Marseilleasy

An elementary outing for Arsenal in the Champions League on Tuesday night as they earned the three points required to almost guarantee their progress to the knockout stages.

That Jack Wilshere's sublime opening goal came so soon after the kick off, did little for the competitive nature of the match but pretty much decided the result as Marseille offered little in terms of a response, indeed it was only Mesut Ozil's penalty miss later in the half that gave them the hope to battle on.

This miss was just in terms of the foul taking place outside the penalty area, and as soon as Ozil grabbed the ball from Olivier Giroud I knew a miss was on the cards, with the German disobeying the golden rule that the penalty taker stays until he misses, Giroud having scored on the previous weekend with usual penalty taker Mikel Arteta missing.

So we had to wait for Wilshire to double the score midway through the second half for the goal that effectively finished the game as a contest.

The state of the group now gives Arsene Wenger a headache about how to juggle the squad through a testing series of fixtures which sees Arsenal play two games a week including matches against Manchester City and Arsenal right up to the FA Cup 3rd Round on the first weekend in January.

French Connection

Thoroughly enjoyed this goalless Gallic affair on Tuesday night. Quick dash from work, leaving at 7.15 and making it to my seat on the Upper tier of the Clock End as the teams walked out meant I felt a little breathless. This was soon replicated on the pitch as the ball flew from end to end with rapid regularity. In a break with the this season's tradition though the centre of defence was tight enough for either side to avoid conceding. For Arsenal Thomas Vermaelen summed up the importance of his return with a Mooresque intervention midway through the first half to deny a Marseilles goalscoring opportunity, whilst at the other end Souleymane Diawarra gave a similarly composed performance.

Following last week's laboured victory over Bolton the game provided another opportunity for some fringe players to get time in the middle. For Carl Jenkinson this still looks a little early to judge him, particularly his distribution whilst Andre Santos' tendency to wander up the pitch led to the right wing being a fruitful furrow for the French to plough. Up front Ju Young Park again wanted too much time on the ball, unfortunately when he was replaced by Robin Van Persie, the Dutchman didn't seem to have enough in the tank to repeat his heroics of previous weeks.

Still top of the group, and four points taken from the nearest challengers, Arsenal look better placed than last year to win the group. An impressive display from the French fans too, looking forward to more of the same from Dortmund supporters at the end of the month.