As you might imagine I'm starting this morning with an enormous *boilk*.

There's only one way to deal with a result like that and it's to drink heavily. Well, there's another way which involves a rampaging orgy of violence against anything in blue but experience has taught me that drinking is the best option.

So a disappointing day in the end after it had started so brightly. Despite Arsene's team selection raising a few eyebrows pre-game I thought we began well, passed it around nicely and looked comfortable. The Wembley pitch raised comments in the pub early on, there was one moment at the start of the game when Theo was going down the right hand side and the ball was hopping and jumping like it was rolling over a series of speed bumps.

I think the manager was absolutely right to call it a 'disaster'. A billion pound stadium with a pitch like that is nothing short of embarrassing. But while it deserves criticism the pitch was the same for both teams, something Arsene stressed, and can't be used as any kind of excuse. Maybe it suited Chelsea a bit more as they like the ball in the air a bit more than we do but we didn't lose because of it.

We might have been behind before we scored when Lukasz Fabianski made a carbon copy of the mistake last week against Wigan. With two defenders around Drogba he came miles out of his area to try and head it clear. Instead Drogba got their first, headed it goalwards and thankfully Kieran Gibbs made a carbon copy of his clearance against Wigan to prevent the goal. It was a danger sign from the Polish keeper. You hoped it would be a once off but he seemed rattled from the off and it would prove costly later on.

But after the early scare Theo Walcott opened the scoring when Adebayor played in the overlapping Gibbs down our left. His cross evaded all the Chelsea defenders and Theo sidefooted home with the help of a deflection off Cuntley Cunt's hand. 1-0 Arsenal and I had hoped we might press Chelsea a bit more but the goal galvanised them.

Malouda had a shot from the right hand side which fizzed underneath Fabianski, more heart in mouth stuff from the goalkeeper and Chelsea began to boss the game a bit. We couldn't get going at really. They equalised after about half an hour. A long ball over the top to a clearly offside Malouda saw Eboue show him inside onto his right foot but his finish beat Fabianski at the near post. Poor goalkeeping again.

We were rocking a bit and when Diaby was dispossessed in our area by Anelka we were lucky his shot came back off the post. Half time couldn't come soon enough.

The second half really wasn't much better from an Arsenal point of view. We huffed and puffed but could not get into the game at all. Diaby and Denilson, brought in to replace Nasri and Song, were nowhere near as effective as their counterparts were against Villarreal. When two of your central midfielders can't do basic stuff like retain possession or make a simple pass then you're always going to struggle.

Chelsea probably should have had a penalty when Sylvester handled the ball in the area, I don't think anyone would have complained if it were given. At the same time we should have had a penalty when Malouda clearly shoved Cesc (I think) over as the ball was going out of play. Again the referee didn't give it.

He seemed to give most everything Chelsea's way in the second half. John Terry fell over his own feet and he gave a free kick against us. It certainly frustrated the Arsenal players and Denilson can count himself very, very lucky not to be given a red card after he pushed Martin Atkinson in the chest at the award of yet another Chelsea free kick.

Arshavin replaced van Persie on about 70 minutes, Bendtner came on for the ineffective Adebayor, and then Chelsea scored the winner. A hopeful punt up field from Lampard saw Sylvester out-muscled by Drogba. There's no shame in that, he's out-muscled practically every defender in Europe over the last few years, but Sylvester gave up and that's unforgivable really. He just stopped.

Now, he might have seen the green streak of lightning that was Lukasz Fabianski coming out of his goal and thought 'What the fuck is he doing out there?', but he should have kept going. The goal was made as easy as pie for Drogba by Fabianski though. Why on earth he was out there is anyone's guess. It was piss-poor goalkeeping and while you don't want to point the finger of blame the reality is that he was culpable for both their goals.

All the same he's a young and relatively inexperienced keeper, you have to hope he learns from this and learns quickly. Let's not forget Almunia, who most fans would feel comfortable with now, was hardly Mr Reliable in his first years with the club. You might say we wouldn't have lost with Almunia, as I did afterwards, but even if he were fit Almunia wouldn't have played yesterday. Fabianski is the cup keeper.

Throwing on Nasri with five minutes to go did nothing and Chelsea won the game, then celebrated as if they'd won the cup. Dancing circles and spraying champagne - just a touch premature, I think. I hope.

Afterwards Arsene bemoaned the 'cheap' goals, saying:

The disappointment of the day is that we gave two cheap goals away, and in a game of that level it has a bad outcome, especially with seven minutes to go.

There's more in the link about his thinking regarding to the line-up but I think he'll feel he made a mistake with his team selection today. After his best ever game Song was 'rested'. I know we have a lot of games coming up but he's 21 years of age, not some aging veteran. Diaby and Denilson were poor replacements for he and Nasri and the big talking point was the fact he left Andrei Arshavin on the bench.

