Steaua Stunned By Robin Rocket......

IF going into the last international break felt good, how sweet will things feel if we can dispatch Sunderland on Sunday? It would mean a perfect seven out of seven from the second segment of the season.

Reading the teamsheet just before the match - My concern was for Fabregas and Flamini both players had run their socks off just four days before at West Ham. Faced with an equally tricky tie on a cold night in Eastern Europe, I wondered if Wenger would rest them if we scored early...this option never materialised.

From the moment Cesc Fabregas fired over early on, I feared a return to the frustration of last season. We were easily in command and individually the players were doing fairly well. But whether it was pulling the trigger or playing in that final ball, we were always a little off.

In the second half we looked less assured the longer it went on, but you felt sure we would continue to stretch them. And stretch them we did in the end. It was a team goal of individual cameos, a goal where three players showcased their improving skills. Adebayor has always had a subtlety to his build-up play, but now more than ever he is intelligently stretching defences, getting to the byline and delivering well thought out balls.

Cesc flew into the box and threw himself at the chance just as he has done so many times this season. And Robin Van Persie steered the ball home first time - his solitary touch shorn of the drag-backs and overplaying that have blighted him in the past.

That RVP was the match winner was no surprise. Except perhaps to those who obsess about him not leading the party when we demolish the likes of Derby 5-0. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: he will get you goals when others won’t. It is the fact he is often on a slightly different trajectory to the rest of the team that makes him so valuable. Four times we have scored just once in a game this season. Three times Van Persie has been the scorer.

Looking again to this weekends fixture - Sunderland at home, with Fabregas and Flamini looking exhausted, expect to see the likes of Diaby, Diarra and Denilson drafted in.

Arsene has the balance of the squad right at the moment. The club is packed full of youngish players. But look more closely and you can divide them into those in their early 20s and those nearer their teens. Meanwhile, the likes of Walcott, Denilson and Bendtner, although close, are not yet ready. Wenger's plan of overlapping the generations of players is starting to bear fruit, with waves of experienced youthful players. Three years ago, playing Cesc and Flamini in midfield at home to Chelsea left us overrun, the squad is no longer so stretched. We are still young - but now we are experienced too.