In yesterday’s preview I spoke about our chances of losing and how the winners would go on to be strong title favorites. Well it happened and we’re now the clear outsiders in this title race. We’re 9 points off the top and it’s going to have to take another big turnaround to get back in this. Yesterday I ended the blog by saying:

“Lose, well I just hope I’m not sat here tomorrow talking once again about missed chances, defensive lapses and poor displays.”

I’d like to assess that now, I think missed chances are unfortunately once again a talking point. Arshavin should’ve put us level at 1-1 when Fabregas lifted the ball over the defence to his feet. His shot came straight off the leg of Cech which was extremely unlucky, it would’ve been a great goal and changed the game. We had chances in the second half too, Nasri found himself one-on-one but hesitated and lost the chance and Fabregas almost bent in a low free kick – had either of them gone in it could’ve been a different story.

Defensive lapses? Well as a team I think we defended much better than against United. Yes, we were caught out on the break which was something we were meant to put a stop to but I think yesterday’s defensive errors were more down to individual problems. For the first, Clichy was on the back post, as he should be but then decided to walk across goal into the box to have a natter about something leaving his corner completely open for Drogba to put it in.

For the second, Chelsea broke on us but we still had men with the ball. Clichy had his man but for reasons unknown to me he left him and started to drift infield. Not to mark anyone, just came infield for no reason. The only thing I can think of is if he thought he was back on his own and was doing his best to cover all angles but he had two or three men back with him! When Clichy realised he got over to Drogba as fast as he could but he made it easy for the African to side step him and made it 2-0. I could moan about Almunia’s lack of effort to get the save in but we should’ve stopped the ball long ago.

However that last part I mentioned, ‘poor displays‘ I think we righted that wrong at least. We had something like 70% possession and most of the game was played in Chelsea’s half. We played well and a lot of people said afterwards we were the better team. However we lacked Chelsea’s cutting edge, their extra bit of quality and their rock solid defence. Yeah we played well but playing well isn’t always enough. Sometimes it helps if you actually have a striker on the pitch too…

We kept going and going which was to be expected but never found that first goal. We really should’ve converted those chances we had but to be fair they were pretty much all the chances we had. We pressured and pressured had loads of corners and worked the ball well but not much ever came of it. We were sending in a lot of crosses from wide which baffled me when our best headers of the ball in the middle were Walcott and Fabregas (who I should mention nearly scored a header with about 10 minutes to go). Also Cech was claiming almost every ball in the air, it was easy for him defending against seven dwarfs.

Wenger said before the game that you would be able to see our ‘mental strength’ that he keeps going on about and I guess he was right. However I find myself a bit pissed off with the Arsenal manager today. In the week he said something about ‘in England everyone thinks every problem is resolved by signings’. Well if your problem is not having one single fit striker then I’m sorry but the solution to that is bringing in a striker. It’s simple. At the beginning of the window he said we would be active and we would be looking to bring someone in quickly but we were left waiting all month.

He can go on about money and about how we have enough strikers in our squad but when do we ever have a fully fit squad? It’s frustrating that Wenger has this mentality of ‘we’ll be better next year’ and ‘give the current team a chance’ when they are quite clearly problems that can be solved straight away. We were so, so close to a (pre-mature?) title challenge this year but he just chose to stick with what we’ve got. He took a gamble and he lost.

It’s a shame because we’re getting so close but ending up so far.

So just one point out of a possible nine in this decisive run of four games. We’ve lost two our two main title rivals and I don’t think you can really argue that we’re the third best team in the league. Man United were just better than us last weekend and the same was true at Chelsea yesterday. This young team still needs time but one day we will get there.

Next up it’s Liverpool and for the first time in months we find ourselves looking down on the table. Liverpool have crawled back up the league and a win at our place Wednesday night would bring them within two points of us. We cannot let that happen. Yesterday was a must-not-lose but we lost, Wednesday we really cannot afford to lose. All the talk today on the official site is that we will keep going right until then end with this title challenge, well then we better win some games, starting against Liverpool in a couple of days time.
Build up to that in the next couple of days. Until then.

Last Sunday was massive, and seven days later we’re playing in a game just as important. OK it didn’t go quiet to plan against Man United but we can forget about that if we win today. We could get ourselves three points behind Chelsea today and four behind United with a win, and with our run-in that’s a title challenging position for sure.

However lose and we will be 9 points behind Chelsea and lacking confidence going into Wednesday’s game against Liverpool who could in turn beat us and find themselves two points behind us.

I’d like to believe we’ve been really focused on the task at hand this week. Wenger cancelled the players’ day off after the United game to get ready for today. There’s hasn’t been much news on the official site either, I don’t think we’ve been faffing around with interviews, crossbar challenges and Super Soaker contests this week – I hope it’s been strictly business.

It needs to be really because lets face it last weekend was not good enough. We need to highlight where we went wrong and get it right for today. I don’t want to see us caught out in defence again, there’s no excuse. There should be complete concentration for the entire 90 minutes because that’s what it’s going to take to win this game.

Unfortunately we’re not boosted by the return of anyone. Diaby had a fitness test yesterday and I guess we wont find out the results of that until an hour before kick off this afternoon. I’m guessing he’ll be on the bench; with Liverpool in the week and Porto coming up we don’t want to force him out for longer. We already know Vela and Eduardo are out but Nicklas Bendtner is apparently not fit to start either. It’s a shame because I really thought he could do a job today. Here’s how I think we’re going to line up:

Almunia
Sagna – Gallas – Vermaelen – Clichy
Song
Fabregas – Denilson
Nasri – Arshavin – Rosicky

If it were up to me though Ramsey would be partnering Fabregas. Denilson has played himself out of favour with the Arsenal fans and I’m getting a bit impatient with his performances. Aaron is a determined player and you know you will always get 100% from him whether he plays well or not and I always have time for people who put effort in.

People are talking about starting Walcott too, his pace could limit Ashley Cole’s advances forward and as much as we might not to admit it, he is a threat down their left. Sagna needs to be all over him today. We need Clichy on the other wing to have a good game too, he’s been lacking a bit recently but what a better time than today to get it right though. He has been really trying hard though hence the lack of abuse he’s getting.

Almunia will stay in goal. Arsene was asked whether Fabianski should replace him but cited his performance at Wembley against Chelsea last year as a reason for him not to play. I don’t get it, he’s always been a big fan of the Pole and now when we need a goalkeeping solution he’s saying no? Arsene says goalkeeping is the hardest job in football and also believes Almunia is putting too much pressure on himself. It shows, he looks a nervous, flapping wreck and we’ll need him to perform a lot better today.

As for the home side they have Mikel and Drogba back from the African Cup of Nations, but no Essien who will be out for another month with the injury he picked up at the tournament. However the big talking point it obviously John Terry. Ancelotti has assured he will start and he will captain this side after his terrible week on the front pages of the papers and losing the England armband to Rio Ferdinand of all people. I’ve already heard countless songs about Terry and I’m sure they’ll be in full voice today, some of them are brilliant. I’m not expecting our noise toparticularly upset Terry but if his head isn’t 100% in the game we might be able to capitalise on that.

Today’s winners will certainly believe they can go on and win the title. It’s a huge game for both sides. I’m hoping, praying, crossing everything and believing that we can win today. If we can pull it off I’ll be over the moon. Lose, well I just hope I’m not sat here tomorrow talking once again about missed chances, defensive lapses and poor displays.

Come on you Gunners, give it everything you’ve got.

Enjoy the game.

I’ve been waiting for an injury update since Monday and still nothing has come up on the Arsenal.com home page. However turn to our dedicated injury room and there’s a free video in there with an update ahead of the Chelsea game:

“Campbell is back in the squad. Diaby is not yet back in normal training. If all goes well, if he progresses very well, we’ll still have to wait until Saturday.

Eduardo is already ruled out of the Chelsea game.”

He went on to confirm Diaby as ‘a maybe’ for Sunday before updating us on some longer term injuries:

“[Djourou] Still two months. We have to be patient with him. He is working, progressing well, working well but he is not an immediate resource.

[van Persie] Rehabilitation is going well but I think before April would be a little bit premature.”

He also told us that Carlos Vela was out. I never knew he was injured to be honest I just thought he was out of favour; he hasn’t offered a lot when he’s been involved this season. It’s a shame because I thought he might make an impact. He still needs time.

Wenger also reminded us that we have Walcott in the squad. In another interview he’s told us to be patient with him again and insists if he has an injury free season ‘he will have a good end of season’.

Theo is a popular topic of conversation at the moment. Yesterday I linked to Gunnerblog’s article on him and if you haven’t read that it’ll still be up there. He’s had such bad luck with injuries this season, it’s been frustrating for the club to have such a stop-start season and also disruptive personally for his World Cup chances. I believe Wenger though, he hasn’t played much football this term and he needs to get a run of games together, he’s still a developing talent remember and you can’t expect him to come straight back with a bang. Give him time and I think he will produce.

