On Wednesday we take on Villarreal without a fair few of their players, Cazorla and Senna are the ones that really stand out, if we take advantage of this and grab an early goal we might end up with a quite comfortable game, if Villarreal score first expect fireworks. That really would get the Arsenal going and the whole look of the tie could change very quickly.

I am of the opinion that the result on Wednesday night will have a lot to do with the result on Saturday, we also have to take into account Chelsea play 24 hours earlier than us in the Champions League so they will be fresher than us. If we beat Villarreal spirits will be high and the tails will be up, if we do the unthinkable and lose from this position Saturday becomes vital, we are in such a good position and to not go on to win something, or at least to a final this season would be criminal.

I’m really, really looking forward to this next week and I really do believe we can win both games. Villarreal will have to attack and we can hopefully pick them off if Cesc’s partner has a good game, I’m very glad Wenger is the one with the decision of who to pick next to Cesc because I certainly couldn’t pick one of Denilson or Song at the moment, Denilson did look very tired on Saturday though.

The enormity of this week is unpreceidented from recent years, I really can’t remember the last time we were fighting for the CL and the FA cup at this stage of the season.

This team is a big game team though, we have proven it against Man Utd, Chelsea this season, AC Milan last season and in years before Real Madrid and Juventus. We have certainly beaten the big names in recent years but came out of it with nothing to show for it.

Maybe this season things can change. They deserve to.

In other news, Gooner Talk have reported that the teams involved in the Emirates Cup will be:

• Inter Milan
• PSG
• Rangers

This has been leaked to the Daily Record, a Scottish newspaper. If its true I was hoping for possibly Real Madrid or Juventus again but Arsenal historically have a good relationship with Rangers so its no suprise really, I guess.

Wenger talks about Cesc’s most effective role – Personally, i’m of the view that we can only fit him in the side in a 4-4-2 formation.

He also talks about how the team have grown as the season has progressed.

Right, must dash. There will be a preview tomorrow along with updates on injuries.

Til then.

Picking up the mere morsels around today captain Fabregas has called for the lads to go unbeaten for the rest of the season and clearly state our intentions to win something:

“We want to go all the way, We have said to ourselves we do not want to lose another game before the end of the season, and that’s exactly what we will try to do. It is a good 10 days we have coming up, now. That’s what a professional wants to do, come and play big games like these. We will play some very important games for the players and the club that will decide our season. We have been playing quite well throughout the whole season. For some reason some people decided to go a little bit against us and to have a go at us. Some people tried to create a little bit of a bad atmosphere. But we dealt well with it. It’s not been a problem for us. It is now 18 games we have gone without losing in the Premier League. We can answer the critics by winning things and that’s what we are aiming to do over the remainder of the season. That’s why these next few days are key for us. We have Villarreal in the Champions League, then Chelsea, an amazing team, in the FA Cup semi-final. We still have a big say in the season.”

No shit Sherlock. This next week is massive. It is probably the most important set of games since we reached the CL final in Paris, a win on Wednesday will put us into the semi’s of the CL and a win next Saturday will put us in the FA Cup final, this week is, in effect, our season all boiling down to 180 minutes. Good on Cesc though, he is leading by example on the pitch and is saying all the right things off it, he knows the enormity of this week and we need him to stand up and help guide this team to two wins in a week.

Yesterday I linked you to the Arsene Wenger interview in the NOTW. Sadly, I couldn’t find the original source but after a read through I came to the conclusion the message behind it was that he will not give up on his policy as long as he is at the club, he firmly believes in it and this season it could really come to fruition. The chances to sign Alonso and Barry were there but I concur when he says it would have ‘killed’ Song, Denilson or Diaby (providing an injury didn’t kill him first).

Looking back on it now maybe he did the right thing but most importantly Wenger has shown he is human and admitted it really did get tough.

Remember, Arsene Wenger is not just an Arsenal manager, he is a fan as well.

Hopefully later today we should have news of the squad for Villarreal and the extent of Djourou’s injury. More on that tomorrow, though.

’til then, enjoy the bank holiday.