I've can only think he had a little knock, or he wanted to introduce him later in the game when his freshness might cause more problems to Chelsea's heavy legs but when he came on he hardly got a kick. I know Arshavin updates his own personal website quite often, it'd be interesting to hear what he has to say about it, because whatever way you look at it the decision to leave him out was very strange.

I don't think that the manager looked at the semi-final of the FA Cup and thought he'd prioritise the league game against Liverpool or anything like that.

I believe he put out a team he thought could win the game, mindful of our punishing schedule. He got it wrong, and maybe some of us wouldn't have as much confidence in the players he chose yesterday, but I don't hold any truck with the idea that the game wasn't important enough for him to play his best players. I can understand him wanting to combat the physicality of Chelsea with Diaby but I'd have kept Song in the team alongside Cesc.

We did worry that our defensive absences might cause us problems going into this game. We looked at a very makeshift back four and bit our nails. It's disappointing, but not that surprising, that the weaknesses there cost us the game.

All the same it's water under the bridge now. Painful and all as it is we can't dwell on it. I won't lie, I thought the FA Cup was our best chance of silverware this season, but with it no longer an option we have to concentrate on the games ahead.

We've got a chance for revenge when we play Chelsea at home in the league but before that we have a whole host of games to get through. The task now for the manager is to get the players focussed and to put the disappointment behind them. There can be no feeling sorry for themselves. It's gutting to get so close to the cup final but that's football and it can be merciless at times.

If there's any wallowing in self-pity then the rest of our season is going to implode. We have to react, dust ourselves off and move on. That doesn't just include the players but the fans too. The feelgood factor going into this game was fantastic, there was great confidence and belief in the players. Two goalkeeping mistakes against Chelsea shouldn't obliterate that either. The team is going to need the fans in the games ahead.

When legs get tired and the schedule starts to take its toll our support might just help, so let's not get too carried away with the misery. Of course it's poxy to lose, especially to those cunts, of course we can see how Arsene might have picked a different team, but there's nothing we can do about it now. What's important are the games ahead, starting with the Mugsmashers on Tuesday.

Till tomorrow.

Well it's a beautiful day for a semi-final and I had a dream about it last night. Arsenal were playing in white on a big dusty pitch. Philippe Senderos was playing at the back and as the ball came across he slipped on a patch of car oil allowing Casiraghi (remember him?) to get in on goal. But just as the Chelsea man was about to shoot Senderos extended his left leg by about eight feet, hooked the ball away and started a counter-attack.

The ball ended up in the Chelsea area with Adebayor who went around the goalkeeper, scored and 1-0 was enough for the Arsenal in the end. At the very least I'm hoping the Adebayor goal comes true, the rest would also be cool. Footballers with Inspector Gadget type skills would be very handy indeed. 

She wore, she wore, she wore a yellow ribbon ....

The team news that we have at the moment is that Sagna is out, he hasn't recovered from his illness enough to be considered, while Kieran Gibbs will have a late fitness test. He's obviously borderline but pictures from yesterday showed him training with the squad so fingers crossed he can make it. We know the option if he isn't passed fit so there's no point going over that again.

At the other end of the pitch the manager will bring Arshavin into the team but for whom remains to be seen. Nasri wasn't particularly effective from an attacking point of view against Villarreal but he did good work in protecting Gibbs and that might play on the manager's mind. So we might see one of Adebayor or van Persie on the bench with Arshavin just behind.

She wore a yellow ribbon in the merry month of May... 

Whatever team he picks though they're going to have to work really hard and perform well to go through. Chelsea are a very good team and, it should not be forgotten, a pack of complete and utter cunts. We need our big players to have big games.

Now is when we see the value of having someone like Arshavin, whose experience and quality will show today, I'm sure. Now is when Cesc's return becomes so hugely important and with a couple of games under his belt now to get himself sharp again it's time for him to deliver a big game.

And when, I asked her why she wore that ribbon... 

It's hugely exciting and it's only 10am now. Its going to be nailbiting stuff later on, no doubt about it. There are those who will say there's a score to be settled. The last time we played Chelsea in a cup competition was the day of the Carling Cup final. A game we took the lead in but which ended badly for us. Two Drogba goals and a bit of a melee at the end saw red cards flashed all over the place. Cuntley Cunt, who didn't even play that day, danced around in a t-shirt with a winners medal as if he had anything to do with it.

So while Cesc says this game isn't about revenge for the players, there can't be an Arsenal fan at Wembley or anywhere else today who doesn't have that in the back of their minds. Do I want revenge? Oh yes, yes I do. Sweet, delicious, juicy revenge. I wants it.  

Ray Parlour reckons Petr Cech could be the Chelsea weak link and the keeper has certainly not been in the best of form recently. It'd be just typical of him to have a stormer today though. In fact, I can say with absolute certainty that there's no way Cech will make even the slightest mistake. No a chance. 

