Arsenal 3 Portsmouth 1
So this is what foreign investment gets you. A big team – but without much guile [not forgetting the questions over player ownership and tax evasion].
The sub-plot to the game was the oligarch investing in Arsenal, and the board saying “so what” – a new twist on what was always a tension point in the Arsenal boardroom: new money v old money.
Several Arsenal fans I talked to were worried about this game. Portsmouth were an unknown quantity but had given Arsenal a game two or three times in the last two seasons – and as ever had invested heavily in the squad.
By the second minute Adebayor was free on the left – with no Arsenal player in the Portsmouth area, accompanied by a few groans. But this was the exception that proved the rule. Arsenal have changed.
Fabregas plays ten to fifteen yards further forward – sometimes as a half striker. Wide players, Hleb, Rosicky, Clichy and Flamini, more often than not put the ball in the box, rather than cutting back in search of the perfect angle. And the front six seem to harry a lot more than last season. The team is a team – and more than the sum of its parts. Last season, there was a part apart.
The spiky stand shadows over the Portsmouth 18 yard box could even at times have passed as shark’s teeth.
A through ball in the eighth minute saw van Persie sprint to touch it just before James. The Dutchman seems to have inherited Henry‘s habit of not taking penalties when fouled. Anyway, Adebayor slotted low to James’s left.
Then a demonstration of Arsenal’s more direct style. Fabregas spread it out to Hleb who fired a diagonal into the area, with Adebayor just failing to connect.
Clichy linked with Rosicky on the other side and sent in another dangerous cross, but Pamarot knocked it out.
Arsenal looked a class apart. Portsmouth were more experienced and bigger, but Arsenal were slicker, sharper and could by-pass the South coast side.
On 36 Rosicky swung in a corner, Gilberto flicked goalwards, the ball hiting Kanu, going straight to Fabregas who swivelled it into the net. Four goals in five games for the Spaniard. At this rate he’ll reach Wenger‘s target of 20 with ease this season.
Portsmouth were poor up front, with only two attacks of note ending in shots by Muntari and Utaka.
Despite two changes – Mendes and Kranjcar for Lauren and Hreidarsson – the pattern continued after the break, with Senderos making James leap from a header. But that was the Swiss defender’s last contribution as he was deemed to have pulled back Kanu as the last man.
The game changed its dynamic. Instead of how many? it was now a case of whether Arsenal could hang on – or so we thought. Utaka proved to be a thorn in Arsenal’s side, and the first of several dangerous balls in, saw Almunia punch to Davis whose shot went over.
Fabregas‘s quick thinking from a short free kick saw Rosicky fire a diagonal shot past James for Arsenal’s third, with two Portsmouth defenders still looking in the wrong direction trying to prepare.
A minute later and Portsmouth had a lifeline, with Utaka sprintinig down the right and firing a low cross, which Kanu somehow connected with, htting two parts of his boot (one accidentally) and the ball gliding past Almunia into the net.
A nervousness spread across the Emirates. Portsmouth went 4-2-4 with Nugent on for Davis.
Wenger swapped Hleb and van Persie for Denilson and Diaby. However instead of a siege with Gilberto filling in a centre back, Arsenal out-passed the crisis, with the only threat of note being Johnson‘s shot. Arsenal defended stoutly when they needed, with Toure outstanding.
Diaby showed some sensational build-up play but gave rotten last balls – in a cameo which could have netted him two goals. He should have planted Clichy‘s inch perfect cross into the net, and perhaps done better with a piledriver.
However, so far, so good.
After the game, Waitrose on Holloway Road, looked more like an Emirates concourse, with numerous red-shirted Gooners, some with their partners, loading and unloading shopping trolleys. A new social-retail phenomenon emerges!
Arsenal: Manuel Almunia, Kolo Toure, Philippe Senderos, Gael Clichy, Francesc Fabregas, Mathieu Flamini, Gilberto, Alexander Hleb, (Denilson 61) Tomas Rosicky, Emmanuel Adebayor, (Eduardo Da Silva 79) Robin Van Persie, (Abou Diaby 70) Subs not used: Lukasz Fabianski, Theo Walcott
Portsmouth: David James, Hermann Hreidarsson, (Niko Kranjcar 46) Lauren, (Pedro Mendes 46) Sylvain Distin, Noe Pamarot, Glen Johnson, Sulley Muntari, Sean Davis, (David Nugent 61) Matthew Taylor, Nwankwo Kanu, John Utaka Subs not used: Jamie Ashdown, Richard Hughes
Referee – Mark Halsey