Four-goal Gunners thrash Pompey

Arsenal 4 Portsmouth 0

Four first-half goals helped Arsenal to a comfortable victory against Portsmouth at Highbury.

The travelling Pompey faithful would have feared an embarrassing rout in north London at half-time as their team had no answer to the Gunners in the first half.

Dennis Bergkamp, Jose Antonio Reyes and a Thierry Henry double put Arsenal on course for a big win but Redknapp’s side managed to salvage some pride with a defiant second-half showing.

Arsenal recalled Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires and Mathieu Flamini against an unbalanced-looking Portsmouth side on a freezing night at Highbury.

Pompey chief Harry Redknapp dropped striker Dario Silva and midfielder Gary O’Neil while also leaving out skipper Dejan Stefanovic, who has been playing despite an ankle injury.

Despite also being without the suspended Laurent Robert he handed first starts in his second reign to defenders Aliou Cisse and Brian Priske and recalled Colombian midfielder John Viafara to the starting line-up.

After a defeat at Spurs, a win over West Brom and a draw with West Ham, Redknapp was gambling against the odds of a massive loss in north London to keep key players fresh for Saturday’s home six-pointer against Fulham.

Reyes had Arsenal’s first shot and although it failed to trouble keeper Jamie Ashdown, it was the Spaniard who set up the opportunity that put the Gunners ahead two minutes later.

He coasted on to Flamini’s pass down the left, held off a challenge and cut the ball back for Bergkamp to drill in his first Premiership goal of the campaign.

Arsenal ended their worst run of three consecutive league defeats in more than 20 years by beating Charlton at The Valley on Monday.

And they went two goals up soon after when Henry superbly brought a Kolo Toure pass under control in the area, left Andy O’Brien flat on his face and laid on a pass that allowed Reyes to ram home into the roof of the net from 12 yards.

With temperatures dropping it looked slippery on the pitch with players continually having to pick themselves off the floor, but Arsenal defied the conditions with their intricate team-work that had Portsmouth continually stretched.

Pompey kept plugging away and when Viafara was the beneficiary of a good ball out to the right he dug in a dangerous low cross which had Jens Lehmann going down smartly to save with two visiting attackers lurking on the far post.

The home side got a third goal after 37 minutes as Henry finally broke his five-match duck.

A superb ball by Flamini put him in and he rounded Ashdown before sliding into an empty net past Andy O’Brien for his 12th goal of the season.

He doubled his tally for the game with a penalty to make it 4-0 six minutes later.

Henry’s pass prompted a late run from the halfway line by Pires who squared a cross towards Reyes who was pulled down by Andy Griffin just as he was about to touch into an empty net.

Henry stepped up to gently place the ball home from the spot and it was turning into a real rout.

Pompey made all three substitutions in the second half and almost scored when Svetoslav Todorov burst through and forced Lehmann into a diving save.

But then Jamie Ashdown, at the other end, had to knock away Bergkamp’s drive for a corner after Reyes fed the Dutchman.

Lehmann saved again from Lomana LuaLua’s deflected drive but Arsenal had eased off the accelerator considerably long before the end.