I’m not saying by the end of the season he’s going to be the new Theirry Henry but I think his England chances are still in the balance if he can stay fit and get in the team from now until the end of the season. I don’t expect him to start on Sunday, it’s too much of a deep end to throw him into but just like last Sunday I expect him to come off the bench. He might not be able to string together a full good performance yet but he’s still capable at this raw stage of his comeback to do something dangerous, he just needs to try be less anonymous and get in the game.

So Diaby will have a late fitness test to see whether he can play. I don’t know when that video was recorded but I’m sure we’ll get another update on him later tonight or tomorrow. I really hope he makes it though, not just because he was in good form recently but Denilson looks clearly struggling at the moment. The Brazilian didn’t look so bad at the start of the season but he’s not playing well at all at the moment and any weak link will be exploited by Chelsea just as United did.

We need the type of player like Diaby at Chelsea. He’s strong, penetrative, reads the game and is a threat going forward. Lets hope he makes it.

And that’s all the news there really is at the moment. Really is worryingly quiet round here, I hope that means we’re in deep preparation to re-mount our title chase on Sunday. Speak to you tomorrow.

I suppose the big story today is Chelsea’s failure to put distance between us and United by drawing 1-1 with Hull last night. It was their game in hand but could only manage a point meaning they’re just six points away from us now… going into Sunday’s ’six pointer’.

It’s a teasing result. A result that still gives us a bit of hope in the title race. A win on Sunday could put us within three points of the leaders which would be a great position to be in going into the season run-in.

This run of four games we’re in the middle of has been a bit of a mini disaster, there was so much hope and belief going into it but we find ourselves two games down with only one point gained. However a win at Stamford Bridge would turn it around and we could still come out of this run with a bit of credit.

It’s difficult to judge because we all saw how hopeless we were against United, there’s going to have to be a big change of character before Sunday. I’m sure that’s what Wenger will be working on now. However last night’s result could just add to our misery this weekend, those two points dropped have lifted us a bit and we could get brought right back down to earth with another loss.

But then again… last night just proved that the top three haven’t stopped dropping points and this title race is far from over despite whatever happens on Sunday. I find myself in a really strange position, I don’t know what to believe anymore! Are we still not good enough? Are we out of it? Are we gonna put a run together? Are we gonna win the league? Who knows?! It’s exciting I guess but it’s doing my head in! Win on Sunday and we’re going to hype up our title chances like crazy again, lose and then we’re still not totally out of it… I need some fucking closure! Oh the stress of being an Arsenal fan.

Nicklas Bendtner has been talking about his injury and is looking forward to get back playing again describing his time out as ‘hell’:

“If you look at the programme now, there are only four months left, then we are at the World Cup. It’s gone so quickly. When people say they have been out with long-term injuries and they say it’s hell, I can completely understand that now.

It’s difficult [spending time out injured], and you come in to training each day doing the same things. But you motivate by telling yourself that one day soon you will be better. When you come back you know you will find yourself again, and you are going to be strong.

I’m a naturally happy guy, whether I’m injured or not. It’s harder when you are out injured because a big part of your life, and something you love is taken away from you.

You never know what’s going to happen, but I’m almost back to 100 per cent now and I’m going to get better and better all the time. I feel fine in training so let’s see.”

Wenger chose not to buy this January despite saying that he would add a striker as soon as possible, the reason behind that was probably down to the return of this man. He needs a few weeks to get into the swing of things but I really hope he can get back to his best in this season run in. I rate Bendtner and he did really well before he got injured last year. He is hard working, strong and he can set up and score goals. He didn’t start on Sunday but I’m hoping he might be alright for this weekend, I think we could really do with a player like him against Chelsea.

In other news some Montenegrin defender called Stefan Savic is claiming he has agreed to join Arsenal in May and will be soon signing a pre-contract. The 19-year-old says we fought off Birmingham City and Tottenham to sign him, which doesn’t really inspire me to be honest. However he could be one for the future, who knows? We need to be in the market for central defenders this summer but I wasn’t really expecting this sort of signing, hopefully he is another gem for the academy rather than a replacement for Campbell/Silvestre/Gallas.

Arseblog has news of the exciting Wellington who has impressed in a behind closed doors friendly against Dagenham and Redbridge this afternoon. He really is meant to be the real deal but then again so was Theo Walcott back in the day.

There’ll be more build up to the Chelsea game on Sunday. Things are a bit quiet news-wise at the moment but we’ll probably get an idea of all our fresh injuries in the next couple of days. Thanks for reading.

One point out of a possible six halfway into this vitally important run of four games, it’s not going well is it! There’s no point in getting all upset and angry about yesterday; we need to pick ourselves up, figure out what went wrong and bounce back in the next game – just what Cesc is saying here. Next up though is possibly the hardest match we could get, Chelsea away. There’s no point going there thinking we’re going to lose though, we have to do everything we can this week to prepare. We’re not out of the title race yet, in fact if we pull off another win at Stamford Bridge we’ll blow it wide open again. However, lose and the title will look a bit of a long shot.

Lets focus on yesterday for the moment though. A 3-1 loss that was very similar to Chelsea defeat in November and the Champions League Semi 2nd leg exit to United last season. We were just outclassed really, we didn’t look prepared and never really got settled. It’s such a shame because games like yesterday are built up so much and our performance (once again) lacked the sort of quality you come to expect – it’s just a bit depressing really.

We didn’t start to badly to be fair, for most of the first half it was a pretty even game. Both sides looked a bit cagey but were still getting forward. Arshavin was looking dangerous and really should’ve opened the scoring on a couple of occasions.

It really looked like anyone’s game until a tactical change by Man United, they started with a side designed to nullify Fabregas but decided to switch to a team to be stronger going forward. They took a risk and Fabregas showed what he could do with the extra space almost setting up a goal but in the end it paid off for the visitors.

A period of pressure and good team play preceded a fine individual goal just after the half hour. Nani out on the right wing was all over Clichy, he just couldn’t handle him all game. With a great piece of skill flicked the ball between him and Nasri to make space to get into the box. He flicked a cross over Almunia right in front of the goal, Manuel tried to get back and flick it over the bar but ended up being a lame tap into the back of the net… it would’ve been converted anyway if he’d missed it.

We pushed for the immediate response but paid for it and was caught out on the break. The ball was given to Nani on the wing who drove up field before squaring to Rooney. It was easy for the league’s top scorer and suddenly it was 2-0 out of nowhere.

Two bad bits of defending inside four minutes and we were two down. We might’ve overcome the same score line against Bolton a few weeks ago but Man United have never ever lost a game after being 2-0 up.

They nearly got a third when Nani’s shot was deflected wide. A goal back before half time would’ve been massive but there was just as much importance at this stage just not to concede again.

We needed to start the second half well. But we didn’t. United made it 3-0 and it was another goal on the break. Park received the ball on the halfway line and began charging at our goal with two in support. It was just Clichy vs. Park, Rooney and someone else. You can’t blame Gael too much on the goal as whatever he did it would’ve ended up with a one-on-one opportunity. In the end he tried to get in the way of a squared pass forcing Park to go alone and hope Almunia would get something on it. He didn’t, and it was 3-0. Game over.

Arsenal being Arsenal we didn’t stop trying. We kind of knew that we’d lost but we still gave it a good go – you never know what might happen. We did have a few chances but nothing really was going for us.

Wenger threw on Bendtner and Walcott replacing Rosicky and the hopeless Denilson. Nicklas did alright after coming on but Theo was anonymous again.

Rooney should’ve got a second when he went clear after Eboue (who came on for Sagna) slipped but shot just wide of the post. As much as I wanted us to score I was thinking damage limitation was just as important.

With ten minutes to go we did finally get one back but it was far, far too late. Fabregas took a free kick quickly on the left for Nasri to swing in the box. The ball fell to Vermaelen on the edge of the box and struck it well in the air. It took a deflection on the way in but who cares, that’s Vermaelen’s sixth goal in the league.

The goal still gave us the faintest of glimmers of a miracle so we pushed on. Walcott had a header cleared off the line from a corner, we were pushing everyone up now just to try get us back to 3-2.

Almunia nearly rounded off another poor game by clearing the ball straight to the opposition’s feet. I think they were a bit surprised by his stupidity themselves and missed the chance.

In the 89th minute Gallas had a free header right in front of goal but the ball came awkwardly to him and put it wide. Could’ve easily scored and set up an interesting 5 minutes added time but it wasn’t to be and the game ended up 3-1.

I think both sides will argue that they should’ve scored at least two or three more than they did but you cannot deny Man United were worthy winners. Both sides had problems defensively but the visitors proved their class with their organization.

