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KEJI 1 - AZ 1
Despite concerns about their own futures amid predictions of a January fire-sale, the players appeared admirably unaffected by the off-field turmoil and Mounir El Hamdaoui, Alkmaar’s main danger-man, showed an immediate willingness to run at centre-backs William Gallas and Thomas Vermaelen.
Van Persie, though, should have put Arsenal ahead inside 10 minutes.
Arshavin had fed Abou Diaby down the left and his ball found Van Persie unmarked inside the penalty area. However, despite bringing the ball under immediate control, his shot was too close to Sergio Romero and easily gathered by the Argentina goalkeeper.
With Diaby and Alex Song gradually asserting themselves in midfield, Arshavin and Fábregas increasingly came into the game, although they initially struggled to find an end product to match their intricate passing.
Emmanuel Eboué, who was starting on the right of midfield in place of the injured Theo Walcott, had presented one half-chance to Arshavin, but his ambitious attempt to guide the ball over Romero and into the top corner floated narrowly wide.
With only limited pressure from Alkmaar, the entire Arsenal team were occasionally sloppy in possession and El Hamdaoui had the chance to punish one such lapse, although his shot from the edge of the penalty area sailed harmlessly over both the crossbar and Vito Mannone’s outstretched arm.
Amid their financial worries, Alkmaar’s form has also recently deserted them and, despite a record of only one European home defeat in 34 matches, they had lost five out of their last eight matches and looked unsurprisingly short of confidence.
Arsenal finally asserted themselves in the 36th minute with a goal that looked simple but was actually crafted quite brilliantly.
Arshavin had split open the Alkmaar defence with an incisive pass to Van Persie but, rather than take the obvious option of blazing a shot in the direction of Romero’s goal, the Dutchman showed the sort of intelligence that so enthuses Wenger by rolling the ball across the six-yard box to present Fàbregas with an open goal.
Van Persie then almost scored himself on the stroke of half-time with a powerful drive that was parried narrowly over by Romero.
He also forced further second-half saves, notably from a curling free-kick, before having a penalty appeal waved away following a challenge from Hector Moreno.
Arsenal’s defence was tested only intermittently and increasingly wobbled somewhat in the final quarter. In the 72nd minute, Stijn Schaars’ header was cleared off the line by Diaby and there was another nerve-jangling moment when Kew Jaliens somehow directed Schaars’ cross wide from just five yards out.
Wenger’s birthday week was finally spoiled in injury time when Schaars’ cross was headed back across the goal by Graziano Pelle, allowing Mendes da Silva to shoot decisively past Mannone with what was virtually the last kick of the game .
*nyaris diaby clear tak own goal.. |
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Author
;) 
:pompom: :cry:
Post time 20-10-2009 03:52 PM
