Well, we wanted a win. We got a win. We wanted a clean sheet. We got a clean sheet. Overall you have to say it was a good day at the office.

Robin van Persie returned up front, Rosicky and Bendtner dropped to the bench, and Eboue kept his place albeit further forward than against Liege. From an attacking point of view it was a polished performance even if some of the finishing left a bit to be desired. Wigan seemed unable to cope, preferring to counter our incisive play with tactical fouling. 

That said, for all their fouls the only booking came for Emmanuel Eboue for a deliberate handball at the back post. Then up stepped the Verminator. He met a Robin van Persie corner with a sweet header which flew past Kirkland before he even had a chance to get his hands in the air. The Belgian has added a real threat from set-pieces. Apart from Gallas and occasionally Bendtner we haven't had anyone who attacks a header like that in a long time.

Robin van Persie had chances in the first half but struggled with his finishing. To be fair to him only one of those was an absolute sitter which he also contrived to miss but at least he's getting in the right positions. Or something. 

Early in the second half Thomas Vermaelen showed him how it should be done. He picked the ball up in midfield, exchanged passes with Eboue and curled a beautiful shot into the top corner. I'm beginning to think the young man might be a decent footballer. It's funny to think that if you go out and spend money on a player he can improve a team. This concept seems somewhat alien to me. Anyway, fair play to Vermaelen and as it stands he's currently our top scorer. 

The goal settled the nerves although we were still capable of sloppy moments in midfield. There was some carelessness in the first half and Song gifted Rodallega a great chance in the second with the score at 2-0 but the Wigan striker's shot was tame and easily saved by Mannone. Shortly afterwards we made it 3-0. An Eduardo volley crashed back off the post, there was a scramble for it in the box, Eduardo got to it first and stuck it away via a deflection off Eboue. 

Some outlets report Eboue as the scorer. For me it's Eduardo's goal. If the ball had deflected off the defender it wouldn't have been an own goal so I think it should stand for the Crozilian. While it would have been nice for Eboue after the Wigan game last season his ghosts are better exorcised through the decent performance he put in. Update: Having seen the replay it could easily be Eboue's.

I feared for the clean sheet as Wigan had the ball in the back of the net through Scharner but it was disallowed for offside. Late on Cesc, who had picked up what looked like a heavy knock not long before, made it 4-0 after nice work from Bendtner. I noted at the time he didn't look exactly delighted that he scored but it was a nothing goal at the end of a match, he'd been kicked up in the air a few times so I don't think it merits more discussion than that. We should be happy we won 4-0, not look for things to worry about.

And think about it like this - if he didn't care why would he, when carrying a knock, burst forward in the last few minutes of the game to score the goal? 

Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:

It is good for the confidence of the team that we did not concede today. It is little bit of the price to pay for our style of play. We had maybe 10 chances today and gave two away. But I think we’ll be more and more solid when we get used to the way we want to play.

So back to winning ways in the league, scoring lots of goals. It's the third time in five league games we've scored 4 or more goals, which is quite something. You can worry a bit about van Persie's form but I think he'll come good and once other players are scoring it's not a problem. I'm sure he'll find his shooting boots soon enough.

At the back we looked more solid. Mannnone didn't have much to do, which I'm sure he'll be thankful for, Gael Clichy was involved in a much more positive way yesterday and the partnership between Vermaelen and Gallas looks good. It was clearly noticeable how often the two of them were getting forward yesterday too. Maybe it's a reflection of how poor Wigan were but they were positively buccaneering.

Next up in the league is Fulham away, although there's a Carling Cup game midweek against a West Brom side who will provide a real test for the youngsters. Overall a good day's work. It means I can watch Match of the Day and read the Sunday papers without wincing.

Arsenalist has the goals, highlights and reaction.

In a quick look at the other stories doing the rounds this Sunday Thierry Henry has had a right pop at Emmanuel Adebayor for his antics last week. He said:

I won the treble with Barcelona last year, but I know if it wasn’t for Arsene Wenger and Arsenal I would not be the player I am today. I think the same has to be true of Adebayor. He might be one of the world’s top strikers today, but he wasn’t before Arsene got hold of him and gave him that chance. Arsene puts a lot of investment in you when he sees talent and I don’t think it would hurt for Adebayor to show him, the club and the fans a little more respect.

