Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

All it takes is a bit of self-belief – and for AC Milan to concede five goals!  It could happen and I hope that whoever runs out on the pitch for Arsenal believes that too.  In reality it probably depends on getting a very early goal followed by sustained pressure to inject doubt into Milan minds.  If we can do that there will be the opportunity to play the game in their half and we have a chance.

If we don’t do it, I hope that fans will accept a win for what it is and cheer anyway.  A win, even without progress in the Champions League, confirms the turnaround that Arsenal have pulled off in the last fortnight.  It’s a turnaround that had put us in fourth place with a points advantage over Chelsea and even opens up a possibility of finishing third.

Now if Arsenal go out of the Champions League tonight, most of the media will pile in with demoralising scorn, talking about the end of an era etc etc.  They seem to think it their duty.  But as long as the Arsenal team have demonstrated commitment and passion to succeed, I hope that Arsenal fans won’t pile on the media bandwagon.

We are where we are.  Step back and look at the season as a whole and it does look a mess.  But right now we’re fourth and could go third.  This tie was put on the limits of rescue a fortnight ago before we beat Spurs and Liverpool.

So let’s stay real and stay real fans.

As for the team, well Arsene Wenger didn’t have a lot new to reveal yesterday.  Robin Van Persie is definitely in, Arteta and Benayoun are out, Rosicky and Gibbs 50:50.  We have to hope that Gibbs and Rosicky are good to go today as losing them would make life difficult.

We’re going to need all our attacking options tonight and that starts with having genuine fullbacks so that we have all the channels to move the ball forward.  Playing a central defender as a fullback can keep us secure ok, but we’re already four down and need to score.

Losing Rosicky means losing our in form midfielder and I’m not sure who we would play in his place without Arteta, Benayoun, Wilshere, Diaby or Arshavin.  The only real alternative to having Oxlade-Chamberlain and Rosicky in with Song is to bring in Chamakh and go 4-4-2.

So, let’s hope they both make it and if so, we will have:

_______ Szczesny ______
Sagna _ Kos _ Verm _ Gibbs
________ Song ________
___ Rosicky __ AOC ____
Walcott __ RVP _ Gervinho

That’s a bit more attacking than normal and the front five are going have to keep up an energetic pressing game so that we can play well up the pitch.  If they don’t, the danger is that Song will get pushed deep and be over-run.

Come on you Gunners.  Go out and win.  If you win by five, fantastic.  But any win is a credit and keeps us heading where we need to go from here.

How to play this one? It’s half-time and we’re 4:0 down. Time to cut our losses? On the other hand, since that evening at the San Siro, we’ve built up some welcome momentum that could be damaged by anything that feels humiliating.

Arsenal fans are not of one mind. In the poll we ran yesterday, all three options got significant support:
Go all out for the 5:0 win – 45%
Do enough to maintain momentum – 30%
Rest players and forget the result – 25%

But what does Arsene Wenger think? After the first game he vented his anger, saying we were as good as out. Now he is being slightly more positive. But then he does have to get the squad and fans motivated for some kind of fight.

I’ve got feeling that he will put out a reasonable team. We don’t have to play again until next Monday evening and the key thing is not to damage the momentum that we’ve got going now for the crucial run-in to the league finish.

After the Liverpool game Arsene Wenger commented that the team had been decimated with Arteta, Benayoun, Diaby and Gibbs all picking up injuries. Presumably we will get an update from the club today on how bad those injuries are. Arteta had said that he wants to play and that may be possible. Concussion can be scary but with short-lived effects.

There has been some talk of a more attacking approach, given the shit or bust nature of this game though. So maybe a rest for Arteta and a start for Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Could Arsenal go for two out-and-out strikers (leaving aside caustic comments that we don’t have two such players) and play 4-4-2? That would probably mean Gervinho on the bench and a start for Chamakh. That may not be worthwhile if we don’t have Gibbs to get the ball moving down the left as well as the right though.

