It seems an eternity since the last football match in the Premiership and in this crazy world of games every three or four days I suppose that a fortnight is a long time. Today we face Bolton at the Emirates, forgetting for a moment that foolish Megson fellow that is in charge of them we should collect another three points today. We all know that maximum points from ‘easy’ games is vital if we are to overhaul Aston Villa and regain our place in the top four. The players, and Adebayor in particular have been harping on all week about fighting for this and that n never giving up, so let’s see them walk the walk for once! Plus I had a dream last night that Arsenal beat Fulham 18-5 at the Emirates so that has to be a good omen right?!

We have injuries to Silvestre and Gallas, both of whom ar out for three weeks, giving a chance to Kolo and Johann to carve out a mean defensive partnership. I am over the moon that the manager has stated that Kolo Toure is not going to be transferred, we owe it to our last remaining Invincible to help him back to the form he (and we) once enjoyed. He also has the added incentive of being Captain in the absence of Fabregas, a job I’m sure that he is very proud of having. Toure and Djourou haven’t had much of a chance to show what they have got playing together so I hope that they prove to be a winning formula. I prefer them both to Gallas and Silvestre and would rather that they played if they are good enough.

Mr Wenger has also said that Eduardo is fit at long last. Congratulations to the little fella, his hard work and optimism should be an example to everyone. He has only played 45 minutes in 9 months though so the chances of him playing any part today look pretty slim!

The manager proved himself expert in the art of the tease yesterday, not in the sexy burlesque sense of the word but in the keep the fans guessing and hoping about transfers sense of the word. Heneither confirmed or denied anything about Andrei Arshavin. Although most who have listened to Wenger down the years will recognise that something is happening with that story. He was also very coy about other transfer targets we may be going for. Aside from categorically denying that we would be bringing in a defender he didn’t say very much at all. One thing is for certain though, the club are trying to bring in one or maybe two established players and damn it I find that very exciting! No doubt more red herrings will abound next week, but maybe, just maybe we might actually see some transfer activity in the coming few days.

Burgervan Prediction: Arsenal 3 – 1 Bolton

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!

The transfer rumour mill is in full swing as we delve ever forward into January 2009.  Christmas is a distant dream; the next Bank holiday is seemingly lodged irrevocably in the unreachable future; and temperatures continue to plummet at a pace akin to the demise of the economy. Manchester City appear to be buying everybody, or at least trying to, however, so far there transfer policy hasn’t borne fruit on the pitch. Whether that is to do with Mark Hughes being crap remains to be seen. West Ham appear to be selling everybody, although whether this will prevent their collapse is unknown. The Arsenal are being linked with increasing numbers of players but nothing has yet happened beyond the excellent news that Jack Wilshire has signed his first professional contract with the club. One hopes that this piece of critical housekeeping is followed up with new contracts being offered to Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott.

There is increasing speculation that Russian playmaker Andrei Arshavin will be moving to the Emirates. They say that there is no smoke without fire, although in this case one would think that the smoke and the fire are firmly in control of Arshavin’s agent. Can anyone really see Mr Wenger spending 20 million on a player?! Still, the Mirror yesterday reported that le Boss has green lighted the deal and circumstantial evidence in the form of Wenger’s statement regarding Champions League-tied players suggest something may be in the air. One cannot deny that purchasing Arshavin is an exciting prospect, however, I have been an Arsenal fan too long to get carried away by things like this. In fact, the last time that we were linked to an established top level player and we actually bought him was Dennis Bergkamp. Another player that we have been strongly linked to in the last couple of days is Matthew Upson, who, predictably West Ham have stated will not be sold. The latest rumour is that we propose a swop deal with Bendtner plus cash for Upson. This is so speculative that one wonders if there is even a mote of truth in the story. For a start, I think Wenger doesn’t believe in going back. Secondly, Upson has a terrible injury record. Thirdly, Bendy would almost certainly refuse to go there. There is also increasing chatter regarding a potential move by Toure to Manchester City. I really hope that this doesn’t happen. Toure is one of the old guard and somebody that I really hope can work back to the once high level of form he displayed. His malaria seems to have drained him of much of his energy levels in games but these illnesses take time to recover from and I am convinced that if he stays he can once again attain his old self. There has been surprisingly little news about Gallas in the last few days. He was the one player everybody expected to see out the door asap. One would think that Wenger is keen to tie up a replacement before considering letting Gallas (or Toure) go. He would very much want to avoid the situation that occurred in the summer where he let Gilberto and Flamini go without being able to sign a defensive midfield replacement. In fact, that also occurred when he sold Vieira. I remember opening the papers each day expecting to see we had signed somebody, but to no avail. I recall even Jose Mourinho saying he thought Wenger must have a replacement in mind. That turned out to be the last time that we won anything. Hmmm.

