It's going to be a very quick blog today as the festivities continue at pace. I spent the day at the sales today and it's off to my sister in law's house for some more beer tonight. God help my liver or what's left of it. First of all at least we won yesterday but by all accounts it was very ugly to say the least. But a win is a win. Well done Gallas for scoring and we did manage a clean sheet.

The title above refers to the fact that the manager seems to pick the same old faces game in and game out regardless of their performances or lack of effort in previous games. Any other club that would allow Eboue to play as badly and try as little as he did against Wigan and continue to keep him in the first team squad doesn't care about the fans and the sacrifices they make sometimes to support their beloved club. We have players on the pitch who should not play for Arsenal but continue to get a game when youngsters who deserve a chance just can't get one.

The fans have wanted Vela to get a chance and he very rarely does but he appearently showed in his brief appearence yesterday what we all thought he had and tried as hard as we would hope. I still don't think he will start the next league game and it appears Eboue, Diaby, Denilson or Bendtner are ahead of him for the left midfield position. I can't fathom it, can you ?

In other news the manager has said that he would like to bring in an experienced player who will be ready to play straight away. I hope he does it. Jay Simpson has signed a new long term contract. Yaya Toure says he won't be joining us. Cesc says Alonso has been calling him every day since he injured him in the Liverpool match. Almunia says that Gallas is still really the captain at Arsenal and the other players follow him. Go figure that. I have to go now and I'll leave you with the usual clips.

Here's a clip of us beating our next league opponents Bolton.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wFjjhkRM4c

And to finish the title track by The Smiths.

It's a lovely sunny day here in Dublin if a bit cold. I'm just back from an 8 a side match where I helped a friend to win a €100 bet and I intend to find a live stream of the match at home to Portsmouth today and enjoy what will hopefully be a good win. I am predicting a 2-0 win for us with Adebayor scoring both. If you look at the statistics we are on our best run of the season as we are unbeaten in 5 league matches. However we have also not won any of our last 3 league matches so if your a pessimist we're on a bad run. Damn statistics, they can prove just about anything you want to prove if you set out to do so.

We will have Adebayor & Clichy back today but I don't know if Djourou will be fit or not. If he isn't fit we will see Gallas & Toure resume their ineffective partnership in the centre which is a little worrying as they are up against the stick insect Crouch today. The other choices the manager must make are in midfield where we don't have too many options. I hope he shows some adventure and plays either Vela or Rambo but I know he won't play both.

In transfer news we have been linked with Given, N'zogbia & Taylor of Newcastle and Distin of Portsmouth. To be honest I hope it's all just paper talk as none of them are good enough to improve on what we have at the moment. We want and need top quality players brought in during the transfer window. That's the lot for today as I need some food before the match. Come on you Gunners.

Here's a clip of what young Vela can do when he gets a chance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe6_AuTp8uM

And to finish the title song from above by Morrissey as it is hard to tell what day of the week it is at the moment.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe6_AuTp8uM

Yesterday's game was very strange to say the least. While watching Arsenal go 2-0 up a friend said to me that if we won it would only be papering over the cracks and I agreed with him. Nobody was confident that we would hold onto our lead and once Gallas stupidly gave away the penalty there was an impending sense of doom about the place. Sure enough in injury time we were outnumbered at the back yet again and the ball luckily fell to Davies and he put it away.

During the first half it was embarrassing at times to watch Arsenal because they were so bad. I thought Song had his worst game yet and Silvestre was terrible too. Kolo came in when Djourou got injured in the warm up and he had a poor game by his standards. His touch and passing seem to have deserted him altogether and I hope Djourou will be back for the home game against Portsmouth. We will have Adebayor back and hopefully Clichy will return too because even though he has been poor recently he is still streets ahead of Silvestre. I lost count of the amount of times that Nasri had nobody to pass to as Silvestre just didn't back him up. I can't remember seeing an Arsenal, under Wenger, team pass as poorly as we did in the first half.

Denilson played quite well and he did very well to make his goal for himself and suddenly we started to play. Our second goal was absolutely fantastic and Diaby and Eboue did exceptionally well to make and take it between them. To be honest though it didn't make up for how poor they had been for almost all of the first half. The confidence ran through the team and we looked very well and RVP even hit the post but that all disappeared when Villa got their first goal back. I can't understand how we can play with confidence at 1-0 and devoid of it at 2-1. Are these players so brittle that 1 goal against them makes them fall apart ? 

