"Arshavin: Arsenal are too small and not very good"

He goes on to bemoan the defence, our (lack of) strength and height and the inability, in the absence of RvP, of anyone to hold onto the ball. It sounds to me, and you may have a different take on it, I don't know, but it sounds to me like he's missing Nicklas Bendtner. I don't know what to think of this outburst really, on one hand we already know Arshavin is not afraid to call it as he sees it. The evidence for this being his judgement of his own form, amongst countless other pronouncements and I respect the honesty. But at the same time, is this not what William Gallas was pilloried for just over a year ago? And, more importantly, does it reflect the attitude of the dressing room today? Is London Colney full of young footballers with self doubt coursing through their veins? If so, to borrow a phrase, we're screwed.

The lack of physicality within the Arsenal side is as much a concern for us all as it was a subject for debate between Jamie soon to singing soprano Redknapp and Alan Smith on Wednesday night. Redknapp opined that the boss has deliberately filled his squad with quick, skillful and utterly lightweight players, whilst Smith felt that the fact that the likes of Nasri, Eduardo and Rosicky (to pick three) are footballing lightweights is incidental to the quality they possess. The football that followed, and okay it was only a Carling Cup side, saw Manchester City overpower Arsenal everywhere. Aaron Ramsey's nickname is "Rambo" and by some weird coincidence, Rambo was on the tv as I went to bed on Wednesday night. How Arsenal could do with a few players that could genuinely take an army on, on their own.

If you sent young Theo Walcott over the top on his own, the chances are he'd pull a hamstring before he even gave an enemy sniper the chance to take his head off. Picture the scene; Theo's company is being bombarded by enemy fire, the captain comes to him,

"Walcott!"

"Yessir!"

"You're up!"

"Yessir!"

Theo rises to his feet and jumps out of his trench before falling back in agony.

"Walcott! Are you shot?"

"No, I've just pulled my hamstring..."

The captain is incredulous, "Again?"

As you may have guessed, Theo will be sitting the visit of Stoke out due to an injured hamstring. Which, bearing in mind what happened at Stoke last autumn, is probably not the worst thing in the world. I do wonder about him though, he seems to be the Frank Spencer of footballers, wandering from one mishap to the next. I'm sure Arsène was talking about protecting him last month. It doesn't seem to have worked out too well, does it?

We will also be without Alex Song; who was maybe lucky that Chris Foy, for once, wasn't swayed by the protests of a home crowd and decided to book him rather than send him off on Wednesday night. The team for tomorrow seems like it's almost going to pick itself. And that isn't neccessarily a positive thing.

I've worked out what it was that bothered me so much about the game on Wednesday. It wasn't that we lost, but seeing Arsène going through agonies on the touchline, it seemed as though he genuinely believed the team he sent out had enough about it to beat the City millionaires. If you were giving points for artistic impression, then yes. But a full strength City side was always going to have too much for our kids and you would hope that the manager would realise that. If it's, just as he says, a developmental competition, then fair enough. But don't be surprised when someone brings the first team and drills you out of sight. Be realistic, I guess I'm saying.

I've got more to say about this, but time has eluded me for today. Till tomorrow, y'all.

So, that all seems neat to me. Possibly, it's tortured to you, I don't know. What is true to say is that in the face of a vastly stronger, more expensive and experienced opposition, the boys didn't embarrass themselves. If anything it was the likes of Song, Silvestre and Rosicky letting the side down. I don't think any of them will be playing on Saturday, but for 50 minutes they withstood everything City could throw at them and then, before the second goal went in, had three or four chances to get back into it. On another day...

So, it wasn't to be. I said to Jo before the game that I could leave with us getting beaten as long as they were good goals and how City obliged us. You can talk about Carlos Tevez being allowed the freedom of the penalty area after Rosicky's possession concession, but his shot would probably still be travelling now had it not flicked off the crossbar and in. And then, as I roused myself to respond to Gabs the Part Time Gooner's "Oh dear" text, and Silvestre backed off and backed off, Shaun Wright-Phillips exocet into the far corner would probably have beaten three goalkeepers. I don't know what it is with this little guy, seems to me he's taken the way his old man's Arsenal career was ended very personally and has made it his business to avenge "Wrighty" by scoring brilliant goals against us at every opportunity. I'm sure that's at least his 4th or 5th now.

