Morning folks. i'll start by congratulating Wenger and his troops for pulling off a truly remarkable feat which most of you with good memories will agree with me did not technically begin last week in Turkey. This champions league journey which we so magnificently wrapped up last night began in March after that demoralizing defeat to Tottenham at White heart lane. We were in a precarious 10 point deficit from 4th place and it seemed at last Spurs would finally beat us to the holy grail of finishing in a champions league place. I still recall both of those Goals we conceded in that game, just awful and even i believed we didn't look deserving of 4th. But in a remarkable twist of events, Wenger rallied his broken and battered soldiers, charged them to rise from the abyss of that defeat and take their place amongst the best in Europe. Yes there was the small matter of the 10 point gap, but he made them understand that if they could traverse the remaining games of the season without defeat anything could yet happen, knowing Spurs and their habit to self destruct. The rest as they say is history. We fought hard upstaged Spurs, came 4th ,went through a tough Summer with few new additions but still made it to the promised land of Champions league football! Such are the stuff of Hollywood movies i tell ya.
I'll be the first to say it wasn't the best game we've played in a while. Nope. It felt like watching a film you had seen a 100 times. Only few exciting moments. However, in fairness it was never going to be one we would put ourselves through undue stress to impress.We were already 3-0 up on aggregate, not necessarily in a position were we had to attack them, instead all the onus lay with them to force the unlikeliest of comebacks. We lined up much the same way as we were against Fulham last saturday, save for the introductions of Monreal at left-back and Wilshere for Rosicky in central Midfield. They started the better and earned a couple of quick corner-kicks which i will say now would have been disastrous had we conceded from. Because at that time we were struggling to come to terms with the pace of the game and had not settled. Fernabache were not so different from the side we defeated a week earlier but seemed like they were after an early goal. Their first real chance came after Jenkinson was robbed at the edge of the box, and then in desperation, Sagna's attempted clearance rebounded off the weird looking Meireles and almost looped over Szczesny. The save he made was instictive and seemed the tonic we needed, as we suddenly sparked to life after that. Walcott and Giroud had shots saved and dragged wide respectively as the gunners attacking machine began to run ominously for the visitors. Ramsey our man of the season thus far has been in lightening form. His game had begun quietly, but he was soon making his trade-mark runs from midfield into the Fernabache danger area. And it was one of those runs that yielded the first goal on 25 minutes. Podolski and Walcott combined to throw the Fernabache defence into disarray and the Welsh man cashed in. I can't tell you where the origin of Ramseys' beef with Fernabache began but he sure likes to play them. 1 goal in 2008, 1 in Turkey and 2 in London in 2013. They won't like to see him again in a hurry that's for sure. With that goal we seized control of the game and didn't look back. The half ended with us in the ascendancy looking to end the tie with another goal but it didn't come.
In the second half, the Visitors tried one last push to change the status quo. Athough they had ended the 1st half with efforts by Emenike hitting the post and Bruno Alvez zipping a freekick just wide. They began the second with Sow delivering a low shot which Szczesny was equal to and then flattered to deceive with other intricate play around our 18 yard box.
They however couldn't find a headway and allowed us to re-dictate the pace. Walcott fired a freekick straight at the cross-bar and was unlucky not to score his first of the season. Then sadly, our romance with inexplicable injuries continued when we lost Podolski to a suspected hamstring in the 49th minute.Quite a loss you'd agree with me with sunday in mind. All hopes of any fightback left in Fernabache was extinguished when Ramsey grabbed the 2nd goal in the 72nd minute. Giroud was subsequently rested and Sanogo was introduced in his place. Wilshere got roughed up a lot in the closing stages of the game but it was good to see him get another 90mins under his belt. Carzola thrilled with his awesome array of ball skills and crowd favorite Ryo Miyaichis's introduction in place of Walcott, was greeted with mass appeal.
Wenger in his post match interview, praised Ramsey and also commented on the injury to Podolski and knocks to Wilshere. He said they were the only negatives of the night. Podolski looks now set to miss the game at the weekend while Ramsey and Wilshere will have late fitness checks. He also spoke of the consistency it required for a club to be in the champions league for 16 consecutive years. While its indeed a great achievement, we should be looking to go one better by winning the damn thing. But i won't go there now, today is about appreciating the kind of hard work we demonstrated to be part of the draws that will be carried out today for the group stages. The team has done well and here's hoping we get a good draw. I like the champions league, for me it feels like being part of a collection of super-powered few looking to test their strengths in an annual fighting tournament. Fingers crossed Wilshere and Ramsey are fine for Sunday and Podolski experiences a speedy recovery. Back later with North London Derby preview.
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