She said its for the Arsenal and we're going to Wembley...

The manager is hoping the new Wembley pitch will be up to scratch. I don't think I've seen enough games taking place there to make any judgement on the pitch but I've read that it's not great and cuts up quite badly. When you compare it to the old Wembley surface it's easy to see why Wenger has concerns. There was nothing quite like the old pitch. I remember, having watched games on TV there, being taken to see England v Ireland by my Dad some time in the late 70s/early 80s and I can still remember the greenosity of the grass to this day. Magic.

Anyway, enough of this nervous waffle. There's a whole day to get through before the game kicks off. I know we've got problems at the back but I think the team is attacking as well as it had done all season and there's so much quality available today - RVP, Ade, Walcott, Arshavin, Nasri, Cesc, Bendtner, Eduardo and even Vela. There were times you looked at the team this season and wondered quite where the goals were going to come from, not today.

Time to stand up and be counted boys. It's the FA Cup semi-final. I don't care what anyone says about how the cup has fallen in stature, I love the competition, it has provided fantastic memories for Arsenal fans down the years, let's hope today is another one of those days. COME ON YOU REEEEEEEEDS.

Wembley, Wembley, We're the famous Arsenal and we're going Wembley.

Up the Arse today! More tomorrow. 

Well we've certainly found our shooting boots again and not only did we score another three goals we scored three very, very good goals.

The first came from Carlos Vela who broke through the Burnley defence, held off their attempts to pull him back and finished with a beautiful chip to make it 1-0. He does like that kind of finish, doesn't he?

The second goal was truly a thing of beauty. Alex Song clipped a ball over the defence and Eduardo quite deliberately finished with the heel of his left foot and put it in the top corner to make it 2-0. I don't think I've ever seen a finish quite like that, amazing. It's fantastic to see how quickly he's got back into the goalscoring groove since his return from the injury.

Arsene Wenger called it a 'beach goal'. That he even thought about doing that, let alone actually being able to pull it off, was just incredible. Certainly our goal of the season so far, and up there with anything that's been scored by anyone else. The manager also praised the character of the Crozilian, saying:

I didn't expect him to come back like that, it's a tribute to his personality. He's never complained and that is a big example in our world.

I know you can't pin everything on one player but it's hard not to think we'd have at least kept the fight for the title alive much longer last season had he been fit. You think of that series of draws and his ability to pop up with a goal might have been decisive. Oh well. It's good to have him back now. 

The third goal was like being in some magic-reverso land. An Alex Song back-heel into the path of Emmanuel Eboue who rifled it into the bottom corner. 3-0 Arsenal and the goal coming from a most unlikely combination. I'm not sure about the dancing celebration but the goal won't do him any harm at all.

Arsenalist has the goals.

There should have been more goals too. Off the top of my head I remember a great chance for van Persie when Theo (welcome back!) clipped it to the far post but he completely missed the ball. Eduardo showed he's fallible by heading one wide when right in front of goal, Theo had a one on one saved and the linesman gave Theo offside when he clearly wasn't in a move that should have resulted in a goal.

So overall we can be happy with the way we played, they really didn't offer much as an attacking threat and in terms of a warm-up for Roma on Wednesday it's sure to be a good confidence boost. There were some positive individual performances. That was probably the best game Alex Song has ever had for Arsenal and it's good to see. All the same I'd like to see more of that from him and against better opposition.

He deserves credit for the fine shift he put in yesterday but let's remember it's just one game. It was good to see Theo Walcott back too. I'm not sure about his Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air moustache but he set up a chance for van Persie and could have scored himself. A positive return.

So we go into the 6th round where we'll face Hull at home. Win that and we'll play Chelsea in the semi-final at Wembley. Tasty.

Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:

We did the job in a serious way. Before going to Roma it is good that we didn’t concede and we scored.

Tue dat. And while Burnley were poor, surprisingly poor I have to say, you can only beat what's in front of you. We scored goals, made plenty of chances, and the confidence will continue to grow on the back of that, I'm sure.

However, it almost goes without saying that Roma is going to be a much more difficult task on Wednesday night. They obviously have better players, they're at home, and while they do have some injuries they're going to be a lot better than Burnley were.

Anyway, there's plenty of time in the next few days to preview that game. Today is a day for watching replays of Eduardo's goal over and over. 

Till tomorrow. 

Morning all. A quick Sunday round-up for you.

Today is the first of two huge games inside 4 days. Our hopes of silverware this season depend on them and hopefully we'll still be in two competitions come Thursday morning.

We start today with the FA Cup 5th round game against Burnley. I think everything that needs to be said about the game has been said already. We know they're a decent team and although the personnel will be different from the Carling Cup game we need to perform because they'll be right up for this one.

