(Champs League Special)
Arsenals second game of the season saw them return to the qualifying stages in the Champions League agains't Turkish side Fenerbahce, who have players formerly of the English Premier League Dirk Kuyt and Raul Meireles.
Arsenal were looking to bounce back from the surprise defeat at the Emirates against AstonVilla in their opening game, of which i dissected in my previous blog entry (http://goo.gl/zTc7PE ). Arsenal went into the game knowing that a win would be vital to the fans as well as the teams morale.
Arsenal dominated the match but went in 0-0 at the break, the second half saw an increase in tempo and Arsenal deservedly took the lead with A goal from Kieran Gibbs after a well worked passage of play which saw the ball played in to Theo Walcott who’s cross was then headed in by Gibbs. Arsene would have been pleased with the score at that and keen to take that into into the second leg at the Emirates, however Arsenal continued to look for a second goal to kill the game off and it came via the ever improving Aaron Ramsey just after the hour mark and Arsenal were cruising. IF Arsene Wenger was happy going back to the Emirates with a 2-0 lead he would have been even more pleased when his lads went 3-0 up before the Final whistle. The goal coming from a Kadlec foul of Theo Walcott in the area and up stepped Oliver Giroud to slot home the resulting penalty for his second goal of the season and this topped off a much better performance by the Arsenal Side.
The second leg barring a miracle always looked as if Arsenal were always going to qualify after such a professional first leg performance, so it was to no surprise to anyone when Arsenal recorded a further 2 goals on the night, which ultimately meant they won 5-0 overall on aggregate.
Once Again it was Aaron Ramsey who was the stand out man for Arsenal, he scored 2 goals adding to the goal he scored in the first leg in Turkey, his first goal came from a through ball from Podolski who was later substituted. It has since been revealed Podolski will miss 10 weeks of the season which could prompt Wenger into the transfer Market for another attacker. Ramsey second came on the end of a fine move, which saw him finish it off with the finest of touches and that was that Arsenal were safe.
So on Thursday the Champions league draw saw Arsenal given a tricky group with Marseille, Borussia Dortmund and Napoli a group where they will have to be at our best to qualify and when looking at previous results, like that of Bayern Munich, Inter and AC Milan where arsenal gave as good as they got then anything is possible. However they still have to be weary and very careful in the way they approach these matches.
Come on the Gunners!
