I did think for a second that the game could get a bit more interesting with this but even if that did stand I’d find it hard to see Celtic scoring two more and not conceding.

The 2nd came in the 58th minute, one of the night’s many clever back-heel flicks, this one from Bendtner put Diaby through who squared to Eboue. He took a couple of calm touches to create some space before making it 2-0. Great goal, didn’t expect that out of Eboue. Then he was then ridiculously yellow carded for lifting his shirt over his head; he didn’t take it off, just lifting it over his head… I think it’s a joke.

Diaby was soon replaced by Ramsey who was looking to impress again but he picked up an injury. He was limping around for a while and carried on but was taken off with a few minutes to go. Not sure how bad that is yet but we’ll wait and see.

Arshavin and Wilshere also came on (71mins) and it was the little Russian who scored our third after just a few minutes being on the pitch . It was a nice little move between him and Ramsey and once Andrey had a sight on goal I just knew it was 3-0. A good little run out for him ahead of the weekend.

With the final kick of the game Celtic got one back. The ball came over to the left hand side and Donati volleyed what I think was supposed to be a cross-goal ball but ended up being a great finish in the opposite corner. If he meant it then fair play to him.

Whatever the media say about our goals in the first leg and our opener last night you must agree that we were the far superior side over the two legs and really showed the gap in class. The result means we are through to the group stages and the draw was done earlier today. We’re in Group H with AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos and Standard Liege. You have to feel that is a group we should be winning. We kick off in just under three weeks away to Standard Liege so more build up to all things Europe nearer the time.

Ok that’s it for tonight. I’ve got a Theo Walcott video for you tomorrow plus build up to the Man United game. Exciting.

Thanks for reading.