The highlight of the game really was Lukasz Fabianski's decision not to  rush out to Craig Bellamy but wait until he crossed to an unmarked Mr Adebayor, before rushing him. In doing so, he prevented the Togolese from scoring. He, perhaps unsurprisingly to us Gooners, had a quiet night. It's almost as if he feels that one goal against us proved his point, maybe it did but you'd think City fans would be wanting more from him.

Fran Merida hit the bar with a dipping strike late on, as seems to be the custom for whenever we hit the woodwork, the ball stayed out. Not that it would have mattered much by then, but it would be nice to see us score another goal before Christmas. We were then treated to the sight of Mark Hughes sarcastically waving le boss down the tunnel as he had disappeared before shaking hands.

Now, I have to be honest and say that at first I was pissed off with Arsène for that, because I think it was not only disrespectful and slightly peurile of him and also because he's now opened himself up to cheap shots from the likes of Gary Megson. But then I considered, having read a few blogs and being easily influenced, that Hughes had afforded his opposite number little respect during the game and so why maintain a charade? They obviously have previous and I think, rather than saying things like "maybe Arsène can't take losing", Hughes could have been a touch more honest about things, we all saw le boss shake Carlo Ancelotti's hand on Sunday. But I guess that wouldn't serve him so well. Arsène's interview, I thought, had the potential to be car crash tv, but the Arsenal manager knows better than that and handled himself well, saying only that he was free to shake hands with whoever he wants.

I wonder though. After a promising three months, the season seems to be turning to sand, slipping through our fingers already. The "told you so's" are coming, the mood is changing and; looking at the manager last night, I find myself wondering how much is too much?

And on that, slightly cryptic, note...

Having just looked at the list again, there is one glaring omission. That of Philippe Senderos. I don't know if he's been injured; looking at the injury news on Arse.com, it appears not and if that is the case then it appears that we can definitively nail the coffin lid shut on Senderos' career. Which is a real shame, I think. It seems incredible that a player can have played well enough to effectively end Sol Campbell's Arsenal career and then disintegrate to such a degree he won't even be trusted in the Carling Cup. Bearing in mind his participation in earlier rounds, is it logical to assume that something has, in the parlance of our times, gone down on the training ground? Kyle Bartley, a lad I'd like to see more of, is in the squad, I wonder though whether he'll play given Alex Song's presence in that squad.

Alex is joined by Tomas Rosicky and the heroes of the last round, Fran Merida, Sanchez Watt and Carlos Vela whilst Jack Wilshere returns to the fold with a rumour going round that he is about to go on loan to Celtic. Lukasz Fabianski returns to the squad and will probably start his first game since the last round and  Emmanuel Eboue is also included. Presumably, this is just on the pretext that somebody in the team needs to give Mr Adebayor a right good kicking.

I was feeling quite negative about this game yesterday, but the usual naive optimism resurfaces, telling me that these kids can play and that if they show that, then even against a strong City side, they can get a result. I remember last year, when after two resounding wins at home, we came unstuck in the north, at Burnley and how our kids went from being the next big things to laughing stocks. That reading of things never took into account the fact that, well as Burnley played, Vela and Bendtner missed enough chances to win two games that night, so we evidently didn't play that badly. But this is going to be a different kettle of fish. On the other hand, all the pressure will be on a Manchester City side struggling by any standards, but surely expected to win tonight.

With "Roger Chesney" continuing to impress my spies at Brentford, Arse.com announce that Rhys Murphy made his debut for the west London club last night. Which is odd, because I could swear that Gabs told me he came on as a sub for Brentford a couple of games ago, but was later subbed himself. Not that I am quibbling with the official site, but... Anyway, because I'm a sharing kinda guy, here is what Malc had to say about the one and only,

"Yeah he did well. Made a couple of mistakes though. Missed a high ball and their player missed with a long range attempt when he was out of position. He dived at one blokes feet to block a shot, doesn't mind getting in the way of things which is good."

An Arsenal keeper missing a high ball? Surely not! I hear you say.

