Good morning, a fine start to a new week for many of you. Round these parts there aren't too many Sp*rs fans. I play football with one on a Tuesday and when I told him I was going over for the game he said 'Oh dear, you've just wasted your money there'.

Oh dear indeed. So he'll get some tomorrow night but I can imagine those of you returning to work today who live in much closer quarters to fans of that persuasion will have a jolly good morning engaging in 'banter', you might say. Have fun with that.

While we have a Champions League game this week much of the focus is still on the weekend's events. Amazingly people are now beginning to revise their opinion of this team. While Alan Hansen watches his beloved Mugsmashers reel from crisis to euphoria and back to crisis again, he manages to write something nice about Arsenal. Amazing. I bet his scar was pulsing as he did. 

Meanwhile Robin van Persie has summed up things perfectly, saying:

It always feels good to beat Spurs. It even feels good when we don’t play them and they get beaten, so it’s especially good when we’ve played them.

Marvelous. A bit like van Persie's form at the moment. Patrick Barclay writes about him in The Times and he's really growing into the central striker position. He started slowly, no goals in Arsenal's first 6 games. Now he's fot 8 in our last 9 and he's fast becoming accustomed the role many thought he wasn't really suited to. I suppose we should know better than to underestimate Arsene Wenger's ability to get the best out of a player in a forward position. 

Let's not forget he had to convince Thierry Henry he had what it takes to score goals at a time when established commentators on things Arsenal were just as convinced that Henry would never be a centre-forward. Van Persie is no Henry, he doesn't go at defences the same way, but the boss's comments about him being a bit of a mix of Henry and Bergkamp isn't too far off the mark. And what a mix that is. Let's hope he can keep it up and it's worth pointing out that everyone's favourite £25m summer signing who was lauded in the press as one of the best strikers in the world hasn't scored since he nodded that one in against us. The lanky bollocks.

Robin himself makes headlines this mornings, not for his scoring or his recent form, but for the fact he's expressed a desire to play in the next round of the Carling Cup. Funnily enough it happens to be against Man City. On Saturday he said:

What's the draw? Manchester City away? Nice. I want to play that one. If the boss decides to let me play, I'm happy. I'd love to play. We fancy winning that competition.

Two guesses at why he'd be so up for this one. The defeat earlier in the season and the incident with Adebayor no doubt providing motivation. To be honest I don't think Arsene will involve him. Firstly because with Bendtner, Walcott and Vela all injured the manager won't want to risk his main man. And secondly, for all the maturity he's shown, there's a small part of me that just wouldn't put it past him to cunt Adebayor right up in the air and get himself a red card. Anyway, that game isn't till December so we'll see.

I think I'm in love with this picture. I want it in large. So large I can wrap it around my house. Like house wallpaper. That'd be awesome. And I'd put a speech bubble coming out of Pat Rice's mouth that just said "Yeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhh!". Because that's what he's saying just before he turns to the Sp*rs fans and gives them the finger while thrusting his groin out at them.

"Yeeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh!"

Not much else happening though. It's a good way to start the week though. The joy of Saturday still resonating, a nice home fixture in the Champions League to look forward to. I've had worse Monday mornings, it has to be said.

Have a good one, more tomorrow.

Yesterday's game against Sp*rs raised so many questions for me. Having travelled that morning from Dublin knowing that Sp*rs were now stronger than us, I have to admit I was ever so worried. Robbie Keane surely wouldn't lie. Peter Crouch also had his tuppenceworth to throw in about the respective merits of both teams, suggesting that his was better than ours. He seems an amiable, honest chap. Why would he dissemble so?

And then, sitting on the tube to Victoria, I read Harry Redknapp in the papers saying that Arsenal lacked the experience for games like this. And you know what? They were all right. 

Sp*rs were stronger than us when it came to making substitutions. Keane must have raced off the pitch quicker than Billy Whizz when his number came up. And Crouchy, if I may call him that, had it spot on. His team outshone ours in the whole 'The only plan we have is to hoof it to up the lanky cunt up front who will use his elbows and lean all over our defenders' thing. Credit where it's due. 

And as for ol' Twitchy himself, Arsenal did lack experience. The experience of being shit cunts who got turned over big time without Arsenal ever really having to play that well. If it's no trouble to them at all I would very much encourage more hubristic chatter before we play them again. It does make victory all the sweeter.

