Well well well…here I am once again, three o’clock on a Saturday and no football to attend to. Our game’s at 1:30 tomorrow and shown on Setanta, so get subscribing or much better, get down the pub.

As I said yesterday, we are without four of our best players and losing all that creativity and talent we’re struggling in these away games finding ourselves under pressure for a lot of the game. We’re missing the midfield duo of Flamini and Fabregas terribly, however Diarra has stepped up to the opportunity and has done brilliantly in my opinion. Gilberto’s done well actually too, he was sloppy in Seville but he’s come back from that and looked a little like the Gilberto we used to know against Newcastle.

Going forward, Hleb is really missed. Tomas Rosicky cant quite do the same job as Alex has this season. Eboue’s been hot and cold. He’s started to show some signs of a decent winger however he goes and does something silly like diving to make up for his positives. He’s still keeping Walcott out the side though.

Up front we’ve been without Van Persie for some time but we’ve managed. Adebayor has taken the goal scoring responsibility and find himself top scorer in the Premier League. In Robin’s absence we haven’t really found the right partner for him though, resulting in a lot of 4-5-1 formations. Theo is far too inconsistent, Eduardo is similar but he is still adapting to England. Recently, I’ve been most impressed with Bendtner, he hasn’t earned himself a start yet but I think he should tomorrow. He is self-confident and he really wants to do well and prove a point. I say give him the chance.

Can you pair Ade and Nicklas though? Well there’s only one way to find out. Here’s how I’d pick the team tomorrow lunch time:

With that team there’s the 4-4-1-1 option and we could also allow Rosicky freedom in the middle by pushing Diarra out wide or something. Denilson, Walcott and Eduardo give an attacking option if things aren’t going our way. I would have Diarra (the Flamini-type role) and Denilson (the Cesc-type role) in the middle but I think Gilberto must start.

I’m quite looking forward to this. I’m interested to see whether we’ve learnt anything from our last couple of games. ‘Boro are struggling and we’re clear favourites but it wont be that easy. A win would be great, 7 points out of these 3 away games is a good return. A draw wouldn’t be the end of the world but I’m hoping we can come away with all the points here.

I’ll have a match report up at some point, stay tuned. See ya.

I went into this one thinking we should win this quite comfortably. They’ve been doing terrible recently, and well, we’re the league leaders. A draw isn’t too bad though, Gilberto even thinks it was a point gained, not two points dropped. It was a similar game to the one we played at Villa as we spent much of the game on the back foot being pushed back and losing the physical battles.

We started in a 4-4-2 with Eduardo up front and a midfield of Eboue, Gilberto, Diarra and Rosicky. This worked well but for some reason Wenger changed to 4-5-1 putting Eduardo out wide. Why change what’s not broke? This was what led to our downfall. If we wanted to go with a five-man midfield then I would’ve much preferred the team I selected; Eduardo was completely out of the game once he got move out wide.

We scored early with a great goal. Diarra crossed the ball in from the right and Ade took the ball with such skill on the chest and volleyed home right between the keeper and the crossbar. It was a fabulous goal and Ade showed great control to keep the ball close to him.

1-0 up so early on and you thought we could win this quite comfortably. However it wasn’t to be. It was end-to-end football now, with mainly Newcastle threatening. We were holding on quite well but we couldn’t seem to apply the same pressure the other end.

Almunia was doing great in goal for us. In fact he had an excellent game, possibly his best in an Arsenal shirt. Made some great saves and stops and was clearing crosses and dangerous balls away from the area. His distribution wasn’t 100% but as long as he does his job between the posts I’ll let him off that one.

At half time it was still one nil to us and I still thought we could hang on to victory and probably add another in the second half. It got worse in the second 45 though, Newcastle were putting more pressure on us and their fans were really getting behind them in possibly their most important game of the season so far.

