After the late equaliser in the Champions League game last week the manager and a number of the players went on record saying we couldn't afford to be that sloppy again. We would have to learn from the mistake we made.

Sadly for us that lesson hasn't been learned yet and while a draw away from home isn't a bad result on paper, the circumstances of yesterday's 2-2 with West Ham make the result most frustrating. After going 2-0 up that was a game we should have won. Instead we took our foot off the gas, strolled through the second half and when we gave them a lifeline they grabbed it with both hands.

It had started very well. Robin van Persie put us in front after 16 minutes. Bacary Sagna's cross was touched on to van Persie's feet by Robert Green and it was a simple tap-in. It was 2-0 after 37 minutes, van Persie's corner headed in by William Gallas. Another goal from a set-piece, another goal from a centre-half, and having got ourselves into that position there should only have been one winner of that game.

West Ham were all over the place defensively, they offered very little in attack, the only threat coming from the always lively Carlton Cole who really seems to have grown up as a player. Without him West Ham would be utterly toothless and he caused us problems with his strength and power but without ever threatening the goal.

In the second half we never really got going. We created some decent positions, exposing West Ham's full backs, but the final ball into the box was nearly always appalling. My joke from Twitter yesterday - Why does Gael Clichy need a boy scout to get from one side of the road to the other? Because he can't cross. Crap, I know, but better than Clichy's crossing. On the other side Eboue got into good positions but there was no end product to his endeavour. 

One thing I've noticed about this Arsenal team this season is how many of the goals we've conceded have come from individual errors. It's one thing being taken apart by nice football but when you're gifting the opposition goals then you're going to have problems. We've conceded 15 goals so far, I'd suggest 10 of those goals were totally avoidable and down to carelessness or mistakes on our part. And it was a mistake that let West Ham back in the game.

They got a free kick on the right hand corner of our area. Diamanti curled it around the wall with his left foot and instead of pushing it around the post Vito Mannone sent it back across goal and Carlton Cole reacted first to head it home. It was poor goalkeeping and it goes back to something I said a couple of weeks ago. Young goalkeepers will make mistakes, there's nothing you can do about it, so I'm not really pointing the finger at him so much as the whole goalkeeping situation at the club. It's obvious Arsene doesn't want to play Almunia yet an Arsenal team hoping to win the title is not the place for a guy, barely into double figures in professional appearances, to be learning his trade.

The importance of a good keeper cannot be underestimated. Put that free kick around the post or away from goal and West Ham would not have scored and we'd more than likely have won that game yesterday. The keeper's mistake gave them a chance and they took it. Fabianski is back for the Carling Cup game and he's got a big chance now to stake his claim as the number 1 at the club, at least until the transfer window opens. Credit to Mannone, he's done well enough given the circumstances, but he's far from ready for first team football at Arsenal. And as time goes on it looks more and more like we need to spend some money in this area. 

With the wind in their sails a bit West Ham pressed forward and looked for a penalty when Scott Parker went down in the box. The ref waved play on and replays showed Parker clearly dived. Without trying to open up that whole debate again if the ref decided it wasn't a penalty then it had to be a dive and Parker should have been booked. West Ham didn't have to wait long for another chance though. Carlton Cole had his back to goal, was going nowhere, Alex Song gave him a little kick on the ankle, not enough to knock an old woman down but quite enough to send a professional football tumbling, and Chris Foy gave the penalty. It was soft and generous, exactly the kind of penalty you get at home having had one appeal just turned down, but naive defending on our part. Just stand him up, don't give the ref a chance to make that decision. Diamanti lashed it home to make it 2-2.

Only then did Arsenal stir. Scott Parker was sent off for a deliberate handball and Rob Green made a fantastic save from a Robin van Persie header but it was too little too late. Bendtner and Eduardo came on but we got what we deserved in the end, a single point from a game in which we should have taken three. 

Afterwards Arsene spoke about us having to learn to kill off games and there's no doubt there's an element of ruthlessness missing. We played that second half like the game was won and West Ham would be no trouble for us. The thing is, until 15 minutes from time, they weren't. But we have to learn that 2-0 is not a comfortable lead, especially when as a team you are capable of giving goals away as presents at any time.

