For the first time in a long time it feels like there is a chink of light amongst the clouds of doom, that a semblance of happiness echoes around the Club and the fanbase. How long exactly? Since the before the Carling Cup final, and maybe even stretching back a few more weeks to the famous home win ove

So…the biggest game in our recent history and we managed to successfully negotiate it. And how good did it feel? How good was it that we could watch Arsene’s post-match interview without dreading lame excuses such as blaming the pitch? How good was it that we could actually watch the highlights later that night as opposed to avoiding it like the plague? How good was it that we could read the newspaper the following morning without fearing seeing a broken cannon or headlines such as “GUNNED DOWN” or “ARSENAL ENTER THE ABYSS”? And that’s not to mention what the reaction amongst the blogosphere would have been like.

How good is it to have a squad full of players who want to be here and fight for the cause?

I’ll tell you how good it feels: FCUKING AWESOME!

For the first time in a long time it feels like there is a chink of light amongst the clouds of doom, that a semblance of happiness echoes around the Club and the fanbase. How long exactly? Since the before the Carling Cup final, and maybe even stretching back a few more weeks to the famous home win over Barcelona. That’s six whole months. Half a year. HALF A FREAKIN’ YEAR.

Apologies for the capslock, but as you can tell I’m just a little happy and a lot relieved after Wednesday night. For those of you who have read my blog recently or followed me on Twitter for a while, you probably know full well how I had been dreading the Champions League qualifier.

It’s not just the negative connotations of missing out on dining at Europe’s top table that would have hurt. But it’s the way we got to that position, the way we dropped like a stone down the league in the spring. To go from having the title in our hands with eight games remaining to Europa League football would have killed us.

But thankfully, we don’t need to worry about it. Crisis averted thanks to a thoroughly professional and positive performance from the lads in the second-leg. I’m not going to go into depth on the game as Mean Lean has already done that, but I do want to make a few points:

• Although on paper a double pivot of Song and Frimpong looked our best bet, it didn’t quite work towards the end of the first-half. So Arsene brought Tomas Rosicky on at the break instead of Frimps, pushed Song back into a pure holding role and we regained control of the ball. In fact it was the best individual performances I had seen a long time from both Song and Rosicky – and massive credit to Le Boss for identifying the problem and solving it

• If our front three maintains its movement and interchanging of positions, it will lead many defences a merry dance this season. I was particularly pleased to see Theo and Gervinho switching flanks. In fact as time passes, I can see Theo line up on the left and Gervinho on the right, as this utilises Theo’s best asset – his cool finishing ability – better than the current starting positions do. Add in RvP “falsing around” and dropping deep and threading the ball through for him, and the boys in red’n’white may well be dynamite.

• The attitude of each and every player was spot-on, from the Jenkinsons and Frimpongs to the v.Persies and Vermaelens. I have long maintained two things: firstly, if our attitude is correct then few teams can live with us; and secondly that you can often tell how an Arsenal game is going to pan out after the first 10 minutes, whether our hearts are really in it or not. Everything was just spot-on.

• Words can’t begin to describe how much I love Wojciech Szczesny. I have long been a fan, and when rumours broke almost exactly twelve-months ago that he wasn’t happy at the lack of playing time and that Man Utd were sniffing around for a long-term replacement for van der Sar, I was terrified that we would go on to lose our potential first-choice keeper for the next 15 years to one of our rivals. Thankfully it has all worked out beautifully for Wojciech here and it is us who will benefit from his presence for the next decade and more.

Not only does overcoming Udinese have the obvious positive of avoiding the ignominy of missing out on the CL group stage for the first time in umpteen years whilst also ensuring that we have more television revenue for our coffers, it means we retain our prestige and the ability to offer top-tier football. There had been whispers that a number of potential transfer deals were subject to us securing qualification – namely Eden Hazard from Lille – and I am fully confident that we will see some quality incomings before the transfer window shuts. I’m not going to predict any names, but I will say that qualifying on Wednesday has ensured we will get the best possible names and that we won’t be rejected on the basis of not being in the CL.

The draw was made yesterday, and naturally it’s not easy for us. It never is. We’ve been handed Marseille, Oympiakos and Borussia Dortmund. No complaints about the first two as that calibre of opponent is par for the course at this stage. But Dortmund were the wild card in Pot 4. And lo and behold, we got them.

In a way, such a consistently difficult group is no bad thing. It (hopefully) ensures no repeat of last season, where we pissed on everyone at home but then took them too lightly in the reverse fixture. This lack of urgency and tempo saw us finish second and end up with Barcelona in the round of 16. A lack of urgency and tempo this time round will see us knocked out altogether. Plus we have no arduous trips to Eastern Europe, which is also a bonus.

But that’s all for the coming weeks and months. Onto more pressing issues and the small matter of the Champions in their own backyard this weekend. Lady Luck and Father Fate would throw up such a clash early in the season, wouldn’t they?

Our case hasn’t been help by a trio of suspensions either, with Gervinho, Song and Frimpong all missing out. And it is the latter two which really hurt us as they are our only two true defensive midfielders.

However, injury news is a little more positive. Whilst Gibbs and, worryingly, Jack remain on the sidelines, it seems that our trio of centre-backs could make it. This would be a big boost as Vermaelen and Koscielny can continue their blossoming partnership while crucially Djourou could step into the midfield void left by the banned Song and Denchman. So our team could well line-up as follows:

Szczesny; Sagna, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Jenkinson; Djourou, Rosicky, Ramsey; Arshavin, v.Persie, Walcott.

Not full-strength, but not too shabby either. And you know what? On the basis of Wednesday’s positive result and the mood lifting around the Club, I quite fancy us to surprise Man Utd. Not saying that we’ll pull off a famous victory, but I think our attitude and tempo may catch them off guard.

The safety net of Champions League football is assured. Time to reach for the stars over the next five days, both on and off the pitch.

Squid Boy – http://twitter.com/#!/TheSquidBoyLike