Arsenal went through to the 4^th round of the FA Cup last night, albeit making their fans suffer enough to be thankful of a real Jekyll and Hyde performance. Taking nothing away from an excellent Preston North End side, this was not a game the Gunners should have huffed and puffed to win. Going by the game of two halves, here are the villains and heroes from the match at Deepdale:

Villains:

Gabriel

To think there was a time I was happy to see Arsène Wenger sign up a versatile Brazilian defender (smh). A few weeks ago, with Bellerin out and Debuchy succumbing to yet another injury, the role of right back had no real takers. Gabriel’s performance as deputy really made the fans wonder whether this was his rightful position. After last night, the wondering stopped as to what his rightful position definitely is not. Had the Preston forwards been more clinical, he would have been at fault for all the goals conceded, given he has no knowledge as to how an offside trap is played. He was consistently found wanting in holding the line, and also made sure his partner Mustafi came off looking worse than ever with his poor positional sense during counters. Young Maitland-Niles maybe facing the brunt of criticism from the Arsenal faithful, but it was Gabriel who was the root of everything bad in the Arsenal defence last night. Rob Holding, anyone?

1^st half Aaron Ramsey

When your defence is not exactly playing a shape, you look towards your central midfield base line to make sure they’re protected while they sort it out. Unfortunately for Arsenal, the version of Aaron Ramsey in the first half was completely averse to sticking to central midfield. Instead, he was more often than not found crowding Alex Iwobi’s spot and leaving Granit Xhaka alone to cover against the barrage of pressing the hosts were throwing at the Gunners. Not content with making poor decisions on the ball and giving away possession, he was beaten ridiculously easily by Aiden McGeady in the build up for Preston’s opener.

1^st half Alex Oxlade Chamberlain

Somebody from Arsenal has a lot of explaining to do regarding the entire policy of not delivering crosses when they have Olivier Giroud playing but bombarding the opposition box with them when they have Alexis Sanchez as the number nine. Nobody really embodies this amazingly dumb tactic than Chamberlain, given he almost always checks back after getting into a good position to cross, only to lay it off for his central midfielder to recycle possession all the way back to the goalkeeper. The first cross to come in for Arsenal to attack came in the 30^th minute of the game, 23 minutes after going behind. What the ‘winger’ Chamberlain was doing till then remains a mystery.

Heroes:

2^nd half Aaron Ramsey

When your defence is not exactly playing a shape, you look towards your central midfield base line to make sure they’re protected while they sort it out. Fortunately for Arsenal, the version of Aaron Ramsey in the second half did not have to do much about it since the home side’s midfield was tired from their first half exploits and thus gave the Welshman enough room to operate and not worry about the defence. Even so, his finish for the equalizer was sublime and it came from a good late run, instead of his usual early bird ones. He was largely responsible for the winner as well; his ball to Giroud on the edge of the box exactly what was needed given Arsenal had three strikers on the pitch at the time.

2^nd half Olivier Giroud

No, he did not have a great first half, but it was still better than the three mentioned above him as the Villains. He made up for his missed chance from the first half with what is now being called a ‘textbook’ Giroud goal. It was an excellent lay off to Perez to start with and the return was more than brilliant. The finish was anything but, however, it was the kind of scrappy goal that Arsenal really deserved after a lamentable first half. The Frenchman is currently his best vein of form and yet he needs to understand that his goals going forward, oh so vital, will still need to come from the bench.

Lucas Perez

The one player on the pitch who put in a real shift from minute 1-90 was the Spanish striker. Every time he has been given a chance in this Arsenal side, he has taken it with both hands and then some. If his goal against Bournemouth wasn’t enough to convince the fans, the assist for the winner last night should really have put things to bed.

Even when his teammates were sleeping in the first 45 minutes, he was the one making runs and trying to create something in the final third. His dual footedness and clever running off the ball has made him work very efficiently with both Giroud and Sanchez. Arsène Wenger now needs to back his decision to play him more regularly, given the inconsistent performances of ‘the Ox’ as well as Theo Walcott. If Danny Welbeck can stay fit this time around, a front line of Welbeck, Alexis and Perez would be one of the smoothest and smartest Arsenal have had in a while.