Wigan (h) Carling Cup preview, Rambo on the telly, no luck for Dover

A sight I do NOT want tomorrow night

With my wife confined to bed with the same sickness bug that afflicted the children last week I have spent the past two days finding out the life of a house-husband. All I can say is that it sure beats the hell out of working outside in the ice. Thankfully I managed to avoid Jeremy Kyle, though This Morning was essential viewing while feeding the baby. If only the pay was better. Having seen this particularly nasty virus sweep through the other members of the household I think it must surely be a matter of time before I am similarly struck down. I just hope it holds off at least until I get home from the Wigan game tomorrow night. I'll be travelling to the game on the high-speed train tomorrow as driving in the snow is about as palatable to me as losing 3-2 at home to Tottenham, and a whole lot more scary at times. Arsenal have said on their website that they will be monitoring the weather but I doubt very much the game will suffer the same fate as the Bolton match last season. Considering that Newcastle were able to get their match on yesterday amid about three-feet of the stuff it would be a little embarrassing for Arsenal to cancel again, unless the under soil heating were to fail.

The team news for tomorrow seems to be that Emmanuel Eboue has recovered somewhat more quickly than expected from his injury last Tuesday. If the Ivorian is fit this is welcome news as Sagna needs a rest as much as everyone else, and some rotation between the two is not a bad thing. On the other side of the defence Kieran Gibbs will surely get another start, and another chance to convince the Manager of what most of the fans already believe - that he should be the main man at left-back right now (I almost choked on my cup of tea when I saw Clichy in the "Team of the Weekend" in The Sun today). Sebastien Squillaci is listed as having a knee injury, but I wouldn't have expected to see him tomorrow anyway - I just hope he's fit for the weekend. Midfield will be interesting. Denilson will play, but who else? Carlos Vela could get a rare start on the left, with Walcott and Bendtner almost certain to complete the front three. Henri Lansbury is out on loan (and was apparently very impressive in the East Anglia derby yesterday) but Craig Eastmond is still around and would be favourite to play alongside Denilson. As for the "Fabregas" position it's anyone's guess. I would have thought Rosicky would play there, but he has played two (almost) full matches in the last week. It's a puzzler for the Manager. My personal preference would be for Jay Emmanuel-Thomas to step in (if he chooses to not play Arshavin or Nasri - though I have a sneaky suspicion the Russian might lead the side tomorrow) in order to add some beef to that midfield three.

The final position up for grabs is goalkeeper. Will it be Wojciech Sczeszny or Manuel Almunia? I hope the Pole plays with Almunia on the bench, and I would be a bit surprised (and disappointed) if that wasn't the case.
I think the team could look a bit like this tomorrow night:

Sczeszny - Eboue, Djourou, Koscielny, Gibbs - Denilson, Eastmond, Arshavin - Vela, Bendtner, Walcott.

I was really surprised when Arsenal announced that Aaron Ramsey was off to Forest on loan until January. I am concerned as to what this means for his future. I find it hard to believe that Arsenal would send him somewhere else in the middle of his recovery unless they have noticed something negative. I really hope I am wrong and that he has been sent out to play more regularly than Arsenal Reserves can offer, at a competitive level, so that he is fit to come in for a tired Wilshere/Denilson during the second half of the season. Forest are live on Sky tonight against Leicester and there is a chance that Rambo could get his first run-out for them. With it being a local derby it will surely be a bit feisty and could be a really good test of Aaron's psychological state should the tackles begin to fly. I think I'll tune in to see at least a bit of it if he is playing. I certainly won't be watching Barcelona play Real Madrid as I would rather stick sharp pointy things in to my eyes than put up with Sky fawning over Jose Mourinho.

The FA Cup draw paired us with Leeds United, at home. You can't ask for more than a home draw against lower league opposition. Leeds will be very well supported with up to 9000 tickets ready to be snapped up by the away team - you can be sure they will sell out their allocation. I imagine the Met Police are not too excited by the prospect of a visit from so many Leeds fans. What has happened to Leeds United in recent years is nothing short of a disgrace. A genuinely big club should not have sunk to those depths, and it is the fault of Peter Ridsdale. How this man was subsequently able to involve himself with Cardiff City (who almost went bankrupt too) is quite beyond me. He should have been banned after what he did to Leeds. The man was an egotistical twat who wanted the limelight for himself, but took none of the blame when it all went wrong. I wish Leeds well, but not in the FA Cup this season.

