I don't know about you but I woke up feeling pretty content this morning; probably because Arsenal spoilt me rotten yesterday. Those lucky enough to be in the Emirates Stadium last night were treated to some absolutely glorious football. Arsenal fans were left revelling in the beauty of the goals, unleashing an unbearable twitter storm of smugness that no doubt left our rival fans as angry as this guy.
Arsenal fans finally had a chance to see Santi Cazorla and Mesut Özil on the pitch together as Aaron Ramsey started on the bench after playing two full international games. Santi understandably isn't quite at his outstanding best yet but the signs are good and Arsène is now starting to have some really tough selection choices.
The first goal, scored by an impressive Jack Wilshere, was outrageous - first time, intricate, improvised passing and movement at its best leaving Norwich players stunned and helpless.
"A mixture of technical quality, speedy thinking, quick reaction and as well being calm in front of goal. It had nearly everything you want to have, combined speed and calm and relaxed attitude. It was a great goal." - Arsène WengerOne negative to the game was an injury to Matthieu Flamini - after a nasty clash of heads a rather groggy, double-visioned Matthieu was withdrawn for Ramsey at 1-0 for his own safety. On the bright side, he would then have seen six more Arsenal goals instead of three...
After Flamini's departure we lost a bit of a grip on the game and Norwich came back into it and actually our second was a little against the run of play. Olivier Giroud picked up his second excellent assist of the game with a terrific dinked cross onto the head of Mesut Özil. His header was top-drawer, especially when you consider it was the first headed goal of his career.
A well taken Norwich goal from Jonny Howson after an unconvincing Mertesacker clearance gave us a slightly edgy finish but a now customary moment of Aaron Ramsey brilliance put the result beyond doubt. It was his 9th Arsenal goal of the season and probably the best. He was exceptional after the break and clearly enjoyed playing in the centre of midfield again.
Our fourth was another excellent team goal - substitute Tomas Rosicky picked out Aaron Ramsey at the back post who pulled back to put the ball on a plate for Mesut Özil, who gratefully gobbled up his second of the game. It must be nice for Mesut to be receiving such excellent assists rather than giving them - I'm sure he didn't get that level of service at Real Madrid!
Arsène has some tricky decisions to make going into the Dortmund game. Our last Champions League home game was of course the terrific win over Napoli which was built on a very solid foundation provided by Flamini and Arteta but Wenger must be tempted to bring Aaron Ramsey into the centre of midfield where he has been his most effective. The Flamini head injury might make that decision for him but picking between Wilshere, Cazorla and Rosicky isn't an easy decision either although I would guess he will plump for Wilshere given his performance yesterday. It's nice to have these decisions to make as all three substitutes yesterday played well (yes, Bendtner was very good!) and players of the calibre of Vermaelen and Monreal can't get a game at the moment. When the Ox, Theo and Lukas 'thumbs up' Podolski are back we really do have a formidable squad.
Match of the Day made particularly entertaining viewing as points were dropped by Liverpool and Manchester United (remember them? They used to be title-challengers? Ask your parents). An old and bitter Scottish fella reluctantly praised Arsenal before ruling out a title-challenge. It's his last season on Match of the Day apparently so let's make sure he goes out looking silly.
Arsenal are such a joy to watch at the moment and thankfully we only have to wait until Tuesday for the
Man of the Match: Mesut Özil
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