It’s too early to talk about our title chances now, next Sunday will tell all. Lets hope Wenger spends this week sorting us out and we’ll come back looking to prove a point at Chelsea.

Thanks for reading.

What a massive game we have in store for us tomorrow. I still regard Arsenal vs. Manchester United as the biggest game of the Premier League season, fuck Chelsea – where were they five years ago? You can’t beat a rivalry that has extended since the 60s and 70s which still produces a top class, title-deciding match today. There will be millions of Gooners, United fans and neutrals tuned in tomorrow for a massive match in both our seasons. Many of them making history watching the first live football match in 3D.

Arsenal and United have both played 23 games and we’re just a point behind them, so a win tomorrow would give either side a great advantage in the title running.

Our main talking point going into the any game is our injuries. Vermaelen is thankfully not out for the season but is likely to miss tomorrow’s game and Eduardo is out for a week with a hamstring strain. It causes a bit of a problem because two players who haven’t got much football under their belt might have to start – Bendtner and Campbell. Here’s what Wenger said on our injury situation:

“The good news we have on Vermaelen is that there is no fracture. We have to assess his knee today [Friday], there is still a small chance that he will play on Sunday. We will do the maximum to get him fit but at the moment it looks unlikely. It should be a very short-term injury.

It looked to be a two-month problem, now at the latest he should be ready for the Chelsea game.

Bendtner looks at bit short, but I have not picked the team yet. To start Bendtner is going through my mind, but he has only one training [session] and 20 minutes of action in three months”

We’ve had no update since then and it doesn’t surprise me really, Wenger will want to keep his cards very close to his chest and won’t reveal his team until an hour before kick off tomorrow.

I do hope that Vermaelen makes it but if he can’t play then I don’t think it’ll be the end of the world. Sol Campbell has been very good in the two appearances he’s made since re-joining us and a bit of experience against Man United can’t be a bad thing. However it would be his third game in 7 days and if Wenger doesn’t feel he can last 90 minutes he might not start him.

Another option would be to drop Song back alongside Gallas. He returned from the African Cup of Nations this week and is set to play tomorrow. We would miss him in midfield but I would feel so much more confident with him in defence rather than Silvestre.

Man United have got problems of their own, Rio Ferdinand starts a four-match ban tomorrow. Vidic was on the bench on Wednesday night and is expect to return to the starting line up tomorrow to partner Johnny Evans.

It’s hard for me to guess the team when I don’t know the state of our players, but I’m going to have a good guess. I think Bendtner will be alright, he’s a fairly fit player, as for Vermaelen it’s anybody’s guess really:

Almunia
Sagna – Gallas – Vermaelen/Campbell – Clichy
Song
Fabregas (c) – Rosicky
Bendtner – Arshavin – Nasri

I’d like to see us line up like that tomorrow. I’ve purposely left out Denilson who has not been in good form – we cannot afford slip-ups tomorrow. That team all depends on Bendtner and Nasri’s fitness though, if either or both are unavailable to start then Rosicky would be moved up top with probably Walcott and Ramsey or Denilson would partner Fabregas in the middle.

Enough speculation on the team, we’ll find out in 24 hours time. Whatever team is put out needs to know the task at hand, the draw on Wednesday was not an ideal result but we’re still in it. A win tomorrow would be a fantastic result and there’s no reason why we can’t do it. Looking around, we are the favourites too; the bookies have us slightly in favour, none of the pundits on Soccer Saturday today tipped United to win and looking around various websites, blogs and newspapers we look like we should be winning this.

They don’t have a great record at Ashburton Grove and we need to make the most of our home advantage. I’m not going tomorrow which I’m really gutted about but everyone there needs to raise the roof. Our atmosphere is gradually getting better and when it matters we’ve shown that we can make an incredible noise. I’ve no doubts we’ll do it again tomorrow.

We need a good performance from Fabregas, he needs to run that midfield. Arshavin needs to rise to the occasion like he’s done for us before. Almunia needs to show us the form of last season and want that clean sheet. If Song shows us why we’ve missed him so much we’ll be solid in midfield and keep Wayne Rooney quiet.

There’s been a lot of hype around Rooney recently and Wenger says he’s at his best age now. He’s playing well and has a good record against us so we need to defend well. Its all well and good saying Gallas can man-mark him but he’ll be looking to exploit our weaknesses and if Campbell plays he will be on his shoulder the whole game.

We have our own threats though and Man United know that. They’ve experienced what Arshavin can do earlier this season, Bendnter will be looking to come back with a bang and simply – we have Cesc Fabregas.

Come on Arsenal. I know you can do it if we play the way we can. Wherever you’re watching enjoy the game and cheer on the boys. Thanks for reading.

Not really the result we hoped for but from what I saw it wasn’t really the performance we hoped for either. There was a lot of build up going into last night but the players didn’t seem able to produce a great deal.

Villa were out to prove a point and played well from the start. They knew how important win was to us and weren’t going to give us the points.

The main talking point of the first half as far as we were concerned was the injury to Thomas Vermaelen. He picked up a knock after half an hour and was quite clearly struggling and hobbling round the pitch. He had to be replaced and it was a big chance for Sol Campbell. And he rose to the occasion and put in a solid performance. He played Heskey completely out of the game and hardly put a foot wrong.

Vermaelen left the ground on crutches after the game with a suspected broken fibula. It could’ve meant the rest of the season out for him and I have spent most of today worrying about the scan results. It was fantastic news though – there was no break but could still miss Man United. I can take him being out for Sunday, I’m just so relieved he wont miss the rest of the season!

If Campbell’s fit he can cover Vermaelen at the weekend, if not I think the best option is the returning Alex Song. We’ll talk about this later in the week though.

In the first half Villa had two decent chances. An Ashley Young free kick went a foot the wrong side of the post and Stewart Downing couldn’t control the cross after Young skinned Clichy to get in a great position.

However the closest the game came to a goal in the first half was right at the end, and it was us. Fabregas went on a brilliant run, breaking through the home defence. He shot across goal from the right but it came off the post denying the captain a great solo goal. It came straight out to Rosicky and Ramsey but they both got in each other’s way. If just one of them was there at the time it would’ve been an easy tap it – Cesc reminded them to communicate next time. Very frustrating.

So 0-0 it was at the break. Could hardly argue that it was an unfair reflection but we so should’ve taken the lead right at the end.

Downing had another great chance early into the half, a deep cross came to him unmarked at the back post. There was plenty of room to nod it in the top corner but aimed it hopelessly wide. Phew.

We hit the woodwork again on the hour. Arshavin made a great run from the left wing to find himself one-on-one with Friedel. His shot was saved but rebounded straight to Fabregas who unselfishly laid it off to Rosicky six yards out. He just had a few men on the line to beat but smashed it off the cross bar. So, so agonizingly close again.

We had another chance right at the very end when Sol Campbell reacted quickest to a loose ball in the box but couldn’t put it away and it ended up 0-0. A draw was probably a fair reflection, it was a well-fought and evenly contested game and a point each is about right. However those two chances where we hit the woodwork were centimetres from going in and you just feel if luck was a little more on our side we would’ve won yesterday.

So it’s just 1 point so far out of a possible 12 to gain over this run of four games and many would’ve hoped to start with all 3. It’s a shame but I haven’t been too annoyed about this result. The ’six-pointers’ against Man United and Chelsea are the really big ones, win those and last nights result wont even matter anymore.

It’s a big one on Sunday. Injury news and all the usual build ups to come this week. Thanks for reading.

We’ve been talking about these next four games for some time now. Aston Villa, Man United, Chelsea and Liverpool. This is a huge test for our squad and I’m eager for the results. We start tonight with a trip to Aston Villa, a side on a high after just reaching their first Wembley final in a decade.

You could argue that the two midweek games that start and end this run of four games against Villa and Liverpool are the easier of the four but they’re still vitally important. Not only can they carry momentum but also any points dropped against the top two can be recovered here.

We need to start with a win tonight. It’s a big ask though, 3 points at Villa Park is no easy feat. We are boosted by the return of Nicklas Bendtner and Samir Nasri but they will only be on the bench. The duo are back and fit again but have only had one full training session; Sunday’s game against Man United is a more realistic target for them. Still though, it’s good to have options on the bench and I wouldn’t be surprised to see both of them make an appearance.

Diaby is out which means Aaron Ramsey will probably start in midfield. I expect Denilson will play defensive midfield but he has struggled there so I wouldn’t mind giving the young Welshman a chance. I don’t know, we’ll see. Here’s how I think we’ll line up:

Almunia
Sagna – Gallas – Vermaelen – Clichy
Denilson
Ramsey – Fabregas (c)
Rosicky – Eduardo – Arshavin

I think that’s a strong side, our only weakness is the missing Alex Song but he could return in our next game. We do have Cesc Fabregas though and he ran riot against Villa a few weeks ago in his 20 minute cameo. The home side have the displeasure of a full 90 minutes of him tonight, hopefully he can be just as effective.

