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It was business as usual at the Emirates on Wednesday night as yet another brace from star striker Robin van Persie sent Arsenal through to the knock-out stages of the UEFA Champions League for the 12th season running. Perhaps more crucially this year, they have also gone through as Group winners, meaning they will avoid the other big boys from around Europe in the Round of 16 at the very least. On matchday 5, Arsenal got the better of Borussia Dortmund 2-1, with all three goals coming in the second half. The first half was quite literally a bore fest from a fan's perspective as two hardworking midfields cancelled each other out. Some excellent work by Alex Song created Arsenal's opener shortly after the restart, and Van Persie made it 11 goals in his last 8 games with another close range finish in the 86th minute. Dortmund got one back deep in stoppage time after some shabby Arsenal defending, possibly the only time they put a foot wrong all night.

The Gunners were unchanged from their trip to Norwich City at the weekend and continued to deploy Laurent Koscielny at right back in the absence of both their preferred options in that position. Robin van Persie, in ridiculously hot form in the Premier League this year, continued to lead the line with Theo Walcott and Gervinho providing the pace down the wings. Aaron Ramsey was the creative focal point of the side with Alex Song and Mikel Arteta deployed in midfield. Abou Diaby returned to the Arsenal squad after having missed the entire season thus far, and from Arsenal's perspective it was good to have some more experienced players on the bench.

Dortmund too were unchanged from the side they put out for their much publicized weekend triumph against Bayern Munich. Perisic, who scored the equalizer when these two sides met earlier in the season, was on the bench once again, as was Paraguayan striker Lucas Barrios. Robert Lewandowski led the line on his own up front with rumoured Arsenal-target Mario Gotze lining up on the right hand side of an attacking three. Gotze had scored the only goal of the game against Bayern and was undoubtedly the main man for Arsenal to keep an eye on for more reasons than one. Young Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa had provided the killer pass for Gotze at the weekend and started in a central attacking role just behind the striker.

The first twenty minutes saw negligible goal mouth action with Dortmund doing really well to deny the Arsenal midfield any space. There were the odd free-kicks from distance and the occasional corner, but nothing really that threatened either goalkeeper. Theo Walcott ran clear of the defence from an Aaron Ramsey pass, but Roman Weidenfeller was equal to the task and prevented the pacy England winger from getting past him.

Dortmund lost two of their star players in the first half an hour with Sven Bender and Mario Gotze both forced off due to injuries. The visitors lost a bit of their rhythm due to the twin departures and had to do a lot of work without the ball for a brief period.

Arsenal had the ball in the back of the net in the 40th minute but the goal didn't count as Theo Walcott had just strayed offside. He continued to be Arsenal's biggest threat, and came close to providing the perfect pass for Van Persie moments later, but the big hand of Weidenfeller stopped the ball from reaching the Dutchman. In between the two Arsenal chances, Dortmund had a good shot on target from distance, with most of their joy coming down the Arsenal left. The game gave some indications of getting a bit stretched towards the end of the first half, and it would be interesting to see if both sides could keep up this work rate deep into the second half. 

The first five minutes of the second half saw more goalmouth action than perhaps the entire first half combined. Lewankdowski was played through by Kagawa, and raced clear of the Arsenal defence, but found himself shooting from a very narrow angle and was unable to squeeze the ball past Wojciech Szczesny in the Arsenal goal. Straight back up the other end Alex Song went on a mazy run down the Arsenal left and beat three defenders before putting in the perfect cross for Robin van Persie to nod home from close range.

Arsenal should have doubled their lead in the 61st minute with Gervinho being played through by Aaron Ramsey, and while the Ivorian forward slalomed past the keeper he took way too long and that allowed the Dortmund defenders to catch up with him and put the ball out for a corner.

Dortmund played the last trick up their sleeve, throwing on Barrios for their holding midfielder Kehl as they went 4-4-2 in search of a goal, but it made no difference to the Arsenal backline, who held firm in the face of whatever the German champions threw at them.

Arsenal finally put the game and their qualification into the next stage of the competition to bed in the 86th minute with that man Robin van Persie proving to be in the perfect place at the perfect time to slot the ball home after Thomas Vermaelen nodded the ball on from an Arsenal corner. It was shocking defending from the German side, who had left the star Arsenal striker completely unmarked in the box, but the Gunners fans were hardly complaining.

Dortmund did get a consolation late in stoppage time with Johan Djourou, who had come on as a late substitute for Koscielny, making a hash of a clearance on the right hand side. The ball was played into the path of Kagawa, who made no mistake from close range. There was no time though for the visitors to put the Arsenal defence under any more pressure, with the referee blowing for full time almost immediately after the restart.

In the other Group F game taking place in France, Marseille were beaten 1-0 at home by Olympiakos thanks to a late goal from Koannis Fetfatzidis. That result meant that Arsenal were now 4 points clear of Marseille at the top of the table, and not just through to the second round, but also as winners of their Group with a game to spare. Olympiakos moved into third place on 6 points, one behind Marseille, while Dortmund could at best hope for Europa League qualification with a goal difference of -5 to go with their 4 points. Arsenal will travel to Greece in Matchday 6, while Dortmund entertain Marseille.

Teams:

Arsenal: Szczesny, Koscielny (Djourou 83'), Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Andre Santos, Song, Ramsey, Arteta, Walcott (Diaby 85'), Van Persie, Gervinho (Benayoun 74').

Subs: Fabianski, Diaby, Djourou, Arshavin, Frimpong, Chamakh, Benayoun.

Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller, Schmelzer, Hummels, Felipe Santana, Piszczek, Grosskreutz, Kehl (Barrios 63'), Kagawa, Bender (Leitner 24'), Gotze (Perisic 28'), Lewandowski.

Subs: Langerak, Leitner, Blaszczykowski, Barrios, Gundogan, Owomoyela, Perisic.

Final Score: Arsenal 2-1 Borussia Dortmund (Van Persie 49', 86', Kagawa 90+2')

File Photograph Copyright: Ryu Voelkel

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