Adebayor to the Fore As Rampant Arsenal Rediscover Golden Touch

Football is often a game of simple delights and the crowd was highly amused when Porto at last sent on the substitute Hulk. In truth, everyone in the ranks of the visitors could have been green, solely out of envy. They were totally outplayed by an Arsenal side that, over the course of this Champions League fixture, rediscovered whatever confidence had been lost in defeat to Hull at the weekend and put itself at the top of group G.

The threat of change is often better than an actual reshaping of a side. It sufficed for Arsène Wenger to put his team on the alert with a threat that each of them could be at risk. There was no reprisal for the loss to Hull at the Emirates, unless you truly believe that Emmanuel Eboué was the chief culprit in the debacle. The Ivorian alone was relegated to the bench.

Wenger would be right to continue fretting about his center-backs, but their chief deficiency is in the air. While that may have to be addressed in the future it was most improbable that Porto would have a striker to intimidate the captain William Gallas in the air as Daniel Cousin did for Hull's winner.

With the rather small Lisandro as a lone striker, Jesualdo Ferreira's line-up might almost have come to relieve Arsenal's anxieties in one specific respect. Whatever the reservations about anyone's stature, Porto's status was beyond dispute as reigning champions of Portugal who have twice won the European Cup. One short passage of play in the first-half illustrated the potentially treacherous character of this type of game.

After 12 minutes, Robin van Persie made space for himself despite the presence of the center-half Bruno Alves and struck a drive that called for a save by the goalkeeper Helton. Immediately Porto tore free on their right, with Lisandro picking out Tomas Costa for a cross that was headed down into the turf by Cristián Rodríguez, with the ball clipping the top of the bar.

None the less, the openings then were mostly Arsenal's and their lead at the interval was merited. Whatever the superiority in technique, Porto were less adventurous when in possession than Hull had been. There was a flow to Wenger's side as when Cesc Fábregas and Robin van Persie set up Theo Walcott for a drive from an angle that Helton turned behind.

Arsenal were moving with their normal fluidity and therefore making space. As it so often does, that approach led to a goal that was simple to convert. A beautiful spin and pass from Fábregas sent Emmanuel Adebayor behind the defence in the 31st minute for a cut-back that Van Persie tucked home. When Arsenal perform as they intend, the inclination to "walk the ball into the net" is the soul of efficiency.

Their other goal before the interval was wholly uncharacteristic, resulting, as it did, from a set-piece. Van Persie took the corner in the 40th minute and Adebayor climbed above Rolando for a downward header that bounced over both Nelson Benítez and Helton. Events, none the less, had not been entirely therapeutic for Arsenal.

The old flaws were there at a corner and Gaël Clichy had needed to hack the ball away when a Lisandro effort was bound for the goal after 28 minutes. Previously, the striker had let fly with an attempt that the diving Manuel Almunia had needed to turn behind. Even so, Arsenal must have felt that their customary authority in this stadium was returning.

Their fun is misery for whoever happens to be on the pitch with them. There was sense of exuberance when Gallas got involved in an attack on the left to feed Bacary Sagna and just when the move seemed to have broken down Walcott put the ball into the path of Van Persie to score once more with an excellent finish.

Merriment had taken hold of a crowd that must have been tense beforehand. "Are you Tottenham in disguise?" they bayed at Porto. The Portuguese team did look out of their depth. The gusto of Arsenal was unmistakable at their next opening in the 53rd minute when it was their center-back Kolo Touré who rolled the ball into the middle, only for Walcott, unaccountably, to miss the target from close range.

By that juncture, any flaw was regarded as endearing. Walcott himself provided the set-up in the 58th minute and this time it was Samir Nasri who could not convert it. There was indignity for Ferreira. His Porto side may very well go through to the knockout stage, but his team, for all its achievements, hardly seemed to belong in Arsenal's company.

There was little that they could do except wait and hope that their opponents' interest would flag. They would have been gladdened that Wenger made a couple of substitutions, but the tempo of the game was not broken immediately. Within seconds, Helton was parrying an effort from Fábregas and Adebayor might have converted the rebound.

The forward did slot in the fourth from the penalty spot in the 71st minute after a frustrated and undisciplined Freddy Guarín fouled the substitute Nicklas Bendtner. By then, a game that could have presented some sort of challenge looked as if it had been laid on expressly to bolster Arsenal's confidence.