Villa also rested players in the cup last weekend and will have a fresh Friedel, Cuellar, Dunne, Milner, Heskey and Agbonlahor to chose from. Their captain Stiliyan Petrov is just coming back from injury and was an unused sub at the weekend so he might return, so too might Curtis Davies who played for the first time on Saturday.

Stephen Warnock, Nigel Reo-Coker and John Carew are all out, which I guess is a bit of a bonus. I never like playing against Carew he always seems to break through our defense.

We aren’t on TV which is a bit of a surprise; instead Sky are showing the Mickey Mouse Cup semi between a bunch of northern cunts. Meh. It’s a massive game for us tonight so I suspect there will be thousands looking for internet streams. There’s a screening at The Grove, which would be good to go to if I didn’t live 100 miles away… but enjoy those of you that are. If I find something decent I’ll link you on my twitter.

COME ON THE ARSENAL.

Last night Alex Song’s Cameroon were knocked out by Egypt 3-1 after extra time. Bad luck for him but great news for us! Wenger expects him to return either tomorrow or Thursday but he will be a doubt for United on Sunday. We will have to assess his fitness when he gets back but I’m praying he’s alright. It’d be a massive boost to have Alex return to face the Premier League holders, especially with Abou Diaby the latest casualty to the add to the injury list.

The Ivory Coast also fell at the quarter final stage which means Eboue will be available to us again. However it also means that Chelsea should have Drogba back ready to play us.

Our long injury list is gradually shortening though as Nasri and Nicklas Bendtner return to action this week. There was no confirmation as to whether either of them might play at Villa Park but Wenger did say they are back in full training. I expect we might see one or both of them off the bench on Wednesday but if both are raring to go by Sunday we can take that as a big boost.

However with us being Arsenal, any player returning from injury must be replaced and Wenger confirmed that Diaby is out. The injury table is much less busy now though, there are just five of them in there – van Persie, Gibbs, Djourou, Merida and Diaby.

In transfer news, Jack Wilshere will leave on loan in the next 48 hours. Arsene said there’s interest from a number of Premier League sides and named Burnley as one possible option. However the decision is down to Jack as to where he wants to go, so expect news on his new club for the remainder of the season very shortly.

It looks like Man United have signed Fulham defender Chris Smalling. This morning Wenger said the race to sign him wasn’t over but United have announced a bid has been accepted and he’ll join at the start of next season subject to a medical. However they did pre-maturely announce the capture of Aaron Ramsey not too long ago just before we wrapped up a deal for him so it might not totally be off! It would be a shame if we missed out on Smalling but it’s not the end of the world, I’d rather have Ramsey out of the two anyway.

So if United have actually secured a move for him then we will be on the hunt for a central defender this summer. I have no idea who that might be yet but Wenger hasn’t ruled out a new deal for Philippe Senderos. He’s just gone on loan to Everton until the end of the season and his contract with us is up this summer so he’ll be free to go wherever he likes. However if he does well at Goodison Park we may well ask him to stay. Unlikely though.

There was some other bits and pieces spoken about today. In the midst of all our goalkeeper insecurity Wenger has said Wojciech Szczesny will be our future no.1. He’s currently on loan at Brentford and Wenger’s been bigging him up as a future Arsenal great. I look forward to the day when I learn how to spell his name without copy and pasting. Also Arsene has called for patience with Walcott reminded us he’s still only 20 and has just returned from injury. He says give him five or six weeks and we’ll see a different Theo Walcott. I hope so, he looked totally not up to scratch on Sunday.

Puma v1.10 Gloves

Before I go I should mention SoccerPro.com who have sent me these fantastic Puma V1.10 gloves. They’re pretty cool, was definitely in need of some new gloves, in last year’s Arseblog 5-a-sides tournament I totally destroyed my index finger thanks to useless gloves. Looking forward to trying out these new ones.

I’ve mentioned Soccer Pro before and they’re definitely worth checking out. They’ve got a great relationship with customers and personally check back on your order with you which I think it’s quite cool. Also they do loads insane offers randomly if you stay in touch on their twitter/facebook. Check out their other goalkeeper gloves and goalkeeper gear from those links.

Right I best be off, should be back tomorrow to preview the first of a very important run of games tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

What an awful result that is, and it was a performance to match yesterday. I was upset with how we played and we never looked like we deserved anything else but the loss. I can take it when we play well and lose but yesterday just wasn’t one of those days

We had to field a weakened side. The defence included a re-debut for Campbell who was partnered by Silvestre and flanked by Coquelin and Traore. It was a very make-shift back four and it showed, touch wood we never get into an injury situation like that. Sol had a decent game though, Silvestre was just Silvestre and the two full backs looked out of the game and clumsy. You can let Coquelin off but there’s no excuse now for Traore.

Cesc started in midfield, which was a signal of intent from Wenger. Whether or not his inclusion came about due to an illness to Wilshere we will never know but showed we did want to win this game. He was partnered by Denilson, or should I say Meh-nilson who put in another lacklustre performance.

Up front we played Walcott and Vela with Emmanuel-Thomas as the main striker; he did alright considering it’s not his normal position but his touch was poor. Vela tried but couldn’t make a stamp on the game and Theo did not have a good game. He was totally and utterly anonymous and South Africa is looking a long way away.

In goal we had the cup ‘keeper, Fabianski. A lot of Gooners have been calling for him to take over in the Premier League but he showed just why he’s not yesterday. He had a poor game. I like how Gareth Southgate put it, “He’s like a box of chocolates, Fabianski. You never know what you’re gonna get.” And yesterday we got that dirty coffee liquor one that no new chocolate can take the taste away. Fucking hate coffee chocolate.

Fabianski set the story for today with a cock up inside 70 seconds leading to the home side’s opener. Of course, it was a Delap throw in, Fabianski saw it, got in position and waited for the ball to fall nicely into his chest. What the hell was he thinking?! He needs to get forward, jump and catch the ball – of course there’s going to be someone coming in to attack the ball.

That man was Fuller and we found ourselves behind very early on.

So I guess we’re gonna have to stick with Almunia for the time being. Today’s announcement that Vito Mannone has signed a new long-term deal doesn’t exactly calm my fears either. Alright he did well earlier in the season but he’s one for the future, as is Fabianski. We need a new ‘keeper.

We got a vital equaliser just before half time. You could argue that we didn’t deserve it given the way the half had gone but we’d finally started to play a bit of football and our short spell of pressure produced a goal. We won a free kick right on the corner of the box, Fabregas stepped up to whip it in but squared it to Denilson who stuck it low towards goal. It took a couple of deflections on the way through but the general direction of the ball didn’t change much and it was 1-1.

Right game on, surely? We could be happy with being level at the break, now we needed to build on that in the second half and go for the win.

However Stoke continued to be the better side and although we had most of the ball and the more dangerous attacks, Stoke were more frequently causing us problems and looked the more likely to score.

With 68 minutes gone Wenger made the ‘we-can’t-be having-a-replay’ move and brought on Arshavin, Ramsey and Eduardo, replacing Walcott, Emmanuel-Thomas and Coquelin.

The three didn’t have much of an impact though, in fact they all has pretty a quiet 20-odd minutes.

It was Stoke who would take the headlines in these vital final stages. They re-took the lead ten minutes after those subs. Traore allowed Sidibe to get down the left with ease who then whipped in a perfect cross for Fuller who made it 2-1 to Stoke. A great but simple goal by the home side made all the easier by our shit defending.

From here the game was only ever going to end 2-2 or 3-1. I was certain we were going to give it our all and run the risk of Stoke catching us on the break. What annoys me though is that their third came from when we had men behind the ball. We were caught in possession and failed to clear the danger, Whitehead was put through and sent Stoke through to the 5th round.

We were spared embarrassment when Tuncay’s 4th was ruled out but it wouldn’t have been an unfair reflection on our performance.

Apart from Cesc who did everything he could to single-handily win the game we were a whole box of shitty coffee chocolates.

Now we can focus our attention to the league though and this result in time may become a blessing in disguise. These next four games will shape our season, I’m excited. And so should the players, they may even get a holiday out of it.

Thanks for reading, speak to you tomorrow.

I’ve missed quite a bit in my recent absence. A spirited comeback against Bolton has put us top of the league and things are looking good going into our next four league games. However it hasn’t been the strength to come from 2-0 down to win 4-2 with an injury hit squad that has made the news – A nothing William Gallas foul is the only story that has been talked about and it’s not the first time we’ve seen something like this.

There’s no point in me going over this in depth, this has been covered really well on other blogs and if you haven’t read Arseblogger’s take on it, well you should’ve done.

