With much of the team news available today already covered in my blog yesterday, today's looks like being an Arse.com extravaganza ahead of the visit of AZ Alkmaar tonight.

With Keiran Gibbs coming into the team in place of the injured Gael Clichy, the boss has been talking about the young Englishman and how well he played in the aftermath of his slip in the Champions League semi final. Apparently, Keiran was set to be more involved in first team action over the coming weeks with the boss looking to rotate him with Clichy anyway. With Armand Traore, according to the extensive Arse.com injury update, due back in training from tomorrow, the situation is simply that Traore will now provide the rotation for Gibbs that Gibbs was due to provide Clichy. I wonder, though, whether Traore will be exposed as much as Gibbs would have been? There again, Traore had a season of first team football with Portsmouth last year, so Clichy's injury is a good opportunity for him as well as Keiran.

I'm sure Arsenal's current injury woes- ten first squad members are currently unavailable (did you know that, Robbie?)- were on Arsène's mind when he talked about the nightmare before Christmas that is also known as the month of November and the volume of games that coincide with the football season's transition from the late autumn sunshine and green pitches to the wintery chill enveloping various mud filled, potholed football pitches up and down the country. Although, not ours of course. Is it a coincidence that this month is traditionally the one that has us all scared to check the results on a Saturday/Sunday evening? Does the boss subconciously transmit his fear and loathing of November to the players?

That's enough film references for one paragraph, I guess.

I saw the boss talking about "Silent" Stan and the increasing volume of shares in his possession yesterday. Well, I say talking, what he said was pretty simple really. As long as his technical vision for the club is not interfered with, the ownership of the club doesn't really concern him. I guess some bloggers might take that as Arséne aggressively defending his territory, but what else is he supposed to say? You might not be surprised to hear that I agree with him.

He also took time to thank Alex Ferguson for the Manchester United manager's personal intervention regarding the obscene chants directed at our main man and the letters to be sent to Manchester United supporters. He didn't question, though I wonder, if the letters are to be sent by horseback?

Of course, tonight's game sees the return of Ronald Koeman, a man with very happy memories of north London- whether as a manager, knocking Arsenal out of the Champions League with a late Alex goal in 2007; or as a player, scoring the winning goal for Barcelona as they won the first of their three *sob* European Cups back in the early 90's. He comes here, though, under no illusion about the size of the "difficult" task in front of him. Especially as his team will have to contend with the man Koeman believes to be Holland's best, I'm not talking about Nacer Barazite either. With le boss talking up Robin's increased maturity, the player himself has been talking about how he is enjoying his new role. It seems to me that these are the keys to his success so far this season, I guess it isn't rocket science, but becoming the main man seems to have been the making of him.

Despite Robin's excellent form over the last month, though, the honour of being voted the PFA Fans' Player of the Month has fallen to club captain Fabregas. He's probably earnt it on the basis of that inspirational performance against Blackburn, though his goal on Saturday won't have hurt him either.

Of course, it was Robin and Cesc who combined for the opening goal in Holland two weeks ago, so Alkmaar know all about the difficulties of containing those two. If they can manage that, then they will have to worry about an Andrey Arshavin who hasn't seemed entirely happy over the last few weeks and an Eduardo who hasn't quite clicked into his clinical gears just yet. At least, with Bendtner on the sidelines for a month, I assume it will be Eduardo starting tonight. The inclusion of a clinical finisher as opposed to a trier who runs up and down a lot but ultimately achieves very little seems the obvious thing to do against a coach who likes to contain.

Enjoy the game, wherever you are. 

If yesterday's blog came to you via 4 hours sleep and a somewhat fragmented state of mind, then today's blog.. today's blog I'm starting to feel a little like Christian Bale's character in The Machinist. In bed at the not unreasonable time of 10.30, asleep by 11 and juddered awake by 2am. A night on the sofa finishing watching Star Wars- I'd started that one on Monday morning- before deciding I might as well eat something before getting into work early was all mine.

Before I decided to put the rest of Star Wars, perhaps not the best choice on an extremely black night of the soul, I was cruising Sky Sports News and came across Jermaine Jenas and his assertion that Tottenham's defeat at Arsenal was a one off. Er, really Jermaine?

