If Tuesday was the vomit pie then yesterday was the cherry shaped shit on top.

Spanked, and there is no other word for it, at home by Chelsea. Painful, humiliating and saddening. To be fair I thought we were unlucky to go in two down.

We started very positively, snapping into tackles, competing for everything and I remember thinking how it was a shame that it took a poor result in midweek to motivate the lads into that kind of performance. We made chances, we dominated possession, moved the ball well and probably should have scored. The best chance of all falling to Cesc before Abou Diaby came in, took it off his toes and scuttered it wide.

Then Phil Dowd bought yet another Drogba dive. Cesc was booked for telling the ref it was a dive, that's a new one on me, I have to say. But dive or not the free kick was given, Drogba floated it in and Alex got away from Sylvester and Toure to head home off the crossbar. Against the run of play, for sure, but not that surprising.

The second Chelsea goal came via Nicolas Anelka who span away from Nasri in midfield. Nasri's attempts to get back to him were half-hearted, to say the least, he brought it forward, cracked one from outside the area and while it certainly moved in the air Fabianksi was flat-footed and couldn't get near it.

If there was to be any way back an early goal in the second half was required. And there was one. Sadly it went to Chelsea. They broke down our right, Fabianski found himself in no-man's land and ultimately it went in off Toure who was desperately trying to clear it. Perhaps the young Pole has plenty of potential but this game on top of the FA Cup semi-final has done little but illustrate he's not ready for first team action yet. Some might describe the own goal as bad luck but it was more bad play than bad luck.

As you might imagine Arsenal heads went down. There was the incredible sight of Kolo Toure giving up on a ball which led to a Chelsea corner. Changes were made. Nicklas Bendtner came on for the hapless stroller Diaby who once again threw the chance he'd been given back in the manager's face. We know he's not a left midfielder but the least he could do is try. If Arsene isn't going to play him in central midfield, supposedly his position, then what is the point in keeping him? When is the last time anybody said 'Wow, Diaby had a good game today'?

A few minutes later Denilson came on for Song and Adebayor for Walcott. And then we scored. A Sagna cross from the right was powered home by Nicklas Bendtner's head. There's no doubt the boy is very good in the air, which is what makes Arsene's decision to play him from the left hand side so baffling. Get him in the middle and while we might not like it lump some crosses in, it's better than tippy-toeing around and back and sideways and all over the place. His 9th league goal this season is as many as Robin van Persie has scored.

Adebayor's only contributions after coming on were two hopeless dives. Fair enough, he managed to stay onside a couple of times but it's a measure of how often he's flagged off that it's even worth mentioning. He took one tumble, looking for a penalty and the ref rightly played on. The second time he had a good chance to score. His first touch was shit, he tried to con the ref into thinking Cech had pulled him down, again he didn't buy it and frankly he should have been booked for it.

It's easy to understand why there's not a great deal of goodwill around for Adebayor at the moment and the manager's criticism of Drogba rings somewhat hollow having seen Ade's antics yesterday.

So instead of it being 3-2 it became 4-1 as Chelsea broke upfield and after more comical defending it ended up in the back of the net from Malouda. 4-1. At home. To Chelsea. After a 3-1 defeat to United on Tuesday. Seven goals in two games against two of our biggest rivals.

I know we've gone 21 games unbeaten, I know we got to the semi-finals of the Champions League, or the 'last four in Europe' as Arsene likes to put it, but whatever came before the last two games doesn't make what happened in them OK.

Defensively this team is a shambles. We can see why Kolo Toure lost his place this season, I don't even want to get started on Sylvester who, even at his best, was an average player, Gibbs did well but is just 19 and Sagna is struggling as the one constant in a back four which seems to change every week. Add to that a goalkeeper who would make Massimo Taibi look good and it's always going to be tough.

Afterwards Arsene thought his side unlucky, and to an extent he's right. We did well in the first half and had we taken one of those chances it might have been different. Might. However, the records won't show that Arsenal were unlucky or that Drogba dived, only that Arsenal conceded four goals in the league for the third time this season.