We were giving the ball away far too easily and a bad example of this lead to Newcastle’s equaliser on the hour. We were trying to play the ball out of trouble in defence, as we do, but with the home side in the mood they were in they were closing down every ball and they weren’t going to let us get away with it. They won the ball on the right wing, Geremi crossed it in to the deepest player in the box, Taylor. Neither Sagna or Toure picked him up and Taylor slotted the ball off the post and in.

The goal was coming and you cant say thy didn’t deserve it. They had to decide whether to take a draw against the best team in the league of go for the win and punish us. However, we seemed to wake up a little after their goal, Eduardo was brought off for Bendtner 8 minutes later and we were attacking again.

Our major downfall though was Emmanuel Adebayor. For some reason he seemed to think he was the best player in the world last night, trying every single stupid flick and hogging the ball. It was like a lanky Thierry Henry. So many times we broke away and it was Ade plus another one or two players and instead of squaring the ball to the supporting player in space, he decided to go it alone. This cost us goals and I think if Ade had been a little more unselfish we would’ve won.

There one time when he was the supporting player and it was Rosicky in possession going forward. Ade was screaming for the ball about 5 yards away from Tomas, in an offside possession. Obviously Tom spotted this and couldn’t pass to him but Ade was furious, he was desperate for the ball. It was a great display of hypocrisy from Emmanuel and I didn’t like it, it’s not like he was in a good position anyway. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ade, and he scored a brilliant goal, but he wasn’t the greatest team player for the whole 90 minutes.

In the end it finished 1-1. A fair result it has to be said. That was our game in hand so we lost an opportunity to make an even bigger gap from Man United, we’re still 4 points clear of them though, which is good.

Next up it’s ‘Boro on Sunday. Looks like we’re going to be without Hleb, Cesc, Flamini and Robin again which sucks. Hopefully by the weekend we’ll have learnt our lesson from these two away games. Thanks for reading.

The injury problems are the same as Villa. However two start performers from that game, Hleb and Flamini are out. This really does present quite a big problem. I was worried going into that game wondering if there’d be enough creativity in the side, however Flamini and Hleb were brilliant and pretty much ran the game.

We wont have that luxury tomorrow night now and you have to wonder how we can fill their void, not to mention that we’re missing RVP and Cesc too. Gunnerblog reckons that Eduardo and Rosicky can add some inspiration to the team. I think Theo Walcott could also do a job but you never know what you’re going to get with him; it could be a Sparta Prague-type show or another one of his nothing-performances. The talents thee, its just whether he can apply it to the game.

Adebayor will have a big job to do. He might be partnered with Eduardo, Bendtner or Theo, or be on his own again like he has recently. I’d kind of like to see Bendtner start this one, we could use him in a game like this but I don’t think he’ll be in the line up. I want us to go 4-4-2 but I’m guessing at another 4-5-1/4-3-3:

Denilson would add some attacking quality in contrast to the more defensively minded Diarra and Gilberto and Rosicky and Eboue can get down the sides and cut in to provide Adebayor with opportunities. There are other options; as I said we could add a second striker, or Walcott can come in for Eboue.

I am worried, but I don’t know why. That’s still a good side and Newcastle haven’t been great recently. A loss would be unacceptable, a draw would be a bit disappointing and a win would be great to keep Man United and Chelsea at distance.

I’m quite looking forward to this one; I’ll get a match report up probably Thursday evening. Thanks for reading.

Yesterday was fantastic entertainment and truly a game of two halves. The first was a footballing masterpiece by The Gunners, the second, we were on the back foot and defending the one goal lead with everything we had. It was a bit tense to watch, but we came out with the win and fair play to the lads for holding up a strong Aston Villa side.

My day started at 10 to 9, when I’d missed my alarm and had 10 minutes to get ready and out the door. Fuck. Anyway I made it down to Arsenal in time to meet my mate for the journey up to Villa. It was a nice morning and I had a good feeling about the game. However the closer we got to Birmingham, the thicker the clouds got. It was quite strange. We finally made it to the pub for lunch after getting lost several times round those stupid one-way roads.

