Wenger spoke about Jack’s ability to play passes through the lines and find the likes of Cesc and that was evident last night. Nasri, Cesc and Van Persie were being found with diagonal passes into feet from Wilshere time and time again. Wilshere also makes so much space for himself by letting the ball run across his body and then almost glides through a sandwich of opposition midfielders before finding a

The big guns returned to the Arsenal line up and with that came another big performance. West Ham were simply out fought, out thought and most certainly out played in East London yesterday afternoon.

We lacked movement and imagination from our attacking players in the recent cup games but it was not lacking at West Ham.

I thought our front players, now known in the twitter world as Theo Van Nasrigas, were exceptional and when they are on song then many will struggle to contain the passing, interchange and movement.

The first goal was a perfect example of great movement and imagination. Nasri running from behind Van Persie saw where his team mate was and when Walcott fired in a low cross into Nasri’s feet, the Frenchman stepped over the ball taking away the player from the near post and Van Persie swung his right foot and planted his shot into the corner of the net.

I have always preferred our wide players playing in low balls into the box instead of firing in high crosses over our players heads and away from danger. Someone as direct and quick as Theo should be getting around the full back and cutting the ball back from the touchline much more than he does.

As good as our attacking players were, one player really caught my eye as he has often done this season and that was 19 year old Jack Wilshere. We know about his technical quality and his sweet left foot but what I love is his tenacity and fight. He doesn’t allow the opposition to settle on the ball and doesn’t give any less than 100% every time he steps out onto the pitch.

Wenger spoke about Jack’s ability to play passes through the lines and find the likes of Cesc and that was evident last night. Nasri, Cesc and Van Persie were being found with diagonal passes into feet from Wilshere time and time again. Wilshere also makes so much space for himself by letting the ball run across his body and then almost glides through a sandwich of opposition midfielders before finding a more advanced team mate.

I am sure Wenger must have had Diaby in mind for that second deep midfielder alongside Alex Song but now Wilshere will take some shifting if he continues to produce that type of display.

Johan Djourou almost gifted Carlton Cole a goal in the half but for a Szczesny impersonation of Peter Schmeichel. Theo Walcott could have also grabbed a goal after a lovely weighted through pass from captain fantastic.

Robin deserved his second in the first half after a wonderful sweeping move on the counter. Cesc played a pass into Nasri who switched it back to Wilshere just inside his half, Wilshere slipped the ball in between the Hammers midfield to Nasri who had switched positions with Van Persie. Nasri flicked the ball to Van Persie who spun away from his man, without taking a touch Van Persie fired a low drive past Rob Green and against the base of the post.

It was a lovely move and one that deserved a goal, that goal wouldn’t take long to come.

Robin Van Persie looked somewhat back to his best, his touch and link up play has been sorely missed since our game against money City. Five minutes before half time, Clichy clipped a ball down the left channel for Van Persie to get onto, the silky Dutchman cut the ball back behind Wayne Bridge who lost Walcott and our speedy wide striker and the speed of thought to check his run and nip ahead of Bridge to fire high past the helpless Green into the roof of the net. Fabulous reactions from Walcott who apparently lacks a footballing brain.

Johan Djourou was not at his best but with so much football in recent weeks it is no surprise that his performance levels have dropped.

We slowed the game down in the second half, keeping the ball and eased off the pressing, probably to conserve energy for a very important few weeks of football.

Had Arsenal Vision not gone down yesterday then I would have mentioned in a preview of the game that the Theo Walcott vs Wayne Bridge battle would have been interesting. Wayne Bridge is not the greatest defender at the best of times but with so few minutes this season he was always going to be rusty. West Ham really should have protected him much better from the midfield wide players.

Twenty minutes before time, Bridge was exposed once again. Cesc’s pass was actually poorly played and Walcott had to check his run, Bridge had thought that he could get to the ball first and in 99 out of 100 cases he would have been correct, the wrong one choice was Theo Walcott, arguably the quickest player in the league. So much for Theo not getting a penalty after admitting to diving last week.

Van Persie struck low past Green for three. Game set and match.

Wilshere came close to adding a goal at the end, a goal that he deserved but Green was equal to it.

Three goals, three consecutive clean sheets in the league and nine goals in our last four.

Whilst you may question our mixed teams or cup sides, you cannot question the quality of Arsene’s strongest line up.

Now we wait and hope that our neighbours can do us a favour by taking points from Manchester United at the top.

Szczesny (7)
Eboue (5.5)
Djourou (5.5)
Koscielny (7)
Clichy (7.5)
Song (7)
Wilshere (8)
Cesc (8)
Walcott (8)
Van Persie (8.5)
Nasri (8)

Please note that ratings are only my interpretations of the game and that others will have differing opinions