Before the game I would have gladly taken a draw but in the end it was a disastourous result for our league position and the players' confidence. There were few positives from the game but I thought Sagna was back to his very best and played superbly. He kept Ashley Young very quiet. I thought Denilson played well and Rambo did quite well when he came on. RVP tried with all his might and almost scored 1 but he didn't get much service. Gallas looked to be having a good game until his schoolboy error cost us the penalty and that just isn't up to the standard required. Besides that there was very little in terms of effort, skill or commitment from the rest of the team. Nasri was OK but no more(he failed to track Milner at one stage which almost cost us a goal), Almunia still won't or can't command his area and I've mentioned the others already. Surely we could have had Nasri on the right and Vela on the left. How does the manager pick Eboue ahead of Vela. He may have made our second goal but he is not good enough to play for us.

Ahead of the Portsmouth game we should be without Song due to the injury he picked up and at least that is good news. I get the horrible feeling that Eboue will play again though.  We have been linked with Yaya Toure again today and I think we could do a lot worse. He would certainly improve our team if he played instead of Song in a holding position. We need to buy players who will improve our first team at the moment as we simply are not good enough. We do not need squad players as we have a squad almost full of squad players. With Cesc injured there are probably only 5 or 6 players out there who are at a levelthat is good enough to compete in the league. We need to sort that out nowwhile we still have a chance to finish 4th. There is a lot of potential in the younger players but these are the players who aren't getting a chance at the moment anyway. That's it for today and I'll preview the Portsmouth game tomorrow.

Here's the highlights of yesterday's game with thanks to Boxofficefootball again.

 http://www.boxofficefootball.com/index.php?s=aston+villa+v+arsenal

And to finish the title track from The Cardigans because I am "Sick And Tired" of this team letting us down time and again.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8paAUN6lC3I

See You Tomorrow.

ps - I have to go to the pub again tonight. Damn you Christmas.

Loads of lovely lucre ! If we are to believe the press and the board we have loads of money to spend in the transfer window. If that is the case the manager has to spend and spend big. The experiment with the kids may well work but if they don't have some more experienced players to bring them through then the whole house of cards may well collapse. If we don't qualify for next seasons Champions League we will find it hard to keep our best players and even harder to attract new players for next season. In the current economic climate I believe that many fans will question the purchase of season tickets if the football isn't up to the quality that they have grown accustomed to. Make no mistake we are only playing well on a very rare occasion and the rest of the time we are mediocre at best. Even at the moment there are a lot of empty seats in the stadium. These may belong to season ticket holders but when people don't show then they don't spend money in the club shop or on refreshments. These seats don't seem to be going on the ticket re sale part of the club site so it is all very worrying.

We, the fans, are the investors in the club and at the moment the manager has the chance to make some changes that will restore confidience in the club for us. If he does so then he can expect to see bums on seats again and season ticket sales at the same high level that they are at the moment. I hope we can buy the likes of Ribery, Senna, Arshavin, Hangeland & Arteta. I don't mean all of them but some would be nice.

Anyway on to today's game and our lack of options for the trip to Villa. I hope the boss has thought long and hard about his tactics and team selection and doesn't use the same failed tactics and his usual favourites. If he can put some trust in at least 1 of the youngsters(possibly Rambo) then I think it may revitalise the team. I predict a 2-1 win for us with RVP bagging a brace. We need a good game from him today. I hope we play 5 in the middle with him up front on his own.

I'll be going to the supporter's club in The Strand in Bray today to watch the game with some fellow Gunners. It's back to a family party in  my sister in law's house afterwards where I can continue the festivities of the season. I hope anyone who reads my blog had a great day yesterday and that they enjoy the rest of the holiday season. That's it for today.

Here's a clip of what we have seen in the past from RVP and hopefully we'll get some more of it today.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V9Yew5RvO4&feature=rec-HM-fresh+div

And to finish the title track from above by Space (oops I couldn't find it and I have to go - so here's"Neighbourhood instead).

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi81DkeTkLo

See You Tomorrow.

