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Leyton Orient (a) Thoughts & Predictions: Barca to Orient, the focus must remain the same

We have had the Emirates stadium to hold our hands when mass changes caused our level of performance to drop, this will not be the case this time so the players who are given the chance to play will have to hit the ground running. I would be very surprised if Arsene threw in many of the players from midweek as the game required a huge amount of physical and mental energy and when you look further down the line we have the small matter of Tony Pulis' thugs and then the Carling Cup final against an even bigger collection of thugs. That is actually quite a frightening prospect.

Has Wenger found the blueprint for domestic success?

All those issues have had some sort of influence over the last few years and that is not counting the worst of all problems, injuries. I have said for a few seasons now that wait until our squad stay as fit as the average squad before we can judge their level. It is no coincidence that we are still in all four competitions, our spinal players have kept relatively fit all season minus Thomas Vermaelen and given his impact last season you would say that his

Barcelona (h) Post Match Thoughts: Wenger vindicated as Gunners beat the best on special Emirates night

Arsenal allowed their defenders to have the ball and Van Persie dropped back into midfield. Our defenders were pushed up high with the intension of flooding the midfield and not allowing them the space to combine and dominate the game. Barcelona are technically so good that even with a very

Barcelona (h) Thoughts & Predictions: Has Wenger left a surprise for Alves and Barca?

I found it very interesting that Walcott was moved to the left hand side against Wolves when Andrey Arshavin was replaced for Nicklas Bendtner. Theo Walcott is hardly ever moved away from the right and the obvious move would have been to move Bendtner to the left hand side and keep Theo Walcott on the right. I wonder if Arsene Wenger has a little trick up his sleeve. A move to the left would give Dani Alves something to think

Let the Arsenal v Barca talk commence

Although Barcelona are fantastic going forward, it is not what they do on the ball that scares me it is what they do when we have the ball that frightens me more. If it was a case of their attack against our attack then I would feel more relaxed about the game but Barcelona are the masters of pressing from the front. Everton caused us problems at the Emirates by stopping our players build up the game and it punctured our game.

Wolves (h) Post Match Thoughts: Slalom Skier Wilshere and Chocolate Van Persie impress

I was also very impressed with Andrey Arshavin. It was fantastic to see the old Shava back again after a few months. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that he had been doing extra fitness work whilst being out of the side because his work rate was as high as I can remember it ever being in the past. He ran more without the ball than he did with it and that hasn't always been the case with Arshavin

Wolves (h) Thoughts & Predictions: Time to feed last weekend to the Wolves

I expect Wolves to play with a congested midfield, especially narrowly. The forward passes of Cesc along with the movement of Van Persie and Walcott will be important. When Cesc is on his game then the rest of his team mates are usually on their game because of the captain's influence on the pitch. Without Samir Nasri we are going to need Cesc to take a step forward and find his best form, hopefully the midweek rest will have allowed

Wenger bats Barca out of the room & Early Wolves talk

Arsene was rather dismissive of the Barcelona game in midweek, he didn't even contemplate talking about that game, he just picked up his bat and whacked it out of the press room. The focus is solely on the Wolves game and rightly so. I am kinda feeling that way myself to be honest although I have been frantically trying to gather up my Arsenal buddies and have an Arsenal lads Footy Feast of an evening but in terms of the football, the

Uncover your eyes, Gunners appear unscathed & Red-top common sense shock!

Tomas Rosicky scored for his country against Croatia and that will hopefully do him some good. He started the season so well, so much so that we didn't miss Cesc who was yet to have the required fitness under his belt at the time but in recent weeks he has looked way below his best. His substitute appearance on the weekend (can't remember the score of the match) was pretty horrific to be honest. He is much much better than that and he is still a player I think very highly of. I thought he would have a big part to play this season, I really did but that hasn't been the case so

I understand if Bendtner wants out, Djourou & Miyaichi

I am a sucker for pace and skill so I certainly will be keeping my eye open for his performances. He is a good looking chap as well so I am sure he will be a big thing in Japan if he continues to progress. With the reported interest in Eden Hazard from Arsene and the signing of Wellington now on loan at Levante who is struggling to get pitch time. You have to wonder where all these wide players are going to fit in, but as always I am somewhat jumping the gun and thinking too far ahead for no good