I don't think it would have made a lot of difference who started on Saturday as I think Arsenal would have been good enough to adjust to any formation we put out. Quite bluntly no starting line up we could have put out would have been able to outwit Arteta and Ramsey in midfield, dealt with the pace of Walcott & Co on the flanks or smothered Van Persie. That doesn't mean that I was not surprised when PL did not recall the pace of DeLaet. All in all I think we have got to accept that any point we get home or away to the top 6 sides will be an absolute bonus and whether we survive or not will depend upon how we perform against the sides in the bottom half of the table.
I disagree that Holt and Morison don't play well together, they certainly linked up ok for Mozza's goal in that game I wouldn't start them together again though, and I certainly wouldn't play Simeon in the hole behind either of them a la Wes at that's not his natural game at all! He needs to be running onto the ball and chasing down defenders, getting in the box and causing a nuisance and whilst he does his fair share of tracking back he's certainly not the kind of AMC who drops back to pick the ball of the defenders and builds things like Wesley does when he's on form. The problem Saturday was that whoever plays in that role needs to get forward and link up with the striker as often as possible, and as has been pointed out that was never going to be easy against the likes of Arteta, Ramsey et al because they are simply too good. I also agree that it was a mistake not starting Bennett on Saturday, as good as that Santos is going forward he's very vulnerable when somebody takes him on so I'd have liked to see Elliott get at him from the start. That said we certainlly weren't disgraced and as Lambert and Wenger both said we were never out of the game and I personally thought we played ok and no where near as badly as some have been saying. Plenty to take from the game and plenty to work on so we need to make sure we get it right on Saturday as that's going to be a HUGE game!
