Arsenal vs Shakhtar

Unusually, on recent form, I came away from the Emirates happy. Our preceding two home games, I came away  from dissatisfied (to say the least) we really were poor. On Tuesday's performance though, things would appear to have picked up somewhat. Jack Wilshere's last appearance for a fortnight was superb, and capped with  a quality goal, with a fantastic build up. To be honest though, the thing that made the game was the reception Eduardo got, both when he came onto the pitch and after his goal. It's a remarkable change from one of the most hostile atmospheres I've ever seen there (aimed at the referee soon after the penalty in the Birmingham game), to one of the friendliest I've seen. I shows just how much of an Arsenal legend he was/is. 

Back to the game though, I was impressed by how much more flowing we were in attack; we really did look much better following Fabregas' return. Although I don't like to have a go at the players, I really do think that not playing Diaby made a humongous difference. Against Birmingham, every time we were looking to counter, the ball got moved to Diaby, and suddenly everything stopped. All the momentum just ceased, and we started going backwards. 

Not only did we look better than previously, there were two new Champions League records set. With 14 goals from three games, Arsenal have set a record for the most goals scored in the first three games. Not only that, Marouane Chamakh became the first ever player to score in 6 consecutive Champions League games - a record started last season at Bordeaux. Now we have the luxury of being able to qualify for the last 16 by taking 3 points from the 3 remaining games. No disrespect to them, but I feel that we should manage to beat Shakhtar next time out. After that, the Braga and Partizan games should be a good run out for the younger players; much like against Olymiacos last season.

The story of the week though, is Wayne Rooney's determination to leave United. Arsenal are being quoted odds of 25/1 to sign him, and Arsene Wenger has said that the matter is "too sensitive" to comment on. On occasion this has meant that he's interested, though I'm sceptical. Much as I'm not keen on him, I'd never turn down the chance to have a striker of his quality available - that and as a club we'd have majorly got one over on United.