And on the goal:

No matter what Adebayor’s emotions were, he could have earned himself a lot of respect by not celebrating the goal. That would have shown real class, and that to be honest is what most players choose to do when they score against their old clubs. I don’t really understand why he didn’t do that.

Quite right, Thierry. And that will sting Adebayor. We know how he worships Henry, his pale imitations of him as a player were pitiful at times, and to be so publicly rebuked by a real Arsenal legend must hurt. Good enough for him.

The News of the World says we're lining up a January move for West Ham's Jack Collison and former Gunner Matthew Upson. It's not even October and we've got speculative transfer stories already. Give me strength.

Goonerholic, ever the voice of Guinness powered reason, has a little pop at the press corps for their 'reportage' of Eboue yesterday. Yes, the handball was wrong but some of the stuff dished out in this morning's papers is just ridiculous.

Right, that'll have to do. Have a good Sunday. 

Morning, it's Wigan on the menu today and a home game which seems like a bit of a novelty this season so far.

Only Robin van Persie is back from injury. Andrei Arshavin hasn't made it, neither has Almunia, Theo Walcott has had a setback apparently, and the others we know about already. The importance of this game should be in no doubt. I don't usually look at the league table too closely this early in the season but the fact is we're 9 points behind Chelsea, albeit with a game in hand. 

Nothing less than three points will do. Given the players available I think the manager will go with:

Mannone - Sagna - Gallas - Vermaelen - Clichy - Song - Diaby - Cesc - Eduardo - van Persie - Bendtner.

I'd like to see Nik continue in the central position but I think it's clear Arsene really, really wants van Persie to learn that position. He got on the scoresheet last weekend against those unspeakable Oasis fans so fingers crossed he can do the same today. 

I think he'll resist the temptation of playing Rosicky from the start although if there were no nagging doubts about his fitness I'd have him in place of Diaby in central midfield. Wigan will provide a decent test, both from a football and a physical point of view, so I think he'll look for the added giving the ball away and strolling back physicality of Diaby. 

What might be to our benefit is that under new boss Roberto Martinez Wigan will come to play football, not 'park the bus', which has often proved so difficult to break down. However, while that will allow us more space to play our attacking football it will also prove a test for our defence which has been somewhat leaky in recent games. We've conceded 11 goals in 7 games so far this season so while three points is absolutely necessary a clean sheet would be nice to see. 

Playing at home, after three consecutive away games, should be a boost too and the manager is aware of how important our home form will be. He says:

Three of our four matches so far have been difficult away games – it is very important to be strong at the Emirates. That will be the decider of how strong we fight for the title.

Time to show it today then. No European hangover, no post Manchester hangover, and we need a return to the attitude with which we started the season. It was apparent in the City game that we weren't pressing the opposition the same way we did in previous games, that has to change. The Liege game was so poor in terms of performance you have to think it was an anomaly, not helped by the ridiculous start we made to the game. I haven't seen us pass the ball that badly or struggle to retain possession like that in a long time, so fingers crossed today sees a return to the kind of workrate and performance we got against Everton, Portsmouth and United (despite the result).

In other news the boss talks about Emmanuel Eboue who suffered a torrid time against Wigan last season, he speaks about the new financial rules while Liam Brady returns to Highbury to talk about the youth system.

He also confirmed we were 'close' to signing Marouane Chamakh from Bordeaux during the summer and said we might revisit the deal if needed in January.

Beyond that not much else going on so now it's bacon time. Here's to a good three points today. 

Till tomorrow.

Happy Friday one and all, hope you're well. A fair amount to get through and we'll start with the early team news ahead of tomorrow's game against Wigan.

The most likely returninantor is Robin van Persie who will shake off his knee problem while Andrei Arshavin has a 10% chance according to the boss. He's so tiny that's like a 43% chance for a normal sized person. Meanwhile Denilson is going to be out for a couple of weeks with a back problem so he joins Nasri, Walcott, Vela and the long-termers Djourou and Fabianski on the sick list. More on that game tomorrow after Wenger's pre-match press conference today.

Then, as you might expect, much of the copy this morning is about Adebayor. He 'reluctantly' accepted his 3 match ban for violent conduct but still claims he has done nothing wrong, that he couldn't help stamping on van Persie's face, that it was the Arsenal fans fault for 'abusing' him and that some of the Arsenal players wouldn't shake his hand before the game. He reminds me of an Irish politician. Nothing is ever his fault. Even when caught red-handed stealing, fiddling expenses or handing fat contracts to his buddies there's never any acceptance of responsibility.

