Losing to Chelsea was a bitter pill to swallow there is no doubt about that, especially in the way it happened but writing us out of the race with less than half of the games played was a little strange in my opinion

Howdy Gooners,

It is the FA Cup weekend, which is good going after a busy Christmas period. A pretty good one for us as well but the FA Cup has come to some of the players rescue. Wenger is totally right to rest some weary legs tomorrow and use some of our younger or fringe players mixed in with the usual suspects.

Had our squad looked a little healthier then playing a stronger side wouldn’t represent a problem but the truth is we have eight first team players out injured, even a squad as strong as ours will find it tricky to play the same set of players every week during a time when the games come thick and fast.

Imagine fielding as strong as side as possible and someone likes Vermaelen or Gallas pull up with a hamstring injury when we have some tough Premier League games coming up. Those screaming for a full team tomorrow would be complaining that our manager did not prioritise.

I hope to see the likes of Wilshere and Merida complimenting some of our first team members. More on the game tomorrow no doubt.

Arsene has had another dig at the big spenders like Chelsea and Manchester City.

Wenger said:

“Professional football is about winning and balancing the budget, That’s the basic rule, one I fought for. All the rest is half-cheating. For every club it has to be the same. I always pleaded for financial fair play. The clubs belong to the fans. That’s all I feel my responsibility is, to keep the club in good financial condition.”

Rules have to be applied to the league, something has to be done to prevent clubs spending beyond their means that is the easy part, implementing those rules may not be as straight forward as I guess their are many loop holes and ways around adding cash to a club, transfer or wages.

But one thing is for certain, stop me from receiving a credit card and I cannot get myself into debt that I cannot afford to pay back.

What I do find annoying is that clubs can go about acting irresponsibly, plunging themselves into debts that they cannot manage then just sell the club onto a bored billionaire with an ego to massage. Clubs are almost getting a short term reward for mismanagement. Teams who are working to their means (very few in 2010) continue to work on shoestrings.

Arsene Wenger and Abou Diaby have both been speaking about the need for consistency in the upcoming months. Something that has evaded all of the teams in the league

Wenger said:

“I am very pleased with the last few weeks, because since the game against Chelsea we have caught many points back on them, so it is quite amazing,”

“That is why I believe in what I have been saying for a while, that it is just down to us now, down to our consistency and how much effort we can put into every game.

“Let’s focus on our own performances because at the end of the season, our position will be determined by that and nothing else.”

Losing to Chelsea was a bitter pill to swallow there is no doubt about that, especially in the way it happened but writing us out of the race with less than half of the games played was a little strange in my opinion. I didn’t quite understand why it had to be all over but what we did need to do was to not feel sorry for ourselves and go on a winning run. The team have done that, we are scoring goals again and look strong at the back again which is very pleasing. Hopefully we have had our bad patch for the season. Fingers crossed that we continue as we are and we start getting our injured players back from the treatment table, then we can really push on.

As you know, we have some very difficult games coming up in a short space of time so those games are very important, remain unbeaten through those and we will be in a fantastic position, more or less playing all the top sides for the season and the rest will be in our hands.

I am worried by only two obstacles, injury and compliancy. The rest I am confident.

Abou Diaby who has recently signed a new long term deal with the club is also looking for consistency from the team for the rest of the season.

Diaby said:

“I think now we are in a really good position and I hope that we will keep going and get closer to Chelsea and Manchester United, We have a good opportunity to win the title this year so we have to really work hard for that. For the last six months we have to be really consistent and win games. The team is ready, the spirit is there and the quality as well, so we have everything to win the League and even the Champions League as well.

“If we win (our game in hand) we get to one point behind Chelsea so it’s really important for us. We have to win that game to get closer and then we will see what happens. We have everything here to be a great team and we have got to give our best and give everything to win something this year.”

Abou will be key from now until the rest of the season, it is important that he remains free from injury and continues to improve. He is a big game player who can turn a match. I really thought he was missed against Chelsea. Our passing was only getting us to a certain area on the pitch, we missed his drive and burst from midfield to pull apart the Chelsea side who defended very well on the day.

ok, enough waffle for one day. Back with some pre West Ham stuff tomorrow.