While the circumstances that had put Arsenal and Arsene Wenger under serious pressure meant that the manager felt he could not select his usual team full of young Gunners for our first Capital One Cup game of the season, Wenger still made many changes to the Arsenal starting line up.
After the game our versatile young defender Calum Chambers spoke about him and other players finding it hard with their lack of game time but also the importance of keeping up the hard work on the training ground and being ready to take their chances when they came along.
In a Daily Mail report Chambers said, “It was a good game, I thought we fought well and got the result we wanted in the end.
“It is a big game, it is always nice to get a win. I thought we fought well, kept our discipline throughout the game, and ground out the result.
“We were resilient. And at times we got a lot of pressure, but we were compact, and together as a team we knew our jobs. We defended well at those points.
“The second half said a lot about the character and belief of the lads. We were 1-0 up, then they came back to 1-1, so I thought we showed a lot of character to keep our faith, keep our composure, keep playing, and get the result, and get a goal to get the win.
“You want to get the results, and build up momentum. So, hopefully, we can take what we learned today into the next game.
“Yes, it would be nice to get a few games under my belt.
“But any opportunity I am given – I have been training hard – so when I get the opportunity, I can give my best performance, to show why I feel I want to be playing.
“When I get the opportunity I will give it my best shot.”
The player whose place in the team and even the squad was Mathieu Flamini and he certainly took his opportunity with both of our goals capping an all round great game. But who else took their chance to impress the boss? For me, Chambers himself did his first team prospects no harm at all and he was much better last night than in that torrid first half against Liverpool. Chambers clearly needs more games as a centre back but at least he showed improvement and will no doubt play again in the next round of the cup if not before.
Kieran Gibbs also layed down a marker and gave the manager a selection decision to make between him and Monreal at left back. Debuchy on the other flank struggled a bit and I think he needs to do a lot more to challenge Bellerin. Arteta was okay, Campbell was okay and Giroud was okay but they did not really take their chance to force their way into the first team.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain continued to show that he can offer something different for Arsenal and with Theo Walcott likely to start in the centre forward role at Leicester, could it be time for Wenger to give the lad a rare Premier League start?