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Despite his poor form and his lack of playing time, there still seemed to be an acceptance that Walcott would be picked at national level. His finishing prowess, when given little time to think, has always been exceptional. His speed, with the exception of the port swilling, skittle flavoured vodka drinking Jamie Vardy was considered a precious commodity. Even his image rights seemed to be in line with England’s 3 Lions-respect the ref, kick-it out and Marks and Spencer’s school boy image. However, Theo spent the summer at home watching on as the England team suffered at the hands of the media and were plundered by the bearded Icelandic Vikings

Some of the football on show on Wednesday night was mouth watering, I cannot remember a half that provided such quality on the ball than the first 45 against Basel. Arsene has spoken about the players gaining confidence from every performance and you can see that pretty clearly. The Chelsea win has given this Arsenal team a spring in their step just as the Hull City display provided us with the platform to destroy the west Londoners, and before that the second half at PSG

In today's Arsenal Vision Post Match Podcast: Elliot (@YankeeGunner), Paul (@PoznanInMyPants) and Tim (@Stillberto) talk about the wonderful spanking of Chelsea.. I mean Basel. Some of the talking points include entertaining football, Alexis and Ozil combinations, where now for Ramsey and much more in this weeks Arsenal Vision podcast

In today's Arsenal Vision Post Match Podcast: Elliot (@YankeeGunner) and Paul (@PoznanInMyPants) are joined by special guest  Clive (@clivepafc) from the Gooner Ramble talk about the victory at Nottingham Forest. Some of the talking points include Coquelin and Xhaka (again!) which youngsters could potentially break through and plenty more in this weeks Arsenal Vision podcast

Theo Walcott. His improvement is evident this season. He was running up and down the right hand side 90 minutes, tracking back, pressing Chelsea high up the pitch, running behind, looking for his team mates in the box. Basically, becoming a player nobody thought he could ever be. His potential wasn't even about these stuff. This is a new player in the body of a guy who's been here for 10 years now. Absolutely fantastic from him

When the line up was announced on Twitter, many Gooners were having a fit that Francis Coquelin was starting the game in place of Granit Xhaka. But I think Coquelin was exceptional in the opening stages of the game, he was one of the guys that set the tone he was part of the reason we imposed ourselves on the West Londonders. His injury, picked up close to the 30 minute mark looks serious and could rule him out for a long time. He looked visibly distraught as he limped off the pitch. Arsene has shown incredibly amounts of faith in Coquelin this season when it looked like he may have fallen way down the ladder, we have to hope that the injury is not worst case scenario stuff but it looks bad.

So Arsene has gone with the same 11 that beat Hull City last weekend which means a return to the bench of Granit Xhaka and Lucas Perez after their impressive League Cup performances. Many are having a meltdown about our central midfield, I would personally perfer to see how the players who are starting actually perform on the day first. I know, I am a little backwards like that.

The only real question mark I reckon will be that of Granit Xhaka, not because of his thunderbolt shooting but as Clive said on this weeks Arsenal Vision podcast (have a listen if you haven’t already) without Giroud starting (I’d imagine) we lack height from set pieces and power in the middle of the pitch. They have Matic, Cahill, Luiz, Costa and Ivanovic. That could be a little worrying for Arsene Wenger from corners or free kicks around the box, especially as our centre backs are not exactly the tallest in the world. Xhaka would bump up the average number a little