There are some who might say there's little chance of a day which begins with two gin and tonics at 6am ending well. Those people would be wrong. Awake at 5am, on a flight, then a train from Gatwick having to listen to a crazy woman talking to a bloke who looked like Lee Bowyer crossed with an Orc, then to Holloway Road via the Armoury and in the pub by 10am for a breakfast pint of Guinness. It could only have been better if the pint of Guinness had bacon and sausage in it. Oooh, there's an idea. A real breakfast pint, eating and drinking. 

Folks arrived, the atmosphere built, some nervous, some quite confident that Sp*rs were going to take it all the way, songs being sung, copies of Two Halves being read having been brought to the pub by GilbertoSilver, the build up was fantastic. And inside the ground there was a real buzz. Lots of red and white and a corner of teeny-tiny white cocks.

The game itself was odd, at first. Ref Clattenburg allowed David Bentley away with a deliberate handball and a very obvious foul in the first couple of minutes. Maybe on another day you might say the ref showed some common sense and didn't get his cards out too early, but that other day is for cunts. It was a North London derby and we wanted the pantomime villain booked. As it turned out Bentley trudged around the pitch forlornly trying to do something, anything, clearly not so much for the team as for himself. I laughed at the number of times he stood, hugging the touchline, his arm in the air like a desperate schoolboy who for once knows the answer to teacher's question, only to watch the ball messed around with or given away by his teamchums.

Gomes made a fantastic save from Cesc. So fantastic I was almost on my feet to cheer the goal but it wasn't to be. Yet. Bendtner was replaced by Eduardo after picking up a groin injury. Arshavin pootered about the place not doing very much at all, the game was a bit flat, a bit one paced and at times we were careless and sloppy in possession. Players on their heels and not their toes, missing passes and it was a bit frustrating because we knew they were there for the taking if we stepped it up a bit.

It was hard to see where the goal was going to come from. Then we got a throw on the right, it came back to Sagna who crossed it, Robin van Persie got ahead of Leadfooted King and poked it home to make it 1-0. Awesome. And I was still celebrating, and laughing, at Sp*rs when all of a sudden Cesc was clean through on goal and it was 2-0. The roar was primal. There was a man sitting behind me who was a guest of an Arsenal fan, a neutral observer in all this, and he seemed most amused at the way the second was being celebrated. 

Not that I care. I'd have lap-danced for him at that stage if he'd asked, such was my delirium. 2-0 to the Arsenal rocked around the Grove, the place was heaving. From going in at half-time 0-0 to being two up almost out of nowhere. I had to watch Match of the Day when I got home to see Cesc's goal properly and ol' Twitchy complained about the Arsenal goals saying 'There wasn't a good one between them'. I respectfully disagree. 

The first goal was marvellous, instinctive striking play, the kind of poacher's goal that would have pundits creaming themselves and telling Capello to take Michael Owen to the World Cup if he were capable of scoring that kind of goal these days. But the second. Well that was a fucking brilliant goal. What do I care if Agent Palacios gave us the ball back easily? Cesc took it, went past one man, skipped over Palacios's lunge, nutmegged Leadfoot King, brought it on and stuck it past Gomes at his near post. If that isn't a fucking good goal then I need to start watching netball instead. 

At 2-0 with this Arsenal team you can't ever be sure. Even against opposition as poor as West Ham or Sp*rs but nerves were settled early enough into the second half with the third. Apu-Apricoto took out Eduardo on our right hand side, the linesman flagged and everyone stopped thinking the ref would give the free kick. Instead he waved play on, Sagna reacted quickest, took it on, crossed towards Robin van Persie but it was meat and drink for the goalkeeper, except the goalkeeper turned out to be a vegetarian teetotaller and spat it back out into the path of Robin van Persie who put it away to make it 3-0 to the Arsenal.

When you consider Eduardo should have had at least one, possibly two, it could have been even better. Wenger went absolutely mental when Eddie missed the second chance. As it trickled wide he took off his jacket, threw it on the ground, jumped up and down, his arms extended in pure 'What the fuck was that?' mode, but it was only because he wanted to turn the screw as much as we did. 3-0 is a decent win, 4-0 or 5-0 is a right slapping and who wouldn't have wanted to inflict that yesterday?

Sp*rs only real moment of danger was when Bentley managed to produce one decent set-piece delivery but it was well saved by Almunia who looked assured and confident on his return to the team. And afterwards the consensus was that it had been easy. That for all their talk, all their bluster, Sp*rs were just ... well, they were just Sp*rs.