Elsewhere, Arsène has said that he would like to bring in a striker in the January window. Whether he had his fingers crossed when he said this, we can only speculate. I consider myself an Arsène fan, but when he says in the summer, in the face of everyone saying how much we need experience added to the squad, that he is happy with the squad, only to volte-face when it is too late, I do think that he doesn't help himself. It should be noted though, that we've been very unlucky to lose RvP long term at the same time as missing Nick Bendtner for a month. So, Chamakh's name resurfaces and Ian WrongWrongWrong opines that Arsenal need Ruud van Nistelrooy. Aside from the problems le boss might have in trying to persuade a man he publicly and unapologetically denounced as a "cheat" to sign for him, surely we've already learnt our lesson about Alex Ferguson cast offs?

In any case, I don't think the failure to score in two games should detract from the fact that we're an injury away from a centre back catastrophe. Or the fact that as long as we continue with the Spanish waiter in goal, we'll be waiting ourselves, waiting for that trophy to come.

We couldn't, of course. Any technical analysis that shies away from that fact is pretty much redundant. You know, we might have great ProZone stats but a 3-0 defeat is a stark bottom line. So, whilst I have sympathy for the boss and the nature of the defeat, I don't agree with him. And, no, I haven't seen this analysis. But then his players don't agree with him either. Step forward Mr Tomas Rosicky... 

"We tried to play our usual football against Chelsea, but they defended very well and in the final third we produced almost nothing - that was the main reason we lost... If Chelsea continue to play like that, then it will be difficult for anyone to stop them."

Does the technical analysis show that we created "almost nothing"? If not, and farbeit for me to tell Mr Wenger how to do a job that he's done very well for years, but perhaps the analysis is wrong.

Not that the Czech is giving up and nor should he. Whilst a gap of 11 points is a big one, there is still a lot of football to be played. I just worry about the psychological impact of the defeat on the players, as I said at the weekend, for the players' confidence as much as anything else they need to show that they can start winning these high profile, top of the table clashes and that another one has gone rather badly can not be good for morale. On this theme, Andrey Arshavin has taken time out from moping around on the pitch (as Ben observed perhaps he expected more at Arsenal) to say that he hasn't "played that well", though he can't explain why. It's good to hear a player acknowledging what we all know, though I think we'd all say he could probably work a bit harder. He just looks demotivated and unhappy to me, he even looked unhappy at the tennis played at the O2 last week, and that's worrying.

I wonder if players are as resilient as fans can be though. On Sunday evening, I was feeling pretty low, and yet I've agreed to part with £47 of my hard earned cash to go and watch us play Manchester United at the end of January, so you could say I'm back on the wagon and looking forward to the game with (possibly misplaced) naive optimism. Will I ever learn? Will any of us?

I suppose some form of retribution meted out to Manchester City tomorrow evening would go a long way to salve the wounds so brutally inflicted by Chelsea. But against a strong Manchester City side, whatever team Hughes chooses, it's going to be so tough. One person you might logically expect to start is Carlos Vela. Carlos has been a Carling Cup star over the last 18 months but, perhaps due to injuries, has had limited exposure to the first team. However; with a front three currently being deployed and the injuries to Nick Bendtner and Robin van Persie, the forgotten man is beginning to emerge from the shadows and into the light. Not that the transition has been an unqualified success thus far. Of course, as the Arseblogger points out, it took Robin (and the forwards around him) a while to come to grips with the new 4-3-3 formation, so we shouldn't expect miracles.

But a hat trick tomorrow would be nice, Carlos. Or even just one goal.

"Dominate, dominate concede? Too negative an attitude?"

It is from Ben, who has given up his season ticket this year as he's off travelling in the near future.

I'll you give the PG-13 version of my response,

"Isn't that what always happens against these horrible chaps?"

And so it proved. You will have picked up by now, I think, that I was and remain a big fan of The X Files. One of my favourite episodes was one called Monday and a storyline that had Mulder and Scully doomed to repeat the same day, dying in a bank, over and over until Mulder worked out that he needed to remember the villain of the piece was carrying a bomb.

Watching Chelsea erect a big blue wall between the edge of their penalty area and their goal yesterday and watching Arsenal trying to sneak their way through non existent cracks reminded me of that episode.

