Arsenal struggled, and probably came away with an undeserved 1-1 draw against Spurs in the first leg of the Carling Cup semi final at Ashburton Grove. It was Tottenham who created the most chances and controlled most of the play, with Dimitar Berbatov especially impressive, but Theo Walcott shot deflected in off his own chest to steal a draw for the Gunners after Jermaine Jenas had given their local rivals the lead.

Let's keep this all in perspective however - Tottenham's first team put in one of their best performances of the season, and Arsenal's second team put in one of their worst performances of the season, and Spurs still couldn't beat us.

The goals are below:

Unfortunately Arsenal's thinning squad took further blows as Robin Van Persie, Johan Djourou and Philippe Senderos were all injured. With Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Eboue and Alex Song away in Ghana for the African Cup of Nations, and Lassana Diarra looking likely to leave, there suddenly looks to be a big shortage of defensive talent in the squad.

Gallas is the only recognised first-choice centreback, and although Justin Hoyte filled in well in the second-half for Djourou, he is not going to win many balls in the air. That might mean Gilberto dropping back alongside Gallas, but then with Diarra possibly leaving, it leaves Mathieu Flamini as the sole recognised defensive/holding midfielder.

Van Persie's unfortunate attempt at a comeback will be regarded less seriously at the moment due to the fine form of Eduardo, but things can change very easily. It's a big month or two for Arsenal, and Arsene Wenger just might look into bringing some players in, perhaps even on loan.

Just wanted to wish everyone (not just Arsenal fans) a Happy New Year! All the best for 2008.

As for the Arsenal fans... well, it's a happy start to the new year.

Arseblog have said that Carlos Vela is in London with the club (the source they've got is 99% legitimate), and it's quite likely that he's going to play the rest of the season, although some are speculating that he's just going to train with the team over the winter break (this would be odd though). Notably, Vela qualifies for his Spanish passport this January, and everyone of course will have noticed the lack of punch in this Arsenal squad when the injuries have been present. At times we've been short a winger, and at other times we've been short a striker, and he can play all across the wings and forward line.

And of course Wenger announced earlier that Johan Djourou would be coming back from Birmingham, so that's two new good quality signings, in addition to Robin Van Persie's return from injury (which Arsene has said "will be like a new signing").

All this in addition to use beating West Ham 1-0 at home in a very convincing performance to maintain our 2 point lead at the top of the table.

Good luck for the rest of the season!