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.

I had been waiting for the return of proper football all through the interlull so that I could write about some proper Arsenal news again but our defeat to Sunderland on Saturday has put a bit of a dampner on that. At least we can get straight back on the horse tomorrow night at home to Liege in the Champions league as we look to get the win we need to win our group or at worst the draw that will ensure qualification. With the game coming so quickly after the Sunderland game I'm sure there will be some changes as players are rested with Chelsea in mind or given a break after a hectic interlull for some of them.

There are a lot of options open to the boss in just about every position. Gibbs might be back and Eboue seems to be the right back of choice in the Champions league but I hope he keeps the central defensive pairing intact. Ramsey didn't really shine on Saturday but he might be a lot more effective in a home game where the opposition need a result and he has a bit of room to play. I hope both Song and Cesc play from the start too as I thought they were our 2 best players on Saturday and Eduardo deserves another chance even though he was poor on Saturday. If he manages 1 goal I have a feeling that the floodgates will open for him and plenty more goals will flow. It was good to see Theo come back as well and I have a funny feeling he will start as he needs to get some game time in.

After yesterday's games we are now only ahead of The Spuds on goal difference again although we have a game in hand and the experts are again predicting that they will finish ahead of us. Let them predict all they want but there's not a hope of it happening and a 9-1 win against Wigan isn't going to change that. My only regret about the game is that I used to have Lennon and Defoe in my fantasy team and they got a combined score of 43 points yesterday which would have really helped me a lot. However as Lady Arse commented yesterday I'm better off without them as it did make me "feel dirty" having them in my team. My team had a fairly OK weekend without them anyway but for some bizzare reason I didn't put David Dunn into my team after advising everybody else to do so. He managed 10 points yesterday and he plays again on Wednesday night. I should really listen to my own advice and if I had made him my captain I would almost surely be sitting on top of almost every league I'm in by the end of Wednesday night's game. While I'm talking Fantasy football it's good to see Jimmy Bullard back and he's a good buy at the price he is at the moment. It's just a pity that he plays for Phil Brown and if he keeps playing like he is at the moment he will save Brown's job for him. I'll preview the Liege game tomorrow so that's it for today.

Here's the goals from our 3-2 win away to Liege in September.

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And to finish today's title track from Radiohead. We are just ahead of The Spuds on goal difference, just about in the last 16 of the Champions league and just about to play our most important game of the season so far against Chelsea next Sunday. 

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See You Tomorrow.

Our unbeaten run came to anabrupt end yesterday as we went down 1-0 to Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. In a game which was very close and hard fought we lost to their only shot on target in the match when Darren Bent scored with 20 minutes left. The goal came when a Reid corner was headed by Bent but went away from the goal. It hit Campbell on the shin as he tried to control it and went straight back to Bent who poked it home as Almunia tried to smother it. Campbell's touch was poor but he found space in the box by pulling away from Rosicky who was on the post and couldn't leave it. I'm sure somebody else should have being marking him as Rosicky's job was to mark the post and that's something that the boss will have to look at.

Overall we didn't play well and we found it hard to create anything in a game where Sunderland worked very hard to close us down and try to break up our passing game. The few chances we created were spurned and we also had a genuine penalty claim turned down in injury time as Campbell definitely took Vela before the ball in a tackle. Vela may have made a bit of a meal of it but in my opinion it was a penalty. It would seem that the ghost of Eduardo's "dive" against Celtic is still with us and it will be interesting to see how long it will be before we get a penalty. I think Eduardo had a hard time in such a tight game and I'm sure he will score plenty of goals in the weeks to come but it was obvious how much we missed RVP yesterday. With the players just back from international duty the boss had very little time to work with them and he will have to do a lot of work between Wednesday and Sunday to make sure we put in the performance that we need against Chelsea. We find ourselves 8 points adrift of Chelsea with a game in hand and a defeat next week would make that a huge 11 point gap this early in the season. I'm sure the boss will have that in mind as he picks the team to play Liege on Tuesday night and I expect to see a few changes in the team. At least we will have a 5 day break before the Chelsea game and the players will get some r & r as well as the boss's input into what we need to do.

