Subdued Arsenal pay the penalty

A lacklustre Arsenal side maintained their 100% Champions League record in Group B with a subdued 1-0 victory over FC Thun in Switzerland courtesy of Robert Pires' late penalty.

The game dropped off and as a contest was never the same after Thun were rightly reduced to 10 men after 35 minutes. Robin Van Persie bore down on goal after Ljungberg's clever and excellently weighted through ball, only for Armand Deumi to cynically clip his heels and earn a deserved red card.

Arsenal were the better side up until that point as Thun pushed forward and left space in behind. Our midfielders were able to create a little space and looked dangerous, it appeared only a matter of time before Arsenal opened the scoring.

It would have been better for Arsenal if Van Persie had scored and Thun kept 11 men.

No doubt about that.

Arsenal have a psychological problem about playing against 10 men. They need space to break teams down and often two or more players run into the same space. Arsenal lack a bit of discipline when teams go down to 10 men and players drift all over the place in order to find space which leaves us vulnerable to counter attacks.

Cygan was poor again, being hauled off after an hour. Lauren replaced him at left back and providing Eboue recovers from a slight knock, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Cameroonian at left back on Saturday.

Reyes looked desperately short of confidence, on one occasion he was pretty much clean through, with at worst a potential one against one situation against a squared up defender, when he checked back and tried to play an intricate through ball to slide Ljungberg in. He has lost his directness and he indisputably needs a goal.

Thun reverted to a very defensive formation and Arsenal seemed to switch off somewhat in the second half.

Thun had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside and even that couldn't put a spring in Arsenal's step.
Robin Van Persie played with confidence and was one of the only Arsenal players to come out of the game with any credit. The young Dutchman was pulled over and won the decisive penalty, in the 87th minute.

Pires dispatched the ball in an efficient manner to banish the ghosts of his Man City nightmare and Arsenal won another Champions League game, their 6th in a row, a new club record..

All in all not a great game, but a win nonetheless, top of the group, a club record, some valuable prize money and co-efficient points too.. Could've been worse!