Post Match Q&A

MotM has to go to Petr Cech. Before 10 minutes had gone, he had already made a superb save on Thiago after a great one-two with Thomas Muller. We go 1-0 down on 9 minutes and it’s game over. Another decent save on Vidal later in the half to go into half time at 0-0; always a chance in the second half. Notice how Cech always parries his saves out of the penalty area, towards the corner, not straight back into danger. This was crucial today. A third brilliant save on Lewandowski at 75 minutes proved to be vital as we went the other way to score 2 minutes later

Ramsey must play in the middle". This they suggest would allow the OX to play as a wide forward. That idea is now totally discredited based on recent performances by the Englishman. Others of that cult have gone  further and suggest that Rambo should play centrally instead of Santi. The idea that we not play our most technically proficient central-midfielder so as to shoehorn the Welshman

His performance was excellent. I also noticed that he was holding the ball up much better. He needs to improve on his composure and finishing a little but that will come with just starting more games. I don’t see Wenger signing a striker or any player for that matter in January and with Giroud off form and Danny Welbeck injured I see Theo being given the opportunity to make that position his own until Welbeck is fit at least. He is making very Henry like runs and I feel we COULD be watching the next evolution of Theo into a genuine world-class striker. How far he goes depends a lot on how often Wenger starts him in that position. If he starts 80% of our games in that position, barring injury he will get between

I think if Dean saw both of Costa's assaults on Koscielny, then there is no excuse for NOT giving Costa a red card. It was great to see Gabriel stand up to Costa at first, but after both were booked there was no need to remain so close to him. After the yellow, Gabriel's attitude was a childish and got himself sent off in the dumbest of ways. He completely felt for Costa's game, he was too innocent. Although I'm not exactly sure what it was Mike Dean saw for Gabriel's red, it couldn't have been worse than either of Costa's attacks on Koscielny

Yes. It's hard not to sound bitter. No matter how many times I watch it back I can't see how it's not a foul for us on his first yellow. Should he not challenge for the ball? Eyes on the ball and the player backs in to cause, what looked a nasty fall. My first reaction was worry that he'd got injured. The second is soft at most. He's trying to play the ball. VERY harsh

On the 1st goal, Cech has to take the blame. If you come out for a cross, you must get something on it. Thats a cardinal rule of goalkeeping. If he had stayed on his line and the header was on target, ultimately resulting in a goal, then we could blame the marker on the set piece. As for the 2nd goal, no blame on Cech. The defence switched off as soon the Ox lost the ball. By the way, this is becoming a bad habit he needs to cut out of his game ASAP. We saw him lose the ball in dangerous positions against Monaco last season and more recently against Everton in pre-season, both errors leading to us conceding needlessly, just like today

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

Theo is the obvious candidate for MOTM. I didn't see any particularly bad performances today, but one thing needs to be said about our number 1(3). One of the main complaints about Szczesny was often that he is prone to zone-out during matches we have total control of, and lose his focus for the one or two chances he needs to do well in - which might result in conceding a counterattack goal or being sent off. Ospina had nothing to do most afternoon but push out some goal kicks and take a back pass from Gabriel every ten minutes or so. But for the two real chances WBA produced, he did comically bad - one corner he went out of his line to collect to but clearly could never reach, and another long shot he nearly Fabianski

Yeah, I'm still very confident that we'll win.  Perhaps some players would benefit from being rested on Sunday and that time off will help them freshen up.  Plus we've already put 8 past Villa this season and last weekend showed that even with their new manager they're still capable of being worse than dreadful