Rafa Benitez’s men make the trip to North London tomorrow but the draw for the quarter finals of the Carling Cup were made today at it’s Liverpool at Anfieldhe’s got a few options to replace him, he says he’ll either play Zenden, Gerrard or Xabi in the centre. I hope we can put in a good performance tomorrow and I’ve got a sneaky feeling Henry might be dangerous, I predict a 1-1 draw but it could really go any way. It’ll be a great game though and I can’t wait for tomorrow. For those of you not going it’s on Sky Sports 1.

Our vice-captain, Gilberto Silva says it’s a must win game if we are serious about our title hopes. A few weeks ago we were catching up on the leaders but we’ve dropped back to 10 points behind Man Utd, ok we still have a game in hand but still that’d only narrow it down to 7 points if we won. We can’t afford to go further behind the leaders, we might not realistically be title contenders this season but we must be up there pressuring them all the way. This is what Gilberto had to say:

“If we want to fight for the title then we must win this game. This season we have dropped many points already, that is why we are so far from the leaders. But we know we want to fight for the title and that is why this is a crucial moment for us. I think it is much better, not easier, but better when we play against a team like Liverpool because they will not sit back just to defend. They will come out and want to play - they want to win. But, at the same time, we are confident for this game.”

I went to Arsenal v Liverpool at Highbury last year; we won 2-1 thanks to Gerrard back pass to Henry for an easy winner. Another 2-1 would do just nicely again tomorrow.

Gael Clichy has now fully recovered from his recent long-term injury and he has just started to play regular football for the first team this season. I expect him to start at left back tomorrow and I hope this season will be a good for him as the now, 1st choice left defender. If you don’t already know Ashley Cole fucked off to Chelsea in summer because we wouldn’t give him enough money and Gael is looking forward to filling his void:

“In the summer I saw the newspaper reports about Ashley possibly going to Chelsea and it is a shame that we have lost a good player and a friend. But I have to be honest and say that it is a big opportunity for me now that he has gone. I am up for it. I am here to progress every day and to be the number one left back at Arsenal and the French national team. I am giving 100 percent in training, but I have also learned, after all the troubles last season, to listen to my body and to take care. I feel that this could be my season.”

Hopefully Gael has some better luck with injuries this season and there’s no doubt the Frenchman can go on to be even better than Ashley ever was.

Alex Hleb has been talking about our incredibly bad luck in front of goal in the past few games. It’s been frustrating to watch and sometime I just found myself laughing about how stupid it was. Hopefully the late goal against Everton on Wednesday was the beginning of a new run of luck. This is what Alex said to the Daily Express:

“I don’t know what is happening to us. Maybe the answer is from somewhere up above. I know that we play this beautiful football and there should be no stopping us from scoring. I cannot answer why the goals are not going in. Maybe it is just fate. Of course it could be a problem for us if it keeps going, but nothing is really wrong. All we have to do is be more focused, more concentrated. We have to keep playing beautiful football - and once we are up there we have got to make the most of our chances. It’s not down to who scores them, whether it is the strikers, defenders or the midfielders, whoever. We create a lot of chances, who scores them - that’s not important, but we are not going to change.”

He’s right. I hope he’s right. We just need to keep our cool when finishing and not snatch at chances. Thierry Henry is probably our best finisher; he’s scored some incredible goals and is due a goal at the moment. I see the captain grabbing at least one goal against Liverpool.

The players have been talking about our style of play quite alot recently. It’s come under some criticism due to our lack of goals but in alot of their interviews they’ve been saying something along the lines of ‘we will not change our style of play’. Even Hleb said it in the quote above and Theo Walcott has been saying it too today. In the past other teams and fans have praised us for the way we play the game, it is beautiful but it does mean we have to score the perfect goal. Obviously our style isn’t going to just change like that because we’re not banging them in at the moment. This bad patch of form will pass soon and we’ll be back to out best. Hopefully starting tomorrow.

And finally, the Arsenal Ladies are through to the UEFA Women’s Cup Final after beating Brondby 5-2 on aggregate. I went to the game this afternoon; the Ladies play at Borehamwood’s stadium, which is just around the corner from me. IT was quite a good game and our most notable player was the no.11, Yankey. She was a bit like Walcott with fast runs down the wing cutting into the box. So they’re through to the European cup final and I’d be quite interested in going but I have no idea where or when it is. It was a good day out and for only three quid, a bargain.

Right, that’s yer lot for today. Off to the Grove tomorrow, match report to come soon. Thanks for reading.