Arsenal had an easy walk in the park in a match that was so one sided that you would be forgiven to say that Champions League football is far much easier than the Barclays English Premier League. To some extent, that is true, but Arsenal are so experienced at this level that they make things look easy. They could afford a 5-0 lead without Andrei Arshavin and Theo Walcott. The 5-1 win underlines the dominance of the Gunners in their group as they have reached double digits in goals.
Former Arsenal player, Eduardo, got the applause and standing ovation by the home crowd for classical consolation to save face for his team in the dying minutes. He finished off a wonderful cross from the right with a ferocious volley from the prime scoring area into the far post corner. Arsenal's defence was exposed a few times but playing against an ordinary team, it didn't matter and many may not have even noticed. One in every 2 attacks by Shaktar, they found themselves facing their goalkeeper and being very uncomfortable.
Alex Song scored a fantastic goal to open an account for Arsenal in the 19th minute and Samir Nasri blasted a Song cross on the second touch to put the Gunners 2-0 by half time. Fabregas converted a penalty before English teenage sensation, Jack Wilshire scored his first Champions League goal, an intrinsic fluid pssing 3 man move of high quality. Chamakh completed the rout when he beat an ill-orchestrated off-side trap to score from close range in the 69th minute. The Gunners started idling and rested Fabregas and Chamakh. The lull brought the best of Eduardo, whose scorcher would have been nice on the other side, but the Arsenal fans liked it nontheless.
Real Madrid also produced a solid performance with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a trademark free kick and Metuzil Ozil adding the second a minute later in the 14th minute. AC Milan were deceptive in their touches even to themselves. Ronaldinho was a pale shadow of the former great self, as was Robinho. Jose Mourinho's Real are looking more polished and are true threat to Barcelona in La Liga and everyone in the Champions League. A 2-0 comfortable win at home win came courtesy of poor defending by the Italians as they conceded the goals with enough personnel behind the ball.
Chelsea were without a few key players like Lampard, Drogba and Terry and still came out with a 2-0 win over Spartak Moscow. AS Roma lost at home to FC Basel, 3-1while Bayern Munchen beat CFR Cluj 3-2. Marsellie beat MSK Zillin 1-0 and Ajax were 2-1 winners over Auxere. Braga beat Partizan 2-0.
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