We had the quality to score more goals against a pretty poor West Ham side yesterday but it looked as if we didn't really want to. Get to 3-0 or 4-0, then you can amble about as much as you like because you're never going to be caught, but get to that position first. Arsene wasn't happy with the referee but I think it's somewhat churlish to blame him. Yes, the penalty was soft but at that point a penalty to West Ham shouldn't have mattered. And he might be better off looking at some of his own team who really didn't perform as well as they might have.

Overall, while not the end of the world, the result was very frustrating and disappointing. We did move into third in the league, City, United and Sp*rs all dropped points, but we need to learn to turn the screw in games like this. When they drop points we need to take advantage. If we really want to win the league this season then we can't afford to let leads slip like we did yesterday. You just have to wonder how many times we need to be taught the same lesson before we actually learn it.

Anyway, it's a bank holiday here in Ireland, so for now that'll have to do. I have to go drop Mrs Blogs into town as she's running the Dublin City Marathon today. It makes me tired even thinking about it but good luck, Mrs!

And, as I mentioned last week, make sure you check back on the blog at around 1.30pm for details of a rather excellent competition which will be running all week.

Hello there, I hope you remembered to put the clocks back. I didn't. Modern technology being what it is mean my phone and computer all did it automatically. I like when I don't have to remember stuff because I'm not very good at it.

Anyway, a quick Sunday round-up for you. It's West Ham later, as we know, and although they're second from bottom I think this is going to be a trickier game than the table suggests. I don't necessarily know why I think that, I just do.  I also suspect we might see the same team as the one that played in midweek. I know Eduardo is back but I reckon he'll be used from the bench. Although that might depend on whether or not Bendtner is fit, in which case the boss might have a bit of a rethink.

We're going to have to play better than we did against AZ. This won't be a leisurely training ground paced stroll. West Ham are desperate for points, they're at home, so it'll be much pacier and much more physical. That said I think we have enough quality to win the game and not getting three points would be a disappointment. Fingers crossed.

Elsewhere Thomas Vermaelen, who disappointingly hasn't scored for two games now, speaks to the Telegraph about his move to Arsenal. It turns out Arsenal sent head scout Steve Rowley to watch him playing for Ajax who at that time were playing him at left back. They lost both games, conceding ten goals in the process, but thankfully that didn't deter us. His goalscoring might just have taken the focus away from his aerial ability but it's clear that he likes a header, offensively and defensively. He says:

I know I'm not tall but, if you speak to people at Ajax they'll tell you I was the best header there. They don't care about how big I am, whenever we were defending a corner I always had to take the tallest guy. I'm not that tall but you have to jump so that's how I try and compensate. I never trained for it. It's just timing, I guess.

Looks like Wesley Snipes was wrong, white men can jump after all. Screw you, Wesley.

There's a little bit of transfer speculation. The News of the World links us with 'the new Georgi Kinkladze', who turns out to be a 17 year old called Zhano Ananidze. What exactly do they mean by 'the new Georgi Kinkladze' though? As far as I can see all he has to do is rock up to a very average mid-table team, score one or two decent goals after flukey dribbles then disappear for the rest of the team. I could do that.

The People says we're tracking West Ham's Valon Behrami. He's Swiss, apparently.

Charlie George is in The Times with his Best and Worst.

And that's about that. It's an interesting day of football today. Mugsmashers v United is bound to be interesting, lots of goals equally shared and a plethora of players punching each others faces in would be ideal, that's followed by us. So I'm going to prepare my chair, get some beers in the fridge and have at it.

More tomorrow, have a good Sunday and come on you Goooooooners.

Morning all, hope you're in fine Saturday fettle. It's a nothing Saturday really as we wait till tomorrow to play but as usual Arsene met the press yesterday.

The press conferences are generally very interesting - however the amount of good material yesterday was limited due to one particular questioner going on and on about Arsene being 60, asking stupid stuff like was he going to work till he was 70, was there a succession plan for his job at the club and did Mrs Wenger not want to bring him out for a nice meal for his birthday. The last question in particular was met with a polite but firm assertion that 'I believe ... we keep things private', which is far more diplomatic than I would have been in those circumstances. Her insistence at going over insipid 'Hello!' magazine stuff was toe curling, to say the least.

