By the skin on their teeth, Arsenal edged out Aston Villa on Sunday to progress to the next round of the FA Cup. After trailing 2-0 at half-time, the Gunners pulled it back thanks to a Robin van Persie brace and a fluke goal from Theo Walcott. Next round of a knock out cup in the bag, many celebrated ‘the positives’ and the win, they celebrated everything that went right. But what about all the things that went wrong?

Don’t be naive and confuse ‘Magic of The FA Cup’ romanticized rubbish with ‘got damn lucky while playing remarkably average football’ – because Arsenal got very, very lucky. Aston Villa schooled the Gunners in the first half – sitting relatively deep and hitting them on the counter to prod and penetrate a dodgy defence.

It’s easy to say that it was a ‘great comeback’ and a mark of a ‘good team’, resilience, being able to dust themselves off and get back up after being down and out, but the Gunners aren’t even close to the team they should be. Two goals slipped past the defence, two goals which should never have been allowed. Two penalties saved them – penalties which were given due to dodgy decision making from Aston Villa rather than good football by the Gunners.

“Great game” – no, not quite, but some great positives to go with the mental strength.  The only problem is that positives don’t win you trophies and it’s now up to the Prof to ensure he goes back to the drawing board and they focus on where they went wrong. The task for the remainder of the season is simple:  want to keep your star players? Cool, then win a trophy, any trophy and make sure you keep your Champions League spot.

Doing that won’t be easy, but there are at least a few things to feel good about.

Bacary is back

Arsenal’s number three, aka the best defender in the Premier League was sitting snuggly on the bench of most of the match. Seeing Sagna back in the Arsenal kit was like pitching a tent and not having pegs left over. That ‘hallelujah, we got this right’ feeling. That, yeah, we’ll be safe and solid feeling. For most of the season, Arsenal have had to make do with a player who isn’t a right back playing in the right back position – but with Sagna back in our…defensive…err…arsenal,  feeling upbeat about the back four is warranted.

Unleash the OX

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has been one of the most talked about footballers in  recent years. A bit like Theo Walcott, only actually capable of playing soccer, so maybe not like Walcott at all.

He’s young, he’s tough, he’s passionate and he loves that badge and he caused a proverbial shit storm when he was subbed against Manchester United. While he move was completely logical at the time, fans saw past all the logical and channelled years’ worth of pent up rage at the little Russian who has done as much as Stuart Downing.

This time around, the Ox managed almost a full 90 minutes, if he stays injury-free, things can only get better from here.

Down, but not out

The Arsenal that walked onto the pitch for the second half was a different Arsenal to the team that played in the first half. They looked hungry, determined and they looked like they were up for a fight. The source of frustration for so many Arsenal fans over the past few months has been that the team so often looked like they simply don’t care. A goal down? Too bad, it’s over, let’s give up – we’re getting paid anyway. Not so on Sunday. They got lucky, sure, but they at least looked like they wouldn’t take it by playing possum.

With the way Arsenal’s season has gone, one wouldn’t blame any of them if they simply gave up now and call it season. But they’re not. And if they could channel just a third of that fighting spirit in every game for the remainder of the season, all Arsenal fans might avoid going completely grey or losing all their hair by the end of the season.

Of course, it doesn’t take away from the fact that Arsenal were, at most, average and, at worst, poor. Are we still surprised that fans are booing their own? Well, perhaps you shouldn’t be…

PS – we should play 4-4-2.

About the author:

Ant likes bad cricket romances, some say she is a masochist. A Saffa, who has a soft spot for the West Indies and also supports Arsenal. "Some" might be right.

mspr1nt has written 142 posts on Wicket Maiden. Want more? Follow mspr1nt on Twitter.