I really hope Gibbs is okay, but experience makes you cautious on predicting his return. It has really made a difference to Arsenal to play with genuine fullbacks again. Wenger could go for Jenkinson on the left although a fullback that had to cut inside every time is not as good.

I’m guessing that we might see something like the line up below, unless Gibbs is there to give better balance. In which case Chamakh could start instead of Gervinho.

______ Szczesny ______
Sagna _ Kos _ Verm _ Jenk
________ Song _______
___ Rosicky _ AOC _____
Walcott _ RVP _ Gervinho

What do you think?

Winning the games you don’t deserve.  That’s what it takes to stay at the top end of the league.  In the first half against Liverpool we needed stacks of luck to stay in the game.  We were really clinging on.

The Arsenal team looked knackered and uninspired, particularly in midfield.  We were being over-run.  But we were clinging on and it took a mistake from Koscielny to get Liverpool their goal.

They had already had a chance to go one up by then of course when Suarez went down and Halsey gave a penalty.  Did Szczesny actually make contact with Suarez?  A lot of neutrals are saying yes but I’m still not convinced.  It looks like Szczesny is pulling his leg back away from Suarez when he goes down.  Plus Suarez had already launched himself into space before any contact could have happened anyway.  In the end it didn’t matter as Szczesny pulled off a magnificent double save to keep Kuyt’s penalty out.

That save, and a string of others earned Szczesny most people’s vote in our man of the match poll.

But thanks to Sagna and Van Persie we levelled the score and got to half time.  As Arsene Wenger said, we were lucky not to be two or three down.  It’s great to have Bacary Sagna back, a crucial goal and two assists already.  That’s what we missed having to play central defenders as fullbacks.

In the second half we were better.  Not brilliant, but better.  Suarez didn’t get as much of the ball.  We got fresh legs from Gervinho and Oxlade-Chamberlain.  But the whole team raised their game.

It looked like a draw was the best we could do, and it was more than we deserved.  But then, thanks to two great bits of skill, we took the lot.  A great pass from Alex Song was inch perfect for the running Van Persie, outflanking the Liverpool defence.  He smacked it past Reina first time on the volley.  Great skill, like his goal against Everton.

After the game Van Persie said we didn’t deserve to win, which is exactly why players like him are worth what they are.  Also after the game, Arsene Wenger said the club will do what it needs to in order to keep Robin.  I hope so, but first on the list isn’t the cash, it’s being able to offer Champions League football and that is beginning to look a whole lot more plausible than it did a month ago.

During the game we had a little cameo from Diaby who showed us a little flash of why Arsene Wenger persists in the hope that he can return to full fitness.  n the twenty minutes before his hamstring tightened he showed how he can cover the ground box to box, how he can move off the ball to help a pressurised team-mate find a pass and how he can start attacks.

The potential of the guy is obvious, but after twenty minutes so was the problem.  I wish him good luck, but sometimes staying in the top end of the league has to be a ruthless business and you’ve got to think that Arsenal need to find someone who does what he does without the fragility.

So, Arsenal win ugly.  Even better, Chelsea screw up against West Brom.  So now we are clearly in fourth with three points rather than goal difference or goals scored between us and Chelsea.  Slowly we have taken a better grip on our chance of securing that Champions League spot.

It seems to have come at a cost though.  Arteta, Benayoun, Diaby and Gibbs all got injured.  Who will be fit for Tuesday?  Are just kidding ourselves that it matters?

We’ll see.  Just for now I’ll settle for celebrating fourth place with a bit of breathing space.  Oh, and Kenny Dalgleish having nothing to smile about.  He forfeited that big time over the way he handled the Suarez and racism issue.

The fact that Arsenal have posted a big profit shouldn’t be any surprise to anyone.  Although a lack of surprise here would clearly have left some bloggers with nothing to rant about.

