Anyone who resisted the urge to watch the "Battle of Britain" last night were treated to an absolute football masterclass from an Arsenal team with an average age of 22.

I'm not normally one to rave about a team just because they can pass a ball. For me, the best team is the one that can not only pass the ball, but also, keep it out of their own net and put it in the other teams. Arsenal are well short of this point, their defence last night were shambolic, saved by an excellent performance from Almunia, and their reluctance to shoot is beyond comprehension. Aside from this, I have never witnessed a team pass the ball around with such confidence. Powered by the true class of Cesc Fabregas, Arsenal passed the ball for 90 minutes with such devestating conviction and accuracy that by half time, Fenerbahce looked like they had played two games back-to-back.

From the first whistle, Arsenal simply played the simple ball, every time someone got the ball, two others were looking to create a triangle around that player. It was football at it's simplest, yet most devestating, making the ball do all of the work. Everyone who has even the slightest interest in football knows that you should always try to play the simple ball and Arsenal's performance last night gave a perfect demonstration of this.

For many people, last nights performance will be a sign that Arsenal can win the Champions League this year, for me, it shows that as soon as they meet a decent team, they will be crushed. As much as their passing was arguably the best ever seen on a football pitch, their defence was every bit as bad. The offside trap that Arsenal insisted on playing looked straight out of the Blue Square Premier League. They had one player going forward with his hand up, two more following the ball and the other waiting for the free kick. Luckily, the Fenerbahce forwards had little pace and either made almost every run too early, Almunia made a great save, or the Linesman was generous. If Arsenal insist on playing this way against another team, it could be a cricket score.

On top of the horrendous defending, the shooting was non-existent. Arsenal played themselves into shooting opportunities time and time again, yet only managed 10 shots at goal, five of which hit the back of the net. The perfect football is pretty to look at, but there also has to be an element of greed shown from the front players. Have a shot, take a chance!! The one time this happened was in the 90th minute from a 17 year old named Aaron Ramsey, and he scored. If Arsenal had done that more often, we could have been talking about it being 17-2.

The football played by Arsenal has been pretty for a while, last night it was utter perfection but rather than making other teams quiver in fear, it will have them all salivating waiting to play a team who can be undone time and time again by a simple ball over the head of the defender. On the other hand, if Wenger can teach this young team how to defend and to be a bit more greedy in front of goal, this Arsenal team could dominate the Premiership and Europe for the next 10 years and nobody would complain simply because they would enjoy watching them play, just like I did last night.

Labels: arsenal, champions league, fabregas, football, ramsey