For us it was another three points, we've dropped only two from our last 6 league league games, a temporary move into 2nd in the table although United's win in the evening put them back above us (we do have a game in hand), and it was a reminder to our neighbours that it's what happens on the pitch and not on the back pages that counts. As Arsene Wenger "Football is not about opinion. It’s about performance". And how can you argue with that?

The pub afterwards, more songs, more pints, post-game euphoria which is what gets you through when you're sitting in Gatwick, as tired as a cunt, having another couple of gin and tonics to add symmetry to the day's proceedings. The tiredness doesn't matter when you've won 3-0, when you've had a great day out with great folk, when you realise that football, for all the frustration and vexation and disappointment it brings us at times, is probably the best thing in the world. Ever.

Only because we are the Arsenal though. 

Reaction: Arsene Wenger, Robin van Persie.

A much earlier blog than usual as I'm heading Londonwards this morning for the game.

There's nothing new to report in terms of the team. Wenger confirmed Fabianski's injury and said he'd be missing for "three to four" weeks, which is no doubt a blow to him. He was giving nothing away when pressed about who would play today. The journos at the press conference do like to try and get info via their leading questions but Wenger is too canny for that kind of thing.

He says he knows who'll play but was saying nothing. Asked if he was tempted to pick Almunia he said "I am always tempted to pick Almunia". To me this was no hint that the Spaniard would regain his place, it just deflected the question right back at the questioner. As I said yesterday I think Mannone will continue to get the nod. I could be wrong, but either way the absence of a real number 1 at the club though remains problematic and whoever plays today I hope they perform like one.

The team pretty much picks itself. The only question remains over who will play in the third forward position. Eboue played there against West Ham but I think I might cry if he plays there tomorrow. His last outing in a North London derby was nothing short of a disaster and while he might offer some 'defensive balance' I'd prefer somebody with a bit of an attacking threat. Hopefully Bendnter's goal in midweek will have convinced the manager he's the man for the job and his aerial presence has famously undone Sp*rs before.

The bench should be strong enough as well with Nasri, Eduardo, Ramsey, maybe Vela or Wilshere, alongside the number 2 keeper and the defensive options. The game, obviously, is massive. There's the small matter of the position of the teams in the league but more than that is the rivalry. Sp*rs players and their manager have been very vocal over the last few days about how they're catching us up, or have even caught us up. We need to teach them about hubris.

Arsene Wenger says:

When the game starts tomorrow at 12.45 it will be just down to the quality of the display no matter how much other psychological involvment is in the game.

Which is true, to an extent, but there's always more to a big derby game than just the respective merits of both teams. There's more than just 3 points to be played for today, the teams know that, the managers know that and most of all the fans know that. 'Form goes out the window' in a derby, and it's true.

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that the 4-4 from last season still haunts me. I caught a clip of Lennon's equaliser yesterday - bizarrely in Wenger's interview with the official site - and it made me shudder. That was a game we should have won but we gifted them 2 points. They were on the ropes at that stage last season, that result sparked them into life and quite literally knocked the stuffing out of us.

That game was a sucker punch which sent us reeling. It was a midweek game, that weekend we lost away at Stoke, then played out a turgid 0-0 at home in the Champions League with Fenerbache and although we rallied to beat United and the kids beat Wigan in the Carling Cup, we still hadn't fully recovered and lost two weeks running to Aston Villa and then Man City who took us apart at Eastlands.

I'm almost positive none of that would have happened if we'd won the game against Sp*rs. Perhaps it exposed weaknesses that would have emerged but it was such an incredible, once in a lifetime occurence that it damaged the team, the fans faith in the team and the manager and made last season one of the least enjoyable I can ever remember. You just don't draw a game when you're 2 goals ahead in the 89th minute. Especially against them.

We self-destructed that day and it cost us. We were out of the title race by the end of November. Not that I think last season's team was really a title contender but there's no doubt that game badly affected us on many levels.

And from a fan's perspective it was utterly soul-destroying. This is why there's more to today's game than the respective quality of the teams. Desire and sheer will to win goes a long way in football and the Arsenal players, most of whom would have played in the corresponding fixture last season, have to go out there wanting to right that wrong. Yes, they want to win because it's the next game. Yes, they want to win because we're at home. Yes, they want to win because it's against the old enemy.