He always trots out this line about how 'The people who know me know I would never do that'. What a load of nonsense. We know you fine well and we know you would do that. In fact, we saw you do it, there are pictures taken with cameras and TV cameras and everything, you stupid, lanky twat. It's called 'evidence'. And this bullshit about the 'abuse' he suffered is fast becoming accepted fact and not simply part of Adebayor and City's spin on the whole thing.

Even his former mate Eboue has been critical of him, saying:

I’ve not spoken to him because I am very disappointed in him, it was a bad thing to do. For me, Adebayor didn’t do well and that is no good for football because you have a lot of young people who watch the game and then, they see that and it’s no good for football.

He revealed he hadn't spoken to him since, saying:

If Ade calls me, I will speak with him. But he hasn’t called me yet. I’ll wait. If he calls me, I say ’Thank-you God’, if he doesn’t call me, that’s his problem.

I love how Eboue thanks God for everything. Like he gets up in the morning and finds a fresh custard slice and says "Thank you, God, for this custard slice!", while Mrs Eboue stands behind him going 'You wanker. I spent 2 hours in Tesco yesterday". Alex Song has had a good pop at him too. I like the line about not having a laugh with him in the tunnel. Quite right.

Now, since the stamp on his foot on Saturday captain Cesc Fabregas has been very quiet, but he broke his silence yesterday, saying:

All I tried to do when he was at Arsenal was to create opportunities for him to score. So I think I didn’t do too bad for him. It is a bit strange. It is football and we don’t think about him any more. He doesn’t play for Arsenal and we just have to concentrate on our game and our play.

And that's seems entirely reasonable to me. The Sun has pictures apparently of Cesc's leg and the damage inflicted by Adebayor (obviously in a different challenge to the one on his ankle). Nice. We'll see him in April.

In other news Tomas Rosicky talks about his desire to win silverware this season, Philippe Senderos talks about why he stayed at the club, while Arsene Wenger has hit back at Karl Heinz Rummenigge over rather outrageous allegations of 'child trafficking'. He says:

We are only signing two, three players and if we are signing teenagers then we are handing them a real opportunity. You cannot say that about Bayern. I am well dismayed about such nonsense.

Well dismayed? Heh, he sounds like that fat one from Little Britain.

Anyway, that's about that. Now it's time for this week's Arsecast. I'm joined on the show by Yogi's Warrior from A Cultured Left Foot to pore over the events of the week. As well as that there's a player history from The Man in the Bar, Sylvester, scientific examination of Adebayor's antics last weekend and, of course, the winners of the competition to win the books signed by Arsene Wenger will be announced.

If you weren't one of the lucky winners remember you can buy Arsènal: The making of a modern superclub via the link using the code 'rocky' at checkout to get a £1 discount.

You can subscribe to the Arsecast on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too. To download this week's arsecast directly - click here (20mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

Right then, that's your lot. More tomorrow.

Morning all, hope you find you well this Saturday.

Let's start with our old pal Adebayor who has been talking, again, and urging his new club to buy Kolo Toure. He's hoping it'll be a case of Abu Dhabi Do, saying:

Kolo is a great friend of mine - he's a big player for Arsenal and a top defender. If the manager could get him, he can get exactly what this club wants and needs from him, I'm sure about that. I know how good Kolo is and I think what Man City needs now is a top-quality defender like him or John Terry.

It's funny how he's been at the club less than a week and he's already telling the manager what to do. Leaving aside the fact he's urging him to sign one of our players. He really needs a big goblet of shut up juice right now, the lanky twat. Any vague feelings of goodwill towards him must surely be well and truly evaporated now.

Anyway, it seems like it'll be a case of Abu Dhabi Don't as Kolo's brother, Yaya, reckons City aren't big enough for his brother. He says:

The most important thing for my brother is that he can play with a big team. Arsenal play great football and City are not there yet. And they have Craig Bellamy. Who in their right mind would want to go to a club where that neckless savage plays? Come on. 

I have to admit that down through the years I've always had kind of a soft spot for Man City. And by soft spot I mean I didn't hate them quite as much as I hate all the other teams, simply because they were United's rivals. But now. Pffff. Forget it. They are right up there with the most objectionable teams of all time. Like a family of knackers that has won the lottery. No matter who they're playing next season I hope they get spanked like Max Mosley in a dungeon.