Still, the manager says:

I don’t think the squad needs major investment. I believe we need to continue to improve. I’m not as doom-and-gloom as everybody wants to make it after a defeat and of course we play in a strong league against top quality opponents.

Of course we need to improve, Arsene. We got found out by United and that point was hammered home yesterday by Chelsea. We need a defence, we need a central midfielder who will allow Cesc to play to his maximum, we need some better players. It's really not very difficult.

I know there's the tendency to overreact after a defeat, any defeat, but this isn't reactionary. This is something I've been saying for a long time, it's stuff other people have been saying for just as long. To lose at home to Chelsea like that was embarrassing. To see Arsene struggling with tactics, playing players out of position, in a formation that was, at one point, dismissed as almost anti-football by him, is sad. It's like he doesn't know the best way to line up, which players to play where. He's trying to make up for the deficiencies in his squad with tactical changes and it's not working.

Under Arsene we were always at our best playing a 4-4-2. If one of your strikers was injured you played one of the others, but as a striker, not a winger. You played your best central midfielders in midfield and if you had to play a central player on the right, as happened every now and again (I remember Gilberto being shifted out there when Edu flourished, even Cesc early in his career), that was countered by having a Ljungberg or a Pires to play on the left.

There's too much confusion about the way we play, where the players should play, we're chopping and changing and it's creating poor performances. Even look at van Persie, asked to play on the left of a 4-5-1 against United, where he's not really very good, then asked today to play as a lone striker, a role to which he really is not suited at all. It's hard to see the logic in some of Arsene's recent decisions.

Still, the manager knows there's a problem, so the final word today can go to him. He sums it up quite well, saying:

In the games that mattered in the last three or four weeks, we could not win. That is what we have to analyse.

Amen to that. Our next game is at Old Trafford where, depending on what United do against Wigan on Wednesday, they could win the title with a point.

Something to look forward to, eh?

Morning all,

A few bits and pieces to be going on with this Sunday morning. In which I'm not hungover at all. Oh no. Not one bit.

Now, you know the way everyone, and by everyone I actually mean everyone in the whole entire world, even people who don't care about Arsenal or know about Arsenal or even know what football is, wants Arsene Wenger to buy more experienced players? Well, it turns out this is a bandwagon that can't be ignored and Jabba the Usmanov is all over the papers this morning urging the club to do the same thing.

He certainly doesn't say 'And here's a big bag of money to go and do it. It's a present from your favourite Uncle. Now come sit on my lap! *slurp slurp*', so I think we can write it off as just waffle. Meanwhile there's an interesting piece by Henry Winter about foreign owners, and Usmanov in particular With a more clear definition of what constitutes a 'fit and proper' person due to be revealed on Monday he writes:

Passing the fit and proper person test should not be a problem for Kroenke. Usmanov will have to answer plenty of questions.

If it was a 'fat and proper person' he'd be halfway there already. Thank you, thank you. I'm here all week. I do think we're in for a long, hot summer, not just in terms of the weather (I'm saying this in the vague hope we might actually get some hot weather in Ireland), nor in terms of the transfer business we won't be doing (vague hope, reverse jinx, blah blah), but in the Arsenal boardroom. 

There are many issues outstanding and I don't think they can go too much longer without being resolved. Lady Nina wants to sell her shares and buy a luxury mobile home to spend her holidays in and that 15%+ is going to be crucial in deciding the future of Arsenal Football Club. Despite Usmanov's substantial shareholding I'm sure there's still a reluctance on the Arsenal side, which now includes Kroenke, to deal with a man whose reputation, like his lawyers, has gone before him.

Anwyay, we'll see what happens. Elsewhere Amy Lawrence, on whom heavy money has been placed for the Bendtner Pants machinations (what a title for a film that would be), talks to Guus Hiddink who says of Arsenal:

They like to play with the style they play which is good to see, but maybe they might bring in one or two or three who can give even more power to the team. If they want to go for silverware they might have that conclusion.