If we win this game we have a 6th round tie with Hull lined up, and should that prove successful then we go into the semi-finals. Man United and Chelsea have already qualified, to be joined later by one of Everton and Boro so it's shaping up to be quite a tasty tournament.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves though, keep focussed on today and do the business until the fat lady sings and the game of two halves is over. And such.

Other than that it's interviews to fill the blog this morning. First up is a fantastic piece in the Observer in which Amy Lawrence talks to Robin van Persie. He comes across as a great guy, desperate for Arsenal to do well, almost like a fan. He says:

My ambitions are very, very high and, I think, realistic. I want to be at a level where, as a club, we are winning things, not just every four or five years, but one or two trophies each year. That's what I think this club has in its pocket.

Can't fault his ambition, that's for sure. Go read the rest yourself. I now love him a little bit more.

Next up Nicklas Bendtner in the Independent:

I know what I can do and the people that know me know that I don't come across as arrogant. I have a lot of self-belief and I don't think you could play at this level without belief [in yourself], that's true for every footballer really.

And a video interview with Andrei Arshavin from the BBC's Football Focus.

Arsene Wenger talks about security and the potential for terrorist attacks at football matches, in the wake of what happened in Pakistan to the Sri Lanka cricket team. It really doesn't bear thinking about.

And that's really about that. Kick off today is 1.30 so there's not too long to hang about the house and wait for my hangover to recede.

Come on Arsenal. More tomorrow.

Hurrah, there's football tonight. It seems like so long since we've played that today is a countdown to a huge, enormous game, and not simply an FA Cup 4th round replay against Cardiff (no disrespect to them).

Speaking about how goal-shy we've been in the recent past, Arsene Wenger said:

I still don't think it is completely characteristic of our team. We are used to scoring goals and we will score goals again, don't worry. I am convinced that if we keep working well as a team, playing well as a team, that we will come back quickly.

Tonight's line-up is going to be interesting. Despite the boss saying he's unsure of who he's going to play up front I suspect he'll rest van Persie and the obvious pairing is Nicklas Bendtner and Carlos Vela. Unless he plays Vela on the left hand side of midfield and pushes Nasri over to the right and uses van Persie up front. Of course we do have Eduardo back again but I don't think he'll start.

Midfield is the most interesting area. The right hand side is Eboueless, Arshavinless, sin Walcott, so perhaps we might see Aaron Ramsey start if he's fit. If not the only other option (beyond the Nasri/Vela switcheroo) is Jack Wilshere.

At the back I'd expect Gallas and Djourou to play with Sagna and Clichy, provided his head has closed up, either side. If it were me I think I'd pick the following team:

Fabianski - Sagna - Gallas - Djourou - Clichy - Wilshere - Song - Denilson - Nasri - Bendtner - Vela

That's assuming Ramsey is out and the boss wants to rest Robin.

Anyway, whatever team we put out we should be strong enough to beat Cardiff. That's not playing down their threat, they showed in the first game they're a decent side who have the ability to cause us problems and create chances. But we're at home, we need a good win to get ourselves motoring again, and we should be raring to go. 

Further motivation is provided that we can see our way to the semi-finals very clearly. If we beat Cardiff we have a 5th round game against Burnley, and should we beat them then we'll face either Hull City or Sheffield United in the quarter finals.

We've certainly gone through much more difficult draws in our time and this really is a good opportunity to do well in this competition. Bacary Sagna is up for the cup, saying:

The FA Cup is really important for the fans and for the club and for ourselves. It is one of the competitions we can win, along with the Champions League.

Interesting that there's no mention of the league in the competitions that we can win. A slip of the tongue or an acceptance that it's well and truly beyond us now? Either way he's right about the FA Cup. It might have diminished in importance over the years but it's still got great history and it's a competition Arsenal fans have enjoyed greatly down the years.  

So, fingers crossed we can do the business tonight then we can get ourselves ready to try and make up the ground in the league.

Till tomorrow. 

There's not a huge amount you can say about yesterday's game that's positive - apart from 'well, at least we didn't lose'.

We looked like a team who knew they were playing in the FA Cup and not the league, if that makes sense, and we lived very dangerously in the opening parts of the game. For me we got lucky - the first 15 minutes were all Cardiff. They played some nice football and had some real chances to score. Lucky for us that their finishing wasn't up to scratch because we could easily have found ourselves behind.

I thought Arsene's post-match comment that we started the game very well was so far wide of the mark it might as well have been an Alex Song shot. Gradually though we did get back into it but struggled to create and impose ourselves on the game. Nasri had a good chance but instead of hitting it with his left foot as he did last week he came back on his right and the keeper saved.

When we did show a bit of bite and aggression Kieran Gibbs, one of the few bright spots of the day for me, began a move with a crunching tackle and ended it with a shot that went just wide. Robin van Persie took a free kick which wasn't far away. Eboue was booked for diving then failed to control a simple ball in the box, which pretty much summed up his day.

