Arsenal		3		Rosicky 7,	Fabregas 82,	Eduardo 89
Sparta Prague		0

Agg: 5 – 0

A comfortable cruise into the Group Phase. It was not the best performance you will witness but it did not need to be after seven minutes. Once Tomas Rosicky’s opener went in, there was no need to play at ‘full pelt’ and the team duly obliged on that score, containing Sparta, almost treating the match as a practice session. Or as Arsene put it afterwards,

We kept good focus, there’s not a lot more to say. You felt always that if needed we could put our foot on the gas and score

It is a difficult match to comment on; the team could perhaps have pushed themselves more but that begs the question as to why there was a need to do so? Surely it is better not to expend the energy when you do not need to? There will no doubt be the usual criticism of Senderos but it is largely without foundation given the paucity of decent opposition on show. I can see the comments now about how he should have been concentrating all night and not allowed some minor errors to creep in, a decent side would have punished such laxness.

However, you have to counter your arguments before they are made and consider that he was firstly, not the only one in the back four to fall asleep during the game, others made worse mistakes – Clichy let Rezek in for a chance that should have been buried, Hoyte put Almunia under pressure early on with an underhit back pass – and in the end, the Sparta forwards caused little or no trouble in the first place. Alas Senderos is one of those players in whom some do not have confidence so the circumstances of the match will make no difference to their opinions.

The minimal level of effort required contained several bright spots. All three of the goals came through neat and tidy interchanges from wide positions. RvP and Hoyte combined well to set Walcott free on the right, his low, hard and precise cross buried by Rosicky. The finish was crisp and Walcott’s general play on the right was for me, a huge plus. Sure, he had a couple of wasteful balls but name a winger that does not replicate that. His running off the ball was generally well-timed, both wide and centrally.

Eduardo was another positive, playing thoughtfully and diligently. His work for Cesc’s goal was excellent, killing a firm pass and then taking out the Right Back with consumate ease but having enough composure to tee up Fabregas for a powerful drive through several players. Huge credit goes to Adebayor and Denilson for the build up to Eduardo’s own finish. They worked well together on the right hand side of the Sparta box, Denilson then picking out a decent cross for Eduardo to deftly volley into the net, getting a good angle on the ball despite being so close to the goal and the Sparta Custodian.

In midfield, there were no poor performances. Walcott as mentioned before was good, Rosicky scored a well-taken goal and did well whilst on the pitch. If he can replicate the finish on a regular basis, perhaps the criticism of playing him on the left will abate. Gilberto on his return seemed happy and hopefully that will quell the ongoing rumours of an impending transfer. It was probably an ideal game for him to get back into the swing of midfield things having played centre back on Saturday. It was a good performance too, from Diaby in what I think all of us consider to be his natural position, central midfield. I won’t say who it reminded me of, for it will have been the same for you. The key thing for him now is to stay fit and then start pushing for regular inclusion. Using this a base, I cannot see any reason to consider anyone ahead of him in the queue for Central Midfield in the long term.

All in all, job done with a good aggregate win. Another victory under the teams belt for the season, breeding more confidence and for the defence a clean sheet. And more importantly, inclusion in the draw for the Group Stage of the Champions League.

The win though has not stopped speculation about Jens’ future, possibly added to it with Almunia playing two and yet to concede. This morning’s Daily Mail regurgitates yesterday’s Times and Star reports that he ’stormed’ away from the training ground. This time the paper says it ‘understands’ that the events occurred which loosely translates as ‘we read it in a rival paper and despite the comments made by the manager, we’re going to run with it because we don’t want to miss out on this one even though we could end up with egg on our faces come one minute past midnight on Saturday morning‘.

’til Tomorrow.