Brilliant win for us, at home to Porto in Champions League Round of 16 2nd leg. We trailed 2-1 from the first leg at the Dragao, thanks to both dodgy refereeing and dodgy goalkeeping from Lukasz Fabianski. The team was Almunia, Sagna, Campbell, Vermaelen, Clichy, Song, Rosicky, Nasri, Diaby, Arshavin and Bendtner in the 4-1-4-1 (or 4-3-3) we have deployed all season. Cesc Fabregas and William Gallas were short-term absentees from the squad, while Robin van Persie, Kieran Gibbs, Aaron Ramsey and Johan Djourou will still be on the sidelines for some time.
After having a header at the far post saved well by Helton, Arshavin made a darting run down the middle through a gap left by Porto's defence, and Nasri played a good ball for him. Although it was intercepted, the weekend's villain for some, Nicklas Bendtner, was on hand to slide the ball into the empty net and celebrate his goal. Arshavin should have been flagged offside when he drifted back from an offside position to nod the ball back to Nasri, but after the poor refereeing of the first leg, I think we were due some luck in this tie, and we got it.
More great play from Arshavin saw him manouevre brilliantly past three players and cross the ball for Bendtner to tap in again on 25 minutes, although it wasn't to be the best individual moment of the match. 2-0 up after 25 minutes, 3-2 up on aggregate, and things were looking pretty good. Bendtner, Diaby and Nasri all had efforts saved, before the half time whistle blew.
Half time sub Cristian Rodriguez had a header cleared off the line by Nasri, before the Frenchman produced a wonderful moment. After receiving the ball back from Abou Diaby on the right wing, Nasri bamboozled two players and ran into the area to be confronted by three players around him. Twisting and turning more times than a country road, Nasri finally spun away from the trio of bewildered defenders to smash the ball in off of the post from a tight angle, and wheeled off in celebration - it was a truly fantastic goal. Having been nervous previously, we seemed to be finally home and hosed.
Eboue came on, and just less than a minute later we were defending a corner. Gael Clichy nodded clear, and the ball dropped to Arshavin, who set off with Eboue racing forward in support. With just two Porto players in front to stop him, Arshavin proceeded half way through Porto's end, before slipping Eboue in, who rounded the keeper superbly to slide in our 4th and his 1st.
The rout was complete when Eboue won a penalty (we seem to be getting more of those recently!) and it was only going to be Bendtner who took it. After a slight delay that could only have made Bendtner more nervous, he slotted home as the clock struck 90:00 to complete his first hat-trick in senior football. What a way to end a fine, fine win for the Gunners, without our two arguably best players in Fabregas and van Persie.