Anyway, we did get some good stuff, the most interesting of which was regarding the goalkeeping situation. AW was asked who would play on Sunday, he told the questioner to come to the game and he'd find out. On Almunia's position at the club he said:

I wouldn't say Manuel is no longer our automatic first choice. But Vito has come in and done well. 

He wouldn't say that Manuel is our first choice though either and I would be very, very surprised to see the Spaniard back in the side on Sunday. As I've mentioned before when it'll get really interesting is when Fabianski is back and fully fit. Then we'll probably see the pecking order emerge. Wenger rates Fabianski highly enough to have given him a new contract at the end of last season and if Mannone continues to play well then it's going to be tough for Almunia. But football is tough sometimes.

The team news is that Eduardo returns but Tomas Rosicky misses out with a knee problem. Hopefully it's not related to the one that kept him out so long and I do think the club are going to be extra careful with him when it comes to knee issues, so fingers crossed they're just wrapping him in cotton wool a bit here. Nicklas Bendtner will have a fitness test and remains 50-50.

Wenger expressed some sympathy for West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola ... 'until Sunday' and spoke about Matthew Upson. The former Arsenal man was 'impatient' when he was with us but did say he considered making a move for him, although didn't specify when.

Aside from that not much else happening so just a little teaser - there's a great competition coming up on next week's blog. Details to be revealed on Monday but I'll just say it has something to do with the match next Saturday. 

Right, I'm going to go into town and eat breakfast. More on the West Ham tomorrow. Enjoy your Saturday.

I don't particularly want to break down yesterday into positives and negatives but it seems like a good way to do it.

Positives: Our unbeaten run continued.

Negatives: Everything else.

Maybe that's a little simplistic, as there were some good things in yesterday's game, but we blew a big chance of closing the gap on Villa and it is, even in the cold light of day with a hangover and rum encrusted around my eyes (at least I assume it's rum), hugely frustrating.

I thought defensively we were very good. Carlton Cole has been in excellent form recently and he barely had a kick. West Ham didn't threaten us at all really. There was one header from a corner which Clichy headed away and that was the extent of their attacking threat. So credit to the team for nullifying the opposition.

I thought Abou Diaby had a good game in central midfield. His passing was a bit wayward at times but in general he put himself about and went through the game, until his injury, with real purpose. It was the sort of performance that gives you some hope about him.

However, as an attacking force we were not very good at all. On Twitter, the man from East Lower provided a rather shocking stat - since the Man United game we've only scored four goals at home in the league. Yesterday it was easy to see why and why the manager has been chasing Andrei Arshavin. We lacked creativity and over the 90 minutes we barely troubled Robert Green.

The two best/only chances fell to Adebayor and he fluffed them both. The first came from a lightning break from the back, reminiscent of the kind of football we used to play so well, and when the cross came in Adebayor was on hand to put it wide. The second was a header which he delivered straight into the arms of Green. When you aren't creating much you need you main striker to be much more clinical than that and on both occasions he was found wanting.

Frankly I was astonished he even started the game after his display against Everton. The manager chose to mix things up a bit and made the remarkable decision to leave Robin van Persie on the bench.  The man who has scored or created every Arsenal goal in the month of January was dropped. You can say rested if you like but that's just dressing it up.

The manager says he was trying to save him from injury and I can understand that thinking to a certain extent. He looked at Adebayor and Bendtner and thought they should be good enough to trouble West Ham but to me it's still a very strange decision. When one player has been carrying the team then to remove that player leaves a very obvious gap and the fact is there's nobody else who is capable or willing to fill the gap.

Adebayor was better than he was against Everton but not much. Bendtner I felt sorry for. When Eboue went off why didn't Nasri go right, Vela left and we continue with a traditional 4-4-2? I'll tell you something, Bendtner would have buried that headed chance Adebayor had - instead he was stuck out on the right wing crossing in balls for a bloke who could hardly be arsed to jump most of the time.

Robin was brought on with about 25 minutes to go but he was unable to make the difference. The fact is he could have played yesterday - and I do understand the need for caution - but still had over a week to recover before the Sp*rs game next weekend. He gambled with the defence, pairing Kolo and Gallas, and it paid off. It was a good defensive performance.

