It is fantastic to hear that both Robin Van Persie and Aaron Ramsey are almost ready for first team consideration, although the latter will be brought in at a slower pace for obvious reasons. Having said that, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Van Persie pick up a niggle before Ramsey regardless of how serious Ramsey’s injury was. We have missed a world class striker and potentially a world class midfielder from our squad, you could almost forget how big those two are for us and they will make a difference to our squad when they come back into the team

Happy Friday to you,

After our fabulous week, I must say I am most looking forward to facing the Hammers at the Emirates. It is a good chance to continue our winning run and vital to maintain momentum. As we know, Arsene Wenger’s teams are usually powered by confidence. It doesn’t take much confidence to whack the ball forward to a target man and then feed off the knock downs but it is a completely different ball game when so much depends on your touch and awareness of others around you. Arsenal’s game is about freedom and expression that is often why when we get into a bad patch we find it difficult to shake it off.

What is very promising is that we actually look like a normal squad these days. What I mean by that is of course injuries. We have a handful of players on the way to full recovery. Vermaelen is out for longer and will be joined by Gibbs for a good few weeks but that is normal. You look around other clubs and that is the norm, we can cope with the norm. It is still early days and I am sure many more players will take their turn on the treatment table but at the moment we have plenty of players for rotation and that alone should help prevent certain injuries.

It is fantastic to hear that both Robin Van Persie and Aaron Ramsey are almost ready for first team consideration, although the latter will be brought in at a slower pace for obvious reasons. Having said that, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Van Persie pick up a niggle before Ramsey regardless of how serious Ramsey’s injury was. We have missed a world class striker and potentially a world class midfielder from our squad, you could almost forget how big those two are for us and they will make a difference to our squad when they come back into the team.

We have watched a central midfield of Ramsey alongside Wilshere in the Carling cup some years ago and it would be lovely to see them both perhaps at home in an early FA Cup tie at the Emirates. I have mentioned it a few times now and yes, I know I become a little bit of a stuck record when I get a bee in my bonnet but the idea of those two in the middle for years to come is an exciting thought.

With Nicklas Bendtner coming back into the team with a bang, two goals in one and a bit games it will be interesting to see what Arsene does with him in the coming weeks. There is no doubting Chamakh’s contribution to our side but Bendtner’s record since coming back from his groin injury last season has been incredible. I would imagine that he will still have to remain patient and come off the bench a few times before he can really challenge Chamakh for a starting berth. Nic is a little unlucky because he can fit in on the right of the attack but we already have Nasri and Walcott wrestling for a place. In fact we have some really intriguing battles for places going on.

These are just a few.

Koscielny, Squillaci, Vermaelen

Fabianski, Almunia, Szczesny

Wilshere, Denilson, Diaby

Nasri, Walcott

Arshavin, Rosicky

Chamakh, Bendtner, Van Persie

That is not even including the likes of Ramsey and Gibbs who are still have to regain full fitness and then match sharpness. It should get very interesting indeed.

Back on the theme of injuries, I have just read a headline on newsnow that Diaby has failed to recover in time to face the Hammers. Not much has been said about his pull out before the City game which is quite surprising. Wenger has spoken to Arsenal TV online a few times since and has not mentioned it. He is not on the injured list on Arse.com either.

Jack Wilshere will miss his last game of his three game suspension tomorrow then he should be back and ready for contention so we should have enough cover to allow Abou to recover fully, he like many others will be needed with so many games left to play in all competitions.

Before I go, I would like to say that I know there is a problem with the loading of pages at times and you may get one of those fun 404 error pages. It is something to do with the loading of certain parts of the site not working, which then stops everything else from working. Just refresh the page and you should be ok.

If you do come across any other problems then please let me know via the contact page and hopefully I can pass it on to others who have more sense than I do when it comes to this sort of thing.

ok, well that is about that. I shall be writing a preview of the game for tomorrow.

Until then.