Written by Filip Urbancík Sunday, 23 January 2011 13:10

GunnerTalk Blog

By Filip Urbancik
 
Wojciech Szczesny (7)
Given another opportunity between the sticks but thankfully wasn’t tested today by Wigan.. He  improves match after match and every Premier league experience is important for his development.
 
Bacary Sagna, Johan Djourou, Laurent Koscielny and Gael Clichy (7,5)
Did our defence played so well or did Wigan just played bad? Maybe a combination of both but our defence certainly looked very solid today. There was also good support of our attacking players, always two players back and the rest attacking as much as they wanted. We all know we weren´t tested enough at the back but midfield players like Song and Wilshire make it look easy.
 
Samir Nasri (8)
Who would have said he was going to be so important for Arsenal before the season started? Samir was spot on when he said that proper summer preparation and training will make him a stronger player. His movement in and out of the box is splendid. Strong partnership between him, Fabregas and van Persie will lead Arsenal to silverware.
 
Cesc Fabregas (8,5)
Don´t know if I was the only one who thought that Cesc wanted to leave us. There was no passion from him at the beginning of the season added with as injuries.  But he seems to be back to his best again. Very lively on the pitch, great passing. Short, long or through balls no problem. He scored loads of goals last season but now we have Nasri who scores which leaves Cesc space to create. It was just question of time when he would create a goal or penalty.
 
Theo Walcott (8)
There was always so much pressure on Theo and not going to the world cup was the best thing in his carrier. He could focus on his fitness and play during the summer and now he shows just how important he is for Arsenal and for England. He made a great run but failed to score when he passed the ball to Fabregas, a bit too unselfish! He must start to take these opportunities and score more goals.  His linking with van Persie is very exciting!
 
Jack Wilshire (7,5)
It was such a great decision to let him play for Arsenal and not to loan him to Bolton. He’s turned out to be an important midfield player and this season will be so important for his next stage of development. His intelligent movement and passing are a lot to deal with for any opponent. In his case it´s good that you can´t say he is an attacking or defensive midfielder (unfortunately you can´t say the same about Denilson). He isn´t scared of taking responsibility and that´s make him an even better player, it’s hard to remember he is still only just 19 years old!  Maybe Ramsey would be in a same position this season if he didn´t get injured but a loan season in his old club will make him even stronger.
 
Alex Song (7,5)
I was a bit scared at the start of the season or maybe later when he started to play so offensively that you didn´t know what position he was playing. I know it´s good to have another player who can decide a match but we need a rock solid defensive midfielder first! Now he‘s settled back to what he does best, maybe Arsen had a word with him and he plays very well at the moment. Solid defending combined with sharp runs into the box.
 
 
Robin van Persie (9) MOTM
I always have a special place in my heart for Robin because of his passion and love for the club. He is a very determined player who knows very well what he wants. He’s had a lot of injuries in his carrier but he always bounces back. When you see how great he plays you only think about one thing: ‚What if he was fit for the whole season‘?! His skills are magnificent, I could talk about his great movement after every match! We have only one technically great striker and this striker - Robin.
It will take a lot of time to make great players from the likes of Niclas and Maroune. I give more credit to Maroune cause his ego is ok and he can learn a lot from Robin.
We could all see how much Robin wanted that hat trick. That penalty miss would have been in his mind for a long time if he hadn’t of completed the hat trick. The Arsenal need Robin fit and at his best. Today he made my week and life a little bit brighter.

 
Substitutions:
 
Arshavin, Chamakh and Denilson (X)
It wouldn´t be fair to give them any marks.