EYEWITNESS – Gunners have that bit extra

Published: 22 September, 2010
by DAN CARRIER

Football League Cup 
Spurs 1, Arsenal 4 (AET)

HARRY Redknapp compared him beforehand with Socrates, but what our new Brazilian midfielder Sandro would have made of his debut is  anyone’s guess.

He was thrown into a north London derby alongside a host of established professionals who have not really made the grade at the Lane, and some green reserves who are perhaps not even quite ready to be loaned out to Championship clubs to gain valuable experience.

And for the first 45 minutes, he must have wondered why he swapped the Latin pace of the Brazilian championship for a tepid League Cup fixture.

It was a strange introduction to life in N17 for the £6million acquisition who’d been a league champion in Brazil in the summer.

He’ll be happy not to have to play alongside Wilson Palacios every week, nor be trying to find width with Bentley and Livermore on the flanks. As for aiming for Pavlyuchenko and Dos Santos up front, well, it shows Spurs’ progress that they’d been chosen for a north London derby. Neither would have been picked if this was a Premiership match.

On a plus side, the team selected should fill fans with glee, as it shows we arrived. This was most definitely a second-string team, in a game where previously we’d have sent out our very best.

Still, the debutante was keen to demonstrate what our cash had bought. On nine minutes, Sandro showed composure when he won a little nick off the toes of Rosicky and with neat turn gave a nice sideways ball to Assou-Ekotto. Two minutes later, he again showed his class with a lovely interception and jinking run. His pass was however wasted when he found Dos Santos, with the Mexican quickly crowded out. Arsenal looked the livelier and a tap-in from Lansbury on 15 put the visitors ahead.

Pav went close on 26 when he drove a stinging effort off a post with Fabianski well beaten, but immediately Sandro was called on again to stop an attack when Wilshere burst into the box. The Brazilian did his best to marshal the troops in front of him but let’s be honest, the opening half-hour was all Arsenal and he was firefighting.

Then we saw a glimpse of his passing ability: a driven ball for Assou-Ekotto nearly put the full-back in. It was hardly Huddlestone-esque, but in a first half with few positives, it was a glimmer. He got a talking to just before half time for wrestling with Wilshere – his frustration getting the better of him.

While it was Sandro’s debut, he must have wondered if his team-mates had played together before, so disjointed was their first half performance.

Harry made two telling changes at the break, with Keane and Lennon coming on and they both made an instant impact. It took Keane just five minutes to level things, latching on to a slipped pass by Naughton to drive home and equalise.

Then it was well balanced, with Spurs looking good going forward but Arsenal always capable of getting in dangerous positions.

Sandro nearly got himself into a goalscoring position on 68 when he burst forward to meet a cross from Pav but was a fraction late.

The Brazilian faded somewhat as the game progressed, but his positional sense meant while the legs didn’t look too wiling, he was still in the mix when he was needed. On 81, he found the strength to burst forward and brought a foul out of Lansbury, his close control again promising.

In the first minute of extra time, Nasri went down in the box and converted the resulting penalty. Moments later he made the game safe with another finish from the penalty spot, this time when Chamakh was brought down. Sandro was hauled off with 25 minutes of extra time left, before the fourth went in, perhaps to give him the chance to watch his team-mates. Overall, while he had a good enough game, it’s too hard to judge him in any way on the basis of a tepid League Cup encounter with neither team at full strength.

Pletikosa (g), 5: Little to do, left high and dry by his defence for the Arsenal goal from open play.
Bentley, 4: Selfish in possession, trying fancy flicks with little end product, but strange to start him on the left when the team was crying out for some width.
Pavlyuchenko, 5: Starved of service, better in the second half when Keane came on.
Palacios, 4: Huffs, puffs, knocks people down: not pretty, and not effective. Much better second period. 
Naughton, 4: Given little support. Disciplined.
Dos Santos, 4: Lightweight. Failed to hold on to the ball when required, and didn’t dash into space when the channels opened up. Replaced at half time by Keane.
Bassong, 5: Steady. His first-team class was apparent in his reading of the match.
Livermore, 5: Pretty anonymous, replaced by Aaron Lennon at half time.
Sandro, 7: Looked assured but needs a better quality of player alongside him to really show what he can do. 
Assou-Ekotto, 5: Looked like he wanted the night off with other first teamers.
Caulker, 5: Not bad. Commanding in the air.

Subs: Cudicini, Hutton, Huddlestone, Lennon, Jenas, Keane, Kranjcar

Arsenal: Fabianksi (g), Koscielny, Rosicky, Nasri, Vela, Denilson, Wilshere, Djourou, Eboue, Gibbs, Lansbury 
Subs: Almunia, Sagna, Clichy, Arshavin, Chamakh, Eastmond, Emmanuel-Thomas