football rambles

We weren't at the Emirates for the second day, but saw the games on TV. Arsenal went into the second day as heavy favourites, but it was Valencia who were the surprise winners of the tournament. They beat Benfica, who looked poor again 3-1 after trailing for most of the first half. In the other game Alexis Sanchez started for Arsenal and Radamel Falcao started for Monaco. It was the Colombian who had more to smile about than the Chilean in the battle of the South American heavy weights as Falcao scored to give Monaco a 1-0 victory.

AC Milan were rumoured to be watching Joe Campbell for Arsenal on Saturday, but it was another young forward who stole the headlines - Yaya Sanogo had a good day and scored four of the goals that sunk a sorry looking Benfica, who after reaching the Europa League final last season and achieving a domestic treble have seen an exodus of star players that only Southampton can probably empathise with. Joe Campbell got the other goal for Arsenal and Alexis Sanchez made his first appearance in an Arsenal shirt towards the end. Sanogo opened the scoring on 27 minutes when he converted an Aaron Ramsey cross. On 41 minutes Joel Campbell doubled the Gunners lead with a volleyed shot home. Benfica's defence were looking beleaguered and pretty flat. Before the break they didn't manage to track Sanogo a further 2 times and the young striker rounded off the first half with a hat-trick. The second half didn't start off much better for the Portuguese side, but got even better for Sanogo...

Here are a few random photos from Arsenal 5 Benfica 1 The teams line up Arsenal kick off A few random shots from the game.

A couple of photos of Arsenal and Benfica warming up before Arsenal won 5-1 on the first day of the Emirates Cup. The Arsenal players are nearer the camera.

The trip to the Emirates Cup was the third time I have been to this tournament, here are a few photos from inside the ground

Yesterday we saw Valencia and Monaco draw 2-2 and Arsenal beat Benfica 5-1 in the first day of the Emirates Cup. Outside the Emirates Tony Adams statue outside the Emirates