But fuck me they should want to win because they want to exorcise the demons of the 4-4. They should want to win because last season hurt them as much as it hurt us. And when you look at your scars you know where they came from, who inflicted them, and you want revenge. You want payback and while what happened might have been our own fault, it's not us who should pay, is it?

Most of all they should want to beat them because we are the Arsenal, and they ... well they're cunts, aren't they?

See some of you there.

COME ON YOU GOOOOOOOOOOOOONERS.

All week I've been running a fantastic competition - 3 pairs of Club Level tickets for Arsenal v Sp*rs with thanks to Emirates Airline.

I asked you: Who scored Arsenal's winner at White Hart Lane in 1971 to clinch the league title?

Was it: a) Charlie George b) Ray Kennedy c) George Armstrong

The answer was, of course, b) Ray Kennedy. There were thousands of correct answers - not to mention hundreds of incorrect ones - but only three winners. 

The Random Number Generator chose three numbers at random this morning.

Those numbers corresponded to the emails in my inbox and the three winners are:

1 - David Scott

2 - Samuel Baker

3 - Tom Downes

Congratulations and I'll be in touch with you three this morning to arrange the details. Sincere thanks to everybody who entered, better luck next time!

I have to also thank Emirates Airline for providing such a fantastic prize. 

Emirates Airline has a great affinity with football and in addition to its sponsorship of Arsenal, is a proud sponsor of Hamburg, AC Milan, Olympiacos CFP and Paris Saint-Germain, as well as being an Official FIFA Partner.

Emirates currently operates 98 return flights per week from the UK non-stop to Dubai offering convenient connections to an extensive global network stretching to over 100 destinations on six continents. For more information on Emirates’ sports portfolio, including tour packages to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, visit www.emirates.com/uk

NB: Emirates is pleased to offer Arsenal fans very special fares to over 100 destinations worldwide. For more information and to book, visit www.emirates.com/arsenalmembers

Right then, it's one busy blog this morning so let's get right into it.

Just moments, possibly seconds, after an article appeared on the official site with Lukasz Fabianski talking about how delighted he was to be back, another appeared advising us that Lukasz Fabianski would be out for three weeks. Apparently he's got some kind of a thigh injury. Honestly, I think footballers are a bit too brittle these days. 

He looked fine on Wednesday and if he's got a problem let someone else take the kick-outs or give him a Juventus style injection to fix him. It means that the manager has got a big decision to make ahead of tomorrow's game. Does he continue with Mannone, whose inexperience is beginning to show as he plays more games, or does he bring back Almunia who he clearly had no intention of playing as he'd have been back in the team otherwise?

The papers this morning suggest Almunia will return using quotes from Arsene to back that up. However, I'm not so sure. Those quotes were from the pre-Carling Cup press conference when he had every intention of playing Fabianski both in midweek and at the weekend. The Pole's absence has caused him the kind of headache he really didn't need and if I were a betting man I'd put money on Mannone continuing between the sticks. Of course if you're a betting man you'd put money on Almunia because whatever I bet on generally loses, but I just think if Almunia was in favour he'd have come back before now.

Today's press conference will probably shed some more light on things but the goalkeeping situation at the club is verging on farcical now. Fabianski aside there don't appear to be any new injuries but maybe a butterfly will get too close to one of our players in training today and necessitate and four month absence. Full details on the squad in tomorrow's blog.

Samir Nasri has spoken about his return from injury and I think the absence has made him a little bit mad. He says:

I was very satisfied with my sensations. After five months without playing, I had appetite. I wanted to eat the pitch.

Which kind of put me in mind of this (except in English). But maybe that's just me. He goes on to say:

The boss asked me how I felt two or three times during the game against Liverpool. I had to make a sign if I felt the slightest muscular problem - but everything was all right. I thought that it would have been a little bit more difficult. We worked well with the physical assistant. Now, I need to play and play again.

I don't really see him starting against Sp*rs tomorrow but he's certainly a good option to have on the bench - especially as Rosicky's 'few days' has been Rosickeyed right in the Rosicky. Another of Wednesday's performers, Fran Merida, reveals he wants to stay at the club and sign a new deal. His current contract runs out in the summer so we'd best get things moving there if we want him to stay.