Watching Chelsea make the most of the chances created- 3 goals from 4 shots on target reminded me of that episode (7 goals from 9 shot on target in two matches).

Watching Didier Drogba destroy the Arsenal defence reminded me of Monday.

Watching the Arsenal defence so panicked that they conceded an own goal, their third one in consecutive league fixtures against Chelsea reminded me of Monday. Vermaelen's own goal unfortunately seeing him follow in the footsteps of Djourou and Toure rather than those of Adams, Keown and Campbell, alluded to yesterday afternoon.

Watching the referee harshly rule out an Arsenal goal, the third in five home fixtures against Chelsea reminded me of Monday; the inevitable booking of Traore for his first foul, whilst a similar one from a Chelsea player- Ivanovic, maybe?- yielded only a free kick, not to mention how many fouls Obi Mikel made before being booked just seemed symptomatic of this season.

Not that I blame the referee for our fate, though it's difficult to understand how he can wave away a challenge on Vela and then blow for the foul by Cesc that led to Drogba's exocet. So it turns out that I'm either mental or dyslexic. Perhaps the headline I really saw was "Rampant Blues Stun Gunners". I haven't checked today's press to see if it's there. I think a description of "rampant" would flatter Chelsea somewhat. But they were ruthless, they were professional and cynical, committed and very, very good. With Drogba and Anelka able to hold the ball up so well, that allowed Chelsea to defend in numbers and defend well. The most sobering aspect of this match was the fact that we, aside from fifteen minutes at the beginning of each half, were never really in it. When we lost those games in Manchester we at least exercised a degree of control during the games. Chelsea never allowed us to. Why we have not worked out, nearly five years on that we can't really hurt Chelsea by going through the middle, is beyond me. Yesterday it was like watching the Rebel Alliance trying to take the Death Star down with water pistols.

Having haemorrhaged chances to a team as crap as Standard Liege undoubtedly are, the warning signs were there. As it was, we didn't give away half as many, but then Chelsea didn't need us to. 

Not a good day for Arsène's "A team", was it? A seemingly disinterested Andrey Arshavin briefly roused himself from giving the ball away practically every time he got it, to put the ball into the net, only to find the referee had blown already for a foul on the keeper. Alex Song was sacrificed at half time, despite being one of our better performers, as Arsène belatedly looked to introduce the width we'd been lacking and as for Manuel Almunia...

Yes, Mr "True Colours" had a game to forget as we probably all suspected he might. I think it's known as the curse of Robbie Keane, it might also be down to not being very good. We can look at the instinctiveness of Drogba's finish for the first goal (after great play from Terry and Cole- that hurts) and say it was unavoidable, but for the same thing to happen just three minutes later and then for Almunia to watch Vermaelen needlessly put through his own net speaks volumes to me. Granted, he made a great reaction save from Frank Lampard's belly, but Didier Drogba made him, well, "flop around like a fish on a line" with the late free kick that rubbed extremely coarse salt into our open wounds.

It seems to me too, that with only Nick Bendtner the only likely candidate to play the target man role our formation requires effectively, the manager is going to have to rethink his formation. Eduardo and Vela really did look like little children beating their fists against the chests of adults. Eduardo in particular seems a player shorn of confidence. If the manager is not prepared to rethink than he must look to sign a striker in January and, please God, a goalkeeper. A proper one. Not someone pretending to be one. The only crumb of comfort I can take from yesterday afternoon is that it's not every day we will come up against a side with the quality of Chelsea, but that is small consolation this afternoon.

I digress.

Quite an important game today, I think. I'm not sure if I managed to articulate just how important it is for us, a win would put us right back in there, whilst a defeat- well, that's unthinkable really. Yes, we have a game in hand, but as I said yesterday, for confidence, for momentum, for not having blown it at home against a title rival, we have to, have to, have to, have to win. Happily, there is good news ahead of the game; by coincidence, my last game on my Pro Evo Master League was against Chelsea and I won it 5-1. The scorers being Vela and Fabregas via a couple of "Lampards", Bendtner from the penalty spot and then, on as subs, Walcott and Wilshere.

