All aboard for the Andrei Arshavin Express!! But is there any truth in it? Yesterday, watching Sky Sports News it appeared that the Arsenal were indeed in talks with Zenit St Petersburg with regard to signing the rosy cheeked Russian playmaker, but as the evening wore on I became less certain. Indeed the whole story began to smack of a ploy by Zenit to force other interested clubs into staking their claim, particularly as any offer Arsenal make would certainly fall way short of Zenits expectations. A deal, apparently, is expected within the next 10 to 14 days… Is it though?! Is it really? I mean, a difference in valuation of about 8 million quid seems like a fairly major stumbling block to me. Last summer Arshavin ‘dreamed’ of playing for Barcelona, but Barca baulked at Zenits fee, as did a number of other clubs apart from Tottenham, who for some reason seem to have infinite money. On a personal note, I hope that the Arsenal buy Arshavin, it would be exciting, it would provide a boost to the players and fans and it would give us back an element of unpredictability in our attack. Purchasing Arshavin wouldn’t really solve any of our problems though, we still need a strong central defender and we still need a defensive midfielder to disrupt opponents and protect the back four. The Kolo Toure chatter won’t die down despite our rejection of his transfer request and if Manchester City did offer an eye-watering transfer fee, knowing the Arsenal as I do, I think we would take it. As I said yesterday, Toure leaving would mark a sad day in the modern history of the club.

The trouble is that if we did sign Arshavin, I can’t imagine that we would then sign anybody else. We have publicly stated that we aren’t looking to sign Inler, despite wanting him in the summer – what has changed since then? Rosina has been told he is going nowhere. Yaya Toure is adamant that he is staying at Barca, although I did hear a rumour that (guess who?!) Manchester City were looking to bid some ludicrous amount for him. West Ham say that Matthew Upson is not going to leave the club, but in reality I very much doubt Mr Wenger has even considered resigning him.

Let’s move away from idle speculation for a moment and look inwardly. Fabianski, boosted by the news that he is in line to play in all of our FA Cup games this year, has claimed that he is happy to work hard and try to displace Almunia as our Number 1 between the sticks. Good lad, I like a bit of hard work. How different the relationship is between Almunia and Fabianski than between Almunia and Lehmann. I hope that we don’t try and sign Shay Given. I don’t think goalkeeping is the weak link in our chain. Definitely not a priority.  Adebayor, a player who loves to talk to the press has been saying that we will fight for every point blah blah blah, I should bloody well hope so as well, that’s your flippin’ job!

Welcome to the Burgervan for 2009. I have one critical piece of advice for anyone out there who is listening. GET THE FLU JAB! The Burgervan’s Christmas and New Years has been spent in a miasma of influenza misery. Hence why there has been no blog for a few days. When one can barely sit up in bed, writing a blog comes very low down the list of activities, firmly behind staying alive, attempting to move, and trying to open my eyes.

So much has happened since the last blog entry that I could write a novella, but seeing as today is also my first day back at work, I will be a tad more succinct than that. Firstly, I hope that everybody had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year, hopefully Father Christmas brought you all everything that you were hoping for and if he didn’t you were probably on the ‘bad boys/girls’ list and therefore not deserving anyway.

The Arsenal flattered to deceive a bit in their Christmas period games but at least they continued their undefeated run of games. Stopping the rot is still the name of game and the Arsenal seem to be doing it. Draws against Liverpool and Villa were disappointing, particularly throwing away yet another two goal lead to draw at Villa Park. I know that ultimately it was a miracle that we weren’t 4 goals down at half time but even so. To throw away two goals in injury time in a game as important as that was very disappointing. One hopes that come May we don’t miss out on a Champions League place by a couple of points to Villa. But, since then we have come back and beaten Tony Adams’s Pompey and then Plymouth in the FA Cup. The Portsmouth result was less than convincing but it was a win and three crucial points. Its all we can do now to keep grabbing points anyway that we can to ensure that we give ourselves as good a chance of getting back in to the Champions League as possible.

