West Ham vs Arsenal

Cazorla is a dream come true, what a player he is! Great day out for Olivier as well. Good hard fought victory, especially as 1-0 down against a team set up to play for a draw is a game we probably wouldn't have won a season or two ago.

Great performance first half, bit uninterested second half it seemed. Anyway, great win, great goal for Giroud (and assist) and Cazorla no comment.
Now a good 2 weeks rest for most of the squad.
Only downside is Gibbs' injury, but I like Santos although he is not THAT good defensively.

A few years back, or even just last season, this win would be down to great character but today and against Olympiakos I had the feeling our boys were gonna get the win. Really good game all round today I think. Absolutely love Poldi, Giroud and Santi. Theo with a good goal, maybe being dropped to the bench was the boot up the arse he needed.

Brilliant win. Very happy!

awesome win.saved me from couple of weeks of misery

Another commanding performance from the BFG. We just look so much more balanced with him in the side and more importantly, TV or Kos play better next to him. Has to be Per + another now, even if it means dropping our captain

Agree. It would have been much easier if Arteta was made captain. It is always good to have your captain as the first player chosen in the line up each week.

I wish I could retweet Jonathan's post

Wenger won't drop Our Captain.
With Diaby out for a couple more weeks maybe We could play Kos next to Mert then play TV as the holding midfielder

TV needs to concentrate on playing CB! However well Kos played last season, I think he could be on the bench for a while this season given how much we seem to need Mertesacker.

As for Walcott, I think he is a good impact sub. We know how limited he can be as a starter, so why change a formula when it's working well? The time for him to start will come but for the moment I think he's doing well as a sub. Re: the contract, he can sign if he wants, but he'll never be our centre-forward as long as we play 4-3-3.

Vanig Bostanian wrote:I wish I could retweet Jonathan's post

You made my day saying that! Rare internet kindness!

Hisham El Mawan wrote:Anyone else get really excited to see Vermaelen, Mertesacker, AND Koscielny all on the field at the same time?

Yes, very much so.

Did our formation change? I was watching the game at about 4am (recording), so was a bit sleepy. I like the idea of a 3-5-2, and I think we are a team that could pull it off. Did it look like we were playing that formation?

The Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker returned from his bout of the flu just in time to play his part in countering West Ham’s aeriel superiority on Saturday, and he admits that it was a tough game and even more so after West Ham scored the opening goal against the run of play.

“What can you do about their goal? Sometimes that happens,” said Mertesacker. “We have not conceded a lot of goals during games this year and most have been from set-pieces. We just need to keep concentrating on our defensive level.

“We needed to win to bounce back after the defeat against Chelsea. It’s always good to win in front of an international break. We have good confidence and showed that especially when it was tough in the second half.

“West Ham had a few chances but we didn’t let ourselves down. We kept our chins up and we have unbelievable quality on the bench which made the difference.”

When Gervinho was looking leg-weary, Wenger had a choice of Chamberlain, Walcott or Arshavin to take his place for the last half-hour, and his choice of Walcott proved correct as the Englishman gave Arsenal the lead 15 minutes after his arrival on the pitch before Santi Cazorla wrapped up the points.

But Mertesacker believes that the solid defensive performance was also a great factor in the win, and believes this will be vital for the Gunners this season. “We could feel in the air it was going to be a tough game,” Mertesacker continued. “We had to fight a lot, especially in the second half when the crowd got behind West Ham they had a good advantage.

“But we came back into the game on the counter-attack and afterwards we played well, especially defensively. We won more and more headers which was vital.

“Our defending can be the difference, it is crucial for us that the defence is winning more games. We just try to keep that in our mind the whole year.”

http://justarsenal.com/mertesacker-it-was-arsenals-quality-on-the-bench-that-won-it/17086