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  • HL-3 just for you


    JASON CROWE is hardly Lionel Messi and Stephen Dawson certainly no Andres Iniesta.

    Yet Arsene Wenger's battered and bruised team avoided total meltdown last night and instead lobbed an FA Cup banana skin back towards East London.
    Messi, Iniesta and Barcelona, you expect, will provide a slightly sterner test for Arsenal in the Nou Camp in Tuesday's Champions League clash.


    So, too, will Sunderland here at the Emirates on Saturday. Oh, and Manchester United in the Cup quarter-final at Old Trafford on Saturday week.
    Yet, courtesy of a hat-trick by Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner following Marouane Chamakh's opener, Wenger's team did what they should have done 10 days earlier and sent the League One team packing.
    Orient's hero from the first game, Jonathan Tehoue, again came on as a sub - but on this occasion his team were 4-0 down and the Gunners were way out of sight by the time he made his 65th-minute appearance. No fairytales this time.
    At least Arsenal made life easy for themselves. And we do not say that very often.
    Following the bitter disappointment of Sunday's Carling Cup final defeat to Birmingham, Wenger needed a simple victory with no more injuries.
    But, while the result was never beyond doubt, there was one minor worry over Tomas Rosicky who went off after a bang on his head.
    With Robin van Persie out for up to six weeks, at least Bendtner and Chamakh grabbed some confidence-boosting goals.
    While the quality of the opposition has to be taken into consideration, the not-so-modest Dane looked useful and his strikes were excellent.
    Chamakh's fine effort after just seven minutes was his 11th goal of the season - yet his first since November 27.
    This is a player seriously low on confidence and while he still struggled, aside from a neat dummy which set up the fifth goal for Gael Clichy, he still has to rediscover his mojo.
    There were other encouraging Arsenal performances, particularly from midfielder Conor Henderson on his debut.
    Henderson is an Ireland Under-19 international and also qualifies to play for England as he was born here. After the cricket yesterday, there would have been a couple of celebrations in his household.
    The 19-year-old was calm and composed while Spaniard Ignasi Miquel looked solid at centre-back in his second first-team outing.
    But the same cannot be said of Sebastien Squillaci, who was caught out on a few occasions and is just not good enough.
    For Arsenal's sake, let's hope he will be nowhere near the Nou Camp on Tuesday.
    Unbeaten in 13 games, Orient arrived with plenty of confidence and knew the importance of a decent start.
    Yet keeper Jamie Jones was picking the ball out of his net within just seven minutes.
    Rosicky tore down the right and delivered a perfect cross for Chamakh to slot home.
    Orient still showed some bottle and gave Arsenal a couple of scares. Yet Bendtner helped ease any fears of a disaster on the half-hour mark when he rose above Charlie Daniels to meet Kieran Gibbs' teasing cross and plant a terrific looping header over Jones.


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    Even then, a few optimistic Brisbane Road regulars would have harboured dreams of a spectacular fightback.
    But Bendtner ended those hopes two minutes before the break with another fine effort as he cut in from the left before delivered a low, curling effort into the corner.
    The fourth goal came just after the hour when Gibbs was brought down by Alex Revell. Bendtner made no mistake with the penalty - and was taken off soon after as a precaution.
    Sub Clichy drilled in No 5 on 75 minutes and, thankfully for the sake of Orient's excellent fans, the result did not end in more humiliation than that.
    Fair play to Russell Slade's team, though. They gave a splendid account of themselves, particularly in the first leg when they showed real guts to force a replay which will earn the club an extra £1million.
    Even last night, they attacked when they could have stuck 10 men behind the ball and kicked lumps out of the home side.
    And their best chance came in injury time when Dean Cox sliced through the home defence only to shoot wide.
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