Earlier today we had the pre-Liverpool press conference which has generated quite a bit of news. However there was a lot more talk on the recent back to back losses and where Arsenal’s season goes from here rather than tomorrow night’s 3rd vs. 4th clash.

Arsene Wenger was quick to cool the situation down, back the team and wasn’t going to let the media stir up any trouble:

“It looks to me quite easy to solve having looked at the way we have conceded the last two goals and that is it. It is important that we support each other and show solidarity and show that people who try to destroy that are not right.

This is a team that really wants to win and you have seen that on Sunday until the last minute of the game. Of course when you find yourself running after the score and you are playing against big teams, you threaten to be caught on the counter-attack and that’s what [happened with] the second goal on Sunday.

When it is 0-0, we don’t over-commit but we have found ourselves in the position in the last two games where we have to take massive gambles. That puts you in a difficult situation.”

It’s a shame we conceded so early in both games against Man United and Chelsea and I’m sure it would’ve ruined our game plan. However we still shouldn’t be caught on the break at 1-0 down so early in the game, there’s no need to take ‘massive gambles’ and risk conceding another when there’s so long of the game to go.

He talked about not naming and shaming and says we can look where we went wrong and change that next time. However Gael Clichy must but put mainly to blame for both goals on Sunday. As much as I love the guy he’s not playing well at all right now and when Wenger says he will look at the problems, the problem was Clichy. I’m not saying that we should’ve played someone else at left back but Gael broke basic defending rules for both Chelsea’s goals and really needs to get his head screwed on.

Arsene refuses to give up the title race although members of the Chelsea squad are saying we’re already out of it. I’d agree that it is unlikely now but Wenger has reminded us that we have an advantage with the fixtures we have got left, and after this week we wont have to play the top four again. He says that in sport luck constantly changes and if we refuse to give up we might find ourselves back in the hunt in a few weeks.

That’s what we have to hope for now really. It’s the Arsenal way to just keep going until the very end – until the final whistle and until it’s mathematically impossible. That is what we need to do now. The way this season has gone United and Chelsea are bound to lose and draw a few more games this season, it’s our job to drop less points than them and win as many as we can along the way. We must go on an unbeaten run now if we are to have any chance, I think if we lost any more games then that will be that.

This attitude has got to start tomorrow night because if it doesn’t we’re going to find ourselves looking at the teams below, rather than above us. Liverpool want to fight us for third now and will be just two points behind us if they win tomorrow. Th threat isn’t just them either, Tottenham aren’t far behind and Man City will be even closer if they win their two games in hand they have over everyone.

Arsene was also questioned about his transfer intentions this January. He’s adamant that he did try to bring players in but made the point that our problems at the moment are defensive rather than going forward. To an extent he’s right but we only managed to score one deflected goal in the two games against United and Chelsea. We didn’t have one single fit striker and he goes on about having to find someone that is better than what we already have… but if you don’t have a striker then surely anyone is better than what you already have! It’s no use keeping on about his lack of action in the transfer window – it’s over now. You can hardly be surprised though, he always does this and it’s very frustrating. I really thought he was going to make some addition this times because it was very clear we needed them.

He didn’t give anything away about Chamakh but you have to think that we are the favourites to land him. The fact that he’ll probably be joining us on a free in the summer probably had something to do with our lack of action this window. I guess a loan would’ve been more appropriate last month and I’ve heard we did try and secure some loan deals in addition to the Campbell signing but it didn’t happen.

All we can do now then is wait for our strikers to get back to full fitness. Robin van Persie wont be back until at least the end of April so we can almost forget about him. Eduardo will miss tonight but we should have him back for next week. Bendtner is slowly returning but he is clearly not fit enough to start a game yet. Carlos Vela and Theo Walcott are not really effective enough to be considered options at the moment; Vela is apparently out injured but Walcott is available. The Englishman just needs games now though, he will get better I’m sure of it but everyone’s patience is wearing a bit thin at the moment. If we weren’t so injury ridden I’d suggest a few reserve games to get his confidence up but we need him in the first team squad.

We just have to take every game as it comes now and hope United and Chelsea drop points. However I think the most immediate task at hand is to keep Liverpool at bay by beating them tomorrow. There’ll be a match preview at some point tomorrow afternoon so I will speak to you then. Thanks for reading.