The reaction to it has astounded me. We’re top of the league, with this squad, has no one noticed that? Wenger has obviously been asked about the incident and said he thought we were right to play to the whistle – just as Everton did when Denilson went down the weekend before. He’s also spoke about how incredible it is teams get away by saying ‘we’re going to be physical, kick Arsenal off the park and not let them play’ before they play us and no one raises an eyebrow. I also really liked this:

“Fabregas had two clear penalties at Bolton and one or two here. At Bolton there was what happened after [the penalty claim] when they [Bolton players] pulled his hair and stood on his neck. Why is no-one sensitive to that? Does that not make a story? You wonder why. We saw it three or four times when we watched the tape afterwards and we spoke about it. How can that not be a penalty?

Today, we are all brainwashed by one or two main medias who decide what we have to talk about and we talk about that. When it becomes the main story you have to give your opinion about it. I can accept that but it doesn’t always mean they are right. Some incidents they [the media] have not picked are sometimes more important than that. But I don’t get upset any more. It just glides over me.”

After the game Owen Coyle described Gallas’ challenge as ‘assault’, which is just laughable if you’ve seen the incident. He’s since retracted his comments surely in a bid to keep alive his hopes of taking Jack Wilshere on loan. Haha.

Lets move on then shall we. Gallas has been in the news today for more positive reasons, contact talks are ‘going well’ as he looks to sign a new two-year deal. He could be off on a free this summer but we need to do everything to try and keep him, he’s been a rock since he passed on the captaincy to Fabregas and is very important to our defence. Arsene usually has a strict policy of one-year deals for over 30s but I think he might bend the rules in his exception.

Philippe Senderos has joined Everton on loan until the end of the season and will complete a permanent move either there or elsewhere in the summer (Good luck to Big Phil, hope it works out for him). Sol Campbell is unlikely to sign on next season unless there’s some sort of de-aging miracle machine developed in the next six months. That will leave us quite short at the back so we really need to keep Gallas. We can look forward to the return of Djourou next season but I think we need another addition in the near future.

Chris Smalling is being talked about a lot as a possible option. Wenger looked very smug and didn’t give anything away when he responded to the rumours by saying nothing is happening ‘at the moment’. Man United are reported to be interested in the Fulham defender too so if Wenger does want him he better act fast than getting in a bidding war. This story could develop in the next few weeks so news on that when I get it.

Right, We have a game tomorrow so about time I turned attention to that. With Liverpool and United out, on paper it’s a straight fight between us and Chelsea for the cup. The holders are really up for it this year, Carlo Ancelotti has said the FA Cup is high on his priorities and fielded a strong side against Preston today.

I’m not sure how serious we are about it though. With all our injuries and with the upcoming league schedule we’re going to have to rest a few. Sagna and Diaby are forced to sit out, the latter will probably miss the Villa game too. As for that it’s down to Wenger who he thinks needs a rest.

Wilshere and Campbell are in the squad and could both start. We also saw the return of Theo Walcott (again) against Bolton so he could probably do with a game. Clichy has recently recovered from injury too, whether he needs a game for fitness or a rest so not to push him I don’t know – I’m not the manager!

Therefore, here is my complete guess at tomorrow’s team:

Fabianski
Coquelin – Campbell – Vermaelen – Traore
Eastmond
Wilshere – Rosicky (c)
Walcott – Eduardo – Vela

What do you think? Post your own team in the comments below if you think we should field a different XI

Stoke will be well up for the game and have even done just the thing Wenger was talking about a couple of days ago saying they will be physical! They don’t need to tell us though; we’re expecting a tough match up there. Hopefully the side we do put out is strong enough to win because this really is a competition we can win.

We’ve been beaten at the Britannia with our first choice XI before so it’s by no means a certain win. A draw would be a frustrating in terms of fixture congestion but I’d fancy us at home. Hopefully we won’t need to think about that though, a goal or two in the first half and I think we’ll win this.

Should be a good game though, we’re live on ITV1 again which I’m still finding a bit odd. Make sure you tune into ITV2 after the game for FA CUP XTRA with behind the scene interviews with Cesc Fabregas on his favourite toppings for pizza throwing and how Bacary Sagna has perfected his braiding technique.

That’s it for today then. Enjoy the game, come on you Gunners.

No match report from yesterday’s game purely because I didn’t get to see any of it. I was in a car traveling to Geneva airport through France whilst the game was on and was only able to get access to a stream for the last 20 minutes. A stream that kept fucking up mind, and made me miss our second goal. However I have seen the highlights since and it sounded like another grounded out win – once again not a top performance but we came away with the win, which is the spirit it takes to win the Premier League.

It’s a result that sets up the chance to go top on Wednesday, win by two goals and we go above Chelsea, albeit playing a game more than them, but still. It’s an incentive that will surely get the players going, I don’t think we’ve been top since we were there alphabetically at the beginning of the season! It would put us in a great position going into the games against Villa, United, Chelsea and Liverpool – a position worth defending.

If we’re still in or around that top spot after we play Liverpool on 10th February then I’m going to wet my pants with excitement about this season run-in. Get through those games and it really is downhill from there, win all four then well the media will hate it but we’ll be favorites.

Our main problem at the moment though is injuries; we just can’t seem to keep anyone fit. Nasri and Ramsey are now out for three weeks with injuries picked up in training this week which is a blow. Ramsey’s provided excellent cover in midfield and Nasri is important to our first team but we’ll manage if Rosicky can stay injury-free for the next few weeks. It’s a big ask though…

We’re so low on players at the moment that it meant a first team debut for Craig Eastmond yesterday. Wenger described his performance as ‘interesting’ but it was great experience for the lad. I’ve heard he did well in the first half but looked tired in the second losing possession a few times. He’s not used to the pace of the Premier League but looks promising for the future.

Denilson is back though so he will fill in again at defensive midfield. Both he and Walcott are in the squad for Wednesday but I don’t expect the latter to start. Theo’s had such an injury-hit season he’s going to have to be eased in gradually. Wenger also told us that Bendtner should be back for next week’s mid-week trip to Villa Park which is a bonus; hopefully he’s fit enough to start that one.

It’s a timely boost for both Walcott and Bendtner, we’ve been so low on attacking players recently and it’s great to have a couple more options going into those massive games against the top two.

Losing van Persie was a really big blow. A really big, unlucky blow. A really big, unlucky, shitty blow. I think we’d be cruising if he was still available, he was in such good form and for him to be taken away from us by a pointless international friendly is infuriating. Wenger says he’s coming along well though and it aiming for a mid-April return. He could be just the boost we need going into those final few games, lets hope we’re still with a shout of silverware by then.

Finally today Wenger says he’d prefer to loan Wilshere to an English side. This after FC Twente we linked with a move for him but Arsene has responded saying he wants Jack to be playing in the Premier League. I think we will wait right until the end of the window though before letting him go though.

That’s it really for today. I will try preview the Bolton match at some point before Wednesday night, not sure when but I’ll try write something even if it’s the afternoon of the game. Until then.

Bonjour, from the French Alps. I wasn’t going to write anything until I was back but I’ve got a spare half hour and I’ve finally got the internet working!

I’ve missed a couple of signings in my absence, Sol Campbell has officially done whatever hadn’t be done earlier in the week – he will wear no. 31. Also Wenger confirmed the Samuel Galindo signing that was announced on Gunnerblog a few days ago and said that he will being going on loan immediately, so we wont see him for a couple of years yet.

However I’m sure you already read about them ages ago, so lets look at tomorrow’s game. It will be Owen Coyle’s first game in charge of Bolton when we visit tomorrow. It’s funny how many sides appoint new managers just before we play them, it’s as if the burden of Arsenal next just pushes them over the edge and starts firing and hiring.

So they’ll be well up for the game, they’ve undone us at home many, many times before. That was more of a Sam Allardyce specialty to be honest but they’ll fancy their chances of doing it again.

Coyle hasn’t made any new signings yet but he’s got a pretty much full squad to chose from. Danny Shittu’s left to play in the African Cup of Nations and I think that’s all the first teamers they’re missing! It’ll be a pretty predictable line up then with some familiar faces; I’m sure Jaaskelainen will have a blinder once again and Fabrice Muamba will be looking to impress his former boss.

Injury news for us is mixed, we have Fabregas back which is fantastic. No changes up front with Bendtner still two weeks away but Arsene’s been talking about Cesc’s goal scoring ability. A lot of his freedom to get forward is thanks to the reassurance of Song behind him but will he have the same effect with Alex at the ACN?

Ramsey and Denilson are both out so I’m not sure who is going to be at defensive midfield. The three-man midfield will be chosen out of Fabregas, Diaby, Nasri and Rosicky with one of the last two playing wide on the attack. Cesc could definitely do a job at defensive midfield but he would be wasted there. Nasri filled in there at the end of last season and although Wenger persisted with him I wasn’t really a fan. I think our best option is Diaby – he will have to be under strict instruction not to power forward but I think if he is disciplined he will be a success.

