I really can't tell you a great deal about the first half because I only saw occasional frozen pictures as I struggled to find any kind of working stream.

It wasn't until a couple of minutes into the second that I found one that worked and wasn't like watching Football Manager on the ZX Spectrum. I did see the Match of the Day highlights though so a few thoughts based on those.

We might have been behind but Almunia pulled off a good save after giving away a penalty. Nicklas Bendtner created two great chances for Robin van Persie, one which was blocked by the horrible Steven Taylor, the other well saved by Harper.

The aforementioned Taylor should have had a red card for a deliberate forearm assault on Andrei Arshavin. Replays showed he looked where Arshavin was then clobbered him in the face. There should be retrospective punishment but as the referee saw it there's nothing that can be done. Again, how much more reluctant would players be to do things like that if they could be punished after the fact by video evidence, or if football took something from the game of rugby and allowed teams to cite opposition players for acts of violent or dangerous play?

Mark Halsey's performance left a lot to be desired, and that's being kind.

Then why should I be kind to Mark Halsey? He was appalling and unless referees start protecting players from violence then things are going to get worse. Isn't there an assessor at every game? I'd say his pencil ran out on Halsey yesterday.

Arshavin showed what he was made of though by brushing Taylor off, twice, then crashing a shot from 30 yards which brushed the top of the bar.

In the second half Mark Halsey was again too lenient when Ryan Taylor grabbed Gael Clichy twice around the neck while running at full speed. Dangerous, we got a free kick, but Taylor did not get the yellow card he deserved.

However, from the free kick, taken by Arshavin, Nicklas Bendtner rose highest to head home into the top corner and make it 1-0. It was a fantastic header and a goal which I'm sure will boost his confidence. He had a good, all-round game yesterday.

Moments later though it was 1-1 as a mistake by Gallas allowed Obafemi Martins to equalise. Not great defending by any means. The lead only lasted five minutes though as Diaby played a neat one-two with van Persie, powered towards goal and finished with aplomb to make it 2-1.

Just three minutes after that van Persie set up Samir Nasri and he finished powerfully at the near post to make it 3-1 Arsenal.

We had other chances after that. Robin van Persie should have played in Bendtner who was in a great position but chose, rather selfishly, to go himself. There was an almightly pinballesque scramble which Newcastle cleared somehow and Diaby hit the post. At the other end Newcastle didn't really threaten but Almunia made a good save when called upon late in the game.

Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:

We feel that we are on a very good run and improving in every game. This is a young side and the spirit is great, the quality is there and we feel we can go forward from game to game.

Leaving aside the Champions League game we've now scored 15 goals in our last 5 games in the league and FA Cup, and 10 in our last 3 league games. Plenty to be encouraged about there and when you consider the chances we missed yesterday it's clear we're functioning again as an attacking unit.

It's a shame we've got to cope with an international break just as we were gaining some momentum but I suppose it's the same for everyone else too. We just have to hope we can pick up where we left off and that none of our players come back wounded, maimed or anything else.

Results yesterday were interesting too. United lost to Fulham and had two men sent off, Chelsea lost to Sp*rs - all of which will surely motivate Liverpool who can close the gap to just 1 point at the top if they beat Villa today.

It's going to make for a very interesting final five or six weeks of the season, that's for sure.

Elsewhere there was good news about Theo Walcott whose injury is not as serious as first thought (as Arseblog's impeccable sources told you yesterday - heh). Good for us, and for him, and with the international break he may not miss much football at all.

Right, that'll be that. More gardening awaits, joy oh joy. Till tomorrow.

Ok, well let's start with some bad news, get it out of the way.

Theo Walcott has injured his knee, just walking back from training, and could be set for a bit of a lay off. Initial reports, which were hopefully quite scaremongeriffic, suggested he'd be out for the rest of the season. On the official site Arsene Wenger said it might be a cartilage injury which would be three weeks out, then another two weeks before he can play again, bringing him to the start of May.

Which would be more or less the rest of the season. However, I'm told by a good source it appears to be less severe than they first thought so fingers crossed on that. It'd be a blow if he were to miss a few weeks and with important fixtures piling up between now and the end of the season we need as many hands on deck as possible. 

Obviously he misses today's game against Newcastle but the good news is that Eduardo is back in the squad and will travel.

It's an important game, as they all are at this stage. A win would allow us to open up a three point lead over Aston Villa who play Liverpool tomorrow. Newcastle are scrapping for their lives and despite their poor league position do have some quality players who we have to keep an eye on.

But if we show the same kind of application and spirit that we did against Hull, the same quality we did against Blackburn, then I think we'll win. Kick off is 5.30.

The draw for the Champions League quarter finals and semi-finals took place yesterday. We got Villarreal in the quarters. The first leg takes place on April 7th in Spain. The way the draw is set up that the winner of our quarter-final will play the winner of the Manchester United v Porto quarter-final. 

Obviously we've got a bit of history with Villarreal. We went through the final from El Madrigal when Jens Lehmann brilliantly saved Riquelme's penalty and I got to look down Mrs Blogs' top. There's an Arsenal connection too. Pascal Cygan is part of their team and, of course, Robert Pires has enjoyed some great seasons in Spain since joining Villarreal in 2006.