Elsewhere in the FA Cup Dover Athletic's giant-killing heroics were not rewarded in the draw. An away trip to Huddersfield Town is certainly not the stuff of dreams. They would have to be a long shot for a live TV game (a home tie may well have been on the box) so a replay seems their best hope of making some real money out of their magnificent run. I've spoken to one or two Dover regulars and they are a bit downbeat. Martin Hayes reaction on Sky last night was quite funny as he completely failed to hide his disappointment at not getting a bigger tie. It's a shame for a Club that always needs good money, so I hope they can get a draw and bring Huddersfield to Crabble (it is not, and never has been THE Crabble as the TV and radio would have you believe) where a replay would surely make the cut for a live transmission. If they could get them back to Dover then who knows, maybe the fourth round wouldn't be beyond them.

Villa beaten...eventually, Pat Rice to retire? FA Cup gets interesting today

We got there in the end I suppose and took an important three points. However, the reason we can not win the Title was still there for all to see - Arsenal simply can't defend properly. We've let in 7 goals in a week - none of them the fault of our goalkeeper. A team that needs to score three times per game just to be certain of a point is in no position to think it can win the Premier League. Perhaps the most worrying thing is that the goals we concede are regularly similar to each other, meaning that the defence does not learn from its collective errors. Worse still is that goals are often the fault of the same people making the same errors which begs the question as to why they continue to play every week. Yesterday was a prime example of both. The first goal saw the ball bouncing on the edge of the box so, instead of closing down the man on the ball, Tomas Rosicky and, my personal favourite, Gael Clichy chose to run away from him (while we're on the subject, what exactly have Gibbs and Djourou got to do to get a start on merit?) Squillaci, for the first time, notably berated Rosicky for his failure to act, but he obviously hadn't noticed Clichy who went towards the ball and then changed his mind and ran in the opposite direction. In fairness we should still have been saved by the linesman who failed to notice the 6'7" Carew standing in front of Fabianski, about five yards offside. The second goal was the usual set-piece concession with two men managing to find themselves unmarked in the six-yard area, right in front of the goalkeeper. As I say, we never learn.
On the attacking front Arsenal were outstanding. The trouble is that with our defending we need to be amazing going forward in every game. As with last week the game could, and should, have been put to bed before half-time. Arshavin improved again from last week and was the man of the match for me. The lazy flicks and lack of running have disappeared in the last two games, and he is making Arsenal tick again. Arsenal's dominance was all the more amazing when you consider that Rosicky was the direct replacement for Fabregas. I know he played a nice ball for Chamakh's goal, but he was completely anonymous for the rest of the game. In the latter part of the second-half I began to think I'd missed a substitution as he didn't appear on the TV screen at all.
Marouane Chamakh was outstanding once again, with Dunne and Collins at a complete loss in trying to deal with him. I felt Nasri had a quiet game again, but he popped up with a superb strike for the second goal, and missed an absolute sitter after a sublime pass from Arshavin had put him in on goal. We shouldn't have been hanging on the way we were, but it is a symptom of our lack of genuine ruthlessness in front of goal and our inability to contain at the back. Once again the players were not helped by the Manager and his bizarre substitutions. We had Theo Walcott on the bench, yet he chose to bring on Denilson and Gibbs for his two wide players - a completely negative move which could have backfired spectacularly as it has so often in the past (usually with Cygan being made the fall-guy). The fourth goal was also a complete dogs dinner with nobody wanting to take responsibility. Thankfully Jack stooped to conquer at the far post and put the win beyond doubt.
I watched the game in a pub yesterday and was reminded immediately of why I don't like watching Arsenal in places like that. The problem is that most pubs are populated by at least one tosser who will make a point of showing their dislike for Arsenal in some way. When you're in the pub 100 yards from a football ground, just before an FA Cup tie, you get more than one of them and that is bloody annoying - especially as most of these twats have never been near a Premier League ground in their lives.
The win took us top for a couple of hours but if it wasn't for the cock-ups of last weekend we would still be there now. I noticed that Fat Sam's band of thugs put in their usual meek and mild performance against his "friend" Ferguson's mob at Old Trafford. I'd love to see that walrus-faced arsehole get the boot...again.