The other other bit of news is Clichy’s inclusion in the squad but he’s likely to start on the bench. So this is how I see the team:

Almunia
Sagna – Gallas – Vermaelen – Traore
Diaby
Fabregas (c) – Nasri
Rosicky – Eduardo – Arshavin

I’d like to see Arshavin out wide this time he gets wasted in the middle, it’s Eduardo’s natural position and although it hasn’t really worked out for him I think we should persevere. Andrey is most deadly coming in from wide penetrating defenses, so lets put him there!

I won’t be able to watch the game tomorrow which sucks. I’m snowboarding again in the day and as the game kicks off I’ll be driving back to the airport. Awful timing! You’ll have to text me the score, enjoy the game.

Thanks for reading, Au revoir!

As you’re probably well aware, Sol Campbell played the first half in last night’s 4-2 victory over West Ham. Neil Banfield said the plan was always just 45 minutes for Sol and was very happy with his performance. We went 2-0 up inside two minutes just before the half hour mark with two goals from Emmanuel-Thomas before losing the lead to two second half penalties. However a couple of late goals, one from Frimpong and another from Emmanuel-Thomas completing his hat trick secured the 4-2 victory.

It was just a run-out for Sol really and Banfield hopes he will get another reserve game under his belt in the near future. I don’t think last night was a trial for Campbell or anything like that as before the game he already announced that he would be signing for Arsenal:

“I need to get minutes under my belt, a couple of reserve games at least, before I can start looking any further ahead. I hope to sign for Arsenal until the end of the season. There are still a few technicalities to iron out, but I want to sign for Arsenal until the end of the season, and it’s fantastic, great, marvellous.

The old enthusiasm is back. I’ve got to tell you it seems as though I have never been away. I’m ecstatic really to be back at Arsenal, and I have worked bloody hard to get there.

Arsene Wenger has been an inspiration. He has watched me closely after letting me train at Arsenal for nearly two months now. He’s not stupid – he wouldn’t have taken me back if he didn’t like what he has seen, and I have worked and worked.

I do believe I can contribute. I really have my confidence and fitness back and believe I can make a big, big contribution. There is fantastic quality all around the pitch within this Arsenal team and I want to be part of it, and will make a big push to try to do that, but it’s little steps at a time. First step is at Upton Park; the next step is more football.”

He also laughed off claims that he could get into the squad for South Africa claiming the first step is to just play some football. He wont be looking at the World Cup though, he has been recruited as back-up and wont get anywhere near enough football unless there is a serious injury to one of our first choice centre backs. Touch wood. You can read the full interview here.

In other news Gunnerblog reports today that we’ve signed Bolivian 17-year old Samuel Galindo who had come over to England for a trial with Everton. He was offered a day at London Colney whilst he was in the country and Arsene Wenger was very impressed. Apparently Everton weren’t happy with us and told him to sign immediately or the deal was off. He turned them down to have a second day’s trial at Arsenal and he’s now supposed to be putting pen to paper on a deal.

Obviously I don’t know much about this lad but he’s captain of the Bolivian U17s and U21s and is an attacking midfielder/playmaker. He may have to be loaned out in Europe before coming to London in the same way Carlos Vela did but it’s certainly another exciting young kid for the future.

Another great prospect, Jack Wilshere has been linked with a loan move to Burnley this January. Owen Coyle asked about the midfielder when we played at Turf Moor last month but has since left to manage Bolton. He says he’s still keeping tabs on him though and is waiting to hear from Arsenal on our injury situation as to whether he is needed in our first team. To be honest I preferred the idea of Wilshere ending the season with Burnley but I’m not so sure about Bolton. We’ll have to see though, any first team football will be great for Jack so hopefully we’re not too injury-ridden for him to take this opportunity.

That’s your lot for today, and for the week too. I’m off to the French Alps again. I left my toothbrush out there so I need to go back. I won’t get to speak to you until after the Bolton game but I’m sure you’ll manage until then. See ya!

Last week Wenger admitted he has thought about the possibility of re-signing Sol Campbell as back up for our defence. You probably know he’s been training with Arsenal for a while now to keep fit whilst he searches for a club. However Wenger has been very impressed with the 35-year-old and thinks he can still do a job in the Premier League.

This afternoon it was spread on twitter that Sol Campbell has signed and will make his first appearance for the reserves tonight against West Ham. If that’s true, we could see an announcement this afternoon on Arsenal.com. It could just be a rumour, I’m just passing on what I’ve heard but it looks like it could be genuine.

None of us have seen how capable Campbell is nowadays but this is the sort of thing I would trust Wenger on. Sol came to us just hoping to keep up his fitness and ended up joining the first team Arsene was so impressed.

I said a few weeks ago we need a back up defender so I wouldn’t be against the signing at all. He has the experience and we’ve seen him do the job very well before. Parallels can be drawn to Silvestre though, myself and a lot of other Gooners aren’t the biggest fan of his and is Campbell going to be any better? Sol is three years older than Silvestre, will that show? The former Man United man used to be a decent defender but with age I think he’s lost a bit. Will the same be true of Campbell? These are all questions we’ll have to wait and see the answer to, if he signs.

I’ve literally just seen that The Daily Mail have announced the signing. Also this has just gone up on Arsenal.com. It does look very much like the signing is on the verge of being announced.

[Just seen that Arsenal.com link has been taken down. It said that he had re-signed and was just talking about his former Arsenal career and how he moved from Spurs on a free]

The Mail are also reporting that we’re looking at Louis Saha. He is 31 but becomes a free agent at the end of the season so could be signed on the cheap – he might be a solution to our striker shortage. I’m not so sure about him though, I’ve never really been that impressed with Saha. However he is currently Everton’s top scorer and you might argue that with better players around him at Arsenal we would get more out of him. Well I’m sure it’s an option Wenger will consider but it’s all down to him at the end of the day.

There’s an interview with Cesc Fabregas in The Sun today and he says that his hamstring is 100%. That’s fantastic news, I thought we really missed him on Saturday and it’s great that he will be back for our next game on Sunday. We really are a different team with him in the side, he inspires confidence in everyone around him and influences games. Aston Villa last month couldn’t be a better example.

He says that he has been fighting to to get back to fitness in the snow and is ready to go. We could see Bendtner back soon too, I believe he is training again now and is looking to return later this month. Clichy is also back in training and is a few weeks away now. It’s starting to look good again.

This season has been an awful one in terms of injuries. I don’t think we’ve had our best XI all fit at the same point. Arshavin’s been talking about our terrible luck and says we’d need ‘a miracle’ to be able to play with all our best players. He’s also said it is his dream to win the Premier League or Champions League with Arsenal. If it weren’t for all our players out we’d be in an even better position than we are now, it’s just our luck. We’ve done really well to be where we are now though considering everyone we’ve lost and we’re still in with a title shout going into the games versus Villa, United, Chelsea and Liverpool.

And finally today, the Bolton game has been rearranged for next Wednesday. That means that after Sunday we have a game every three or four days right up to the Man United match. Ouch. Hopefully no more injuries are aggravated in that time.

Well that’s it for today then. The Sol Campbell signing looks imminent, knowing my luck it will all get announced as soon as I publish this blog immediately putting it out of date. Oh well. Thanks for reading.

Not a lot going on today on this very cold Monday morning. This blog comes to you from Bournemouth once again, I came back down at the weekend and it’s fucking freezing here. You’d think the more south you got the less cold it would be but apparently not.

The only thing really being talked about today is Denilson and his sudden collapse during the second half of Saturday’s game against Everton. Initially it was diagnosed as a possible rib break or lung problem, but Arshavin has told us there was something wrong with his back. I’m still no clearer as to what the actual problem was but I have heard he will be ok for Sunday’s game at Bolton.

Wenger’s been talking about how he left us wide open when he collapsed and he should’ve handled the ball or kicked it out. He can’t just collapse in the middle of the pitch whilst he’s in possession and expect the other team not to counter attack. It could be considered unsporting but this is what Wenger said when asked whether he was upset that Everton played on:

“No. I wasn’t.

I said to Denilson afterwards: ‘If that happens you have to commit a handball. I’m very serious. If you go down, and there hasn’t been a foul, you cannot ask Everton to stop their counter-attack and not to score.

So, if you go down like that, at least put your hand on the ball and it’s a free-kick.”

You might get a red card for it but if you’re in so much agony that you can’t hoof the ball out before going down you need to just grab the ball. Otherwise we’re left extremely vulnerable and we’re very lucky Everton didn’t make it 3-1 after that because there’s no doubt we would’ve lost.

