AZ Alkmaar 0 Arsenal 3 Player Ratings

Celeb
By Boris Mellor
August 4 2006

Arsenal had a comfortable victory over the runners-up of last year's Dutch Premier League. The game was played at a frantic pace throughout, Arsenal often looked like the home team as they threw caution to the wind and attacked.

However the Dutch had their moments, and if they had been more incisive in front of goal they could, perhaps, have had a goal or two of their own. Nonetheless this was a good performance by Arsenal and it demonstrates that the squad is slowly getting back to match fitness. Hopefully in time for Tuesday nights CL qualifier.

 Gilberto 36, Adebayor 52, Van Persie 74 (pen)

 Player ratings

Manuel Almunia: Made one or two useful saves, but flapped around and mishandled the ball on several occasions. Five out of 10

Mart Poom: Didn't have a lot to do, but what he did was okay. Six out of 10

Emmanuel Eboue: Had a good game, attacked very well, perhaps final ball could have been better. Seven out of 10.

Kolo Toure: Magnificent held an inexperienced back four together, as well as urging team forward. Nine out of 10.

Johan Djourou : Good in the air, but beaten on the ground by speedy players. Needs to get tackle in earlier. Six out of of 10.

Pascal Cygan: Only played a quarter of the match, but was confident and competent, tackle well. Seven out of 10.

Francesc Fabregas: Had a very good game, started off slowly, but by second half was well in control. Eight out of 10.

Mathieu Flamini: Struggled to get back into left back mode. Beaten several times, could not add a lot to attack. Six out of 10.

Justin Hoyte: Reasonably solid in defence, but not that incisive when attacking. Should be prepared to shoot when in a strong position. Six out of 10.

Emmanuel Adebayor: Showed surprising pace, took his goal well, perhaps he should have got rid of the ball earlier at times, looked threatening in the air. Seven out of 10.

Gilberto: A mixed game, took his goal well, shielded defence quite well, but lost ball a bit too often for my liking. However he looked short of match fitness. Six out of 10.

Alexandre Song: Came on halfway through second half. Found it hard to get up to the pace of the game, but began to get involved towards the end. Six out of 10

Alexander Hleb: Absolute dynamo of performance, covered the whole pitch and both wings, helped the defence, created chances, one or two passes went astray, but this was an excellent performance. Eight out of of 10.

Jose Reyes: Gave the opposition defence plenty to worry about, brought down quite a bit, tackled back enthusiastically. Made the first goal with excellent cross that deceived goalkeeper. Tired early in the second half. Seven out of 10

Jeremie Aliadiere: Came on rather late for a rating, but terrorised the opposition defence with his pace and ability to past defenders. He deserved better passes than the ones he got. I wish he had been given longer.

Robin Van Persie: Another excellent game, very unlucky not to score when he shot hit the inside of both goalposts. Seems to have grown stronger, and worked well with Adebayor. Eight out of 10.

Armand Traore: Only on for a few minutes

Mark Randall : Only on for a few minutes