Arsene Wenger said of him:

We have to keep him quiet because he is a guy who can make a difference. I still have him on the phone many times - recently. He is playing very well, he was born in 1973, he is 36 in 2009 and he is still playing so that shows you what a fantastic player he is.

He rarely plays 90 minutes these days and I think that when he left Arsenal it was the right time for him to do so, but he's such an incredible player. Definitely one of my favourite Arsenal players of all time and a top bloke on top of it all.

He'll get a warm reception from the travelling fans in the first leg and from the home crowd in the second but after that it's down to us to stop him from contributing. He's out to win the game for his club, as any good professional would, past loyalties count for nothing during the games. 

I'm not going to get ahead of myself by talking about matches after the quarter-final but somebody should stick this up in the Arsenal dressing room. I know it's tabloid stuff but all the same seeing that every day would motivate the ever loving shite out of me. 

Beyond that not a lot happening this morning. I've got another weekend of shovelling stuff and trying to make the garden not look like a ploughed field so I'll leave you to it.

Up the Arse today! More tomorrow.

Arsenal's post-Fulham rehabilitation continued yesterday with a comfortable 3-0 win over Newcastle. Since that black day last week we've won two games, scored seven goals and kept two clean sheets. Not bad.

Of course you have to take the quality of the opposition into account, and both Twente and Newcastle are poor teams, but you can only beat what's in front of you. We started very brightly. William Gallas somehow missing at the back post and Shay Given (who made three or four outstanding saves as he always does against us) kept out a low Kolo Toure shot.

The first goal came from the penalty spot. Adebayor's cross was handled by N'Zogbia and Robin van Persie slammed home his first goal of the season. It was the Dutchman who got the second as well. Eboue broke forward from midfield, got into the box after swapping passes with Adebayor, he then played a crafty little back heel and van Persie lashed it home from close range.

The only trouble Newcastle caused us was the series of borderline challenges by Nicky Butt. One, where he raked his studs down the side of van Persie's leg should have seen him booked at least. He got his just desserts later on though when his looping header hit the bar. In the meantime Almunia had been called into action a couple of times as Newcastle had a period of pressure but he was solid and made the stops.

Not long after Butt hit the bar we got the third. Nasri played it in the box to Adebayor who could have shot but saw Denilson's run around the side of the defender, gave him the pass and Denilson finished to kill the game. Not long afterwards we might have had a fourth but van Persie's shot hit the bar and he seemed to have his foot stamped on requiring him to be replaced. Fingers crossed it's not as bad as they seem to think it is.

There was some fun late on when scumbag convict Joey Barton was brought on. His first action was a crunching, and quite fair, tackle on Samir Nasri, but it was physical. Nasri then sparked outrage from Kevin Keegan for an off the ball challenge on Barton which he got all out of proportion. Just to let the scumbag convict know he wasn't going to take the crunching tackle, he gave his ankles a little tap and sent him flying. It hardly merited the ranting from Keegan but then I suppose if you'll pick someone like scumbag convict in your team then your sense of right and wrong is a little skewed anyway. As all this went on the Newcastle owner, his belly wobbling in the late summer sunshine, slugged back pints of beer in his replica shirt. A classy lot, no doubt about it. Anyway, the point is Nasri won't be bullied and is verging on awesome already.

So another three points and, as I said, a good response to what happened at Craven Cottage. Sometimes a team does need a slap in the face to wake them up and that's what they got last week. I thought the performances and the commitment were so much better. Obviously the return of Fabregas helps us play better football, but van Persie was more involved, Adebayor ran his socks off and had a very good game, Eboue had some end product, Denilson got himself a goal and in Nasri I think we've found ourselves a player. He always looks dangerous, he's so confident on the ball (one turn leaving three or four Newcastle players looking the other way was just classic), and he's giving our left hand side that attacking threat we've really missed since Pires left.

Afterwards the manager said the improvement came from a change of attitude and also spoke about new signings, saying:

We are trying to buy but the problem is availability, as well as the fact we have to find players better or as good as the ones we have.

With the players now away on international duty for the best part of two weeks - our next game is away to Blackburn on Sat 13th - the boss has time in the next couple of days to do that. Anyway, it's good to go into that break on the back of a much improved performance and three points.

Looking around the Sunday newspapers there are a couple of things. The People links us with a loan move for Real Madrid's Christoph Metzelder. He certainly has a beard worthy of the Arsenal. Meanwhile the Sunday Mirror says West Ham are ready to pay £8m for Johan Djourou to replace Anton Ferdinand who has gone to Sunderland.

The deadline is tomorrow night at 11.59. What's the bets if we sign anyone it'll be at 11.58:47?

Other than that I am now blogging this at you from my new house. Moving yesterday was hard, hard work and I celebrated with some Thai food, a load of beers and about three bottles of wine. As you might imagine my head is saying *boilk* but my stomach is saying something much more gurgly than that.

Thanks to Tom for filling in yesterday. A slight breakdown in communication meant he forgot all about it but nevertheless he came up with the goods. Next time I'm going to send him a message via carrier pigeon. Nobody can ignore a pigeon with a message.

Right then, have yourselves a good Sunday. More tomorrow.