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Our squad, rocked as it was, would have crumbled without his influence that season. Our best player, some guy called Ronald I think, had the best year of his career - he could not have done any more. That extra 5-10% - the difference between gasping our last breath as the turbulent current pulled us under and grasping the life preserver with our outstretched hand - would have to come from someone else. In a team with an equally moderate smattering of talent and brain cells we desperately needed another leader – on the pitch and off it - to help shepherd the masses

You can see what Arsène was thinking early last season with the 4-1-4-1. There were complaints that Arsène was trying to shoehorn Ramsey and Wilshere into the same team for the sake of it but I'm not sure that it was the individuals that were the issue, rather a case of the development of the team was at an early stage and many players were not yet at the level they were post Christmas. I wouldn't bet against that system working much better after a good pre season if that was the way Arsène wanted to go. The obvious obstacle to that system is the quality of Mesut Özil in a central position and I suspect Arsène would like to build his attack around the German's genius

Elliot (@YankeeGunner), Paul (@PoznanInMyPants) and James (@GoonerFanatic49) revisit the super duper 4-0 FA Cup victory against Sherwood's Villa, they also go over the season as a whole and venture into the wonderful world of transfers.

The atmosphere at the Emirates was far better than I would have imagined before we got there. It was better than plenty of actual home matches. Maybe that was down to the occasion, perhaps the vibes around the game were all positive, who knows. Whatever it was, it made the occasion so much more enjoyable. I don't know how viable it is but I'd be up for watching more games on the big screen at the Emirates, perhaps the big televised away matches but I don't

I think if we all looked at the game objectively perhaps. This was a team we trounced 3-0 and 5-0 before the exit of Paul Lambert and while Tim Sherwood has gotten them to this point and with huge improvement in the form of Christian Benteke, they have still been capable of getting shelled due to their desire to be an attacking side. With that in mind we should have been a lot more confident, but you can't blame Arsenal fans for being a nervous wreck. Last year's final was several heart attacks in 120

Above all else, he’s just taken the reigns off the squad. Villa were dull, negative, and just looking to hold possession (though doing nothing with it) under Paul Lambert, and he’s completely flipped that around, which was exactly what the club needed; there’s not a lack of attacking talent here. He also brought Jack Grealish properly into the first team, which has been huge.

My constant and probably quite random outbursts of 'we really cannot lose this game' did not go unheard. On cup final day I along with a few Gooner friends went to watch the game at another friend of ours where we consumed plenty of beverages and food, pre match it was all going so well and the spirits were high until we of course went 2-0 down, nearly 3 but for a Gibbs clearance off the line. It was that point where I received a phone call from Mrs Lean telling me to try and refrain from passing on my football stresses to Lean junior in future. He had moved into the kitchen to get away from his younger sister who was winding him up and obviously didn't understand the seriousness of the situation. By gee it was serious. Sitting on his own upset at what he had seen on TV. 'This is a match Arsenal have to win' he told his mother desperately trying to fight back the tears

Wenger is loath to sign players in order to keep them from the clutches of other teams; Fabregas was the most recent example, opting not to sign the player due to Ozil’s status at the club despite knowledge that Chelsea would follow up with a bid. Similarly, Wenger recommended Antonio Valencia to Wigan back in 2008; having scouted the player for quite a while, Wenger recommended him to Steve Bruce as we were well stocked for wide players at the time. It is one of the attributes that makes him such a fantastic man to work with, his compassion and respect for his players is well known and is one of the reasons he is spoken of so highly of by former players. But with the financial arsenal at his disposal, it may now be the time to become rather more cold-blooded.

First Alexis Sanchez made a similar run to the one he made at Wembley against Reading but then checked his run when he saw Özil shift to his left a bit more instead of playing the pass, now Theo Walcott thought he could be in and made a similar dart into the same area that Alexis went into just ahead of him, it was Alexis moving back into his left position that fooled the West Brom players and left Theo on his own on the right edge of the box. Özil gave it to Wilshere who knocked it on to Cazorla and the Spaniard slipped Walcott in who had been screaming for the ball. Walcott took a touch to get it out of his feet and whipped a shot across the keeper into the top corner of the goal.

Elliot (@YankeeGunner), Paul (@PoznanInMyPants) and James (@GoonerFanatic49) Talk about the excellent 4-1 beating of West Brom. You won't be surprised to hear that Theo Walcott is a big talking point, they also talk about Wilshere and Ramsey