Group H Arsenal 3 Sevilla 0:The cynic will now say that Juande Ramos, a potential successor to Martin Jol, has experienced one of the key experiences of the modern Tottenham Hotspur manager.
He knows what it is like to feel forlorn following a game with Arsenal. That, however, would be a travesty of an account for this game and Sevilla, the Uefa Cup-holders, showed their worth in spells.
Following a fixture of a high standard, the main deduction would be that these clubs must both advance from Group H of the Champions League. The evolving Arsenal side can be satisfied to have dealt with intermittent strain imposed by Sevilla before they savoured a slick third goal in stoppage time, when Alexander Hleb and Cesc Fabregas set up the substitute Eduardo da Silva.
Arsene Wenger is famed as a believer in pure football but here was a test of his sincerity. Did he truly enjoy it? An Arsenal manager can hardly luxuriate in the spectacle of visitors opening so brightly at the Emirates. Sevilla, at the start, wanted to halt the Premier League team by pinning them back and did so with gusto.
The Andalusian club made no tactical concessions while squaring up to the first Champions League group fixture in their history. Any notion of a switch to 4-5-1, for example, had been dismissed. There was even boldness in the inclusion on the left of the teenager Diego Capel, who has been reported as a transfer target for Wenger.
Maybe the midfielder was just out to show off his pace to a prospective buyer when he went past Bacary Sagna to put over a testing cross. Chances, none the less, were rare before the opener. A low 20-yarder from Mathieu Flamini was spilt by the Sevilla goalkeeper Andres Palop after 13 minutes and he scrambled to recover the ball as Emmanuel Adebayor bore down on him.
That incident took its part in Arsenal's gradual assumption of control but their opening goal was fortunate. Though Cesc Fabregas shot firmly from an angle after 27 minutes, the deflection off Julien Escude was crucial as it redirected the ball into the net at the near post. No doubt the Spanish midfielder will still be adding it to his collection of goals as the sixth of his season.
Whatever is made of Fabregas's claim to ownership rights, there will be no debate about the effect of the breakthrough. It accelerated Arsenal's progress and there was a spell of command before half-time.
There was a tangle of personal and professional factors in the sale of Thierry Henry for Barcelona but the Arsenal manager highlighted a simple one when he said of Adebayor: "At 23, it's time to play."
The Togolese player can never create a record to equal the departed Frenchman, but this is his time and there is power and movement to make defenders wince.
Sevilla, for all that, had not been tamed. Manuel Almunia needed to push a strong effort round the post and, prior to the interval, Freddie Kanoute nearly got his head to a through ball from Christian Poulsen. Juande Ramos's side were coming to terms with the intensity of the Champions League while Arsenal savouring their return to the elevated standards of the tournament.
Arsenal were gradually bending this fixture to their will and not even the loss of Tomas Rosicky to a hamstring strain distracted them as Abou Diaby replaced the Czech. The visitors had aspirations of their own and the introduction of the Aleksandr Kerzhakov for Luis Fabiano showed Ramos searching immediately for an equaliser. The Russian who took the field had recorded two goals against Recreativo Huelva at the weekend but his mission here was more daunting.
A 2-0 lead was attained after 59 minutes. Daniel Alves, who came close to joining Chelsea in the summer, showed some discomfort as a defender when dawn into a foul on Flamini. Fabregas's free-kick was nodded on by Bacary Sagna and fired home from close range by Robin van Persie.
This truly must be a re-engineered Arsenal team. For most of Wenger's tenure there might as well have been a veto on scoring from set-pieces unless the ball was shot directly into the net. Now people are even permitted to try to score with headers. Hitherto there seemed to be a fear that too many brain cells would be destroyed in such an uncouth method.
Adebayor was at liberty to connect with a Sagna cross in just that manner after 66 minutes, missing narrowly. Sevilla would go on to have passages in which they took the play to Arsenal, but some of their conviction had gone. Even if the outcome was not welcome to Ramos, this experience of high-level football in the Champions League will be put to good use.
Guardian Service
ARSENAL: Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Senderos, Clichy, Hleb, Fabregas, Flamini, Rosicky (Diaby 50), Adebayor (Eduardo 83), Van Persie (Diarra 88). Subs not used: Fabianski, Denilson, Silva, Walcott. Booked: Adebayor.
SEVILLA: Palop, Daniel, Fazio, Escude, Dragutinovic, Jesus Navas, Poulsen, Marti (Keita 66), Diego Capel (Renato 66), Luis Fabiano (Kerzhakov 46), Kanoute. Subs not used: De Sanctis, Duda, Boulahrouz, Maresca. Booked: Daniel, Keita.
Referee: Peter Frojdfeldt (Sweden).
