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.

The Arsenal play the last game of the Champions League group stage tonight at Porto with a severely weakened team and a Porto team out for revenge. An alarming state of affairs isn’t it? The Arsenal have, of course, already qualified, and the manager knows that he doesn’t have the strength in depth to risk players unnecessarily, especially while we are rebuilding our fragile confidence in the Premiership. However, it is very important not to lose games in any of the competitions as this invariably adversely affects performance in other competitions. Wenger will point to an unavoidable and apparently large injury list, however, I am more of the opinion that he is fibbing and is using the injuries as a reason to rest players. That is his choice. We will still go into the Porto game with some first-teamers and we still have a great chance to top the group. It will be interesting. Players not playing against the Portuguese tonight are Fabregas; Sagna (ill – not sure what’s wrong with him); Toure (calf); Clichy (hamstring); RVP (a little stiffness – surely something a little private time can resolve); Adebayor (rested); and Nasri (ankle). There is no guarantee that finishing top of the group will get you an easier team in the next stage, it is more likely, but it is by no means certain. Coming top of the group would definitely be a great confidence booster for the players and the fans. We must wait and see. Hopefully many of these players will be back in contention for the Middlesbrough game at the weekend, although Wenger claims RVP could be out for up to three weeks. I’m not so sure about that and think we might see him at the weekend.   

The other piece of team news for this evening is that Emmanuel Eboue will be in the starting line-up. All eyes will be on him tonight and he will be wanting to prove the doubters wrong. Despite a slight underlying apprehensiveness that something crazy is going to happen I have a good feeling that Eboue will turn out an excellent performance tonight. Although my gut tells me that he is going to get sent off for an over-enthusiastic challenge on a play-acting Porto player. Djourou will be starting as well, which is great as stats aficionados will tell you that we have 9 clean sheets out of the last 10 games he has started and the one goal he has conceded was the own goal he scored against Chelsea.

Juande Ramos, the disastrous (and my personal favourite) Sperz manager has become coach of Real Madrid!! It is a funny old game isn’t it?!

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!!

Good morning! Yes this is onday's blog, written on Sunday night. The reason - I have to get up bloody early and go to work so it makes sense to do it now. I doubt that any fantastic Arsenal news stories will break between now and tomorrow morning but if they do then you have my sincerest apologies.

So, is there anything to say. Well yes there is. As the day has progressed and I have read various news websites and blogs I have to say that I am today ashamed to be an Arsenal fan. Yes, this is a continuation of 'yesterdays' rant about the ill treatment of Emmanuel Eboue. I cannot believe that Arsenal fans treated their own player in that fashion. I am appalled. There is no defense. It doesn't matter how much one pays for your seat in the stadium, it doesn't matter how results have been in the last few weeks and it doesn't matter that the game was tense. Nothing can account for that sort of behaviour apart from cvntishness. Eboue has been out for 6 weeks. 6 WEEKS. He obviously wasnt meant to play more than 10 or 15 minutes in yesterdays match as part of his recovery and reintegration into the team. He clearly wasn't match fit. It was the bosses decision to put him on so early after our player was fouled and taken off. He would have been fine if the crowd had given him the benefit of the doubt, But no, some 'fans' felt it was necessary to destroy the poor sod. Well, nice one. You bunch of f*cking imbeciles. Not only have these bad apples tainted the decent Arsenal fans with their dirty brush and possibly broken a player that needed our encouragement, they have also made all Arsenal fans look that a bunch of wankers to the rest of the footballing world. I bet these were the same amoeba that were calling for Wenger to be sacked a couple fo weeks ago.

Kolo Toure and Arsene have come out to defend Eboue in the wake of this bullying. To read Kolo's comments makes you realise that Eboue must be properly hurt by this behaviour. Well that's great, now these so-called fans have also made me feel guilty through association. Thanks. If he is fit I hope that Arsene plays Eboue against Porto on Wednesday and I hope that he has a blinder and scores, then I hope that the Arsenal security team spend the rest of the week searching through CCTV footage to find each and every moron who turned on Eboue and then break into their houses and steal all of their Christmas presents. None of which will have come from Santa as no doubt all of the offenders will be on Mr Claus's bad boy list.

Happy Monday.

Brilliant, back-to-back league victories on a day when our rivals all won - this result victory was crucial. It wasn't pretty but we won, and more importantly we didn't concede a goal. This will restore a little more confidence in our team, in our ability to handle the 'lesser' sides at Home. It also shows how close we are to Premiership oblivion this season. We are really on the very edge of title contention and one more advserse result with the other teams winning would leave us far adrift. On the plus side though we have opened up a little space between us and the team in fifth position. Unfortunately victory today was soured by an element of our fans who should be ashamed of themselves. It was playground bullying at its most childish and most stupid.

The treatment of Eboue yeserday left me sick to my stomach. Here is a player, an Arsenal player, who always gives 100% every time he plays. Here is a player who clearly loves playing for the Arsenal. Okay, perhap he isnt as gifted as some of the team but that isnt the point. THe point is that he plays for Arsenal and therefore, unless he does something that discredits the honour the badge, which he hasn't, then we must support him. Yesterday we were hohlding onto a fragile lead, Eboue was clearly having a bit of a confidence issue after a couple of mistakes. That is when the fans should support a player, sing his name, give him back his confidence. That isn't when we deride a player vocally, sap his last vestiges of confidence and force the manager to take him off. Eboue will be damaged by this and it is the fans fault. Basically I think that he isnt a fan favourite and so his mistakes are exaggerated and blown out of all proportion. Walcott gives the ball away more than any player that we have but the fan love him so his mistakes are brushed aside. I'm not suggesting that we harang Walcott, I am just saying that Eboue be given the same respect all our players deserve. The fans that heckled him should be banned. On a basic human level they are scum. I remember that my grandfather once said that one of the worst things that you can do to a person is to deliberatly hurt them emotionally. Well that's what a section of adult fans did yesterday to Emmanuel Eboue. Arsenal fans? More like Arseholes. Why would you pay upwards of 40 quid to see a game and then deliberately sabotage the teams efforts. It doesn't make any sense.

Anyway, even typing this is making me angry. Well done Adebayor (he needed a goal) and well done the Arsenal, let's keep this run going so when we face Liverpool just before Christmas we might have narrowed their lead just a little more.