What about this then?

Yes, I am that sad. But it tells its own tale, doesn't it? Twenty matches, 11 wins, 9 draws with 41 goals scored against 22 conceded suggests that perhaps it wasn't a one off at all. Anymore than Tottenham's third consecutive match against a member of the big four ending with them conceding three goals in defeat was. Harry Redknapp can claim there is no gap between the squads, but we all know that Arsenal are in the title race- whether they win it or not, Tottenham are in the race for a Champions League spot, if they're lucky. That is the reality gap.

To be honest, I think enough's been said, and I might not have mentioned this at all had Jenas' daft comments not interrupted my fun filled night, thoughts like fireworks exploding through my brain, on the sofa, "phenomenal squad"? the only thing phenomenal about Tottenham is the size of the ego in relation to the acheivement.

I could go on, I really could, but I don't want to lose you and I fear I might, so I will move on from Saturday's events, as the official website seems to have done.

The original version of yesterday's blog mused upon the plight of Liverpool, the bet I made with Luke's brother and Luke's insistence that 4 draws in a row Manchester City will finish the season crowned as champions. I forgot about that by the time I got home, but I also caught myself wondering about the Chelsea Manchester United clash at the weekend. With Arsenal playing Wolverhampton Wanderers and with Mick McCarthy's shocking record in the Premier League, it's difficult to see this as anything other than a chance to finish the weekend either in second place, or points closer to Chelsea. Honestly, the way United are playing, it's difficult to see how we won't be in second place come Monday morning, but let's not jump the gun and by doing so jump back in time to last season's assumption that games can be won by just stepping onto the pitch.

It's perhaps, with the visit of AZ Alkmaar a day ahead of us and Champions League qualification beckoning, a touch premature to be considering the Wolves game, but in a classic Arsenal touch, the players will take the field on Saturday evening with poppies embroidered into their shirts as a precursor to a shirt raffle in aid of the Royal British Legion and Help For Heroes.

Moving back to the Alkmaar game and the early team news is that Gael Clichy will be out for a month, due to a stress facture of the back. I might be wrong, but isn't this the same injury, or type of injury, that ended last season for him? Good news for Keiran Gibbs though, who showed last week just what he is made of. I look forward to seeing how he does in the month ahead with interest. Tomas Rosicky, on the other hand, returns to the squad after a short time out. So it'll be good to have him augmenting the options once more.

Stan Kroenke has made a further share purchase, the percentage of shares owned getting ever nearer to the 29.9% trigger. So that's something else to keep your eye on as I move deeper into my week from hell and Arsenal begin their traditional month of doom.

Fun and games.

A fat sleep last night and I am indeed feeling much better. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for our receptionist, who cracked her head a good one in the shower this morning. From time to time she reads this blog, actually, so hopefully by the time Sara reads this, she won't be suffering from a concussion.

But enough about the walking wounded in my life, what about the walking wounded of Arsenal? We've already covered Samir Nasri, who may be included in the Carling Cup squad for Liverpool in a week and a half's time. Eduardo's thigh problem will preclude him from avenging the near dismemberment of his ankle last February and Nick Bendtner's groin will see a limitation on our forward options further compounded by Carlos Vela's unavailability as he hitchhikes his way back from South America.

At the back, Manuel Almunia was said yesterday to be "50-50" to return to the first team after his chest infection. A month later and he's 50-50? What kind of chest infection has he got? I mean you could understand it if he had the kind of chest infection suffered by John Hurt in Alien. You know, he gets attacked by a face huggy type thing, which then secretly impregnates him, resisting all attempts to pry it off by having acid for blood that would burn his face off, if it made contact. The thing then falls off, but when he get up to have dinner with your fellow crew, or team members, a little penis looking thing with teeth eats its way through his body before bursting out through the chest cavity. And then turning into a massive black xenomorph that kills everything in its path, except the cat. And a woman clad in only vest and pants- though who that would be in the Arsenal dressing room, God only knows. Not sure there's a cat running around the Grove either, though that Highbury squirrel may well be around somewhere.

