This fixture feels a little strange for me right now, I fully understand and appreciate the kids learning and featuring in this competition, you get to almost enjoy the matches without the same pressure as you would feel when watching the first team
When so called experts talk about Mr Wenger’s comments, they often say, well ‘what does Mr Wenger expect teams to do? Let Arsenal just play and walk the ball in the net’, well Durham had an argument about that too
The game should have been wrapped up 15 minutes from time when Rosicky once again combined with Nasri who drifted into the penalty box, his legs were taken away from him by Al-Muhamadi. I like many others expected Nasri to take the penalty, especially as he had been on free kick duty
The experienced French defender has hit the ground running since coming into the team in place of the injured Thomas Vermaelen. So far he has had the luxury of the home comforts of the Emirates, it will be his first start away from home in the Arsenal colours and I am interested to know how he copes with the likes of Darren Bent
I am still very much frustrated this afternoon. This is supposed to be just a game, so surely this feeling of frustration isn't supposed to last this long. Well that is the nature of football isn't it?
To be honest, I am not as frustrated about the game as I was at the full time whistle...
Carlos playing on his own up front is very interesting as Mr Wenger tends to play strikers out wide at first to learn the trade but Carlos has been coming on and going straight up front and scoring. The games at home against teams outside the top ten could be great opportunities to give him a start
The irrepressible Cesc won the ball high up the pitch and fed it left to Arshavin. The little Russian assessed his options, saw Cesc move into space at the back stick and dinked one onto his forehead; the skipper burying it with Chamakh-esque aplomb
I was amazed yet not really surprised to read that Denilson had double the amount of passes of the ball than Cesc for our fantastic fourth goal on Saturday. He passed the ball more times in the short time he was on the pitch than many players who played 90 minutes on that same Saturday.
I still find it quite astonishing that the Bolton challenges over the weekend were utterly swept under the carpet from the MOTD crew. Not a thuggish highlight in sight. I refuse to believe that it is just coincidence. If Arsenal players were behaving in the same vein you can be sure that it would have been Saturday night's hot topic