With that, I will leave you to share around your Podolski fixes Basically what I am trying to say is that I believe that Darren Dein has told Mancini or someone at Manchester City that Robin van Persie would like to stay at Arsenal and that he will The game against Tottenham was a perfect example. at 0-2 down, the world was close to ending. I felt dizzy thinking about watching those lot celebrate in our stadium, having to read text messages from several Tottenham supporting friends of

A jolly good afternoon to you,

I am still enjoying the rather positive feel good factor around the Arsenal right now, the speed of which football changes is actually quite remarkable. It was only a few weeks ago that we were the worst team in footballing history and the only team to have gone 7 years without silverware. The San Siro experience followed by the tired and static performance at Sunderland was close to a season low for us but the utter spanking of the enemy (cheers Bac) and the following results has lifted spirits all around.

I have been hoping that we could get into fourth for a very long time now but I can feel myself getting a little greedy. I have a terrible habit of doing that.

The game against Tottenham was a perfect example. at 0-2 down, the world was close to ending. I felt dizzy thinking about watching those lot celebrate in our stadium, having to read text messages from several Tottenham supporting friends of mine and having to write a match report about our defeat. I really hate writing match reports about humiliating defeats.

Fast forward to a few minutes before the full time whistle and I was actually a little disappointed that we didn’t make the most of truly embarrassing them until I mentally had to slap myself in the face and actually think about what just happened.

So back to why I am currently being greedy. If we finish the season in fourth, even after everything that has happened to us with losing Cesc and Nasri, buying players late, having to refine our way of playing, having a ridiculous collection of injuries in defence. I will still feel a little disappointed that we haven’t kicked on from where we are to leap above those lot and claim 3rd.

Funnily enough, finishing above the inferiors is not even close to the reason, although it would be great to chuckle at the media darlings. It would be because we would have a better chance of having a better squad available for the new season.

I have gone over this before so no need to jump back in the water but I think we would be a different side had we picked up just a couple more victories after our post Birmingham defeat last season.

It is no surprise that our form has totally changed since the return of our actual back four. In fact it is probably still not Arsene’s first choice until Santos is fit and healthy but we now have Koscielny and Vermaelen in the middle and have real, actual proper, sort of real life full backs in the team. Our last three victories have had a back four consisting of Szczesny, Sagna, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Gibbs.

Even though we were battered in the first half at Liverpool and they really should have scored, Sagna, Gibbs and Vermaelen all made key blocks, challenges or clearances. If two of those members were not playing then, chances are that we would have lost that game in the first half.

Keeping our back four together from now until seasons end is dare I say it, close if not more important than having van Persie fit. *looks around slightly uncertain*

So knickers are getting twisted over Roberto Mancini’s comments regarding a certain forward on our books. I take it more as a positive than anything else.

For a start, Mancini clearly does not have anywhere near enough strikers at his club, if he did then he could probably send one of them on loan at another Premier League club and still fork out a large share of his wages. Imagine that.

Anyway, his opinion that he thinks van Persie will stay at Arsenal might not just be his opinion, he might have found that information from another source.

Let us be real for a second, do you believe that Darren Dein doesn’t have a couple of spare mobile phone batteries as it is probably constantly ringing from various fat pocketed clubs around Europe?

Manchester City, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Huddersfield Town have probably all been in contact with Dein to find out what his client is thinking about.

While many of us glare at Darren Dein with a grimace and a snarl, let us not forget that it will not be Dein who packs up the house and tells Shaqueel that he will be moving schools. It will be the decision of the van Persie’s and Arsenal football club as he is still in contract. My hunch is that we are talking about a proper Gooner here, we are talking about a captain that has friends at the club, that enjoys his life in London and also a lover of the red and white shirt he wears.

I thought Samir Nasri would extend his stay at Arsenal but not for those reasons. I thought Nasri had it good, he was being developed by one of the best developmental managers in world football, I thought he would be stupid to leave. He is obviously stupid but he never had the cannon imprinted on his chest.

*Wipes away the streaming tears running down my face*

Basically what I am trying to say is that I reckon that Darren Dein has told Mancini or someone at Manchester City that Robin van Persie would like to stay at Arsenal and that he will be concentrating on getting a fat pay rise at the club of his dreams. No matter how many stories I read from now until hopefully the day he signs, I am going to stick with that mind set and ignore all the crap vomiting out of the mouths of the likes of the Daily Mail.

Put your hands up if you said that van Persie was a luxury player who is collecting his pay packet for spending his time injured. And that the sensible thing would be to sell him? Anybody? Come on, own up.

This my friends is why I refuse to give up on Mr Abou Diaby, although I must admit my heart well and truly sunk when he limped off at Anfield. But according to Diaby himself, his injury demons are behind him.

Speaking to L’Equipe, Diaby said:

“The last injury is not really serious. I’ll be able to run this week end. Be back in ten days, I’m not injury prone. I will be back for good soon. The wheel will turn.

“When I get in at Anfield, I was impatient and excited to play. I was definitely not thinking about the risk of an injury. Three years ago, I would have thought about stopping football. Today, its definitely not the case.”

Before laughing at the ‘I’m not injury prone’ it might be worth baring in mind the possible translation issue. ‘When I get in at Anfield’ kind of gives me that impression.

What does give me encouragement is that he sounds bullish about his injuries, hopefully that has been passed onto him by people very much in the know.

If there was a time where we needed him then it is during this run in. Rosicky has done it, van Persie has done it. Now it is time for Diaby to finally shake off these continuous problems.

.Com now have an article on Abou, which I am yet to read. Will do so after I finish this.

Ok you transfer junkies you. I can see the crust in your mouth and your body shaking due to transfer withdrawal symptoms.

It looks as if the BBC have accidentally let the cat out of the bag *meow* they tweeted the following which was swiftly deleted.

Arsenal confirm to @bbcsport_david they have agreed a deal to sign Lukas Podolski from Cologne at the end of the season #afc

I have just seen the retweet from @MickTheGooner (twitter). It would be interesting to know what made the BBC delete the tweet, perhaps a swift Arsenal phone call perhaps. Whatever the case there has been so much smoke in the last 6 months that it has been difficult to breathe. Great price, great pedigree and a great goal scoring record so it sounds great. Having another goal scoring option at the club is fantastic but I am confused as to where he fits in to our system.

I was going to go into it now but having glanced at the time and felt my stomach whirling around, I think I will save it until tomorrows blog. Keep you in suspense and all that. Not really you say? Oh, ok then.

With that, I will leave you to share around your Podolski fixes.

In fact, don’t forget that you can give us your own views on anything Arsenal by writing an article as long as you don’t mind a response included from yours truly at the bottom. If so then just go to the Your Vision section and do you thing.

More tomorrow.