Yeah, I could understand it if Almunia had that kind of chest infection. Although, clearly, that would result in sudden and painful death, but if he doesn't have that, then what's the hold up? You can only assume that Mr Wenger, like the majority of Gooners, is none too happy with the way the Spanish waiter has started the season.

Another one who has room for improvement this season is Gael Clichy but he won't be doing that tomorrow afternoon as he picked up an ankle knock whilst on international duty with le France. I don't know about internationals, you can get all wound up about why this player isn't in their national side (as I used to regarding Wrighty and England) and then they get in their side and it's just headaches. They get injured, they have to travel all over the world, they get tired, they get demotivated or lazy, they lose form and then they go elsewhere.

That's a bit simplified I know. To boil it down further; the bottom line if you like, is that Keiran Gibbs seems certain to start tomorrow afternoon's match. I can't imagine that he will be in the team for long afterwards, but if he can continue in the vein of his embryonic yet impressive Arsenal career, he has a chance to keep Clichy's backside in bench warming mode.

So, no Bendtner, Eduardo, Almunia (fingers crossed) or Clichy. But Cesc Fabregas will return and Lukasz Fabianski has overcome his injury and is set to be included in tomorrow's squad. I'll be watching to see if he replaces Don Vito tomorrow. Aside from the pecking order, I don't think there's any real reason to displace the Italian Stallion, who has performed very well, but that's rarely stopped the gaffer in the past. As Alex Manninger can testify. But then Manuel Almunia is no David Seaman, he's not even a Jens Lehmann.

In the background, the intrigue level is starting to verge on the red side of things. Or red and white side of things. Silent Stanley has purchased another 90 shares, at £8,500 per share, taking him to 28.9% of all issued shares and just one single, solitary percent away from having to make a compulsory offer for all shares. It's funny, I've come to believe in Stan as a force for good, but I'm not sure I want this now. PH-W says he's relaxed about it and that he would welcome a takeover, but as we get further down this road, what else can he say? What should he say? What can he do now? I guess the doubts are bound to set in as the inevitable draws ever nearer, but it seems to me- and yes, it's been triggered by my current choice of literature- that no good can come out of one man owning the club, especially when we don't know what his intentions are.

I'd still rather him than the other fella, though.

Much to catch up on this Monday afternoon, then. The lack of posting over the weekend a result of a monumental reminder to music lovers that yes, we really have missed Blur and of the power of Roger Federer. I wanted Roddick to win, thought he could win and he should have won (and is probably having nightmares about the second set tie break). But full credit to Roger Federer, the greatest tennis player in Major history.

Whilst on my way to Hyde Park, via Wagamamas on Friday afternoon, I had my first sighting of the new away kit "wild". And, I have to say, I thought it looked quite good, to be fair. Still don't think blue is an Arsenal colour, at least not a "primary" one, but it's not as bad as I thought.

I see Keiran Gibbs is the latest youth to be tied up long term. Which is good news. It'll be interesting to see how Gael Clichy, who has been unchallenged in his status as left back numero uno since the move to the new stadium, responds to having this young, talented if raw, youngster breathing down his neck in the years to come. Importantly for us, if we could somehow hang on to both of them, it means that Clichy can be rested as and when with an imperceptible drop in quality.

The transfer front is fairly quiet. Opening the Observer yesterday, you can imagine how thrilled I was to read the headline "Adebayor ends Milan links..." That said, even a paper like the Observer can be prone to extrapolating excessively. They report his agent as saying "No. No. It is the same situation as last week" Parallel to Arsène's noncomittal attitude towards his number 25, "No. It is the same situation as last week", this comment hardly seems like the sort of thing any Arsenal fan who wants him to stay (and despite my thoughts on the matter, it seems there are a few of you who still do) would want to hear. 

