We can consign our Carling Cup ambitions to the bin for another year after our second string were beaten 3-0 by Man City last night in the quarter finals. They had a good run and beat both West Brom and Liverpool before coming up against a full strength City team who were looking to give themselves a chance of their first trophy in over 30 years. On the night City deserved their win but Arsenal played well enough and it took 2 excellent goals in the second half to put City in full control before a late third finished off the scoring for the night.

The team was fairly close to the one I expected with the exception of Song in for Senderos who didn't even make the squad which would point to him making an exit in the January transfer window. The only reason we didn't sell him in August was apparently because of the injury to Djourou and with Djourou not due back until March we need to find a replacement before Senderos leaves. Our first choice reserve at centre back is Silvestre and from what I saw last night he has got worse and not better and the thought of him in our team if either Gallas or The Verminator gets injured scares me. Theo wasn't in the squad either which surprised me as I thought he needed game time but maybe he's not quite right yet. With Merida taking his spot the rest of the team was as I predicted and it was always going to be a hard night. It's always hard to make a true judgement on a player when he is surrounded by the other youngsters and I would like to see the likes of Wilshere perform alongside the rest of the first team.

I won't run through the ins and outs of the match as I didn't see most of it but City's win didn't surprise me even though I had predicted a 4-3 win for Arsenal. The major talking point afterwards seems to be the boss failing to shake hands with their manager but to be honest I couldn't give a damn if he never shook another manager's hand again. It would seem that our manager didn't want to wait around on the sideline as Hughes celebrated on the pitch and if that is the case Hughes has nothing to complain about as he should have shook hands before going on to the pitch to celebrate with his players. City will probably think that all their troubles are over now as they have ended their run of 7 draws in a row but we will see how they fare against Chelsea at the weekend. Personally I think another draw would be a great result as Chelsea would drop points and City would fall back into their wasteful ways.

All of that will only be to our advantage if we can beat Stoke at The Emirates on Saturday and Song's yellow card last night means that he will miss that game. It would appear that the boss has earmarked Denilson for the defensive midfield role when Song is on ACN duty but I don't know if he's the right player for that role. Personally I want us to buy another defensive midfielder on January 1st and I'm sure the majority of Arsenal fans would feel the same way too. That would mean we need a new goalkeeper, centre back, defensive midfielder and centre forward in January but we will be lucky to see 1 of them coming in. My choice in goals would be Lloris, with Yaya Toure in midfield and Dzeko in attack but I don't know who we should sign at centre back unless of course we sign Hangeland. I won't be holding my breath for any of them though.

I have heard a few rumours about Wilshere going to Celtic on loan and with our Carling Cup hopes over for another season some first team football would do him some good. We have been linked with a move for Van Nistelroy in the transfer window and I can only say that I would absolutely hate it if we signed him. I can still remember him cheating to get a true Arsenal legend, Patrick Vieira, sent off at Old Trafford and I can't see how the fans would be able to accept him in an Arsenal shirt.

I'll preview the Stoke game over the next couple of days and according to physioroom Diaby is due back on Saturday which might be a welcome addition to the squad as he always plays well when he comes back from injury. I've been very busy in work all week and I've been neglecting Oleole a bit but after this Friday I'm off work until the middle of January as I'm taking a lot of time off that's due to me. I hope in that time to eventually get around to converting some old videos to DVDs and putting them on youtube and linking them here. They include highlights of league title wins under George Graham and Arsene Wenger and some hammerings of The Spuds among other teams. That's it for today.

Here's City's second goal from last night which killed the game as a contest. I thought that Silvestre should have stood up and tackled him at some stage but he decided to back off until Wright Phillips was within striking distance and he obliged by burying the ball into the top corner.

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And to finish today's title track from Steel Pulse which is for RVN who is a player we should never sign.

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See You Tomorrow.

We travel to Man City tonight for a Carling Cup quarter final in which we are real underdogs due mainly to the manager's policy of playing a different starting 11 from the one in the previous league match and the addition to a lot of youth to the squad as well. The manager confirmed yesterday that youth will get it's chance again as he said players like Wilshere and Eastmond should play. It's going to make things really hard on the kids as City will play a very strong team I'm sure. There is an oppurtunity for the likes of Wilshere to show what he can do and with the first team struggling hopefully he will feel he has a genuine chance to make a breakthrough. Personally I think both Theo and Vela will start as well and that same oppurtunity is there for both of them.

