The 100th competitive Arsenal game at Emirates Stadium might not have been the most memorable encounter, but it showcased one young talent’s ability to make a difference at key moments.

Arsene Wenger himself has admitted that Aaron Ramsey still looked ‘a little like a youth player last season’ but that description does not apply to him any more. Introduced to replace Emmanuel Eboué against Stoke, he proceeded to pose a significantly more direct attacking threat than the Ivorian on the right side of the attacking triumvirate and capped off an impressive cameo with a fine goal that showcased his undoubted technique.

Whether Ramsey can produce that on a regular basis and against higher quality opposition remains to be seen, but he has certainly improved significantly since last campaign and is becoming a player of increasing importance in Wenger’s fragile squad.

Ramsey looks set to have another opportunity to express himself in the Champions League trip away to Olympiacos on Wednesday. Whilst Arsenal have already qualified as group winners, the Greek side still fancy their chances of qualification from Group H and will doubtless be going all out for the win. Wenger has been quite forthcoming in saying that some of the Carling Cup youngsters will play on Wednesday and it will be interesting to see how they cope away from the comforts of Emirates Stadium. Fran Mérida was amongst the substitutes yesterday and may have come on in different circumstances, whilst Jack Wilshere is now fully recovered from injury and a sign of his rapid growth was when he was featured on the front page of yesterday’s matchday programme.

With so many injuries at present (Djourou, Clichy, van Persie, Gibbs, Bendtner, Diaby, Eduardo, Walcott added to yesterday with Rosicky, Traore, Gallas and Eboué), Wenger has little choice but to play the youngsters in Greece for fear of being unable to have sufficient personnel available for next week’s trip for Anfield. Carlos Vela should get another opportunity up front and he will be looking to improve on his previous showings. Traore, meanwhile, if recovered, could also start with no real competition for left-back other than Mikael Silvestre who will only play there in an emergency.

As for youngsters outside the first-team squad, of the 17 young professionals (excluding those currently out on loan), the two players closest to the squad appear to be Craig Eastmond and Sanchez Watt, who could also be involved on Wednesday. Beyond those two; Kyle Bartley, Francis Coquelin, Emmanuel Frimpong, Kerrea Gilbert, Mark Randall, Gilles Sunu and James Shea were all called up at least once during the three-game Carling Cup run and Cedric Evina, Luke Freeman, Conor Henderson, Ignasi Miquel and Oguzhan Ozyakup are all still young enough to qualify as scholars.

Project youth may be incessantly annoying at times, but nobody can deny that Arsenal have a hugely talented crop of young talents at their disposal.