I spoke Arsenal pre match about Theo Walcott making a difference to this game and in the 11 minute match, he was the player that made the difference. Our first real attack of the game saw van Persie clip a pass into the stride of Theo Walcott who raced through ahead of former Tottenham defender Sébastien Bassong, Bassong rather clumsily bundled Walcott over in the box and the referee made the correct decision by awarding the penalty. As Bassong prevented a goalscoring
Manchester City were pushed into a box in their own half and were not allowed to get out. The likes of Yossi Benayoun, Tomas Rosicky, Alex Song and company forced them to turn over possession time and time again. Manchester City only managed one shot on target in the whole game. As good as our defence were on the day, they did not have to perform heroic clearances off the lines or last ditch
I was also very impressed with Andrey Arshavin. It was fantastic to see the old Shava back again after a few months. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that he had been doing extra fitness work whilst being out of the side because his work rate was as high as I can remember it ever being in the past. He ran more without the ball than he did with it and that hasn't always been the case with Arshavin
I expect Wolves to play with a congested midfield, especially narrowly. The forward passes of Cesc along with the movement of Van Persie and Walcott will be important. When Cesc is on his game then the rest of his team mates are usually on their game because of the captain's influence on the pitch. Without Samir Nasri we are going to need Cesc to take a step forward and find his best form, hopefully the midweek rest will have allowed