I imagine Fabianski will start with Eboue, Silvestre and Senderos in defence and possibly Traore too. In midfield we should probably see Ramsey and Rosicky with Eastmond behind them again and the front 3 will probably be Vela, Theo and Wilshere. I could be way off the mark but I don't think so and the only reason I have Traore at left back is that I don't know what other options there are in that position. I am of course omitting Merida who could start before Rosicky but I do think Rosicky needs some game time at the moment. We also have Emmanuel Thomas, Frimpong & Randall plus a few others who can come in and do a job. When you consider that Gibbs, Clichy, Diaby, Bendtner and RVP are injured at the moment it's not a bad team for us to be able to put out. Anyone who regularly reads this blog will know that I have never predicted an Arsenal defeat in any game and I have no intention of starting today. I hope that City are lulled into a false sense of security when they see the team we have out and that they believe that it will be easy for them. If that's the case I think the youngsters can get about them and play the football they are capable of and give them a short sharp lesson in football. I'm going for a 4-3 win for Arsenal as we progress to the semi finals to join Aston Villa and Manure who both won through last night. My last thought on tonight's game concerns he who shall remain nameless and whether he plays or not. If he does play I hope our players form an orderly queue as they wait to kick him and tell him it's an early Christmas present from RVP.

It was nice to see the Spuds lose to a Manure team with 7 changes from their weekend team although they did keep their keeper and 3 of their defenders to give them a stronger base to work with. I wonder will we see a DVD released by The Spuds today showing us how they managed to keep their hopes of a trophy alive all the way up to December. It's an achievement which should be marked in some way and a DVD is their usual mode for anything as spectacular as that.

In other news the boss said yesterday that he will be looking at dipping into the transfer market in January but only if it suits us. It appears that the loss of RVP would seem to be what triggered his change of heart and hopefully he will decide to buy a top class striker such as Dzeko as a direct replacement for him. With any luck he has decided to look for a goalkeeper while he is at it as well. Our league games against Chelsea and Liverpool in February have been altered to allow them to be live on Sky and it means we will play away to Chelsea on Sunday February 7th at 4 pm and at home to Liverpool 3 days later on Wednesday February 10th at 7.45pm. It means we will face a trial by television in 10 days from January 31st as we play all of the other "top four" clubs live on the TV in those 10 days. Let's hope we're still in the hunt by then and 3 wins will do us the power of good. I'm not sure if I'll make it to the supporters club to watch the game tonight as it's a big day and I have other plans but you never know. That's it for today.

Here's a look at what we did to Sheffield United in the Carling Cup last season.

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And to finish today's title track from New Model Army. Hopefully our kids can show some ambition tonight. This is for ClownshoeVanClubFoot who likes New model Army unlike some others around him.

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See You Tomorrow. 

It's been 2 days since Chelsea stuffed us 3-0 at The Emirates and to be honest it still hurts for a number of reasons. Firstly I genuinely thought we had a chance against Chelsea but they showed that we have not reached their level of professionalism or consistency yet and indeed we have a long way to go to reach those levels. I know the title race isn't over for us yet but it's going to be a huge ask for us to get back into it now with Chelsea having an 11 point lead over us and our league form and ability to create and score goals suddenly gone out the window. Secondly we keep making excuses for defeats but we have to stand up and be counted at some stage. We should have beaten Manure but we blew it, we could have beaten City but we would have had to score 5 goals to do so, Sunderland were lucky to score with their only shot on target and we should have had a penalty too and the referee should not have disallowed our goal against Chelsea. There has to come a stage where we say that some of our players are either not good enough or not performing at the level that they should and the manager has to do something about it.

Almunia has only started 8 league matches this season and we have lost 4 of them and Mannone made more saves in the 5 games he started than Almunia has in those 8 games. Almunia has conceded 13 goals in 8 games and Mannone conceded 5 in 5 but the manager persists with him no matter what. I'm not saying put Mannone in but maybe Fabianski could do better and there are certainly loads of goalkeepers out there who would do better. There's a transfer window opening in 31 days and we need to buy a keeper as soon as that window opens. We have no adequete cover at centre back and if Gallas or The Verminator gets injured we are faced with the prospect of Silvestre playing in the team. That is not a sight that I want to see and I don't know a single Arsenal fan who does. When the ACN starts in January we will lose Song for 1 or 2 months and we don't have anyone to replace him. If the manager thinks Denilson can do that job he is deluding himself as he was not up to it before his injury and he is not up to it now. I'm not trying to say Denilson shouldn't get an occasional game but not as a defensive midfielder particularly as we have to play Manure, Chelsea and Liverpool one after another in a 10 period from January 31st to February 9th. If we go into those games without a proper goalkeeper, a proper defensive midfielder and missing our top striker we are setting ourselves up for a big fall.

