So we blasted away the cobwebs of the abysmal showing at Fulham with a comfortable, coasting and controlled victory against Twente to book our place in the group stages of the CL…

So we blasted away the cobwebs of the abysmal showing at Fulham with a comfortable, coasting and controlled victory against Twente to book our place in the group stages of the CL. After mustering a pretty fortunate two-goal victory in the first-leg, it was obvious that the first goal last night was crucial. If Twente had got it then it would’ve been nail-biting times at the Emirates, but thankfully it was us who took the lead.

Once again it was Samir Nasri who opened the scoring. While his opener against West Brom had a touch of the Pires about it, this one was all Freddie Ljungberg: a scuffed shot with his wrong foot taking a deflection and trickling into the net. Ugly finishes are often the most beautiful.

Despite his goal, Samir had a quiet game and came off at half-time. But his anonymity wasn’t to do with a poor performance; instead it was due to the prominence of Theo Walcott on the opposite flank. With Theo tearing it up down the right, our left-side was relatively quiet. Indeed it was Theo who created Samir’s goal after he skinned the defender at cut the ball back into the box. Robin showed good desire to slide and win the loose ball which eventually fell to Nasri. Speaking of Robin, how about that for a miss?! I’d already started celebrating when he struck the ball, more fool me. Like Theo needed a goal early doors, Robin needs one too.

Theo’s goal was a thing of beauty. I don’t even need to describe it to you. Just think of all the times Thierry did it. Ever since he arrived nearly three years ago I’ve been desperate to see him in that position so he could exhibit his finishing prowess. He showed it for the under-21’s against Germany a few years ago with two exquisite finishes, and of course his goal in the Carling Cup final against the Chavs. More please.

Theo’s goal was made by Nicklas Bendtner, who had a shocker. But in spite of this, he made two goals and scored one. He is the polar opposite of an Alex Hleb. And I knew he would eventually get on the scoresheet – however poorly he plays, the Great Dane has a happy knack of being in the right place at the right time.

Credit to Denilson for his cheeky assist for Bendtner’s goal. Overall Denilson was vastly improved from his weekend performance, although to be fair he couldn’t have got much worse. No doubt he – like all of us – were buoyed by the return of The Cesc.

So we made it safely through, not something that can be said of the Scousers. The draw is later this afternoon, and here’s who we could get:

POT TWO
Bayern Munich
PSV Eindhoven
Villarreal
AS Roma
FC Porto
Werder Bremen
Sporting Lisbon
Juventus

POT THREE
Marseille
Zenit St Petersburg
Steaua Bucharest
Panathinaikos
Bordeaux
Celtic
Basel
Fenerbahce

POT FOUR
Shakhtar Donetsk
Fiorentina
Atletico Madrid
Dynamo Kiev
CFR Cluj
Aalborg
Anorthosis Famagusta
Bate Borisov

The saying that there are no easy games any more is very true. While, for instance, one might say that CFR Cluj (who?!) are easy, they are probably stationed in the deepest and darkest of Eastern Europe, making for a tough away trip. At least Galatasaray missed out, so we are saved from the potential journey to “Hell”.

My best case scenario draw would be: Bremen/PSV, Bordeaux, Aalborg.

Worst case scenario: Bayern/Juve, Fenerbahce, Shaktar/Kiev.

Looking at the seedings, the fourth batch looks a lot tougher than the third batch.

And finally in transfer news *cue groans* the Sunts have linked us with young Dutch midfielder Jonathan de Guzman. The man himself says:

“My dream clubs are Arsenal and Barcelona. If clubs of that stature are interested in you then you cannot say no.

“I’m certainly open to interest from Arsenal and from what I hear Feyenoord are happy to hear from them as well.”

Which sounds a lot like what Arshavin said. If he hadn’t mentioned Barcelona then I would have warmed to him. But because he has, and if we do sign him , whose to say that he won’t have a few good years with us and then up sticks to go to Barca? It’s happened before, and I daresay it’ll happen again.

Keep your eyes peeled in the comments section for CL draw chat. Who do you reckon would be a good draw for us?

Thanks for reading folks, comments always appreciated.