Cesc has been talking about winning things and winning them with a grandiose flourish. He says:

I can never accept that we must change our style to win. Trophies are important, but so too is the style in which you play the game. I disagree with the argument that good football can’t win trophies. We are desperate to please the fans with success, but we also want to make them happy with the way we play.

I don't really see how the two things have become so polarised, to be honest. There's nothing that says playing good football does not equal success. Like it or not United have played good football throughout the years on their way to various titles and trophies, we've done it too under Arsene Wenger. There is, of course, the whole 'win ugly' thing which we've shown we're capable of this season. Fulham away springs to mind when we played not very well and still got the three points.

But there's nothing that says when you're 4-2 up against Sp*rs at home with a couple of minutes to go that hoofing the ball into the stand when it needs it isn't good football. To me that's excellent football. Sensible, intelligent, clever football. Trying to go score a goal you don't need and ending up drawing the game is not good football despite the fact you thought you were trying to play good football. 'Good' is entirely dependent on the circumstances of the particular game. There are all kinds of 'good', we just need to learn which 'good' is best applied in the position we find ourselves in. If you get me.

As I said earlier there'll be more in tomorrow's blog about the Sp*rs game so for today that's your news for the moment.

Now, all week I've been running the competition to win one of three pairs of club level tickets for the game with thanks to Emirates Airline. The winners will be announced this morning - but in a separate blog post at 10am. Just to keep things easy and less crowded on this post. So check back to see if the RNG has made you a winner.

All that aside it's time for this week's Arsecast. On the show to discuss the week's football and a special Arsenal v Sp*rs project he's been involved in is GilbertoSilver from Gunnerblog. There's Sylvester, Arsene Wenger Hawkins makes a return, there's an interview with an actual Sp*rs player 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 (21mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

And that's about that. Enjoy your Friday, stand by for the competition winners.

The first North London derby of the season takes place this Saturday and Arsenal fans and players will be desperate to put the agony of last year's 4-4 draw behind them.

Tickets, as you would expect, are like gold dust but Arseblog, in association with Emirates Airline, has not one, not two, but three pairs of Club Level tickets up for grabs exclusively to Arseblog readers.

Entry is simple. All you have to do is answer the following question : Who scored Arsenal's winner at White Hart Lane in 1971 to clinch the league title?

Was it: a) Charlie George b) Ray Kennedy c) George Armstrong

Just email your answer to competition@arseblog.com before midnight on Thursday 29th and the winners will be announced on Friday morning's Arseblog.

Emirates Airline has a great affinity with football and in addition to its sponsorship of Arsenal, is a proud sponsor of Hamburg, AC Milan, Olympiacos CFP and Paris Saint-Germain, as well as being an Official FIFA Partner.

Emirates currently operates 98 return flights per week from the UK non-stop to Dubai offering convenient connections to an extensive global network stretching to over 100 destinations on six continents. For more information on Emirates’ sports portfolio, including tour packages to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, visit www.emirates.com/uk

NB: Emirates is pleased to offer Arsenal fans very special fares to over 100 destinations worldwide. For more information and to book, visit www.emirates.com/arsenalmembers

* Tickets will be available for collection on the day of the match. Please only enter the competition if you are able to go on Saturday. The prize is tickets only. No flights, train journeys, overnight accomodation or anything else.

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.

Good morning from a snowy Dublin. How snowy? Well, snowy enough that my 5-a-side later will be cancelled ... again. Gah. Still, I'll happily accept the snow and the cancellation of 5-a-side in return for a win at Sp*rs later on.

We now find ourselves a whopping 8 points behind Villa, who continued their relentless run of form yesterday, and nothing less than three points will do today.

Even then we'll find ourselves closer to Chelsea than to Martin O'Neill's side. A big performance is needed today and we need the big players to be on their game. Adebayor, van Persie, Nasri all have to contribute in an attacking sense and at the back we have to make sure we don't give stupid goals away like we've been doing all season long.

There are all kinds of reports in the papers this morning about Barcelona wanting Adebayor, RVP and Cesc next season (apparently Barcelona made a ridiculous offer of cash + Hleb for van Persie - are they fucking stupid or what?), and the News of the World quotes an 'Arsenal source' who says those three players will leave if we don't get Champions League football next season.

Now, as we know an 'Arsenal source' is just a handy way of shit-stirring, and it's way too early to get involved in any summer transfer speculation, but the fact remains that it will be difficult to keep those players, and attract new players of similar quality if we don't finish in the top 4. The club have spoken about how we can cope with the financial side of things if we don't but not once have they mentioned the football repercussions.