At this stage last season we had 23 points from 13 games and we only have 25 now which is not exactly a whole lot better. We have scored 11 goals more but we have also conceded 3 goals more and we only have 2 clean sheets as opposed to 4 last season. It's not the form of champions or even potential champions but thankfully we have the chance to make up for it on Saturday as Stoke pay us a visit and after our dead rubber in Greece we have 3 league games in 6 days as we go to Anfield to play Liverpool, make the trip to Burnley and play at home to Hull. Hopefully the manager can work his magic and make the neccesary adjustments to the team and our style of play to make the most of the players that aren't injured so that we can get the 4 wins that are a must in those games.

From here our second string team will make the trip to Man City for the Carling Cup quarter final tomorrow night and with City admitting that the circus that surrounded our last trip there seemed to derail their season I hope that they don't get it back on track against us. So far this season the manager has put out a different starting 11 from the one that played the previous weekend in each round and if he does that we can expect to see Fabianski, Eboue, Silvestre, Senderos, Theo, Vela, Ramsey and Rosicky start and Wilshere too if he's fit but I'm not too sure about that. City will play a full strength team and if we're not fully focussed it could be a tough night for us. The draw for the semi finals of the Carling Cup will be made live on Sky more or less directly after our game tomorrow night and let's hope we're still in it. The club announced yesterday that they had made payments to agents totalling £4.8 million in the last year and I'm sure it's no different from a lot of other clubs but it's still a disgusting amount of money to see going out of the game to people who are usually a little dodgy at best. That's it for today.

Here's another look at the main highlight from our victory in the last round of the Carling Cup.

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And to finish today's title track from The Stranglers. Something has to change if we are to challenge for the title. It could be the manager's attitude to our goalkeeping options or our style of play with RVP injured but something must change.

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See You Tomorrow.

The disappointment of yesterday hasn't even started to fade yet and the realisation that we are not going to win the league with RVP injured for the rest of the season is starting to sink in. No matter what anyone says we never looked like we were going to score yesterday and that was the same as last Saturday against Sunderland. The only player we have with a chance of playing the role that RVP played for us is Bendtner and he's still injured. Even if Bendtner was available to play he takes at least 5 chances to score in a game and that's not going to win us enough games. If I said that I was surprised with yesterday's result I would be lying and even though I predicted an Arsenal win there was always the feeling that we could be well beaten. Unfortunately the manager says it wasn't a 3-0 but that was the final score and to be honest we brought it upon ourselves.

We were unable to create clear cut chances and when Chelsea created their chances they always looked like scoring. The first real chance fell to Anelka and he was held back by Sagna as he tried to shoot but we got away with it. Despite all our possession I can't ever remember Cech being really troubled or Chelsea being really stretched. As half time approached I discussed the fact that it was vital that we didn't concede with 1 of the other Arsenal fans in the supporters club. We remarked how our win over The Spuds was sealed in the last 5 minutes before half time and we hoped that something similar wouldn't happen to us but there was a feeling that the first goal would not be ours. When that goal came it was from good work by Terry and then Tweedey who crossed for Drogba to finish from 5 yards out. On another day the ball might have stayed out but it hit the bar and the post and went in and immediatly I felt that we were in big trouble.

Only 2 minutes later things got a lot worse as Tweedey crossed again and The Verminator put the ball into his own net as he knew he had to do something with it with Drogba closing in behind him. I thought that the ball would have gone through to Almunia if The Verminator had left it but I would love to know if Almunia called for it as it didn't look like he did to me. As the second half started Theo replaced Song and I can only imagine that Song picked up a knock as he had been playing well. I thought we had pulled a goal back very quickly but the referee ruled out Arshavin's effort as he judged Eduardo to have raised his foot too high as he challenged Cech. To be honest he was probably right but at the time it didn't feel like it and interestingly enough Cech didn't complain when he lost the ball.

After that the game seemed to peter out as we huffed and puffed but created very little. Vela came on for Eduardo and Rosicky came on for Nasri but all to no avail as Chelsea sat deep and looked to hit us on the break. With 5 minutes left Chelsea got a free kick just outside our box and it looked like it was perfectly set up for Drogba to punish us even more. To be honest again he didn't even hit it that well but with Almunia in goal all he had to do was get it on target and he did exactly that. The manager cannot have been happy with Almunia as all he had to do was keep his position to save it but he stepped to his right and couldn't get back in time.