She goes on to say in the light of Arshavin's arrival:

Buying experience goes against Wenger's grain but when he comes to analyse the season in the summer, he cannot possibly fail to notice what a ­difference it makes.

I'm sure he'll notice it, it's just whether he does anything about it that's the worry. I can't say I'm too enamoured by the idea (slightly tongue in cheek it might be) of buying Didier Drogba though. It's bad enough trying to cope with Sylvester in an Arsenal shirt, the idea of Drogba in red and white would make my breakfast come back up, if I'd had any.

The People reports that Arsene has turned down the chance to manage Man City. What a chance. Pffff.

Oh, and lest we forget there's the small matter of the game against Chelsea this afternoon. I think third place is beyond us to be honest but it would be nice to garner some revenge for that horrible afternoon at Wembley just a few of weeks ago. 

We beat them at Stamford Bridge and it would be nice to do the double over them again. It's another chance to 'welcome' back Cuntley Cunt and a win today would go some way to restoring our pride which was hurt so badly by United this week.

The team news is that Andrei Arshavin looks set to miss the game, maybe he'll have recovered from his flu to take part, so the squad is the same one as midweek. I suspect he'll probably mix it up a little bit. Diaby might play because being tall is one of the things you need against Chelsea but who he picks and where he picks them is becoming increasingly difficult to predict.

There's little or no tension going into this game, which is a shame considering the opponents and the time of the season we're playing them at. Who will react better from their Champions League exit? Who wants this game more? We'll see later this afternoon.

A full report on the match and more tomorrow. Have a good Sunday folks. 

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. 

Morning all.

The games are coming thick and fast and we're struggling to cope - particularly at the back. The team news that emerged yesterday is that Kieran Gibbs is struggling to be fit for the Chelsea game after picking up a groin injury against Villarreal. Bacary Sagna is also struggling to be fit after his illness.

Should they both miss out our defensive options are somewhat limited. The only way I can see us line up is for Alex Song to move back into the defence and play alongside Kolo Toure with Sylvester moving to left back.

It would be a shame to move Song from the midfield just when he's found his feet but I can't see any other way around it. If Sagna is fit then he could play left back, leaving Eboue on the right hand side and Song in midfield. So we'll have to wait and see what the boss says later today.

Regarding other defenders he estimated Johan Djourou could be back in two weeks, which is great news if true, but I'm somewhat troubled by the news about Gael Clichy. The official site says:

Clichy is in the middle of a two-and-a-half week period of rest. Only then will the Frenchman start his rehab in earnest.

So does that mean he's got another week or so of rest, then some rehab? And how long will the rehab be? We need all hands on deck at the moment so to lose anyone for longer than expected would be a blow.

Blog update: According to AW, who spoke to France Football, Clichy has a stress fracture of a vertebra, hence the need for complete rest. How quickly he recovers is anyone's guess really.

Cesc has been speaking about the upcoming games, which sees us play United at least three times, Chelsea twice, Liverpool once as well as league games against Portsmouth, Boro and Stoke. He says:

Arsenal, we are not scared of anyone and the way we play shows that. We might not have the same experience as United or Chelsea but I am not concerned about that. I don’t mind at all.

And that's the mindset the whole team has to have. Of course United have more experience, they're a great team as they've proved down the years, but we've beaten them once this season, no reason why we can't do it again. The same goes for Chelsea, they're hugely experienced and have a squad full of top class players (and, let it not go unsaid, top class cunts too). But we've beaten them, and at a time in the season when we had little going right for us, so there's every reason to be confident ahead of tomorrow's semi-final.

On lifting silverware, Cesc says:

It would be the best thing that ever happened to me to lift a trophy in an Arsenal shirt. It’s a dream for me but we still need to work really hard to finally get there. For sure it would be a disappointment if we do not get to the Final or win. What we have achieved is good but the Semi-Final is not good enough; we want to be in the Final.