Aaron Ramsey started the game on his return to Cardiff. Perhaps the occasion got to him but he won't look back on this as one his fondest days but perhaps one when he learned a lot. In the second half he was replaced by Diaby while Adebayor came on for Eboue. The most likely goal threat came from van Persie who had a shot well saved by the Cardiff keeper whose name is too complicated to spell although this is much more time consuming to write, and the miss of the game came when Adebayor, all alone at the back post and certain to score, mis-kicked like a spastic foal. In games like this, when we struggle to create, you need your striker to be more clinical than that.

Jack Wilshere got 4 minutes at the end and I have to wonder about that. What is the point of just giving him 4 minutes? I can understand a late substitution to try and hang on to a lead but when you need a goal what's the point in giving a guy so little time? I don't think he even touched the ball. Cardiff hit the bar with the free kick late on but Fabianski always looked to have it covered. So 0-0 final score, a good result for Cardiff who will enjoy a night out at the Grove on Tuesday week, but disappointing from our point of view.

I'm not that worried about having to play another game but the poor performance, despite it continuing the unbeaten run, was a bit worrisome. Afterwards Arsene was keen to play-up Cardiff's performance, saying:

Cardiff had a good committed game and created some chances. It was the quality of their defending and their commitment that stopped us scoring. Their centre-backs had a great game today and overall I think the whole team had a great day.

Now, while I'm not trying to take anything away from Cardiff, and fair play to them the way they played, I think the manager is a bit too keen to say Cardiff were great because it means he doesn't have to say we were poor. And we were poor. Too many passes went astray, we didn't put enough pressure on them, we defended poorly at times and would have been punished by better teams, we didn't create enough and when we did have a clear cut chance Adebayor blew it. 

But we get a chance to make up for it and should we beat them in the replay then a home game against West Brom or Burnley, the team that knocked us out of the Carling Cup, awaits.

Meanwhile Chairman Peter Hill-Wood has blasted Real Madrid presidential candidate Floretino Perez. With an election in the summer there are going to be all kinds of promises made. Perez has been talking about how he'll bring Wenger and Fabregas to the Bernebeu - and not just that, there are stories in Spain about how he's going to try and bring Messi from Barcelona to Real.

All complete bollocks of course. They promise the sun, moon and stars to get elected - a bit like Laporta promising Beckham to Barcelona before his election, but of we course we have a manager Madrid fans would love to see at their club, not to mention a player or two. Our chairman is having none of it though, saying:

I think it is laughable. It is disrespectful and very rude. It cannot be right to talk in such a way about a manager who is under contract at another club.

And of Cesc, he says:

He is not for sale to Madrid or anybody else. Absolutely not. He is a very sensible young man and he is very happy at Arsenal.

No doubt as the election draws closer we'll get caught in the crossfire a little bit but it's good to know where we stand. As if there were any doubt.

The Daily Mail - at the bottom of this report - brings us the following update about our Owlish friend:

Meanwhile, Andrei Arshavin was close to completing his transfer to Arsenal last night after Zenit St Petersburg abandoned hope of raising £20million from the sale.

Arsenal are understood to have set a deadline of today and Zenit will decide this afternoon.

It seems to tally with something one of the Russian speaking forum members found on a Russian website last night but who knows? There was supposed to be a deadline of Saturday, now there's a deadline of this afternoon, and when that deadline is passed? Who knows? But with the window closing sooner rather than later we'll know for sure soon enough.

Right, have a good start to the week. More tomorrow. 

Good Sunday morning to you,

a feast of football lies ahead. Cardiff v Arsenal, then the Merseyside derby, then a game of 5-a-side. It's a good job Mrs Blogs doesn't read this religiously each morning so she won't know just how exciting her Sunday is going to be ... *cough* ...

Anyway, Cardiff v Arsenal. The FA Cup. I wonder if the FA Cup is the competition which has provided the most shocks in football history. Yesterday saw the holders Portsmouth go out, at home, to Swansea. Poor Tony Adams. You just get the feeling he's not particularly good at this football management thing. On the other hand I reckon Roberto Martinez, the Swansea manager, will find himself a big club soon enough.

But I digress. Today's game is going to be a tough one - Cardiff are a decent outfit and Ninian Park is certainly an atmospheric ground. Although this is the competition we're most likely to get silverware from this season I suspect there'll be some rotation of the squad with Wednesday's league game against Everton coming up.

I wouldn't be too surprised to see Robin van Persie start on the bench and maybe Nasri too. This could mean Diaby starting on the left with Ramsey in the middle or maybe Vela on the left. But they'll be little changes, nothing wholesale. 

It's a game we're certainly capable of winning but, of course, the attitude has to be right. We've ground out some results in the last few weeks and I'd be happy enough to see us do that again. There's been no lack of effort or application and it has shown. Same again today and we should see ourselves through to the 5th round.

