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 don’t think I have enjoyed an Arsenal match as much as I did yesterday since our 2-0 victory in this same very competition a few weeks back. A mix and match team produced one of our best performances of the season to put Tottenham out of the FA Cup back in early January. On that day we had rested Per Mertesacker and Mesut Özil while Oliver Giroud was not even in the squad. This caused plenty of pre match anxiety amongst the Gooner faithful.

So when the team sheet came through at around 3.10pm yesterday afternoon I took myself back to the cup tie against Spurs.

The rumours of Yaya Sanogo proving a handful in training appear to be correct as he was given his first Arsenal start over Nicklas Bendtner who couldn’t even find his way onto the bench. It was a gamble by the manager, a poor performance from the young Frenchman would have seen plenty of negativity from fans I would imagine but I guess it is far less of a gamble to someone who watches the players during every training session. Arsène Wenger talks to the players regularly so he knows where their confidence levels are.

While still looking raw, especially technically you can see that Yaya Sanogo has plenty about him both in terms of physically but also his character. He seems like a hard worker and fighter. As cliché as it sounds, he asked many questions of Skrtel and Agger. I’d like to think that none of the questions were ‘what are the best types of apples to use to make a nice apple pie’

Yaya Sanogo looks to have the correct foundations to turn into a good player. He will gain confidence from playing and will improve technically receiving passes from Özil and Cazorla. He cannot yet bring others into the game like Giroud, his first touch isn’t as good as Giroud’s either but he wants to get in behind and finds himself in good positions it seems. Very early but the signs are promising.

Sanogo combined well with Oxlade-Chamberlain down the right and played some nice one-two’s with the Englishman. Speaking of the Ox, I thought he was our best attacking player in the first half by a country mile. I need not bang on about how far I see this kid going, I don’t want to bore you to tears repeating the same views over and over again.

Chambo looks to be on the way up physically, given when he returned from injury and the games he has had since then without disruption you could see that being the case. He was very purposeful and confident in what he wanted to do. While he is thought highly of as a central player, I would love to see him stay wide a little longer. When he plays in the middle you get the sense that he has to yank up the handbrake on his greatest strength which is running at people. Centrally he has to be more tactically aware and defensively more cautious.

Oxlade-Chamberlain was in the right area to side foot in from close range to put us 1-0 up following a blocked Sanogo effort after pulling down a very difficult ball in the air with his chest.

Our attacking game was far quicker and we played with more intensity rather than trying to pass our way into goal we were more direct in our approach and that made it for a much more enjoyable game. It also meant we were more dangerous on the break. Podolski wasn’t always in the game but when he was, he was direct.

Liverpool had started the brighter team from the kick off and carved out some good chances, most falling to Daniel Sturridge. The Arsenal defence were finding it hard to stop the movement of Suarez, Sturridge and Sterling fed by the creative passing of Coutinho. Fabianski had to deny Sturridge once and the same player hit the side netting on his weaker right foot when trying to round the Pole.

The Suarez vs Koscielny battle was immense as it always is. Two of the very top players in their positions battling it out. I thought Koscielny handled him very well when he had to but Suarez was not restricted to the middle so he managed to find space twisting and turning from wider areas.

Two minutes into the second half Arsenal had scored a fantastic second goal. 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, so Liverpool dominated possession and took the game to us. We had defended very well but with the movement they had in attack they got into some very good scoring positions. Lukas Fabianski made a string of top quality saves. The one where Sturridge once again tried to round him was world class. clawing the ball away with all the speedy reflexes that have been waxed lyrical by our coaching staff for all these years.

Even though I am very happy with the progress of one Polish keeper I can’t help but feel a little sad that the Fabianski story is almost finished at Arsenal. He has matured into a top quality keeper and like I’ve said many times here, if it wasn’t for recent injuries there would be many Arsenal supporters talking as fondly of him as I am. Good luck to him in his next chapter, he has certainly played a big part in getting us through this round.

Lukas Podolski needlessly gave Luis Suarez a reason to go down in the box and Gerrard slotted the penalty away for 2-1. Liverpool should have had a pretty blatant penalty when Oxlade-Chamberlain ran into Suarez again but Howard Webb waved it away. I am sure you have all had it rammed down your throats by now. Maybe slightly more than the clear foul on substitute Santi Cazorla which hasn’t been mentioned outside of Arsenal fans. Santi Cazorla also blasted a poor clearance into orbit when he could have controlled the ball and placed it into the corner all at walking pace. Not sure what the rush was but it didn’t matter, we held on and booked our place in the next round to face some more scousers, this time the blue half at the Emirates.

Next stop, Bayern Munich.

Extra Reading: Liverpool (h) Tweeters Post Match Q&A by @AFCfreddie8, @EducatedGooner, @LA1886 & @WengerBoy1