"Tomorrow's just another day" as Madness sang in the '80s or is it. To all Arsenal fans it's a chance to gain revenge on The Spuds for taking a point from the league match at The Emirates earlier in the season. Our team won't be as strong tomorrow but all we need is for them to attack us and we should be able to score enough goals to win. After today's results we find that Chelsea would appear to be the most vulnerable team in the top 4. Villa won their seventh away league match in a row and while they may not have played brilliantly they have to be admired for their ability to get results. Hull did us a great favour by getting a 0-0 at Stamford Bridge and a win tomorrow would leave us 3 points behind Chelsea. I have just seen the Liverpool starting team against Portsmouth and with Gerrard injured their increasingly mad manager has left Torres on the bench. When you see their team without those 2 players you can see how ordinary they are.

The manager has said that one of the main reasons for the recent better performances of our defence has been the form of Sagna. While we have still been a bit dodgy at the back we are a little bit tighter than we were. The player himself has said that we need wins at the moment and that performances don't matter. I do agree with that but I also think that wins with style do a huge deal for the confidence of the players and the fans. RVP hopes to agree a new contract with the club very soon or so he says and he also says that it's a team game. He's right there but every team needs stars and he has stepped up and taken the limelight in the last few months. According to his doctor Cesc might be back sooner than expected and the player himself has suggests he might be back for the Roma game. I hope it's true but I think it's wishfull thinking on his part. That's it for today.

Here's some good Arsenal goals against The Spuds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KowVDUF0H0Q

And to finish the title track from above by Madness.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSlHSq3cFAg

See You Tomorrow.

This is just a very quick post to mention our victory over Bolton this afternoon. With Villa beating West Brom earlier in the day(thanks to a lucky own goal by Scott Carson) it was vital that we won and it was looking more and more like a 0-0 draw until Bendtner came on for Diaby and finished off a cross from RVP much to the relief of every Arsenal fan in and out of the stadium. We are now on a 7 match unbeaten run in the league with 4 wins and 3 draws to our name. We may not be playing at our best but the confidience must be growing just a little. By the way how long can Villa stay so lucky ?

I have been one of the fiercest critics of Bendtner in the past but to his credit that goal today was very important and by all accounts he took it well. Up to that stage we had been thwarthed by a mixture of bad finishing, good goalkeeping, good defending & the woodwork. We have a week before our next game at Hull and in that time I hope the manager will at least have Arshavin added to the squad. He wouldn't comment either way yesterday but the popular opinion is that we will have him in our ranks before the month is out. After that we still need more players but I suppose it depends on who is available. The player I would like is Arteta and he scored for Everton again today with his 3rd goal in 2 league games since he has been linked with us. Is this a coincidence or is sending a come and get me message to us with our lack of goals from midfield. Everton are on a good run and keeping the pressure on us and we need to continue our run to stay ahead of them and catch Villa. By the way I thought Jay Simpson played well against Villa today but he didn't really get the chance to score the goal that we all would have loved. That's it for today and I'll do a full report on the game tomorrow when I've seen more of it.

Here's   the goal from today's game(thanks Boxofficefootball again).

http://www.boxofficefootball.com/ukbox/football-update/arsenal-1-bolton-0-highlights/

And to finish  some Music from The Manic Street Preachers which gave the post it's title as I think getting back to "1-0 to The Arsenal" is a good design for our season until we can get things going at full steam again.

The rumours about Arshavin joining us are gathering pace all the time. If you were to read every article and/or blog he has either already signed or we can't afford the fee and/or wages. I hope that he does join us and I've given the post a Russian title today(or at least a song that mentions Russia and that I love) in the hope it will work some magic. Don't get me wrong - he won't solve all our problems but he might just be the spark our attack needs to get it firing on all cylinders again. We still need a defensive midfielder and a replacement for Cesc but things could be starting to look better if he signs.

I know he won't be eligible for the Champions League but we need to make sure we qualify for next season's competition too. Aston Villa are 3 points ahead of us at the moment and they are having a fair deal of good luck at the moment. Their squad is wafer thin and if they were to lose 1 or 2 more players to injury they would find it very hard to stay competitive. We also have to be wary of Everton as they are coming up behind us very quickly and even though they have a lot of injury problems with their strikers they seem to have sorted their defence out now and they are squeezing out 1-0 wins. The best way to stop them is to buy Arteta from them and he is the ideal replacement for the injured Cesc.

There are a few other names mentioned in connections with us today but we have heard them all before. Their is more talk also of Kolo & Eboue leaving but our squad is very small at the moment due to injuries so I don't think they will leave. The Ladies will play Doncaster in the League Cup Final on Thursday February 26th at Scunthorpe's ground and let's hope it's the first of many trophies for them again this season. The Spuds seem to have booked their place in the League Cup Final for the 2nd year in a row and I couldn't bear the thought of them winning another trophy(even if it is a Mickey Mouse one) so let's all cheer on United or Derby in the final(I don't like the thought of cheering United either). So, come on Derby - who are winning the first leg as I write this. That's it for today.

