The Gunners travelled to Hull City on Saturday with a huge point to prove, and thankfully we walked away with all three points. Even though Arsene Wenger stated before the game that it was not about revenge, the nauseating memory of Phil Brown running victoriously down the touchline at The Emirates was still very fresh in our minds.

Now let me be the first one to congratulate Adebayor on a great performance. I have been highly critical of the big front man of late and am very pleased to see that he was pulling his weight for the team. I do believe the reason for this was that he and Van Persie had a role reversal from the game at the Emirates last week. On that occasion Van Persie fell back and received the ball just ahead of the midfield, however against Hull Ade was the one dropping back. He looked much more at ease holding up the ball with his back to defenders and then spreading it out wide. He also created a lot of space on the left side, which mimicked the great Thierry Henry back at Highbury. I do believe this is his natural way of playing and that he should stick with it. Now we need to start seeing consistency from him and this performance will be a huge boost to him personally. Needless to say Van Persie had another blinder and his performances of late cannot be praised enough. He must surely be in line for the Barclays Player of the Month Award (The fact that he is seemingly perfecting at the art of conning the linesman from offside positions doesn’t hurt either).

As odd as this might seem I do not think Bendtner is doing his chances for a regular place in the starting line up any good with these match winning performances from the bench, and don’t we love him for it! He has unfortunately not had the best of times on the pitch when he has started, and the temptation to keep using him as an impact player seems too great at the moment. Questions must however be asked once again about Eboue’s quality, which may work in Nicklas’s favour, but for now this is his best role for the team.

The central pairing in midfield weren’t great but they got stuck in when they needed to, however for a world-class club like Arsenal they just don’t seem to cut it. In Nasri, on the other hand, we have discovered a wing in the mould of a Robert Pires. He seems to have the ability to chip in with some vital goals over the course of the season, and his finish with his ‘weaker’ left foot on the weekend has class written all over it. With Arshavin seemingly on his way this week our midfield problems might just take a back seat for a while.

Our defence, in contrast, was under huge amounts of pressure for a period in the second half but credit to the guys, as they stood tall. I must however question Djourou’s reckless challenge on Manucho that should in all fairness have been a penalty. He had a very solid game otherwise but must learn to keep his focus, as critical as it may seem, for 90 minutes as a single rash challenge like that could lose us matches in the future.

The game at Cardiff over the weekend will be another tough examination of our team but we will be high in confidence after the weekend. These grinding performances are really showing character and with 7 games unbeaten our season seems very much alive. Having said that, Clichy joins the long list of unavailable players through suspension. Fortunately he’ll be back for the Everton clash, and the break might be a blessing in disguise, as he seemed below par for his impeccable standards on the weekend.

Lets hope the next time you hear from me will be after another win to the Arsenal!

Keep the Faith…