Montpellier vs Arsenal

The enigma that is Diaby strikes again. Decent first half and some powerful runs forward, but he could have cost us at least two goals tonight. I hope it was just tiredness because when he has been good this season he has been an absolute monster. He needs to keep his concentration, losing the ball in your own penalty area when you've had time on the ball is frankly unacceptable at this level.

Absolutely made up with a win though, no matter how much luck or graft was involved. Any win away in the CL is hard to come by (more so than in the PL seemingly) and so this can only be deemed a good three points

Diaby has been good so far this season but not sure any of our opponents have pressed us as much as Montpellier did tonight (mostly in first 15mins and 2nd half) and as we know one of his problems is giving the ball early, he likes to take his time and when he lost the ball those two occasions it was because they were snapping away.

I didn't think he had a bad overall performance but you can't make huge errors like he did where he did and we got lucky we weren't punished.

Nice to see us looking more comfortable off the ball. Agree that the team looked tired in the second half- I was expecting Arsene to name a slightly less strong side but having seen what Montpelier offer that probably would have been a recipe for a bad result.

Very impressed by Cabella, all the diving aside!

Diaby's performance was a reminder that even when he has stayed fit in the past, he's been incredibly inconsistent. Let's not get too excited about him yet.

A win is a win. We looked pretty good first half, and a bit sloppy in the 2nd half owing to their good play. Some points:

- I wanted to rest some players prior to kickoff, but a win here is more important because it means we can rest players later on in the season, if the rest of CL group qualification goes well. Players should still be relatively fresh, since the season has just started. That said, I would've still liked to see Koscielny and/or Santos come in and get some game time.

- I still don't think that would've been a penalty in the Premier League. Little danger, player went down easily. Also, panenkas are bullshit. If you're going to send it down the middle, then blast it. None of this faffy nonsense.

- Giroud looks a good player, but I do wonder how well he will adapt - or how well the rest of the team adapts to him. His style doesn't seem to fit so well, and he doesn't seem to get so many chances per game. I think he'll score a decent number of goals for us, and set up a decent number as well, but there may need to be some tweaking of our system tactically to get the best of him.

- I hope the players are sufficiently rested for Man City away. Cazorla, Podolski and Gervinho are becoming crucial.

Isn't Montpellier's president the same guy who said that Spahic was worth three times what we gave for Kos?