The importance of scoring first; the Thierry 'situation', or lack thereof.

A great, great win yesterday; one the club badly needed after a depressing succession of defeats.
The match hammered home the importance of getting the first goal to our style of play. Teams play cagily even at 0-0 when they're at the Emirates, but if we keep on gifting opponents a head-start it allows them to play even more defensively, making our task even harder. Indeed, Sp*rs should have gone one up yesterday. Malbranque's chance in the 11th minute was their 'welcome to Ashburton, have the first goal on us' opportunity and they should have scored. When they missed, I sensed things might go our way afterwards.

There was an element of luck in all three of our goals, but our victory was very much deserved. Frankly, we played Sp*rs off the park, and made them look average. It was great to see such a battling, yet skilful performance, one we need to see more often this season. The only real negatives to be drawn from the game were the injuries to Rosicky and RvP, Rosicky probably now out for the Porto game as a consequence. I thought he struggled a bit during the game, and faffed around on the ball a bit too much. I was disappointed with Eboue's theatrics, which are endearing him to no-one. Also, I thought Arsene could have used his subs a little earlier: if you're coasting at 3-0, why not give Theo 20 minutes instead of 5?

Aside from these relatively forced whinges, the rest of the team was outstanding. Jens spilled the ball when he perhaps should have caught it, but was solid otherwise. It was quite amusing to see Kolo berate him for his mistake as well. Kolo and Djourou were rock solid, and Kolo seemed to be everywhere, putting several important challenges in. For me, Djourou should now be third choice centre-back. He looks a lot more composed at the back than Senderos and more comfortable on the ball. Clichy put in a good performance as well, largely nullifying Sp*rs' main threat - Aaron lennon - which is no mean feat, and getting forward impressively.

In midfield, Freddie put in his best performance for a long time. He battled and tackled well - which is what we can still expect from him - but it was nice to see him actually beat his marker a few times. He looked a threat, but we can still improve on him. Gilberto and Fabregas were outstanding, in markedly different ways : Gilberto broke up any sp*rs possession superbly; Fabregas distributed it in a consistently threatening manner. It was great to see Gilbs dispatch the two penalties with such aplomb, and he really rose to his role as captain. Fab was so dominant in midfield that he basically dictated the game. Indeed, the only means by which the 'Zokora is the new Vieira' comparison was valid, was by the way Fab completely took him out the game - much like when Paddy came over with Juve.

RvP had a great game, playing intelligently and unselfishly. It's been great to see him steadily improve over the last few weeks: I always felt he had the talent to be a great player, but its nice to see him thinking a bit more about his team-play. I do hope he didn't handle on purpose, however, because that's not how I want to see Arsenal players behave.

But, my man of the match has to be the Togolese goal-machine that is Manu Adebayor. Silencing, yet again, his myriad critics, the big man put in a colossal display, not just finishing his chance superbly, but leading the line in a wonderfully authoritative manner. Some people have forgotten that Manu is only 21, and I think over the course of the next two years he could develop into a truly potent centre-forward. Now, if he could just replicate this form against some of the lesser teams...

The atmosphere inside the stadium was also wonderful. Really loud, constant singing, and a real sense of jubilation and pride. People have complained about the lack of atmosphere in the Emirates, but we showed what type of atmosphere can be produced in the ground - an atmosphere which I'm sure influenced the result. We need to try and re-create that atmosphere more often, just like the team needs to re-produce that type of performance on a more regular basis if we want to take anything from this season.

Finally, a word on the Thierry 'situation'. For a man supposedly suffering from a rift with the club, he did a wonderful job of 'hiding' it. He was in the tunnel before the game, pumping up the players; Adebayor, in a touching moment, ran to acknowledge him after his goal; he celebrated with the team on the field after the game. There may well have been an argument in training, but I hope there was - it shows Thierry's desire and passion for our club. He's frustrated because he knows just what the Arsenal-Spurs game means to Arsenal fans. I think he was also frustrated because he realises that trying to plough on and play with an injury has not been a great idea. I expect he'll miss the Chelsea game to try and rest up properly. The journalists who have hyped up the 'rift' are the same ones who confidently predicted TH's departure to Barca throughout all of last season. They're probably still smarting from that, or they've realised what great copy Thierry is - either way, they're peddling a misleading story.

I expect Baptista to come in for Tomas on Wednesday, a game that's really important to the immediate future of the club. It's not a '£40 million' game, but exiting at this stage would be a real blow after all our progress in the competition this year. I'm confident we can get a result out there.

Til later. Gb.