The gamble with van Persie was a big mistake, in my opinion, and while it's easy to say it with hindsight when you take the most creative player out of a team that is struggling to create even with him in it then a draw is no surprise.  

I don't even want to talk about what he said after the match because all this stuff about them defending well is bollocks. They hardly had anything to defend bar a few hopeful crosses into the box and that's bread and butter stuff for most defences. We drew because of our failure to create, pure and simple, and ultimately that comes back to the manager's decision to leave the most creative player out of the team.

So while a draw is frustrating at the best of times the fact that Aston Villa were held by Wigan makes it even more so. We had a great chance to close the gap and it goes back to what I said the other day on the blog. Yes, Villa will drop points but it completely overlooks the fact that so will we.

People will point to the fact that since Cesc has been injured we haven't lost a game. Which is true, but we miss him so badly it's unreal. His ability to find a pass, find that little bit of space, is vital in tight games like the one yesterday or the one against Everton in midweek. Without him our midfield is bereft of that kind of craft and it's no surprise that we're struggling at the moment.

There was some good news yesterday when he revealed he might be back a bit sooner than expected but I would urge caution, no matter how much we miss him. He's dedicated and I'm sure he's looking at these games and dying to play, dying to make the difference. He needs to be 100% ready though, any kind of relapse or secondary injury would be awful. He's got to make sure his knee is completely ready and the manager has to resist the temptation to throw him back in ahead of schedule just because he needs him so badly.

Again this goes back to needing more quality in central midfield and while I'm unwilling to go around banging the same drum time after time to me that's simply the heart of the matter. In relation to Andrei Arshavin the boss said:

Nothing is happening - maybe, maybe not. It doesn't worry me either way. He can unlock defences and maybe we needed him here, but we have other players who can do that, who are not available at the moment but who could be in the next two months, like Walcott and Fabregas.

Which is a remarkable thing to say really. I know he's hardly going to come out and say we're desperate but what are we supposed to do until those players come back? Abou Diaby was injured yesterday - which must make the boss happy because he'll have another new signing to unveil when he gets fit again (please note position of tongue which is firmly in cheek).

Arshavin may not be the ideal signing. He doesn't play central midfield, he's not a strapping centre-half, but he's an industrious, creative player who will improve this team in that area of the pitch. I've been a bit indifferent about his arrival, I have to say, but no longer. I really, badly, desperately want him to sign because we need him. We need someone to provide something different, this tired, jaded, bland squad needs freshening up and I think that unless we do days like yesterday are going to be more and more commonplace.

I'm genuinely concerned about whether or not we'll finish in the top 4 this season. I might run a little poll at some stage to see what people think but when presented with an opportunity to make that a little more possible yesterday we blew it.

Overall, disappointing, frustrating, maddening, but sadly all too familiar. 

Well whaddya know?

It appears football's longest running and most tedious transfer sage could be coming to a close. There are reports this morning that Andrei Arshavin is flying to London (he's so awesome I bet he doesn't even need a plane) to wrap up his move to Arsenal.

Of course we should tread softly. Reports have suggested many things over the last 30 intolerable, mind-numbing days, most of which have turned out to have as much truth in them as a Richard Nixon fairytale.

Wenger was full of denials yesterday. No, we hadn't agreed a fee. No, we had not applied for a work permit. No, whatever it was the journalist said we had done we hadn't actually done at all. And that has been his line throughout this whole thing. He has been giving nothing away from the Arsenal side of things. Of course there's been a huge amount of ooze emanating from Zenit and from the bloke representing Arshavin in this deal, Dennis Lachter. 

So for Arsene to say little and then to discover there's been all kinds of stuff going on is no surprise. At the same time I'm not holding my breath. Until I see an announcement on the official website then I'm going to treat everything with just a hint of skepticism. 

Nevertheless Wenger did spell out why he wanted Arshavin. When I saw the headline I thought, 'Hey this is going to be a short article. He's just going to say 'Well, anything's better than Eboue', but he went into a little more detail, saying:

He's a guy who can go past people in the final third. He can have the key, individually and collectively.  He is an experienced player, 27, a good age and we are a very young side. You can see with the replay of the FA Cup we have the desire to do well in every competition and one more body could help us.

