Four months. Maybe sooner?! (we hope). Oh Good God! Our midfield is now frightful to behold. I find it difficult to grasp the sheer bad luck of having Rosicky, Eduardo, Walcott and Fabregas out with long-term injuries. In fact, our injury record over the last two years has been appalling. One wonders if it is due to having such a small squad made up of young players whose bodies aren’t prepared for the large number of games which they are playing. Our midfield must now be selected from Nasri; Song; Denilson; Eboue; Diaby; Ramsey; Wilshere. This is really worrying. The quality of our midfield is really low. Lets analyse!

Nasri: Great potential, could finally replace Pires (maybe) but is constantly getting injuries that keep him out for 3 or 4 games.

Song: Lacks the awareness that differentiates between the top flight and all the rest. Could have made it if he had the benefit of a slow integration into the team with advice and influence from senior professionals.

Denilson: Suffers from chronic confidence crises. Another player who, if integrated into a successful team alongside experienced professionals would probably go to be an excellent player, as it is he is forced to play every week, often out of position and is probably the next candidate for serious injury. Frighteningly Denilson is probably the best midfielder we have left, hard to believe when one thinks back to the midfields of Vieira, Petit, Edu, Gilberto, Pires, Ljungberg etc.

Eboue: Bloody loves playing for the Arsenal and for that alone I like him. He has an unfortunate penchant for cheating and can barely control his limbs let alone his temper. A utility man that provides energy but little else. Eboue is a guy I would want in the squad but one should ask serious questions if he starts multiple games.

Diaby: Had the greatest potential of our midfield. Early signs were that he would be another great Wenger find. Sadly that horror injury has left its mark. He is now devoid of confidence and his game is perpetually interrupted by niggling injuries. Maybe, if he could stay fit, he could still be great, but I doubt it.

Ramsey: Clearly a star in the making but is just a kid. Ramsey mustn’t be sacrificed as the above players have been. What I mean by that is that he mustn’t be forced into playing every game due to injuries and desperation, thereby preventing his learning process and integration.

Wilshere: If Ramsey is just a kid then Wilshire is little more than a toddler. Wonderful potential, England’s next great hope, but way too young to even be considered as a solution to our midfield crisis.

So there we have it. We don’t have the playing staff to cope with one senior injury, now we have three. The answer unfortunately is to buy. It’s sad that we are now a club that buys out of desperation. Not only does it mean that we are unlikely to be able to pick up a bargain, but more worryingly it shows a total lack of strategic planning. Le Boss would no doubt argue that you cannot predict the extent of injuries that we have had. But that’s not the case is it? We have all known for months that our squad was so thin that a major injury would be devastating to our prospects. The simple way to cope with injuries is to ensure that you have sufficient squad depth to cover absentees and more importantly to enable the squad rotation that prevents the sort of injuries that we are suffering with.

7 days until the transfer window opens.

Good morning Sports Fans! Only nine working days left until the Burgervan’s Christmas break begins. Getting that number into single figures is an important psychological milestone and that’s why today’s blog starts with a positive and jolly ambience.

The Eboue story rumbles on like a very slow moving juggernaut, nay, it’s more akin to a combination betwixt (the legendary) Giant Haystacks and a zombie. The latest player to come out and lend the troubled Ivorian his support is none other than the super gangly one and Eboue namesake, Emmanuel Adebayor (give him the ball and he might score – if you’re lucky). Mr Wenger has said that in light of Samir Nasri’s ankle problem, due to the tackle that took him out of Saturdays game and started this drama, Eboue will get the chance to prove to himself and everybody else that he has what it takes to be an Arsenal player against Porto tomorrow evening in the Champions League. Good luck to him, the Burgervan for one hopes that he has the game of his life and he scores a hat-trick. Unlikely I know, but Christmas is the time for miracles after all. The Eboue saga has generated significant debate in football and within the Arsenal fanbase, however, I for one am bored with it now and can’t be bothered to say anything else about it.