According to the paper today Pat Rice is set to retire at the end of the season. Pat has been a great servant to Arsenal, and is a true legend of the Club. He has a fantastic record as a coach from the youth team through to the first eleven. However, I think a change might just be a good thing for the players, as I said on here last week. If he does retire then the Club must mark his service in an appropriate way, with proper tributes paid to someone who is Arsenal through and through. I remember at the Cup Final (and the replay) in 1993, the fans had gone a bit quiet at the end of ninety minutes. Pat, who George Graham always had around the first-team at Cup Finals (and at Anfield in 1989) marched towards us and started throwing his arms around and getting us to turn up the noise again. It will seem strange to see someone else sitting next to Wenger next season (if the Manager gets that far). It seems that Neil Banfield or Steve Bould are in line for promotion. I think most of the fans would far prefer Bouldie involved. Who knows, he might even get the players to learn how to defend. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if neither of them got the job, with Wenger bringing in someone from outside, but with an Arsenal pedigree - Pires, Bergkamp, Keown?

The FA Cup 3rd Round is drawn today. I went to watch my local team, Dover Athletic, yesterday in their tie with Aldershot. For the second round in a row Dover were the big giant-killers. Adam Birchall, a former Arsenal youth, got both their goals in a 2-0 win. There was a bumper crowd of over 4,000 there, and ESPN should be ashamed for not having them as one of the live matches. Martin Hayes is the Manager there so it would be great if we could get them at home in the next round. If Arsenal were drawn to play Dover away from home I think the police would not allow them to play it at Crabble, which would be a shame for the town and complete nonsense as far as I'm concerned - the terrace has a capacity so an all-ticket fixture (as it would be) would mean safety should not be an issue. Unfortunately, the idea of a "big" club is something the police don't want on their patch. Highlight of the day yesterday (apart from the win) was seeing one of the coppers not paying attention behind a stand get knocked off his feet by the matchball - everyone in the home end saw it happen and cheered in the appropriate fashion. Arsenal are number 1 in the draw, as they should always be, with Dover number 63.

Aston Villa (a) preview

If it's as cold in Birmingham as it is here in the South East then Arsenal's players will have no choice but to put in a lot of effort today. If they don't run around and get involved then hypothermia might just set in. I have a ticket for Dover Athletic's second-round FA Cup tie with Aldershot, so it's the pub just down the road from Dover's ground for the Arsenal game for me.

We knew that Fabregas and Eboue are both out of the match this afternoon. I would have expected Sagna to replace Eboue in any case. As I said Thursday I am not sure the absence of the skipper will be all that important on recent form. I would expect Nasri to move in to the middle and replace Cesc behind the main striker. There are some interesting selections for the Manager in other areas though.
The press are saying that Manuel Almunia is fit to play. This surprises me as the Spaniard played only the first-half of the Reserves match in midweek. I doubt he is really fit, so I don't think there is much chance that Fabianski will be dropped. To be honest, I don't see Almunia replacing either of the Polish goalkeepers, even when he does regain fitness.
In the centre of defence there is a choice to make between the ineffective Koscielny and the in-form Johan Djourou. I would far rather Djourou plays, especially as Carew is apparently ready to play for the opposition. Clichy may have recovered from his back problem, but I can't for the life of me understand why he would get in ahead of Gibbs. However, Gael is a Wenger favourite so I fully expect him to start if fit.
Denilson or Wilshere? With Alex Song certain to return to the starting XI it is a straight shoot out between the two. Wilshere has looked jaded in recent weeks, but he brings so much more to the side than the Brazilian. However, I would not be surprised to see Denilson play - he has a goalscoring pedigree at Villa Park so he could be a logical choice in a "horses for courses" kind of way. Out wide we can be sure that Arshavin will return - the weather should certainly suit him. But what of the other side of the pitch? Rosicky would be the favourite to play for me, but he completed 90 minutes on Tuesday. Theo Walcott is the other obvious option, but he is looking a bit more like the Theo we really know on the evidence of the past few weeks. This is where I would throw Villa a bit of a curve-ball. I would play Robin Van Persie off the right side of the pitch, where he used to line up for Holland a few years back. There is no point, for me, in putting him up against Dunn and Collins in the middle - he will win no kind of physical battle against those two, whereas Chamakh could dominate either or both of them. I doubt Wenger would do that, and it's more likely that RVP would play up front with Chamakh missing out, should he choose to select the Dutchman.
I'm not going to guess at a line-up today as there are just too many variables, and nobody can begin to know what Arsene is thinking these days. What I do know is that a win is crucial. Normally I would be happy with a point from a trip to Villa but, following two defeats, nothing less than three points is good enough today. With Villa missing the outstanding Albrighton, and possibly Agbonlahor, they have less attacking options, but Arsenal will still have to deal with the pace of Young and the physicality of Carew - a man we have never got to grips with through his career. To do so they will need organisation and defensive discipline, so don't go holding your breath.