Gael Clichy sums them up perfectly. He says:

I really believe if you are a player who thinks only about money then you could end up at Manchester City. You have to think if you want to play for a big club and have your image or if you want to play for a good club and earn big money.

Hard to argue with that, is it? Why did Robinho go to Man City from Real Madrid? Prestige? The chance of winning important trophies? My arse. He went because they made him an offer he couldn't refuse. The same with Adebayor. The same with Tevez. They've gone there because the money is too good to turn down and it's brilliant that somebody like Clichy has come out and said exactly that.

Reports from Italy suggest a Fiorentina deal for Emmanuel Eboue is almost complete. Again the fee mentioned is aroun €9-10m which is fantastic money and even their current right back is talking about the possibility of him coming in. I shall await further developments before making any comment.

Meanwhile, you have to laugh at the reaction of some people to the fact that Lorik Cana has signed for Sunderland. It seems most people's knowledge of him is based on a 5' YouTube clip of him fouling his way around the pitch like the love child of Robbie Savage and Joey Barton.

I will happily confess to knowing very little about him other than that video and the fact he's been built up, in some quarters, as this mythical answer to all our midfield problems. But doesn't the fact that he's gone to Sunderland say something? Doesn't the fact that no other big clubs were even linked with him say something? If there was the chance of him signing for Arsenal wouldn't he have hung on before putting pen to paper at the Stadium of Light?

I doubt we were even interested, mostly because anyone with any knowledge of French football beyond a YouTube compilation reckons he's a staggeringly average footballer who is no improvement on what we have already. I will trust people who watch the French league week in, week out and if they tell me he's not good enough then I will believe them far more than any hysterical blog which now reckons that we're practically heading for relegation because we haven't signed the Albanian Terry Hurlock.

Honestly, people need to get a grip. Nobody's denying we need a midfielder but Cana is not, and never has been, the answer.

I've been avoiding the Patrick Vieira to Sp*rs stories in the hope they'll go away. Ol' Twitchy reckons Paddy wants to go there though, simply because he wants to play football. Christ, if he's that desperate just to play football he can come play for my Astro team. Tuesday nights + a game of 5-a-side on Sunday, we'd win every game with him in the team and at this point he hardly needs money at all, does he?

I know he was a great player for us but if he goes there to play for them then his legacy would be tainted in a big way. Surely there must be dozens of other clubs who would want Patrick Vieira. Seeing him stroll about the pitch with a weeping cock on his shirt would be hard to take.

Anyway, that'll be that. I have got no plans whatsoever for today. Some intense lazing perhaps, maybe a beer or two later. So, till tomorrow, have a good day.

Happy Sunday to you all.

Some interesting stuff going on, particularly in regard to Felipe Melo. As we all know he just signed a new contract extension with Fiorentina which seemed to rule him out of making any kind of move this summer. However, yesterday the Italian club countered rumours in the Italian press that the player was about to sign for Juventus and released a statement on their official website saying Arsenal were the only club to come close to making an offer close to the new buy-out clause.

And not only that, they've proposed we make up some of the difference by adding Emmanuel Eboue to the deal. I don't know about you but that seems like a rather good deal to me. We get the defensive midfielder we've been looking for, and a player who divides opinion like no other (apart from maybe the other Emmanuel) moves on.

Of course we may find this deal floundering due to the fact that Fiorentina are not one of the biggest and greatest clubs in Italy and does not befit a talent such as Eboue, according to his agent, but this would be the deal of the summer if it happened.

Meanwhile Emmanuel Adebayor hasn't exactly commited himself to Arsenal as some reports have suggested. The Observer rang up his agent, Stephane Courbis, and asked him if Adebayor wanted to leave. He said 'No. No. It's the same situation as last week'.

So really nothing's changed. The agent can't very well come and say 'He wants to leave' right at this moment. Arsene Wenger has been exactly effusive about him staying. 'He can go if he wants' is not quite the ringing endorsement of one's services a player likes to hear and I think there's plenty of this story to run yet. Even with his attempts to attract a buyer with his own Michael Owen style brochure (in case you missed it yesterday).

However, the Mirror has got to get this Sunday's award for least believable rumour of the day. Milan are willing to take Adebayor, pay us £20m and give us Mathieu Flamini as part of the deal. Even though Flamini upset a few people with the way he left the club that deal, if it were even remotely true, is a no-brainer.