The latest news on Tomas Rosicky is that he probably won’t be available until at least March 2009, although even that looks dubious and Burgervan wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see him in an Arsenal shirt again until the 2009/2010 season. It must be very difficult for a sportsman to be in that situation, particularly when his team-mates are going through a difficult period. However, hopefully the operation he recently underwent will finally correct whatever the problem was and now it is just a matter of rehabilitation. It is a cliché, but when Tomas does finally make it back into the squad it will be like a new signing. He never really had the chance to make his name at Arsenal, but I have no doubt that he is a quality player and will be very important for us in the coming years. Burgervan is also looking forward to seeing that raking super-hard shot from distance that seems to be his speciality.

Conversely, Eduardo’s recovery has been excellent, so much so that Arsene has informed us that the wily Brazilio-Croat will play a reserve game on December 16^th. Presuming that he comes through that game unscathed he will be in contention for some role in the Liverpool game a few days later. I can’t wait for the little fella’s return, not only doe it mean that we have decent options front again, but it also provides some much needed competition for RVP and Adebayor. Before his injury Eduardo displayed truly excellent finishing, in fact, just the quality that we have been missing this season.

Tomorrow we have a tough away game against Porto and I cannot emphasise enough the importance of not losing this match. Not only will this enable us to finish top of the group and therefore do ourselves a favour for the next round, but also, and more importantly, there is the psychological boost we will get from a good result. We have shown ourselves to have incredibly fragile confidence over the last couple of years and defeat in this game could adversely affect our improving form in the league. So, Mr Wenger, please don’t put out a pony side, let’s really go for this game.

And finally, Big Red Al has given an interview in which the United boss says that Arsenal will play a crucial role in the destination of the Championship this season, largely due to our good results against the other members of the big four. Although he did intimate that we didn’t have much of a chance to win it ourselves. The mad boot kicking hairdryer has been increasingly nice about the Arsenal over the last couple of years, no doubt since our star has been on the wane. Despite this new attitude Burgervan would very much like Swalex to go f*ck himself!!

Congratulations to the young lads for a terrific cup run. Were it not for the rub of the green and Burnley’s goalkeeper playing out of his skin the Arsenal brats would have progressed to the semi’s. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be this time around. The players acquitted themselves excellently and Wenger should be applauded for using the competition in the way that he does. Although only a handful of these players will make it into first team contention many of the others will go on to decent careers at other clubs and bring in some nice little transfer fees. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we saw some of this Carling Cup team loaned out in the January transfer window.

RVP has come out an stated that he doesn’t think that William Gallas was talking about him in his recent book launch blurb. The finger of blame has somehow now fallen on Eboue, although I don’t know where that little titbit has come from. Probably some over-eager journalist invented it. It doesn’t matter one iota whether Gallas was talking about RVP, Eboue or King Tut, the fact is that the whole episode should be consigned to the past. Look to the future!

It is a shame that we are out of the Carling Cup. I hope that the squad don’t let it knock their confidence. They need to focus on the task at hand – Wigan at home on Saturday. We are approaching what we laughably call full-strength now in our first team. With the exception of poor old Tomas Rosicky and Theo Walcott most of our players are back or nearly back. I am even expecting to see Eduardo again soon. Theo, presumably suffering the same problem that he had before but in a different shoulder should be tougher on his return, knowing that both of his shoulders are now strengthened. Rosicky, well, who knows what the hell is going on with him. He always comes across as a good guy in his interviews and it is a real shame what has happened to him. What has actually happened to him anyway? His comebacks are delayed time after time, does anybody actually know what is wrong with him? I hope that he can be more like Overmars, e.g. come back after a long and serious injury to play the best football of his life; rather than like Owen, who has been a shadow of his former self since his knee exploded.

Yaya Toure has come out and said that he spoke to Arsene over the summer (although he didn’t say what they talked about – the weather? How Kolo never does the washing up? Who knows). Yaya also said that he was happy at the Nou Camp, but, if Arsene goes for him, I’m sure that he’d join the Arsenal. Is he the answer to our problems in the centre of midfield? I don’t know, I have only seen him play a handful of times. He is obviously a class act and he is better than our current options in the middle of the park. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens. I think he should join us just so he can see the look of joy on his mum’s face when she realised that the Toures have been reunited. Incidentally, how many other Toures are their lurking about? Would it be possible to have a team entirely composed of Toures? That would be amazing. Sadly my dream of a team split 50-50 into Toures and Hoytes is now never going to happen. That was a big disappointment.