Arsenal 3 Portsmouth 1:As it was in the boardroom so it was on the pitch yesterday, as Arsenal remained unflustered by the effects of Russian roubles. This time it was Alexander Gaydamak's Portsmouth who tried a hostile takeover, but as ever the Gunners were unimpressed.

Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbek billionaire who last week joined forces with David Dein after buying the former vice-chairman's shares, is unlikely to be receiving an SOS from the club any time soon.

Dein's contention is that Premier League teams need foreign investment if they are to be propelled to success. If Arsenal's directors beg to differ, here was their evidence. Portsmouth may be a team transformed by recent riches, but the only interest Gaydamak generated during the first half was to his bank account.

Arsenal scored early and established an easy control thereafter, their comfort threatened only after Philippe Senderos was sent off at the start of the second half. Even after that setback they remained the better team, although they at least had to work a bit to be sure of it.

Arsene Wenger argues that he hardly needs to spend wildly to import the stars of other teams when he can simply create his own, an argument thrillingly endorsed by the performances of his two full-backs, Gael Clichy and Mathieu Flamini, and the predictably brilliant Cesc Fabregas - all of them among his penny-pinching imports.

It was Clichy who set them on their way to success in the eighth minute, attacking the ball after the deadline-day signing John Utaka had been played into trouble by Noe Pamarot, a makeshift centre-back in the absence through injury of Sol Campbell, and sending it ricocheting back into Portsmouth's penalty area. Robin van Persie won his race against David James and tumbled over the goalkeeper's outstretched arms to win a clear penalty.

Emmanuel Adebayor converted and Portsmouth continued their run of conceding first in every league game this season. Although they had previously succeeded in coming back from that setback on all but one occasion, this time they lacked the direction and too often the inclination to do so. Wenger has assembled a squad whose ability is matched by their athleticism and Pompey's greatest failure was in failing to equal their effort, and once they lost their motivation it was inevitable that they would also lose the game.

Arsenal made sure of that in the 35th minute when Gilberto da Silva's header from Tomas Rosicky's left-wing corner hit Fabregas on the chest and the Spaniard spun to slide in his side's second.

This was the third successive game in which the midfielder has scored, a sign perhaps of greater confidence as his career continues to flourish.

"I made a tape of his performances last year and you wouldn't believe how many chances he had," said Wenger. "Last year he couldn't take advantage of positive situations but this year he can.

"When he was a young boy he scored goals and that's a nice disease to have. Sometimes it disappears but it always comes back when you mature physically and mentally."

When asked to compare his midfielder with another player Wenger considered only for a moment. "He has a lot of the characteristics of Paul Scholes, his frame, intelligence, passing, knowing when to get into the box - and he's only 20." Senderos's dismissal, for trying to redeem his bewildering failure to pick up Kanu by climbing upon the Nigerian's shoulders, gave Portsmouth hope but importantly it was Arsenal who scored next. Fabregas, from a left-wing free-kick, passed the ball into the area where Rosicky shot from an acute angle, the ball skimming between Glen Johnson's legs and inside the far post.

Redknapp described it - with excusable exaggeration - as "as bad a goal as I've ever seen".

It was Arsenal who were caught looking the other way moments later when Kanu pulled a goal back, his backheel flick bouncing luckily off his standing leg and into the corner of the net.

"I believe football is great," Wenger mused later, "because everybody has a chance to build a team with his own philosophy."

His may be a cut-price creed but there are no shortage of believers.