By this point last season, Arsenal was running out of gas. Now, the Gunners may be the hottest team in Europe. Their performance in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League series was certainly the most impressive. Arsenal cruised to a 3-0 win over Villarreal that extended it record in 2009 to 13 wins, seven ties and only one loss in 21 games and gave it a 4-1 win on aggregate, setting up a date with Manchester United in the semifinals.
“We played to win the game and we played in a very offensive way,” said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. “We are going to enjoy this tonight and then look forward to the challenge of playing United but there are more games to play before that. It’s going to be an exciting series because both sides like to go forward. It will be very interesting.”
The passing and dribbling of Theo Walcott, Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie gave Villarreal no chance.
Fabregas set up Walcott with a deft flick for the first goal, and an Persie fed Emmanuel Adebayor for the second and converted the penalty kick for the third after Walcott was taken down in the box.
April 15 in London
Arsenal 3 Villarreal 0. Goals: Walcott 10, Adebayor 60, van Persie pen. 69.
Arsenal — Fabianski, Eboue, Toure, Silvestre, Gibbs, Walcott (Denilson 77), Song, Fabregas, Nasri, van Persie (Diaby 77), Adebayor (Bendtner 83).
Villarreal — D.Lopez, A.Lopez, Godin, Rodriguez, Capdevila, Cani (Jordi 70), Bruno (Kahveci 64), Eguren, Fernandez (Ibagaza 64), Pires, Rossi.
Red card: Villarreal — Eguren 67.
(Arsenal wins 4-1 on aggregate)