Looking around the Sunday papers the News of the World is the one with a couple of Arsenal stories. The first claims that we're going to make a £7m move for Micah Richards from Man City. Seems odd to me that at a time when their defence is in serious need of reinforcement they'd sell one of their best players - despite his form being so poor. And £7m seems a bit cheap in the current climate for a 20 year old England international. When Wilson Palacios is 'worth' £14m you have to wonder why City would sell Richards for £7m.

Plus you'd have to wonder if City would even sell to us, unhappy as they were after the whole Kolo Toure thing. It all sounds a bit madey-up to me. And by 'a bit' I mean 'completely'.

Also in the NotW is a story about Robin van Persie wants £80,000 a week to sign a new contract with Arsenal but he'd be willing to accept less. Well there's some fascinating insight, all right. They also claim contract talks with Theo Walcott are 'imminent'. 

Amy Lawrence writes about Aaraon Ramsey in the Observer. The Arsenal connection of Terry Burton was obviously a big factor in us signing him. I just love the way Burton refers to 'the Arsenal'.  

The People links us with a player called Mohamed Diame. Their website appears to be bollixed at the moment though so a quick Google turns up a 21 year-old French defensive midfielder playing for Rayo Vallecano in the Spanish 2nd division. So it's obvious he's going to be our big transfer window signing - all this talk of Arshavin was just a smokescreen.

Dammit, I nearly got through a whole blog without mentioning him.

And that's about your lot. Here's to a decent game and a good result later on. More tomorrow. 

As the transfer window heads into its final stages there still appears to be an impasse between Arsenal and Zenit over you know who.

Maxim Mitrofanov, the chief executive of Zenit says:

Arsenal received a fax on Friday night last night from Mitrofanov containing the "final offer of my board with a massive discount from the 25 million euros we wanted last summer. I told Arsenal already that we don't accept the £12m and they know it very well.

He goes on to confirm that personal terms between Arsenal and Arshavin are all sorted out but the deal looks more and more unlikely to happen with Arsene Wenger saying:

When you want to buy a player, you go as far as you can and, if you cannot take one step more, you cannot. You have to accept that everybody has a price and when the buyer has a certain amount of money and not more. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.

There's talk of Arshavin going on strike but I'm not sure what good that would do him. Arsenal's valuation of Arshavin is obviously significantly below what Zenit want and with neither side willing to budge the whole thing seems like a busted flush unless one side caves in - and it's hard to see that happening.

In his interview with Arsenal.com yesterday Arsene was doing his usual thing of talking up the squad he has. He said that even if we didn't get Arshavin he felt we were strong enough to compete on all fronts and, let's not forget, that the injured players coming back would be LNS. I just can't say those words any more, I'm sorry.

Obviously there would be disappointment if Arshavin didn't happen but I'm not sure it would be huge problem. As has been pointed out before he's not match fit, he's coming into a team at the business end of the season trying to get up to speed in a league that normally takes some time to adapt to. But then there's the whole 'even a half fit Russian finding his feet would be better than Eboue' thing. Maybe though, the money would be better spent in the summer.

Ahead of the FA Cup game tomorrow the only piece of team news is that William Gallas is fit again. Stop, stop, I can hear the cheers of joy from here. The manager, referencing the very public issue of Kolo's dislike of Gallas, said:

They get on OK. In football you don’t have to go on holiday together but you can still play together. Kolo and William talk to each other but it is always very difficult to assess how much people are friends or not. What is essential is that, on the pitch, football is most important and they should respect the game.

He says he's still to decide on who will play against Cardiff but the decision is surely one or the other to partner Djourou. Firstly the manager has admitted that as a pairing Kolo and Gallas do not work and secondly the two have no kind of relationship. I know you don't have to be friends to play with someone but when one actively dislikes another to the point where he puts in a transfer request you have to say pairing them in important matches is a huge risk.

The boss has to consider the game against Everton on Wednesday and might be tempted to rest Djourou but he's a young man, he's capable of playing the games. And with Kolo installed as captain, Gallas might find himself spending some time on the bench. I certainly don't want to see Gallas and Kolo as our centre-halves unless there's no other choice.

As for the rest of the team he says there's no room for sentiment in relation to Aaron Ramsey's return to the club he grew up with. He says he'll play him if he thinks he'll help us to win, which is fair enough, I suppose. He also talks about Robin van Persie and talks up Denilson who, he feels doesn't get the credit he deserves.

Denilson is an interesting one. He's played most of our games this season. He's had his good moments and his poor moments, like most of the players. I have to say I think there's potential there and I've always maintained that his presence in the first team has come a bit early for him. While I look at Alex Song and remain baffled as to how he's even near the first team at Arsenal, I can see much more in Denilson.

