Fabregas and Wilshere were very good against Braga.
So was Chamakh as Arsenal cantered to a 6-0 victory against a surprisingly feeble Portuguese side. Arsenal’s fast, fluent pass-and-move game dominated from the kick-off and Braga just stood and watched, giving Arsenal acres of space to play in.
When keeper Felipe carelessly clattered Chamakh, Fabregas scored from the spot in 9 minutes.
Then Fabregas played in the unmarked Arshavin, who converted an easy chance in 30.
The next goal was in the 34th minute.
Clichy to Wilshere to Arshavin to Wilshere to Fabregas, crossfield to Sagna, his cross was headed out to Wilshere again, then square to Arshavin, whose cross was chested down by Chamakh and played to Wilshere whose improvised backheel sent the ball back to Chamakh, whose tidy low shot made it 3-0. British players don’t make goals with backheels, do they? Brazilians do that, Ronaldinho does it.
Chamakh is cool continuity player, a pro with a good temperament, a guy who can play in all areas of the pitch. And very two-footed. That’s important. The more you watch him, the more you notice how two-footed Chamakh is and how that helps his repertoire of efficient little passes.
After watching him twice, I thought, “This guy is the striker that Arsenal’s seven-man midfield needs. He simplifies the game, which RVP often doesn’t do. If you’re going to play this way, with midfielders making runs into scoring positions, you need that type of striker. Chamakh is everything that Adebayor never was and never will be. He’s not as explosive as RVP but he’s more reliable. He doesn’t give it away.”
Fabregas beat the centreback to a loose ball and found Arshavin, then backed away and headed in the little man’s cross for 4-0. Braga brightened up a lot when striker Lima came on, with everybody suddenly wanting the ball. But only for five minutes.
Arshavin played in Vela for 5-0 and when Wilshere’s lofted pass found Fabregas’s run, the skipper set up the Mexican smiler for 6-0.
The Arsenal defence was untroubled, despite a slip here from Clichy, an iffy tug there from Sagna. Nasri had one of those nights when nothing came off and he welcomed a switch to the left for the last 20, after Eboue came on for the Russian. Arshavin was sloppy, sparkling, sloppy again. But he got a goal and two assists and hit the post with a shot which rebounded staight to him. He can play better, I think.
Jack Wilshere showed he can open a game up. He can drop deep to get the ball around the D, feed it to Song, pick out the runs of Fabregas, combine with every player, and be effective inside the box as well. Like Fabregas, he has an element of disguise in his play, as well as an element of steel. Two creative players with steel and disguise is a big bonus. Both can see a pass early.
In four years time if Wilshere is doing everything that he’s doing now, and scoring goals, he’ll be England’s Wesley Sneijder.
Right now, Jack’s 18 and just beginning and he surely knows that careers are not made on talent alone. Talent is what gets you this far. Character is what allows you to use that talent for the next 12 years.
I hope Jack Wilshere becames an Arsenal legend and it would be nice if Fabregas sticks around to help Jack become an Arsenal legend.
In football it’s important not to look too far ahead, to focus on now. A journey of a 1,000 miles starts with a single step and a career is built game by game, season by season, learning and developing as you go, rolling with the punches, loving the good times, hating the injuries, respecting the fans, and enjoying the privilege of playing the greatest game man has so far invented. This is the best time to be a footballer. But only if you can handle the fame, money and temptations.
For now, let’s not get carried away with Jack or the six goals. A 6-0 win at Sunderland would be tectonic, a shifting of continental plates. A 6-0 win at Partizan Belgrade would be tectonic too. A fine exhibition of sweet,slick football was enough to destroy Braga and send everybody home happy.
This week’s reality is that Wilshere, Chamakh and Fabregas made Arsenal look very good on Wednesday. But so did Braga.
Do say : Well done !
Also say : Keep it going, lads!
Don’t say : We’ll win the league. Wait till you’ve seen 10 league games.
There are 32 teams in the Champions League and you can read about some other ties in Embodying Arsenal, Dreaming of Barca.
I backed Arshavin to score and did a Milan-Arsenal double. Zltatan Ibrahimovic took too long to score his goals against off-form Auxerre. A reader in Australia, Alex Drummond, emailed to say : Thanks for the tip, I put £59 on Arshavin to score at any time.
ARSENAL 4-3-3: Almunia; Sagna, Koscielny, Squillaci, Clichy; Fabregas, Song (Denilson, 63), Wilshere; Nasri, Chamakh (Vela, 63), Arshavin (Eboué, 69). Subs not used Fabianski (gk), Rosicky, Djourou, Gibbs.
BRAGA (4-4-2): Felipe; Garcia, Rodriguez, Moises, Silvio; Alan, Vandinho, Viana (Mossoro, 53), Cesar (Barbosa, 69); Aguiar, Matheus (Lima, 59). Subs not used Artur (gk), Paulao, Madrid, Elton.