It is customary to use the adjective ‘healthy’ before ‘profit’, but that doesn’t really apply in this case.  As we know, the profit comes from player trading.  The reason we are in surplus is because the club dithered so long over the sales of Nasri and Fabregas last year that there was no time to line up replacements of similar ability and price.

The longer this went on, the more it imparted a sense of uncertainty until it got to the point that no-one would sign until the Champions League spot had been secured.  In the end, Arsenal bought a load of players, but not the big signings that would have resulted in a genuinely healthy, but lower, profit.

Barcelona played their part as well, with their totally unscrupulous behaviour, but how Arsenal responded was in the club’s hands and it was that dithering that compounded the problem of the actual departures and gave us the horrendous start to the season.  Well, we’ve recovered now, to an extent, and it would be churlish not to acknowledge that.  But the real test for the club’s management is how they play it this summer.

We can’t buy anyone before the end of the season, despite the impression given by some blog headlines, so Gazidis makes a reasonable point in calling for fans to set some of this aside for the last dozen games and cheer the team on to the best result we can get.  Those bloggers calling for less cheering in response to the financial results are clearly bonkers.

But Gazidis and Stan Kroenke need to understand that in doing so we’ll be taking it on trust that they’ll make a better fist of it this summer.  We need to see evidence that they gone into the transfer window with a serious game plan this time that sees a few true quality players brought in early, so that they are integrated into the set-up from the start of the season.

The club cocked-up last summer and the owner can only expect support to weaken if they do it again.

As it goes, Arsene Wenger didn’t make too bad a job of the last minute supermarket dash.  Arteta and Mertesacker have been solid assets and Santos was beginning to show promise before injury.  Benayoun has been a useful loan player. Park of course remains a complete mystery.

But if we hadn’t beaten Udinese and secured the Champions League spot, I doubt we would have got Arteta and Mertesacker.  Everything depends on that fourth spot.  Every weekend really is like a cup final.  Sometimes the cliches really are true.

It would be nice to claim that I knew we could do it.  But I must confess that I was a pessimist yesterday morning.  The terrible, effort-free performance at the San Siro and the downward momentum from going out of the FA Cup as well left me very fearful.

Strangely, that feeling began to lift even before we scored.  OK so the first goal was soft, Vermaelen’s defensive colleagues had left him with the impossible task of covering two advancing forwards single-handed, but it was clear that Arsenal really had come to play.  Tottenham had the run of the first ten minutes, but not over the Arsenal team of Milan or Sunderland.

At one-nil down I was even wondering if I could feel good about a narrow defeat if it was accompanied by signs of regained fight and skill.  As it was the North London Derby I swiftly pushed such soft thoughts out my head, of course it would still hurt in the morning.  But such were the hopeful signs that it did cross my mind.

After the first goal we stepped up our attacks rather than fold and Spurs’ second goal was against a turning tide.  And it was never a penalty!  I really don’t think that either Gibbs or Szczesny brought Bale down.  Mike Dean gave the penalty immediately, but then seemed uncertain what to do next.  If it was a penalty then surely someone had stopped a clear foal-scoring opportunity?  Surely someone had to get a red card?  Dean consulted his assistant for a long time.  What were they talking about?

It was one of those occasions when you wished you could hear, rugby style.  Clearly the assistant couldn’t tell Dean which player had felled Bale, because no card followed.  Did he even agree that it was a penalty?

Anyway, Tottenham were two goals to the good and Adebayor was obviously enjoying his birthday.  But not for a lot longer, because despite being two goals down, Arsenal were now flying and creating chance after chance.

Perhaps being two goals down rather than one actually helped.  The Arsenal players had nothing to lose now but their souls.  There were some frustrating moments though.  Walcott burst through on goal brilliantly with a fantastic burst of pace and then wimped out of the responsibility of shooting, passing to Van Persie who was surrounded by three defenders.  Rosicky had a great flicked on header superbly saved by Friedel.