The bad news, apart from the fact that Bendtner and Wilshere won't be available today, is that this game took place in 2012. And that it's just a computer game. Nevertheless, despite feeling somewhat pessimistic about the game earlier in the week, as first teamers and back ups and  dropped like flies, whenever I think about the game, I keep seeing this headline, "Rampant Arsenal stun Blues". And okay, it isn't the snappiest headline ever but then I'm not a headline writer. In fact, I nearly rewrote it to make it better, but this is what I see in my mind's eye. I have no idea how we're going to win. It's going to be very difficult without Robin and without a left back we can have any real confidence in (Traore? Silvestre? Eboue? spin the wheel..), especially so if William Gallas' eye has not recovered sufficiently for him to take part. But, whilst we may think back to the last meeting of the teams in horror, as our manager points out, the scoreline could have been very different to the 4-1 reverse we suffered.

Coming on the back of the humbling at home to Manchester United in the Champions League semi, it's perhaps fair to suggest that the nature of the defeats led to a slight overreaction regarding this team's quality. I think the lads have shown that they are a team to be taken seriously, or at least are much improved from last spring but they have to show they have the nous to win a game that could go either away and the ruthlessness to take the chances that come their way. A continued failing in this regard is why we lost so heavily to Chelsea, it's also why we lost those games in Manchester earlier this season. Today is a great chance to show that lessons have been learnt. A chance for Eduardo and, maybe, Carlos Vela to show the manager that he is right to feel he shouldn't sign a player like Chamakh in January. 

I mentioned Andrey Arshavin's struggles to motivate himself yesterday and then I went to the shops and saw; on the backpage of the Mirror, that he is thinking, or was, about quitting football. And then I went back to my original thought of "Get over yourself Andrey!" 

He of course, is a player that Arsène chose not to start in the FA Cup semi final, not one of the boss' finest decisions no matter how he rationalises it, and then he missed that 4-1 home defeat last season because, well, the season was over by then. Subject to a profile piece in today's Observer, his highlighted mix of steel and silk could be pivotal today. Read the piece, I think it's slightly backhanded towards the gaffer, yet instructive on why Andrey is the way he is and why he is such an asset to Arsenal. I know that whilst Arshavin's views on women drivers might upset the pc brigade, my mate Harry would certainly enjoy them!

Another whose mix of steel and silk is very much appreciated by the Arsenal crowd is Thomas Vermaelen- he's also someone we didn't have when the season ended so badly for us. He says that never having played against Drogba before, he's  "looking forward" to the challenge. He will be the leader of the defence today should Gallas not make it and when he says,

“Me, I like to tackle, I like to head the ball, I like a challenge. Why? I’ve always been a defender, since I was young, and it’s my job. Scoring a goal is nice for a player, good for the confidence, but if in the first place you’re a defender then that’s more important... I’m more happy with a clean sheet than scoring. For example, I was more happy with the result against Tottenham — keeping a clean sheet against our big rivals — than scoring two against Wigan.”

you feel that finally; seven years after Tony Adams called it a day, five years after Martin and nearly four years after Sol Campbell went bananas, we have a centre back within the team ready to continue the "You will never pass the Arse!" tradition of Adams, Bould, Keown and Campbell.

Perhaps that will matter more than ever this afternoon. Enjoy the game, wherever you are.

Robin van Persie was expecting to return to action in a few weeks, but it turns out the season ending predictions that were flying round the interweb almost as the injury occurred were pretty much spot on. The player himself is understandably pissed off, the early misdiagnosis costing Robin time in having an operation and beginning rehabilitation, his ankle ligaments need to be completely restructured. If the mistakes were made at our end, then you might expect heads to roll. But the club's statement seems to point firmly at the Dutch medical staff. If the diagnosis is 5 months at this stage, Robin must be sweating on his World Cup participation, and that is a hospital blow for a player who, as he acknowledges, was in the form of his life. And all for a meaningless friendly.