I'll review the match tomorrow afternoon.

Fabregas out for 2 weeks, talk is cheap

It's been a long week. Defeat against the mugs on Saturday was merely the start. On Monday night my five-year-old developed a vomiting bug, causing me to come home early from a stag day I had organised. Then, of course, was Tuesday night's embarrassment. Finally, to top it all off, the baby caught the same bug as his brother and had us up all through last night. I am more tired than a tired thing, that's been certified with exhaustion. The only bright spot from last night was that I was able to sit in front of the live Ashes coverage. It's just a shame that England's batting was about as good as Arsenal's defending. All in all I can't wait to get this week over with - but I have a funeral to attend tomorrow before that can happen. Like I say, it's been a long week.

In the land of Arsenal FC it has been announced that Cesc Fabregas will be missing for two weeks. This would see him return in time for the game with Manchester United. I have to say that, having struggled with hamstring problems for more than a year, I don't see how a two week break will see Fabregas recover properly. The Captain needs to be rested properly if he is to regain fitness. I have criticised Fabregas heavily in recent weeks, but his injury has surely had some kind of impact on his performances. Having said that, as I pointed out last night, I am not that concerned at his absence. I believe the other players are becoming intimidated by the presence of Fabregas and the fact that he is genuinely World Class. Without him in the side I think our football might be a bit more expansive, with less attempts to pass through the central minefield of the opposition defence. Nasri and Wilshere, and possibly Rosicky (though hopefully not) will be likely to share the role vacated by Cesc in the games ahead and I think they will both fill the gap very comfortably.

I watched Johan Djourou's interview after the match on Tuesday and I was impressed with the words he came out with. Djourou was honest in his assessment of the team and their performance. He was also quite candid about what mistakes had been made on the pitch. I notice on the official website that Denilson has apologised to the fans for what has happened this week. Again, this is very noble and particularly refreshing (Cesc Fabregas, meanwhile, has been suspiciously quiet on his Twitter feed since Saturday). However, for all the honesty and the apologies from the players - and neither of these two would be considered first-choice - I would like to see a tangible response to defeats. The Manager refuses to criticise at the best of times so we can count out any gestures from him. The fact is that the players can talk as much as they want to, but the evidence of their remorse for awful performances will be seen at 12.45 on Saturday, in Birmingham. Talk is cheap Arsenal. Do your stuff on the pitch, then you might begin to claw back the respect of the fans, and you must start to do it at Aston Villa.

There will be a preview of the Aston Villa game posted tomorrow night. I wonder if I'll get some sleep tonight?

