Arsenal brush aside Celtic in Champions League play-off

Arsenal assured their place in this season's Champions League group stages with a commanding 3-1 win over Celtic at the Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners were without their captain Cesc Fabregas who was missing with a hamstring injury but still to the chance to rest Robin Van Persie, knowing that Celtic faced an uphill task to progress after last week's 2-0 defeat at Parkhead.

Although Eduardo da Silva poked the ball just wide early on, the balance of play was fairly even for the majority of the opening stages, with attempts on goal from both sides few and far between.

Despite their two-goal advantage, Arsene Wenger's boys were far from their fluent best with Celtic's midfield duo of Scotts Brown and McDonald working hard to disrupt the English side's rhythm.

Both of the North Londoners goals last week having an element of fortune about them, tonight's opener continued that lucky trend. Eduardo went down after minimal contact between himself and Artur Boruc in the 28th minute but did enough to convince the Spanish referee to award the home side a penalty, much to the Celtic 'keeper's obvious fury. The Croatian striker then dusted himself down to calmly slot his spot kick past the Polish international stopper.

McDonald thought he had equalised after tapping in a clever ball behind the Arsenal defence from Marc-Antoine Fortune. However, the goal was disallowed as he was rightly adjudged to have been offside.

Just before half-time, Eduardo was in the thick of the action again, with his curled effort having Boruc at full stretch. From the resulting corner, Niklas Bendtner should have done better than head wide when unmarked at the back post.

After the interval, Wenger seemed to have encouraged his team to go out and express themselves more, safe in the knowledge that they had a three-goal cushion to fall back on.

The Gunners' trademark fluidity and fluency was clearly in evidence in the 53rd minute as Emmanuel Eboue finished off a delightful Arsenal move firing home right footed to score his first European goal.

If the tie was not already over, then the second goal on the night and fourth on aggregate certainly ended the game as a contest. Soon after, Tony Mowbray, the Celtic manager, withdrew Aiden McGeady and Shaun Maloney, no doubt with half an eye on the Bhoys weekend fixture against unbeaten Hibernian.

Andrey Arshavin then slotted in a third goal in the 74th minute, almost immediately after coming on as a substitute, underlying the home side's second half dominance.

From then on, the Scottish side knew they were condemned to the consolation prize of the Europa League and began to look very tired and drained. Chances and openings presented themselves more regularly for Arsenal, whose youthful midfield drove them on in search of a fourth goal.

There was to be no fourth goal, in fact it was the Glaswegians who scored a spectacular consolation goal through Massimo Donati. With the very last kick of the game, the Italian midfielder volleyed home a diagonal ball, to score a goal that was reminiscent of Paulo di Canio's flying volley for West Ham some years ago. It was a fitting reward for the Bhoys' loyal supporters to take with them on the long trip home on a night when they saw their team exit the Champions League with more of a whimper than a bang. But the Scots will feel aggrieved at the nature of the home side's opening goal that set Arsenal on their way.

Despite conceding late on, the Gunners could content themselves that they had done more than enough to progress and can now look forward to taking their place in tomorrow's draw in Monaco for the Champions League group stages.

Cobblers Preview

Last season ended on a crushing note, being comprehensively outplayed by a better footballing unit, then the main pre-occupation of early summer was whether our pacy winger who can score goals would seal his dream move to Spain. But unfortunately that is where the similarities between the Cobblers and Manchester United end. Ikechi Anya did convince Sevilla to sign him in one of the more surprising transfers of the summer but without the £80 million price tag of the Madeiran show pony.

2009-10 season sees Northampton Town once again in the lowest tier of league football after last season’s relegation from League One, despite a goal difference that hovered around zero throughout the year- surely something of a first. (Best goal difference to still be relegated?) This inevitably saw some of the first team’s better players seek pastures new, most notably Jason Crowe who has consistently been one of the best performers at the club, the only surprise being that he hadn’t moved on earlier. However a good bulk of the squad remains and with some astute additions in the shape of John Curtis and Steve Guinan to add experience to the existing youth as well as Foxes’ reject Billy McKay who has impressed in pre-season and could form a neat blend of pace and power with Bayo Akinfenwa, last season’s chief marksman, hope exists around Sixfields that our stay in League Two may be just a brief sojourn.

If on the field, the squad appears to be coming together nicely under the helm of Stuart Gray, who was sensibly retained as manager despite our fall from the third tier, off the field concerns dominate discussions. Northampton Borough Council’s collective dragging of heels about Chairman Cadoza’s planned retail expansion of the stadium and surrounding area has left many fans feeling frustrated and Cardoza unwilling to plough any more cash into the club until the uncertainty surrounding the area is resolved. For now it seems that “Sixseats” will continue to be the butt of many away fans. Away fans that will be coming from the likes of Burton and Aldershot rather than Charlton and Southampton, a prospect that seemed remote when at the turn of the year, the Cobblers were happily ensconced in their traditional lower mid table position that contented our limited ambition. Gone too are the local derbies with Peterborough making strides under the other Ferguson and Rushden and Diamonds’ fall once their Dr. Marten’s money vanished being as rapid as their rise with it. The “local” rival now is newly arrived Burton Albion, some 70 miles up the motorway. It doesn’t exactly set the pulses racing.

2009/10 will be a season of adjustment and no doubt frustration too, thinking what might have been but as the season draws closer and that horrible day away at Leeds becomes ever more distant, optimism slowly starts to creep in that Gray can bring some sunshine back to Northampton and return the Town straight back into League One.