My wish for the new year is for "Deliverance" from the state the team is currently in. We need to buy some top quality players in the transfer window and maybe bring young Armand Traore back from his loan spell. We could have him playing wide left from January 1st and he might be 1 of the pieces we are missing from our jigsaw. He has done well at Portsmouth but has spent a lot of time injured. I think he might jump at the chance to play in an attacking role for us. Elsewhere Arseblogger has mentioned Arteta as a possible replacement for Cesc. I think that is a great call and he would relish the chance to play for a club like Arsenal. He has loads of Premier league experience and he is a really good player. Go and get him Arsene. Don't be afraid to spend the money. I also think that the manager has to look at other players he has other than always using the same midfielders. Some of the younger players deserve a chance. They shouldn't all be thrown in together but 1 from the start or the bench occasionally wouldn't hurt the team. You know who I'm talking about - Wilshere, Rambo & Vela in particular but also Gibbs or Lansbury.

Besides those 2 players we are again linked with Arshavin, Senna, Yaya Toure, Inler, Matuidi & Noble. These players have all been linked with us recently and the speculation is really hotting up now. Every club will know we need players so I don't think we will see too many bargains available. Then again a lot of clubs need money and we have loads of it supposedly.

The good news for today is that Cesc won't need an operation but as I said yesterday I don't expect to see him again this season. Inter are rumoured to be after Adebayor again but we would be mad to sell. The boss has said he has no regrets about selling Diarra last January as the player signed for us knowing who was ahead of him in the pecking order and that he would have to wait and then he refused to do so. What else could he do ? The boss has said that Graham Poll is an embarrassment and after his comments about not sending off the likes of Terry I must admit Wenger is right. It doesn't matter who commits an offence it is the offence that has to be judged and nothing else. We all know that English national captains have had preferable treatment over the years though and we didn't need Poll to tell us. That's the lot for today except to wish everybody A Merry Chrismas and I hope you don't drink too much or eat too much either, unless of course you really want to, like me.

Here's clip of a godd goal by RVP against Villa(let's hope he can do it again).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npj9DFLLVTw

And to finish the title track from The Mission.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk8xf0QF9Kg

See You Tomorrow(maybe).

The title above comes to us courtesy of the news that we will be without Cesc for up to 4 months. That would have him coming back at the end of April and realistically I think his season is now over. It means that the manager has now said that he will have to probably splash the cash in January. I thought that there was nobody out there that would improve on what we have or at least I thought that was his opinion.We have been linked with Arshavin again today and I would imagine that we will be linked with all and sudry over the next 5 weeks or so. There was also another mention of Ribery and we appearently got £5 million in a sell on clause when Diarra joined Madrid.

We now have a likely midfield on Friday at Villa of Denilson, Diaby, Nasri & Song. With Adebayor suspended it leaves the team looking very sparse and I am wondering where we are going to get any creation from. I'd gladly take a draw at this stage but I hope the players can play with the spirit they showed for the last half hour against Liverpool and maybe we can get our revenge on Villa.

Adebayor thinks the title race is wide open and he has a point but there cannot be many people who think we are 1 of the genuine contenders. It will be interesting to see who our captain will be on Friday as there are not many candidates. If Kolo plays he would be my choice but Almunia will probably get the job. Speaking of our goalkeeper I thought he was at fault for the goal Liverpool scored on Sunday as he should have come for the ball over the top. I know Djourou and Gallas didn't cover themselves in glory on the goal either but I do find Almunia's decision making odd at times.

The boss has said he has not received any bids for Bendtner or Kolo. Bendtner was rumoured to have turned down a move to Spartak Moscow and Man City supposedly want Kolo. Jay Simpson will be going to West Brom on loan for the rest of the season from next week according to the player and I hope it goes well for him. Finally it was great to see John Terry getting sent off last night and Chelsea still don't seem to want to overtake Liverpool at the top of the table. United must be very happy with how things are going at the moment.

Here's a clip of a goal by Diaby against Villa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WHOjxDsTZo

And to finish the title track from above by Madness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJTT5JgZHSU

When all things are considered I suppose yesterday's 1-1 draw with Liverpool was about as good as we could wish for. With Cesc getting injured in the first half and Adebayor getting sent off after more or less an hour we have to be happy that at least we didn't lose. It means we go into Friday's game at Villa 3 points behind them and a win would be great but we must avoid a defeat at all costs. I still maintain that we are out of the hunt for the league and I want the boss to treat the FA Cup with the utmost respect in January as it is our main hope of a trophy. We need Villa to start feeling the pressure of being in 4th place and put a good run together from here on in. At least we are 4 league games unbeaten at the moment and that is something to build on.

