Mikel Arteta, you can lose any guilt you may feel over the Fulham penalty miss because this was a major pressure situation and you buried it. That said, I still think Lukas Podolski should be first choice if on the pitch. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain deserves a lot of credit for his taking the situation by the scruff of the neck and assisting the winner. We were passing it outside of the area and Norwich had the whole team behind the ball, without dribblers, it is so hard to pass through a team with that mindset. Without Gervinho on the pitch we lost the ability to pull people out of position. Chamberlain was positive, direct and this victory could well be down to that one moment when he took the pass from Cazorla and then drove straight at the heart of the Norwich defence. I still cannot

Controversy rained down at the Emirates yesterday. At 1-0 down Arsenal got out of jail due to an astonishing decision by the assistant referee, formerly known as a linesman. Oliver Giroud had his shirt pulled when attempting to strike the ball and the assistant referee waved his flag. Now I am assuming this is controversial purely because it is a decision awarded to Arsenal instead of against us. Breaking it down still does not shine any light on this supposed controversy.

Pulling an opposition players shirt is a foul regardless of where you are on the pitch
The linesman’s title was changed to assistant referee because, well, he is there to erm assist the referee perhaps?

Am I missing anything here?

I don’t remember any controversy when referees decided that Arsenal were no longer allowed to have penalties awarded to us. You know that time when Eduardo was the first player in the history of the game to dive. That was fine but being awarded a penalty that you know, was a penalty is worthy of UK pundit wrath.

Mikel Arteta, you can lose any guilt you may feel over the Fulham penalty miss because this was a major pressure situation and you buried it. That said, I still think Lukas Podolski should be first choice if on the pitch. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain deserves a lot of credit for his taking the situation by the scruff of the neck and assisting the winner. We were passing it outside of the area and Norwich had the whole team behind the ball, without dribblers, it is so hard to pass through a team with that mindset. Without Gervinho on the pitch we lost the ability to pull people out of position. Chamberlain was positive, direct and this victory could well be down to that one moment when he took the pass from Cazorla and then drove straight at the heart of the Norwich defence. I still cannot make out who got the final touch so I’ll just hand it to Giroud for being there.

Lukas Podolski came off the bench and was heavily involved. It was amazing how involved he was in such a short space of time really. Smashing a shot off the crossbar, failing to control a ball in a very good position and played the two of the 1-2 (if you know what I mean) with Chamberlain for the second goal. Podolski scored the third and final goal, effortlessly placing his shot on the turn into the corner. It is a shame his link up play isn’t better because his finishing is the best at the club. I only assume that this is the reason why he hasn’t been given the chance as a central striker at Arsenal.

Going back to controversial decisions, did you know that the Norwich city goal wasn’t actually a free kick in the first place? Oh one thing that did massively go in our favour was that the corner kick given to us before we scored was a goal kick and I thought that at the time. But there is a quite annoying saying that it all evens itself up, so let us run with that one today.

We should have defended better from the Norwich set piece. We tend to do the whole not run and meet the ball thing quite often. It is hard to know how to solve that because generally we have been pretty good at defending from set pieces but when we concede, it can look pretty poor. Perhaps that is the case for any team losing a goal from a set piece, who knows.

We were not at our best but I want to heap a truck load of praise onto Aaron Ramsey who was head and shoulders the best player on the pitch. His work rate was something else, sprinting to make challenges all over the pitch but he also drove us forward when he had the ball. For the first time that I can remember, I wanted the ball at his feet rather than Wilshere’s. Ramsey’s attitude as is always the case, was spot on. Case in point, Giroud played a ball down the line which Ramsey did not read, it was a lost cause but Ramsey fought and won the corner, even if unfairly and it was that corner that lead to the penalty that turned the game.

Going from an in form Tomas Rosicky to a rusty Jack Wilshere made a big difference to the fluency of the team. Even a Jack Wilshere on form does not have the same chemistry with Santi Cazorla as the Spaniard has with Rosicky.

Jack’s display should be a clear indicator to fans that losing the rhythm of playing weekly affects performance, a point that is unfortunately consistently ignored.

Praise must also go to Lukasz Fabianski who didn’t have a great deal to do but after we scored the second, Vermaelen and Koscielny contested the same ball which fell to a Norwich player, in a similar position to where they scored the 3rd last season at the Emirates but Fabianski made the save when it was needed.

I am interested to see what happens from now until the end of the season. Arsene Wenger has plenty of selection question marks to go through. Monreal vs Gibbs, Rosicky or Wilshere because Arteta and Ramsey surely have to be left alone as the double pivot. Chamberlain has made an impact in his last two sub appearances and Podolski contributed massively at the end.

I think Theo Walcott will be used tactically to combat Baines on Tuesday and hopefully Rosicky will be back to knit the team together.

But that is for the next few days, the three points yesterday put us into third place in the table. Two back to back games of almost heart failure tension but it has been worth it so far.

Before I go, I would like to send out my condolences to one man. A man in a terrible place today. It is horrible to feel so low and unhappy so I would like to blow a kiss in the direction of poor Tony Gale. Cheer up son.