A lovely ball from Walcott slipped Van Persie into the box and he hit the post.  Surely all this pressure had to pay off?  It did, Van Persie was still picking himself up while Gibbs and Arteta rescued possession and fed the ball back into the box for Bacary Sagna to head home.  Fantastic.  Even more fantastic, Sagna picks up the ball and sprints back to the centre spot.  He hadn’t come here to lose to Spurs.

More pressure, more chances and then, out of nothing much, a beautiful curling shot from Van Persie beats Friedel and we’re level.  We might even have gone into half-time ahead, but it was progress enough.  Spurs player’s heads were dropping and their fans were stunned.

Sagna and Van Persie may gave been the scorers but the pressure was created by Song, Arteta, Benayoun and most of all Rosicky.  They dominated midfield and were unrelenting in closing down, tackling and feeding the ball forward again.

Redknapp certainly noticed, swapping a striker for another midfielder at the break but it made no difference.  It was all Arsenal after the that.  Soon Rosicky got his just reward with his first goal in two decades or something and no-one deserved it more.  Tomas Rosicky was our overwhelming choice as Man of the Match – over 70% of the vote in our poll.  Spurs were beaten from that point.  Nothing left.

Theo Walcott, his mind now cleared of self-doubt surged and shot at goal again and again getting two.  It seems to be all about confidence with Theo.  Once he found it, Spurs couldn’t handle him.  They couldn’t handle anything by that stage.  The substitutes had no impact and their play became more ragged.

Scott Parker lunged in on Vermaelen and knew immediately that he was off.  We might have had more but who care.  FIVE – TWO to the Arsenal.

It was one of those unforgettable games that we will think back to for years.  I’m guessing that the White Hart Lane shop won’t be doing a special DVD this time! Maybe just a replica of Bale’s Oscar.

Who cares that it’s Monday morning, nothing can go wrong today!

We will return to earth at some point, we are still clinging on to fourth by just goals scored and we have Liverpool away next week.  But time enough to think on that one later – we ARE fourth and we beat Spurs FIVE -TWO.

Now, what time does my Spurs supporting colleague get to work?  I promise not to be any harsher than his text at 2:0!

So off we go to Milan in search of an away goal.  Arsene Wenger says we will be positive and go for that advantage.  Quite right, an away goal puts you in charge and stretches your opponents more – which plays into hands of a pacey team that can pass the ball.  But first we need to get that goal.

We are travelling in slightly better shape than we were in a month ago thanks to our last two wins, but we had to dig deep for the last one and we’ve picked up another defensive injury.  It’s not exactly clear yet how long Per Mertesacker will be out, but it’s not looking good at the moment.

What does this mean for the Arsenal back four tomorrow night?  It all depends on how match fit Kieran Gibbs is now really.  In Sunderland on Saturday he made the bench but not the pitch.  Is he ready for a start now?  If he is, then Vermaelen goes back to the day job partnering Koscielny.  If not I guess we will see the Belgium stay put at left back and Djourou in the middle.

In midfield Song and Arteta will be dead certs, with the choice being over Ramsey or Rosicky.  Tomas Rosicky had started the last two and done really well.  He won our man of the match poll. But will he start three in a row?  My hunch is that we will see Ramsey this time.  He’s had some critics recently but I’m not one of them other than to say he looked knackered before he was given a break.  I think the stats show that he makes a positive contribution.

Up front I don’t see any question over Walcott and Van Persie.  Walcott has his critics too, but his record bears scrutiny as well.  By next Saturday, Gervinho will be back in the equation and then it might get more testing for Theo.  Two from Walcott, AOC and Arshavin isn’t as challenging to Walcott as two from Walcott, Gervinho, AOC and Arshavin.  This is a good problem to have.

But who will start on the left?  Chamberlain had started the last two.  Is he there until he falters, or will he be rationed out a bit?  He will no doubt say he has no nerves about playing at the San Siro and his fearless displays to date support that view.

