Reviews

That goal hit us like a huge uppercut to the chin, we were all over the place and could not stand straight for ten minutes, in which time the home side should have put us to bed. They had the chances but failed to make it count. They actually reminded me of a young Arsenal team during the periods 2009-2011. Going ahead, missing chances and then showboating. As time was ticking down the Anderlecht players started flicking the ball to each other and over elaborating when seeing the game out should have been the goal.

Alexis rather majestically body swerved past his man and drilled low into the far corner I thought we had done the hard part, the rest of the game should open up because we had broken through the two banks of four nice and early and ruined the oppositions game plan. Except the referee and his assistant had other ideas. This is the point where I am supposed to add the footballing disclaimer. Telling you that it is not to excuse our performance and that all of the blame must lie with ourselves.

Many of the plaudits will deservedly go to hat-trick hero Daniel Nii Tackie Welbeck and I'll come onto him in a moment but for me that first half was all about Santi Cazorla. When reading the line up before kick off I imagined that Oxlade-Chamberlain would be the one to come inside and replace Aaron Ramsey with Santi playing his usual role on the left, but instead Arsene went with the Spaniard as our number 8. Perhaps Arsene wanted to give the distribution duties to somebody more capable than Mathieu Flamini. Maybe Arsene wanted to get the ball to Özil early and accurately. That was certainly the case in that first half. The speed of which Cazorla shifts the ball between his feet and then finding his team mate floating into small pockets of space was a joy to watch

Arsène had reverted back to the 4-1-4-1 system that I imagine will be used for a little while yet. Given the Özil and Welbeck chemistry shown at Villa Park last weekend, I am surprised that the same system was not deployed. Alexis Sanchez started on the bench for the second league game in a row. I am guessing here but I reckon that Arsène believes that Alexis is disrupting the fluidity of the attack with

The game was all over after a five minute spell starting in the 32nd minute. We've all been looking forward to the quick man playing with Mesut Özil but I guess we were not expecting a role reversal. Danny Welbeck playing the role of chief playmaker with Mesut Özil playing the part as clinical speedy striker. The weight of Welbeck's pass was impressive and the way Özil composed himself, assessed his options before stroking into the back of the net was lovely to see from a player who has been under huge pressure. A minute or so later, Arsenal were combining outside the Villa penalty area, Ramsey found Özil pealing away to the left hand side, you know the place, the area where he shouldn't be standing and the German wrapped the ball

Ciro Immobile's goal was poor from an Arsenal perspective. How he was able to run unchallenged from the half way line is beyond me. There was no protection in front of a defence that was back peddling from so far back. Immobile may have been fortunate to have the ball bounce into his path after a lucky break just inside the penalty area but his finish was assured. That goal came just before half time, a bad time to concede such a cheap goal.

The goal from Alexis to put us 2-1 up was even better. Wilshere heading over the defence to Alexis lurking in the box and his controlled side footed volley was perfectly placed past Hart. With 8 minutes remaining it was very disappointing to concede from yet another set piece. Something has to be done about this area. There is no use blighting on about zonal marking because we have always adopted this system and I think we conceded the least amount of set piece goals last season. We just have to get back to doing it well. I suspect that missing Giroud and Sagna has contributed to our current defending. Oh I hope Sagna enjoyed the game, he did manage to get a great seat to view the game, lucky guy.

Speaking of playing without the ball. How good was Santi Cazorla in that second half? Who needs a big beast of a 'DM' when you have little Santi scampering around throwing his body in between the opposition and the ball as he did so often last night. I thought he worked tirelessly for he team and it was infectious. I'd love him to find the form of his first season at Arsenal, a joy to watch when on

I just had a feeling that we would do it from that point. Everton was dropping deeper and deeper and we were knocking on the door. I had turned my phone on moments earlier as it had been charging, it then alerted me to Ramsey's goal from earlier. A few minutes later it had made the same sound and I refused the urge to check if it was yet another alert from a new app I had installed but secretly I was hoping it was. When Ramsey had blasted a cross way beyond everyone my stream buffered for a second and my heart sank. We needed much better delivery than that but when my stream returned Giroud had headed in the equaliser. On the replay Nacho had done brilliantly to retrieve the ball and cross perfectly for Giroud.