Great fro Santi, didn't think he'll even last 90 minutes. 
Quietly we're discovering a goalie as well - 2 games, 2 clean sheets.
Ramsey continues to improve, not a bad game at all overall.
Welbeck's goal doesn't really cover the fact he has a lot of work to do still. But what a jump... And enough force on it to make sure it goes in despite poor aim.

Chambers had a poor game to me, postioning poor, but also eaten alive by anyone on his side.  Just a bad day, I hope. 

2 CBs, clean sheet. OK, it was a poor opponent ( and we were lucky with the bar), but still a good thing. Kos will grow from here, and I feel the team as well.

Flamini is horrible looking forward, but he is decent cover, and on one or two occasions he was very good cover.

Alexis? Perhaps he needs a rest after all.

Thought Flamini was very good today, too. Did his job and did well on one occassion to get back to cover Martinez's first post.

Cazorla finally looking good, a brilliant second half.

I don't think I've seen enough of Martinez under pressure to judge whether or not we've "found ourselves a keeper".
He had so very little to do either today or Wednesday.

y va marquer wrote:

I don't think I've seen enough of Martinez under pressure to judge whether or not we've "found ourselves a keeper".

People are fooling themselves if they think Martinez is good enough for a top club. They should take whatever they can get from him at the moment and be grateful, but we need to upgrade Szczesny, not downgrade him.

He probably should have claimed the cross that Berahino struck in the crossbar. It was a floating cross around the 6 yards line.

Good win. Probably wont be good enough to please most on here but 3 points is 3 points and after only playing thursday i think we did pretty well.

y va marquer wrote:

Lucky. 

I like Martinez, seems solid. Not particularly commanding, but doesn't look like he'll make glaring errors either.

Martinez reminds me of Courtois.

Anzac wrote:

Still a long way to go before we are playing like top4 quality.

Well, playing like this got up to the top of the table and helped us acquire more points than anyone else in the 2013 calendar year. It's not ideal but I'm not sure why it's taken so long for us to revert to it, at least away from home. It's better to build on a winning base than a losing one. 

Another solid team performance. Game was a lot closer than it should've been because the final ball was off. Like others have commented, I really like the physical presence in the line-up. Easier to make things happen even when our passing game isn't good.

Credit to Cazorla who is quietly playing himself into form. Thought Chambers was good again. But our fullbacks are still not getting enough help. That cross that Berahino hit the bar with came in from the left, where they had 2 on 1 V Gibbs. Chambers isolated a few times on the right too. Going forward, both Gibbs and Chambers are doing a good job. The team is working hard but when holding on to results, instead of pressing from the front, the wide-forwards (Welbeck and Cazorla/Ox) have to help in stopping crosses.

Rex was right, should have rested Sanchez. Didn't serve us to have him out there running on fumes. Can't see that we wouldn't have won with Ox on the pitch instead.

How the hell are we fourth?! (albeit for a short while)

Two game and two clean sheets is comforting, rode our luck but got the all important 3 points.

Wellbeck is not a good headerer of the ball  almost hit the keeps with the goal.

So Gibbs starts playing well, and everyone begins talking up his game. He was great today and last game but isn't this the level you would expect of him?!

Was not able to watch the match but read the first half BBC text update and caught up here. Sounded like a good result but that we should have been a bit more comfortable/still not clinical enough. Is that about right, what was the match like?

MistaT wrote:

So Gibbs starts playing well, and everyone begins talking up his game. He was great today and last game but isn't this the level you would expect of him?!

He's been good all season. 

MistaT wrote:

So Gibbs starts playing well, and everyone begins talking up his game. He was great today and last game but isn't this the level you would expect of him?!

Of course, but if he plays well people are probably going to mention he plays well. He has a lot of potential and what is noticeable about him (and Ox) recently is their confidence to take players on. Hate when Gibbs always played it safe and pass it back across the midfield. He has the ability to keep the opposing fullback on the back foot and that's what we need from him. 

When is Alexis getting a rest? He needs one.

otfgoon wrote:

MistaT wrote:

So Gibbs starts playing well, and everyone begins talking up his game. He was great today and last game but isn't this the level you would expect of him?!

He's been good all season. 

Yep he's been excellent. It was unfortunate he had to come on today, he really could have done with the rest. I hope Monreal is ok because we need to rotate there are much as we can at the moment.