Here's a clip of our youngsters beating Cardiff in the FA Youth Cup a year or so ago with Jay Simpson playing well for us and a certain Rambo doing the same for them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN9BGLzi6i0

And to finish the title from above by The Sisters of Mercy.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWvOHT0zfXY

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

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.

After yesterday's dismal display against an Aston Villa team who thoroughly deserved to beat us the manager is going to have to think long and hard about the team selection for our next game away to Man City. Not only that he will also have to get his scouts working very hard and find us some top class experienced players to bring to the club in January. I also think that we are getting out thought tactically by our opponents too often. For instance we have played 2 teams who are strong and physical at the back recently in Stoke and Aston Villa and the manager has played bring strong centre forwards against them. Surely we should be using Vela or Walcott

or even Simpson up front against them to try to play the ball on the ground or in behind the defence. He got the tactics right for the United game but too often he has got them wrong recently. At various stages this season we have had Adebayor and Bendtner up front together and that just isn't Arsenal. The manager has to think long and hard about his tactics and team selection ahead of each individual game. I thought he would play 4-5-1 against Villa and I was right. Maybe if he showed some balls and played Vela from the start we might have played better football.

Almunia has called for changes today but obviously he won't say who he thinks should be out of the team. I thought he did OK yesterday but after saving a penalty he was somewhat at fault for their second goal and he could be involved in the changes he has called for. Cesc will be suspended for our next league game at Man City and it will be interesting to see who takes his place. Will we see the usual option of one of the regulars or will the boss be brave and play Rambo or Wilshere. Maybe he'll play them both but I'm worried that he'll leave our wide players out again and play defensively. We will get plenty of chances against City if we attack them or play on the break and we need players in the team who will score them.Yesterday again both Cesc and Nasri were poor and Cesc's form is very poor at the moment and Nasri seems to be a bit up and down to say the least. Some players seem to be immune to being dropped though. I would play Rambo, Fabianski, Djourou & Vela at City if it were up to me. RVP will be back from suspension but I would leave him on the bench to teach him to behave like a grown up. Appearently he reacted to Sorensen calling him what every child in a playground calls every other child or what The Spuds fans call Sol Campbell. Ahead of that game Sagna will be out for a few weeks and I think Kolo has looked good at right back recently so I expect him to start there.

Back to yesterday's game and our complaints about Villa's goals. Sagna was down injured when they scored their first but it is up to the referee to stop the game and Villa were well within their rights to play on. It wasn't like Martin Jol telling his players to play on against us a couple of years ago. We need to be that ruthless ourselves at times. If the referee blows then stop but otherwise play on regardless. That goal came from a cross in Sagna's position with Gallas covering the fallen player and Clichy covering Gallas. His luck ran out and the own goal he almost scored last week, he did score this week. As for the second goal it seemed to be fairly obvious that Vela was taken down but again the referee didn't blow and Villa took advantage. Gallas was done for pace and strength by that lanky git and Almunia stayed on his line for too long. The luck we got last week went the other way this week with their goals but make no mistake they fully deserved to win. I haven't mentioned the performance of Bendtner yet but I was disappointed to say the least. As a target man the ball didn't stick to him and his first touch was poor. He's had a chance in the last few games with RVP and/or Adebayor out but he hasn't played well in any of them.

In other news we have been linked with Diego of Werder Bremen but it would be pointless to sign him as we have Cesc, Rambo and Wilshere and we have also been linked with Joe Ledley of Cardiff but nothing can happen until January obviously. RVP has appearently agreed to sign a double your money new contract. The manager is turning down loan requests for for the youngsters every day appearently. Our Ladies beat Forest 5-0 today to continue their fine league form.

The question being asked everywhere is - are Arsenal out of the race for the league. I firmly believed that we could not win the league at the start of the season with the squad we had unless we strengthened in the 2 obvious areas before the transfer window closed. When we didn't strengthen I said we had to play for 3rd or 4th and try to win the FA Cup and sadly I have been proved right. Make no mistake, this squad is not good enough to win the league and the players we bring in when we make changes only make the situation worse(Eboue & Song). We need more strength and more flair. The flair is at the club but the strength has to be bought. I would love a 6' 5" centre back who kicks or heads anything that moves and a central midfielder in Paddy Vieira's mould. I know they won't be easy to find but we need them now. That's my rant over for today.

I'll leave you with the highlights(or lowlights as we should call them) of yesterday's game with thanks to boxofficefootball again.

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

And to finish some Music from David Bowie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl3vxEudif8

See You Tomorrow.