But this might be an occasion where Arsene Wenger opts for experience, despite his talk of being audacious in the away leg.  On the other hand, I think pace can the key to unsettling Italian sides.  Tricky decision.  I hope for a gamble on AOC, but suspect a start for Arshavin.

If that is the decision them I hope we’ll see the level of industry he’s shown more recently combined with the skill that saw him set up Thierry Henry’s winner through beating two defenders to make an inch-perfect cross.

Whichever one starts I expect we will see Thierry Henry one last time at some stage in the game.

There will be an update from Arsene Wenger later today I guess, but at the moment it’s looking like:
_______ Szczesny ______
Sagna _ Kos _ Verm _ Gibbs
________ Song ________
____ Arteta _ Ramsey ___
Walcott __ RVP _ Arshavin

Not too bad a weekend! Seven Arsenal goals on Saturday and then on Sunday Howard Webb pulled it back for United to see Chelsea dropping a couple of points despite having gone 3:1 up. To be honest, the first Man Utd goal was a genuine penalty, but the second one was a gift.

Pity about the Newcastle win though to hold us back in sixth. Still the battle for fourth has tightened up again to our advantage with the gap to Chelsea cut from five points to three.

Lessons from the weekend?

Front Three Works
The Walcott, RVP, AOC combo had given us back width and some fear factor. Yes I know it was only Blackburn, but we were getting seriously predictable and bogged down in the middle. Now we’re coming from more angles and we’re running into the box.

Arsene Wenger had been warning about the danger of burn out for Chamberlain and no-one wants a repeat of Jack Wilshere’s experience this season. But with Gervinho returning it should be possible to avoid that.

Welcome back Mikel
It’s hard to point out key moments during the game, but it just works better with him. There’s more composure and possession results in the ball moving forward more. Somehow we’re under less pressure. Can’t tell you exactly why. There just seem to be some players, like Gilberto Silva or John Collins and Mikel Arteta who know where they need to be to relieve pressure from team-mates.

Rosicky can share Ramsey’s load
Tomas Rosicky is having his best season in ages despite playing a support role. He may not be up to consecutive starts, but he can step right in when Ramsey needs a break.

So a better Monday morning despite the trudge through the snow to the station and the packed train. Have a good day now.

Well that feels a lot better of course, though the toothless Bolton game still does my head in.  Look where we could be!  Anyway, back to the good news.

After a run of Sunday games we were first up for a change with a lunchtime kick-off. Our rivals are all still to play.  What a game it was.  Same squad as Bolton but Coquelin and Rosicky started rather than Sagna and Ramsey.  Sensible changes.  Ramsey has looked jaded of late and Sagna is coming back from a long lay-off.  On Wednesday of course the whole team looked jaded.  Not yesterday.

In less than two minutes Walcott set up Van Persie for a tap-in.  Confidence flooding all around.  Arsenal in control, on a stroll, not going to blow this one!  But then Koscielny pulls down Modeste just outside the box.  Pedersen’s freekick was inch perfect and Blackburn were level.  Surely we weren’t going to blow it again?

Despite getting level, Blackburn just didn’t seem to have it in them to take advantage.  So Walcott and Van Persie went and did exactly the same. 2:1.

That was the game for Blackburn then.  They had nothing left and the stage was set for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s first Premier League goal.  Set-up by Van Persie with a fantastic pass onto a clever run from Chamberlain.  With composure he took three touches to collect the ball, get some room and then score.  3:1

As Arsene Wenger said after the game, Chamberlain has made a very rapid transition from youth player to confident first-teamer.  I’m not always a big fan of Mark Lawrenson’s punditry, but he was spot-on last night about AOC: what marks him out already is that he has a bit of everything.

Explosive pace to lose opponents, head up early to read the game, intelligent runs, strength to stay on the ball under pressure, composure to finish.

We all rolled our eyes in the summer didn’t we?  There goes Arsenal blowing a thick wad on a teenager when we need maturity.  Well we were right but so was he! Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was a major signing for Arsenal.  He’s currently leading our match poll.