We sat in the pub all afternoon, getting updates from the Chelsea’s game and sharing hilarious stories from the trip to Seville in the week. Then the inevitable happened, Chelsea scored from an offside goal that wasn’t flagged in a game where West Ham completely dominated. You just knew it.

We started making our way up to the ground about 4 (getting lost once) and found our way to our seats. I was in the 4th row, in line with the six-yard box. Decent seat if Arsenal are attacking that end but that didn’t really happen…

We started with nearly the team I predicted; Hleb and Clichy were fit and Eduardo lost his place in that team for Eboue with Hleb behind Ade. We got off to a good start and were putting the pressure on Villa. We were knocking the ball round well and forcing Scott “England’s, England’s no.1″ Carson into action. It appears he can actually stop a football when he’s not wearing a national shirt.

However, it was Villa that opened the scoring in the 14th minute. Unlike himself, Flamini gave the ball away in midfield and the home side broke away. Carew took the ball down the left and crossed in, Toure deflected the cross which made it difficult for Gallas to defend; he managed to get a head on it but it was straight into the path of Gardner who had the simple task of slotting it in the back of the net.

The Villa fans went mad for a few minutes but our goal only came 10 minutes after theirs, which shut them up. Eboue swung in a dangerous cross into a busy area, someone got a touch (think it was Rosicky) and it rolled out to Flamini who reacted on the edge of the box with a screamer past everyone. It was a great goal and Matty went mad, you could see he wanted that goal.

We were well and truly on top now. Chances were coming and the build up play was fantastic. A good example of this was our second in the 36th minute. Some great one-touch football ended up with Hleb getting the ball on the right hand corner of the box who did well to get the ball to Sagna whist being fouled by Gareth Barry but the ref waved play on, about the only good decision he made all night. Sagna played a great cross in to Adebayor who had two defenders around him but he seemed to hang in the air for about 5 minutes before nicely heading it in.

2-1 Arsenal and it looked like we could score for fun. The Villa fans were silent, despite what you might’ve heard of the TV. They didn’t particularly like the chants of, “Have you ever seen England play like this?” and “You need more foreigners, you need more foreigners!”.

Before the whistle went for half time Flamini had a couple more good efforts and Diarra had a good chance but we were happy with the 2-1 lead at the break, with the belief that we could make it comfortable in the second half. However it was a different story.

It was clear what Martin O’Neill had said in half time: Don’t give them space, close down every pass, don’t make them feel comfortable on the ball and pie pressure on the defence with balls whipped in from the wings. It did the job and we never really got back into the game. Over the course of the second half they hit the bar, post and Almunia made a few very good saves in front of Lehmann on the bench who it now appears has refused to warm up with Manuel before the game.

We must’ve had three chances going forward in the second half. Every time we got the ball we were closed down and every time Almunia cleared the ball after an attack Villa won the header. My brother told me that our possession in the first half was about 75% but overall in the game we only managed 45% of it. Incredible.

One of those times when we broke through it was stopped with a terrible challenge by Carew on Hleb. Alex won the ball and was advancing forward on the counter attack. However Carew was tracking back and after realising he wasn’t going to get anywhere near the ball he just took Hleb out with a sliding tackle from behind. The referee gave him a yellow but I don’t think a red would’ve been harsh. Hleb limped off to be replaced by Walcott but I think Alex will be ok; he just needed to walk it off. Theo came in on the left and never made any impact on the game, I don’t know what was wrong, but he did nothing.

Aston Villa continued to pressure us but we managed to hold on. Adebayor looked absolutely knackered up front and was replaced by Bendtner in injury time. We had one last final chance when Walcott got through and the defender slipped, but Theo slipped too. If he stayed on his feet then I’m pretty sure that would’ve been a goal.

Anyway, it didn’t matter as the game finished 2-1. We had to hang on but I think we deserved that win, I dunno, and I don’t care. 3 points, 5 clear at the top. Wonderful.

Then it was the long walk back to the car, one more pint then the drive home down the M1. A great day out and I’m going to try to get to more away games if I can.

Next up is Newcastle away on Wednesday, build up to come. Thanks for reading.