First things first, I really wasn’t to enthused about the purchase of Silvestre or his inclusion in any line-up but last night he showed calm and composure that gave the team a platform to express themselves. So on this occasion, well done to Silvestre.

An unusual mix of youth, experience took the field for Arsenal v Liverpool

The assertion in my last post about the value for money that last night’s tie offered was vindicated by the quality on display from both sides. Unlike most of Arsenal’s Carling cup games, the line-up for Arsenal boasted a fair amount of experience, with Liverpool fielding a similar mixture of youth and experience.

A 2-1 victory for Arsenal was a fair reflection of the game with Arsenal just edging out Liverpool in all areas. While Aquilani will have you believe that they were denied a clear penalty, it would have been extremely harsh to have adjudged Senderos of bring his hand to the ball. We could make a similar claim for a penalty when Sanches Watt was brought down Kuyt.

There wasn’t a player who you could say had a bad game, the obvious stand-outs were Merida, Ramsey, and Eastmond. The former performed more or less to the level that we would expect from a player long hailed as good as Fabregas. As similar to Cesc as Merida is, he looks to be stronger than our Spanish captain.

Eastmond is one of those players that has recently made the switch from defence to midfield, while he had a few appearances in the middle last season, it’s only this season that he has played regularly as a midfielder. It says a lot of his talent for him to have not only made the switch but has been good enough to make it into the Carling cup squad.

There was enough in Eastmond’s performance to suggest if he were to continue in the way he has then it won’t be long before some first team players start really worrying about their places. If I were Diaby, I would have been worried about my place in the team.

Wenger has persisted with Diaby, but with Nasri coming back to fitness, and Ramsey pushing for a starting place in the first team, the player most at risk of losing his first team spot must be Diaby.

There is, in reality, a huge difference between having a good Carling cup game and being ready for a run in the first team. It is encouraging for us to see these youngster up to the task in games like last night, and they deserve the praise they receive. The games coming up will only get tougher and those guys need us to be 100 percent behind them.

The draw for the next round is on Saturday and includes Manchester United, Manchester City, Blackburn, Portsmouth, Chelsea, Tottenham and Aston Villa. It would be nice to get Blackburn or Portsmouth, but I’m sure the players would be happy to test themselves against one of the bigger teams.

Good game, good win, goodbye, thanks for reading.