There we were on six and still looking for seven, what would you rather have another goal or a clean sheet? Me? I am thinking take it easy lads I would hate to concede now. Well the team answered it well – both. Well done Almunia and his happy boys. 

Remember when the CL, and games at the new Stadium in particular, were a misery to watch?  It was not long ago, last season to be precise, that any little old team could turn up get a gift goal, (err was not that Fulham and Lehmann this season? Editor) and frustrate the Gunners for 87 minutes. How many matches did we concede first in? I cannot remember now – but it was far too many. It made for a lot of nail biting and high blood pressure.

 Oh how different last night was

Someone once said football was ballet for the common man (or woman. Editor), a bit patronising, but last night how else could it be described?  It was not just the goals but the wonderful movement, short passes, long passes, tempo, then slow, wing play, threading the ball through the middle, all capped off with clinical finishing.

 It was so wonderful that I rushed home to watch the highlights on ITV, and then watched them again on ATVO this morning.  All the commentators kept saying, “it’s the beautiful game”, not often you can agree with the pundits.

Apart from Hleb's lucky strike (If it was Lampard he would have been given it, it pays to shoot. Maybe UEFA will award it.), every goal was a beauty, none were real rockets, but they were passed and placed into the net. Even Fabregas’s first was carefully chipped and swerved past the goalie.

 Hleb and Fab orchestrated the whole game, Slavia tried to rush the Gunners off the ball, but Flamini soon began to bite and Arsenal took control. Even at an early goal down Slavia did not look like a team that had given up; after all, they had scored two at Sevilla.

At half time, three nil down, Slavia's manager sat stunned for five minutes before he could go in and face his team.

Very often with a big first half tally, and a big match ahead, Arsenal ease up, but not this time. The stats show that the Gunners score more in the north end than the south, but surely we North Bankers were about to be disappointed.  Not at all, a new found ruthlessness saw four more go in, and without some excellent goalkeeping, that thwarted a Theo hat trick, it could have been even more. 

Adebayor might not have scored, but his contribution to the attack and to the build up of the goals should not be underestimated. Indeed, he kept the ball warm for when Theo got into the match after about 20 minutes. Seven nil was not about one individual, it was team work, they played for each other and never eased up. Even Eboue astounded with his wing work, a cheeky flip over a defender, followed by an audacious long range shot at goal that missed by only a few feet.  

It was party time at the Emirates, “Happy birthday dear Arsene” sang the crowd in a Marylyn Monroe breathless type voice (I made the last bit up), then they sang a list of players from Vieira to Adams, and Rocastle to Bergy and Wright. The darling of the evening was Theo, as I wrote above it must be a piss off being a defender, no one sang their praises.

 The last time around

However the last time the Gunners put seven past Slavia Prague (May 1907), in Arsenal’s first ever tour outside Britain, the final score was 7-5. Now I might be obsessive about clean sheets, but you tell me does that seven feel as good as the seven without reply?  Arsenal defenders we salute you.

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