Even though Arsene Wenger made a complete change to the Arsenal starting line from the weekend draw away to Chelsea in the Premier League, he was still not willing to take too many chances in this Carabao cup game at home to Doncaster, so the visitors were facing a strong Gunners side including Walcott, Giroud and Alexis Sanchez up front.
So the boss will have been a bit disappointed to hear the halftime whistle go with Arsenal only having scored the one goal. It was a lovely run, touch and finish from Theo Walcott to latch onto a perfectly weighted long ball over the top from Alexis.
Giroud had nearly scored a goal of the season contender earlier on with a great overhead kick but his shot struck the bar. There were other chances from Arsenal but despite dominating the first period comfortably we had not tested the Doncaster keeper nearly enough.
They even had a few half chances of their own, and enjoyed a good period just before the break, so it was far from being done and dusted. The second half was even worse and ended up being a nerve wracking affair which saw far fewer chances from the Gunners but a lot more from the visitors.
Towards the end it needed a last ditch block from Mertesacker and then from the corner they hit the bar. To be fair to Doncaster they were a bit unlucky and this was not the confidence building result we could have done with, but the simple fact is that Arsenal progress and will be in the next round.
Bob.