Arsenal – Olympiakos: All’s Well that Ends Well! Ten Quick Observations.

One: Arteta and Cazorla are no mercenaries (in case there was any doubt left). They both gave everything tonight, all over pitch, and carried the team forward for large parts of the game. What a couple of awesome players!

Two: Steve Bould, judging by the evidence of tonight, can do a good halftime team talk. We were more organised, worked harder and never let the Greeks back in. His substitutions did also really work out for Arsenal tonight. All three of them made a difference: they were focussed and eager. I was very impressed with the Boulddozer tonight.

Three: Our young FB’s are showing great signs of maturity – just as they did against Chelsea and Man City – and what a difference this is making with last year’s FB situation at the start of the season.

Four: TV’s performance in the first half was poor, but he improved in the second half quite a bit. But why does he keep bombing forward continuously, even when we are in front and don’t need to chase a goal? It must be by instruction of Wenger and Bould, but I don’t like it at all.

Five: As much as I could judge from a dodgy stream, Coquelin did reasonably ok. The Ox had an unfortunate game and I am starting to wonder where he could play best: at the moment, in our 4-2-1-3 system, I can only see him up-front as one of our ‘fluent-three-attackers’, but as a pure winger he seems to be struggling at the moment (offensive as well as defensive). The difference in experience between, on one side Cazorla and Arteta, and on the other side The Ox and Le Coq, was very obvious tonight. Let’s hope the boys can learn quickly.

Six: With five goals in five, Gervinho is firing from all cylinders. He is so important for us at the moment: not just in terms of his goals but his general play as well. He makes himself available constantly and holds on to the ball well most of the time, and creates chances for others on a regular basis. Together with Arteta and Cazorla and the FB’s, he has been carrying the team tonight. I also thought Mannone did the simple things well tonight and I liked his calmness.

Seven: There is no need to despair about our strength in depth, yet. With Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, JW10, Diaby, and Rosicky not involved at all, and Giroud, Theo and Ramsey starting on the bench, we were still able to field a strong team.

Eight: Despite Podolski’s goal, which he took well, he seems to be struggling at the moment to get hold of the game on the left hand side. His cooperation with Cazorla, and especially Gibbs, is good, but there are too many, and long, periods in which he is simply not involved enough in the game.

Nine: I was happy with Theo’s zest and focus when he came on as a substitute. That was much better than the insipid show he presented us with on Saturday. Let’s hope we get complete contract clarity soon.

Ten: The first half was pretty bad, and lessons have to be learnt again. But the second was much, much better – although by no means faultless – and will give us plenty of confidence and gusto to face the Hammers on Saturday.

All in all, not a bad night and a great result – especially when taking into account the result between Schalke and Montpellier tonight.

Keep the faith fellow Gooners!

Total Arsenal.