If I was offered 1-1 after the first 45 minutes i wouldn’t have just bitten your hand off, id have probably kissed you. The first half was worrying, we lost Almunia and Gallas to injury and went a goal down, albeit a rather good goal from ‘Spazillian’ Marcos Senna but still, things were not looking at all good. But, one thing we have learnt over this season is that when Arsenal are down, they sure as fuck are not out.

Highlights | Wenger’s thoughts

It was the typical game of two half’s and as soon as the kick off was taken in the second you could see the lads intent, we had been lacking the final ball as we so often have this season but when the ball fell to Fabregas in a similar position as to where he found himself at the weekend for the second against Citeh, he floated in a similar ball to the Tognator who chested it up and hit a magnificent bicycle kick into the far corner. It was truly magnificent and there will not be many better goals scored this season, there is one thing you can’t deny about Adebayor and that is that in the big games he really turns up. The first half passed him by but the second was when he really came alive.

Adebayor has admitted that he didn’t really have a clue what he was doing, to be honest, I don’t care. It was genius:

“I’m really pleased with how I played – I don’t even know how I scored, but the most important thing is that the ball went in the back of the net. The most important thing is to play and do something good here and I think we have done that quite well.”

I’m sure he is head over heels with that goal.

Next week Villarreal will be looking to return the favour with an away goal but at the Grove you will always fancy us to score at least one, van Persie should be back along with Eduardo meaning our attacking threat will have doubled. We must be favourites to go through now but remember, we are only halfway and there is a lot more time left in the tie.

On the injury front we couldn’t have had a worse night, Gallas looks like he is out for a long time, along with Almunia who has an injury knock. Wenger said this about Gallas after the game:

“With Gallas, it looks quite serious and could be a medial knee ligament injury,” said Wenger. “We will have to assess it. I am not a doctor, but the first signs do not look too good.”

The diagnosis looks slightly better for Almunia:

”Manuel is a reoccurrence of an ankle injury, which probably will be a couple of weeks.”

That is a massive blow for us, the defence is not rock solid but the experience of William Gallas is vital, not only to the defence but the team too. You just have to wonder if he might have played his last game for Arsenal after the events of this season. We should get more information on Gallas over the next couple of days.

On Almunia – We can live without him but Fabianski is still yet to convince me 100%, he is a fantastic shot stopper but when the ball is crossed in he has a tendency to flap. At this stage of the season you do wish that we had an experienced number two to rely on…

One thing that i realised when i was watching the game was just how young our midfield was, Walcott 20, Song 22, Denilson 21, Fabregas 21, Nasri 21. I might not be bang on with those but its around the right area…that’s an average age of 21. Name a better midfield, or even a midfield as good as that, at that age, in Europe. I bet you can’t.

One lesson taken from today is that we really need to buck our ideas up in the first half in away ties, against Roma we paid the price for a sloppy start. We did it against Villarreal last night and we only just escaped after Ade’s equaliser.

Last night proved that Villarreal are no soft touch and are in this competition on merit, they were not the only team to prove that either with the Manc’s drawing 2-2 against Porto at home. I’m sure every Gooner will be hoping for a win at home for the red and white army along with a goal-less draw out in Lisbon.

That my friends, would be just perfect.

’til tomorrow.

Tonight’s game is in my opinion the most important of the season so far, we must score an away goal. That’s my thinking on it.

Villarreal are a team blessed with great technique and they really like to play football, this game is very winnable by all means but it is also very easy to lose because complacency will be punished at this stage of the Champions League. Much of the fanfare has been about us playing against the great Robert Pires again, a player i have admired for many years. I was so so sad when he left but i think the move came at the right time for him, he was never happy on the bench. Pires aside we have to watch out for Marcos Senna who is one hell of a player, its going to be a tussle between him and Fabregas for the control of the game and thats where i think the support from Song and Denilson will come in helpful, thats why i feel all three will start with Nasri coming in for Arshavin who is ineligible.

Much has been made about the ‘inexperience’ of our side but Almunia thinks we are well capable of progressing:

“It looks to be the season for the young players to be man enough to face all the big competitions we have. Players like Alex Song, Abou Diaby and Theo Walcott – when these players are 100 per cent fit, they can be mentally prepared to be totally professional, and they have the potential to win trophies. We can win every single game and we are here to do it.”

I am relieved that he and the others appreciate how good Villarreal are because if they go in with the wrong mentality we will be booted out. Simple as that. Al will have to be on his toes tonight.

Getting the attitude right has also been the topic of Toure’s comments, Toure being the only goalscorer in 2006 when we met them in the Semi’s:

“When we played them in 2006 they made us work hard. I was happy to score a goal in that first match but the second game was really difficult and in the end we were lucky that Jens saved the penalty. This time it is going to be really tight again. We have to concentrate and not think it is going to be easy. The atmosphere there is unbelievable, you can feel the pressure from the fans because they are so close. However, we are used to that in the Premier League, which is going to help us a lot.”

Focus is the order of the day. Personally, I think we will get that away goal and that would give us a massive boost going into the home leg. A cagey start will probably occur as both the sides eye each other up but with the defensive cushion of Song and Denilson we effectively have a back six if needed so the onus will be on not conceding, its probably as important as getting an away goal.

There is a lot of competition in midfield and this is welcomed by Denilson.

Our season is coming together now and it really is crunch time. Arsenal need to stand up and be counted out there in a stadium that an English team has never won before. We did it at Real Madrid and AC Milan, lets do it at Villarreal tonight.

Let me know your predictions, enjoy the game and i will be back fresh and early tomorrow.

’til then.

Straight on to the first bit of teamnews for the barcodes at the weekend, Manuel Almunia should start after shaking off his injury from that despicable excuse for a man at the weekend. Meanwhile Cesc Fabregas and Eduardo have returned to full training once again and just miss out so they will be back for sure after the international break which is fantastic news for the team.

Now…the draw for the Champions League. I would love to avoid all English sides, both because they will be the hardest to beat and it would really piss of Platini and Blatter. If we see two all English ties we know the draw has been fixed.

I would just love to get Porto so we can give them another beating at the Emirates, it would be the best tie out there to get but something deep down inside me says we will get Liverpool again. I don’t know why but its just a gut feeling i have, hopefully its just something Ive eaten because if we did pull Liverpool we would be really up against it. I’m kind of hoping if we are going to get a really tough one that we get Barcelona because i think we can beat them, i really do.

I’m going to tell you something now and i can assure you it is 100% true, its as true as true can get. I was sitting on the toilet having a little daydream and i had this vision in my mind of Cesc slotting a last minute penalty in the back of the net in the Nou Camp. Take from that what you will.

The orange man of the moment Phil Brown has been handed a fine by the FA for a separate event a few weeks/months ago. I have a short message for him.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Take that you orange ear-set wearing bung taking big mouthed muppet.

Gloating out the way… we really could do with a nice draw in the CL because it takes the pressure off us a little bit in the FA Cup, it would be nothing short of a disaster to draw Chelsea in both cup competitions because they have  inflicted pain on us before in these competitions. No team can be under-rated at this stage but you really would fancy us to go through if we got pitched against Villarreal or Porto, we could beat Bayern Munich as well but their confidence will be running sky high after the tonking they gave Sporting Lisbon.

I will say it again though, i would love to play against Barca again – and knock them out with Cesc Fabregas scoring the winning goal with a Hleb own goal preceding it.

It might just be destiny. Later on we will find out. The draw is at 11am GMT so keep eyes peeled around that time.

My thoughts will be on twitter at some point so stop by for a chat.

Til tomorro’ and may the draw be lucky.