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All the talk this week has been about Arsenal's number one keeper Wojciech Szczesny and the smoking incident. We were made to believe that the player had been warned, fined and pretty much everything else was forgotten about. It doesn't seem so as David Ospina retains his place in the team

Silly question indeed. He was terrific today again, an absolute joy to watch. He can create something for himself out of nothing and that's something we've been missing. It's only his first season in the Premier League as well, which makes you wonder what heights he can reach. Magnificent

It is a little bit catch 22 when it comes to players returning after a long time out. They need to play games to get back to their best levels but when they start their come backs they are not at the level we require as Theo showed against Hull City in the cup last week. While Theo and Alexis give you two great attacking threats, it is hard not to look at the other side of the coin and wonder if the erratic side of their games will cause the rest of our game a few issues. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for the most part has been very good for us this season. He has dipped in a few fixtures and his aim will definitely be consistency. With Alexis on the other side he gives the side extra balance with his ability to drift inside and help control the game,

There has been constant talk of Cavani to Arsenal, mainly from Twitter which is pretty routine at this time of year. This is my take on Cavani and Arsène Wenger. I believe that Arsène wanted to buy him before he moved to PSG. I remember Arsène talking about the advantage French teams had with their wealth in the market soon after they bought him. He seemed a little agitated. Can't find that interview for the life of me. That was last summer when we needed a centre forward and we bought Mesut Özil. I think Cavani would be extremely difficult to buy in January plus his wages would more than likely be way more than we would be willing to pay, especially given the size of the transfer fee. So basically I reckon Arsène would like to have him at Arsenal but it won't happen. Whether he has his eyes on someone else, I don't know. Maybe I am barking up the wrong tree and he believes what he has is enough. Maybe Giroud, Welbeck and Alexis is enough number wise to play centrally

Cazorla or Alexis to be rested, perhaps even both. Well they both started so what do I know? Although it was interesting to listen to Arsène post match talking about not wanting to rest players who were confident and in good form. Alexis being Alexis wanted to play when the opportunity of rest was offered to him. I suspect that had either Welbeck or Giroud been available then he wouldn't have had the choice. Alexis was again very good and the clear difference between the two sides. It is amazing watching him and you know he will shift the ball away from the opposition when they try and win the ball, the opposition player know it's coming also but nobody can do anything about it. There is still the touch of the Arshavin

The FA Cup is back again and it will be great to inject some good feeling back into the atmosphere following the Southampton defeat. The mood is such that you'd think we had won once in six games, in reality the loss to Southampton was our first defeat in six games. Scoring 14 goals conceding 8 during that time period. But a cup clash with last seasons cup final opponents can hopefully bring back some positive memories. Looking back at that team that lifted the cup, it's amazing how different it is to the team we see today. 7 of the 11 players in that team will not be in the squad this afternoon, it is also possible that at least two of the remaining four players will be rested due to a rather hectic Christmas schedule on a rather small number of players

Szczesny wins that honour. I had concerns against West Ham when he started flapping in the second half and hoped it was buried in a win but today he showed incredible naivety and lack of focus and this isn’t a new feature to his play. He never seems to learn from these mistakes and he seemed to be like a kid in a park. When these mistakes happen in the same game, well that really does infuriate you further. I might as well throw the rest of the defence in there as well. Mertesacker has mentioned the wind helped Mane’s cross. Well what might have helped is our defence busting a gut to spot the obvious. As soon as Szczesny is in no-mans land

It was a bad time to concede (as I guess all goals you let in are) because we were the better side at that point. For us to turn it around at that stage, we would have needed improvement going forward and not to make anymore defensive mistakes. Honestly, we got neither. On 56' we dropped the pistol and instead pulled out the shotgun and blew off our foot. Davis in the side in place of the suspended Schneiderlin, took down a long pass in the box superbly and cut the ball back but Debuchy had taken the sting out of the cross and would have been able to swing his left foot at the ball and clear the danger but Szczesny intervened and poked it straight to Tadic who probably couldn't believe his luck. 2-0.