El Mundo are keeping up the Arshavin to Barcelona stuff by running another article this morning saying he'd be the fans favourite signing of the summer. Zzzzz. Here's a question though - we know Arshavin got rid of his agent, if a club is interested in a player who acts as his own agent, is it double-tapping up if they ring up and ask him to ask himself if he's interested in a move?

And that's about all there is this morning. Pre-season training starts tomorrow for the majority of the players, no doubt we'll get a picture special on the official site so we can point and laugh and say 'God, look at all those Mickey Quinns waddling about the training pitch after a summer of fish and chips and pints of ale'.

Can't wait.

Good day to you all, hope I find you hearty, healthy and hangover free this Sunday. It is Father's Day, of course, I received the present of a Piggy Bank from the Blogette. I suspect this is so she knows exactly where I keep all my change instead of the hiding place I have it now so it doesn't end up in her teenage pockets.

Kids, so thoughtful eh?

As it's a Sunday we're on tabloid overdrive so let's have a look at the various stories. We'll begin with the Daily Star saying Chelsea and Carlo Ancelotti want Emmanuel Adebayor for a cool £25m. I've always wondered why large sums of money were considered 'cool' and not some other adjective. Wouldn't a 'moist' £25m be much more evocative. I'd love a 'tawdry' £25m lotto win. See, much better.

Anyway, according to them Adebayor is keen to leave having 'launched a stinging attack on the Arsenal boo-boys' and Ancelotti was keen on him when he was at Milan.

For £25m I'd bite your hand off and I don't care if he's being sold to Chelsea, United or Bucketflange Rovers. I suspect, however, that this is just a lazy story used to fill some space. Seriously, think about it. If you were a journo, you had a word count and a deadline and you wanted to get the hell out of the office to go drink some summer beers, a quick 'Adebayor to Chelsea' would do the job in no time.

The News of the World are in lazy mode, they bring us the Felipe Melo to Arsenal using Philippe Senderos to Fiorentina as part of the deal story that popped up during the week. Perhaps there's something to the story but we've heard this much of it before. Come on NotW, you can do better than that. How about linking Theo Walcott to Man United with a headline that screams 'Walcott wings in to weplace Winker'? Byline by Jonathon Ross, natch.

The Mirror says Kieran Gibbs will be offered a new long-term contract with the club. Makes sense and there's really not much more to say about it than that.

Emmanuel Eboue says he knows nothing about a move to PSG. Rumours suggest the French club are set for a €7m deal. I'm sure with our great negotiating skills we won't have to pay that much.

Some bloke called Mouhamadou Dabo says he hasn't heard from any of the clubs reportedly interested in him, one of which is us, apparently. I've never heard about Mouhamadou Dabo so I guess that makes us even.

Another chap called Yohan Cabaye says he'd rather play another year in France before joining Arsenal. Good for him. I like a man without any ambition whatsoever. Makes me feel better about myself.

There's an interview with new signing Thomas Vermaelen on the official site. He describes himself a 'physical player', which is good, we could use a bit of that, and he's got cold, dead eyes of a killer. Ok, I might have made that last bit up but I prefer to think of him that way.

Anyway, that's about that. It's a dreary kind of a day today so I'll sit around, drink more coffee, read the papers, then drag my carcass off to play 5-a-side. 

Have a good 'un.

'Arsenal sign Ajax stopper', screamed the Sport.co.uk headline on NewsNow yesterday evening.

Taking a leaf from the book of the BBC and Sky Sports they claimed to 'understand' that we'd sign the Belgian (cheers all!) defender Thomas Vermaelen for £10m in the next 48 hours. Then to add extra credence to the story they threw in some quotes from Tony Adams about how he wasn't tall enough. Yep, that really added believability to it.

Now, the thing is, Ajax are on a tour of Japan and Vermaelen is with them. And, you know, Sport.co.uk don't necessarily have a great record in breaking news stories. I've mentioned them here on Arseblog before when they confidently brought us the news of Real Madrid's Mahamadou Diarra's impending arrival at Arsenal. The only problem was he was about two weeks into a six month spell on the sidelines with a serious knee injury.

So I would be most doubtful if Vermaelen has signed for Arsenal and if he already had I suspect a more reliable source would have that information. A more reliable source like ... erm ... The Sun, who appear to have picked up the story.