I was very glad to see that le Boss treated the FA Cup with the respect it deserves. I love the FA Cup and I have many happy memories from our victories in the past. Last year’s performance against United was shameful, but it looks as though this year we are really going to go for it. We all know that realistically it is our best chance of silverware so we need to be sensible about it. In the next game we are away to last years beaten finalists Cardiff, so although it may be a battle we should move safely into the next round.

I cannot believe how unlucky we are with injuries It is appallingly bad karma that we have Rosicky, Walcott, Eduardo and Fabregas all out with long term injuries. Add to that ongoing injuries to other players like Toure, Diaby etc and you can see why we struggle. One of the gifts that Father Christmas brought me was the 2007/2008 Season Review DVD. We were astonishingly good for most of last season and you could see us drop when Rosicky, Eduardo and RVP were injured. The balance of the team was lost and we have never got it back. I wasn’t that sad when Hleb and Flamini left in the summer, but after watching the DVD I can see that what they brought to the team hasn’t been replaced. I didn’t understand why Wenger is being linked with attacking midfielders but we do need one, we lack a link between the midfield and the attack. We also lack a midfield but that is something that has been discussed many times before. I hope that Rosicky can play for us again in the future. He is a great talent and with him on one wing and Walcott on the other we have genuine width and pace. Our team at the moment is very unbalanced with under par players playing out of position and no real variation of approach, togetherness, camaraderie or grit. It was a telling moment when I felt a pang of regret that we had allowed Senderos off on loan all season. At least he gave a sh!t. By the way, we will certainly get him back, I cannot imagine AC Milan taking up the option to buy Senderos at the end of his loan spell. I hope that he comes back to us having learned some tricks off Paulo Maldini and co. I wonder if he taught Paulo how to score own goals?

So that brings us on nicely to the transfer window. We are in it and I have the same feeling that I had in January….. namely that we desperately need people in but I cant help feeling that we wont get anybody. Particularly as we are being fed the same Wengorian rhetoric that we had during the summer. I don’t believe for a minute the bullsh!t issuing forth from the Daily mail regarding a split between Wenger and the board regarding Arshavin. I firmly believe that the board would always back Wenger’s decisions even if he wanted to spend big, which I don’t believe for a moment that we will do. Spending 24 million Euros or whatever has been quoted on a player like Arshavin is ludicrous, we have no idea how he will fare in the Premiership and 24 million is a lot of money to risk. Even if the player was a guaranteed success it would still be difficult to justify such a fee, how can the club make money back on a player like that, we’d have to win everything every year and that is just fantasy. I hope that Wenger brings in a couple of 8-10 million level players and secures the contracts of Walcott and RVP.  I wouldn’t mind it if we sold Bendtner also. He has failed to live up to expectations and seems to be a malcontent. We have plenty of striking talent with Ade, RVP, Eduardo and Vela, so Bendy is surplus to requirements. Perhaps offering Zenit St Petersburg a Bendy plus cash deal for Arshavin could be a possibility if the manager wants him. Also rubbish is the story linking Wenger with a move to Real Madrid. Real are the sort of club that are contrary to everything that Wenger believes, he likes to work in an environment where he has total control over footballing matters. That is not the case at Madrid, where transfer policy is dictated by the board and used more as a political manoeuvring tool than to improve the team. If Wenger were to leave, and one hopes to goodness that he doesn’t, then it would surely be to manage the French (or possibly German) national team.

Quickly going back to transfers. My brother asked a question the other day, namely where does all of our money go? I can understand that in times of recession, one needs to be careful, however, on balance Wenger has spent very little on transfers in comparison to other clubs, we have massive gates every week, huge merchandising income, massive sums of money from TV rights, the club get money from using the Emirates for other activities (concerts, friendly internationals etc) and we have some of the highest ticket prices in the country if not the world. Plus we make a lot of money from selling on players that haven’t quite made it. Now, the stadium repayments are set and planned in advance so it can’t all be going on that, our wage bill is high but no higher than it has been in the last ten years or so….. So where is all the money going? Why is so little put aside for transfers? How is it we have less available now than when we were at Highbury? It is curious. There is something amiss. The club is well run, that much we know, and we are in a good position in terms of self-sustainability if the sh!t hits the fan, which it probably will, but even so, what position will we be in if the sh!t does indeed hit the fan? Languishing in the UEFA cup? With Chelsea, Liverpool and United out of reach, with clubs like Villa, Everton etc on an equal footing (league table wise?). I hope that the board know what they are doing, because success breeds success in football and likewise failure on the pitch can spiral very quickly. I guess that we will just have to wait and see.

