2006-09-25 : Arsenal v Sheffield United

Dear Arsenal supporter,
The history books will say we beat Sheffield United 3-0 on Saturday but anyone who saw the game will know that it was not as easy as the scoreline suggests.

Sheffield United defended well and played well. I felt that we started the game well but you could see the fact that we had not yet won at Emirates Stadium played on the minds of the players when we didn't score an early goal.

Because of that we played what I describe as 'approximate football' in our passing. At half time we realised that we had to continue to do things well - defend well, attack well. Then we put them under pressure and the goal came from William Gallas. It was a big relief and you could see that.

Overall I felt that the goal would eventually come as long as we did not make a mistake at the back and let United in, as we did against Aston Villa and Middlesbrough. In the first half we gave them a few glimpses which we should have avoided, but in the second half we were much tighter.

When the players came in at half time with the score still at 0-0, I told them that we seemed too nervous and by being too nervous we were rushing a little bit when we had the ball. We were not clean enough technically and we were giving them confidence by giving the ball away too much.

We did not play very well in the last 20 minutes of the first half but we came back with quicker passing, quicker defending and more determination. When we lost the ball after the break we put them under pressure, something we didn't do enough in the first half.

I rested Alexander Hleb after last weekend's win at Old Trafford because I wanted to give Thierry Henry a game and I wanted to keep the freedom of playing with two strikers. The 4-5-1 worked last week but - with no disrespect to Sheffield United - it is difficult to do that at home in front of 60,000 fans.

The system we used at Old Trafford is not forever, it has to be adapted. And when you are at home against a team who want to defend, you have to keep an offensive formula in place.

Our Premiership form is improving and now we turn to the Champions League. Porto are our opponents on Tuesday night and it will be a difficult game - there are not many English teams who have beaten Porto, or Benfica for that matter.

We have a big challenge in front of us. What I expect from Porto is a very good technical level in the middle of the park. They keep the ball well. Winning the game is very important for us because it will leave us in a very, very strong position to qualify for the knockout stages.

Thanks for your support.