Arsenal 4 Porto 0: RVP and Ade silence bores as Theo shines. Report + ratings
Playa Ratings
1 - Almunia, 7
3 - Sagna, 7
22 - Clichy, 7.5
10 - Gallas, 7
5 - Toure, 7
4 - Cesc, 7.5
15 - Denilson, 7
8 - Nasri, 7.5
14 - Walcott, 8.5
11 - van Persie, 8
25 - Adebayor, 8
27 - Eboué [Sub], 7
26 - Bendtner [Sub], 7
12 - Vela [Sub], 7.5
For half an hour we were OK but jittery. Cristian Rodriguez’s header that hit the bar and Lisandro’s shot that Clichy cleared off the line were the two best chances.
The team were not helped by a significant minority of the crowd who seemed to almost revel in groaning audibly at every stray pass and mistake. If they sung half as loud, the Emirates would be a far better place.
Then the moaners were shut up. Cesc (ain’t tryin this season) started the move with a dinked ball in to the channels and RVP (sell im) sped across his man to finish really smartly at the near post. In the middle of it, the biggest villain of them all, Adebayor (who is at once guilty of thinking he is Thierry Henry and guilty of not being Thierry Henry), had made the run to give Cesc the chance for the pass and kept his head to pull it back for RVP.
Like Cesc’s corners, my photo has room for improvement
There followed a second. Nasri had been restored to the side in place of Comrade Eboue. Having consistently succeeded in managing to beat the first man when taking corners before he got injured, it was no surprise to see him stripped of that particular responsibility.
So it was back to Cesc, who I dearly love as a footballer but is to corners what Dennis was to free-kicks: logic says it should work, the fans want it to work, Arsene believes in it and the protagonist never stops trying. But work it does not.
So, back to the goal. We had had a number of typical Cesc corners (one of which almost led to a Porto goal) when RVP decided to simply sling one in. Adebayor got a thumping head to it and before you knew it we were two up and coasting at the break.
It had been impressive. We had not been playing brilliantly and had been lacking confidence. But we had upped our game and got two goals before the break against the Portuguese champions who up until then had looked very decent.
After the break they were a total shower. I know we sometimes bemoan chaotic keeping, dodgy defending and a general lack of commitment but this was something totally different. They were just woeful.
The third goal just after the break - a poor clearance, a weak attempt to tackle and hardly inspired keeping - was a taster of what was to come. That is to take nothing away from RVP, who got his shot away early and accurately.
We then missed countless chances. Not so much in a Hlebiffic sense where seemingly unmissable chances are squandered amid a thousand passes. It was more just misfortune and poor finishing from a side who have not generally had much of a problem scoring of late. It was one of those things and fortunate it happened at 3-0.
I then predicted the subs perfectly: Comrade for Nasri, Bendtner for RVP and Vela for Theo. I’d have like to have seen Ramsey get a run-out, but such is life. Arsene, while I remember, looked ridiculous in a Dunlop jacket, skinny bottoms and shiny white trainers. A real Dad moment.
There followed a fourth when Bendtner was needlessly fouled in the box. As he gave it the ref looked at the defender as if to say “you prick”. It was so stupid.
Ade scored and we missed a few more.
Overall, very pleasing. You can only beat what is put in front of you and the way we relaxed and played in the second half was a joy at times.
Cesc really got in the swing, Ade and RVP got welcome braces, Nasri really looked strong in the second half, Theo was excellent and Comrade gave one of those cameos where were it a Hollywood movie trailer the voiceover would have promised “hilarious consequences”. Bendtner amusingly scooped the ball out for a throw-in while prone on the penalty area and Vela looked class.
A final point: I know we failed to equalise against Hull, but on the wings and up front we are laden with riches. RVP, Adebayor, Bendtner, Eduardo, Vela, Nasri, Theo, Rosicky, Comrade and Wilshere all offer something unique. It’s great.
1 October 2008 at 9:15 am
8, EIGHT, Are you Adebayors dad? He is the worst penalty taker in the team and spends all his time posing to the crowd.
1 October 2008 at 9:17 am
The funniest thing is that Hull (playing as they did against us) would have beaten Porto (playing as they did against us). Still, as they say, you can beat only whom you play.
1 October 2008 at 9:23 am
terry
grow up. ade was fine, scored two with one assist, made space, linked well, and had pace. and when did he last miss a penalty?
1 October 2008 at 9:25 am
Cesc delivered a number of great corners last season, a number of which we scored from. It’s worth keeping him as the corner taker.
1 October 2008 at 9:34 am
The lads were great, but, we need to finish off oppoments at the slightest opportunity!!!
out strikers are so elaborate and wasteful.
we won’t always have as many chances.
all said and done, bravo to the team.
1 October 2008 at 9:43 am
[...] Svaret på lørdagens pinlige indsats mod Hull var en overbevisende søndags gåtur mod et lettere uinspirerende Porto hold. Porto så farligst ud de første tyve minutter, men var derefter gennemført svage. Se evt Goodplaya’s kampreferat her. [...]
1 October 2008 at 10:07 am
Controversies over players’ ratings are amusing. As for me, I’ll just accept that it is the rater’s judgement supported by his own rationale, biases, prejudices, whatever. That is not to say that I have big disagreement with Goodplaya. In this instance, it is obvious that Walcott is his MOTM from several worthy candidates like van Persie, Ade, Nasri, Cesc, Walcott. Although Vela is highly rated at 7.5, his playing time was too short for consideration.