Hopefully Toure will stay and work hard to regain his previous form.

Patrick Vieira. The great man says we lack experience, that the talent is there but the crucial factors to make us winners are missing. He's right of course, and he he also one of the very few ex-players whose comments I am happy to listen to. He questions those who question le Boss, and while I question those whose views about Wenger are extreme (e.g. the lets sack him brigade) I do think fans should be able to criticise when things have gone wrong which could have been avoided.

Vieira is still marshalling the Inter Milan team. You wonder why we sold him. It was bullshit that he and Fabregas couldn't play together. Imagine how awesome our midfield would be if it comprised Vieira and Fabregas. Fabregas and the other young players could have learned so much from the great man and how he would have provided the steely edge we so desperately lack. Oh well, the past is the past, but that was a bad decision and really the beginning of the end of the last great Arsenal era.

Tonight Eduardo makes his reserve comeback bringing him a step closer to fist team action and bringing us a step closer to having a clinical striker again. His determination and attitude during his rehabilition have been inspirational and one hopes that his presence on the pitch is similarly motivating. He was looking shit hot before that numbnuts smashed his ankle and I hope that he can come back mentally as well as he has physically. The Croatians will be happy as well, their international side have looked a shadow of themselves since the poor little sod was knackered.

A lot of players, current and ex, seem to be talking about how divided our squad is. Yesterday Adebayor mentioned it, Vieiraalso highlighted in in his interview. How was the squad allowed to become so fractured, why didn't Wenger sort it out? I know that is part of the Captains role and Gallas was more Bligh that Nelson but even so, Wenger has eyes and knows that harmony is a necessity if a challenge for honours is to be made. He should have stopped the rot before it became debilitating.

Anyway, i'm tired now, time to go.

The gauge of a football teams progress in a season is measured, at its most basic level, in the number of defeats. X number of defeats is too many to win the league and so forth. This is usually measured in the league only. But the league often hides the true scale of a problem. For example, this season Arsenal have lost 7 times, although thankfully not 7 times in the league. Even the Invincibles lost matches in the FA Cup, Champions League and League Cup. I have digressed slightly here. My point is that we have lost 7 games this season and it is only the 12^th December. Remember also that we last won the Premiership in 2004 and the FA Cup in 2005. Despite this Arsene has stated that he thinks the team will end their trophyless run this year. Hmmm. More Wengerian rhetoric. The burgervan knows that Arsene must try to reinforce the players confidence, that he cannot go on record and say he doesn’t think that we will win anything this year. But, the burgervan also knows that that is precisely what Arsene really thinks. It would be better for everyone if instead of saying we can win this and that and everything he just avoided such blatantly ridiculous prophesising altogether. It is vaguely embarrassing and has an air of desperation about it that I don’t like reading about.

Tony Freaking Cascarino. TC. It’s been a little while since I have felt the need to attack this Times Columnist. I like the Times, it is a great paper with a great tradition but I am still flabbergasted that they employ Tony Cascarino to write for their otherwise superb Sports Section. I read his column and it is as though I have been transported to the pub on matchday and I am unluckily seated next to the guy who feels compelled to impart his vapid insights to me for the full 90 minutes. Cascarino is such an uninteresting read. He never provides the insight that one would hope that an ex-professional might impart to the man in the street. And he is so repetitive. How many times is he going to say that we need leaders, that we need to ‘get back to basics’, that we take too many passes in front of goal, that we cant defend set pieces blah blah blah. Surely if one is privileged enough to write a newspaper column for a national institution like The Times then one has the duty to at least write something different each time? It his latest regurgitation, TC has really had a go at the Arsenal team that lost to Porto in the week. But honestly, what’s the point? It was virtually a reserve side. One can’t take that performance and apply it to the rest of the squad, it isn’t true and it isn’t fair. The Arsenal have just defeated Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and we are getting a bit of momentum in the league. If anything we are coming out of the dip we have been in and are addressing the problems that he has once again mentioned. In short, TC needs to think, I realise that this is difficult for him, his tic tac of a brain isn’t very capable, but please, this is The Times, not Leyton Orient programme notes.