I also thought that Traore had a poor game yesterday as far as his defending went anyway. I had questioned his defensive capabilities before the game and it would appear that I was right as he was caught out of position too often in the first half particularly. Malbranque made a mess of 2 good chances in that first half as he drifted in from their right and Traore was nowhere to be seen. I know he's only young and he has a lot to learn but I hope Gibbs is back for the Chelsea game. Traore was also very lucky not to be sent off in injury time as his lunge on Richardson was a definite red card in my opinion. The boss says that we failed as a team as we didn't perform at the level that we can but he doesn't think we missed anyone in particular. I thought our 2 best players were Cesc and Song and if we had scored first we would have gone on to win as Sunderland would have had to come out of their shell. Games as tight as that are usually decided by the 1st goal and unfortunately we didn't get it but it's not the end of the world and I am sure the team will bounce back from this setback with a top class performance against Chelsea.

Our under 18s managed a 3-0 win at Southampton yesterday as they stayed top of their league with the goals coming from Aneke(2) and Afobe. It was a bad weekend for the club against Sunderland as our ladies team lost their 100% record for the season as they went down 2-1 at Sunderland and although they are third in the table and Everton are 7th I'm sure the league will be a straight race between the 2 of them by the end of the season as they both have a rake of games in hand. The club are in talks with Vela, Rosicky and Gallas at the moment about extending their contracts and hopefully we will keep all 3 as they all have a lot to offer the team. I'll leave it there for today as I have to work for a couple of hours soon as I look to build up some more time off even though I'll only be working for 1 of the next 7 weeks. I'm sorry about the late post again but we went to a benefit night for a local injured footballer last night and had a few friends back to our house afterwards. I'm not as able to recover from staying up to 6am as I used to be and hence the late post.

Here's the highlights from yesterday.

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And to finish today's title track from UB40. We can't afford to slow down now and we have to pick up the pace for Tuesday night and next Sunday night in particular.

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See You Tomorrow.

The real football returns today as Arsenal make a trip to Steve Bruce's Sunderland as we get our league campaign up and running again. With RVP & Gibbs injured we are at least able to welcome back Theo, Denilson, Traore, Wilshere & Vela and within the week we should have Fabianski, Diaby and Gibbs available too. As I said before it's going to leave the boss with a few headaches when it comes to team selection and a few players may not be happy at being omitted. I'm sure with 2 games a week from here until just before Christmas that most of the players will get a fair crack of the whip and it's up to them to grab their chance when they get it.

With that in mind I think the team for today will be Almunia, Sagna, Traore, Gallas, The Verminator, Song, Cesc, Rosicky, Arshavin, Nasri & Eduardo with Don Vito, Silvestre, Theo, Eboue, Ramsey, Vela & Denilson on the bench. I could be wrong and the 2 players most likely to get into the team from my suggested bench are Ramsey and Eboue with Silvestre also a posibility at left back. The boss has hinted that Sagna and Gallas may be rested after playing 120 minutes for France on Wednesday night and Arshavin may be rested too after a long journey and a bitter disappointment with his country. My team is what I see as the ideal team and I would hope if we rest our 2 French defenders that Silvestre will not replace either of them. I suppose Eboue and Senderos could play but I think it's dangerous to make so many changes in the defence.

Hopefully we can get right back into the rhythm that we were in before the international break and bring our game to Sunderland. We may have more injuries than most teams in the league but Sunderland will find it difficult without Jones and Cattermole in their team. Luckily for us Jones got himself a straight red card a couple of games ago and he's serving a 3 match ban and Cattermole is out injured. We will get to see exactly how good Cana is as we were heavily linked with him last summer but the boss decided that Song was the man for him in that position. Bent has been in good goalscoring form since he left The Spuds but he will find it harder without Jones to help him. If things aren't working out up front at least we have Vela and Theo on the bench to give us options.

There was an interesting stat on the club site about us not having scored a goal in the first 15 minutes of a game yet this season despite having scored 55 goals in 19 matches and an early goal today would be very welcome. Even if we don't get that early goal I think we have more than enough to beat Sunderland as long as we give the game everything we have and don't take them for granted. I'm predicting a 2-1 win for Arsenal with Eduardo and Cesc scoring the goals that help to keep the pressure on Chelsea before they visit The Emirates next Sunday. They are having injury problems of their own too with Lampard reportedly getting a bit of RVP style placenta fluid therapy for his injury. Drogba has a broken rib or 2 thanks to Johnny Evans too and I'd love to play them without those 2 players but we'll see if Drogba returns and Lampard seems certain to miss the game.