I think he'd have matured better had he been eased into the team and would have benefited greatly from having more experienced central midfielders to play with. Not every player comes on as quickly as Cesc, for example, and let's remember Cesc had quality experienced players to help him along when he first came into the team. At times this season Denilson has had Diaby and Song as his partners, not exactly players who will give him the kind of guidance he needs.

So while I fully accept he has had his stinkers this season he's not the kind of player who hides on the pitch and hopefully this season and all the football he's played will help him develop. Let's remember, he's just 20 years of age, and to completely write him off as not good enough already is, in my opinion, premature.

The game against Cardiff brings us up against a former Gunner, Jay Bothroyd, who left the club under a cloud some years ago. When substituted in an FA Youth Cup game he threw his shirt at Don Howe and there was no way back after that. He's been fairly well travelled since, playing for Coventry, Blackburn, Charlton, Wolves and even scoring 5 goals in one season for Perugia in Serie A. He talks about his time at Arsenal and more here.

And that's about that. Have yourselves a good Saturday, more tomorrow.

Right, well that's the festivities, drawn out as they might have been, over for another year. 2009 begins in earnest now.

The teacakes are all eaten, I never even had a Christmas pudding so I can't throw out the dried out chunk of it that's left over, and the tree has to come down today. I might just set it on fire out the back to bring some warmth to the local neighbourhood - it's freezing again this morning and one little pine tree burning in the garden is hardly going to make a dent in the environment. 

Now the serious business of winning football matches and trying to win a trophy can get going again. We're through to the 4th round of the FA Cup - an away tie against Cardiff the reward for the win against Plymouth. It could be an interesting day for Aaron Ramsey who could face the club he left in the summertime. That game takes place on the weekend of the 24th/25th January. 

Robin van Persie is a man on a mission. He won the FA Cup in his first full season with the club, scoring one of the penalties in the shoot-out with Manchester United, but has won nothing since. He says:

When I arrived at Arsenal they were winning trophies for fun. They were champions when I arrived and in my first season I won the FA Cup. I was expecting that to carry on but it hasn't really happened like that. But it's not a reason for me to give up, it's a bigger challenge to do it this time. We need to win a trophy as soon as possible. We've been very unlucky with injuries so we want to do something for the club and the fans.

A piece of silverware would go a long, long way at this stage. I know there are those who don't consider the FA Cup a competition of much importance anymore, and perhaps in the era of Champions League its stature has dwindled somewhat, but for me it represents our best chance at winning something this season.

Whatever you might think of the FA Cup itself the confidence it would bring to the team if we won it would be immeasurable. They'd go from being nearly men to men who have won something and it does make a difference.

Anyway, the focus has to go back onto the league right now and the battle for fourth is well and truly on. We've got Bolton at home this Saturday while above us we have to hope that a Villa side which, seems to be getting all the dodgy decisions going their way, finds West Brom more of a struggle than most. Perhaps their UEFA Cup campaign will be a distraction - well, more of a distraction than our Champions League games.

There's nothing new regarding transfers this morning. Arshavin is back on the agenda at £20m, apparently, but there's so much smoke regarding this one it's hard to see if there's any fire. I'm sure we'd be willing to do business but not at that price. You're buying a player from the Russian league, not from one of the top leagues in Europe, and as we've mentioned over the last couple of weeks I think the era of crazy transfer fees is well and truly over for most clubs.

The spectre of Webster looms large over the whole thing as well. At some point a high profile club and a high profile player are going to decide that it's worth all the hassle to push through a move based on the Webster ruling. This means that players can, after a certain protected period, buy out their own contracts and move to another club for the cost of that contract.

I know for a fact that Hleb was considering doing it last summer but for whatever reason it did not transpire. I think at the moment clubs are unwilling to upset other clubs, clubs they may want to do other business with, to make these transfers happen. Players too have to give notice to their current team and I'm sure it's awkward. You need to have some balls to do it. But at some point it's going to happen and after that the floodgates will open, in my opinion. The transfer market will change dramatically.

Still, we've got to operate in the market that exists at this moment in time and if we want players we're going to have to deal with the fact that buying someone like Arshavin is going to be costly. If we buy him, even for £10m, give him a three or four year contract with decent wages, it adds up to a lot of money for a player who will have little or no resale value.

However, you have to add that up against what he, or any other player, might bring to the team. Would signing him and paying all that money be worth it to assure Champions League qualification? Of course it would. No matter what the club might say about not factoring in the CL money it represents somewhere in the region of 12.5% of Arsenal's football revenue (cheers Paul M), so going without would be a massive blow, both financially and footballistically, to use an Arseneism.  

Of course there's no guarantee that signing Arshavin would assure CL qualification, frankly I think there are other areas of the pitch that need more work, and I'm sure the boss is aware of that too. I suspect there'll be some wheeling and dealing this January, not just from Arsenal, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a flurry of activity late in the month when clubs who are desperate to sell now become even more so.

