Despite QPR’s evident inferiority, Arsenal once again made what should have been an easy game into a bit of an ordeal.

A bizarre situation

I was almost reluctant to celebrate when Walcott put away the only goal of the match within a minute.  It caught me off guard to such an extent that I let out a surprised chuckle rather than my usual ecstatic bellow.

It must be said that QPR’s defending in the run up to the goal was farcical and it wasn’t overly difficult for us to take the lead.  Nevertheless, credit has to be given to the run of Rosicky, whose run down the right wing made the move look like a serious threat.

Again, like he did against Man U, Walcott seemed to try his best to miss his one on one, with Rob Green getting a significant touch on the ball.

Super, Super Tom

The game itself was a bit of a non-event.  We scored early and after that, neither side had more than pot shots at the goal (albeit some of them were rather good pot shots).

One player who always sticks out for me and did so again this evening was Tomas Rosicky.  With Tomas in form, it’s no surprise that a less than fully fit Wilshere has been restrained to the bench.

Rosicky has the ability to run at players and to an extent this reminds me a lot of Patrick Vieira.  At one point in the second half, Jermaine Jenas couldn’t help but commit a cynical foul upon Tomas to stop a truly impressive counter-attacking run.

At numerous points in his career Tomas has come under unfair criticism for his ability.  While there is no doubt that his long-term injury proved to be a major impact on his media image.  Rosicky is a player who is at the core of this Arsenal side and he is dealing with that role very impressively.

Attacking Presence

I wont deny that QPR had chances, they had very good chances.  But I would argue that the dealt with the QPR attacking threat very competently.  Townsend and Remy provided the biggest concern to the Arsenal defence but this concern didn’t trouble Arsenal hugely.

I would however argue that the threat posed by Arsenal was fairly meek and I would argue that this is due to the lack of attacking presence in the side.

I know that Walcott is a player that divides opinion and in my eyes he hasn’t done enough.  He scores goals, of course, but I do find that he goes missing in games.  At numerous points this season it has been incredibly easy to forget that Theo has even been playing.

With regards to the centre forward role, I’m not sure I’d be willing to put my faith in him (though he did score and hit the bar). Lukas Podolski was the man entrusted with leading the Arsenal line and, like he did against Man U, I feel his effectiveness was ok, but only ok.

Olivier Giroud in my opinion provides the strongest attacking threat we currently possess as a club.  However, today’s performance does highlight the inadequacy our club has up front, and a signing (such as Jovetic) should certainly be considered a necessity in the summer if we are to improve on this year’s performance.

Winning ugly

Despite the less than exciting performance by the Gunners this evening, I cannot stress the importance of this victory.  This evening’s game is one we could easily have dropped points in in years gone by and it is a credit to the ferocity of our team that we stuck it out for three points.

At this stage in the season we have to win these games regardless of how we do so.  We showed a certain mental toughness today, and Mr Wenger will certainly be proud of his players for that.

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