Braga review, Rambo's return

I suppose that the excuse of "we lacked focus" or "we were a little bit complacent at times" couldn't be trotted out by Wenger again after last night's debacle. Instead of that, we had the age-old "they didn't play football" and "the referee was awful" to contend with. Of course, it's difficult to argue with either of those comments from the Manager. However, it shouldn't have mattered how Braga played, or how bad the officiating was (and it was absolutely bloody scandalous, and ought to really be investigated by UEFA for its ineptitude) because the reason Arsenal lost is that they didn't put in the required effort. If the players were hurt after the weekend they didn't exactly show it. With the exception of Djourou and Gibbs (neither of whom played on Saturday) the performance of the players was as lacklustre as any we've seen against West Brom, Newcastle etc.
Nicklas Bendtner was back in the starting line-up last night. He's had far too much to say these past couple of weeks and I would have far rather seen Carlos Vela playing from the start as the Mexican has kept his head down and got on with things. So Bendtner had the chance to let his boots do the talking for a change, and he was awful. The Dane was constantly wandering out of the middle (as he always has done) so there was no target when the likes of Walcott and Gibbs got the ball in from wide. Bendtner needs to watch Marouane Chamakh and copy the way he plays - we looked so much better going forward when he came on.
I couldn't quite believe it when Theo Walcott was taken off, thus allowing Tomas Rosicky to get through the whole 90 minutes. Did Rosicky even touch the ball for most of the evening? Okay, Walcott was fairly quiet, but he was the only real threat we had against their defence. Denilson and Wilshere gave nothing going forward, and also failed to protect the back four at any time.
People will naturally criticise the decision to leave out Van Persie and Arshavin in the interests of resting the pair of them. Rightly so. However, they should have been in a position to be rested (along with the likes of Fabregas) without any question marks over our qualification - our problems do not stem from last night's defeat. The fact that Wenger left players out in Donetsk a few weeks ago, when a proper performance would have won us the group, is what caused the problems we now face. There is actually a very real prospect that we could go out of this competition. My brother pointed out this morning that, while you would never wish it, getting knocked out might just be a good thing as it would surely bring things to a head for Wenger - either to admit the squad is not up to it (unlikely considering his ridiculous boast on Friday that this is his finest squad ever), or to leave knowing he is now failing the Club.
It would be wrong to not mention the ridiculous decision to book Carlos Vela for diving. Vela was about to put the ball in the net when he was turned inside-out by the centre-back. The referee was no more than 15 yards away (and there was that other muppet behind the goal of course) and yet he can not see it was a stone-wall penalty. Wenger is right that it would have changed the game - of course it would - but that doesn't change the fact that Arsenal shouldn't have been in a position to be relying on the officials getting it right. Make no mistake Braga are rubbish. They do not belong on the same field as Arsenal. Unfortunately our players are simply not performing to the required standards and that is the fault of a Manager who seems unable to motivate them. It may be a consequence of the collective gloom of the last two games (we won the previous two remember) but I feel like I'm seeing the sort of lacklustre rubbish that became a hallmark of the death-throes of George Graham's time. I hope I'm wrong, but right now I feel Arsenal are nose-diving, and doing it quickly.
We lost Eboue and Fabregas to injury last night. I thought the foul on Eboue was awful and worthy of at least a yellow card - somehow we had more players carded than Braga did. The loss of Fabregas should be felt more keenly, you would think, than that of our reserve full-back. I actually think it might do the team some good. I have felt for a while that Fabregas is becoming a bit "Thierry Henry" in terms of his involvement on the field. You will remember how, in the last two seasons he spent at Arsenal Thierry insisted on every move going through him - so it is with Cesc right now. Henry also insisted on taking every free-kick around the penalty area etc. What I'm seeing with Fabregas feels like deja vu. His two free-kicks before half-time last night are put forward as "Exhibit A." The absence of Fabregas will hopefully see either Nasri or Wilshere move in to the role he vacates, thus spreading the play a bit more. This might just make us a little less predictable, while allowing one of those two to flourish in their natural position on the field.

It wasn't all bad news yesterday. Aaron Ramsey returned to action yesterday for the Reserves, along with Manuel Almunia. Both men played the first-half of a 2-1 win over Wolves - Roarie Deacon and Gilles Sunu the scorers. I wouldn't expect to be seeing Rambo in the first-team for quite a while yet - the FA Cup 3rd Round might be a realistic target for him, and patience will certainly be a virtue. He will need to buck the trend set by Diaby and Eduardo who were never the same after their horrific leg-breaks, and who still suffer the most annoying niggly injuries more often than is normal. Whatever the case, it's good to have him back on a football pitch and we can hope that he is the exception in terms of coming back to his best. I'm a little surprised to see Manuel back and playing, but I suppose he ought really to earn his wages if he's still at the Club. It will be very interesting to see if he works his way back to the first-team squad on a regular basis - I reckon he could be on the bench against Wigan next Tuesday.