Au contraire, the news that Arsenal target Felipe Melo would be allowed to leave Fiorentina, if we gave them some cash and Emmanuel Eboue, came as music to my ears. I'm not sure if this is the latest postion though, or whether Melo is intent on honouring his contract extension, on which the ink is probably still drying. Perhaps Eboue doesn't see Fiorentina as appropriate for a player of Eboue's talents, or perhaps Arsène is unwilling to let the Ivorian leave. And, to be honest, I can kind of understand why. After all, Bac Sagna is not superhuman and I can't advocate depth on the left, whilst dismissing the concept on the right. Kolo Toure has failed to convince when played there of late, which leaves us with Gavin Hoyte, who- with the best will in the world- would face quite a jump, if Sagna were to pick up a long term injury. And you just know that it would happen as soon as Eboue went.

It seems that the Cesc story is one that won't be left alone. Not by Anthony Kastrinakis anyway. The continued pressure on Arsenal has, allegedly, led to a bounty of £40m being placed on Cesc's head. Which is a little less than the price tag Cesc himself quoted last week, when asked about his future. I remember the summers spent cursing the newspapers, 2001 stands out in this regard when every day seemed to bring news of Patrick Vieira's departure. So, I won't let yet another piece of speculation from tomorrow's fish and chips wrapper get to me.

Yet.

And so normal service is well and truly resumed.

And it's resumed in a climate of newspaper "reporting" that has both of our first choice full backs targetted by Real Madrid, PSG in for Eboue, four of our centre backs hovering uncertainly by the exit door and in fact the only defender presumably to be left at the club along with new boy Vermaelen is Keiran Gibbs. Who, apparently, is to be offered a new contract and, according to Stuart Pearce, a man who surely would have eaten Theo Walcott for breakfast in his time as England's premier left back, has every chance of playing his way into England's World Cup squad next summer.

I wonder about the wisdom of taking a 22 man squad to South Africa, bearing in mind their apparent acccomodation difficulties with the lions tour going on at present, but that's not for me to think about too deeply.

Meanwhile, it seems I wasn't the only person on holiday in Rome over the last week. Nick Bendtner spent a weekend in the Eternal City, prompting speculation that he could be the young striker Luciano Spalletti has in his sights. But his dad, Thomas, has come out to say that it was a prearranged visit. Honestly, I don't know what the world's coming to when a young man can't go and visit one of the most historic, awe inspiring cities in the world with some sports journo somewhere getting a pant tent. Everyone should go and visit Rome, at least once.  The cheque's in the post, I assume? Cheers.

Now, Nicky is not someone you'd expect to make a list of 50 all time Top Gunners, but the list has been compiled by the Times. And the Top, toppest Gunner of them all is one Tony Adams. The only man to captain a title winning side in three different decades, which let's face it, is an acheivement unlikey to be matched, given that footballers these days have all the loyalty of second year university students. I guess on that fact alone, he deserves the accolade, whilst three of the best players I've ever seen in Bergkamp, Vieira and Henry make up the top 5 with Alex James the solitary reminder of an even more glorious, if more distant past. People may have quibbles about this list, but at least it doesn't include a certain left back. Unlike the official Arse.com one.

I didn't get to see much of the FA Youth Cup Final last night. But Bouldie's boys are to be congratulated on a job extremely well done. Or half well done. I turned on with 10 minutes to go and was pleasantly surprised to see that a 4-1 lead had been established. The boys would have had a fifth had the linesman been paying attention to Rhys Murphy began his run from before cracking the ball home. Even at youth level, Liverpool get the benefit from dodgy decisions...

Whilst the commentators and pundits were purring over Jack Wilshere's performance, Sanchez Watt got the goal of the night with a beautiful chip and surely, as Michael Thomas pointed out, Steve Bould would have loved Jay Emmanuel Thomas' near post flicked header that completed the scoring.

It was funny to see Wilshere and co interviewed after the game, they looked like 3 schoolboys in the headmaster's study. As the commentary noted last night, better get used to the attention, Jack! Meanwhile, Steve Bould looked determined not to let the success of the night go to the boys heads, Liverpool's manager just looked like the lost Chuckle Brother. How ironic that on the 26th of May 2009, twenty years after Michael Thomas, the two teams will hit Anfield with Liverpool needing their own Michael Thomas moment. With Steve Bould, of course, having been part of that team 20 years ago, I'm sure he will be impressing on his young charges the fact that nothing's impossible. The boss was at the game last night and I wonder how many of these young tyros we will see in the Carling Cup next season.

