The Ice Age Is Coming

On a frankly freezing north London afternoon, normal service resumes and just in time for a Bolton preview.

 Other blogs will have told you about Emmanuel Adebayor's comments on William Gallas' comments. You won't be surprised to hear I agree with Emmanuel, though it has to be said, I don't think there's an Arsenal fan from Aberdeen to the Isle of Wight who didn't agree with what he said, just how he did it. Emmanuel also reckons we can still win the title. Not so sure about that myself, big man, but then around a year ago, I couldn't see us finishing lower than second, so who knows?

The boss has been talking up our defense as "solid" of late, which leads me to wonder if his infamous "I didn't see it" catchphrase is less a diversion than an indication of how much of a game the boss sees stood down on the touchline. Certainly, nobody who witnessed the Aston Villa game would talk of our defending as particularly solid. Though I do think Djourou (yes, him again) has certainly improved things at the back. As has the return of Sagna. Kolo makes his return to the team, his first game since making and then withdrawing a transfer request. It does seem very convenient that as Kolo returns to full fitness, Gallas once again succumbs to hamstring trouble- conspiracy shenanigans afoot in N5, surely not! I don't think the loss of Micky Silvester is going to cause anyone a sleepless night.

It's interesting that Kolo made this request apparently due to the breakdown of his relationship with Gallas as Djourou seems to have cemented his place in the starting line up. Of course, Kolo was talking up his partnership with Gallas, a piece of PR that nobody really believed in, not too many months ago. It has been put to me that as Gallas is more or less likely to leave in the summer, we're better off sticking with the guy closer to everyone's hearts. I can certainly agree with that, but the truth is nobody knows what Gallas will do in the summer. As I said initially, I hope it works out and they both stay. There's room in the Arsenal first team squad for both of them, so come together brothers!

When talking up our defensive solidity, le boss also said, the creative side would come back with confidence. I think his cause would be helped by playing players who are likely to create in the midfield. Players like Aaron Ramsey, for example. Okay, you might not want to start him against Bolton, but analyse it, why is he any less likely to cope than Denilson, or sicknote Diaby for that matter? You can analyse too much though, nobody thought the midfield Arsène selected at the Reebok a few months back would play as spectacularly as it did. Denilson had a great game that day, lest we forget. A quick word about Gary Megson who has quite rightly pointed out that Abou Diaby could have injured a Bolton player or two (in fact he did a couple of years back) in recent fixtures. Fair enough Gary, but Abou's not malicious, he's just a clumsy tackler. You have serial offenders who specifically go out out to hit people hard. Like Kevin Davis, like Kevin Nolan. And generally they get away with it, whereas Abou got himself sent off with his tackle last season. Consistency.

It seems that whilst a gun or two may have been jumped in the print media, Arshavin is an ongoing project. But a defensive midfielder is a priority. And quite right too. Allegedly, not content with tapping up cashley whilst at Chelsea, it seems Mourinho's Internazionale have been messing with Abou Diaby and Emmanuel Eboue. Why? I don't know either.

Finally, it's becoming apparent that the prices of a match ticket are becoming too much for Gooners, in the middle of recession and after Christmas, the attendance against Plymouth was widely held to be around 52,000 and though the game tomorrow is "sold out", I think we can assume there will be more thena a few red seats visible tomorrow. There is an argument that you support your team regardless, but I do think that the board expecting people to shell out fifty notes to watch the current team in the current times, well... they're having a laugh, aren't they? What would be great, apart from a price reduction which will never happen, is if everyone at the game tomorrow went to the game and went there to enjoy themselves. If you're going and you're reading this, then having spent that money, why not go and enjoy yourself rather than sitting like a lemon in a library?