If we can somehow get to the Man U game with Theo Van Nasregas in attack then I personally think we will score enough against them to win. Our first choice frontline is the most varied and dangerous in the land when fit and on form but ‘fit’ and ‘on form’ are the key words in the sentence. With that in mind we will need some good performances between now and then and no small amount of luck to

Afternoon all,

As you have probably heard by now, the reports that appeared on the web yesterday were incorrect and Mean Lean has in fact been ruled out for an indefinite period of time. 

He will certainly not be back in time to blog today – which is a huge blow – although hope remains that he will be back in time for tomorrow’s daily. He is due to see a specialist later – the outcome of which remains to be seen – but Wenger has assured us that upon his return he will be ‘like a new blogger’, which I’m sure will help you all to sleep a little easier tonight.

As part of the Arsenal Vision squad it is my duty to step up and do my bit in his absence. I’ve been kind of a bit part player this season and many fans were critical of my performance earlier in the week but despite this I feel I have put in some solid work over the past few months and I feel fit and mentally prepared to do what is required of me. 

Which, in a roundabout way, is kind of the situation that we are now facing with regards to Squillaci, who is due to take Sergeant Djourou’s place in the team this weekend and possibly for the rest of the season. 

The whole ‘Is he fit? Is he out? Is he dead?’ saga that the Swiss F.A. have unfairly brought upon us has toyed with the nation’s hearts like so many ‘Will they? Won’t they?’ celebrity stories linking Jennifer Aniston/Lindsey Lohan/Germaine Greer/Anne of Cleeves to Justine Timberlake/Wayne Bridge/Trevor McDonald/Optimus Prime. 

At least with ‘Absolutely Right Now And Not A Minute Later Magazine!’ you can be sure it’s bullsh*t.

Anyway I think that our best bet is just to forget about Johan’s wonderful red hair for this season and if he comes back any sooner than that it’s a bonus. We will know more after Arsene’s press conference today but even so I think it’s best to prepare for the worst since another false dawn would surely smash my fragile mentality into a million too-small-to-see-but-not-too-small-not-to-cut-you pieces. I do support Arsenal you know.

But although Squillaci is well and truly our fourth choice centre back I still feel he has enough in his locker to come and do a decent job, especially in the games against those teams lower down the league. Whatever some fans may think he is a definitely a whole lot better than Sylvester ever was and bearing in mind this is his first season in the Premiership I don’t think he has done that bad. 

Not that this is any reassurance but I think it is more his partnership with Koscielny that has struggled that him on his own and if those two can develop any sort of understanding in the coming weeks I think that, with Clichy and Sagna on either side, we will definitely have enough at the back to keep our defence in decent shape for the remainder of the campaign. 

It may sound like a big if to some people but I think that playing football together regularly is what is needed to bring this understanding and that is what they are going to get. There has been a lot of chopping and changing of central defenders this season and it’s no coincidence that our best period of defence has come with the Djourou/Koscielny partnership. It’s a partnership precisely because they played together for an extended period of time and there will now be a further period of stability which will hopefully forge a new partnership. 

Centre back do-se-do is never good for creating a solid defence, especially with us since swinging an Arsenal player ‘round and round’ would most likely result in a ruptured face or dislocated aura or something. 

In other news, Chamakh has been talking about us having what it takes to win the title and while I think he is right this is again something that needs to be translated into performances. If we’re going to do this then we will need everyone firing on all cylinders and any sort of injury to Van Persie – god forbid – is going to require someone to come in bring something meaningful to the team in his absence, which hasn’t really happened often this calendar year. 

I really like Chamakh as a player and I think his work ethic on the pitch is fantastic but the fact of the matter is he’s a striker and he therefore needs to either score goals or allow others to do the same. Bendtner is a more natural goal scorer than he is and I can’t help thinking if we could get them together in a sort of ‘The Fly’ style device then we could combine the best attributes of both and have a real rival for Van Peezy on our hands. But we could of course end with an egotistical layabout who is afraid to shoot and then we really would be f*cked. 

Jokes aside I honestly believe we can do it this year and if we can get a win this weekend that will set us up really nicely for the break. With Theo and Cesc not likely to play in the upcoming internationals they may well come back nicely rested and raring to go for the run in. And with our full attacking force fit we can get back to the ‘you score one we’ll score two’ style of football that has won us…well…not very much recently but that is nevertheless very exciting and has a good chance of working against most of the teams we face.

If we can somehow get to the Man U game with Theo Van Nasregas in attack then I personally think we will score enough against them to win. Our first choice frontline is the most varied and dangerous in the land when fit and on form but ‘fit’ and ‘on form’ are the key words in the sentence. With that in mind we will need some good performances between now and then and no small amount of luck to achieve our aims.

Keep all available limbs crossed. But not the streams. For God’s sake don’t cross the streams!

In other, other news we have also been reportedly tracking Ryo Miyaichi’s younger brother, Steve (I think). Ryo’s performances have proven very promising so far and if Steve is anything like his brother he is bound to have the same family name and similar facial features. Besides this I know nothing of the boy and I think there is little point looking into it at this stage since a) nothing is definite, b) he is so young and c) even Ryo hasn’t even joined up with us in England yet. Having said that I would be ecstatic if we signed them both and they developed into a deadly, brotherly duo capable of both terrorising defences and taking time out to visit close relatives in perfect harmony with one another. 

That’s about it for today so take all these words away and show them to everyone you know. There’s no obligation to keep them in the same order so if you feel they would be better arranged another way then cut them out and stick them down however you feel and we can make some sort of competition out of it if anyone can be bothered. Yay. 

Take care of your glorious selves today and Mean Lean should return from his mystery absence by tomorrow. And if he doesn’t he is probably just being rested for the international break so don’t tell the F.A. and we’ll have him back fresh and revitalised after the interlull.

Inabit Gooner faithful,

WB