An unconvincing performance sees us through

I thought we looked worryingly poor last night. Again, the lack of a common wavelength in the team was, at times, palpable, and against better opposition this would have been costly.

Dynamo's goal was a painful comedy of errors from our point of view. Eboue was exposed twice after Hleb had lost the ball in an attempt at a mazy run. Almunia's attemtped save was pathetic, and the three goal lead began to look less than impregnable. Credit can be given to the boys, though, for not panicking. I think the fact that Dynamo were barely a premiership quality side helped matters, as we subdued them for most of the first half. The only real bright spot in our performance was RvP. He certainly has some blinding tricks in his bag, but I continue to worry if he has that extra 10% that can make him into a consistently great player. I think his team-play has improved though.

I wrote after the first leg that the team sometimes looks better when Henry doesn't play, as it can bring out the best in some players, forcing them to up their game and take more responsibility for winning the game. This wasn't the case yesterday. No-one really wanted to take responsibility, it seemed, and again a lack of attempts on goal seemed to be a problem. We also missed the calming influence and experience of Gilberto; Flamini is not good enough to take his place, and I'm beginning to seriously doubt whether he has enough in him to play for us in midfield. Similar questions could be asked about Justin Hoyte - although it might be worth actually giving him a game at his favoured r-b position before we all write him off. Fabregas and Hleb both looked off the pace, Adebayor had one of his 'barn door' moments [which we can only hope will become fewer and fewer], and it was largely left to Freddie to push us towards getting something from the game. Hopefully Freddie's goal is a sign he knows where the goal is this season, but I'm not too sure.

It took Thierry, Gilbs and Theo to really liven things up and make it look like we could actually win the game. Theo has now played 27 minutes of football for Arsenal and got two assists. Not bad - maybe he should send the video to Steven Gerrard. We needed the combination of experience and excitement that these three players brought to see us through the last twenty minutes or so, and to lift our game to the point where we actually snatched a winner in the last minute.

The question will inevitably be asked as to whether Theo deserves more pitch time. At the moment it's hard to say no, but I really think that these substitute cameos are his best form of development for now. Please don't rush or over-hype him. I should imagine he'll have to wait for the Carling cup before he gets a start, but that might be enough for this season. Having said that, we may need him to push for a place in the top four, given the medicore performances we've put in thusfar.

Elsewhere in the Premiership... ManU looked utterly dominant against Charlton. I know the season is only two years old, but they're playing flying attacking football. Instead of replacing Van Nistelrooy I think Fergie is trying to get his wingers to get more goals, and hope Saha can fulfill his undoubted promise - a ploy which seems to be paying dividends. If they can keep those performances up, I think not only will Fergie's sale of RVN be justified, but ManU could definitely push for the title.

Especially if Mourinho continues to pick bizzare formations, with midfields consisting of makelele, Lampard and Essien, who, I imagine, were meant to stand on eachothers heads and play on top of each other. Coupled with an attacking threesome of Sheva, Drogba, and Kalou, there was no width to the side. Cudicini was also terrible in goals. One can only hope that the pressure of having a squad with so many top names may lead to more bizzare formations and poor performances like yesterday.