The young lions' hunger

Height is not the only thing missing from Arsenal's current starting eleven.  The departed Matthieu Flamini offered no further height in the centre of the midfield last season.  It was the tenacity of the so-called 'running man'  - his willingness to charge down the showboating of Nani in Arsenal's FA cup defeat to Manchester United last season, for example - that was so clearly lacking in the home defeat to Hull City last Saturday.  

Five days earlier, entirely different headlines emerged.  Arsenal's youth academy was being heralded after their ruthless dismemberment of Sheffield United in the Carling Cup.  Wenger silenced the critics by fielding six British players that night.  20-year-old Mark Randall provided a feisty counterpart to the young Welsh pretender to Fabregas, Aaron Ramsey.  Randall's willingness to 'get stuck in', make a challenge - that can so often evade Flamini's apparent successor Denilson - was refreshing to see.  This desire to be first to the ball must be seen against the pacey Portuguese side tonight.