Speaking of Jack Wilshere, I suspect that if Jack is fit then he will come into the team alongside Mathieu Flamini but I have to say, I'd quite like to see Tomas Rosicky given a more disciplined role alongside the Frenchman. The Czech gives the ball away less and it usually takes Wilshere a few games to sharpen up. It is not as if he was at his best before he was rested/injured for our FA cup game. Many people will want to see Lukas Podolski continue in the side but I think Santi's ability to keep the ball better might be more useful in a game where the opposition are likely to have a lot of the ball. Bacary Sagna, Kieran Gibbs and Oliver Giroud are all likely to return to the team so

Next, is his gameplay and tactics. Wenger has been known to drive a hard bargain in the transfer window, often demanding lower than necessary prices that has many times lost him a player he so desperately desires. When it comes to betting the big numbers in poker it is likely that we may see him fold more times than we see him raise, but he has proved to be calculated nonetheless. In the transfer window prior to this year’s campaign, the Arsenal tactician bid £40,000,0001 in order to trigger a release clause in Luis Suarez’s Liverpool contract. The move ultimately didn’t go through, but the sheer audacity in bidding one pound in excess of a release clause shows Wenger knows how to make his opponents squirm.

On a final note, I do wonder why Sanogo was picked over Bendtner yesterday, I’ve heard reports that Sanogo has been very impressive in training but the same goes for Bendtner, who Wenger has said is sharp and fit. It’s possible that Sanogo has overtaken Bendtner in terms of backup to Giroud and that may partially explain why Wenger didn’t dip into the transfer market. It’s possible that Wenger genuinely believes, on the basis of his performances in training, that he is capable of stepping in until the end of the season. I won’t dwell on the January transfer business but it strikes me that Wenger very rarely plumps for a make-shift target if he has someone in mind – which I’m sure he does. It’s also evident that strikers are in high demand at the moment and with the

Because I've been ill all week I have missed out on several talking points that I wanted to skim over. Firstly I thought Arsène's response to Mourinho was perfect. Don't engage with him further but throw it back his way whilst making him look small. The exact type of response you would expect from someone intelligent towards someone well, a little bit thick. Arsène is correct when he says that it reflects badly on Chelsea and their manager. The press should really give it the contempt it deserves trouble is they are too busy rubbing Mourinho's belly to do that. I am wasting far too much time on this so I'll move on

The TV broadcasters awarded the man of the match award to Alex whose involvement in both goals ultimately secured the victory. Having been on hand to fire in the rebound to open the scoring, it was the Ox's darting run down the wing that led to him feeding Lukas Podolski for the all important second. Yet it wasn't simply these moments that earned him the post match plaudits and accolades. In the first half, was the beating heart of the Arsenal team and rarely stopped running. So much so, he quite easily managed to give Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard something of a run around. One imagines Oxlade-Chamberlain would be looking to the stellar career of the Liverpool man as something to emulate and on the evidence of this performance, he is certainly heading in the right direction.

Chamberlain passed to Özil and then set off on his bike down the right, he knew full well that the man on the ball was capable of finding the right pass to find him and Mesut Özil produced it. Inside the Liverpool player and into the stride of the Ox who exploded past Agger but had the presence of mind to look up and see Podolski making a burst into some space in the box. Chambo didn't just hit the ball into the danger area which I see as code for hitting and hoping, instead he opted for a perfect cut back into the stride of Podolski to slot in under the keeper for 2-0. After that we relied on our defensive strength, newly found after Anfield

I really thought the pre-match negativity was totally unfair on the team that played today, we all knew Arsene would keep some players fresh for the Bayern game & this result shows he got the balance just right, the uproar if we had lost this game with a full strength side & the mid week game would've been insane! The team he chose today were a fine mix of experience & reserve, I for one am delighted with how we played.

So Yaya Sanogo gets a chance to lead the line in place of Oliver Giroud. I mentioned in the preview about his alleged good form in training. Let us hope he can produce it on match day. Arsene has gone for more protection in front of his back four by partnering Flamini alongside Arteta rather than replacing him. The Ox will continue on the right, I thought we might see Serge Gnbary get a chance but it isn't to be

The manager has some difficult decisions to make today. It is hard to disagree with the notion that the FA Cup proves on paper at least the easiest route to silverware this season but higher priorities are on the horizon. With key personnel out injured for the season or a large chunk of it, the manager will be desperate not to pick up anymore major injuries but more than that I think it is simply down to the fact that at the start of the season the FA Cup sits third on the list of priorities, well fourth if you include a Champions League spot. With a congested fixture list coming up he will not be able to play the same 11 across all the remaining competitions, it would be a sure fire way of exiting all of them.

Giroud of course wasn't the only reason Arsenal didn't get a result on the night. Right from the earliest exchanges, Arsenal fell into the web of perpetual motion that was sterile possession. Slow starts to matches have been well documented all season long but there seems to be neither the desire nor the ability to change things. The way United set up, there has to be more than simply sideways passing over and over again before attempting and often failing to play a through ball.  I'm certainly not sure what the aim is when, from an attacking corner, you end up passing the ball back to your furthest defender just for the sake of retaining possession