As for the Liverpool match I didn't think it was a particularly good game but we were doing well enough until they equalised and then we seemed to lose confidience. We could have gone behind and when Adebayor got sent off I was really worried. However the 10 remaining players stepped up to the plate and performed very well. It was good to see a couple of players take yellow cards for being professional and bringing their man down when they were beaten. To be honest I don't think Liverpool really went for the game when we had 10 men and they seemed happy enough with a draw. I was delighted that RVP scored with his chocolate leg again as he did against Chelsea. I did say yesterday that I thought he might do just that. I thought that Diaby overdid it almost every time he got the ball. You can see teams are using 2 or 3 players to tackle him when he has it as they know he won't pass and they will win it off him.

I watched the game in my local pub with some Liverpool supporting friends and us Gunners were outnumbered by about 10-1 but we still made ourselves heard when we scored. Mind you the roar was deafening when Liverpool scored and various people told me they knew Keane would score. These were the same people who groaned when they saw he was playing. I stumbled home afterwards and I have another big night tonight with my work Christmas party on and then work in the morning.

As we stand there is no definite word on when Cesc will be back from his injury but the club have said there will be word on the web site tomorrow afternoon. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it's only 2 or 3 weeks as we need our captain in the side. Adebayor doesn't think he should have been sent off as he reckons he went in to protect the ball and the player made a meal of it. However once you are on a yellow card you have to be carefull, especially when the referee doesn't actually understand the game. I can see why the referee sent him off even though I do think that it was harsh. We won't have him for the trip to Villa on Friday which means that Bendtner will probably play. God help us !

The boss has said that Vela is going nowhere on loan and that he is not interested in Tevez or Arshavin. I'm not interested in Arshavin either as I heard it leaves a nasty rash. It's all a bit too David Beckhamesque for me. In transfer news there isn't too much out there. Wayne Hennessey is mentioned again and not much else. That's it for today.

Here's the highlights of yesterday's game(thank you Boxofficefootball again).

http://www.boxofficefootball.com/2008/12/21/arsenal-vs-liverpool-live-game-now/

And to finish some Music from an old favourite of mine - New Model Army.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liyaXjf_WSI

Here we are again. Our most important match of the season is upon us again and we go into it hoping that we can show up with our heads right and knowing that nothing less than a win will do. Don't get me wrong, if we draw it won't be the end of the world but if we can win today and then beat Villa and Portsmouth there might actually be light at the end of the tunnel. If we lose I think that the light will have gone out as we will be 11 points behind Liverpool but also we will be too far behind United, Chelsea and maybe(although I think we can catch them) Villa.

We need to play the game like we played against united and Chelsea and we need to take our chances. If we get a lucky win it doesn't matter, so long as it's a win. I'm going for 3-1 to us with 2 goals from Adebayor and 1 from RVP. Call me optimistic or foolish but I don't like Liverpool's style and I can see them losing their place at the top of the league after Christmas. As I said yesterday, how can a team with Dirk Kuyt in it be on top of the league ? I gave my thoughts on the possible team yesterday and my 2 biggest wishes are that Nasri is back and Song doesn't play.

Danny Fiszman has been quoted as saying that we have begun talking to Usmanov but that he will never let Arsenal come under foreign ownership. Elsewhere both Usmanov and Kroenke have appearently said that they don't want to take over the club. There is an awful lot going on in the boardroom at the moment but I'm sure it won't effect the team. As long as the money we need is there in January they can do as they please for the moment.

RVP has said it is a miracle we are still in the title race and he wants to shoot Liverpool down like he shot Chelsea down. Let's hope that he can put away any chances he gets with his chocolate leg today because he has missed quite a few with it since that goal against Chelsea. At least he is shooting with it now as he always used to try to work the ball on to his left previously. I hope he can get the Christmas miracle he wants.

In transfer speculation we have been linked with a host of players today which is to be expected when the board say we have money to spend. According to a few reports we are trying to sign Carlos Tevez from United or whoever owns his registration. We are also linked with the following players again - Andrei Arshavin of Zenit St. Petersburg, Gokhan Inler of Udinese and a new one on me - Steve Finnan. There are also reports that Real Madrid are trying to tap up our boss but that is a non runner. I'll be in the pub with some Liverpool fans watching today but I hope I'll be going home happy and not them. Either way we'll all be going home drunk. That's it for today. For anybody going to the game I hope you have a great day and enjoy another great win. Sing as loud as you can and keep the faith no matter how hard it is do so.

Here's Adebayor's goal against them last season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRWuZDKe_PY

And to finish the title track from above by The Smiths(I like to call it the greatest song ever written).

