Eduardo returns briefly + Gallas, Nasri's injuries and more

Morning all,

hope your day started well and that you didn't knock a full cup of coffee all over your desk, soaking your phone, wallet, keyboard and some paperwork before it spilled over the back and down on top of your amplifier which is now making strange buzzing and hissing noises. Fucking joy. 

Anyway, Eduardo made his long-awaited comeback against Portsmouth in the reserves last night. The Crozilian played 45 minutes before being withdrawn at half-time after tweaking something in his hamstring.

It's been a long road back to fitness after what was a truly horrific injury. And as much as the fans are glad to see him on his way back the players are too. Robin van Persie has been singing his praises, saying:

We need him, because he has his own style of playing and I cannot compare anyone with him. He still moves the same way and if you look at what happened to him, that is a really positive thing. I think the way he finishes and the way he plays makes him very unique.

I suspect it'll be well into January before we see him back in contention for the first team but van Persie is right, he does add something to this team. His finishing is clinical and in games when we're struggling to make a shedload of chances having someone like that in the side is a massive bonus. After such a long time out there's no point rushing him in any way but I'm really looking forward to seeing him in red and white again.

There were fresh doubts over the future of William Gallas after Arsene said the player had lost his 'joie de vivre' since having the captaincy taken away from him. Wenger said:

On a human level, what happened with William was the toughest thing I had to deal with in my career because I regard him with a lot of esteem. He has refound the stability in his game but I am not convinced that, in his mind, he has refound his stability and his joie de vivre.

Some reports this morning say that during the warm up at Boro he ignored Pat Rice when the rest of the players were called over for a teamtalk, which isn't good if that's what happened. Can anyone who was there confirm or deny it?

It would be no surprise at all if Gallas was sulking a bit. He's a senior professional who has been publicly stripped of the captaincy at Arsenal. I'm sure in his own mind he was only trying to do what he thought was right but it simply showed how unsuited he was to the role. While it's hard to see any kind of long term future for him at the club it's also difficult to see him move on in January, given the lack of depth the squad already suffers from. 

Maybe the summer will be the time but it'll all come down to his state of mind, if you have a player who really doesn't want to be at a club then it's best for all concerned if he moves on. If it's a striker the worst that'll happen is that he doesn't score but if a defender is ambivalent about his job then the consequences could be much more damaging. It's down to Gallas, I suppose.

The boss has also been talking about Samir Nasri and how he's been injured too much. The boss said:

You tell yourself that if the guy was always with us, he would bring us a lot, but for the moment he has only been there half of the games, and fits and starts are bad for high level football.

Five injuries in five months is not good, by any standards. Especially when you're a first XI player who is badly needed by the side. No Walcott, no Nasri = no width. Of course you could ask questions of the manager whose winger rota is completed by central midfielders but Nasri is important and we have to get him fit.

His injury record at Marseille, from what I can make out via stats, wasn't bad at all. He missed a lot of last season after suffering from a virus similar to meningitis but that aside he played 133 games for Marseille between his debut in January 2005 and the summer of the 2008. I'll stand to be corrected by French football experts but that seems a reasonable return to me.

His talent is obvious, even with the injuries he's scored 5 goals so far this season - and often important goals too. He got the winner at West Brom, the equaliser against Everton and the two against United which showed he can do it in a big game. We've been lacking that kind of threat from the wings since the days of Pires and Freddie so to see him so often on the sideline is frustrating. Fingers crossed he can get fit and stay fit but then we seem to say that about rather too many of our players.

The boss claims the 'big four' in England is a thing of the past. I'm quite sure Arsene would say no such thing if we were higher up the league and not in an almighty scrap for fourth place at this moment in time. Yes, smaller teams have picked up good results this season but it's not something I expect to happen in the next campaign. It's crazy and mad this year but to me, at least, it's not a sign of vast improvement by those teams.  

Responding to Rio Ferdinand's claims that Arsenal are not in this season's title race, Cesc said:

With all the experience they have, they should know more than anyone that football can change in one week, two weeks.

Quite right. In two weeks time we could have some new players adding quality, experience and competition to this squad. What's that buzzing and hissing? Oh crap, some of that coffee is short-circuiting my brain. Cesc is right though but with Liverpool and Villa our next two matches we'll have a much clearer idea of our title chances before any new players don't arrive.

Right so, that'll do. See ya'll tomorrow.