Theo Walcott says teams will be scared to play us now. They'll certainly be a lot more cautious than they might have been a few months back but if we're not scared of them then I don't think they'll be scared of us.

Still, we're in a much better position than we were, a position Cesc said we'd be 'praying' to be in just three months ago, another indication of how quickly things change in football. But let's not go OTT just yet. We haven't won anything, we've done brilliantly to get where we are, it's fantastic to see how the team and certain players have improved, but ultimately it comes down to who's lifting a trophy at the end of the season.

Last time around we played fantastically well for 4/5ths of the season, fell apart near the end, won nothing and disappointment was crushing. Similarly we might play well for the last 1/3rd of the season and if we don't win anything again it will be just as hard to take, I think. Sorry for all the fractions this early in the morning but you know what I mean.

Anyway, all the focus has to be on Chelsea tomorrow. How typical that this morning stories have emerged that Emmanuel Adebayor is a target for Carlo Ancelotti, the man linked with the Chelsea manager's job next season. How utterly see-through and pathetic. There should be a word for this kind of tactic and the word should be Kenyonesque.

"Oh, what a Kenyonesque story that is the paper today" or "His attempts to unsettle the player before a big game were positively Kenyonesque".

You know, as much as we can look at the Chelsea squad and point to various players and think 'Cunt', 'Horrible patchy-haired cunt', 'Diving cunt', 'Lying little swerving off the road, money-grabbing duplicitous, mendacious, classless, stupid, cheat on his foxy wife with a minger, utter, utter, utter cunt', there's something about Peter Kenyon that makes you want to beat Chelsea even more.

A truly reprehensible man and one of the best moments of my life was seeing him at the Champions League final in Paris, him swanning about with a delegation of officials, and me calling him a 'cunt' as loudly as I could. He pretended not to hear me, but he heard me. Oh, he heard me.

So more team news and squad news and possible formation news tomorrow. Now though, it's time for the Arsecast. On this week's show I chat to the man from East Lower about Villarreal, the upcoming games, the improvement of Alex Song and more. As well as that there's some funk with Sylvester, poetry from Tony Adams, Talkshite Radio and more.

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 (22mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

Right then, that'll have to do for today. More tomorrow.

Fun times Arsefans. Yesterday's win over Chelsea was a huge, huge result. Instead of being 13 points off the pace we're just 7 and everything looks a little rosier.

We do like to make life difficult for ourselves though, don't we? Chelsea started brightly but I thought we'd weathered the little storm and gotten into the game quite well when we gifted them a goal. It was a poor throw from Almunia, he should have held on to the ball and calmed things down, but Samir Nasri will think he could have done more to track Boswinga. The Chelsea player's cross was poked into our net by Johann Djourou to give them a 1-0 lead.

Given Chelsea's record at home and the fact they'd only conceded four league goals all season one goal would have been impressive, to score two and win the game was just fantastic. The first came when Adebayor won a header, it came to Denilson and he poked it through to a clearly offside van Persie. But there was no flag and he lashed it past Cech with his right foot to equalise. Scolari was less than happy, can't say I blame him, but sometimes decisions like that go against you. We can all remember van Persie scoring a good goal against Chelsea at Highbury but being flagged offside, so this made up for that somewhat.

It's the kind of decision that you need to go for you when you're down on your luck too. I have to be honest, despite the fact Chelsea weren't playing that well I wasn't confident we'd get anything from the game. On moments like that seasons can change, however, and God knows we've needed a little bit of luck and not gotten it.

Chelsea barely had time to regroup when we scored the second. Cesc floated in a free kick, Adebayor won the header well, it fell to van Persie and he turned on a sixpence to fire a low shot through Lampard's legs into the corner of the goal. Cech got a touch but it wasn't enough. 2-1.