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INgXzChwipY

We have Liverpool at home tomorrow in another must win game for us. We need a few "heroes" out there and hopefully our big players will step up on the big occasion. If we can get Cesc, Clichy, Sagna, Gallas, Djourou, Nasri, Adebayor & RVP at their best we can certainly beat them(even with Song in the team). They are at the top of the league at the moment even though their football isn't exactly in the style that their fans were used to in the past. In my opinion they play a rather direct game and home to capitalise on mistakes by the opposition. They play a very high tempo game and close the opposition down all over the field. It's a mystery to me how the likes of Dirk Kuyt can get into a team who are winning the league as he is the exact opposite of what you expect from a Dutch player. However he does have a nasty habit of scoring against us and hopefully he won't tomorrow. It appears that they won't have Torres tomorrow which is great news for our defence as they have found him to be such a handfull in the past. Robbie Keane seems to be out of favour also and it will be interesting to see who plays as a a striker for them tomorrow.

We may well have Nasri back for the match which would be a big bonus as it would give us some width but the problem would then be in the wide right position. The options are Denilson, Diaby or Eboue in the manager's opinion but surely we could play a youngster or play Vela left and Nasri right. We have let Pennant, Bentley & Larsson go in the last few years and to be honest all of them would probably get a game for us at the moment. Our ability to bring youngsters through has always been good but if we let players go that could do a job for us, is that wise considering what we have left.

The boss has said that he will call the shots when it comes to transfers in January and there is an interesting piece on "Le Grove" naming players who the author thinks we could sign to strengthen our team. I may not agree with him on all of them but it shows that the boss was wrong when he said he can't find anyone to improve upon what we have already. The boss has also said that he thinks it will take 78-85 points to win the league this season as it is closer than it has been in a long time at the top. With Aston Villa winning today they have to considered contenders more than we are at the moment and our game at Villa on Friday takes on an awful lot of signifigance for us in particular.

We are linked with Jimmy Bullard of Fulham today and Andrei Arshavin of Zenit St. Petersburg and various others who we have seen mentioned before over the past few weeks. I really hope we can sign some genuine quality as soon as the window opens to try to salvage something from our disappointing season so far. That's the lot for today and I'll give my prediction tomorrow.

Here's a super goal by Rosicky against Liverpool at Anfield.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud4E-VgorlE

And to finish the title track from above by David Bowie.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf5UkdCh5Bw

See You Tomorrow.

As I write this Eduardo is making his comeback for the reserves against Portsmouth. Let's hope it goes well for him and from a selfish perspective let's hope he's back in the first team soon as we could do with his goals. We are faced with another must win game on Sunday and all our league games seem to be must win games now. Paddy Vieira has said that we lack togetherness and I have to agree with him. However he also thinks that Denilson is a great prospect and can replace Flamini. I get frustrated every time I see Denilson play because he just doesn't seem to know what to do with the ball. I do expect him and Song to play at the weekend and to work hard at closing Liverpool down but without some width I can't see either of them breaking Liverpool down. I hope I'm wrong.

Ahead of that game it has been announced that the players, directors & staff of the club are donating their days pay to the club's charity of the season. If you want to make a donation you can find out how on Arseblogger's blog. I am all for it but I also hope that the players can donate a good display to the fans. Arsenal.com has won an award as UK Sports website of the year which I'm sure will make the club very happy. I must say I've always found the site easy to use and fairly informative in so far as it can go. It's good for wallpapers when we win games. Gavin Hoyte has signed a new long term contract and I hope he goes on to be a great player for us after his tough debut against Robinho. Martin Jol thinks we are no longer guarenteed a top 4 spot and that Villa will beat us to it. I'm sure he has fond memories of the last time we almost lost 4th spot.

There are a lot of transfer rumours about today as the window draws closer. We have been linked with Mark Van Bommel of Bayern Munich(that would be weird), Pato of Milan, Michael Owen of Newcastle & Giorgio Chiellini of Juventus among others. Some of them might be interesting(is Van Bommel still up to it?) and others are non starters such as Owen. Barcelona are supposedly interested in RVP but I doubt if he is going anywhere. That's it for today.

I'll leave you with a piece of Henry magic against Liverpool a few years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouowA4dWnOo

And to finish the title song from above which obviously refers to the suffering I feel we are being put through by our team and manager at the moment. Incidentally it's another song I put on to youtube myself from an old vinyl album in my attic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj9tChuS54k