I just do not understand why we have stopped passing the ball. We have hit long balls more in the last two games than we have done in the rest of our games previous.

From a possible 6 points advantage to 1 point in a matter of days. Things are obviously not rosy at the moment, we haven’t played any decent football since the first half at Villa park which has coincided with Hleb’s injury.

We are obviously missing the craft of the Belarus International, the passing and goalscoring of Fabregas and the passion of Flamini but having said that we have enough quality in the squad. Gilberto and Diarra are both defensive midfield players and are not going to contribute much to our attacking play. To have those two in the center of midfield you need to have two attacking goalscoring wingers in the Overmars mould.

I just do not understand why we have stopped passing the ball. We have hit long balls more in the last two games than we have done in the rest of our games previous.

At least the injuries seem to be clearing up. Flamini is back for the Chelsea clash and Van Persie and Diaby could well be included in the squad. Arsene is being a bit more cagey about Hleb and Cesc though.

“The one who has a realistic chance is Flamini,” said Wenger after the defeat at Middlesbrough. “One who could be in the squad is Van Persie. Diaby could be in the squad as well. We don’t know about Cesc and Hleb.”

I didn’t like Emmanuel Eboue’s behaviour during the match on more than one occasion and we as supporters do not welcome it. He was extremely lucky to have stayed on the pitch for a leg stamp and a slap.

I must say though, why do we keep getting beaten by teams who are going through bad runs? This has happened for ages. Boro have been so poor for a number of games and they play like a champions league team against us. Newcastle got spanked by Portsmouth and Liverpool at home and then outplay us. It is getting quite annoying now. I am just glad we have Chelsea next and not Derby County.

Chelsea will be missing Drogba and Essien against us which is fantastic news because those two are very influential for the way that they play and hopefully we can get one of Cesc and Hleb back at least on the bench.

So what to make of Eduardo Da Silva? We are now in December and he looks like a player who has just stepped into the Premiership. Games seem to be passing him by and he is not getting involved whatsoever. His goalscoring record for Croatia is fantastic and was the star player at Dynamo Zagreb.

The problem is Eduardo needs games in the first team but he cannot be in the team playing like how he is playing so far, so it is catch 22 at the moment.

More tomorrow.