Youngsters superb in Zagreb, but Cole and Reyes continue to cast a shadow.

A performance that was little short of superb last night. I had some doubts about how a team shorn of Henry, Lehmann, Cole, Pires, et al might cope in the electric Croatian atmosphere, but the boys put in a performance they can be really proud of, and which should see us through to the next round and the massive financial boost it'll bring us.

The majority of our players last night were 25 or under, yet they coped with the situation remarkably well. I was pleased to see, and with the performances of, Hoyte at left-back and Djourou at centre-back especially. Hoyte played reasonably well - with some room for improvement - yet it was nice to see Arsene give him a chance, instead of just resorting to a makeshift lb. Djourou was excellent, and at one point sprinted back to make a great saving tackle. There's no reason - other than fatigue - why he shouldn't be starting before Cygan. I also think that Kolo should definitely be upgraded to captain in the absence of Henry. While Gilberto has more experience, I think Kolo has more presence, and is a better leader. Eboue played well, if he was caught in possession a few times.

Our midfield and attack was a bag of energy, not only keeping and dominating possession, but using it to good effect. Adebayor continues to lead the line superbly, and gives us a physical presence and channel up front from which we really benefit from. Van Persie is clearly pushing himself - which is great to see - to drive his game to the next level. He took his goal well yesterday, and I'm glad to see he's improving his support play. The other two stars of the show, for me, were Al Hleb and, of course Cesc. Alex still gets caught in possession a little too much, but he also continues to play wonderful, penetrating passes that lead to goals - such as Van Persie's second - or placing himself in intelligent positions to link up the play - in both Cesc's goals. If he could chip in with a goal every now and again he'll be one of the best midfielders in the premiership. As for Cesc - words nearly fail. It was great to see him take shots on goal - which he doesn't always do - because he can score goals. He was a joy last night, and has become the central lynchpin of our team.

Rosicky did well, but, naturally, was still finding his feet a bit. I think this process may take some time so we shouldn't get on his back. Gilberto did his usual invisible wall routine reasonably enough, but I was slightly disconcerted at some of his distribution.

Overall a fantastic performance, full of energy and belief. It was a a young team that represented us last night but they played greatl football, and refused to be muscled about which was great to see.

However, the game seems to have been overshadowed by specualtion surrounding Jose and Ash. It was a surprise to see Jose dropped in favour of Rosicky, but I'm not sure whether we should read into it too much. It may well have been a tactical decision, or an attempt to shield Reyes from the speculation. Quite frankly, until I see Reyes go, I'm treating the speculation in the Spanish and English media as unfounded, despite what his agent, who seems to be the main person trying to engineer the move, says.

It also seems that, unwisely, Thierry has had a little bit of a rant this morning, stating that we shouldn't be selling Ashley to our nearest rivals, who we're already trying to catch, and that we need to bring new players in. Thierry might be right that we seem to be making our job of catching Chelsea even harder, and that we do probably need one or two new boys, but he shouldn't really be making these comments in public. It undermines Arsene. I agree with TH that it'll be a blow - in terms of the ability in our squad - when Ash leaves, but surely TH can recognise the necessity of the sale, given the nearly irrevocably damaged relations between the club and player. I also disagree with his comparison with the Vieira sale: Vieira was a player who was far harder to replace, yet Ash has several players [Clichy, Hoyte, Flamini] who can step into left-back and do a decent enough job.

A thought that did stike me last night: does anyone else feel that sometimes, without Henry, some of the players look a little liberated? Thierry is such a colossal talent that I sometimes think the other players rely on him a little too much. Without him, the team almost becomes a little more democratic. Just a thought. Either way, it was good to see that the youngsters, if need be, can carve out a solid result away from home without our big players. I hope this continues throughout the season, and that when our bigger guns come back the team can play even better.

Gb.