4 Quick Lessons: Granit Xhaka, Theo Walcott, Craig Eastmond's Sad parable and Other Insights as Arsenal Rolls Over Sutton FC Into Emirates FA Cup Quarter Finals

Arsenal’s visit to Sutton FC for the FA cup fifth round tie had been billed as another opportunity to showcase the magic of the world oldest cup competition with an upset on the cards as the gunners were expected to still be wobbling under post Bayern Munich stress syndrome. In the end, Arsenal’s comfortable 2-0 win was reminiscent of those evenings at the rugby ground of my public high school facing the more illustrious across private school from across the road that always beat us: Enough to be proud of the lads on the pitch, sickening for dreams deferred, not exactly an embarrassment but good outing nonetheless.

In the end, Arsenal were facing a non-league side whose overweight reserve keeper whiled away the dying game by munching on a pie in the substitutes bench. It was the first time Arsene Wenger was in the dugout of a non-league side in his 20 year Arsenal career. Arsenal millionaires got to see how other football mortals live. The young lads got a reminder of how fast it go bust. Sutton earned their keep including a man of the match ward for Roarie Deacon and good nature old fashioned pitch invasion for Sutton FC fans. This and other observations:

Granit Xhaka

Granit got a needless booking which shouldn’t help with his reputation. You have to start wondering the effect of all these bookings on his psyche. Will they make him cower or will he, like a philosopher king, use the stones thrown at him to build a majestic castle –the crown jewel of a thriving expanding empire?

Xhaka showcased his Xabi Alonso- esque range of passing which in all fairness is such a peat but I still find that he doesn’t do a good enough job linking –picking balls from the defense- or even retaining possession through recycling of the ball. He’s one who we should be excited to watch blossom; though in all fairness Granit appears the kind of player who would flourish under a more tactful manager. Right now it seems Wenger can’t find (or manage to keep fit) an erstwhile midfield partner for Xhaka.

Craig Eastmond

There is a hilarious twitter handle @finishedplayers that chronicles the paths of former football professionals following their fall from grace. It reads like a well done parody account-it can be cruel. Former Arsene protégée Craig Eastmond fits the bill of the kind of player to be profiled there. Eastmond must have had something like 10 appearances for the Arsenal first team. Today, here he was turning out for a side 100 plus places below fourth placed gunners 10 points behind champions elect Chelsea.

A lot can be made of Craig Eastmonds case (such as the sad tale of many youngsters who fail at making it as professional footballers -wonder what his other job is given that Sutton FC are a team of part-timers). But what stands out is Wenger’s reputation as a molder of young football talent. Worse, Eastmond’s story is a perfect microcosm of the sorry state of Arsenal FC those early days at the Emirates.

To think that we believed that we could compete then was fabulously misguided ambition from us gooners. For what it is worth, Eastmond’s case offers rare insight to the ability (or inability) of Arsene Wenger given that he represents a sample of the caliber of players he had to work with. (Depending on where you stand with the narrative of the Emirates move curtailed the clubs spending.)

Considering all this, maybe after all the talk that Wenger should go, Arsene does warrant an extension just so he can have a good go and building the second Invincibles project. Does Arsenal owe him at least that?

A tale of two clubs

Paul Doswell, Sutton FC manger and sponsor (Yes! You read that right- to the tune of $40,000 a year), is a self made millionaire whose second job is running a 100 million pound construction company. You have to admire the work ethic here and the romance of it all. Heck! More stories of this kind need to be told just to counter the Silicon Valley narrative that has got millennials all confused over what entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility is.

In another life, of all the mangers to have managed in football top tiers the last few decades, you can see Wenger as the only one with the skills to emulate Paul Doswell. Wenger has always painted himself as one with the money sense setting him apart from the rest. Arsene Wenger built the 600 million pound Emirates and was still able to compete. Paul Doswell gave Sutton the pristine artificial turf that now hosts Arsenal in the fifth round of the FA Cup. What if?

Theo Walcott the Centurion

100 goals in 380 games give Theo a 1 goal in 3.8 games ratio. You kind of get the criticism leveled against the lad. Bang average returns for a striker, but good enough for a winger. The English lad still has time to better that though.