The papers seem to be united in the opinion that the January transfer window will see the departure of Gallas and Bendtner. Gallas is strongly mooted to move to AC Milan or Juventus, with Juve believed to be in pole position for the troublemakers signature. Bendtner has less glamorous options but ultimately I wouldn’t be upset if he went. He had a great chance to prove himself this season but has shown that he is not good enough. Plus he has an ego problem that I’m sure has led to divisions in the squad. Add to that his propensity for lurid footwear and you have all the ingredients for his sale. If we could get between £8-10 million for the pair of them that would provide a nice wedge of cash for Wenger to spend on somebody without a bad attitude.

Fabregas has once again reiterated that he wants to stay at the Arsenal, at least until the end of his contract in 2014, but that one day he will return to Spain. I suspect that it will be well before 2014 if we don’t start looking like we are going to win something.

The Times says Fabregas, Clichy and RVP will shake off injuries and be back in the squad for the games against Middlesbrough at the weekend. We also welcome back Adebayor after his rest, and I hope that he will follow up his winner against Wigan with a couple more against Boro, a team we haven’t beaten at the Riverside for ages. Sagna and Toure are also in doubt and Nasri is definitely out alongside long-term absentees Walcott, Rosicky and Eduardo (who makes his reserve comeback in 4 days).

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!!

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.

Football is back after a seemingly endless three days since our oiks got knocked out of the Carling Cup. Wigan visit the Emirates today probably wishing that they could have played us two weeks ago. A win today is all I care about. I don't care how we do it, how slick our passing is or how many opportunities we have. All I want is that we have scored more than them at the final whistle and if we can keep a clean sheet i'll have that too. We must build on the Chelsea result and that's the bottom line.

A few people at my work have been saying this week that the Arsenal are due to give somebody a thrashing. It's true that we haven't handed out a stout humiliation to a side in the Premiership for a while, but I don't think that the team are there yet. Like I said before, a win today is all that matters. It's weird isnt it how you change your expectations. Once, not too long ago, I would have gone into this match with an expectation of at least a 3 goal victory, now I would be content with a hard fought 1-0.

Gallas is out today so we will either see the much awaited return of Kolo or Silvestre filling in for Gallas. Eduardo is almost ready but not quite. He is in full training but just needs matches to quote le Boss. It will be great to have him back in contention. I am still unconvinced by Adebayor and Bendtner is sadly not up to the job so I would ultimately like to see our front line composed of RVP and Eduardo.

For some reason we have seen the ''almost signed Ronaldo stories doing the rounds again over the last two days. I wish that Arsene wouldn't comment on these stories. If we had signed him, he would have been amazing for us, but we would have faced the same close season wantaway bullshit that United have suffered with as Madrid come knocking. The only difference being that I don't think that we would have been able to hold on to him like United did. Despite being total buttmunches, United handled the Ronaldo situation excellently over the summer. Sadly their tapping up of Berbatov wasn't quite so well handled was it? At least that f*cked Tottenham in the @ss though so I won't complain too much.

I see Keano has left Sunderland. That surprised me. I didn't think that he was a quitter. Ince is touted to follow soon, and anyone who saw his tv rant yesterday would have to say that he doesnt really look like he can handle the pressure. Was he crying in that interview by the way? It looked like it to me. Pussy. You'd never catch Arsene crying like a little bitch.

Transfer speculation is hotting up with the latest names linked to the Arsenal being Silvain Distin from Portsmouth, Brede Hangeland from Fulham and Felipe Melo of Fiorentina. These rumours are almost certainly complete tosh although we have been linked to Distin a few times. Arsene has come out and said that he wants Gallas to stay at the club. This could be the truth or it could be a ruse to ensure that potential buyers don't undervalue him. Either way, let's keep hold of him until the end of the season, we don't have enough players as it is. Plus he has been pretty good in the last two games he has played.