At this point you expected the Chelsea onslaught to begin but it just didn't happen. John Terry should have been sent off for a horrendous two-footed tackle on Bacary Sagna but then the England captain doesn't get sent off for things like that. There was a Malouda free kick which went flying over the bar but after we scored our second Almunia didn't have a save to make. We defended very well, both full backs in particular were excellent as they broke up play and won tackles high up in our half of the pitch. Chelsea were toothless and even 4 minutes of injury time was no bother.

In terms of our performance it would be easy to sit here and pick holes in it. We didn't have a great first half and certainly there were players who never really got into the game as well as they should have but sometimes we over-analyse things and strip any enjoyment out of them. We all know beating Chelsea doesn't mean all our problems are solved but you've got to make the most of results like this. What is the point of winning a game like that, coming from behind at Stamford Bridge, and then saying 'So and so was shit' or 'This player did fuck all'?

Well done to the lads, I say. In particular I liked Djourou at centre-half. He didn't let the own goal faze him one bit and he's got to keep his place now. In no time at all nobody will remember the performance, simply the result and the result is what we should celebrate. Without getting too carried away, of course! We've been here before. The great win against United was followed by two defeats so what's vital is that we keep focussed, take the belief and confidence this gives us but make sure we don't fall into the same trap again.

Afterwards Arsene Wenger was keen to make that point as well, saying:

I am very, very happy to now, after beating Manchester United, we beat Chelsea and I believe that brings us back. It is still far but not impossible. I have an intelligent team, a talented one, but we want to come back with humility and work hard. We have learned that we need that kind of focus in every game no matter who you play.

And that's the thing. We can't think that because we've beaten United and now Chelsea that we just have to turn up to win the game against Wigan. Perhaps things have been a little fraught in the camp recently and under the new captaincy things are looking a bit better. A new focus on the team. When asked by Sky if the two goals meant it was a big day for him, Robin van Persie replied:

It is not my day, it's our day. I was the one who scored the two goals but that doesn't really matter. It was our day - the whole squad really gave extra of everything. If you win the game like that it gives you a lot of confidence and this is what we need at the moment.

It's good to hear him speak like that and it was good to see him finally deliver in a big game. We spoke about the win against Kiev being a baby step back to where we want to be. Yesterday was another one. Slowly we'll get our confidence back but that confidence has be kept in check. It has to be allied with hard work and commitment and that'll get us results. There's still a way to go for this team but let's hope yesterday was the start of something and not another false dawn.

So today's a day for enjoying things. One of the most enjoyable things was watching the Sky pundits squirm. 'How did that just happen?', said Monkey-hands Richard Keys, as if they'd just witnessed Brazil being beaten by an Arseblog over 35s XI, hungover from too much Havana Club the night before. Stick it up your holes, you cunts.

And Jamie Redknapp provided the comedy moment of the day. When asked about Arsenal he said:

That's the thing with Arsenal. They're either brilliant or completely inconsistent.

Haha, spa. The way they glossed over the John Terry challenge was disgraceful as well. Not at all unexpected of course, but disgraceful nonetheless. The way they replayed Eboue's innocuous tackle in last season's game again and again and again and they fail to show the England captain jumping in on a player with two feet. Ruud Gullit, mad fucker that he is, tried to say that was the kind of tackle that could break someone's leg but the subject was changed very quickly. Terry got a yellow card so no further action can be taken and we won't hear another thing about it.

No mention either of Chelsea fans belting out that song about Arsene Wenger. That just made victory all the sweeter and people who sing that in a football stadium with kids of all ages are just the scum of the earth. If the FA can investigate racist chants against players, why can't they do something about this?

Still, there's nothing like a bit of outrage to mix in with your morning enjoyment, is there? We're back in the title race, folks. It's up to us now to make sure we stay there. At this stage of the season 7 points is nothing. There's a lot of hard work ahead but how much better does it feel this morning?

Much. That is the answer. Much. Have a great Monday.

Bleurgh, still sick. Colds are rubbish.

