Arsenal-Mania

Arsenal 7-0 Slavia Prague: Gunners in 7th Heaven

By Loyan Abdulle on Wednesday, October 24, 2007

After extending our unbeaten start to the season and winning our 11th game on the trot in somewhat unconvincing fashions it was important to get a good win against Slavia Prague at home at the Emirates in the Champions League. After all it would be a massive confidence boost for our upcoming game against Liverpool being safe in the knowledge that Champions League qualification is all but secure. That being said, no one, not even the manager himself, had any idea what this team was capable of producing last night.

Monday night was Arsčne Wenger's 58th birthday on Monday night. Wenger was asked what gift he would like to be given most by his players.

The gaffer replied "To play better on Tuesday than they did against Bolton."

I guess he got what he asked for. After dominating Slavia Prague into submission the Premier League leaders ran out 7-0 winners and in doing so equalled the records for our own biggest European victory (7-0 against Standard Liege in the Cup Winners Cup) and the biggest victory in Champions League history held by Juventus after they beat Olympiakos 7-0 in a 2003 group-stage game.

This, our 12th victory in a row, leaves us in sight of yet another club record as three more wins will give us our longest ever winning streak which was achieved back in 1987/88. The games we need to win in order to do this includes games against Liverpool and Man United in the Premier League and is one more reason why this emphatic win was so important.

Before the game Wenger had admitted that this is one of the most complete squads he has ever had, with great competition for places within the team. Such was the fight for places that Jens Lehmann, an experienced and long time servants of the club, could not find a space on the bench let alone the starting line-up. In the same match Tomasz Rosicky and Gilberto Silva, both guaranteed starters for, and captains of their respective national teams were left watching from the dugout. Unlike tinker man Rafael Benitez, Wenger believes in stability and despite the youthfulness of this team, will not replace a player doing well for another player just because he has more experience.

Wenger says "It is a little bit the price of the team doing well on a consistent level for four, five, six games. It's unjust to change the team if you are doing well."

That is something some of the players have to realise. For the good of the team, if you are not in the team then just put your head down and work hard to push for a place in the match day squad. Complaining in the press will not make Arsčne think that he should now put them in the team. Lehmann was insinuating that Arsčne was deliberately trying to humiliate him. This despite the fact that Manuel Almunia had been doing fantastically well in goal for the past 11 games. This despite the fact that Lehmann had been injured for the past two months. This despite the fact that 2 out of the 3 games he has started for us this season he has gifted the opposition a goal, one of which made us settle for our first and only draw of the season.

Lassana Diarra has also been mouthing off in the press about not getting games and has given the manager an ultimatum that if he is not playing regularly by Christmas then he will look to move on. This is a guy who has been here less than 3 months. The guy is a good player but seriously needs think about what he says in the press. Going by his Carling Cup game against Newcastle he does have a right to be a bit displeased with the amount of game time he has seen, but looking at the form of the players ahead of him and also the position international veterans are in (Gilberto on the bench and sometimes not even in the team) then he will see this is not an easy team to get into.

The person who has the midfield on lock this season is Flamini. Ironically he was in the same position this time last year, and while at one point looking likely to move on, he decided to stay and fight for a place in the team. His reward? A place in the starting line-up at the beginning of the season and he has grabbed his chance with both hands and in turn relegated last season's stand-in captain to the bench. An unthinkable though last season but that is where hard work gets you.

In any case Wenger started with the same team that had played against Bolton on Saturday with the exception of Theo Walcott, starting only his second game up front and making his first Champions League start, replacing Eduardo in the starting line-up. According to Wenger, Walcott's superb recent form when coming off the bench had left it hard for him to leave the young Englishman out of the starting line-up. He would later be proved right after young Theo scored a brace, and could easily have had a hat trick had it not been for a superb reflex save from the opposition goalkeeper.

The line-up was strong and it was important to sew up qualification as soon as possible to enable us to concentrate on domestic affairs until February at least.

We didn't have to wait long before we put ourselves in the driving seat. Aleksander Hleb, influential all night, had twisted and turned his way on the left wing and when it looked like he had been blocked off by the Slavia players, the Belarusian pulled the ball back to Fabregas who was just inside the corner of the 18 yard box. The young Spaniard had one thing on his mind from the offset and miraculously curled a shot beyond the despairing arms of Martin Vaniak in the Slavia goal. An early goal is just we needed and is the perfect remedy to defensive teams as it prompts the opposing team to come out of their shells thus exposing them to quick breaks on the counter attack.