And it's hard to argue with that, especially with the absence of Cesc, Walcott and Rosicky. So we'll wait and see but it does look like something's stirring. Although we've said that before. Christ, I've got to move carefully this morning, I'm sitting so directly on the fence here I'm in danger of rupturing myself.

The manager also went on to talk about why he wasn't going to buy a central midfield player. Now, I'm pretty sure I've said enough about our need for a central midfielder over the last few months so I'm not going to over old ground again. However, I'm not sure Arsene's reasoning stands up to much examination. He reckons we have the talent here already, saying:

I agree that people always want better players but many clubs when they want better players come to see us so that means our players are good. For example Milan wanted Senderos. Senderos is 22 and Milan have scouts everywhere, so that's why I believe we have the needed quality.

So, if Senderos was so good that Milan wanted him why did we let him go? Seems a strange argument to me. Anyway, I shall continue to rely on the evidence of my own eyes and I still think this is an area where we need to buy to improve. And let's move on.

We do, of course, have a rather important game of football today. West Ham, currently in their best run of form under Zola's management, arrive at the Grove today. I don't need to say how important the three points are, nothing less than a win today will do.

In terms of the team I suspect he might shake it up a little bit ahead of the FA Cup replay on Tuesday. I think he might drop Adebayor (he deserves it after his Goodison Park horror show) and start Bendtner alongside van Persie. In midfield there's really not much he can do, to be honest, beyond starting Eboue on the right and choosing between Diaby and Song to partner Denilson.

I know people might say he's too young but in games like this I'd be really tempted to start Wilshere on the right. People may scoff but Wilshere is obviously an exceptional talent and we had Cesc starting games when he was just 17, why not Jack? Could he offer any less than any of the other options? I don't think so.

Who he plays in the centre of defence will be interesting. I'm assuming Djourou will keep his place and I think Gallas will continue, meaning Kolo's bizarre season continues. Back in the side, as captain no less, then back on the bench in no time at all. Whoever does play there though is going to have to be wary of Carlton Cole who is on a very hot streak at the moment.

So fingers crossed for a good performance and the three points. I know we're on an unbeaten run but a good display coupled with the points would be a big confidence boost.

Finally for today, a cheery tale. It turns out that Sp*rs, for the game next weekend, have sold tickets to Arsenal fans at the wrong price. £10 less than they should have done, in fact. When the Arsenal box office sent out the tickets to Arsenal fans they included a letter saying fans should do the right thing and pay the extra tenner.

I think we all know what the 'right' thing to do here, is don't we? What are you going to spend your tenner on then?

Till tomorrow. 

Three points yesterday and the first part of the London derby double overcome successfully.

For a while it looked as if West Ham might frustrate us. Another good performance from Robert Green and the woodwork made it a bit anxious but in the end I thought we deserved the points.

Adebayor was rested so Bendtner and van Persie started up front and Sylvester kept his place in defence - alongside Gallas this time. I thought we started a bit slowly, there wasn't enough pace to our play, and when we did inject some through Theo we nearly scored. His shot cannoned off the bar much to the frustration of Bendtner who was waiting at the far post for a tap in.

Then Robert Green got away with handling the ball well outside his area. The linesman didn't see the offence but I suspect the fact that he looked about 60 might have had something to do with it. Then when Green went on to make a series of very good saves you started to think we might pay the price for another poor piece of officiating. Like the Adebayor goal against Hull and the van Persie goal at Sunderland it could have been very costly. Green saved brilliantly from Theo Walcott and later on from Bendtner.

The goalkeeping heroics weren't confined to the one end though. West Ham broke quickly and Craig Bellamy was clean through only for Almunia to make an excellent stop with his legs. It's amazing to see the difference between Almunia now and the Almunia that first came to the club. Talk about chalk and cheese. The big Spaniard has been in fine form this season and looks as good as anyone else in this league to me.

The second half was frustrating again despite us being very much in control, I thought. We looked pretty solid at the back, for the most part, but when van Persie's free kick smashed off the post I did begin to think we might not do it. Diaby and Adebayor had come on for Walcott and Nasri and Adebayor really made a difference. It was his shot that Faubert deflected into his own goal to give us the lead after 75 minutes and he doubled the advantage after latching on to Bendtner's fantastic long pass with just a couple of minutes to go.