We have to forget about Robin and concentrate on the players we have and what is ahead for us now. On the way home yesterday evening, I saw the Evening Standard's back page featured Manuel Almunia saying something like "We will show Chelsea our true colours" and I thought to myself, yeah, is this where you reveal yourself to be something other than the goalkeeper who flops around like a fish on a line and is completely unable to command your six yard box? And then this morning I read an analysis piece by Jonathan Pearce acclaiming him as the most improved goalkeeper in the Premier League! I don't think so, but what do I know? Anyway, JP reckons that Arsène may indeed be saying, Hannibal Smith style, "I love it when a plan comes together" come 6pm tomorrow but it hinges on the A-Team (Almunia, Alex Song and Arshavin- of whom, more later).

The boss has challenged his team to put up or shut up, saying that their time has come;

"We just want to focus on the game like we want to play it. It is a big test, yes, but that is what you want, to play these teams. There is a period for any team to come out and show its strengths. For my team, this moment has come."

"We are not a team that has to be considered to be young any more. I think we have the strengths and we can show on Sunday that we are strong enough to compete."

I guess, as much for the psychological development of the team, whilst a draw wouldn't be fatal, a win would do so much for us tomorrow afternoon. The perception of the team is that they are so talented, but still with this glass jaw and a succeptibility to the football heavyweights. A home game against Chelsea who, let's not forget, have already lost on the road at Wigan and Aston Villa, would be such a fillip for us. A feature of this season has been the home teams winning the big clashes; Liverpool and United, United and Arsenal, Chelsea and United, Chelsea and Liverpool. It's a trend we need to continue tomorrow and if we do, then last week's defeat at Sunderland becomes less damaging to us.

Andrey Arshavin is a player who was also damaged during the international break- albeit emotionally and mentally rather than physically, with Russia's failure to qualify for next year's finals and it seems that he's having a hard time moving on. My initial response was that; with a flake in goal, the experienced centre back a doubt and two front line centre forwards out, this is the last thing Arsène needs to be dealing with ahead of tomorrow's match. And then I remembered that, as much as Arshavin is handsomely remunerated by Arsenal, he is his country's captain and, more than that, is probably never going to get a better chance to show his talent on the world stage. So I feel bad for him, but I also remember the way he reacted to being left out of the FA Cup semi final last season, which was to score 4 goals at Anfield. More of the same tomorrow would be good.

If he is unable to rouse himself, much of the responsibility is likely to fall on the shoulders of Cesc Fabregas. Lucky for us, he is- as the Gooner had it earlier this season- on fire at the minute. He spent the early part of the week hinting that he might like to stay at Arsenal for life and when he spoke to Football Focus, echoed a former captain with his "I love football" declaration. I love listening to him talk, he's always so level headed and that showed earlier in the week when he didn't react as might have been expected to the Liege player's head in his face. It seems manager and captain are two of a kind and the maturity that Cesc shows in dealing with the media really should serve as a lesson to those who would court the Catalan through that media.

Right, that's it. I was up till 5.30am and my head hurts. More tomorrow, maybe...

Yes, I am back again, back after an extended break. Some of you may be forgiven for thinking that the extended breaak was due to to the shock of Darren Bent's winner at the Stadium of Light on Saturday after, but readers of the blog should have noted I was less than optimistic about our chances on Saturday.

No, the truth is much simpler, if embarrassing for yours truly. On Sunday morning, before I'd had a chance to think about a blog, I dropped a mattress on my head. How? I hear you ask. Well, I'll tell you. One of the slats on our bed is broken and I was trying to fix it. As I have done a million times before, I lifted the corner of the mattress and supported it with my head. My neck no like and I spent the rest of the day and the majority of the three days following, lying on the floor with a hot water bottle for company.

Curb your enthusiasm and stifle your giggling at the back there.

Two hundred and twenty eight email later, it seems pointless and like it's going to be time consuming in the extreme, to pick my way through the last four days with a fine toothed comb, so I'll try and work out what I've missed and get back to where we are now.

The team began the weekend in second place, it is now in third- albeit with the scenario of returning to second if we win our game in hand. A situation of course that relies on all things being equal. More crucially, the weekend's not quite top of the table clash with Chelsea now assumes massive "must not lose" importance. It's not quite a "must win" but I think a team with title winning pretensions has to be winning games against direct rivals- especially with Chelsea already 8 points ahead.

