Arsenal 2 Marseille 0. Arsenal are on the brink of qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League yet again after a comfortable win at the Emirates on Tuesday night.
Two goals from Jack Wilshere saw the Gunners home against a Marseille side that arrived with no ambition and left with no applause. The French team were, frankly, a disgrace to the good name of football and it wasn't until the 76th minute that they registered their first shot on goal. One feels for their small band of travelling supporters who forked out a few hundred euros each to watch their team amble across the Emirates turf as if they were jogging on the golden sands of the Mediterranean.
That's Marseille's problem, though. Arsenal's is how to ensure qualification when they travel to Napoli in a fortnight's time for their final encounter of Group F. The Gunners top the group by three points but Borussia Dortmund's 3-1 win over the Italians on Tuesday night has drawn the German side level on nine points with Napoli. Arsenal are three points clear of their rivals and all they have to do in Italy on 11 December to progress to the knockout stage for the 14th consecutive season is avoid a three-goal defeat.
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That should be simple enough for the Gunners, who have leaked just three goals in their five Champions League matches this season. But Arsene Wenger says his boys will need to consign such calculations to the dustbin when they head to Italy next month. "It would be a mistake to think we just don't have to lose big," said Wenger. "We have to play in a positive way and try to win the game, anything else will be a gamble."
Wilshere put Arsenal one up after just 33 seconds, the quickest goal scored by an Englishman in the Champions League, when he raced on to Bacary Sagna's lovely through ball, cut inside the weak Marseille defence and then curled the ball with his left foot round Steve Mandanda.
But for the outstanding Mandanda, the only Marseille player who looked up for the match, Arsenal would have wrapped up the game by the midway mark of the first-half. First the goalkeeper denied Aaron Ramsey at point blank range and then he saved Mesut Ozil's penalty after Ramsey had been hauled down by Nicolas N'Koulou.
The German midfielder atoned in the second half when he provided the assist for Wilshere's second goal but Arsenal know they won't be able to miss penalties against the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. To avoid those clubs in the last Arsenal must finish top of their group, and they will do so if they come away from Napoli with just a point.
Despite that Wenger finds it "unbelievable" that 12 points hasn't yet seen them through. "It is the first time I have seen that in over 150 Champions League games," he said. "But it is a reality and we have to finish the job."
That was also the message from Wilshere, who warned fans not to get carried away ahead of their trip to Napoli. "We're not through yet," he declared. "We have to regroup again. It's a tough group but we will go again."