Slavia, coached by former Slavia great Karel Jarolim, had upped the tempo in an attempt to get back into the game and came close when David Kalivoda fired inches over the bar when he should have done better. In the end it was to be the chance which pushed us to go forward and kill the game off.

After a couple of half chances from the head of Emmanuel Adebayor, who is going on a bit of a barren spell after his early season heroics, the Emirates faithful were cheering once again. After Slavia had failed to clear a corner from Cesc Fabregas, the onrushing Hleb was first to the ball. His first time effort looked to be going just wide but a timely intervention from David Hubacek deflected the ball into the back of the net. The Emirates was in raptures. We were now in cruise control and another goal would surely have killed any hopes of a Slavia revival.

On 24 minutes we should have done just that. After superb wing play from Theo Walcott, the young Englishman crossed for Adebayor to get a strong header onto the ball. Luckily for the Slavia team, Vaniak produced a point blank save to keep them in the game. He was almost rewarded for that save minutes later when Matej Krajcik's long range effort had called Almunia into action but the Spaniard did well to prevent us from conceding.

All of Vaniak's hard work went down the drain when, after receiving a back pass from Danil Pudil, the keeper failed miserably in his attempted clearance. The ball fell kindly into the path of Theo Walcott. While under pressure from the defender and with the goalkeeper rushing out to block, the man (well just about) from Southampton showed composure beyond his years to quickly sidestep the 'keeper and fire into an empty net. Actually it wasn't completely empty as there were two defenders sliding in to block the shot but Theo placed his firm shot just above their flailing legs.

A fourth before the break would really put the icing on the cake and Adebayor nearly gave it to us, but like his night so far it was just not enough to put himself on the score sheet. Seconds later a quick give and go between Emmanuel Eboue and Bakari Sagna allowed the former to produce an outrageous flick over the head of him marker. This in turn afforded him the freedom of the whole of the right wing and his wicked cross/shot from near the by-line was inches of going in off the angle of the post and crossbar.

On that note the referee blew his whistle for half time and saved Slavia from the footballing equivalent to a TKO. In retrospect it was to be little more than a 15 minute break before round 2 commenced

After the halftime break we would come out of the block in the same fashion in which we finished the first half. With less than 5 minutes of the second period gone we got our fourth of the game and what a way to score it. Eboue dribbled his way past a challenge before laying it off to Fabregas. The midfield maestro then showed great strength and awareness to hold off his marker and play an eye of the needle, reverse pass behind the fullback and into the path of Hleb. Hleb then showed a change in gears in surging into the box before faking a shot, which left a defender for dead on the floor. He then gave the 'keeper the eye that he was going for the far post and shot to the near post with the 'keeper wrong footed. It was the least that the Belarusian's game deserved after the brilliance he showed all night.

Four minutes later the onslaught continued as Walcott scored his second of the game in a fashion which led Arsčne Wenger to label as being a "touch of Henry", although the any lingering thoughts of the Frenchman will be the last thing on supporters' minds tonight. Yet another pass just inside the Slavia fullback, this time Hleb turning provider, allowed Walcott to show his jet-heeled pace and trickery to get into the 6 yard box before stabbing the ball with the outside of his boot into the goal via the upright. Hubacek attempted to keep the ball out of the net but his clearance hit the post and continued to go in. In the end his endeavours were in vain as the ball had already crossed the line by the time he got a foot on the ball. Theo, Theo, Theo was all you could hear at this point.

This goal gave us a 5-0 lead and up until this point in the match was our biggest ever winning margin in Champions League history. Our biggest in previous games was by 4 goals and we achieved this 3 times. 4-0 against PSV when Gilberto became the fastest scorer in Champions League history, the 5-1 win against Rosenborg which saw Fabregas score his first every Champions League goal and in turn become our youngest scorer in the competition, and last but certainly not least the famous night at the San Siro when we thumped Inter Milan 5-1. It certainly wasn't to be where our scoring ended tonight though. More was to follow soon afterwards.

Things went from bad to completely humiliating 3 minutes later as the move of the game allowed Fabregas to get his second goal of the game. With Slavia in our own penalty area after a corner, the ball was headed out the Aleksander Hleb in the left back position. The Belarusian showed great pace and strength to get away from his marker before feeding the ball to Adebayor. With one glance up, the Togolese striker saw Walcott with space on the right, and played the ball into Theo's path. The youngster then showed great awareness to cushion a superb first time ball into the path of Fabregas who was steamrollering his way into the box. With a player on each side of him, and only the 'keeper between the goal and the ball, Fabregas placed a low effort to the bottom left hand corner of the goal to give us a 6th.