I missed Arsène's press conference where it was reported that he responded quite uncharacteristically to questions about Theo Walcott's possible involvement with the World Cup. The Sun says he swore, but that doesn't neccessarily make it so, now does it? The central point he made there was, naturally, bang on. If Theo has a crap season for us, he can forget all about the World Cup. I do find myself increasingly leaning towards the view that if he was a foreigner, he'd have been bombed out by now. But then I remind myself, he is still only 20 with frightening potential.

I missed out on attending the Liege match, Ben had a ticket waiting for me in Block 6, but as I was lying on the floor at home, I was unable to take it up. Watching the game at home, I reckon it was probably for the best in the end. It was one of those, as I said to Ben earlier, where if you'd left at half time, you wouldn't have missed that much. I thought we were exceptional in the first half and Nasri's finish for the goal (would Arshavin have got in the way had he been on the pitch? Or was it Gallas who was still off at the time? I can't remember) matched the exceptionalness of the performance. I was delighted for the much maligned Denilson and his small ankles that he scored such a marvellous goal (my grandad will have loved that one). I was surprised that the referee let so much go during the game, including Gallas' drunken challenge that should have resulted in a penalty. I wasn't surprised to see Eboue diving again and the ref not buying it.

It saddened me that the Arsenal coaching staff saw fit to let Gallas, who following that clash of heads with Andrey, was staggering around like he'd just gone ten rounds with Manny Paquiao and looked like he had too. It scared me that Mikael Silvestre looked so poor in the second half, I'm with almost every other Arsenal blogger on this, surely Senderos is the better bet? Perhaps not with Drogba lurking just around the corner. It also scared me that a team as poor as Liege hit the woodwork twice and should have had that penalty, you do wonder what Deco and pals would do to a defence shorn of Gallas and Clichy/ Gibbs- actually we got a graphic illustration when the teams last met in April. I have read, though, that Gallas will be ok for Sunday which is great news.

Arsène had a point talking about the tackling of the Liege players, it was only a surprise that when the red card came for one of them, it was for a ridiculous head to head with Cesc. The further the game slipped from Liege, the worse the tackling got and so Keiran Gibbs now has the "proper" footballer's injury and will miss 2-3 months of the season. Not what we need.

On a positive note and I do like to be positive, I thought Carlos Vela put in a very encouraging shift up front. Overly reliant on his left foot perhaps, but his movement, awareness and touch are all very good. I think it's safe to assume there's more to come from the Mexican superstar. Off the pitch, the news that he has agreed a contract extension (have I got that right?) is good as is the fact that the still improving Alex Song- showing he can play a bit as well as stop others playing- has signed a new contract.  

Before I forget, I'd like to put a shout out to Fiorentina for denying the cheating bunch of scousers what they no doubt think of as their rightful place in the last 16- that they get to go to Anfield and put out any team they like in the final group game seems like a delicious kind of irony to me.

It's good to be back.

So that was one number 14; our current number 14, in the latest team news for this afternoon's match, is fit and available for selection. Which is great news, I think that the jury is still out amongst Arsenal fans as regards Theo's footballing abilities and it's true that he's no Rosicky, or Nasri. But then neither of them have his scorching pace, so he brings something very different to the table. Easy to forget too, as Steve the QPR season ticket holder evidently had a few weeks back, that the boy is still just 20 years old. Time is very much on his side and if there's a serious footballer hiding all away in that young man, then who better than the boss to unleash him?

So, Theo's back and it seems that he isn't the only one, with Jack Wilshere the latest to tumble out of the treatment room although, a little confusingly, it seems that Lukasz Fabianski is not quite there yet. Perhaps that won't matter so much as Manuel Almunia has regained his commision as the man tasked with fishing any shot on target out of the old onion bag. It looks likely, that with minimal preparation time between getting players back and having to travel to the north east, that there are going to be some changes today. Bac Sagna and William Gallas played 120 minutes on Wednesday night, so perhaps we will see Eboue and... um, er, flip a coin and (heads it's) Senderos come in to the starting XI. Of Andrey Arshavin, following Russia's failure to qualify for the Wolrd Cup, the boss says that he "has come back from a very long trip and is very disappointed" so it seems natural to assume that perhaps Andrey will be on the bench today. Though I question, whether Arshavin's disappointed state is anything new. I noticed on the LadyArse blog a few days ago that she thought the Russian wasn't as settled as we'd like and I found myself wondering whether the freak snow storm that greeted his arrival hadn't given him a false impression of London life. Perhapsa cold afternoon in the north east will be to his liking, if he gets on.