Today the pace and movement of Ox and Walcott either side of the sublime Van Persie looked unstoppable.  OK, so we can’t play Blackburn every week, but it looked fresh and dangerous.  Running into the box scares the hell out of defenders good and bad.

Blackburn were dead now but not content to let Arsenal to do all the burying!  A desperate two-footed lunge from Givet on Van Persie earned him a straight red.  All this and the second half still to come.

The second half was more one-way traffic.  Arteta collected a loose ball from a corner and forced a goal through a deflection.  4:1

Then a great run from Walcott sets up AOC for his second.  5:1.

Another hat-trick for Robin Van Persie.  Very similar to the first two, but this time the pass came from Coquelin.  You could call them all tap-ins, but that takes something away from Van Persie.  He has that talent to check and dart that loses his markers and gives him space to receive the ball and score.  6:1

Now the most curious bit of the game.  We’re 6:1 up and RVP, without whom our season etc etc, has already suffered a couple of crunching tackles.  He can surely come off can’t he?  No he can’t!

Sagna, Henry and Benayoun come on, but Van Persie stays put.  Just how big a cushion is needed to let Park Ju-Young give Van Persie a early finish?  Clearly Arsene Wenger doesn’t rate him highly, but really, just how bad can he be?  If a five goal lead against ten isn’t safe enough, there have to be other players in the squad who can sit on the bench don’t there?

Anyway, the game was nearly done.  It just had enough in it to let Henry play one-two with Van Persie and score number seven.  Bit of a lucky defection true, but he worked hard to win the ball and get there so he deserved the goal.  7:1, majestic, emphatic, about time!

Now we can relax and watch our rivals play later.  Dream results would be losses for Chelsea and Newcastle against Man Utd and Aston Villa respectively.  Both possibilities!  Then tomorrow Tottenham play Liverpool.

So potential to improve our standing having finally got it right yesterday.  All good.

So, Thomas Eisfeld then?  Haven’t a clue to be honest.  I mean, we’d all learned up about Mario Gotze and it turns out we’re buying the other teenage attacking midfielder from Dortmund.  The one who isn’t tipped by all the big past stars of German football and isn’t called Super Mario.  Poor kid!

Not sure how much we’ll see of him this season.   He has played no first team games for Borussia Dortmund and Arsene Wenger has said that there will be a period of adaptation.  So I doubt that he will feature much before the autumn.  Which is a pity because the bad news of the day was confirmation that Jack Wilshere is unlikely to feature before next season as well.  So Gotze would have been just the job.

But the truth is that no ‘big name’ was likely to come in this January.  People can witter on all they like about Arsenal having plenty in the bank and that Arsenal have to buy, but you can only buy if people want to come.  What big star would commit to Arsenal in January when we are six points off a Champions League spot?  This may be unfamiliar territory for younger fans, but it’s where we are and we will only change it on the pitch with the player we have.

The news about Jack Wilshere is quite a blow as we could do with more midfield cover as the season goes on.  Arteta and Ramsey have both done a great job but Ramsey is looking a bit jaded and Arteta didn’t have the best of fitness records before joining Arsenal.  Rosicky is doing a great job at the moment bit you don’t see him starting many consecutive games.

Which brings us on to the team to face Bolton tonight.  Bolton are fourth from bottom but we haven’t let such things get in the way of an embarrassing slip-up before.  Laurent Koscielny is right to warn against any complacency.

Last night, Chelsea were kind enough to leave a couple of points in Swansea, so we need seize the opportunity.  Arteta, and Henry are apparently both good to start, but it is less likely for Sagna.  There are no additional injuries from the Villa game.

Our current league form is, of course, dire with three losses on the trot.  Bolton on the other hand have had a good month with victories over Everton and Liverpool and progress on the cup.  Losing at Old Trafford was their only problem in January.

