Home At Alast

Settling properly into a new stadium, even one as magnificent as The Emirates, is not the product of a moment. It takes time – and anyone who was sufficiently naïve to expect the very soul of Highbury to be transferred by some miracle across to Ashburton Grove will know better now.

So far, there appears to have existed a sort of unwritten rule whereby the majority of home fixtures must be handicapped by conceding the first goal to the opposition, just to make it a real challenge. It happened again in the Champions League game against Hamburg, when after just four minutes Rafael Van der Vaart was not closed down quickly enough and scored brilliantly from 20 yards, giving Lehmann no chance.

After that, the pattern has tended to be one of relentless Arsenal pressure, sparkling attacking football and a procession of missed chances, often culminating in the intense frustration of yet another draw. But this time it was different, because in the second half the finishing was better. Soon after the interval, Fabregas set Robin Van Persie up for a coolly taken right foot equaliser, then the introduction of Theo Walcott for the last quarter of an hour proved decisive. He supplied the pass for Emmanuel Eboue’s 83rd minute near post shot and with two minutes of normal time remaining he broke through on the right and unselfishly floated in a perfect cross which enabled Julio Baptista to head his first Arsenal goal and complete an impressive 3-1 victory.

Allowing Arsenal fans the luxury of feeling very much at home.