The match is live on the radio in Ireland but I imagine I will try to get a stream and watch the game live. I'll be checking Twitter before the game as I find there's no better place to find a stream and the chat among fellow Gooners during the game is always enjoyable. I won't be visiting the supporters club for the match either as it's not live on the TV as far as I know and I'm also going to miss the Champions league group game on Tuesday night as it's my 20th wedding anniversary. I will however get to meet up with all my fellow Wicklow Gunners for the Chelsea game and I'm really looking forward to it as I haven't been able to watch a game out there since the 4-1 win against AZ on November 4th.

In other Arsenal news the boss seems happy that the qualifiers for Euro 2012 can be played on Friday and Tuesday instead of Saturday and Wednesday and he thinks that it will catch on and give players 1 extra game to recouperate after their international committments. Wojceich Szczesny has joined Brentford on loan for a month which probably means that Don Vito will play against City in the Carling Cup unless the boss feels Fabianski needs a run out after his recovery from his injury which he received against Liverpool in the last round. Our ladies have drawn the holders FCR 2001 Duisburg of Germany in the quarter finals of the ladies Champions league and if they can win that very tough tie they will have Potsdam of Germany or Roa of Norway in the semi finals. The games will be played on March 10th and 17th and I wish the ladies good luck as they will need it.

Congratulations to Lady Arse who won a football signed by the first team squad on Arsenal TV last night and hopefully we'll get to see a picture of it when it's delivered. The boss has had his say on the whole Thierry Henry/France/Ireland affair and he thinks the game should be replayed to be fair to Ireland. I agree with him but I can't see it happening with FIFA in charge. Incidentally did anyone hear a single word about the whole thing from Platini yet? The boss has also called for the introduction of video technology to ensure that we don't get these ridiculous decisions in the future and again that's up to FIFA and they are dead set against it. That's it for today.

Here's the Arsenal fund raising day advert in case you haven't seen it.

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And to finish today's title track from The Clash. It's for Eduardo who has his chance today to answer the call up that he has wanted since his horriffic injury last season.

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See You Tomorrow.

The debate about Thierry Henry's handball against Ireland rages unabated here in Ireland but I'm going to leave it behind and talk about some really interesting football instead. The manager told us yesterday that Denilson, Fabianski, Vela and Traore are all available to play against Sunderland tomorrow and it means that we come out of the international break with more players available than when we went in for the first time that I can remember. Of course we have lost RVP for the next 6 weeks at least and that's a shame with the form he's been in but we are the top scorers in the league and the goals are coming from everywhere in the team. With Eduardo and Vela available to play this weekend we have enough firepower to beat Sunderland but I'll preview that game tomorrow. Theo, Diaby and Wilshere are all very close to returning also and the good news about Gibbs is that he has not broken any bones but he has brusing on his bones and soft tissue on his right foot. Gibbs has a chance of being ready for the Champions league game against Standard on Tuesday and he should definitely be ready for the Chelsea game the weekend after.

There were stupid rumours in the papers last week that Eduardo was on his way to Liverpool but they have been well and truly been put to bed as he has signed a new contract at the club which will keep him with us for a few more years at least. The boss has said how he is quite happy with the outcome of the injuries for RVP and Gibbs as when he first heard they were injured he feared they would be missing for a lot longer. With Traore available to cover for Gibbs we will still have 3 of our best defence available and that will make it easier on him if he does fill in at left back. In midfield we have a wealth of talent available and the manager will have to think long and hard about who he picks and who he puts on the bench as well. Some players are bound to be disappointed by any decisions that are made but that's why the boss is paid so much money.

Some of our players did very well with their countries over the last week or so and we will have quite a few players at the World cup next year. The French squad should include Gallas, Sagna, Clichy, Diaby and maybe Nasei too. Both Senderos and Djourou should be there with Switzerland Eboue will be there with the Ivory Coast as will Song with Cameroon. I'm sure Theo will be in the England squad and Gibbs is a possibility too but I think Wilshere is very much an outside bet at this stage. Cesc is an absolute certainty for Spain and Vela, Bendtner and RVP will be there with Mexico, Denmark and Holland respectively. That's a total of 15 players at the very most who will be getting very short holidays next summer. Let's hope it doesn't affect us too much next season. In addition a number of our players scored for their countries during the last week. Ramsey got 1 against Scotland for Wales as he ran the show in a 3-0 friendly win, Eboue scored 1 of the Ivory Coast's goals in a 2-2 draw away to Germany, The Verminator managed a goal as Belgium beat Hungary 3-0, Eduardo scored 2 as Croatia beat Liechtenstein 5-0, Gallas scored the all important goal that qualified France for the World Cup against Ireland and of course Cesc scored for Spain in a 5-1 win in Austria. Our players just seem to love scoring at the moment although we have not scored a goal in the first 15 minutes of any match yet this season despite having scored 55 goals in 19 matches. That is sure to be remedyed very soon and hopefully it will be this week. With 9 matches in 29 days between now and Christmas week we can expect an awful lot to report and talk about.