Not much else to tell you, I'm off to burn my tree. More tomorrow. 

So a fairly routine win over Plymouth sees us into the 4th round of the FA Cup.

A goalless first half wasn't much to look at - it was brightened up a bit watching a stream with commentary from a lunatic Spaniard who sounded like a serial killer crossed with a kiddie fiddler crossed with Gollum. Still, we had some chances, the best of which fell to Eboue after a great run by Aaron Ramsey.

There were other saves too, some shots wide but it was 0-0 at half-time. The second half began with a flurry of goals. Firstly Robin van Persie, captain for the day, headed home a Nasri corner, then nice play in and around the box saw van Persie's cross put into his own net by David Gray who deserved it for that fucking Babylon song. Amazingly Nicklas Bendtner wheeled away trying to claim the goal, heh, cheeky.

But Arsenal are nothing if not generous at the back this season and when some Plymouth bloke pulled back a nice cross the defence was static, Fabianski was nowhere and the onrushing Duguid got ahead of van Persie to poke it home.

To be fair they didn't really threaten any further. We brought on Carlos Vela on the left and this allowed Nasri a bit more freedom. The Frenchman had a fine last 30 minutes and was at the heart of all our good play. It was his lobbed ball over the top that brought about the third. Robin's first attempt was saved by the keeper but he made no mistake with the follow up, smashing it home off the bar with his chocolate leg.

So overall a decent win. The performance wasn't much to write home about but credit to Plymouth who made life very difficult for us. Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:

We have done the job in a serious way. If we weren’t completely focussed and up for it we would not have gone through today. I give credit to my team for doing the job seriously with good focus and I give credit to Plymouth who had a great game as well.

As usual the cup brought about some unexpected and somewhat hilarious results. Big spending Man City are out having been beaten 3-0 at home by Nottingham Forest while Chelsea were held 1-1 by Southend. It really is a measure of how very poor our form and performance was against City in the league though - they took us apart that day and they're poo. Anyway, I'm sure Kolo will be looking at results like that and thinking life is probably better at Arsenal, despite what might be on offer in terms of money.

Elsewhere there's all kinds of misery and doom going on. The Daily Mail is reporting that there's a rift between the board and the manager over the signing of Andrei Arshavin. The spectre of Wenger going to Real Madrid looms over the whole situation apparently, despite the fact that Wenger himself categorically denied it during the week.

Meanwhile the News of the World reports that Theo Walcott is growing restless, having not yet been offered a new deal by the club. He could leave on a free next summer so it's strange that nothing is stirring. They quote the ubiquitous 'source close to ....' as saying:

There is no doubt Theo is frustrated at the lack of action over a new deal. The club said talks would start in October because they wanted to see how Theo started the season. The fact is, he feels as if he’s being taken for granted at the moment, as if people simply expect him to sign a contract.

Given the current structure of the club you would expect Arsene Wenger to be closely involved in the whole contract situation. Surely he's the one who decides who he wants to keep, who should be offered what, etc. Perhaps the arrival of Gazidis on the scene will mean all these things are sorted out but Theo is someone I'd like to see sign a new deal with the club. We've invested too much in him to see him walk away out of contract.

Anyway, they throw up the whole Real Madrid thing as well which, as we know, is bollocks. They also say Robin van Persie is awaiting news on a new deal for him but I don't think it's unfair, after his injury record, to wait for him to complete an untroubled season before offering a new contract.

Also in the News of the World is the story that our top transfer target is Man City's Steven Ireland. That's because Arshavin is no longer our top target. Or Inler. Or Arteta. Or ... you get the picture. He's a very good player, fits the bill in terms of what we need, but he's also as mad as box of banshees. Still, no doubt he'd add something to our team if this story wasn't complete and utter fiction.

The Sunday Mirror reports that we could do a deal with West Ham which would see Matthew Upson return to Arsenal and Nicklas Bendnter go the other way. It'd be an interesting swap, you have to say. Upson would certainly bring something to the defence while Bendtner's form this season has been very, very poor. He's been unable to build on a decent showing last season and just doesn't seem to be improving at all. It would leave us a striker short, of course, but with Eduardo coming back, Vela itching to play, and a possible wide player coming in to allow Theo play up front on his return maybe it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world.

Speculation in Italy links us with Torino's Alessandro Rosina. I don't know much about him to be honest. He's a versatile player apparently which probably gives a little more credibility to the rumour. He can play wide midfield or behind the strikers so no doubt AW sees him as the man to shore up our defence.

And there you go. Plenty to mull over this freezing cold Sunday. I've still got my stupid cold that the stupid Blogette brought home and gave to everyone in the house. Even the Arseblog basset hound has it. He's downstairs drinking hot whiskey as we speak.

Till tomorrow, Arsers.