I remain dubious all the same.

Meanwhile the same paper says Milan are set to make a £15m bid for Emmanuel Adebayor this week. With Kaka on his way to Real Madrid and strong rumours that Ronaldinho is on his way back to Brazil they're looking for a signing to placate the fans. I'm not quite sure that replacing Kaka with Adebayor will do much to quench their ire, mind you.

And if it is true then I suspect Arsenal would want a bit more than £15m. It's not as if Milan don't have the cash with the obscene amount of money on offer from Madrid. Squeeze them as far as we can, I say.

Speaking of Emmanuels, the Eboue variety has been speaking about his future and he says:

My future at Arsenal is not clear yet, I did not play a lot in the season and the World Cup is coming. There are many clubs interested in me, so let's wait. Before the season's start I will make a decision.

I don't doubt there are many clubs interested in him but I think the final few months of the season are a good indication that his future lies elsewhere. He was a barely used substitute for much of it, as clear a sign as any that the boss didn't really count on him. I know there are those who think he's a handy utility player but for me he's been one of the most frustrating players I've ever seen in an Arsenal shirt and I won't be shedding any tears if he leaves. I might even have a party.

It's summer, Newcastle have been relegated and guess what? Yes, we've been linked with Obafemi Martins, the Sebastian Frey of strikers. Even if Adebayor is sold I can't see is going for him. If we do replace Adebayor I think it will be with a player who won't be off to the ACN every couple of years and at 83 years of age Martins doesn't quite fit the age profile of the team.

So there you go. A whole lot of not very much at all but it's better than the alternative which is not much of loads of stuff. Yeah, it makes sense, kinda. If you think about it.

Till tomorrow.

Morning all, there's just a hint of the *boilk* about today. I have been most abstemious in 2009, you see, so when you have a few glasses of wine you certainly feel it the next day.

So, it's Saturday. And we have no game. I fail to see the point of Saturday without football. Even if the football is on Sunday you can spend Saturday thinking about Sunday but it's a strange man who thinks about Monday on a Saturday. Especially this early in the morning.

There's not a whole lot going on. The team news remains the same as yesterday. There's been no update on whether or not Aaron Ramsey will be fit to play. Speaking ahead of the FA Cup game against Cardiff Arsene said:

We want to prepare well because we know it is a very important game for us and we need to focus. We are unbeaten and want to keep that going in every competition - the longer that lasts, the stronger you will be.

Conscious that too many draws have dampened the achievement somewhat, he said:

We want to transform that bit of disappointment from a draw into a convincing victory, and the team is on a good way.

Goals are what's needed. They've been in short supply in recent games and that happens to teams from time to time. These kinds of droughts are unusual under Arsene Wenger though so I suppose the longer we go without scoring the more likely we are to score, if that makes sense.

He also addressed the sending off of Emmanuel Eboue against Sp*rs, saying:

He had problems dealing with his frustrations in this game ... He didn't sense how far you can go. Once he had the first yellow card that was a bit unfortunate. But the second one, you cannot complain.

What can you say?

Apart from the stuff about Eboue the boss spoke about how the delay in making his debut would be good for Andrei Arshavin. Having not played for a while, and with a disrupted pre-season, building some fitness may not be a bad thing at all. What we will have is a player who is extremely fresh and motivated between now and the end of the season. Maybe towards the tail end of the campaign his fresh legs against the heavy ones of defenders might make the difference in tight games.

He also praised the professionalism of William Gallas.

Croatia coach Slaven Bilic reckons Eduardo is ready for Arsenal, and has told Arsene Wenger so. I think he'll make an appearance on Monday and I might have a little flutter on him to score a goal. Perhaps the 'holic pound might go in a similar direction.

Right, that's that. Have yourselves a good Saturday and remember, no thinking about Monday until tomorrow.

Even the morning after the game I'm still somewhat flummoxed at what went on. A point with 10 men away from home is decent, especially when you consider how long we were playing that way, but ultimately the feeling is one of more points dropped and chances wasted.

Don't get me wrong, it was a valiant effort by the lads who really knuckled down and worked hard to ensure we got something from the game. All credit to them for that but you just can't help feeling that with a full compliment this was a game we could have won.

Emmanuel Eboue's sending off deprived us of the chance to bring on Arshavin or Eduardo, two players who, even in a brief cameo, have the quality to make something happen. Instead we had to consolidate, make sure we didn't concede, then try and nick something. The first two tasks were accomplished, the third, and most vital, was beyond us today.

