Terrace Talk: Arsenal - Gunners need defensive cover for Coquelin

Considering he was just about the only Arsenal player to come out of last Sunday’s lamentably anti-climactic curtain-raiser with any credit, the Ox must have been disappointed to have found himself benched for Sunday’s encounter at Crystal Palace.

Yet it appears this was the only way Wenger could accommodate Cazorla, in partnership alongside le Coq in the middle of the park, without omitting either Ozil or Ramsey.

And with Santi pulling all the strings, in his more favoured central role, along with the added vivacity and intensity of Alexis, it was immediately apparent in the sparkling opening spell at Selhurst Park that the Gunners were an entirely different proposition to the anaemic side that failed so miserably to put the Hammers under the cosh last weekend.