In my opinion the manager needs to buy a proper goalkeeper on the 1st of January and consign Almunia to the reserves. He doesn't inspire confidence in the players in front of him, he won't or can't come for crosses and he sticks to his line like glue when he should be coming out. We now need to win our next 5 or 6 league matches in a row to get ourselves anywhere near the title race and that will have to include a win at Anfield in 2 weeks time. We go to Man City on Wednesday night in the Carling Cup and it's probably just as well that the second string will be playing because another defeat for our 1st team would be very hard for them to take. Only a few weeks ago Cesc spoke about how we need to keep some clean sheets as the goals could dry up and those goals have dried up now. It's no coincidence that our goal drought has come with RVP injured and we can be sure Stoke will try to put all their players behind the ball next Saturday to try to frustrate us too. It's up to the boss to get things working again and in a hurry before things get any worse. Finally for today the FA Cup third round draw has been made and we have a tough tie away to West Ham on Saturday January 2nd.  Unfortunately we may have to concentrate on the FA Cup as our only realistic chance of a trophy again this season if things don't get better soon.  

Here's the highlights(or lowlights) from yesterday.

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And to finish here's today's title track from UB40. We have to buy a top class keeper in January and it doesn't matter what the cost is.

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See You Tomorrow.

So we come to it. The battle to define our times. The battle to determine if we are genuine contenders or not. Well that's what the so called experts would have us believe anyway. While I do think that today's game is the biggest game of the season so far for Arsenal I don't think that defeat will decide our fate. A lot of what happens will come down to tight calls from the officials and who manages to score first as we all know goals change games. We have the ability to beat them but they also have the ability to beat us as was proved at The Emirates last season.

The boss has tough decisions to make before the kick off and the ones in our defence are very important. Will Gallas recover in time and will Traore get another chance at left back or will he play Eboue there? The Gallas issue is vital as his replacement doesn't bear thinking about and Eboue worst ever time in an Arsenal shirt came when he played on the left although it was further up the pitch. The boss also has to pick players in our attacking positions who will get stuck in and fight for the cause no matter what. I hope the team will be Almunia, Sagna, Traore, Gallas, The Verminator, Song, Cesc, Rosicky, Arshavin, Theo and Eduardo but we could of course see Ramsey or Nasri in there without changing things too much. 

We lack the heigth that Chelsea have and we will find it hard from set pieces so we need our goalkeeper to be commanding but that's one thing Almunia is not. When Drogba dives to earn free kicks we need the referee to catch and book him but I don't think that's going to happen. When we get chances we have to take them and we have to punish any mistakes by Chelsea. The referee needs to be strong as no doubt their players will protest every decision that goes against them and the likes of Terry will do his best to influence the referee. We need to watch Terry at corners as he blocks our defenders from marking other players as he is an expert at it and never seems to get caught. If we approach the game in the right manner and play our own game to the best of our abilities I believe we can win but it will be very tight. I'm going for 2-1 with Cesc scoring and Eduardo too if he plays.

I'll be in The Strand in Bray watching the match along with some fellow members of the supporters club who are brave enough to battle against the wind and rain on the seafront today. Hopefully we'll get a good turnout and the result will go our way but if it doesn't it will leave us with a lot of work to do and in need of 5 or 6 wins in a row after today to get back in to the title race. That's it for today as I have an awful lot to do before braving the conditions. Come on you Gunners.

Here's some more good stuff from the man we will miss most today - RVP.

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And to finish today's title track from New Model Army.

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See You Tomorrow

The shocking news today is that RVP's season is as good as over after an official statement from the club in which it was revealed that further analysis by our medical staff on his return to the club showed the true extent of his injury. It's an awful blow for Arsenal and for RVP too and I hope that we can cope with the loss of our best striker for what the club say will be 4 to 5 months but with him needing to regain match fitness afterwards I think we can take it that we will have to wait until next season to see him perform in an Arsenal shirt again. Luckily for his country he will probably be fit to play in the World Cup but that's no consolation for us.

The player himself is very disappointed obviously and he says he felt so strong before the injury that he felt nobody could stop him. He also spoke about his treatment in Serbia and he said that if the full extent of the injury was spotted earlier he would have had his operation immediatly instead of going there but he obviously thought it would help him at the time. You can read what he had to say here and it's well worth a read. The treatment in Serbia didn't harm him in any way or set him back either but the original diagnosis by the Dutch was not helpfull and it has added a couple of weeks to his time out.