Overall it was a solid performance against a West Ham team that made life very difficult for us. They defended well and worked hard. We got a bit of a luck for the opener but after some of the things that have gone against us in recent weeks you can't say we didn't have it coming.

With Liverpool's win over Chelsea it was so important that we won. It leaves us 4 behind the scouse leaders, just 1 behind Chelsea and 4 ahead of United who have a game in hand. The manager called it a 'big win' and goalscorer Adebayor believes we're right back in the title race, saying:

We believe we can win the title. We had something to prove here and West Ham made it very hard for us. But we’re happy and pleased. Now we must focus on the derby with Spurs on Wednesday.

True words. With our North London rivals enjoying their best run of form for a long, long time we've got to put this game behind us and concentrate on Wednesday night.

Sorry for the short blog today but it's a bank holiday here and I have to bring Mrs Blogs into town. For some reason she has decided that it's a good idea to run 26 miles in the Dublin City Marathon. Crazy lady but good luck to her!

More tomorrow.

Bank holiday greetings to you all. The front part of my brain says 'ouch' while the rest of it says 'sweet holy mother of the sacred heart of the crucified Jesus, what have you done to me?'.

I'm choosing not to answer it. Footballers, what a weird bunch of people they are. Some of them are like politicians - evasive, full of lies and, for some inexplicable reason, they think we're as thick as bottled shit. Take Emmanuel Adebayor. No, seriously, take Emmanuel Adebayor. Haha. But really. He has actually come out and said that money is ruining football.

After his shennanigans in the summer he's actually come out and said that. I know. He says:

Money is killing the spirit of the game. If I had made my decision because of money, I would not be at Arsenal. I would have been in Milan or Barcelona. You know how I could be earning a lot more money than I am earning here.

So he had a decision to make. Check. He goes on to say:

There's no-one that can say today 'Adebayor told me he wanted to leave'. I decided to stay at Arsenal, told the boss I wanted to sign a new contract and eventually we did.

Right, so if he never wanted to leave why did he have to decide to stay? Plus lots of people saw an interview with him where he spoke openly about leaving. Twat. He goes on about having 'won the fans back' and how the booing never hurt him because he knew he was innocent. I dunno, these guys must live in a little bubble so far detached from reality that they have no idea what they sound like when they talk. 

Still, he's got 7 goals this season and if he keeps scoring more then I'll be happy. I'm never going to like Adebayor the way I like Cesc, let's say, or even the way I like the scraggledy looking old cat that sometimes comes into my garden and sprays his tomcat wee on the wall, but if he scores goals for Arsenal and wins us games then that's fine. There is no love. There is no winning me back. Especially when he comes out with utter shite like this. 

William Gallas talks about being his own harshest critic. That's rubbish as well. I know lots of people who are much harsher critics of Gallas than he is of himself. Not me though. Oh no. 

Sylvester says he's not a real leader but he'll do his best to try and lead the defence. He also goes on about how the current crop of young players at Arsenal can be better than the youngsters who came through at Old Trafford. If this lot can win half as much as Beckham, Giggs and Co, then they'll be doing very well indeed.

The News of the World says, for about the 564th time, that we'll sign Yaya Toure. This comes in the week where he gave an interview saying he was happy at Barcelona.  

West Ham later on. It's the first part of a very important double this week. Three points are absolutely vital if we want to keep pace with the clear Premier League favourites, Hull. Then in midweek we have Sp*rs who will have Harry Redknapp in charge. Arsenal fan Redknapp has taken over after Sp*rs sacked Ramos, Poyet and Commoli which must have cost them an absolute fortune. There is that line of thinking that it's not good to play a team when they've just changed their manager so thankfully Redknapp's first game in charge is against Bolton today.

Despite his wheeler-dealer ways I've always kind of liked Redknapp. He was generally very complimentary about Arsenal and he was a bit of a character. Now, of course, he's an utter cunt.

Anyway, here's to a good performance later this afternoon and scoring more goals than we let in.

Hasta mañana, arsebutlers.