Staying with persons young. Or a person young, here are some facts and statistics about Nicklas Bendtner that AOL might also find interesting. At the age of 21, he has scored the winning goal (with his first touch as sub) against Tottenham, an equaliser against Liverpool and a goal that, had a certain centre forward bothered to stay on his feet a couple of times, might have launched a comeback against Chelsea. He has 15 goals from 27 starts and 23 sub appearances. This breaks down, in the league, to 17 starts, 14 sub appearances and 9 goals. Which, even with the limited time afforded by those sub appearances, still means he his goalscoring ratio is about one goal every three games. This includes winning goals at Bolton, Portsmouth, Newcastle and West Brom. Not the best teams, I know. But we weren't complaining when Ade put six past Derby last season. He also scored that vital last minute winner at home to Dinamo Kiev.

So, when we rush to criticise this lad, let's remember that he is the third top scorer at the club this season, he has one league goal less than the man who thinks he is the best striker at this club and is the age Adebayor was when he signed for the club. Not wanting to go there particularly, but for the record, he is also a year younger than a certain Thierry Henry was when he signed for us. Having seen him get the message about his workrate, I agree with the boss when he says there is more to come from him. I just hope the fact his player page isn't working on Arse.com isn't significant!

Meanwhile, the boss is- perhaps to his chagrin- still talking him about himself. Arsenal.com has a short piece called "Arsenal is the Club For Me". Lord Kitchener must be spinning. He also talks about how he appreciates the fans support and doesn't appreciate criticism from shareholders who will have seen the value of their shares rocket- off the back of his efforts. He doesn't say that last bit, but I'm sure he was thinking it at least. I would have been.

Having talked up Jack Wilshere's England prospects- I can't see how young Jack is going to get into our first team, never mind the England one- lst season, before consigning him to the reserves for the rest of the season, Mr Wenger is now talking up Keiran Gibbs' England prospects. Which is interesting for a couple of reasons. One is the season Gael Clichy's just had. Not that it was terrible, just a dip in his standards. I wouldn't imagine Gael is going anywhere, but then I was talking to an Arsenal fan after the Chelsea game who reckons Gael is indeed off to pastures new. That same Arsenal fan, though, didn't rate Song in central midfield, so... Of course Keiran, if he is to play for England, would have to play for us first- unless he went elsewhere and I don't think that's what Arsène was talking about.  My second reason is, if he was to play for England, of course he would have to depose a certain player now plying his trade for the South West London Mercenaries.

That really would be something, wouldn't it? 

I don't know where to start today. On the one hand gloating about Chelsea's last minute exit at the hands of Barcelona last night, and their rather ridiculous reaction to it, seems kind of small minded given that it came 24 hours after we were humiliated on our home turf by Manchester United. But, you know... John Terry, Ashley Cole, Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba, especially Didier Drogba, if you can't laugh at them after last night, when can you?

This is true: Last night, at 9.19, I sent Randall the Spurs fan a text saying "What is Drogba like?". Obviously that was before Iniesta's cracking strike and the scenes that followed as Chelsea tried to recreate Arsenal at Old Trafford, 2003. Chelsea might have got the shit end of the stick with a few decisions last night, but look at Drogba's reaction to being tackled by Toure the Younger. Look at the sending off of Abidal and look back to last week when Barca were complaining about a referee and Chelsea, in a rather high and mighty fashion, responded that they didn't worry about referees. Oh, really boys?

Long story short, I reckon the best two teams are in the final and that is probably as it should be.

Leaving that aside, the blog today, I suppose, is a tale of two strikers. Neither of them particularly covering themselves in glory. I heard this morning on the BBC- or was it last night on Sky Sports News?- that Nick Bendtner had apologised after being photographed coming out of a nightclub. I thought to myself, "Why does he need to apologise?"