I'll preview the Chelsea game tomorrow at some stage but the last thing for today is the news that Arshavin apparently is still in a bad way following Russia's exit from the World Cup. The boss left him out of the Sunderland game last Saturday as he said he was feeling down at the time and according to the player himself he feels like never playing again. He said he had a long chat with the boss and hopefully that will have done something to cheer him up. We have a huge game tomorrow and in my opinion the best way for him to get back in the right frame of mind is to play that game and take his frustrations out on Chelsea.

Here's a little bit of what we will be missing with RVP out for the rest of the season.

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And to finish today's title track from New Model Army. There would seem to be no rest for our medical staff as the injuries pile up and our season becomes harder and harder. The song goes "They say there is no rest for the wicked ones, dear God what is this evil that we've done." It certainly feels that way as it was bad enough when we thought RVP was out for 6 weeks but 5 months is a different thing altogether. Maybe somebody can tell me what evil we have done.

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See You Tomorrow.

With Arsenal not playing until 4 pm on Sunday we could possibly find ourselves 6 points behind Manure with 2 games in hand on them if they can get a win at bottom of the table Portsmouth on Saturday afternoon. I'm not saying the Chelsea game is a must win game but it's a great chance to make up ground on Chelsea and keep Manure firmly within our sights too. A draw wouldn't be the end of the world but a win would put us in a position to genuinely challenge for the league. A defeat is something I don't even want to think of at the moment but I suppose if we look at the home league game last season it's a distinct possibility if we don't get our game right on the day.

Ahead of the game our only extra injury worry besides the players already definitely out is Gallas as his eye is still so swollen that he can't put his contact lenses in and we don't want a player on the pitch who can't see properly. The boss is hopeful that he will be OK by Sunday afternoon and the fact that we played on Tuesday and have a 5 day gap to Sunday is one factor on our side. Arshavin has made a full recovery from the head wound he received and he will be fine for Sunday but there is a doubt over Wilshere too as he took a slight knock in his comeback for the reserves. I suppose that the doubt over Wilshere is for the City game on Wednesday as he wasn't going to be in the team on Sunday anyway. The boss also said that the next 2 players back from injury will be Diaby and Bendtner and they should be back in 2 weeks time. I hope that Gallas makes it because as it stands at the moment his replacement will be Silvestre and that's not something that I want to see.

Our largest shareholder, Stan Kroenke, has upped his stake by another 20 shares and he now only needs another 42 shares to reach the magical 30% where he has to make a bid for all the other shareholders' stakes. As someone said on Twitter last night he's not trying to do it in a clandestine manner as he gets there bit by bit. It's still possible that Usmanov could jump in ahead of him if he bought just over a third of Lady Nina's shares but I think that it's fairly obvious that Usmanov will stick with what he has at the moment. Quite what will happen when Kroenke reaches that 30% mark I'm not sure but I think he has to reach 90% before all other shareholders are obliged to sell to him and Usmanov can prevent him from reacing that as he holds 25% of the shares.

Anway for all fantasy football players don't forget to make any changes you need to before the deadline of 11.30 tomorrow morning. I'll be doing my best to catch IAWWT and take 1st place in the Oleole league for the first time this season. Who to make my captain is the big question as with the right choice last week I could have done so much better. For all the people who filled their team with Hull, Everton and Fulham players this week don't forget that in a few weeks they have no game along with Stoke so keep that in mind when making transfers. I'm off to my office Christmas party tonight and then I'm going to my sister in law's birthday party the night after which should make for a hectic weekend. Hopefully I'll finish it off with a beer or 2 with my fellow Wicklow Gunners on Sunday afternoon as we watch Arsenal beat Chelsea. That's it for today.

Here's a look at Kanu's 3rd and best goal in his hat trick that beat Chelsea a few years ago.

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And to finish today's title track from The Specials. I'll be going out tonight but I definitely won't be back until the morning and I hope that I can manage a blog somewhere tomorrow.

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See You Tomorrow.

It's Thursday morning and the countdown to the Chelsea game on Sunday has begun. I got a text from my sister in Dubai yesterday asking me if I wanted a ticket to the game on Sunday. The ticket is for a seat beside her boyfriend who is a great guy and I really like him. The cost is £66 and it's directly behind 1 of the goals but there is only 1 problem. I checked out the flights and the cheapest I could get was €300 return which is €260 more than I will be paying for my return flights when I go to the Everton game in January hopefully. So I had to turn down the ticket and I'm not too happy to say the least. I hope Raz has a great time at the game and that he sees Arsenal give Chelsea the beating that they deserve.

