A quick look at some of the things that stood out for me in yesterday’s Fa Cup 3rd round clash with West Ham. We came out on top with two goals in 5 minutes to set up a meeting with Stoke in the 4th round, but we were made to work hard for the victory.

How high does your foot have to go for it to be deemed dangerous?

A goal in 1st half injury time for West Ham lifted the home side, and they came out full of verve and gumption. As the game wore on fatigue started to set in, and the introduction of Diaby and Nasri turned the game in our favour.

Before the match there was a lot of talk about Arsene Wenger devaluing the FA Cup by playing a Carling Cup team. This was an issue on the airwaves the day before, as if someone had a crystal ball and knew the team-sheet 24hrs in advance. Funny that it was old red nose who put out a reserve squad and got said nose firmly rubbed in it by Leeds. Vela, Wilshere and Merida we the main changes while Ramsey replaced Fàbregas

Wilshere and Merida not ready yet.

So Wilshere and Merida got a chance, but didn’t show that they are quite ready for the big stage. No doubt full of talent, yesterday they were thrown into a high tempo claustrophobic game and we couldn’t have expected them to be stars of the show. At this stage of their development the are extremely inconsistent and yesterday showed just that. On another day we’d probably be talking about a glorious future for those two.

Eduardo is slowly regaining his confidence

It may not be as fast as most of us would like, but his play over the last four games have been steadily improving. His goal resembled that he scored against England some time ago, outsmarted and out-jumped Upson as he did to Gerard to score a wonderfully headed goal. 3 goals in 4 games are figures that we’ve come to expect from the Croatian predator.

The $64,0000 question

—Yes that’s a dollar sign 64,000 pound question doesn’t have the same ring— what the hell are we going to do without Alex Song? Diaby has put himself forward for the job but we all know that his skill set is better exploited further up the field.

Denilson, the natural replacement, is due to have a fitness test on Tuesday. Even if he is fit for Bolton, the worry is that his back problem won’t go away any time soon. Nasri fancies himself in the role and ex-Marseille coach Albert Emon and France boss Raymond Domenech have both stated that they see the youngster as a deep lying midfielder. Although there’s a huge difference between “deep lying midfielder and defensive midfielder”.

Anyway that’s my thoughts for today got to run.