It would be hard to overstate the importance of this game; at 12.35 I took my seat and turned to my Dad and said we "have to win this game." Now the "must-win game" has become a bit of a cliché; used whenever a team who has a point to prove, but in this-case with the league looking increasingly unlikely and the Champions League even more so, there was a real sense of make-or-break at the Emirates on Saturday; the players needed to stand up and be counted and boy, didn't they do just that?
For me, the key moment came halfway through the second half; with the scores level, Oxlade-Chamberlain showed quick feet to skip past Barry in the box and was tripped. Mark Clattenburg pointed to the spot and Arteta stood up to take the penalty that could knock his old club out of the competition. He buried it in the bottom left hand corner only for the referee to book Giroud for encroaching on the area and make Mikel retake the penalty. The pressure must have been immense and I immediately started fearing the worse but Arteta showed superb level-headedness and absolutely enormous cojones to slam the ball into the top-right corner of the net. The sense of elation and relief was immense and thankfully he didn't bother with any of that muted celebration nonsense.
Mesut Özil had come under fire in a big way for Arsenal recently and even for Germany last week but he was a joy to watch on Saturday, working hard defensively, scoring a superb opener (winning me a tenner in the process) and then laying a brilliant fourth on a plate for Olivier Giroud. He wasn't the only player to excel; Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was dynamic, driven and effective. He did make a couple of sloppy errors but busted a gut to achieve immediate redemption on both occasions. Santi Cazorla completed a trio of excellent attacking midfield performances, surprisingly strong in the tackle and extremely incisive with his passing. When all three of these guys are in the starting line-up and playing like that, you wouldn't give the opposition defence much hope. I think Arsène must be very tempted to play the three of them again on Tuesday.Özil opened the scoring at the end of our first meaningful attack, with a very cool finish across the goalkeeper after excellent work and a perfectly-weighted ball into Mesut's path. The crowd roared as his name was announced, a rather different reception to that of the German fans on Wednesday night. There is no doubt that he is a man with a point to prove and his reaction on Saturday after being taken out of the firing line by Arsène for a couple of weeks was very positive indeed.
Everton hit back a little against the run of play with a quick and incisive break. Had Flamini not had been booked he may have tried to tackle Barkley and perhaps Per and Bacary Sagna were a little slow to be caught behind Mirallas and Lukaku but Barkley did do extremely well.
Fortunately, the Arsenal players kept their heads and went on to produce an excellent second half performance. I would say, with the possible exception of the first half of our home game against Napoli, that it was the best half of football we've played this season... so far. Two big contributors to our strong finish were Olivier Giroud (who scored two goals) and Tomas Rosicky (who was involved in both of those goals and didn't give the ball away once); both of whom came off the bench to great effect. Our third goal arrived after Rosicky played a well-weighted ball to the overlapping Sagna, who took his time and expertly picked out the near-post run of Olivier Giroud for our decisive third goal. The sun was out, the Arsenal fan's were singing "We're going to Wemberley" and the sense of joy was immense.
This delicious cake still needed icing though and it was duly provided with an excellent counter-attacking move; Santi Cazorla tackled McGeady, then two first-touch passes from Rosicky and Özil left Giroud with a tap-in. It was one to add to Arsenal's list of superb team goals and the pace and incisiveness of the move was reminiscent of previous great Thierry Henry and Robert Pires inspired teams.
A 4-1 scoreline was arguably a little flattering but there is no debating the fact that it was an extremely impressive performance, especially when you consider what a strong side Everton are and how well they played on their last visit. One minor complaint is that we didn't create much from 13 corners. Yaya Sanogo didn't manage to make the same impact he did in the last round of the FA Cup but we looked stronger after Giroud's introduction. I expect Olivier to start against Bayern after 4 goals in his last 3 games.
After the full-time whistle, the fans stayed behind to applaud the players, who wandered round the pitch returning the gesture. Per Mertesacker, in particular, felt the warmth of the crowd following signing his new contact, with his BFG song ringing out loudly.
There was more good news to come on Sunday. Initially most Arsenal fans were unhappy to draw Manchester City or Wigan. However, surprisingly, two hours later Wigan had defeated the oily Citizens 2-1 with a heroic performance. It means that Arsenal are now favourites to win the FA Cup and Samir Nasri was really unhappy, which makes me very happy.
This gives us a huge chance to win our first trophy in 9 years, to get that monkey off our back and get some success under our belts. No pressure lads, but this is huge, now go out there and make it happen; get that trophy our season deserves.
Man of the Match: Mesut Özil - It looks as though the rest has done Mesut the world of good. He was excellent on Saturday - full of running, great passing and one superb finish - issuing a reminder to Arsenal fans of how lucky we are to have a player of his ability in our team and making those in the press who are so desperate to write him off look a little foolish.
An honourable mention for runner-up Mikel "massive cojones" Arteta for his penalties and 92% pass completion rate.
