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Five Arsenal players featured in World Cup action today: Cesc Fabregas and Jose Antonio Reyes for Spain, Emmanuel Adebayor for Togo, Thierry Henry for France and Phillippe Senderos for Switzerland.

Cesc and Jose featured in Spain’s rather subdued victory over Saudi Arabia. The racist, rounder, Spanish version of Walter Matthau decided to field his second team in its entirety. Cesc started in midfield along with Andres Iniesta of Barcelona and David Albelda of Valencia. They stamped their superiority over the Saudis from the get go. Cesc kept the ball moving as we know he can, though with the absence of like minds in midfield (Xavi) meant that he couldn’t really string together the sort of intricate moves we saw him engineer against Tunisia.

Jose was lively on the left flank, delivering a killer freekick for Juanito to head home the match’s only goal. He kept bombarding the Saudi penalty area, but his finishing was well below par today and he’ll kick himself for not making the most of them. This was the ideal time for him to prove his worth to the manager, and I’m afraid he didn’t cover himself in glory. He got a yellow card for a frustrated lunge, and after half-time, moved to the right flank. He caused the Saudis similar problems with his pace and crossing, though the shift didn’t really affect his finishing very positively.

Phillippe Senderos started in central defence for the Swiss and very soon into the first half, scored their opener with a thumping header that left his nose, and his Korean marker’s forehead, bleeding. That didn’t deter him from emphatically celebrating what was an awesome header by any stretch of the imagination. However, his World Cup might just be over as he ended up dislocating a shoulder that was put back in place, but the Swiss medical staff are suspecting ligament damage. I, alongwith all gooners, hope that this damage is not serious/long-term and that he returns to action as soon as possible. Well done, Big Phil!

Emmanuel Adebayor led the Togolese attack against a determined French side, featuring skipper Thierry Henry. As expected, Togo chose to counter-attack and were mostly camped in their own half. Adebayor tried a few attacks from the left flank, but most of them came to nothing. His most notable contribution to the match was the return of his crazyfunkyscarylicious hairstyle. Top man.

I’d been hearing a lot of rubbish about how this is an “acid test” for Thierry tonight. Quite comical, as Henry has nothing to prove to anyone on the international stage. He might not have a Champions League medal in his cabinent, but he’s won everything at the international level: the World Cup (where he was top scorer for France), the European Championships, the Confederations Cup.

Regardless, he delivered tonight with a clinical finish in the second half to add to former captain Patrick Vieira’s strike. He was lively throughout, trying to bring Trezeguet and Ribery into play (both of whom were guilty of wasting a lot of good chances). I still maintain that we will only see the true impact of Henry at the World Cup if he’s coupled with Louis Saha of Manchester United up front. Saha seems to compliment Henry’s game a lot more than Sylvain “747″ Wiltord and David “Serie B, wtf?!” Trezeguet. And when you have a player that compliments your best striker, why not play him? Domenech is still rather lost as far as his best team is concerned, though his selection was vastly improved from the joke lineups against Switzerland and South Korea.

All in all, a good day for most of our lot on show. Really hope Senderos gets back soon and Adebayor can enjoy a few weeks rest before hauling ass to pre-season in July. Good luck to Cesc, Jose and Thierry for the rest of the tournament.

(Photo Credits: BBC Sport)

[tags]France, Spain, Arsenal, World Cup 2006[/tags]