More tomorrow.

No organisation, no idea

I thought that by watching the highlights of the game I might be able to calm down a bit. I've watched it twice now and I'm even more annoyed than before. The TV coverage shows just how bad our defensive organisation is, whether it's from open play or at set-pieces. I'll come on to that later, but I'd better cover the positive stuff first.

I actually thought Arsenal played well going forward yesterday. We dominated the game, especially in the first-half. A 2-0 lead at half-time was not a reflection of the play, and our inability to convert dominance into goals was evident yet again. The final ten minutes of the first-half saw Fabregas and co deciding to slow things down and settle for a two goal lead. Why? Tottenham were a beaten side at that point. You would never see Chelsea or Manchester United taking their foot off the throat of the opposition when they are there for the taking. As bad as our defence may be, Tottenham's is worse. I said on Friday's preview that we could get at them due to their lack of cover, and that's exactly what happened. I thought Arshavin played with more effort yesterday than he has in the whole season so far put together. Marouane Chamakh dominated Gallas and Kaboul in the air, deservedly getting his goal, though for some reason he chose to turn back when through on goal on two separate occasions. We should have lead by four goals at half-time, but we failed to kill off the opposition again. This is clearly a mental problem with this Arsenal team. They are not ruthless enough. After one of the early season games I remember Manuel Almunia saying that the players needed to make the most of their chances in games, and score more goals - basically alluding to the fact that we can't defend. Still the lessons are not learned.

Tottenham made a change at half-time (they had to) bringing on Defoe. Alan Shearer's insight on Match of the Day showed how Defoe ran in the channels between our defence, "causing problems for Arsenal," and then proceeded to show three examples where Arsenal dealt comfortably with him (quality analysis once again). Let's not get wrapped up in any idea that this change was some kind of tactical genius from Twitchy, or that it changed the game. Arsenal continued to dominate and miss chances. However, you just knew that if Spurs scored we were in trouble. Their first goal showed up our lack of organisation in any given situation. Not for the first time (so no lessons learned) we got caught on the break, from our own free-kick, and found ourselves outnumbered at the back. When Defoe won the header in front of Clichy we saw how the likes of Sagna don't have the first clue about defending. The ball bounced high and awkwardly for Van Der Vaart, but Sagna stood off him and let him bring the ball down on his chest and play an easy ball to the onrushing (and unchecked) Bale. When Van Der Vaart took the ball on his chest any defender worth their salt would have been barreling in and taking everything, not standing off and letting their best player pick a pass.
I have to say now that the free-kick which resulted in the penalty was a joke. Alex Song got in front of Modric and ran away with the ball - he didn't even tackle him, let alone foul. That said, what Fabregas and Chamakh did in the wall was inexcusable. At the start of the year Fabregas got away with the exact same thing against Liverpool in the last minute of the match. It was an obvious penalty, and he should be fined at least one weeks wages for such cowardice and stupidity.
Even after this lack of discipline we continued to dominate the game, but then the Manager decided to make his usual ridiculous substitutions. Chamakh should not have been taken off, even though he was tiring. I thought that, apart from the pass for Nasri's goal, Fabregas was crap yesterday (Alan Hansen picked out other stuff and raved about him on the BBC last night - it must have looked different on a TV screen) and it was him that Van Persie should have replaced. Wenger wasn't finished though and he took off Nasri and, unbelievably on yesterday's showing, Arshavin. At that point it was crying out for Denilson to go off (he'd had a decent game, but we needed to win) and bring on Wilshere. It was bad enough that Wilshere didn't start the game having destroyed Tottenham in the Carling Cup, but to then leave him on the bench was ridiculous. Then came the miss of the match. Van Persie gave Koscielny an open goal and he headed over the top. It has to be said, Koscielny is not good enough to play for Arsenal. The lad is not strong enough or tough enough. I can't begin to understand why he played yesterday ahead of Johan Djourou - an explanation from Wenger would be most welcome.
So we come to the winning goal. Koscielny dived in on Bale, giving away a free-kick (Clichy had gone AWOL again). It wasn't until I watched the highlights that I realised just how bad our defensive organisation is. When you're at the game live you can see the players trying to work out who should be going where at every set-piece, without much idea as to who should be marking any of the opposition players. When you watch (if you can bear to do so) the winning goal, just look at who is picking up Kaboul - Tottenham's strongest header of a ball. As the free-kick comes in he is being marked by Fabregas and Van Persie. Meanwhile, Arsenal's centre-backs fill the space (note the word space, as there is not a Spurs player within ten yards of these two clowns) around the middle of the penalty area. What the hell is going on? (Just as a quick aside - when we signed Squillaci Wenger told us that he was very strong in the air. Can you tell me, then, why Koscielny was picking up Pavlyuchenko and Crouch throughout the game? No tactics, no organisation, that is why). The cameras then picked up the reactions on our bench. Wenger threw his bottle of water (like an irate five-year-old) and Pat Rice sat there shaking his head at the defending. Can these two not see that ultimately our defensive problems are their fault? If you don't practise defending set-pieces you can't hope to do it successfully in a match. If you don't instruct players, before the game, who they should be marking, you get the sort of chaos on display in the Arsenal defence. The same thing applies at the other end of the pitch - a set-piece is a goalscoring opportunity, so why neglect it so freely?

