How deep is your love squad?

It has been a difficult week to be a Gooner. We started last weekend with every chance of going 8 points clear at the top of the league with what seemed like a difficult but certainly winnable tie with Birmingham and had come through a tough home game against AC Milan without conceding a crucial away goal. Since then a lot of stuff has gone against us. We have lost Eduardo until close to next year. We have had our lead at the top of the table reduced from 5 points to 3 through a combination of bad luck, a poor penalty decision and Gael Clichy getting a case of the Djimi Traore's. And to top it all off, Sp*rs went and won some cheap silverware.

Despite these setbacks it is perhaps churlish to feel too glum over one bad week in a season which has contained many good weeks. It certainly won't be lost on Arsene that his squad will need a bit of a psychological pickup before our match with yet another Birmingham based team this weekend.

But this past week has also brought to the surface a concern of mine and many others from the start of the season - that our squad seems thin in places. The obvious issue is up front. With Eduardo now missing until the end of the year (realistically it may be more like this time next year) and Van Persie proving to be more brittle than a Israel-Palestine peace deal our front line options are thinning fast. This is before we consider Adebayor's preference for punching rather than passing where Bendtner is involved. And it doesn't help that Ade has directly gone against the advise I gave out earlier this season and got himself a new (perhaps unlucky) and sensible hairdo.

I, like many Gooners, realise though that historical precedence suggests things are not all doom and gloom for the immediate future of Arsenal. Strikers have been struck down before in the final weeks of the race for the title and we have come out winners with other strikers stepping up when needed -particularly one hit wonder Christopher Wreh and Le Sulk Anelka. Whilst when Bob Pires suffered a season ending knee explosion it did not stop us from going on and winning the title (and bowing down to Le Bob).

But what concerns me is what happened in the seasons following these incidents, and that is why Arsene must be vigilant now. Yes, it is important that we focus on the few games ahead, and hopefully Theo Walcott can become this seasons Freddie Ljungberg (who knows, maybe he'll suddenly appear with a red tipped mohawk next weekend) but it is the managers job to make sure that he plans for success not just this season but for next season as well.

Obviously winning the league is a priority right now and I see no reason why Eduardo's injury and Van Persies imminent return can't be used to propel us first across the line. But I believe Arsene will also now be addressing how he prepares for next season already.

Some will point to the arrival of our latest wonderkid Carlos Vela as the player to come in and fill the whole temporarily (we hope) vacated by Eduardo next season. But he is unproven and young and there is a distinct lack of consistent goal scorers across the team. Hlebkamp has become a wonderful player to watch, but he is is about as lethal in front of goal as Stephen Hawking. Fabregas has lost his shooting boots, probably somewhere in Spain whilst on holiday, and the only other likely scorers now are Bendtner and Walcott. To be blunt, if Adebayor had been the player to be seriously injured rather than Eduardo, I wonder exactly where the goals would have come from.

A real positive from the weekend though was the visible change in confidence of Theo Walcott after he scored his first goal. It was like he'd been in a football coma and been awoken. He seemed at last to be running at the same speed as the ball, he was looking up more often and wasn't afraid to shoot. So perhaps, if we can take anything at all from Eduardo's misfortune, it is how it has brought out the best in young Theo.

So it's Villa this weekend who frankly bore me to tears whenever I see them play. So in the self interest of this column writer, here is to a 9 -0 win including a hat trick of own goals by surprise return to the Villa lineup Lee Hendrie (I hate that little hobbit look-a-like), 2 streakers and a snow covered pitch. That'll do nicely. Failing that, just a win to keep us on target - hopefully like a few of our strikers shots.

By Paul Wright

What would the opinions have been if the foot was on the other boot as such??

Arsenal were desperately lucky to salvage anything let alone a 2-2 draw at St. Andrews today. An incredibly fortunate penalty given in favor to the side topping the table was awarded in the 95th minute. Despite the fact it appeared Stephen Kelly took the ball from under the feet of Alex Hleb, after poor play from the full back. Birmingham dominated, and despite going in the break a goal down, they were soon 2-1 up after the hour mark.

The game itself will be remembered how ever for a seemingly late Eduardo challenge on Martin Taylor, which left the gentle giant with a broken leg. The tackle was late, rash, and all though didn’t look intentional, it was still reckless to say the least. The Croatian forward, an £8m signing in the summer, appeared to dangerously go over the top of the ball studs up, shattering the defenders leg, leaving him in a heap on the floor. Sky deemed the pictures to explicit to show back because of the time of day it was, and Eduardo was sent off immediately for the challenge; an action of which prompted Arsene Wenger to react somewhat precariously.

"It was harsh Dudu (Eduardo) being sent off. Dudu has gone in and it wasn't a malicious tackle".

"I don't think you can send a player off for that. That's football. It can happen. It is an accident".

Comments like these from the Frenchman never seize to amaze anyone nowadays. Arguably so, Wenger’s take on the matter sparked a fierce reaction from Steve Bruce. The Birmingham City manager unleashed a blistering attack on Eduardo claiming.

"I think this guy should never play football again. What's he doing on the pitch?"

"The injury is the result of a very bad tackle that is not forgivable.”

Steve Bruce later retracted his comments though releasing a statement reading.

“My post match comments were said in the heat of the moment”.

Given the extent of the injury Taylor suffered, you would be able to give Bruce the benefit of the doubt for his comments after the game. One would how ever question Wenger’s professionalism, and his opinion on the harshness of the red card. Wenger puts the incident down to the “quick feet” of the defender on the ball. The sending off of the forward was the 78th in Wenger’s eleven year reign, a figure of which doesn’t look like decreasing. In defending tackles like Eduardo’s how ever, you really do question Arsene Wenger’s integralism, his opinion of others in the game, and the lack of respect he continues to show his Premier League opponents.

Article by Scott Davis

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What would the opinions have been if the foot was on the other boot as such?