I like van Persie’s goals contribution in this match. In my opinion, the conversion of chances to goals win it for van Persie.
1 October 2008 at 10:21 am
Goodplaya
Given you’re such a fan of the comrade I thought you’d have picked up on the Eboue chants from the crowd. Yup they were probably ironic and all of us pissed ourselves when he did his multi step over and then fell over but its got to be better than booing or having a pop. Maybe it was just block 9 but there was plenty of ‘you’ve only come to see Eboue’ and a few calling for him to take the pen.
Or maybe it was just light relief at the end of a bas week.
1 October 2008 at 10:29 am
I’ve featured the “Come to see Eboue” chants before. They were indeed loud last night and it is far better than booing.
1 October 2008 at 11:56 am
Don’t think you can read much in to this result Porto never turned up.
A couple of things.
When Porto had a counter attack and ended up hitting the bar Van Persie could of helped defend it, but jogged back as Porto players streamed past him, this was at 0-0. That boy is lazy.
Denilson spent large chunks of the game sitting in front of Cesc in midfield or out on the left wing. Isn’t Denilson supposed to be holding or at least supporting Cesc. You won’t see the best of Cesc with Denilson. When Fabregas was at the edge of the box he was always making things happen.
1 October 2008 at 12:01 pm
Porto didn’t come out of the dressing room after half time. They were fine in the first half.
It’s hard to criticise Denilson when we so comprehensively dominated from half an hour on…
1 October 2008 at 12:22 pm
When Porto had a counter attack and ended up hitting the bar Van Persie could of helped defend it, but jogged back as Porto players streamed past him, this was at 0-0.
—————————————-
I picked up on that, he made absolutely no effort to help almost as if he thought it wasn’t oart of his job.
I wouldn’t say Porto didn’t turn up, they weren’t ad in the 1st, but the 3rd goal so early in the second half really demoralised them
1 October 2008 at 12:22 pm
“part”
1 October 2008 at 12:51 pm
Damn, you must have some awesome freaking seats! Or a camera with a nice zoom
1 October 2008 at 2:27 pm
the first few paragraphs of goodplaya’s review made me wonder: when did arsenal fans become such pricks? from the crowd shouting ’shoot’ all the time, booing specific players and even the team with greater and greater frequency - to the moaners on the blogs that act as if arsenal have underperformed every time they don’t win 3-0 and even then find some excuse to take a pop at their favourite scapegoats, i find the attitude of arsenal fans more and more disappointing. i used to take pride that the average arsenal fan was a cut above the glory-hunters that followed man utd or chelsea, both in their understanding of the game and support for the club, but i’m not sure if that’s true anymore. is it just the success of the team since ‘98 that’s attracted these kind of fans, the changing nature of football as its been marketed to the masses through sky, or has it always been the case and i just never really noticed?
1 October 2008 at 7:19 pm
Right on Don
1 October 2008 at 10:45 pm
Well I sit right by the front, making close-ups of corners easy and much else far, far harder.
1 October 2008 at 11:18 pm
Hey Goodplaya. Love the site. You’re right about our attacking options; we’re spoilt for choice. Imagine if we had that at centre half… oh well.
Anyway, since you revamped the site, I can’t get the RSS feed to work. Windows Live Mail keeps telling me the address isn’t valid. Has anyone else had this problem?
1 October 2008 at 11:22 pm
Could you try normalizing these player ratings against additional criteria? You’re ratings here range from 7-8.5. And they almost always do. What’s the point in handing out rankings if 14 players have a deviation of 1.5 points.
Great site by the way though. I’m a long time reader.
2 October 2008 at 1:40 am
Denilson to take the corners.
The difference between Kolo and Gallas was summed up when Porto broke from our corner. Kolo absolutely pegged it back and made a crucial last second intervention to distract the striker. Gallas was nowhere to be seen. Jonathan - it’s hardly RvP’s job to cover the strikers!
2 October 2008 at 11:31 am
With you on that Arsenal fans thing, donhowe.. think we’ve all become a bit spoilt over the years; but enough intelligent and witty fans on this blog, ACLF and Arseblog..
Just sit back and enjoy the ride !!
Good to see Arsene laughing aswell.
2 October 2008 at 2:09 pm
Im not a glory hunter I appreciate the fact weve been underdogs for the last 20 years and boxed above our weight. BUT I hate footballers who dont give 100% commitment like the Hull game. We aint gotta buy superstars but if players dont perform play someone else from the squad or they will fall into a comfort zone. I think ADeBayor is average and if we sold him to BArca/Milan he woulda got found out real quick but thats just my opinion he needs Wenger to coach him and good patient fans like the gooners. Losing is fine but Hull players should not be more competitive than our players no way! Remember Chelski won just as much as Us last season lol…
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6 October 2008 at 9:44 am
Plastic straws, are you kidding me? That doesn’t tell us anything and to apply an entirely random sampling exercise to the issue of contentious decision-making my footballing referees and linesmen suggests you are missing the point. It isn’t random it’s entirely subjective.
The linesman convinced himself that the ball had crossed the line - given that we know it didn’t cross the line, there can be no other explanation. Therefore it isn’t random and pulling straws out of a bag doesn’t apply as a comparison.
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