Bendtner could come into the team after some mention of Adebayor being dropped, and Diaby or Song could come into the midfield to add a bit more physical strength

Embarrassing. What a confidence boost going into the toughest month of the season so far. How do we go about conceding four goals against a side that had only scored seven in the previous nine games? Arsene constantly talks about the spirit of this young side and yet we end up with a point after leading 4-2 with one minute of normal time remaining. He talked about the fans not doing enough to support his young side.

On Wednesday the stadium was absolutely rocking for ninety minutes and we get rewarded with that capitulation? The way the season so far has gone and the performances I’ve watched, when results like this happen I’m now starting to think, meh, seems about right. Chelsea and Liverpool won to extend their lead at the top, Ronaldo’s back on form so United will soon overtake us, in no time at all we’ll be fourth, which at the moment is about right. That’s not intended as an overly negative comment, it’s just about the level we are right now. Wenger identified faults with the defence and decided against rectifying them, and lost three defensive midfielders in one year without replacement.

He’ll now have to live with fourth place and perhaps a cup run, while trying to convince everyone, including probably himself, that this team is ready for a title challenge.

Still, onwards we march. While I’m quite happy feeling sorry for myself the players sure as well can’t as we’ve got games to win. This is the last game you’d think we should definitely win before a run of tough fixtures. In the next eight league games after this one, we play United, Liverpool, Chelsea, City, and Villa twice. If Spurs can get four against us what the fuck are that lot going to do to us? After a poor start to the season Stoke have now won two of their last three games, and have dragged themselves two points clear of the bottom three. They’ve won three of their five home games, including an impressive result against Villa, and we certainly can’t take a result for granted. Given the results against Fulham, Hull, Sunderland and Spurs, this is the sort of game where have to be afraid that our stars don’t turn up. And obviously we’ll need to play an attacking formation, to try and get to a three goal lead before extra time, just in case.

Team News

We might see Toure come back into the side with Gallas likely to miss the game through injury. I mean, he can’t exactly make the defence worse, can he? Bendtner could come into the team after some mention of Adebayor being dropped, and Diaby or Song could come into the midfield to add a bit more physical strength. Eboue will face a late fitness test so Walcott and Nasri will probably keep their places on the flanks.

They’ve started pretty much the same side for several games in a row, so I don’t expect much deviation for this game.