So, Eduardo will begin his first game as the spearhead of our attack (at least it seems logical to assume so) armed with a freshly minted contract, whilst we come face to face with an in form Darren Bent and a chance for Gooners to once again air the choon that goes along to the tune of The Clash's English Civil War- and yes, I know that came from somewhere else too. Sunderland are perhaps weakened by the absence of Cattermole and Kenwyn Jones, but I'm sure they'll be up for this one. A tough afternoon awaits. 

The conversation continued with and without me and then the guy said something about it being a sad day for football when Thierry took Cliff Bastin's record- "Wrighty's", I interjected and then we got off the tube and made our way to Wembley Arena for the Arctic Monkeys gig, which was breathtakingly good in parts and a little slapdash in others. It's been a while since I've been so far away from a band, seated as we were in row U of the block closest to the back of the stage. Anyway, duties dispatched for the evening, the closing track 505 gave way to the theme music from the Wire (which was proper weird) and then we had a synchronised slip down beer sodden steps those further damaging my right ankle. So we headed home feeling like we'd been part of a mosh pit that we'd been able to look down on and be thankful for the seats we had- Alex Turner even stopping proceedings early on Strummer style when spotting some fighting going down.

It's ironic that that bloke was talking about it being a sad day for football when Thierry... because that seems to be what everyone's talking about today. Gabs the part time Gooner texting me to say that Thierry let himself down last night, and he is by no means alone in his opinions. But, surely some of the guys absolutely slating Thierry today should know better. Yes, it was a blatant handball, accident or no, but I don't remember Michael Owen being similarly chided for the blatant dive versus Argentina in 2002. I don't remember Rooney being taken to task for either of his dives against us in 2004 and earlier this year. Diving is not the same as handball, this is true. But they are both instances of cheating, and you're either against it, or you're for it in all its forms. The only distinction here seems to be that cheating is ok, unless it's an Arsenal associated player doing it- that sounds like I condone a Gooner doing it, I absolutely don't. I just want the same standards to apply to everyone. When wankers like Tony Cascarino have penned character assassinations on the likes of Didier Drogba, currently representing the club Cascarino is most associated with, then come and have a go at Arsenal idols. Until then you are morally bankrupt and every word you say is, in the words of Hicks, "like a turd falling into my drink". I do wonder what Liam Brady thinks of it all though.

Now I've got that off my chest, and really I couldn't care less one way or the other, Thierry is a Barcelona player now and I actually wanted Ireland to win last night, so the French lads could get some rest this summer. But you know, anything to fuck off Robbie Keane (Sorry Kev).

Moving on, I postscripted my blog yesterday evening with the excellent news that Eduardo had signed a new contract with Arsenal. Apparently, Liverpool have been linked with him in the press over the last week (whether that link was based on the fact that Liverpool is a natural home for divers one can only speculate), but I think that the "courage, bravery and commitment" that Arsène Wenger attests to is the more probable trigger for the new deal. Eduardo himself is "very pleased" to have signed on again and will go to Sunderland on Saturday, I hope, with a spring in his step and a song in his heart. But not Alex Song, that would be... odd. Now, go score some goals, Eddie!

There was more good news yesterday, very uncharacteristically for Arsenal, it transpires that Keiran Gibbs is another player who will be back in a much shorter time frame than originally feared- like next Tuesday, perhaps. The suspected broken metatarsal is only"severe brusing to the bones and soft tissue...". I think that is what is known as a bit of a result.

But wait... there's still more, yes more good news! Though the English duo of Wilshere and Walcott are a bit short for the weekend, the manager can now count on the availability of not just Fabianski, not just Armand Traore, not just Denilson (definitely in Saturday's squad, apparently), but also Carlos Vela too! Can you believe it?

I can only assume a swine flu epidemic is about to sweep in and decimate the squad, because that's too much good news for one day. Tomorrow y'all.