At this point Wenger decided to rest a couple of players and took off Flamini, Hleb and Adebayor and replaced them with Gilberto, Rosicky and Nicklas Bendtner.

Karel Jarolim in the Slavia dugout was fuming at this point and was urging his team to show some pride and do something in a game where they looked second best at all times. With the substitutions made by Wenger taking their time to get into the game Slavia went in search of a consolation. They nearly did it was well on two occasions but Manuel Almunia did well to keep out angled drives from Krajkic and Visek to keep his clean sheet intact.

On 81 minutes regular proceedings continued with yet more chances coming our way. Fabregas picked up the ball on the right wing and put through a pinpoint pass into the path of Theo Walcott and despite getting a firm connection, Vaniak made yet another superb instinctive stop to prevent Walcott getting his hat-trick. The loose ball fell to Rosicky on the edge of the box and the Czech Republic international captain sidestepped a last ditch challenge from Hubasek and fired a rocket of a shot that rebounded off the angle of the crossbar and the upright.

Despite ridding ourselves of claims from seasons gone by that we always try to walk the ball into the net after scoring a wide array of goals this season, we did just that when it came to the 7th and final goal of the game. It came with a minute remaining on the clock and was scored by Bendtner who improves his remarkable goals to games ratio. Bendtner linked up well with Eboue and it was the latter that improvised and made a mockery of the defence by somehow flicking the ball with his heel straight into the path of Bendtner. The Danish international saw his initial shot hit the 'keeper and as the ball slowly crept towards the goal he held off a last gasp tackle from Slavia before prodding the ball in from less than a yard out. All this without even mentioning the flowing move leading upto the goal which included a stunning 19 passes. This was the record equalling goal we were pushing for.

We went all out to break the record outright but with the fourth official only giving 1 minute of added time and the referee blowing his whistle with less than 40 seconds of that gone it wasn't to be. No night is perfect but this is as close to being the football equivalent of 7th Heaven as you could get.

Happy Birthday Arsčne.

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fateen

Posted on 26 Oct, 2007 at 04:17 AM - Reply

i just love arsenal...

12

john joe

Posted on 25 Oct, 2007 at 07:45 PM - Reply

great read as per usual keep it up

11

john joe

Posted on 25 Oct, 2007 at 07:41 PM - Reply

bring on the pool,there no match for us

10

gunner dub

Posted on 25 Oct, 2007 at 04:57 PM - Reply

was drooling for ninety mins.best performance in champions league bar none.liverpools holloween nightmare starts sunday

9

yirga2007

Posted on 25 Oct, 2007 at 11:24 AM - Reply

Happy birthday to our coach Arsene Wenger

8

aabbs

Posted on 25 Oct, 2007 at 07:25 AM - Reply

That was wonderful on Tues night, if we beat liverpool on sunday, man utd next saturday, im sorry, but we will win the league. Van persies out injured at the mo, which is a downer, but 7 goals proves that its not about 1 man anymore at Arsenal, its a team thing.
Also I 100% agree with the article about players mouthing off in the press, its not on, Lehmann should know better, hes made 2 terrible mistakes, 1 cost us a win, and Almunia has'nt made any major major cock ups that have cost us goals, why fix something which isnt broken?? Almunias been patient and now his chance has come, I hope that with each game he becomes a better keeper.
Liverpool sunday, just cant wait.

7

Iceman

Posted on 24 Oct, 2007 at 10:19 PM - Reply

AY, thats a great read but it was Hleb who passed to Ade for the Fab's second goal. It was not Flamini.

Hleb was the catalyst last night.

6

Femi

Posted on 24 Oct, 2007 at 08:42 PM - Reply

Happy Birthday sir. God bless you abundantly! There will be abundant JOY this season, FAR beyond your expectations.

5

-Shaun-

Posted on 24 Oct, 2007 at 07:17 PM - Reply

Excellent write-up as usual :)

4

james

Posted on 24 Oct, 2007 at 07:14 PM - Reply

unconvincing fashion? I completely disagree with you loyan

3

clockendjim

Posted on 24 Oct, 2007 at 05:18 PM - Reply

Are you sure you watched the game? You have repeated the same mistake that was in the Independent's report. The 6th and best goal was created by a superb break by Hleb and not Flamini

2

igor

Posted on 24 Oct, 2007 at 04:22 PM - Reply

Mathieu Flamini show great pace and strength to get away from his marker before feeding the ball to Adebayor - that was Hleb !!! not Flamini !!!