Over the past few years as I grow into an adult (I’ll be 20 in a couple of days), I’ve come to learn that some things needn’t be spectacular to be special. I think of a child’s cackle, a woman’s smile, times spent in the company of family and friends…or more recently, an Away win at West Brom to lead Arsenal into the next phase of the Capital One Cup – done with a bunch of kids and a sprinkle of fringe players.

Yet, at the last kick of the match – Nacho Monreal sending the goalie the wrong way from the penalty spot – I couldn’t have been the only Gooner who pumped a ”fucking yeaaaaah!!” fist in the air. Our Away support were fantastic and drowned their Home support, as usual, while people like @AnuNande to name but one, due to their varying time-zones had to stay up till dawn to watch perhaps the most abject performance I’ve yet seen from an Arsenal side. But it didn’t matter much in the end

All of our players seemed either out of shape or form. Many of the youngsters on evidence of last night, save for Bellerini who came in late on, didn’t do much to further their chances of getting in the mix more frequently with the Bigger Boys. But how much of their future will be determined by jumping from regular U21 matches to playing a near-full strength PL side remains to be seen. But from what I’ve seen of Arsene Wenger, he’s hardly the type to discard off players he thinks ‘have it’ based on one performance. That said, many of them just don’t look the part, more so, as Arsenal appear to be entering a stage where we can spend more on ”world class” talents.

The older charges did a lot better and their experience showed in crucial stages of the match. The defense did really well individually and as a whole, but special mentions has to go to Carl Jenkinson. He (Jenks) still seems to me like a limited player, but what he lacks in [Spanish] flair, he more than make up for in character and effort. At one point, he was literally running through a brick wall of West Brom players to make something happen. Top lad that.

Bendtner too, depending on where you stand on his divide, did rather well given the circumstances. There was THAT chance he could have put away in the latter stages to send us all in cloud nine and stage a fairytale come-back for himself but Nik, true to his appearance, showed he’s more like a Kiyotaki Samurai man, than one from Disneyland. He’s clearly not in his best shape yet, he appears sluggish in chasing defenders down and his run into the post early on, signalled a player who haven’t been in an actual football match in a long time but take nothing form his touches, he linked up really well with his team-mates (who weren’t offering any real service) most notably in the, dare I say, exquisite pass for Eisfeld which led to the goal. He also coolly slot his penalty home. And while there were no real spectacles in the match, he offered one on his Instagram page. I like this picture, too.

Through to the next round and continuing a record run of Away wins, it is now 8 wins in a row since that opening day loss and not many outside of the Arsenal camp is making such a noise now, we’ve heard all about the crisis, I guess we’ve seen all about it, too :).

’til next time, be a fan…and a supporter.