Gunners' young smile

Arsenal swept into the knockout stages of the Champions League at the top of group E after matching their biggest win in the tournament with a 5-1 demolition of Norwegian champions Rosenborg.

All the pre-match talk of an impending crisis at Highbury was left looking slightly ridiculous as Arsene Wenger's precociously talented youngsters totally outclassed the Norwegian champions in north London on Tuesday.

Cesc Fabregas in particular was outstanding, capping a mature performance with a goal that, at 17 years and 217 days, made him Arsenal's youngest goalscorer in European competition, as well as making light of the absence of the suspended Patrick Vieira.

Jose Antonio Reyes, Thierry Henry, Robert Pires - from the penalty spot - and second half substitute Robin van Persie provided Arsenal's other goals on a night that was spoiled only by an error from goalkeeper Manuel Almunia that allowed Erik Hoftun to score for Rosenborg.

Perhaps because of that blot, Wenger declined an invitation to declare his side as back to their best after their recent stumbles, but smiled: "Maybe we were never as bad as people said we were."

Arsenal can now turn their attentions to Sunday's Premiership summit meeting with Chelsea.

"We said before the game against Birmingham (on Saturday) that we had three big targets -- to beat Birmingham, to qualify tonight and then Sunday.

"We can't say the job is done yet but in Europe the job is done. It would have been very bad preparation (for Chelsea) to have gone out tonight and we knew it would be difficult if took a while for us to score," the Frenchman added.

Arsenal's already depleted resources had been further reduced prior to kick-off when forced Freddie Ljungberg out of the starting line-up and also left him doubtful for Sunday.

That meant Dennis Bergkamp had to be drafted into the starting line-up, Jose Antonio Reyes pushed out to the left-wing and Pires switched to the right.

It did not take long however for the enforced reshuffle to look like an exemplary piece of planning.

Cutting in from the left, Reyes looked sharper than he has done for some time and when Bergkamp's third-minute pass found him just inside the area, the Spaniard turned centreback Torjus Hansen inside out before giving Arsenal the lead.

The ease with which Henry and Reyes were able to find space behind the Norwegians back four indicated how the evening would develop.

But Arsenal had reason to be grateful to Almunia for denying Rosenborg an equaliser with a fine save, diving low to his right to keep out Harald Martin Brattbakk's crisp volley.

Henry promptly doubled Arsenal's lead, outsprinting the unfortunate Hansen to reach a through ball from Pires before clipping the ball over Espen Johnsen.

The Rosenborg goalkeeper prevented Bergkamp from making it three after Fabregas had played him in but there was nothing he could do to prevent the teenager from claiming Arsenal's third and his own first goal in the competition.

A deflected shot from Bergkamp landed at the feet of Pires, whose first time pass gave Fabregas the chance to turn inside Hoftun and place a left foot shot beyond Johnsen.

Rosenborg though declined to crumble and three minutes after Roar Strand had powered a header against the woodwork, they pulled a goal back with the help of a double blunder from Almunia, selected ahead of recently dropped Jens Lehmann.

Having come for but dropped Brattbakk's free-kick, the Spaniard then contrived to push Hoftun's hooked shot into his own net.

Fabregas did his best to restore the party atmosphere with a breathtaking slalom through the Rosenborg defence, his weary shot at the end not quite matching the excellence of what had preceded it.

But four minutes before the interval Arsenal did go further ahead. Bergkamp's pass put Henry into a one-on-one with Johnsen, whose attempt to claim the ball succeeded only in up-ending the French striker for a penalty that Pires converted.

The introduction of van Persie and Gael Clichy as second half substitutes meant Arsenal finished the match with six players under-21 and van Persie might easily have had his first Highbury hat-trick.

As it was, the young Dutchman had to be content with just one goal. Six minutes from time he collected Reyes's neat pass and deftly flipped the ball over Johnsen to ensure Arsenal registered their biggest Champions League win at Highbury and matched last year's 5-1 win over Internazionale in Milan.