You could see with Gervinho’s movement into central areas that criticism towards Theo Walcott for drifting inside has been a little unfair as it seems apparent that it is an instruction given from the manager. Gervinho’s starting position was from the right but continuously ran inside to join Oliver

We should be beating a team like Reading at home. Home advantage, better players, deeper squad, higher confidence the works but it doesn’t make the enjoyment of a thoroughly convincing win any less pleasurable, at least not for me. You can throw the ‘it’s only Reading’ line at me and it will sail straight past me.

We played some wonderful football on the day, football that a struggling Reading side could not live with. I have been impatiently waiting to watch a 90 minutes of Tomas Rosicky and Santi Cazorla together on the pitch and I got it. I was quite surprised I must say as the Czech has traveled away with his country during the International break and I had just assumed that Arsene didn’t think Rosicky was up to more than one game in a week. It was amazingly Tomas Rosicky’s first league start of the season which given his inspired form last season is quite bemusing, unless of course his injury issues at the start of the season were worst and more troubling than we thought.

It was not just Rosicky and Cazorla though, Aaron Ramsey and Mikel Arteta were both fantastic also and we had our good friend ‘triangle’ back on the pitch again as the players popped the ball around at speed.

Wengerball is on it’s way back at last, we look like we are finally playing in automatic compared to our slow sideways football at the start of the season.

Gervinho was Arsene’s ace up his sleeve on the day, we all expected Chamberlain to start on the right given his good form of late, including his last showing at Swansea but my guess is that Arsene wanted a wide striker rather than a wide midfielder with Theo Walcott out of the side with injury.

You could see with Gervinho’s movement into central areas that criticism towards Theo Walcott for drifting inside has been a little unfair as it seems apparent that it is an instruction given from the manager. Gervinho’s starting position was from the right but continuously ran inside to join Oliver Giroud. Gervinho was indeed in that very position to score the opening goal following a cross-come shot from Santi Cazorla.

Gervinho looked like first season Gervinho. A player who doesn’t possess the quality in the final third but has plenty of overlooked quality in the build up. He is the only player in the squad who can beat players at pace. Ok, Chamberlain has a bit of it also but not the way that Gervinho can. Last season in tight games I always wanted Gervinho on the ball because I knew he could make something happen.

It is frustrating because we have half of a world class performer in that guy. On one occasion he dribbled past two or three players in a tight space in the penalty area before unleashing a shot wide. Not many players can beat players so effortlessly but without the end product it isn’t enough at times. I wonder if Gervinho is a little too far down the road to consistently add that to his game. I read a Wenger quote about an hour after I thought the very same thing.

Wenger said:

“However, on Saturday, Santi Cazorla missed a lot in the first half because he wanted to always hit with his laces. At half-time he changed and just placed the ball then he scored straight away. The big goal scorers just pass it in and that’s what Gervinho has to learn.”

I wondered the very same thing, do we ever see Gervinho open up his body and attempt to place the ball into a corner? He usually puts his foot through the ball and hopes for the best or so it seems when you think he would benefit greatly from working on his finishing technique rather than playing the percentages game when presented with a good chance.

The answer is clearly to merge he and Lukas Podolski somehow and you have one hell of an attacker.

One player who is one hell of an attacker is Santiago Cazorla. I love watching him play the game. I would go as far as to say, I sometimes look forward to watching us play largely because of him. Jack Wilshere can be massively influential on a game with his fight, craft and character but Santi is on another level in terms of ability at present.

He keeps the ball when sometimes he really shouldn’t. He sees things that he shouldn’t and can use his weaker foot as if it is his strongest. He is a special player and we should enjoy him while he is here because one day, they are gone.

I used to take the 2003/04 side for granted and one day they were no longer here. I will not make that mistake with Cazorla. His finish for our second goal was made to look so easy. Caressed into the corner around the defender.

It was Gervinho who ran into the box, thought about his options and then rolled it to the Spaniard. Gervinho wasn’t finished there either, he carried the ball across the length of the pitch not for the first time, he had to wait as Giroud had to catch up and when he did Gervinho took the right option by playing the ball to the Frenchman. his strike may have been a little hit and hope but instead of blazing over or into the side netting, the ball flashed past former keeper Stuart Taylor.

I wouldn’t get too caught up in the blame game for Reading’s consolation goal, we as football fans have a habit of pointing the finger whenever we concede but every team concedes goals and you can always find a fault whenever an opposition player scores a goal. Players are not robots and are bound to make split second misjudgments over the course of 90 minutes. What is important is that our goal conceded statistics are comparative to those around us, including the team that is top of the league. As I have repeated many times, it is the other end of the pitch where we need to improve to get closer to those above us.

It was good to see Alex Chamberlain come on and continue his recent form. He looks confident in himself and positive whenever he gets the ball. He had tricked his way past one Reading defender before getting fouled just outside of the penalty area but the referee made up for his first half penalty mistake and awarded Arteta the chance to cooly roll the ball into the corner. It’s always best to avoid what if’s but I would have traded that for his penalty in the home game against Fulham. Ah well.

Three more points in the bag in a week where Chelsea slip on a Southampton shaped banana skin. Keep it up Arsenal.