There's no news on Gallas yet but at least that means he hasn't been ruled out yet and I can only hope that he recovers quickly enough to start the game. He can get a weeks rest after that as the midweek game next week is our Carling Cup semi final against Man City and he won't be playing in that. With Gibbs out for a few months and Clichy still a few weeks away from returning it would seem that Traore will get a run in the team unless the boss decides to play Silvestre, Eboue or Sagna there instead. Jack Wilshere played for the reserves last night which means that he should be available for first team action too. They lost 2-1 at home to Aston Villa despite taking the lead through Watt who had just signed his extended contract and celebrated with his goal obviously. Villa managed to get their 2 goals back after Merida got a straight red card after an altercation with Delph and they are now unbeaten at the top of the league. Also playing for Arsenal was Jay Emmanuel Thomas as his loan spell at Blackpool is over and he will be hoping to get a chance in the Carling Cup along with Wilshere and Fabianski who also played last night but Merida will be sitting the game out I imagine as a 3 game ban would seem to be coming his way.

It would appear that a certain ex player of ours who wore the number 10 jersey would like to work as a specialist coach at an English club with the strikers. Imagine what he could teach RVP, Eduardo, Vela, Theo and all the others and how good that could be for us. I have compared Wilshere to him a few times before and it would be great for Wilshere to study under the master. Hopefully the boss will have read his comments and noticed them as I would hate to see Bergkamp coach at any other English club. Theo reckons he is as sharp as ever and his knee feels much better after his injury and he is hoping to get into the side on Sunday. He said that he thinks he could play as the central striker if called upon although RVP is a big loss at the moment as he was in really good form. He also said that we have a lot of top quality players and he would play anywhere in the team if called upon.

I had a fairly good night last night in the fantasy football as I put Clint Dempsey and Louis Saha in my team this week and they managed 3 goals between them last night to move me up to 2nd in my own league 2 points behind IAWWT as long time leader Amer had a bad week and fell back to third place. Fantasy expert The Football Guy had a good week for the second week in a row and he has now moved up 400,000 places in 2 weeks but he has a long way to go to catch the leaders. With his past record I wouldn't put it past him if he hasn't given up on his team altogether. We are again linked with a few players today but I'm not going to talk about transfer speculation as the window is closed until January. That's it for today.

Here's Theo's goal against Chelsea in the FA Cup semi final last season. Let's hope for more from him on Sunday but with a better final score.

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And to finish today's title track from The Cure. I hope there is only a short term effect to Gallas' injury and he is back for Sunday.

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See You Tomorrow.

Thankfully we managed to get things back on track last night with a fairly comfortable 2-0 win over Standard Liege to win our Champions league group with a game in hand. When I say it was fairly comfortable I mean in terms of our first half performance and the final result but it was not so comfortable for Gibbs, Gallas or Arshavin who were all in the wars. Gibbs has unfortunately broken his metatarsal and will be out for 3 months after his opponet tried to block a shot late on and his follow through caught him fairly hard. It's a big blow for us as Clichy is still injured and I was surprised that he played last night as he had only just recovered from a similar injury that had not broken the bone but bruised it. I suppose the boss wanted to play his best available left back as Traore looked shaky there at the weekend and he wanted to wrap the group up lat night as we have so many games between here and Christmas. As for Gallas and Arshavin their clash of heads when trying to score from the same cross looked very painfull indeed and Arshavin looked to have lost an awful lot of blood. He was brave to play on as was Gallas who looked a little shaky afterwards and was later replaced by Silvestre after suffering an ankle injury as well.

The manager started with Eboue at right back as per usual in the Champions league this season and I wonder if it is to keep him happy with first team football or if Sagna has an ongoing problem with his right ankle that goes back to his injury against Chelsea at the tail end of the 2007/8 season. Gibbs was at left back which surprised me as I said but we had our defensive rocks in Gallas and The Verminator at the centre of the defence which is what we need in every game possible. Song played the defensive midfield role with Cesc and Denilson ahead of him and I was a little surprised to see Denilson start as I thought Ramsey might continue or Rosicky might play but he did well in the 60 minutes he played. The front 3 consisted of Arshavin, Vela and Nasri with Eduardo not getting a look in much to my surprise but maybe it's still too soon for 2 games so quickly after each other for him. It was good to see Vela get a chance to start in a week where the manager has given him his backing and also revealed that the club are in talks with him about a new contract.

