Dinamo Zagreb 0 Arsenal 3: Fab away win in Zagreb

Van Persie - Lively

Thanks to this summer's World Cup Thanks to this summer's World Cup our squad is as yet incomplete and thanks to injuries, suspensions and pea-brained, greedy millionaire Chavs such as Cashley, we were tonight a long way from a full strength side. Dinamo Zagreb are not an easy team to take on so early in the season, Croatia being a pucker footballing nation and Zagreb's squad bolstered by a number of Brazilians plus the bench-warming German World Cup defender Jens Nowotny. They like their crowd were definitely up for it with this being as big as any Club game ever played in Croatia.

Granted the tie is a two-legged affair but as we all know the outcome of the first match in any European encounter is critical and tonight's was no exception no matter how early in the season it might be. When the whistle went on our new season we were missing Cole, Henry, Lehmann, Ljungberg, Clichy, Senderos, Lauren, Diaby and Walcott but Arsene has faith in his squad and we have faith in Arsene.

A good start then with Rosicky looking lively, playing nominally on the left but very right footed and drifting inside. Adebayor coming off his defender to link attacks well, slightly lacking with his first touch but firing in a few decent shots. Van Persie looking the most likely but not getting too much in the way of good chances. Zagreb's best moves amounted to one-twos down our left flank against Hoyte playing out of position, but in the main anything the men in blue threw at us was from long range and comfortable for Almunia. The Makismir Stadium looked pretty packed and sounded fairly noisy, the Greek ref was maybe a bit fussy but that worked in our favour with a couple of nothing free kicks going our way around the edge of their box. Van Persie and Toure failed to make the free kicks pay however.

Adebayor - Worked tirelessly

There were about 200 or so Gooners, including Michael ‘Shirts', who were outsung in a stadium that was a bog standard old style four boxes, running track and the mandatory four corner floodlight pylons. But the 30,000 plus punters generated a decent enough atmosphere throughout and backed their team well for ninety minutes. Most home fans were kited out in blue to match their team who wore a set of high scoring Scrabble letters which presumably advertised something but looked more like a number plate. A tough away game then and it was down to our young team on the pitch to generate their own brand of fast passing football to keep Zagreb on their toes – and they did. Most of our first half play was across the edge of their box because Zagreb often had ten men back and seemingly lacked ambition on the attacking front with just one man up.

We passed well, showed class, bossed the possession statistics but didn't capitalise before the break. Adebayor came closest with a rasping shot just wide but van Persie looked the most likely to break the deadlock. Gilberto and Cesc were in control of midfield and our defenders were rarely in trouble against the rather tall Croatian team. Half time no score.

Hleb picked up a yellow card for what amounted to a dive by his opponent, something of a joke that may prove costly at a later date. We had more control after the break and the breakthrough came with a ball in from Hleb to Van Persie who controlled centrally and spotted Cesc's well timed run. Fabregas broke through took the pass in a right hand channel and fired his angled shot hard and low into the far side of the goal past the keeper. 0-1 Arsenal on 63 minutes.

Rosicky - Encouraging start

One minute later and Hleb picked the ball up deep, played a long ball forward to Van Persie who was on the shoulder of a central defender. He won the race to the delightfully placed pass, took it on and hit his shot under a keeper who might have done better. 0-2 Arsenal and the game was ours to control which we did with some class. The pass rate was increased and Zagreb stayed in their shells chasing shadows and funnelling back in numbers. We knocked it about at will and when Dinamo attacked they did so with a distinct lack of players forward. It looked like our reputation had frightened them more than our dynamic football, but we played some good stuff. We certainly didn't play like most teams do in early August because we looked pretty sharp.

Cesc had a wicked shot parried. Djourou got back well to make a fine tackle that killed off a rare Dinamo counter attack as traffic remained pretty well one way. Gilberto was always available and any goal attempts from the men in blue were distinctly long-range efforts. A Cesc solo beat their defence as he broke through, made space for another angled shot and scored his second goal as he did his first, low into the far corner. His one-hundredth game Arsenal and a couple of tasty goals to celebrate. 0-3 Arsenal.

Flamini and Aliadiere replaced Rosicky and Adebayor with about ten minutes to play. Hleb set up Flamini who made a great run but failed to put it past the keeper when clean through. This was a comfortable win, very comfortable, very controlled, very much a team display with players working hard for one another. The scoreline might suggest they were an easy touch, but I would disagree. This was a very solid team performance from Arsenal that gave us a deserved and important result.