This time the captain’s late spot kick means that we now avoid a replay which is a relief after the same scenario in the last round could only salvage one. We started off well, much better than at home to Leeds, but despite having over 80% possession in the first ten minutes we had to wait until Niklas Bendtner’s deflected effort in the 22nd minute before we could ripple the opposition net.

This should have opened the floodgates but we displayed an incredibly lax attitude which meant we lost the momentum that had overwhelmed Huddersfield in the early exchanges. A direct and positive run from Jack Hunt exposed our suspect defending with Denilson encapsulating a very poor afternoon with a lazy challenge which left Hunt with only Squillaci to beat. He simply knocked it past the square-footed Frenchman who clumsily body checked the Leeds player to leave Mark Clattenburg with little option but to show the red card.

Suddenly the whole complexion of the game changed and soon after Samir Nasri was forced off with a hamstring strain which we now know will keep him out of the first leg with Barcelona. It is a costly injury and one which Wenger would have avoided had it not been for Tomas Rosicky’s fever which kept him out of the starting eleven; a cruel twist of fate which now places more reliance on Andrei Arshavin to rediscover his form. The Russian is visibly lacking confidence but no one can question his work rate these days. His last ditch tackle in the second half was crucial and however out of place he feels in our defensive third, it is a job that needs doing to stop the back four being exposed from the flanks. Had the little tank not flung himself into a last ditch challenge we may have been dumped out of the cup by a lower league team for the first time under Wenger.

Lee’s bullet header in the 66th minute had given Huddersfield the perfect platform to push on but it was an opportunity that they refused to grasp with both hands and, even with ten men, we were able to hold our own and scraped through in the closing stages after Bendtner was brought down 8 yards from goal. For some reason McCombe was only booked for denying an even clearer goal scoring opportunity than Squillaci had conceded but it did not matter in the end as Fabregas tucked away the penalty after shimmying his way through an unconvincing run up.

Squillaci is now banned for the Everton game on Tuesday but Djourou would have replaced him anyway so the loss of Samir Nasri is the only serious repercussion of a stuttering performance at the Grove.

Photo: Action Images

Arsenal Polls