Henry Highbury Hat Trick Hero Arsenal 3 Pompey 0

The most notable inclusion to the squad was Quincy whose impressive game against Sheffield was enough to earn him a call in the starting line up. Right away Pompey knew what a potential threat he was as they had 3- 4 players closing down on him. All that was missing from him was a clinical finish.

As soon as the whistle by Chris Foy signaled the beginning of the match, we saw some good inter play from Arsenal up front as Henry played a fine ball to Quincy whose shot slid well wide; but it was Portsmouth who nearly took the lead when Yakubu’s free header hit the crossbar.

Although Arsenal almost lost their fluency when Cygan limped off in the 23^rd minute (another defensive worry for Wenger) redoubled their efforts. This paid off as Henry broke down Portsmouth’s resistance in the 39^th minutes as Quincy’s pass found the substitute Lauren racing down the right to pick out The French man in the box. A lovely first touch after a hefty deflection off De Zeeuw saw Henry score his 20^th Premiership goal of the season. Pompey’s appeal for handball against was Flamini turned down, but other than that they had no other shots on goal as the first half drew to a close. There were enough flashes from Quincy and Fabregas, with Vieira, Clichy and Cole all combining well. Senderos missed an opportunity to open his goal tally for the Gunners (when he miss-headed a chance away from goal) and off course Henry’s power and pace was evidence that there was more to come in the second half.

The Gunners continued defensive weakness that might have been punished by a stronger opposition meant we had to continue on the offensive in the second half. Seven Minutes in, Lauren arrowed a cross to the near post and the diving Fabregas sent his header flying inches over the bar. Flamini giving a good account of himself and putting his foot in, and winning tackles, paid off in the 53^rd minutes when Vieira robbed Giannis of the ball and played a perfect pass to Henry, With the keeper racing out, Henry looked up and dinked sublimely home for his 2^nd goal of the day. It was a superb finish and Highbury was alive again as Henry turned to celebrate his goal, without even deciding to watch the ball cross the line.

However Arsenal started to live dangerously as they took their foot off the pedal and the visitors started to enjoy more possession. A corner found its way to Stone on the penalty spot and the England international forced a diving save from Lehman.

As it started drizzling the game was as good as over as there is always something about Arsenal and the rain. Portsmouth huffed and puffed to little avail, and Arsenal made substitutions, taking off Quincy for Van Persie and Fabregas for Freddie. In fairness they had their chances to get something from the game, but it was King Henry that had the final say five minutes from time. As soon as he was brought down by Zeeuw on the edge of the box you sensed it was going to be a hat-trick for the French man. He struck the ball with so much power that the keeper could only block, drop and bundle the ball into his own net.

Apart from another injury worry for Wenger in the light of the Bayern Game on Wednesday there were many significant moments in this game: We kept a clean sheet, Quincy started his first premiership game for Arsenal, and impressed once again, the youngsters had impressed, Fabregas and Lauren linked up well on the right and Henry scored his first hat-trick of the season. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for the massive game on Wednesday.