Last weekend, this game was looking like it would be a top vs bottom game - with Derby lacking a win all season, and looking likely to get tonked by anybody they came up against. Then, last Monday night, they only went and won against Newcastle, sparking brave talk of Premiership survival, and at the very least giving their season a bit of an overdue kickstart. Typical then that their next game, with them properly buoyant, came against Arsenal - although of course, Derby at home really should hold no fear if you aspire to be a Champions League team. Good God, even Spurs beat them 4-0 at home!We started the game with no sign of Gilberto, and with Van Persie on the bench, as well as missing Rosicky through (another) injury, this time picked up against Sevilla. So, a slightly weakened side, but one that should still have easily been able to do the job. And do the job was exactly what we did - we pretty much tore Derby apart from the first minute, they didn't really have a prayer. Abou Diaby opened the scoring after about 10 minutes, with an unstoppable drive from outside the area, which rifled into the top corner. Reminiscent of the occasional Patrick Vieira piledriver, and useful after his few recent misses, especially against Spurs.
Adebayor and Fabregas then took over the scoring, Adebayor scoring a fantastic hat-trick which really highlighted his positioning, awareness, and the physical threat and defender annoyance that he brings to the team. Defenders, especially average defenders like those that Derby have, must absolutely hate him. He was in the right place at the right time on a couple of occasions, and showed great touch and skill to beat the defence and keeper on both occasions. The other was a penalty that was slotted away quite coolly, although the keeper did get close to it.
As well as Adebayor's hat-trick (which was the first in a senior game at the Emirates Stadium - although somebody scored one in a youth team game there last season), Fabregas scored with another excellent shot from distance. That's a goal in each of the last 6 games now for him, and he seems to be trying other speculative shots from the edge of the area too. If, like Frank Lampard, he gets lucky deflections a dozen times a season, those could be the goals that make a genuine (and successful) title challenge a reality. Speculative shooting like this would have been impossible with Thierry Henry at the club I think, or at least would have attracted scowls from him, so it is possibly another way in which his leaving has set some of the younger players free from their fear of him!
Everybody seemed to agree that this was a hugely convincing performance, and was a general pleasure for the neutral, as well as Arsenal fans to watch (although presumably Derby fans didn't really enjoy it too much). Comparisons were being made with the team of 2004, based on this and the last few performances. Whilst its true that we are playing great football, and seem to be thoroughly full of confidence at the moment, we have been playing a number of poor sides, or sides that have been kind enough to have big off days when they played us. Our results have been more flattering than some of our performances suggested (although both performances and results have been good); and our opponents today looked like one of the worst teams ever to play Premier League football.
So, very encouraging indeed, but I'm not getting carried away just yet. Of course, according to the papers, you are either utterly invincible, or in complete crisis. We are at the invincible end of the spectrum, but not quite up there yet. And of course, the word "invincible" has special meaning for Arsenal - we have previous form in that area.
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