Highlights | Wenger

This is all very negative but we could have been two goals down at half time, down to ten men and on our last legs in defence. Let me say this now, Gibbs should not have been on the field after the pull back on Valencia, he was the last man and even if Fabianski might have got close to Valencia when he was rushing out Gibbs stopped a goalscoring opportunity, he was also the last man. Wenger admitted at the final whistle that he should not have been on the pitch. We got very lucky. AfterwardsWigan hit the inside of the post from a free kick, on another day Fabianski would have been picking the ball out the net again. On the Fabianski’s performance, well, it left a lot to be desired. He is young, he pulls off spectacular saves but he flaps at crosses a hell of a lot, in certain respects he is mad and doesn’t demand confidence.

On the positive side we fought back from going behind again and when the system was changed to a 4-4-2 at half time the game changed in our favour, Theo Walcott leveled after the brilliant Arshavin managed to sneak a little ball through to him to finish with the outside of his right foot into the top corner. Classy finish.

Second up and who pops up with a poachers goal? Our fish faced Frenchman who was diabolical at the other end, Silvestre. It was a nice finish, i will grant him that. He has a chance to win affection from gooners in the next month or so, if he gets injured he could be on his way out of the Grove in the summer. He has a chance to produce, its got to be now or never for him.

After that Arshavin got the goal he really deserved, a counter attack started by Adebayor who had a big impact, finished off with a defensive mistake that fell to Arshavin on the edge of the box and he drilled it home first time. Before that we were starting to come under the cosh a bit and it really released the pressure. Arshavin almost won us this game on his own, I forgot to mention his fantastic pass through to Cesc that started the move for the second goal.

For the fourth Alex ‘Messi’ Billong Song finished after a fantastic run, he rounded two defenders and finish nicely into the bottom corner in the dying moments. Its was so unlike him it was surreal and capped off a fine performance from the dancing Cameroonian.

At half time Wenger introduced van Persie into the mix, this was to add attacking impetus I am sure, but I also feel that Denilson has looked very tired during his last two performances. He will be needed to mark Senna on Wednesday night providing he is fit and I think Wenger may just have had that in mind.

You can see what Wenger said after the game in the link at the top of the page hand after admitting we were lethargic at times today he also revealed that Djourou’s injury may keep him out on Wednesday:

“Johan Djourou has a knee problem and that’s the bad news of the day. It looks as though he’ll be out for Wednesday. We lost two central defenders in two games, we have a few more games to go and we haven’t got enough of them to lose one every game.”

If we lose another centre back we are screwed, Gallas and Djourou are now out, that leaves the injury ravaged and frankly crap Silvestre, Toure and Song who does not convince in that position. After that the only other alternate is Sagna who can play there with Eboue filling in at right back. After that we have Ayling and Bartley from the youth/reserves.

Coming up next we have Villarreal, then Chelsea in the FA Cup semi at Wembley followed up with a midweek trip to Liverpool. At this point it looks like our attack will have to be on song for all three games, we have to really outscore the opposition because personally, I think we will concede in every game. A defence of Fabianski in goal Sagna at RB, Toure and Silvestre at CB and Gibbs at LB just does not convince, other teams will look at that defence and feel confident about scoring, the likes of Torres and Drogba, two of the worlds best strikers will think: ‘oo i fancy a goal or two here’. Both sides can be weak defensively at times, especially Chelsea after the Bolton near comeback yesterday so there is hope there for our strikers.

There has been an interesting interview with Arsene Wenger in the NOTW, I’m not sure where it originally came from but I’ll try and track it down and give it a good read through, there will be more on that tomorrow along with a Djourou injury update hopefully.

I have been negative today but we have to be realistic, we have been poor in the first half of the past two games, we have conceded goals and looked generally unstable with the majority of our defence missing.

On the plus side the team are scoring well and generally looking dangerous. We are an underdog in the FA Cup and the CL, that works in our favour and if we keep plugging away and grinding out results I’m confident we will be victorious in one of those competitions. Lets just keep looking at the next game though. There’s many a mile left to be walked.

Right, I’m in desperate need of some catching up sleep.

’til tomorrow.