Sagna and Clichy lift Arsenal

Chelsea are about to spend £25m on Daniel Alves, because they understand the importance of full-backs. Arsene Wenger does too, which is why he spent in the region of £7m to bring Bacary Sagna to Arsenal. Last night, Sagna and his fellow Frenchman Gael Clichy provided storming assists to give us a victory that puts us on the verge of Champions League Qualification.

Arsene picked the same side that faced Fulham, and as in Saturday’s first-half, we lacked attacking bite. On reflection, it seems likely that the plan was to keep things tight for the first 45 minutes and then go for the win.

But nonetheless, we were struggling somewhat, and Van Persie, Fabregas and Mathieu Flamini were all booked as Arsenal frustrations grew. Those were to disappear in the 72nd minute, when a misplaced pass allowed Gael Clichy to burst through the Sparta defence and play in Cesc Fabregas to score with a textbook finish - the young Spaniard clearly enjoys

We then looked to close the game out, until Jens Lehmann collected a cross in the third minute of stoppage time. Sparta had piled men forward, and Bacary Sagna saw an opportunity - as he burst down the left-wing, Lehmann threw the ball in his direction. The powerful number three then sprinted a good fifty yards before playing in the supporting Alex Hleb, who took a touch and poked a shot into the far corner. From end to end in seconds, and Hleb had another stoppage time goal. One nil would’ve been an good result. Two nil is, to put it mildly, excellent.

Arsene said:

“We needed to play with more purpose in going forwards and did that more in the second half. The whole team has a resilience, they fight to the last second - and we have shown that again tonight when we scored the goal.”

It sets up what should be a fairly comfortable return leg in couple of weeks time, and almost guarantees us an essential place in the Champions League proper