Reviews

It was going to prove to be an interesting 15 minutes for Bendtner. After his header, he gave the ball away twice in the space of minutes to which the patient Arsenal crowd groaned and moaned, if that continued then it could have got much worse.

Samir Nasri seems to have a bit of everything and perhaps is still below some previous Arsenal play makers in some areas but at 21 could well be better than the rest

My doubts were eased a few minutes later. Arsenal had a free kick on the left hand side of the penalty area, Denilson swung it in front of James who looked shaky during the game from high balls and once again made a hash of it

We’ve played Portsmouth eleven times under Arsene and are yet to be beaten by the Hampshire side, winning five times and drawing six. We hadn’t beaten them since December 2005 before the victory in the corresponding fixture early last season

Why was 6ft7 Zat Knight left unmarked inside a penalty area on 92 minutes? That is not bad defending, it goes beyond that. It is almost like going to a park watching a collection of teenagers doing tricks and skills then throwing them into a team for the first time

Chocolate boy wasn't put off by his least favoured foot and struck a hard low shot past Reina 1-0. Robin Van Persie is the only player in the Arsenal squad who could have pulled that off

Fabregas: He raised his game above recent levels today and one just felt he would have shone much brighter if the team around him had brought on their attacking game. His distribution was good. He got involved in the retail side of the game

Arsene played the perecentages here, and it didn’t work. Hey, it happens. Barcelona did the same the night previously as they knew they had Real Madrid coming up on the weekend. And whilst Boro aren’t as glamorous as Real Madrid, the logic is the same

Arsene put him out of his misery and culled him for Silvestre to widespread cheers, thereby sparing him the risk of making that fatal, goal-conceding error. Adebayor went over to console him but he was obviously upset and marched straight down the tunnel

I am intrigued by Lansbury. He is the captain of the England Under-19’s side and was man-of-the-match in one of their recent games. The way he strikes the ball is eerily similar to a certain David Beckham – indeed, Lansbury’s affinity for changing his hairstyle