So a strong team choice is order to ensure we get back to winning ways.  Only two real choices to makes I guess, Sagna v Coquelin/Djourou and Ox v Arshavin.  Bolton are not particularly pacey on the left so Djourou would be ok, but I would prefer Coquelin.  As for the other choice, Arsene Wenger has talked of a cautious development of Oxlade-Chamberlain’s career so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Arshavin start with the younger player back on Saturday at Bolton.

So something like this:

______ Szczesny ______
Coq _ Merte _ Kos _ Verm
________ Song _______
___ Arteta __ Ramsey __
Walcott _ RVP _ Arshavin

If ever there were a game of two halves….  Amazing turnaround yesterday to go through to the fourth round against Sunderland or Middlesborough.

January has been a crap month for us with three league games lost in a row and controversy over that substitution.  Put together with the likelihood that the temporary appearance of Thierry Henry will be the only form of reinforcement it was looking even more grim by half-time yesterday.

In the first half we watched that frustrating Arsenal that shows flashes of class but then sloppily squanders them.  Signs of superiority for a while, but without taking control.  It took Villa a little while to capitalise, but you feared it was coming.  Come it did, twice.  The second was a good finish from Bent on a very tight angle, but both were poor goals to succeed.

In the second half though, Arsenal were transformed.  Eager, faster and more direct.  Don’t know what Arsene Wenger said during the break but we were a different team.  All three Arsenal goals came as a result of strong runs into the box.  A bit of luck too, but the sort of luck that doesn’t come without pressurising your opponents.

Some really rate Richard Dunne and I’ve seen him put in some solid, professional performances.  But for Arsenal’s first goal he panicked big time.  Aaron Ramsey surged into the box but had probably pushed the ball a bit further ahead than he wanted.  He was certainly only evens with Given to collect first and odds against to score.  But before either could win that race, Dunne appeared on an unstoppable slide that cleaned Ramsey out.  Penalty, no question.

Nicely taken by Van Persie.  Given guessed right and was agile as ever, but the ball was beyond him.  Van Persie sprinted back to the centre spot with the ball, Arsenal were in with a shout.

Then we were level.  Again it came from a strong run with the ball into the box and a slice of luck.  Theo Walcott jinked his way in from the right, along the line, but there was no obvious pass on.  Another jink and a hopeful stab could have come to nothing but for the hapless Hutton stabbing the ball back into Walcott’s path for a rebound into the goal.  Another piece of well earned luck.  Alan Hutton you had that coming after your last appearance against Arsenal.

Same again for the third goal.  This time Koscielny surged forward, bursting through into the box.  Darren Bent had tracked most of his long run and I guess a sort of mental momentum took over.  He went for the tackle even though he was too late and too directly behind Koscielny.  On the ground he gestured hopefully that he’d got to the ball, but no chance.  He’d gone straight through Koscielny to get there and it was another straightforward penalty decision.

Given gambled on Robin Van Persie repeating the first one and went early to his right.  Robin went the other way and we were winning.  After that we weren’t going to throw it away.  Villa did have the odd attack, but Koscielny, Mertesacker and Fabianski dealt with them all.  Mainly it was more Arsenal pressure.

Henry, Arteta and Sagna came on as late subs to keep Villa exercised.  Good to see Bacary Sagna on his way back, because to be honest Francis Coquelin had a torrid old time against Agbonlahor.  Arteta though wasn’t so badly missed last night as Tomas Rosicky played an absolute blinder.

After the game, ESPN pundit Martin Keown was talking through the highlights.  With Laurent Koscielny onscreen he said that there were some real leaders beginning to emerge in this team.  He was certainly right about Koscielny.  He is a star and he is putting some backbone into Arsenal too.  He is the clear winner in our match poll despite strong support for Rosicky and Van Persie.

So, finally some cheer to end a dismal month.  Next up this week is a double helping in the league – Bolton on Wednesday, Blackburn Saturday.  The first half Arsenal will turn both into nail-biters, won or lost on a late, lonely goal.  Second half Arsenal will take six points with ease.

Come on you Gunners.