Good result for us last night in a game we really needed to win after the performance against Chelsea on Sunday, and although we left it late Adebayor managed to seal all 3 points in a game that could have in all honesty gone either way.

The first half was dire but Arsenal improved in the second, creating a number of chances but failing to take them. Arsenal made 4 changes from Sunday, replacing Senderos, Van Persie, Fabregas and Hleb for Toure, Freddie, Baptista and Walcott. The first half display showed that Arsene may have made too many changes but things did improve into the second period and the introduction of Van Persie and Fabregas on 74 minutes did the trick.

Adebayor was guilty of missing a few chances but when Fabregas sent a through-ball over the top with only 2 minutes left Ade calmly slotted the ball past Kirland and to finally get the opening goal. Adebayor seems to finish better when he has less time to think about it and is just instinctive – it’s when he has too much time on the ball when he sometimes struggles.

Now a note on the so called Sky ‘Experts’ commentating on the game. Martin Tyler is a great commentator so I have no problems with him (after all, he’s a Gooner like the rest of us) but his co-commentator Gary McAllister it has to be said is a complete muppet!

In the build up to the goal, Fabregas tackled Henri Camera in what I thought was a great challenge. But Gary kept going on about how the tackle was a foul, despite the clear fact Cesc won the ball cleanly and didn’t even touch Camera!

Can someone explain how the hell that was a foul?

And to be even more annoying the interviewer questioned Arsene and Paul Jewell after the game about the so called ‘foul’ – in an obvious attempt to create controversy and headlines.

Arsene rightly said that it was a clean foul and added that Fabregas told him that he won the ball and didn’t even make contact with Camera.

So onto Paul Jewell to answer the question about the ‘foul’ on his player. Surely he would be annoyed since this ‘foul’ lead to the goal that cost Wigan the game?

“No it was a good tackle, no complaints at all, he got the ball”

I had to laugh when Paul Jewell said that. Sky were looking to cause a stir but the fact is there wasn’t anything even remotely controversial about the game! They must be having a slow news week or something…

Anyway, Arsenal rode their luck at times to win the game but you’ll agree that the number of times that we’ve been unlucky with results and matches this season that we deserved a bit of luck against Wigan. And the lads deserve a lot of credit for fighting right until the last minute.

Now onto the Arsenal old boys on Saturday…

Flamini Has The Va-Va-Voom!

What a game!

Whatever the pre-match hype might have been about, the game itself was all about the players still in an Arsenal shirt and they proved once again that if you write them off they will produce.

And just like against Manchester United we scored a late goal which would usually win the game, but this time Chelsea still found time to get the equaliser – and maybe could have had a bit more!

But Arsenal without Toure, Henry, Gallas, Rosicky and Lauren – essentially the senior members of the squad – the young guns did us proud. The character the players showed against Chelsea was fantastic – and the defence consisting of under 21’s did brilliantly, despite showing signs of inexperience.

Arsene decided to leave out Freddie which was the right decision based on his recent performances, so it was Mathieu Flamini would fill the 5th midfield spot along with Gilberto, Fabregas, Van Persie and Hleb.

The game was frenetic and both sides had decent chances – with Alexander Hleb missing a big, big chance to steal the match. But as it stood Arsenal would probably be happy with a point, although 3 would have been a fantastic result.

The last 15 minutes were so high tempo and Chelsea could have nicked the winner, after replacing the lacklustre Schevchenko with Robben and SWP. The final act of the game was Frank Lampard’s shot that Flamini deflected onto the post after Lehmann spilled from a Robben shot – at the end Arsenal were holding on.

But like Arsene, I was more than proud of the players for their character and the perfomance against Chelsea. That feeling is something no amount of money can buy.

Below are my player ratings for the Chelsea game:

Jens Lehmann – 6/10
Did not have much to do at all until the last 10 minutes, when Chelsea piled forward in numbers. Could have cost Arsenal with dodgy goalkeeping from a corner which luckily Fabregas cleared off the line, and spilled Robben’s shot at the end for Lampard to shoot against the post. Also got involved in stupid antics with Didier Dog Bra.

Emmanuel Eboue – 6/10
Lost the ball in important positions which could have cost Arsenal. Did bomb forward to support Hleb and made some good runs on the right hand side. Struggled with Robben when he came on late in the game.

Philippe Senderos – 7/10
Like Eboue lost the ball carelessly at times which put Arsenal under pressure. Coped with Drogba reasonably well and restricted him to half chances.

Johan Djourou – 8/10
Fantastic at the back keeping Schevchenko quiet and recovered well with his pace and positioning. Didn’t make a mistake and more than capable cover for Gallas and Toure.

Gael Clichy – 8/10
Brilliant on the left – supporting well and confident at the back. Played in Freddie for the cross that Hleb should have scored from for the winner.

Robin Van Persie – 6/10
Played well early on in the match when Arsenal kept possession but once we were on the back foot couldn’t really contribute to the game and was isolated in attack.

Gilberto Silva – 10/10
Man of the Match. Protected the inexperienced backline well and made some vital interceptions and tackles – the most vital stopping Drogba tapping into an empty net after Lehmann saved from Robbens shot. Showed real maturity when things got heated and calmed everything down. A real captains performance, simply outstanding.

Cesc Fabregas – 7/10
Worked hard in midfield and helped Gilberto out well but found it hard to impose himself in an attacking role with only Adebayor upfront. Had a shot in the second half which should have tested the keeper much better. Never stopped running.

Mathieu Flamini – 8/10
Gave 110% as he always does and scored the important opening goal. Fantastic link up play with Hleb for the goal and great positioning to take his chance. Defended well and made that hugely important deflection from Lampard’s shot onto the post in the last minute of the game.

Alexander Hleb – 7/10
Gave the ball away cheaply at times but generally kept the ball well. Never afraid to take on players and looked like the man to make something happen in the final third. Created the goal for Flamini and defended well with Eboue but missed a huge chance to steal all 3 points.

Emmanuel Adebayor – 8/10
Found it hard to play up on his own but never stopped making runs and looked a threat when he had the ball. Took on Terry and Carvalho and showed some decent skills and pace.

Freddie Ljungberg – n/a
Only played the last 10 minutes and made a great chance for Hleb to score.

I think last night was one of the worse Arsenal matches I have ever seen! Obviously qualification was vital to both teams but the display was a non-existant. I feel sorry for the Arsenal fans who actually travelled over to Porto!

The good was qualification, the bad was effort from the players and the watching the whole 90 minutes was god damn ugly!

But the main thing is we qualified and finished top of the group.

The match reminded me of the Villarreal match were if we conceded we would have been in real trouble, since we had no attacking momentum whatsoever and it would have been impossible to equalise if Porto actually scored.

Luckily for us Christiano Ronaldo clone Ricardo Quaresma only succeeded in hitting the post. Twice.

The man of the match was surely the referee who blew the whistle at full time!

Luckily Hamburg beat CSKA Moscow 3-2 in Germany anyway so the Arsenal ‘match’ was academic anyway.

But as far as I understand if CSKA actually won then they would have been equal on points as us – so why wouldn’t they qualify ahead of us if they had a better record (a draw and a win) over Arsenal?

Maybe someone can explain that one to me!

Anyway, enough about that now – the sooner I forget about it the better. The possible teams we could face in the last 16 are:

Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Roma, PSV Eindhoven, Celtic and Lille.

Looks like finishing first wasn’t that much of an advantage after all!