After some very close calls early on and a goal mouth scramble where we had 4 or 5 shots saved and Vela hit the post we eventually took the lead when we were looking to use up some time as both Gallas and Arshavin were off the pitch receiving treatment after their clash of heads. A long hopeful ball towards Nasri seemed to be going nowhere until the defender slipped and caught just enough of the ball to play Nasri in nicely and he finished with aplomb into the corner from just inside the box with only the keeper to beat. Our record of not getting penalties continued as Eboue went down in their box but the referee waved play on but to be honest when Eboue goes down I always think it's a dive and I think it might just have been in this case too. Luckily for us the referee was probably influenced by that decision when he didn't give what looked like a clear penalty against Gallas at the other end a little while later and I think he was also influenced by the player's fall as it was theatrical but in my opinion it was a definite penalty. With half time approaching Denilson tried a pot shot from 30 yards as there was no pressure put on him and with the ball swerving in both directions the keeper dived past it and despite getting a little piece of it he couldn't keep it out and all our hard work paid off as we headed down the tunnel with a 2-0 lead. At 0-0 we were also a little fortunate as Standard hit the angle of post and bar from a good break but all in all we made so many chances in the first half that 2-0 was a fairly accurate reflection of events.

In the second half we saw Silvestre replace Gallas and we didn't play at the same pace as the players possibly tired and possibly had the Chelsea game on Sunday in mind. The chances we made were fewer and defensively we obviously didn't look as stable with Silvestre in the team. I know the chances are that Senderos will want away in January but I really think he has a lot more to offer than Silvestre and with Djourou out until March at least we need to buy another central defender in January. The closest either team came to scoring was when a ball was cut back to the edge of the area by Standard with 2 unmarked players waiting and 1 of them hit it sweetly but kuckily the post intervened on our behalf again and we kept our 2-0 lead. Nasri was replaced after 60 minutes by Theo and Denilson by Rosicky after 66 minutes as we saw the game out without too much incidents until Gibbs' injury and of course Cesc's "altercation" with Carcela Gonzalez. As both players had little niggles at each other Gonzalez sent Cesc to the ground with a trip/push and both players then went head to head as the referee approached them. It looked like both players would be booked until Gonzaled pushed his head forward into Cesc's and although I wouldn't quite call it a head butt it was enough for a red card in this day and age. Thankfully Cesc just peeled away and kept his feet because it would have been embarrassing if he went down under such a light touch.

Afterwards the boss said he was happy to get back on track after the Sunderland defeat and he thought the first half performance was good but that we eased off in the second half. He said it was important to get a good level of performance as the the level on Saturday was not what was required and a win ahead of the Chelsea game on Sunday was important. He said he will pick some different players for the final group game away to Olympiacos and that was to be expected as it's a dead rubber. He also said that Song has extended his contract until 2014 and that's good news with the way he has played so far this season. He also made some weird comment about Denilson's goal coming from the Brazilian's shorter ankles as he thinks all Brazilian's have short ankles which gives a different flight to the ball. It was a sweet goal and his 2 goals this season have both been crackers so let's hope there's more to come. Rhys Murphy has joined Szczesny at Brentford on loan although his loan period is 3 months and Szczesny is only there for a month. Sanchez Watt has signed a new extended contract at the club and it's good to see so many youngsters coming through the ranks although quite how they will all fit into the first team squad I don't know. That's it for today.

Here's the highlights from last night.

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And to finish today's title track from Radiohead which is for Kieran Gibbs and his matatarsal which he almost broke last week and he managed to finish the job off last night. 

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See You Tomorrow.

Standard Liege pay us a visit tonight and with the current standings in the group they could still qualify if they lose but to be honest a win is a must for them as it would leave matters in their own hands going into their last match at home to AZ in 2 weeks time. In the other game in our group AZ are at home to Olympiacos and if AZ win we are through regardless. Having said all that I fully expect us to go out tonight and give them a footballing lesson from start to finish. After the initial shock of going 2-0 down to them in the first 5 minutes of our away match we managed to come back and win 3-2 and I'm sure the manager will not allow the players to start with the same lack of concentration tonight.

I expect Almunia to keep his place despite the fact that he was unconvincing at Sunderland on Saturday and I expect Eboue to play at right back as he seems to be a permanent fixture in the Champions league this season. Gibbs is back in the squad but I'm not sure if he will start despite the fact that traore was not exactly the greatest defensively on Saturday. I wouldn't be surprised to see Gibbs stay on the bench to make sure that he's ready for Chelsea on Sunday. I hope that both Gallas and Vermaelen continue together in defence although a lot of people seem to think that the boss will play Silvestre or Senderos or even both of them. In midfield I hope Cesc and Song start together and that Rosicky gets a run out alongside Cesc although Ramsey would probably benefit from starting again. The front 3 should be led by Eduardo with Theo and Arshavin or possibly Vela playing in the wide positions. I'm not sure if Nasri is suited to playing as a wide player when Eduardo is our central striker though.