So as well as the importance that comes with every North London derby comes the importance of ensuring a top 4 finish. Every game is like a cup final now. Cliché, yes. True, yes.

They used the game at the Grove as a bit of a kick-start to their season not long after Redknapp arrived. Since then things have gone downhill for them and they'll be looking at today's game as a way of doing the same, boosting confidence and dragging themselves out of the relegation battle they're in. They are going to be up for this in a big way and we have to match them.

However, our boys should be burning with revenge after the 4-4 at home and if they need any more motivation they just need to look at the league table. Without 3 points today we'll find ourselves 6 points away from the Champions League places with just 13 games to go and Everton breathing down our necks. 

We're certainly capable of getting a result today. Our record against them is good, our record in 'big' games this season is good (and while Sp*rs aren't a 'big' side like United, Liverpool or Chelsea, this is a big game, no doubt about it), and we've got players who can turn games.  

We need 100% right from the start though and as much as we need our big players to turn up we've got to hope the midfield quartet can contribute in a positive way too. I don't really know what else to say about this other than - COME ON ARSENAL.

Around the Sundays there's some stuff about Arshavin in the People and the NotW, Amy Lawrence writes in today's Observer about the deal and its importance to Arsenal, and the in the Sunday Mirror Arsene Wenger bigs up Robin van Persie.

Right, that's about that. I'm going to trudge around and get the Sunday papers, then it's home, breakfast, and then the football.

Come on you reds. 

Happy hallowe'en to you all. A day for spooky things like spirits, trolls, monsters and the thoughts of our defence trying to cope with Rory Delap's long throws.

This morning's Sun quotes an 'Arsenal source' who spoke of dressing room discontent after the game against Sp*rs the other night. Sourcey, as I call him, says:

Everyone was going crazy in the dressing room after the game. There were a lot of raised voices and fingers being pointed. Everyone was blaming each other for Spurs’ two late goals and the manager was as angry as anyone has seen him for a long time.

Hardly a surprise, is it? I'd be more worried if there weren't some raised voices after a final 4 minutes like that. They say that the crux of the argument was the lack of leadership shown by William Gallas and Mikael Silvestre. That, of course, remains speculative. I suspect the arguing was mostly about throwing away two goals against those cunts. 

Nevertheless, Emmanuel Adebayor spoke to Arsenal TV and confirmed tempers were raised. He said:

It's better to wait. There would be a lot of words that we don't have to use and we aren't supposed to use to each other. Then we will get together and tell the truth. The nerves will calm down and everyone will have to accept their critics.

I wonder what words they're not supposed to use to each other. If I was Arsenal manager I would ban entirely use of the word 'ramekin'. It's a silly word despite the object itself being particularly handy. Still, there's obviously a bit of pointing and blaming and stuff going on within the squad and maybe that's not a bad thing. Maybe it takes the criticism of your peers for you to do something about your attitude or performance. Then again, maybe there are those that don't give a shit what anyone thinks of their performances.

The Sun goes on to say that Gallas's hamstring injury is 'convenient' for Arsene Wenger. If we take it at face value the injury provides the manager with the chance to bring back Kolo Toure in defence alongside Sylvester without having to drop the club captain. The other implication is that this isn't really an injury at all and Gallas is being dropped.

The Mirror reports that Gallas has ruled himself out of the game after harsh words with the manager. Surely that can't be true. Ok, given the fact it's Gallas it wouldn't surprise me. He's obviously an emotional person, we've seen it before, but for the captain of the club to declare himself 'injured' because he was criticised by the manager? Madness. If it is true then serious questions have to be asked about his position as captain. More serious questions than the ones that exist at the moment, I mean. And I'm being tremendously diplomatic there. I haven't suggested that he should be fired out of a cannon into the sun, or anything.

The article goes to say that Gallas, Sylvester and Adebayor were the main targets of the manager's ire with all three set to be 'dropped' for tomorrow. We might then see a central defensive partnership of Kolo + Djourou and, perhaps, Bendtner in up front alongside van Persie. Diaby and Alex Song might also come in to add some strength as we face a Stoke side that is physically quite big and strong. 

