Wenger enjoys five-star performance

Updated 08.31 Wed Oct 22 2008

Keywords: aaron ramsey, alexandre song, fenerbahce, arsenal, abou diaby, emmanuel adebayor, theo walcott, arsene wenger, champions league, football, premier league, sport

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger could barely hide his excitement after watching his young team win 5-2 in Turkey.

The Frenchman fielded a team with an average age of 22 for the Group G clash with Fenerbahce in the notoriously hostile Sakru Saracoglu stadium in Istanbul.

"We tried to dictate the game in a very heated atmopshere and we tried to play" - Arsene Wenger

But Arsenal silenced the vicious home fans by opening a 3-1 lead in the first 21 minutes.

Wenger said: "I'm very proud of the team. We tried to dictate the game in a very heated atmopshere and we tried to play."

Arsenal had lost three of their regular back four to injury but they looked assured as Emmanuel Adebayor opened the scoring in the tenth minute and Theo Walcott rounded goalkeeper Volkan Demirel to score another 60 seconds later.

Mikael Silvestre deflected a Daniel Guiza shot into his own net but Abou Diaby restored the two-goal cushion with a powerful shot across goal. Alexandre Song volleyed the fourth before Guiza lobbed Manuel Almunia to earn the Turkish side a consolation and Aaron Ramsey grabbed his first Champions League goal to complete the scoring.

Wenger added: "It was a very open game with two teams going forward 100 per cent and the fact that we scored early forced Fenerbahce to come out and we caught them many times on the counter attack.

"But our pace, technique and movement allowed us to take advantage of that."

After three games, Arsenal have scored ten goals in this season's Champions League, making them the top scoreres in the competition.

They are top of Group G, two points clear of Dynamo Kiev, who beat Porto 1-0 in Portugal.