Chelsea lost again yesterday, so Arsenal missed the chance to go top. The fact that we are still in touch at the top, despite four defeats, is something of a footballing miracle. However, we can not begin to think we have a chance to win the Premier League. We can't defend. We don't defend. We guess at defending. Back in 2006 Martin Keown came in and worked with a defence of Flamini, Senderos, Toure and Eboue. They went on to set a Champions League record for clean sheets, and rescued fourth place in the Premier League from a seemingly parlous position. This was no coincidence. Keown brought organisation and order. I daresay the training sessions weren't the usual fun and good times because he will have been drilling them in the same sort of way that George Graham drilled Keown and the others in their day, but if that's the price of being tight at the back then so be it. I would also imagine that Keown wasn't a yes man, and wouldn't put up with any crap from people who'd won nothing (Ashley Cole apparently revealed in his book that Senderos didn't like Keown's methods). And therein is the reason, I feel, that Wenger hasn't had him back. Wenger will not let anyone criticise his players, or to disagree with him (otherwise he wouldn't be making such awful decisions from the bench), so we have the yes men that surround the first-team bubble at Arsenal. This has been costing us for the past five years, hence we have won nothing in that time.

I've been saying it for two years, and the shouts are getting louder - Arsene Wenger must go. He has become too powerful at Arsenal, and his "judgement" seems beyond question from within the Club. He has become an irritating caricature of himself and his post-match comments yesterday sum it up. He said that he couldn't understand how we lost, and that we didn't deserve to lose. If he can't understand how we lost then he should resign as he clearly does not see what goes on in front of him. If he thinks we didn't deserve to lose, having seen his defenders show their ineptitude and his Captain give away a needless penalty, then he wants locking up in an asylum.

I'm fuming more now than I was after the game yesterday. I'm sick of seeing the same mistakes week in, week out. I'm sick of Arsenal throwing away winning positions. I'm sick of losing to mediocre teams (and Spurs are very mediocre at the back). I'm sick of hearing Wenger's bullshit after every defeat. I'm sick of the tossers who tell me that the football we play is great to watch. Bollocks. Good football is winning football. The game yesterday was probably the best football match of the entire season for a neutral, but I'm not a neutral. I don't go to be entertained, I go to see us win, and I don't much care how we do it.

I won't get a chance to post tomorrow as I'm out all day and evening, and then in London on Tuesday for a meeting, so there won't be a preview of the Braga match - a game which is now far more important than it should have been. If we lose in Braga (and this is eminently possible with our away record in Europe) then we could go in to something of a spiral with a visit to Aston Villa on the horizon. More on Wednesday.

A brief report

NOT. GOOD. ENOUGH.











I think that covers it for now. A proper review will follow tomorrow, from slightly calmer waters.