So, it's going to be interesting to hear what Arsene has to say today in his press conference. Of course he won't mention any fights or anything like that. As always he will publicly defend his players but obviously there's been quite a bit of fall-out since Wednesday night. Perhaps the team selections over the coming weeks will give us more of an idea how it all went. 

Right, on to this week's Arsecast and joining me for a blogchat about Sp*rs and stuff is GilbertoSilver from Gunnerblog. Sylvester celebrate his first Arsenal goal, Amaury Bischoff PI is there, the Man in the Bar responds to a recent cover version of his cover version of Barry Manilow's Mandy, and the usual waffle, guff and flapdoodle.

You can subscribe to the Arsecast 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 (16mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

As well as that there's a dedicated Arsecast hotline available all season long should you desire to make a comment, get something off your chest, share a song a chant or hilarious anecdote. Feel free to call it any time during the week, it'll go to voicemail and you can leave your message. The number from inside the UK is 020 3286 6360 or from outside the UK it's +44 20 3286 6360.

Ok, have fun. More tomorrow. 

"Jesus fucking Christ" - Me, 94th minute. Sorry, not just me. Me + every other Arsenal fan on the planet. They say a problem shared is a problem halved but that's a load of old bollocks. We all shared that 'problem' last night and I'm sure we all felt as gutted as a newly caught fish.

Let's be clear. We should have won that game. We should have won it at a canter, instead we let Sp*rs back into it and frankly it's not good enough. I know derby games are crazy. I know anything can happen but being 4-2 up in the 89th minute and then drawing the game 4-4 is just ridiculous. Not good ridiculous either.

It's hard to get my head around the game as a whole so let's do it goal by goal. I remember doing something similar with another derby game a couple of years back, was it 5-4 at the lane that time? That kind of madness is acceptable because we won. This kind of madness isn't.

Arsenal 0-1 Sp*rs: A bouncing ball that we should probably have dealt with by Robin van Persie fell to Rat Faced Chav and his control and volley caught Almunia out from nearly 40 yards. Some blame attached to the keeper here but it was a once in a lifetime strike from RFC and the ball was swirling around like a balloon.

Arsenal 1-1 Sp*rs: A Robin van Persie corner was headed in by Sylvester with Gomes nowhere. Jamie Redknapp was on Sky bleating about a free kick for Sp*rs when Cesc tripped RFC. He seemed to conveniently forget RFC handled the ball before the trip. Anyway, irrelevant, like Jamie. 1-1.

Arsenal 2-1 Sp*rs: Robin won a free kick on the right, curled it in and Gallas headed home. A very good header from a good delivery. 2-1 and things approaching normality.

Arsenal 3-1 Sp*rs: Robin van Persie played a beautiful ball through to Nasri whose clip over the goalkeeper wasn't quite enough to put it in the back of the net. Luckily for us Hutton, as quick of thought as I am over 50 yards, stood watching which let Adebayor mill in and poke it home. This is good. Enjoyable. Fun. Hurrah.

Arsenal 3-2 Sp*rs: Huddlestone's long shot is powerful and seems to hit Almunia in the face, dazing him momentarily. Darren Bent is quickest to react and slides it home. Poor from Almunia all the same. He won't be happy with either of the first two goals. Not as enjoyable any more.

Arsenal 4-2 Sp*rs: Hutton, for some inexplicable reason, plays a wonderful through ball to Adebayor who takes it on, plays it across to van Persie who lashes it home with his right foot and Arsenal go 4-2 up and it's enjoyable again.

Arsenal 4-3 Sp*rs: Let me qualify this by saying I think Gael Clichy is a great little player. However, he is prone to moments of madness and this was one. He couldn't decide what to do with the ball so he instead decided to fall over for no reason. This let Jenas through to curl one in with his left foot. Sylvester should have closed him down more quickly. Surely it would be nothing more than a consolation though.

Arsenal 4-4 Sp*rs: Blaha alkhda ieda [pak sjd [i urei jf Modric shot deflected onto the post vhas asjh y asd hp;lsajdusad c cunting Lennon gets rebound bh asdhiasdlk s[oiu 34 09 u HHN †π ∆ƒ˚ß∆˚ƒ∂. Full time.

Arsene Wenger shook hands with Harry Redknapp and it was as angry as I've ever seen him look. And I don't blame him. HIS team threw away a game against Sp*rs. And that's what it was. They didn't outplay us. They didn't dazzle us with awesome skill. They didn't bamboozle us. We gifted them a point from this game when we should have taken all three.