And so we come to Eboue. For the first 20 minutes or so he was probably our best player. He was popping up all over the place, driving towards goal and positive in everything he did. Afterwards Arsene Wenger was furious that the goal he apparently scored was disallowed and while there didn't seem to be much wrong with it the whistle had gone long before he put the ball in the net. But there are two distinct sides to Eboue and the one most familar to Arsenal fans emerged shortly after.

He talked himself into the first booking. After Sp*rs had been given a free kick he kept chatting to referee Mike Dean, the most card happy ref in the league, and didn't take the hint. I was looking at it thinking 'Shut up Eboue. Shut up!', and eventually, after being told three times and not stopping he was given a yellow card.

At that point I wanted Wenger to take him off. Dean had dished out 7 red cards before today and I had no faith in Eboue to not get another one. Perhaps Arsene thinks his players are intelligent enough to calm themselves down, to realise they're dealing with a referee who doesn't think twice before delivering a card, and perhaps most of them are intelligent to realise that. I don't think that's the case with Eboue.

Shortly after Adebayor had pulled up with a hamstring injury Eboue got himself sent off. His kick out at Modric was an act of crass stupidity and selfishness, his patting of Modric on the back after the Sp*rs player was booked was frankly embarrassing as he thought he gotten away with it, and the red card was really no less than he deserved.

He let the team, fans and manager down badly and the hastily arranged damage limitation exercise on the official website is even more maddening. Instead of fully taking responsibility for his actions, something which might at least appease a certain number of fans, he has chosen to blame the referee. And such is his way. He won't ever change and to see somebody like him in an Arsenal shirt is hard to take for me. He's a serial cheat who lives in his own little world, where what happens to Eboue is the most important thing. At a crucial time of the season and in an incredibly important game he proved himself to be nothing more than a liability.

To be honest I'd be just as happy if I never saw him in an Arsenal shirt again. He'll serve a one-match ban and hopefully at that stage Arshavin will have established himself on the right hand side of midfield. Wenger can talk all he wants about how the red card was harsh but we could all see it coming a mile off. Perhaps there's some scope to question the manager but when he didn't really have a right midfield option (Arshavin not being fit enough to do more than 20 minutes), ultimately the blame lies with Eboue.

In the post match press conference Arsene was asked if he thought Eboue had the temperament for big matches. While normally he backs his players fully he was hesitant and said:

"I don't know. I believe ... if he has retaliated today ... we'll see. I want first to see before I assess the situation".

It will be interesting to see what happens when he does see because the evidence is right there. I don't think there's another top flight club where Eboue would have played as much, been given so many chances, so often the benefit of the doubt. And yet he continues to let down the man who gives him these chances. Arsene's patience with him seems endless but surely this must be too much.

In the second half we really dug in. There were some very good performances, Gallas and Song both played very well and overall the effort was good. We even had a couple of chances. One which fell to Song from a corner which he really should have scored from - to put it wide from 6 yards was a poor effort. I know he's not a striker but he should have done better with that. Robin van Persie cracked a shot wide and late on Bendtner forced a good save from Cuducini.

Sp*rs could have won it right at the death too. They broke from an Arsenal corner, the ball was played to Modric but Manuel Almunia capped a fine game by making a very good save. So in the circumstances the point was well earned but in the end it comes down to more ground being lost on those top 4 positions.

We've only scored one goal in our last four games. We're struggling desperately from an attacking point of view and we can only hope the arrival of Arshavin and the reintroduction of Eduardo will go some way to addressing that. Adebayor will be out for at least three weeks with his hamstring strain and maybe that's no bad thing. He was poor again yesterday and maybe if he has to fight his way back into the team when he's fit again it'll be to everyone's benefit.

The bottom line though is that we need to start winning games. We've drawn 6 of our last 9 league games and while being unbeaten is a good thing, of course, too many draws and you start losing ground in a hurry. In the last 7 games we've only conceded 3 goals so perhaps the defensive improvement has come at the cost of attacking verve.

As it stands we're 5 behind Chelsea, 7 behind Villa, and Liverpool and United are out of sight now. Our next league game is not until the 21st of the month. There's a round of internationals this week then the FA Cup replay against Cardiff this day week.