Denilson has been talking about the result saying how important it is we didn’t lose. I think he would’ve felt quite guilty if Everton had gone on to get a third after he went down so he’s probably pretty glad Rosicky equalized late on:

“We knew before the game it would be difficult against Everton. We won 6-1 on the first day of the season and the boss said they would come here and be very strong. They had a great game and there was a big difference from the first one up there.

But the most important thing was that we didn’t lose. We have one point, we kept the momentum going and we feel good. We are three points behind Chelsea now. But we have more experience this season and we are coming to win this trophy this season.”

He went on to say that Fabregas is back now and Bendtner will be soon. Hopefully that’s true because we really missed players on Saturday. We saw how much of an impact Cesc made against Villa and we really could’ve done with him against Everton. We’ll probably get a bit of injury news later in the week.

Fran Merida, the man who replaced Denilson on Saturday, has said he is only talking to Arsenal. This after it was reported that he has agreed a ‘pre-contract’ with Athletico Madrid. Whatever that is. He’s free to leave at the end of the season and we’ve yet to tie him up to a new deal but he’s keen to play first team football and I don’t know if he’s got the patience to wait for it at Arsenal. I’m sure Wenger is keen for him to sign, he’s definitely one for the future.

He had a disappointing game at Upton Park but that was a one off, he’s highly rated and will be a good player one day. It’s really down to him now though, will he wait for his chance here or decide to seek first team football elsewhere? It sounds harsh but with all the young talent we have I won’t be that bothered if we lose him; we can afford to lose one I guess. One thing is for sure though, if we do sell him he’s guaranteed to become amazing and score against us in the Champions League final.

I guess that’s it for today. Hopefully more to discuss tomorrow, until then.

Once we had got over the anger of a poor performance in the snow yesterday I think the general feeling today is that it was a point gained rather than two lost. We were one of two Premier League games to survive the weather this weekend so credit to the ground staff who saved us of some fixture congestion later down the line. However it’s a bit of a shame that the team didn’t turn up on the day.

Yesterday we clearly missed players, we needed Fabregas so badly, Song wasn’t there to hold us together and I would’ve given anything for Robin van Persie or even Bendtner going forward. Denilson was drafted in at defensive midfield and he wasn’t up to the job, he was muscled off the ball countless times and caught out of position. Arshavin was selected as centre forward again and had an anonymous game, again.

We really struggled to get into the game and we never got going for the full 90 minutes. Usually games are dominated by our long spells of possession and many chances but yesterday was just not our day. We couldn’t keep the ball long enough and didn’t create a lot either. This was mainly down to Everton’s hard work, they played really well yesterday and were clearly not going to accept another 6-1 punishment. They came here for as many points as they could get and stopped us playing our football.

The visitors opened the scoring after 13 minutes when Osman was allowed a free header from a corner. He came from deep and had no body tracking him at all. It was a decent goal but he had no one stopping him. I think it was Denilson who tried to head it off the line but couldn’t get enough on it.

An early lead and you couldn’t have many complaints. A quarter of an hour had gone and we hadn’t even got into the game yet. We sort of needed that goal to wake us up and we immediately tried to get back in it.

Eventually the equaliser came just before the half hour. A frustrating passing move around the edge of the box ended up with the ball being laid off to Denilson who’s shot took a big deflection totally wrong-footing Tim Howard and going inside the near post. You might say a deflected goal is a lucky goal but afterwards Arsene made a good point that we still made the chance and got enough on it to go in, so the goal deserves merit.

Half time came and we were level at 1-1. We didn’t have a good half and the absolute silence at the half time whistle told it’s own story. A lot needed to be said in that break, we were hardly in the game.

The snow really started pouring down in the second half and it was turning into a real battle. Looking back, as a neutral I guess it was quite a good game to watch. Both sides were going at it (albeit without our traditional flair) and it was quite an even match. Both sides were going for the win, it was clear that a goal was on it’s way.

We needed a change but there wasn’t much on the bench to chose from, Rosicky was there but apart from that we only had some youngsters. Tomas was brought on for Ramsey after an hour; not the Welshman’s best game, he struggled a bit against Everton but he’ll be back.

We were going for the winner and had a few chances to score but Everton were doing everything they could in defence. We had a decent penalty shout turned away when I think it was Denilson who was brought down, I haven’t seen the game back at all but at the time it looked like a pretty blatant foul. I guess the referee was consistent though, consistently shit. He missed loads of decisions and his lineman in front of me wasn’t doing him any favours either.

15 minutes from the end there were two really similar chances for either side. Cahill got down our left and beat Sagna and Gallas to go through on goal, but with an incredible angle. Diaby did well to get back and stop the play. At the other end Arshavin broke down our left and beat his man using his pace but his shot was blocked and went out for a corner.

It really was end to end stuff and a goal looked only moments away. We were pushing for a vital winner and it surprises me that Eduardo was brought off for Vela, I guess he had quiet one but we needed anyone we have up there.

Everton took the lead for the second time just 9 minutes from time and it all happened in the blink of an eye. We had a series of corners and had a lot of players pushed up, Denilson went down injured for some apparent reason leaving the midfield wide open and Rosicky unluckily gave the ball away at the worst moment. The ball was played the Cahill on the halfway line and was being held up by the last man whilst Pienaar went bursting through the middle unmarked. He ran the length of the pitch to chip Almunia and it was 2-1.

Almost immediately the same thing happened again. Denilson this time in possession fell worryingly to the ground clutching his chest and Everton snatched the ball, broke and Vaughan went straight through. This time Almunia did well to keep us in the game. Denilson was stretchered off afterwards and he may even have a broken rib, I’m sure we will get an update in the next few days but I hope he’s alright.

With that close shave and a series of about four very long drawn out Everton corners it just seemed all over. I just sat there dejected trying to feel my fingers thinking it’s all over.

However once we finally got the ball it was game on. The board showed 5 minutes of injury time and we were going to do everything we could in that time.

We worked tremendously hard to make an opening with all of the Everton defense back but a good piece of work between Diaby and Rosicky saw the latter with space to shoot in the box and grabbed us a late equaliser. There was another deflection helping it in but who cares!

We picked the ball up and went straight at them again but couldn’t find a winner. We had a couple of decent chances two in those final few minutes but I think in the end we wouldn’t have deserved the win.

Man United drawing to Birmingham later in the day made the result a little more bearable. Thanks to the weather yesterday’s game ended up being our game in hand over Chelsea and we didn’t capitalise on it. It’s not the end of the world though as we’re just three points away from them now and two behind United who’ve played one more than us. We’re in a good position leading up to the tricky run of games at the end of this month

Next up though it’s Bolton away on Sunday. We’ve got a whole week now to sort ourselves out and produce a better performance next weekend. It’s also a perfect time for Wenger to have a look at some options in the transfer market and after yesterday I think it’s clear we’re desperate for additions. Hopefully something can be done this week, thanks for reading.

For the majority of the season, or indeed since we have seen ourselves as title contenders we have been talking about this ‘game in hand’. When I look at the table and see our position I always remember we have this extra match and without really thinking I’ll add three points to our total in my head and see where we stand. I bet you all do it; it’s part of the luxury of having a game in hand.

No one else is playing this mid-week so we will be level on 20 games played with Man United and Chelsea. It’s so important that we win this game because it will throw us right into the mix. Say we beat Bolton, the table will read: 1st Chelsea – 45pts, 2nd Arsenal 44pts and 3rd Man United – 43pts. Heading right into that run of games the title race will be neck and neck.

However it’s easy to just think 1 game in hand = 3 points, it’s far from that. Bolton are never an easy side to beat, despite being 18th. They could have an added boost too of having a newly appointed manager in Owen Coyle, that move looks like it’s on the verge of happening. So they will be up for this game and don’t forget this is a game in hand for them too. Win this and they’ll jump ahead of their rivals at the bottom. The points are equally as valuable to them as they are to us.

We’re going to be without one or two players tomorrow night. We all know Alex Song has left for Africa now and he will be sorely missed. Abou Diaby has volunteered to take the job but I don’t think he is the right man, he is better going forward, penetrating defences and despite his stature he’s not a great tackler or header of the ball. The same goes for Ramsey, I think he’s also a more forward-minded central midfielder. The answer is probably Denilson but he has just been out injured. I actually wrote this blog last night for reasons I will explain later on so it’s too early to know if he’s fit or not yet. Wenger said he had tests yesterday and a decision will be made after today’s training session so we will probably find out later this afternoon.

If he doesn’t make it I’m not sure who we’re going to play at defensive midfield to be honest. Nasri played there at the end of last season but I didn’t think it really suited him, however Wenger’s played him there before so he might do it again. Otherwise it’ll have to be Diaby or Ramsey.

