Victory at The Hawthrons and drawing up Chelsea ....My two pence worth of thoughts

120 minutes of tiring game play and 10 nervous Penaltie kicks later Arsenal emerges ad the victors of the night against The Baggies. I have always considered West Brom as one of the Bogey teams, aginst whom Arsenal inexplicably suffers( Remember the 3-2 with Almunia in goal ). The Baggies are a spirited bunch. and they were attacking  arsenal third pretty much  the whole game. They had 25 shots on our goal. But we stood firm and worked our socks up and scored the first goal of the match in the 62nd Minute. We never looked in control and were desperate to search for the second and 9 minutes later they had equalized, Fabianski could have done better but all in all he had a good game can't exactly blame him for the goal.

We tried hard to take the lead again, but till the regulation time were played out none of the team could provide the final blow. At Extra time we saw Arteta limp off and was replaced by the exciting young Spanish right back, Hector Bellerin. Gnarby played Bendtner through but he took a bit of time to gt his shot off and was spectacularly tackled by a Dawson. At the end of extra time it was still 1-1. 

Penalties loomed with Arteta substituted, our options were very minimal. Other than Bendtner and Monreal, we had no other experienced penalty takers. West Brom took the first penalty with Reid scoring his and then Bendtner returned the favour by sending Davies the wrong way. Then Rosenberg fooled Fabianski while Gnabry  had his saved by Davies. The third penalty by Morrison was a superb one and we really looked doomed until Olsson stepped up and finished his penalty past Davies cooly. Then Dawson and Amalfitano missed the frame altogether and Akpom and Monreal put theirs in the back of the net to give Arsenal a hard fought and a well earned  victory.

In todays match of all the youngsters tried to give a good account of themselves. As Predicted Eisfeld scored. Eisfeld's  problem is that other than scoring goals and assisting them he remains anonymous in the game but as long as he scores I have no complaints. Ryo and Gnabry have a lot to learn because they are still inexperienced and maybe a  tad too negative and shy to take on players in the flanks.Issac Hayden looked O.K. but was lucky to be not sent off. Bellerin and Olsson looked Promising. Bendtner looked rusty but still has it in him and Akpom need to build up his pace and physique. Monreal ,Jenko, Vermalen and Mert had an avarage game and so did Fabianski.

The next match is in the end of October against Chelsea at The Emirates. We might have the like of Rocisky, Cazorla and Podolski back by then. The Chelsea reserve is alone worth 135 million quids. Hence, it si not going to be an easy match. But the kind of form and spirit shown by the  team we might be able to see them  through to the Quarter-finals of the competition. Ideally a lesser opponents would have been better  but then again to win a cup you have to beat the best so COME ON YOU GUNNERS.