What would be nice is that if indeed we are to sign anybody we do it as quickly in order that the team can be settled and the new playing staff integrated as soon as possible. We very much want to avoid the situation in the summer where everybody was rushing about like blue-arsed flies in the closing moments of the transfer window, only to be predictably disappointed in the hunt for bargains. The fallacy that one can pick up a player cheap at the last minute has well and truly come back to bite the Arsenal on the backside as now the exchange rate is such that £1 and 1 Euro are of the same value so that the cost of players now as compared to the beginning of last summers transfer window is much higher. Also, the spectre of the Webster Ruling looms darkly on the horizon. A contract will soon be virtually worthless. I wonder who the Arsenal players are hoping the le Boss will buy. We know that Fabregas wanted Wenger to bring in Alonso in the summer, but do you think that the players look at the newspapers and see stories about Arshavin being linked and think to themselves…Hello, that would be good?!

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.

Let’s dive straight in shall we. The January transfer window is just 8 days away and the latest player to be linked with a move to Arsenal is Andrei Arshavin – the surprise package of the European Championships who everybody wanted but nobody would stump up more than about 10 million for.. The reason…. He is completely untested in a top league and went missing in Russia’s later games. Despite Arshavin’s ‘lifelong dream’ to play for Barcelona, as his options dried up and he realised he had burned his bridges at Zenit St Petersburg he became very keen to join Tottenham towards the end of the summer transfer window. Questionable character flaw that. Anyway, apparently the Arsenal have been encouraged to make a £20m bid by Zenit in January! Hmmm, despite the fact that Arshavin is undoubtedly a very exciting and talented player can you really see Mr Wenger shelling out £20m for him? There isn’t a snowball’s chance in Hell of that. If we had other key components in our side – e.g. a dominant defensive midfielder and a defender that can head the ball then I would welcome a player like Arshavin into the side, but at the moment it would be a misdirection of our resources. I don’t really know why I have credited this story with so much text, it is so obviously a total bunch of arse. The Sun says Kolo Toure is being targeted by Man City – HA! That is ridiculous. Wenger would never sell Toure! Bendtner has reportedly rejected a move to Spartak Moscow as they are out of Europe – that also reeks of bullshit.

With the horrifying news that Fabregas could be out for up to 3 months some transfer activity is vital. It’s sad that we all said in the summer that if we suffered a serious injury to Fabregas then we would be fucked. Well, now it has happened and not only that we have lost Walcott and also suffered injuries to numerous other players. 2009 is looking extraordinarily ominous. If we don’t get into the Champions League then we are in serious trouble. Really serious trouble. Financially and in terms of our playing staff.

Let’s head upstairs now to the board room. Many people will be encouraged this morning to hear that Alisher Usmanov has no immediate plans to increase his stake in the Arsenal. Usmanov has told the Guardian that he has not held any negotiations with Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith saying: “I haven’t seen her and so far she has not announced that she wants to sell………there is no point in discussing something that doesn’t exist.” However, that doesn’t sound very convincing to me. It does appear that Usmanov is as baffled by the shenanigans at board level as the rest of us. Let’s not forget, whatever one thinks of Usmanov, he is a highly accomplished businessman. He has tasked his London based partner Farhad Moshiri with finding out just what the hell is going on. Usmanov said: “What has happened in the last year poses questions…..When in the space of a year four members of the board of directors are sacked, when the general director whom everybody had praised is changed, we consider that to be a huge matter – just to sack a major shareholder without explanation…Mr Moshiri is now in London and is trying to find out the reasons for these sharp changes and according to what explanation we get, we will decide our strategy.” In short, Usmanov is unwilling to get involved in what he outwardly perceives to be the mess of the Arsenal boardroom.

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! 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.