Arsenal 1-0 West Ham—Vote for Player Ratings and MOTM!

Danny Welbeck scuffed home a sloppy goal minutes before halftime, marking the first goal that West Ham had conceded in 320 minutes of football, and that was enough to send Arsenal through to the next round! Not a whole lot more to add on this rather hum-drum day, but it's a win, and that's good enough. Let's get down to the poll and rate the lads!

Arsenal 1-0 Newcastle—Vote for Player Ratings & MOTM!

Mesut Özil scored a wonderful volleyed goal in the 23rd minute to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead it would never relinquish. It's a bit disappointing that we weren't able to deliver a more-convincing performance, and Newcastle enjoyed a few dangerous spells, but in the end, it was a business-like result with very few frills or fears. It's three points in the bag, good enough to see us climb past Burnley, who were held at Brighton; and help us keep pace with Chelsea, who saw off Southampton. Not much else to say, to be honest, so let's get down to the poll to rate the lads!

Wilshere, our Man of the Match, played a full 90'. End of.

It's truly hard to get excited about West Ham. Unlike the truly detestables—Chelsea, Stoke, Tottenham—and the plucky admirables—Burnley, Brighton, Southampton—West Ham elicits little more than a mild distaste such as one might experience from room-temperature coffee, stale beer, or toilet paper hung in improper underhand fashion. To therefore suffer a draw is irritating, disappointing, or even chafing, respectively. We should have found the three points. In the short run, we failed to do so, but it was not for a lack of effort on at least one player's part. In the long run, the fact that Jack Wilshere played a full 90' for the first time in 577 days should warm your weary heart.

Wilshere looks ready to lay waste to West Ham. Will he? We'll see...

Ah, West Ham. So inept. So backward. Why, they're the dumping ground for the once-were's and might've-been's: Joe Hart. Pablo Zabaleta. Chicharito. Andy Carroll. The list goes on. David Moyes. Ah. That last one's different. After obliging his erstwhile Everton employers with a 4-0 loss at Goodison Park, Mr. Moyes does seem to have set West Ham on a course altogther different from the one on which the Irons had previously been so thoroughly hammered. After a depressing start to the season had seen Slaven Bilić sacked, Moyes has steered West Ham to an impressive resurrection, punctuated all too recently by a 1-0 win over Chelsea on the weekend.

Southampton 1-1 Arsenal—Vote for Player Ratings and MOTM!

Barely three minutes in, our defense collapsed—quite literally, it turns out—as Per Mertesacker fell to the ground, and Dusan Tadic skipped to find Southampton's Charlie Austin, who made no mistake on the chance given him, blasting past Petr Čech before most fans could even find their seats. From there, it looked like it woudl be another miserable visit, our hosts dominating proceedings for most if not all of the half and well into the second. It was only after the introductions of Welbeck, Wilshere, and Giroud late on that we started to look interested in scoring if not winning. Finally, in stoppage-time, Giroud found a late equaliser to help us save face as well as a point. Well, it's perhaps better than we deserved and more than we had a right to hope for after that start. Let's get to the poll and rate the lads!