And then I saw the photos. Oh. My. Word. Nick, Nick, Nick, what were you thinking? As it goes, I don't have a problem with him doing what he did, he isn't the first youngster to go out and have a few after a game, and he certainly won't be the last. But I can see that others might. I don't think there's any real need to go on about this one, as I'm sure le gaffeur will have had a word or two. And that should be enough to put an end to the matter. Put it this way, nobody will be complaining if he launches himself off the bench and grabs a goal on Sunday. Ok, that's a bit laissez faire maybe, but at the end of the day, I'm not the moral compass for our football club and at the end of the day, Bendtner is one of the most improved footballers at the club- the current joke going round the Online Gooner, runs along the lines of, "Did he tell Ade when he came on on Tuesday, 'I'm only on because you're shit?'" Unthinkable a year ago.

Speaking of Adebayor. Rather worryingly, and no doubt he'll be contradicting himself in a few days anyway, he has pledged his future to the club. I can't think of a player whose stock has peaked and troughed in such speedy fashion. Eighteen months ago, we wondered how Thierry would be replaced, a year ago it looked like we had a pretty good answer but Ade has turned out to be fools gold. And whilst I can't think of a player's stock rising and falling so quickly, neither can I think of a footballler who has united so many Arsenal fans: Not one wants to see him in an Arsenal shirt come August. In fact, it's about the only thing we can all agree on at the moment.

One of the enduring images of the second leg of the semi final was the look on Keiran Gibbs face as Park put Manchester United in control of the match. Well, aside from the rows of emptying seats in the second half, that is. Kolo Toure has come out in support of the youngster and his performances thus far. Rightly so. I'm sure that if- when- he takes the field against Chelsea, the guy who has been one of our brightest stars in the last month, will be afforded the reception he deserves.

Bet you all thought I'd jumped under a train, didn't you? Gremlins. Again. 

I'm not going to go on about it, because nearly 48 hours later, I think it's all been said elsewhere, but I want to begin here by picking up a couple of themes from Wednesday's blog.

The first point is that Wednesday's display, where- as Manuel Almunia (one of the few to emerge with any credit) says- the boys looked "lost", was most definitely not one of the reasons we love football. I've been joking with friends and colleagues that Manchester United were lucky on Wednesday night.... lucky that only 4 of our players bothered to show up.

Next, I'd like to talk about Emmanuel Adebayor. He played as if it was him who had been quarantined. I can accept an argument that he was isolated against the best two centre backs in the country. But that doesn't excuse his continued lethargy. On the back of one Thierry Henry season, he got Thierry Henry wages and we get another Thierry Henry season. Only The Thierry Henry of 2007, not the Henry that worked his bollocks off to earn those wages. I'd wondered to Gabs on Sunday whether he was saving himself for Wednesday. I can only wonder now if he was saving himself for Portsmouth. One thing I am not wondering about is that he will surely be deemed surplus to requirements in the summer, however I do wonder who will buy him and how much they'll be willing to spend.

Abou Diaby was another one who might as well have stayed in the dressing room. How he avoided being "hooked" will surely remain between him and the manager because his display was pitiful. Looking at it in a more positive light, I guess the poverty of his display can only have accentuated the fact that another Wenger gem is rolling off the Shenley production line. The man Diaby was supposed to have been supporting, Keiran Gibbs, was perhaps our best player on the night and after the season Gael Clichy has had, his first real dip across his six years here, the frenchman should be in no doubt that if his standards were to slip further, he can be replaced.

Kolo Toure and Alex Song were Keiran's only real rivals for player of the night, from our point of view anyway. But it is only down to the heroics of Manuel Almunia- and what a difference a year makes- that this tie is still alive. We can only hope that, as with the second round match, we are as good at home as we were poor away.

Cesc Fabregas hasn't given up. Though, as club captain he's hardly likely to come out and say "Well, that's it then lads, we're fucked" or words to that effect. He does make a good point, I do think it will be completely different at the Grove and I like to think that he did a "McLintock" on the players after the game. But it's difficult to see how United will not score, which of course would leave us needing three. Our chances of getting those three goals surely diminished by the likelihood that both Eduardo and Robin van Persie will not be fit to begin the match, if not play any part in it at all.

