After a very disappointing week with two losses against Norwich and Schalke, Arsenal bounced back with a less than convincing win against QPR, and were buoyed by the return of Jack Wilshere and Bacary Sagna.

Vito Mannone – 6 – had little to do the whole match, dealing with crosses comfortably, before making a crucial save right near the death after Jamie Mackie had run through Arsenal’s defence.

Bacary Sagna – 6 – good to see him back in an Arsenal shirt, defensively sound and decent offensively, made a crucial last ditch challenge in the penalty area.

Per Mertesacker – 6 – didn’t have much to do, as he put in a reliable performance

Thomas Vermaelen – 5 – often had to cover for Santos, though he didn’t really do much wrong, Arsenal’s defence needed more commanding from him

Andre Santos - 4 – an improved performance from his last outing, though offensively he appeared threatening, he was still exploited too often in defence

Mikel Arteta – 6 – a solid performance from the goal scorer, a few uncharacteristic misplaced balls, though he done his job, and scored a fortuitous tap in.

Jack Wilshere – 8 –Arsenal’s best performer on his first start in 17 months, he looked like he had never been away, as Arsenal’s attacks all came through him whilst he was on the pitch.

Santi Cazorla - 7 – he put in a good shift, though he was also guilty of some occasional poor passing. Squandered a free-kick and a very good opportunity to score

Aaron Ramsey – 6 – worked hard all day, completely his defensive duties well, though not too threatening up front. Tended to drift inside when he was out on the wing. When he got moved into the middle, played with more confidence

Olivier Giroud – 6 – wasn’t really given much to attack, so tended to drop deep. However, he put in a good shift

Lukas Podolski – 5 – another unconvincing performance from the German, drifted in and out of the game

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Theo Walcott – 6 – though he himself didn’t really create much, he prompted a more attacking Arsenal. He has been missed in our recent games

Gervinho – 5 – in his brief cameo appearance before he got injured, he threatened in attack, but as usual his threat never turned into a serious attack. Unconvincing decision making again

Andrei Arshavin – 6 – provided the cross which lead to the goal, and did offer something in attack. Rather uncharacteristically however, he also tracked back to help defend, which was a bonus

To see Arsenal win was a nice thing, but the fact that they played so poor was not pleasant. Arsenal will need to sort out their defence as it looked fragile at times and unconvincing; a team with more quality will without a doubt exploit it.

However, it was good to see the return of Jack Wilshere and Bacary Sagna, who both gave encouraging performances.

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