I have the day off work and all next week too but I have made myself available for an hour and a half of work at 5.30 this evening that is very near to my home and the same again at 6 on Sunday evening. With football at 7.30 tonight I'll be in a hurry to get there on time but as we will be playing for 90 minutes I can live with starting a few minutes late. The Arsenal match is live on the radio tomorrow here in Ireland but as of yet I don't know if it's on the TV so I'm not sure what my plans are at 3 tomorrow afternoon. If I can't watch the game I think I'll listen in and spend the duration on Twitter too. I'm part of a fairly big Arsenal community on Twitter and news and reports come thick and fast. The goals from a game are usually available to see pretty quickly and it's always a good place to get a stream for live matches. The link to my Tweets are in the side bar and if you're new to it just send me a Tweet and I'll try to hook you up with fellow Gooners. Well that's about it for today and with our season back in full swing tomorrow things are looking up again.

Here's a little bit of what Eduardo can do.

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And to finish today's title track from Bob Marley and The Wailers. There is a poitive vibration about the club after an international break for a change despite the RVP injury.

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See You Tomorrow.

Yet another late blog today due to circumstances beyond my control yet again but as I have no work after today until Monday November 30th normal service should be resumed. I blame it all on Thierry Henry as after playing football last night I made my way home to watch the last hour of the France v Ireland World cup play off and I was delighted to hear Ireland score the goal that put them back in the tie just before I got out of my car. At half time I put on a home made pizza and quickly started downing a few bottles of Heineken to help me to ease the tension. Ireland completely outplayed France for most of the match and when they didn't take subsuquent chances that came their way I was worried. The game went into extra time and penalties loomed in half an hours time before the intervention of Henry in the first period of extra time. A high ball into the Irish box should have been cleared but it wasn't and as it was about to go wide Henry handled it twice before poking it back across the goal for Gallas to head into an empty net. If Eduardo was on a charge of purposely deceiving the referee for his supposed dive then Henry will have to be charged too but I won't be holding my breath. Apparently he even admitted it afterwards but still I don't expect FIFA or UEFA to act on his admission. It's a shame that a player I consider to be Arsenal's greatest player ever has sullied his good name by doing this and as a result the benefits for his country as it guarenteed qualification for the World Cup.

In Arsenal news Eduardo signed a new long term contract yesterday and I think that shows that the boss believes that he is over his injury troubles with his leg. I think he's a fantastic goalscorer and I'm delighted he has signed on for a few more years. Arshavin will have the summer off as Russia were beaten in their play off by Slovenia and Eboue managed to score for Ivory Coast in a 2-2 friendly draw against Germany. Cesc also managed to score a goal as Spain won 5-1 in Austria despite going 1-0 down. All of our players will be back at the club today and/or tomorrow and we will know then how we stand as regards injuries and fitness but there was some good news yesterday as the club announced that Gibbs has not broken any bones in his foot but he does have briusing to the bones and soft tissue in his right foot. If it was me I would be able to play with my left foot in that condition as it's only for standing on seeming as I'm right footed.

There isn't a whole lot of other Arsenal news today as we wait for those players to return but over here in Ireland the only football topic of conversation on the TV, Radio, in the streets and in the workplace is Henry and his apology on Twitter where he apparently said that if he hurt anyone he's "sorry". We have government ministers attempting to get the match replayed and Henry has become public enemy number 1 with the majority of the 4 million inhabitants of the Republic. I could have taken a defeat if it was deserved but to have it taken from you by foul means is a bitter pill to swallow. I have removed Henry from my list of favourite players on Oleole and it will be a long time before I forgive him. If France believe in fair play they should offer to replay the match and the main instigator behind it should be Platini. Let's see what he's really made of - as if we didn't know already. That's it for today but it should be back to all things Arsenal tomorrow.

Here's a look at Henry's handball.

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And to finish today's title track from The Clash and it expresses how we as a nation feel for Thierry Henry.

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See You Tomorrow.