With many players away it's going to be a difficult week for the manager to get his team together and work on the things that obviously need to be worked on. Cardiff is a hugely important game but in the longer term Sunderland is where we really need to get going again.

Have a good Monday.

Morning all,

still lots of Eboue related madness going on, as you might imagine. Yesterday's blog sparked plenty of debate, lots of people didn't agree with what I wrote and that's absolutely fine. There's always a platform here for people who disagree with me.

The main complaint was that I failed to label the fans who cheered Eboue's substitution as some kind of 'disgrace'. As I wasn't at the game, so who am I to call any Arsenal fan who has paid his or her money a disgrace?

This wasn't an orchestrated campaign, it was a spontaneous reaction from thousands of people. As I said it wasn't nice to hear but we'd be stupid if we chose to ignore the reasons why it happened. It's worth discussing without just calling those who participated a 'disgrace' or any other name. Players have got stick at Arsenal all down the years, Eboue's not the first and he won't be the last. Did he get the collective frustration of fans who have watched their team struggle and under-perform this season? Possibly. Was he blameless and the victim of a witch-hunt? No.

There's been a lot said about Saturday's events. I particularly liked the pieces in the Online Gooner, Arsenal Times and Goodplaya. In the Gooner Kevin makes the point that Eboue's constant theatrics have made him unpopular with the fans and that Wenger must take some of the blame for it. He then says:

You won’t find many descriptions of the player as an honest pro and that is why Wenger’s own comparison of Eboue’s contribution as being akin to that of Ray Parlour was regarded as an insult of the highest order to the Romford Pele.

Ray Parlour was not technically gifted, but he was an honest trier. And that kept many fans onside when he played in a midfield quite obviously surrounded by better technical players. He played bad balls and lost possession, but he worked hard for the team. And he was never booed.

It's a good piece which tries to look at the deeper malaise, something that certainly influenced what happened against Wigan.

Kolo Toure, as you might expect, has come to the defence of Eboue, saying:

The fans gave him a hard time and that is not usual at Arsenal. He has all our support because we know he is a great player. He tries his best for the team even if he is not 100 per cent. I was surprised because normally our fans are nice always.

I just want to tell them that he is a great lad, he loves the club and wants to do his best for the club. We hope that next time they will help him to come back. That is the only way to behave.

While Arsene Wenger said:

He is a good boy and you could see when he lost confidence it was very difficult for him. Cesc Fabregas will have a word with him. They will all help him. I am not worried about that.

Football at the top level is a ruthless game. You have to perform or you get found out. Expectations are high, from fans and from everyone else. When you play badly you're going to hear moans and groans. When you play as badly as Eboue did in the final part of the game on Saturday it's inevitable that fans will let you know what they think. It happens at Arsenal and every other football ground in the country.

Granted it doesn't normally happen as loudly as it did for Eboue but that's something he's got to deal with. If he wants to play football at the highest level then he's got to be able to cope with this. Get his head down, work hard, give 100% on the pitch every minute of every game and the fans will be onside with him. It's that simple. It's the same for any player at any club.

The bottom line, for me, is that the jeering of Eboue was a message to the player and the manager. To Eboue it was that when you wear the Arsenal shirt the very least fans expect is that you put in the effort, no matter how poorly you're playing. To the manager it was a cumulative thing, I think, after 5 league defeats already and many people's concerns that the squad we have is just not competitive enough to win the title.

If there was a more civilised way for those points to be made then I'm sure it would have been taken but there isn't. Many people have come on and criticised the fans who jeered and it's easy to do that. It's easy to say 'I would never do that' but football is passionate, fans are passionate and what happened happened in the heat of the moment. It's easy to say 'When things are going badly you should get behind the team more' but that's almost utopian in its outlook. It completely and utterly disregards human nature. The natural reaction to a player tackling one of his own players then passing it to the opposition is not 'Hard luck, old chap, try a bit harder next time, would you?', it's 'Oh for fuck's sake! What was that?!'.

Anyway, I'm not trying to do anything but talk this through in a sensible way. Sniping and calling each other names without trying to understand why all this happened is just pointless, in my opinion. And no doubt there'll be plenty who'll tell me I'm a cunt again for what I think but there you go.

In other news the Mirror says we're after Xabi Alonso in January. There's nothing really new in the article but as January draws ever closer the speculation about who we might buy is going to increase by the day, I reckon.

And that's about it. A busy day for comments ahead, I think. Have at it.