Wenger salutes Eduardo

Arsene Wenger hailed Eduardo Da Silva's predatory instincts after the striker got his first goal for the club.



Eduardo volleyed home the third from point-blank range in Wednesday night's 3-0 victory over Sparta Prague to complete a 5-0 aggregate rout of the Czech champions and secure Arsenal's place in the draw for the Champions League group stages.

The £7.5million summer arrival from Dinamo Zagreb had set up the second for Cesc Fabregas by slipping past full-back Zdenek Pospech and teeing up the Spaniard. Arsenal effectively ended the tie as a contest as early as the seventh minute after Tomas Rosicky met a superb Theo Walcott cross to score against his former club.

at ease

"I find Eduardo more at ease on the left flank where he has the tricks of a winger, whereas Theo Walcott is more comfortable on the right. Eduardo is a great striker and you could see that from the way he played against Sparta," said Wenger.

But while Wenger was satisfied with an efficient display that produced a trio of well-worked goals, he was delighted Eduardo is shaping up to be the "box player" Arsenal have been lacking.

He said: "We did not always have the drive to find our strikers because our main concern was to keep the ball. But if you find Eduardo and supply him with chances, he will score goals. He's a box player."

After killing the tie off with Rosicky's goal, Arsenal were under no pressure to provide another and a lack of urgency set in until Wenger brought on Fabregas, Emmanuel Adebayor and Denilson.

Wenger said: "We finished the job well by scoring an early goal and that took a little bit of the edge out of the game. We kept good focus and didn't concede over the two legs but scored five goals."