Anyway. today it's Wigan and I feel a win coming and i'm sure that El Capitan wants to keep up his 100% record.

Burgervan Prediction: Arsenal 2 - 0 Wigan

Flash of Arsenal!!

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.

That’s what it’s all about. The stuttering ember of hope has been reignited and is now glowing merrily like Rudolph’s red nose as we enter the first day of Advent. What a bizarre season this is turning out to be. The highs of the European campaign and deserved victories against Manchester United and Chelsea versus the lows of Fulham, Stoke City, Man City and Villa. Who knows what will happen next. Arsene Wenger believes that it is a learning process - that the team are beginning to understand that the same high level of commitment is required in every game. I recall him saying something similar after the Man United result, but the team sunk to new lows in the wake of that game. Now maybe it will be different, so we hope. Never has the well worn tenet – ‘to take it one game at a time’ been so true. On Saturday we face Wigan at the Emirates. If we approach the game with the same awesome determination that we saw against Chelsea then poor Wigan won’t stand a chance.

So, to last nights game. Firstly, let’s get the boasting out of the way. A third correct burgervan score prediction of the season. Ok, I admit it, the majority of predictions have been well wrong (the estimate of a 4-0 victory over Villa was particularly bad) but it is nice to get it right for such a big game. The Arsenal were magnificent at Stamford Bridge. The whole team played well and worked their arses off for each other. Defensively we were like a different team, with Gallas loving the high pressure atmosphere and clearly thriving without the weight of the captaincy on his shoulders. Djourou, despite the unfortunate own goal, was a tower of strength beside him, and Clichy and Sagna, both great players, were spot on. Ok, the midfield perhaps came second in the battle in the centre of the pitch, but even so, the team was much more tenacious than in recent games with players like Nasri sacrificing much of his attacking verve to ensure that the team was solid defensively. Almunia really didn’t have very much to do, which was a surprise because after the Arsenal’s second goal Chelsea didn’t offer anything. It seems that this new Chelsea side are easier to break than Mourinho’s team, which was like playing against a brick wall both mentally and physically.

It seems like forever since we had our first choice strike partnership playing together. Adebayor and RVP work well together and I hope that they can both stay free of injuries because there is no doubt that we really need them. I wonder if our recent form would have been different had RVP not been sent off and subsequently banned for that silly foul. Everyone has a player that they like to see score more than any other. For me, in days gone by that was Dennis Bergkamp and before that I used to like to see Merson score. Nowadays I like to see RVP score and he certainly did that yesterday. His first goal was excellent and his second reminded me a little of Dennis Bergkamp’s first competitive goal for us against Southampton.  Yes, his first goal was offside, no, I don’t care. The number of decisions we have had against us this year more than balances out this piece of good fortune. Scolari really needs to shut the hell up. The fact is that Chelsea were fortunate to go ahead through an own goal and offered up very little in terms of goal scoring opportunities. Ergo, he can’t really complain can he? There was almost half an hour after RVP’s second goal, in which Chelsea did nada.  

What was great to see was the sheer joy on the players faces when we equalised and then scored the second goal. It has been a while since I have seen such an ecstatic mobbing of a goal scorer and it showed how much this meant to everybody. Likewise at the end of the game, the celebrations were truly heartfelt - Gallas for example had to be taken off the pitch by a couple of stewards! Ahh good times.

So now we are 7 points off the top spot with all the teams above us having played once game less than us. It is frustrating seeing us beat the top sides and lose to the lesser teams. It makes you think what if?! The title is still out of reach but as the manager said in his post match interview, it isn’t as out of reach as it would have been had we lost. Can we drag ourselves back in contention? Let’s just take it one game at a time and see. We have been so inconsistent in recent games that I don’t think any of us would be in the least bit surprised if we slipped up again in our next away match against lower opposition. But, if they can take this experience, and the experience against Kyiv in midweek and just try to accrue points, we can at least try to ensure Champions League qualification and perhaps undo some of the damage we have done to our self-esteem. If we can somehow draw a line under our crapness then who knows. Maybe we can even try to finish higher than fourth. ONE GAME AT A TIME!