I think, we'd be best served by thinking a little differently here. The first objective here, nearly 20 years after Anfield '89, is not to concede a goal. Conceding a goal would not be a catastrophe, it'd merely be a disaster. We have ninety minutes to score a goal and so we don't need to go out all guns blazing for the first twenty minutes. Let's summon up that Anfield 89 spirit, keep it tight at the back and concentrate on winning the game in the second half. At least, that's how I'd approach it.

Of course, we have a game before that, at Portsmouth tomorrow. Conventional wisdom suggests that Arshavin will play and a team of some description will be cobbled together around him. I'd like to see us play some part of the game without him. Not because he isn't great. Clearly, he is, but he has become so influential that we look half a team without him (aka the Dennis Bergkamp european effect). We don't have him on Tuesday night, so let's figure out how we can play our best without him. For me, that means Cesc back to central midfield. If anyone should play in the hole, it should be Nasri, Walcott wide left and maybe, just this once, I would advocate Eboue in on the right in front of Sagna. Or do I like Bendtner up top (we beat them in November with him there, remember?) with shAbby, Eboue right, Nasri left and Theo to come on and wreak havoc in the last half an hour? Decisions, decisions. Luckily they're not mine to get right.

My bank holiday begins at the Brixton Academy to see the majestic Doves tonight, what are you up to?

At around 5.40 yesterday, this blog was tentatively titled "The Hand of Ashley Cole". Unfortunately, my suspicion that we had scored too early proved to be correct and I don't think we were quite at it yesterday evening.

There is a chapter, or a section, in Fever Pitch called "The Greatest Moment Ever". It relates, of course, to the 26th May 1989 and Michael Thomas. With 5 minutes left of the FA Cup semi final yesterday, Lukasz Fabianski, who I still believe has a big future at the club, provided us with, possibly, "The Worst Moment Ever" and so we have been knocked out of the FA Cup by a team that hadn't beaten us in the competition in something like 60 years .

Was it really the worst moment ever though? Worse than Gazza's genius free kick that I watched, as a 13 year old at a Tottenham fan's house, bullet past David Seaman? Worse than Nayim's outrageous lob in 95 that so shocked my grandad, uncle and I that my auntie Susan, after 5 minutes of stunned silence from ourselves, resorted to the "Never mind boys, it's only a game!" Was it worse than Michael Owen's act of thievery in Cardiff, 2001 that saw me crying on my then girlfriend's shoulder and nearly getting into a fight with one of my best friends. A Liverpool fan, if you hadn't guessed.

No, I don't think it was really. But "The Third Worst Moment Ever" is not the snappiest title. For one thing, it meant that extra time didn't happen and so Joanna and I could leave the house and get to a birthday meal with her friends on time- did I really just say that? Yes, I did. Second, we didn't do anywhere near enough to win the game yesterday and whilst I don't think Chelsea were that much better, it would be churlish to say, as we could have argued in the Carling Cup Final of 2007, that the better team lost. The truly frustrating thing, though, is that Chelsea didn't have to work very hard for their goals. Eboue, for the first, showing why Wenger once said of him, "he can't defend!" before Lukasz got beaten on his near post. The second, around 80 minutes of match time after a similar incident, saw Drogba (he must love us and the presents we keep giving him) burning Silvestre and leaving Fabianski in no mans land. This time there was no Keiran Gibbs (who I thought one of our better players) to the rescue. On the back of a similar occurence at Wigan last week, it's clear that Fabianski's judgement is a little suspect at this stage of his career.

Speaking of suspect judgements, what of a man who decides to leave his best player, or at least the man who revived Arsenal in late winter, on the bench because he wants to play with "wingers"? Who then sits and watch cross after cross attempted but, as usual, nobody on the end of them. Ironically, it was the man charged with getting crosses in who got on the end of one from Gibbs to tuck away a smart left foot volley. Some people think Theo doesn't influence games enough. I don't know what more he could be doing that he isn't at the moment. Especially if you look around the rest of the team and he must be sick of scoring big goals that the team can't hang onto. Going back to the original starting point of this paragraph, Arshavin. Rested. Ready to go. On the bench. An even worse decision than putting Jeremie Aliadiere in for his first first team start in 3 months against Manchester United in 2004 and resting Reyes and Henry. We are now out of the one competition he could have won for us and he no chance to do anything about it. Maybe he was rested for Liverpool in midweek. Why? I have no idea. Perhaps the result in midweek convinced Arsène we could live without him but for most of the match we played as if missing a cog.  And maybe it would have been that way with him on the pitch, but we'll never know now. When he did arrive, that it wasn't Denilson who was replaced was quite surprising, I like Denilson. But he was less than impressive yesterday, dwelling on the ball, stupid passes and very lucky not to get sent off.