Tomas Rosicky was meant to play at West Ham on Sunday but wasn’t even on the bench. He’s not supposed to be injured at the moment so I have no idea where he’s gone. He should be playing tomorrow night presuming he hasn’t picked up another injury…

Tomas has just signed a new contract so Wenger obviously believes he will recover from his injury troubles. I’m sure he’d like to celebrate his new deal by starting tomorrow so we’ll have to see if he’s fit or not! I hope he does play because we’re very short on options as it is at the moment. With Cesc and possibly Denilson out we really need midfielders but then again we need wide players in that front three too. Rosicky can play in both of those positions so fingers crossed he’s alright.

Arshavin should be back after also sitting out the West Ham game and he should be joined by winning goal scorer, Eduardo. Vela had a decent game I thought so might get the nod again if Nasri is needed in central midfield. Nicklas Bendtner has been speaking to the press back home and is hoping to face Bolton when we go to the Reebok on the 17th. It’ll be good to have him back but don’t expect him to come straight back and into top gear.

As for Bolton’s team well all I really know is that they will field a team of cunts. They always do.

Wenger will stress the importance of this game and the players will know that a win tomorrow will mean we are right in with a chance to lift that title in May. This is a massive game and if we win it things are about to get really exciting.

We’re not on TV but those going try your best to make some noise in those sub-zero temperatures. I’m not going to the game tomorrow in fact I’ll be in a place even colder, the French Alps. I’m going snowboarding for a few days and wont be back until the weekend hence your early match preview. There’ll be no report on this game obviously but but I’m back in time for Everton on Saturday so I’ll speak to you at the weekend.

Thanks for reading and I’ll speak to you in a few days time. Come on The Arsenal!

For a long time there I thought we were following Man United out in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. Oh how we had all laughed at United for losing against old foes Leeds earlier in the day with a strong team out – I thought there was a bit of Karma on the way yesterday evening…

It took a very late turn around to keep us in the cup and we will now face Stoke away in the next round. Not the easiest of ties, but it’s typical of us to get Premiership sides all the way and for Chelsea to almost get a bye to the final by drawing The Red Lion Inn’s Sunday XI every fucking year.

Yesterday’s team selection shocked me a bit, we had Sagna, Vermaelen and Gallas all starting which was a bonus I guess but I was expecting at least two of them to be rested. On the left we had Silvestre, which had me worried from the start. In front of Song we had Ramsey and Merida with Eduardo, Vela and Wilshere making up the front three. Senderos and Rosicky weren’t even on the bench, which says a lot about the both of them really.

West Ham had to field a weakened side with all those injures and a place in the Premier League at stake. As much as they love it, the FA Cup is not high on their priorities this year. It wasn’t a bad side though and they still had players that could hurt us.

They were quick off the blocks and didn’t allow us any space. They were charging down every ball, winning all the 50:50s and were showing us there weren’t here to mess around. It took us a bit by shock really and we struggled for most of the game. They packed the midfield and we could not find any space to play our football.

West Ham scored right at the end of the first half. I didn’t think the first 45 minutes were really worthy of a goal but quick thinking from the home side and a defensive mistake by us allowed Diamanti to make it 1-0. He was Silvestre’s man but just as the ball was being played through to him he stepped up to play him offside, however there was another defender playing him on and he went one-on-one to score. Fabianski did well to get a hand to it but couldn’t keep it out.

It wasn’t really working for us and at the break I thought we could even make some changes now. I knew Wenger would leave it 10 minutes or so but something needed to be done soon.

We needed to start the second half brightly but it was the home side that came out again with a bang. They could’ve gone two up inside the first five minutes when they caught us out on the left (Silvestre’s side) a couple of times but one great save from Fabianski and a bit of luck kept it at 1-0.

I was screaming out for the substitutions at this point. Merida and Wilshere looked well out of their depth; in the first half Jack gave the ball away twice in a row in our final third, almost as if he was trying to set up the club he supported as a boy. He was getting muscled out of every challenge and showed everyone calling for his first team chance that he’s not ready. Merida didn’t have a great first half either but I swear to God he didn’t complete a pass in the second half. I had my eye on him to see if he picked up his game but he seemed to get worse.

Finally after 65 minutes Wenger did exactly what I would’ve done. A double substitution, Merida and Wilshere off, Diaby and Nasri on – and their impact was immediate. The trickery, composure and vision of Nasri gave us that little bit extra we needed going forward and the strength, power and skill of Diaby coming through the midfield was penetrating West Ham with ease.

It lifted the whole side and we actually looked like a team that could score now. We we’re in desperate need of a goal and time was running out.

We needed a bit of luck and a bit of composure in front of goal and we got it 12 minutes from time. The move started from the right and was played to Song unmarked on the edge of the box, he picked out Vela who tried to poke it through to Ramsey first time. It hit the defender but luckily it came back to him and whilst falling over he managed to get it to Ramsey who on the turn hit it first time into the far corner. A great finish and a nicely worked goal, Ramsey ran into the fans going wild behind the goal and I think he was lucky enough to escape a booking.

Five minutes later we completed the turn-around. Vela again with the assist – a great cross from the left wing. He didn’t have much to aim at in the middle but set it up nicely for Eduardo who completed his part of the bargain by somehow beating Upson to the header. And what a header it was, looping into the top corner giving Robert Green no chance. Not a goal many people thought we were capable of but what a goal it was.

There was no chance of West Ham coming back. It was a nervous last few minutes but looking back it was all Arsenal. We had a couple of chances to finish it off with a third, I think it was Vela who had one cleared off the line but it ended up 2-1.

Once again not a 90 minutes to be proud of but we got the result and results are all that matters in the cup. Next up we have Stoke but that match comes just a few days before that run of tricky games in the league so I’m afraid that it’s going to be probably an even weaker side. The series of games following that are incredibly important to our league challenge and I think I will let Wenger off this time if we have to sacrifice the FA Cup, it’s not nice to have to do that but it just how our fixtures have come this season. Well I hope our squad is good enough to go through but you have to think about the greater importance.

We’ll think about that nearer the time. Thanks for reading.

So the FA Cup starts up again this weekend and our third round draw was West Ham away. Quite a tricky tie as early into the competition as this but one I feel we should be winning. Our first team could only come away with a point earlier this season after losing a two-goal lead late on. However there’s talk that we will not be playing a full-strength side this time around.

Arsene Wenger has admitted he will rotate, he said there were few playing on Wednesday night that were at risk from injury so he will rest those players that have slight niggles. I know Arshavin is one; I read somewhere that he hurt his foot against Portsmouth so I expect him to be saved for the Bolton game next Wednesday.

Fabianski usually gets the nod for the FA Cup, there’s been no confirmation that he will again this year so we’ll have to wait and see. Wenger said Philippe Senderos will come in if he passes a late fitness test. Whether that’s to get him cup-tied for his next club/put him in the January sales window I don’t know, however Wenger says the only departure this month could be Wilshere. I think it might be a good thing to rest one of Vermaelen or Gallas seeing as they have played pretty much every game this season. Not sure I really fancy resting both of them though, we might be resting players but there’s no need to play Silvestre – lets not be silly now.

Walcott’s injured and there could be rests for Diaby and Sagna, but I’m just speculating though. I can’t really predict a team today but I don’t know to what extent Wenger will rest players. So here’s my guess/what I would do considering we will be playing a slightly under strength side:

Fabianski
Gilbert – Senderos – Vermaelen – Traore
Song
Ramsey – Diaby
Rosicky (c) – Eduardo – Vela/Nasri

That really is a complete guess so don’t hold me to that. You can expect to see Song and Rosicky though that’s for sure; this is Alex’s last game before he heads off to Africa and Rosicky is looking for a bit of match fitness. I think this could also be a chance for Eduardo to get match-sharp, he might’ve scored a deflection and a tap-in in the last couple of weeks but I’m still not 100% convinced he’s back.

West Ham could rest players too considering they’re only out of the bottom three on goal difference; they have to concentrate on the league, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they rested one or two as well. West Ham being West Ham are ridden with injuries – Dyer, Noble, Parker, Gabbidon and Ilunga are all have hamstring injuries, Carlton Cole has a knee problem and Franco is suspended.

Both Arsenal and West Ham are in a very similar position going into tomorrow’s game. We’re either end of the table and have to concentrate on the league as every point is vital. Our squads have both been depleted with injuries and are risking defeat by resting even more players. You could say it’s slightly harder on us because we’re playing on Wednesday and they’re not but still – they are in the same boat as us and we can have no excuses if we lose this one.

Hopefully those regulars that are in the starting XI can turn on the magic and put this game to bed. I don’t see us having many first team options on the bench either so lets hope we’re not trailing late on.

Should be a good one tomorrow whatever happens. We’re live on ITV, yes ITV at 4:15pm. Have a good one those of you who’re going I’m very jealous, tried to get a couple of tickets myself but I’m going snowboarding next week so better save a bit of money!

Right, enjoy the game. Thanks for reading.