Say what you want about the goals being somewhat fortuitous but when you get to the 89th minute at home and you're 4-2 you do not expect to concede two goals. To Sp*rs, to Man United, to the Harlem Globetrotters, to the team from Escape to Victory who need two goals to make good their freedom from the Nazis in the last moments of the movie. Nobody. You should not throw away two points like that. It's crazy.

Let's just accept that the third Sp*rs goal was a freak due to Clichy's error. Had he booted the ball out of play or simply played a pass back to the centre-halves we'd have won the game. But at 4-3 ball retention is paramount. You don't go hell for leather trying to get a fifth goal. You just make sure you hold on to the ball and we did not do that. It's not like we don't have the players for it. And I'm not sure I buy the 'this is a young team and they'll learn from it' excuse. It doesn't matter if it's a young team. What you need to do in that situation almost goes without saying. KEEP. THE. FUCKING. BALL. You do not need to be wizened all pros to know that.

Maybe it was down to lack of leadership, someone just calming things down and making sure that's what we did, but, more worryingly, you might just put it down to the fact this team has a bit of a soft centre. Yes, we showed great character to come back from a goal down, to go 2 up, to go 2 up again, but to let 2 in in the last 5 minutes is not good enough.

People will be critical of Almunia today. And that would be reasonable in relation to the first two goals. He didn't do as well as he should have done for the second and a maybe a little bit for the first, but at the same time, when you're 4-2 up with just a few minutes to play it's not the keeper's fault you haven't won the game. You might also wonder about the manager's substitutions. Without Walcott and Nasri we invited pressure onto us and that's fine when you have an outlet. If we have pressure and we break and we have the pace of Walcott and Nasri then it's a good thing. When we have Song and Eboue, neither renowned for their pace or astute decision making, then you're giving yourself problems you don't need. Our ability to hold the ball and pressure Sp*rs was lessened by the removal of so many attacking players.

To me it just feels like we bottled that game. We were in a winning position and the Arsenal of old would have just passed Sp*rs to submission. They wouldn't have even tried getting the ball back after a while. They'd have just accepted they were beaten. Now though this just gives everybody the signal that even if you're a couple up against Arsenal the game is not over right till the death. As much as we're capable of scoring at any time, we're just as capable of conceding. We have never conceded four goals at the Grove before. I'd love to say it'll be a long time before it happens again but you just wouldn't know with this team. Defensively this team needs a real leader and as long as we don't have it we're going to concede too many goals.

Overall it was just terribly, terribly disappointing and to see Sp*rs players celebrating like they'd won the game, or indeed the World Champions League European Championship FA cup, was rather too much. RFC on Sky's post-match interviews was almost too much to take. Especially as he did it topless. The nippley cunt.

Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:

Well I am angry. I believe we produced an outstanding game and got the minimum result. We didn't keep the ball. We were there for the taking. We should have had a negative passing game but instead we exposed ourselves by trying to go five or six up. The team has outstanding potential. They learn from moments like that tonight.

Arrrrrrgh. Yes, until the 89th minute we were outstanding but the game is not over until the final whistle and so much of that good work was undone by not just naivety but stupidity. All we had to do was keep it simple, keep the ball and we failed, miserably, to do that. Will the lessons be learned? Were the lessons of the Fulham game learned ahead of the Hull game?

Again it just makes the games against the top teams all the more important. We've dropped points this season against the lower teams. Fulham, Hull, Sunderland and, of course, lowest of them all Sp*rs. There's no question we have a very obvious weakness here. Can the manager do anything to address it without uttering the stock phrases about how his team is young and will learn and has potential? He needs to and quickly.

Still, there's nothing we can do but put it behind us, move on and make sure we get all three points this Saturday at Stoke. The manager's got a big job to get the players going again and once more we're looking for a reaction from them after a disappointing result. It's an all too familiar theme this season.

Finally for tonight, a word for Sky. I realise that the son of one of the managers might find it hard to be impartial as a pundit, especially when he used to play for one of the teams. So here's an idea - get somebody fucking else to do it. Having to watch Jamie Redknapp enjoy Sp*rs goals was adding salt to the wounds while that jabbering monkey Richard Keys enjoying 'Redders' enjoying the goals was like pissing in the salty wounds. I realise Sky are a pack of scabby wankers at the best of times but this was a load of bollocks.

Right then, arsers, have at it.