Chelsea today, as we all know, and we go into the game knowing we need a result. Not to get us back into the title race, not to keep in touch, so much as to instill some belief in this squad. But belief only goes so far. I'm sure they had belief after beating Man United and look where that ended up.

Manuel Almunia has described the last couple of weeks as a 'nightmare' and it's hard to disagree with that. Despite the win againt Kiev in midweek the keeper reckons today is the test, today is when we see if anything has changed within the squad. He says:

Dynamo Kiev is not Chelsea. We will see against Chelsea whether this team knows how to react or not. We are in the same place as before this game. The victory is giving us confidence but not changing the situation. We know our situation in the League and we have to react. A win at Chelsea would be a first step.

He's bang on. It would be just the first step. It would be a good sign but no real evidence that we've changed our attitude or ability to perform like heroes one day and utter chumps the next.

Today's papers are annoying. You have Joe Cole having a little dig at us saying that it's all well and good playing pretty football but at the end of the day it's trophies that matter. It's annoying because he's right. He might be a dribbling, window-licking cunt but he's got a point. The kind of point you'd like to smash right down his throat with a piece of silverware.

Then there's an incredible piece of David Dein propaganda in the News of the World which tries to suggest that all our woes in recent times are due to his departure. Of course that's utter nonsense but when times are trying people are more inclined to believe stuff like this. It's easier to blame the sacking of a board member who behaved atrociously than point the finger at Arsene who, whether Dein is there or not, makes ALL the decisions about football at the club. 

The manager himself talks about how the club is in a good position to face the ongoing financial woes that face the world, something that football has been seemingly immune from for years. Clubs have operated as if there's a golden cash cow that will always bail them out, they can operate at huge losses, spending far more than they earn, but use the TV money and prize money to keep them afloat and service their debts. Wenger says:

People don’t yet realise what will hit society in the next 12 months. Arsenal made £30m profit last year. I am quite proud of that because no matter what happens, this club cannot die. It is in a strong financial position.

Which is fantastic and I think everyone is happy to read things like that. He goes on to say:

To win, some people are ready to make the club explode and say, ‘Okay, you buy, spend £50m, £60m’. Nobody cares. But if you are in a financially unstable position, you are in a weak position. We have two important strengths: a very young and promising team, and a football club in the 21st century with a new stadium and training ground that also has a strong financial situation.

And again it all makes good sense but the problem is that it's very difficult for football fans to see the long term picture because, for the most part, we're more interested in the 'now'. By our very nature we see things in the short term. Who we're playing next, where we are in the league, do we have a chance of winning a trophy this season?

Now, nobody wants Arsene to bankrupt the club. Nobody wants him to spend more than we have. I think all any of us want is that he spends what is available to him and despite our young team with potential we still have the second highest wage bill in the league. One of the things the board always said was that there was no point having a great new stadium unless we had a team that was good enough to win things, that the stadium would not affect the quality of the team. 

I think we can see that it has and that's down to Arsene. He made a decision to build a squad, a young squad, and hoped he would be able to keep them together to win things. But when he nearly did it last season he lost experience and quality and didn't replace it. All this talk comes in a week when the club have made it clear, as they have consistently done, that there is money for the manager to spend. There's just over a month until he can spend it and while spending it may weaken our financial position it will strengthen our football position. The balance has to be right. The aim of a football club should not be to first make a profit, it should be to win trophies.

Anyway, that's all stuff we've been through before. Back to today and as I said in previous blogs it's going to be very, very tough. Chelsea are formidable at home, even if they're not quite purring like they were a few weeks ago. They hate us, we hate them, it's going to be a battle.

Here's hoping the new captain can create the kind of mentality we need for a game like this. You know, what's really annoying at the moment is that there are so many people taking pleasure in our situation at the moment. I can see where we have problems and I'll talk about them here with other Arsenal fans, but when I read and see some of the pundits and columnists and fans of other clubs viewing our woes with such glee it really fucking gets on my tits. We have the right to talk about Arsenal, they don't.