We need to impose our game on them from the start and use our wide players to get in behind them so that we can get good balls into dangerous positions for Eduardo to finish off. I'm sure Liege will try to close us down and pressurise us at every opportunity but we just have to keep possession and use every inch of the pitch to stretch them and the goals will come. I'm predicting a 3-1 win for Arsenal with Eduardo and Theo on the scoresheet and maybe Cesc or Arshavin getting in on the act too. Even if we go behind there is no need to panic as we showed in the away game that their defence is beaten easily enough when put under pressure.

The boss spoke about our defeat to Sunderland yesterday and he said that it was caused because we didn't create enough in the final third of the pitch. He said Sunderland defended very well and made no defensive mistakes although when they did make 1 we didn't take advantage of it. He was also sure that we should have had a penalty when Campbell took Vela down in injury time but even though the referee was in a very good position he turned down the penalty claim. The players were disappointed with the result as they didn't expect to lose but with the team we have we shouldn't expect to lose to anybody in my opinion. The manager also said, when asked, that Vela was the reason why he didn't replace he who shall remain nameless when he was sold in the summer. That shows how much he values Vela and with a new contract being discussed at the moment hopefully Vela can see that he has a future at the club and stay with us. The manager is also confident that Gallas and Rosicky will extend their current deals and I hope he's right.

Cesc has said that he is happier than ever at Arsenal and all the talk about Barcelona doesn't bother him as it has been going on for years. He said that he doesn't think about it, he doesn't want to think about it and he doesn't think he should as he is at a graet club and in a great team. When asked if he would like to stay for the rest of his career he said "why not" , he's never thought about it and he's only 22 but he's already in his 7th year at the club and he's "really happy, better than ever". He also said that he thinks we can achieve the success that Barcelona have and we have been close in the past and we are more than capable of doing it this season. Say what you will about Cesc but he can't make it much plainer and it's disgraceful that a player under contract to us is linked by Barcelona to them so often.

Cesc also said that we have to bounce back against Liege tonight and that the Chelsea game on Sunday is a vital game that we have to win. He also said that it's great to have Theo back and he looks really sharp in training and once he gets games and minutes under his belt he'll play a big part in our season as he's a very important player for us. When the boss was asked about this season being a big season for Theo as the World cup squad will be chosen at the end of it he stopped the reporter short and told him it was a big season with Arsenal not for the World Cup. He said the club do not pay players to go to the World cup but to play for their clubs and do well. Any of our players who play well enough will go to the World Cup as long as their country is going as well of course. The players are all good enough and it's just a matter of doing it on the pitch to show that they deserve a spot in their country's squads in my opinion.

With the African Cup of Nations coming up in January there's an article which details which players will be missing from which club and with Song and Eboue missing for us we aren't as badly affected as a few other clubs. The question mark for me has always been who replaces Song and with Denilson back to fitness he seems to be the favourite. I have never thought that he is a defensive midfielder in the way that Song has developed and I would worry about our prospects for as long as Song is playing with Cameroon. The competition itself starts on January 10th so I would imagine that we will be missing the 2 of them from the 1st of January onwards. I've said all along that I think we should buy or borrow a replacement in January but as it approaches I doubt that the boss feels the same way.

In other news Stan Kroenke has bought 10 more shares in the club as he edges closer to a potential take over. He's doing it bit by bit and I'm sure he knows exactly when he intends buying the shares that will tip him over the 30% mark and trigger that bid for all the other shares. Kolo Toure has said that he had to leave the club because of a whispering campaign against him by another player at the club. He claims that the un named player told the boss they couldn't play together and he didn't get much game time as a result. I know he had his problems with Gallas but he was dropped prior to Christmas last season as his form was very bad and he regained his form after putting in a transfer request and he played for the rest of the season. I'm sure he had his head turned by City last January and he waited until the summer before the club would sell him as they had bought The Verminator to replace him. He said he had wanted to finish his career at Arsenal but I also think that he realised his days were numbered in the first team and his opportunities would be limited so he took the big money on offer from City. It's a pity that we had to hear his thoughts on the matter but I suppose he felt he had to get them out there and he was a legend in his day at the club. That's it for today except to wish my wife a happy 20th wedding anniversary and for obvious reasons I won't be watching the match tonight.

Here's a little bit of what the talented Vela can do.

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And to finish here's today's title track from The Cure. All I want is a league championship and A champions league and it would seem that Cesc feels the same way too.

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See You Tomorrow.