Advantageous Arsenal Win Again

By Joel Martin

Arsenal looked strong today, trampling Portsmouth 3-1 with ten men for most of the second half. The Gunners controlled the game from the start, pouncing on a mistake by Glen Johnson to earn a penalty. Arsenal were 1-0 up after seven minutes.

Twenty-five minutes later, Arsenal had scored again, Fabregas scoring a scrappy goal off a corner kick. That makes four goals already for the young midfielder this season, and in Fabregas, Arsenal may have found a way to score much-needed goals from the midfield.

Tomas Rosicky added a third after Senderos clumsily pulled down Kanu in front of the box and was sent off. The red card seemed a bit harsh, as Senderos didn’t seem to have intent to foul, he was just clumsy. Kanu certainly made the most of the contact as well, and even though there were suspicions of offside, Arsenal had to play most of the second half a man down.

But right around the hour mark, Fabregas took an early free kick and passed to Rosicky, who capitalized on the confused and unprepared Pompey defense and took his chance well.

Right after going 3-0 down, Portsmouth was back within two goals scoring an accidental goal of the standing fool of Kanu. As the game ended, despite being a man down, Arsenal continued to push forward and Diaby should have scored after a brilliant build-up led to a good cross from Clichy which Diaby headed wide.

It was a good performance by the new, scrappy Arsenal. Instead of trying to score the “perfect goal,” Arsenal took what was given to them and dominated the game. Fabregas and Rosicky (and Diaby when he subbed in) dominated the center of midfield, and Flamini and Clichy gave Arsenal the width they sometimes lack pushing up from the back. Almunia came up with a few good saves as well.

Portsmouth is a good side, with a good keeper who seldom lets more than one goal in his net. They have great team speed and depth, but they were absolutely outclassed Sunday afternoon, and Arsenal have built a good string of performances going into the North London derby in two weeks. Martin Jol should start packing up his office, because if Gallas, Sagna, and Eboue are all back from injury, Arsenal could destroy their bitter rivals at White Hart Lane.