Not just because many of them are identifying the same issues with the team that we are but because they're loving it. It's why so many of us reacted so badly to what Gallas said. It's why I take with disdain stuff planted in the press by bitter ex-directors looking to stick the knife in during hard times because they're bitter about how they got kicked out of the club they purport to love so much.

It's backs against the wall stuff, isn't it? I don't quite know where I'm going with this, to be honest, all I know is that I want Arsenal to win today. I want a performance, I don't want bragging rights, I don't want to gloat, I just want this Arsenal team to show they're an Arsenal team. That when we're in the shit they'll fight right until the last whistle to get a result that will go some way to making things better.

I may have gotten out of the wrong side of bed this morning, you know, and I think I might be hallucinating slightly. I need morphine, that will cure my cold you know. Instead the dirty cartel of Beechams and Lemsip prevent me from getting my hands on over the counter morphine, the cunts.

But while they might be cunts they're not quite as cunty as Chelsea. Come on Arsenal, do us proud today. 

Morning all from a bitterly cold Dublin. I just looked out the window and saw a brass monkey frantically searching for something in my back garden. That's how cold it is.

Good news ahead of the Chelsea game is that Nasri, Adebayor and Sagna are all back from injury and you have to think all three of them will start. It certainly does increase our chances and the more threat we are from an attacking point of view the more likely we are to get something from the game, in my opinion.

Arsene Wenger is feeling reasonably confident, saying we play better against the big teams:

This season we have played better against the top four. We cannot deny that because we lost against the teams who are not maybe favourites to play in the top four. Why? Maybe because they play a different type of football.

It seems an odd thing to say given that we've only played Manchester United. You can't really draw any conclusions from one game and, let's be honest, Man City and Villa may not be traditional 'big' teams but they are being tipped as contenders for top 4 places. Look how we did against them. But there's no doubt we raised our game against United after a poor spell and we face Chelsea under much the same circumstances. Another win would be great but again it comes down to how we do after that. If we beat Chelsea then lose to Wigan then we're no better off, really.

Maybe under the new leadership of Cesc that won't happen and the manager says he sees him as 26 year old player, not the 21 year old he is. When you step back and consider that Cesc has played over 200 times for the club at his age it's remarkable, so in experience terms he's way ahead of the other players of a similar age. He provided the pass for Bendtner the other night, he provided the pass for Nasri's second against United, so while his form hasn't been as good as usual this season there are signs he's getting his mojo back and we need him to have a big game against Chelsea.

Not just him of course, the whole team has got to do their stuff, but when Cesc ticks so do we. William Gallas will return to Stamford Bridge with the manager claiming he's come out of the events of the last 10 days with a lot of credit. I think that might be a bit of ego massaging to be honest but Gallas might be more inclined to put his beef with Arsenal to one side when he faces Chelsea, a club he obviously has real issues with. Will it inspire him to a good performance? We'll see.

Overall though if we are to have any chance of staying in this title race (and I've got my very large optimist hat on right at this moment) we've got to take three points tomorrow. Arsene says:

You cannot say when you are 10 points behind that we are favourites to win the title but you can say as well the only way we will get back into it is to believe we can. We know that direct confrontations with top teams become vital when you are in our position. But first of all we have to go there with extreme desire, express our strong points and not hide.

Even with a full strength squad this would be an incredibly difficult task. Chelsea have lost two league games at home in about 5 years. There was one to us when we won 2-1, then they went on an incredible run and it was only this season when Liverpool beat them that it was broken. So let's be under no illusions that winning tomorrow is going to be anything but an incredible achievement. I don't buy in to this theory that this is a good time to play Chelsea. They might have drawn two games recently but how is that a crisis of any kind? Especially when you compare it to our recent form.

To be honest I'd be happy enough with a point tomorrow. I think it's more important to not lose the game than win it, if that makes sense. Of course I'll take all three points gleefully but I think we need to keep our expectations at a reasonable level.

Right, I'm off out into the cold, with my cold, enjoy your Saturday folks. More tomorrow.