The worry is that he has damaged knee ligaments, he is still due to undergo some more scans to get a more accurate time-frame for his recovery, the diagnosis is not even 100% yet but the club have obviously seen damage significant enough to rule him out for a minimum of three weeks.

Robin’s ability to play on after sustaining the injury doesn’t really mean anything. Yes, it won’t be a massively serious injury but bare in mind that Nasri was out for just short of a month and required surgery after sustaining a knee injury against Liverpool; he played on with the injury too.

Optimism is always good, especially after a few days where nothing has really gone our way – the Chelsea win last night will be a well timed boost to the management and squad ahead of what really is a massive game against… Leyton Orient.

Back to the topic of van Persie though; my limited information is that he will be out for a significant amount of time and a full diagnosis hasn’t yet been made, an official update may be made when the boss gives an injury update before the Sunderland game but expect a couple of nervy days until it is known what is wrong. I take the three week lay-off as a bad sign, missing just short of a month with an undiagnosed injury shows that he isn’t in good shape at all, that is before they have even let the swelling subside and got a detailed scan.

Taking everything into account, we could spend the foreseeable future without van Persie once again. I just hope to god that this is wrong..

• Highbury Square now has less than 50 flats for sale. They are contributing to profit and the project is nearly over. The total profit should be in the £30m area.

The last Arsenal accounts were published in August, however these results only showed sales up until June 1st when there were 85 flats yet to sell. The next interim results in early March will show that there are less than 50 flats still to sell – this will be the sales up to November 2010, the published results always showing figures that are behind the times. There are very few flats left currently, and are expected to sell out before the end of the financial year, drawing that part of the project to a close

• There were 2 commercial and retail sites to fill on Highbury Square; one has been let to a nursery school and in the interim reports next month, Arsenal should announce the gym provider to be given the other site.

I can exclusively reveal that the gym provider is Fitness First Black Label. Further moving on the project completion.

• The final big deal is to sell Queensland Road, unlike Highbury Square, the club won’t develop this. They are looking for a one-off sale. Figures for this tend to hover around the £25m mark. (Was incorrect in original Tweet)

Arsenal will tour Japan in the summer, as is now being reported in the press. The tour will net Arsenal a massive sum of money for only playing a couple of games and completing the tour in little over a week. Japan was chosen over anything up to five different destinations.

The tour of Japan is just the start of the work that Tom Fox and Vinai Venkatesham are putting in to catching up with Manchester United in the commercial stakes. Looking at the latest Deloitte figures, the commercial revenue reduced by over £4m; there are factors and reasons for this but it is a substantial drop. Arsenal will not be able to compete on a level playing field with Manchester United commercially until well after 2014 when a number of deals expire – one of them being exclusively revealed on this website.

Arsenal are still at a major disadvantage to United, even if the playing field was even. United have everything to be a massive brand, current success, history, tragedy.. Arsenal currently have only one of those after going some time without a silver pot. Don’t criticise me for saying that, please, but it is a massive factor.

The Arsenal interim results are due out next week. If you have any questions I may host a Q&A – just leave any queries in the comments.

He is 21 and is largely overshadowed by Neymar in the Santos team, however in the past 12 months interest in him has soared. His style is quite similar to Kaka and there were calls for him to travel to the World Cup last summer after greatly impressing in the Brazillian league.

Known as a goalscoring midfielder, Brazillian sensation Neymar has referred to him as the ‘left footed Zidane’ after the two have formed a very prosperous partnership at Santos, described by Tim Vickery as ‘a player who is strong in possession, with the vision to see the killer pass and the technique to play it’ – expectations are certainly high and he is thought of as a cert for the national team when he is back fit.

After making his international bow in the summer, he has since missed a lot of game-time due to knee surgery and is yet to play in 2011. Ganso suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and started running lightly again at the start of December. He is due back for the first round of the Copa Libertadores in March.

Arsenal have tracked Ganso for quite some time but have stepped it up recently and reports in the Brazillian press claim that Manchester United are also circling. Chelsea seem to be in the front seat to snare him (as reported yesterday) at the moment but are extremely worried over Arsenal’s interest. Lyon have already had a bid worth £12m rejected in 2010.

Inter Milan boss Leonardo is also interested in the midfielder stating in the Italian press recently that Ganso is ‘an option for the future’.

Ganso is currently embroiled in a contact saga with Santos who had to draw extra money from their sponsors to temporarily boost his £11,000 a week contract to upwards of £40,000 but there has been no movement on his new contract:

“Nothing has been resolved, there is no signature on the contract,’ said the frustrated 21-year-old.

‘It has been five months and nothing. ‘To not be valued by your club is complicated. Talks were closed because Santos stopped coming to me”

Manchester City are also sniffing around and had a first refusal agreement on Ganso with Santos as part of the Robinho loan deal. The agreement has long since expired and Arsenal are seriously considering pouncing for the young Brazillian. Arsenal have made their interest known to his agent and have asked over his availability and his willingness to move to Europe, away from the traditional Brazillian’s comfort zone of Spain.

Ganso currently has a massive buy-out clause of over £30m.

Any signing is a long way off, but there is a lot of interest from Arsenal. Lets see how it pans out.