I mentioned an article by Amy Lawrence yesterday, in it she gently pointed out that it was a little early for "told you sos" from the manager. She was spot on.

So, despite not playing football for three weeks and no gym work in that time, football went ok, well even. I managed to set a goal up with a raking, back to goal, off my left foot pass that drew the keeper for our striker, Vez, to round him and tuck away which prompted a rather excessive and in your face celebration. You see, Vez had earlier been denied what should have been a clear goal because the ball hadn't crossed the line. The ball hadn't crossed the line because the goalkeeper had neglected to clear a spare ball from the goalline. Is that bad seven a side etiquette or what?Anyway, we won 3-2.

KFC on the way back led to the bath and then a massage, but my groin still feels like it's strung with piano wire. Too much information? Sorry, I'll move on. This evening blog comes to you after a bedroom reorganisation, a building of a bed and a bath. Now, I'm ready to type.

An opening preamble about injuries, slight or otherwise, seems kind of fitting in the aftermath of the news that Gael Clichy will miss two weeks with a back injury. Whilst Manuel Almunia, as expected, will miss three weeks, William Gallas has been ruled out for the season.

*Gulp*

We had to prepared for this kind of news though. The good news, for me, is that it seems Arsène is happy to stick with Johan Djourou as the preferred back up for Gallas and Toure rather than bringing back the fit again Silvestre. Sensibly too, we will be seeing more of the impressive Keiran Gibbs. It is in such circumstances that careers can be forged. They can also be fucked too, but I'm backing Keiran to step up at what is an extremely challenging time for the club. As much as it is challenging, how exciting for Keiran to think that whilst his season started with appearances in the Carling Cup against Sheffield United and Wigan, over the next week plus one, he'll be playing against Villarreal and Chelsea. Oh and Wigan as well. And should results go our way, he may yet feature in a Champions League semi final. F365 reacted to news of the promotion of the Carling Cup crew by saying they'll be "thrown in", but I don't agree with that, Djourou played a big part in reestablishing the side's defensive stability over the winter months and is no stranger to the first team, whilst Fabianski has 20 appearances for the first team under his belt.

I did catch myself, whilst in conversation with Rachid yesterday, wondering whether Gallas' injury (how heartbreaking for him to miss the Wembley semi final) would represent the last sighting of the number 10 in an Arsenal shirt. The boss has quickly moved to allay such fears. And as far as I'm concerned, they are very definitely fears. Whatever else went on earlier this season has been put firmly in the past in my mind by some excellent performances from the Frenchman, so I'd hate to see him go.

Interestingly, in that "thrown in" piece, the boss talks about the effects of tiredness, saying "My experience from France is that they always talk about 'fatigue, fatigue.' When you talk about it you are tired." Makes you think about all those times he has talked about the players being tired, doesn't it? In this instance, he has dispelled the notion that the players might be tired after a long season and certainly, if you look at the players in line to play tomorrow, the only ones you'd really be worried about are Sagna and Denilson.

For tomorrow, Eduardo and Robin may be back. Which would be just as well in my opinion, of course the little Russian genius will return to the first team too. I wonder now, does the boss feel we have enough attacking power and defensive stability to start Arshavin on one flank and Nasri/ Walcott on the other, or will the more defensively minded Eboue come in? Maybe we'll even see Arshavin central and Walcott and Nasri wide. That would be some sight to behold. Of course, I'm forgetting that Fabregas has been deployed in that central role since his return.... options, options! We've built some momentum of late, but I think this is going to be a very tough game, it would be a very good three points to take.

Who's hungry?