Its been a while since the last blog so there's quite a bit to get through. I know it has been pretty annoying not knowing when the next blog is but I'm hoping that the problem will be sorted out after Christmas and you'll be able to enjoy reading my blog daily.
Anyway I'll go straight for Wednesday night's match. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to do a preview but I think the majority of us didn't really give a crap about the side we were facing. We just wanted the result which was fully expected. The good news ahead of the game was that Van Persie had been chosen. The boss played him just off Chamakh and as I have mentioned in the past, I'm really hoping they can hit it off as a partnership. The only other surprise was that Koscielny had made an Eboue type recovery from his injury and started instead of Djourou who was rested precautionary after picking up a minor knock.
As expected, we enjoyed plenty possession early on but failed to create much which is unlike us. Chamakh's header was about as close as we came to breaking the deadlock in the first half hour. However, fifteen minutes in Kieran Gibbs went over on his ankle and despite trying to run it off, he was forced to make way for Eboue. You have to feel symphaty for the lad, it seems every time he plays he gets injured and we don't seem him for another few weeks. This time round its three as Arsene confirmed.
As the half hour mark approached, Van Persie was brought down in the box after a clumsy challenge by a Partizan defender. The Dutchman stood up to take it and lashed home, it was a lovely confident finish for a man who is still regaining his sharpness. Soon after RVP set through Chamakh but the Moroccan couldn't get the ball out of his feet and the chance passed away. We'd improved going forward but looked nervous at the back every time Partizan came at us.
At the beginning of the second half Nasri had a chance to put the game to bed but uncharacteristically plazed his shot over. Soon after the Emirates was left stunned as Cleo found space at the edge of our box, Squillaci appeared to back off him and then decided to close him down but his attempt to block the shot took a deflection and looped in over Fabianski. There was now that sickening old tension around the stadium. It meant that a goal for Braga in the other game would put them ahead of us in the group.
We needed to freshen up and the boss responded by taking off Arshavin who was catastrophic, nothing came off for the man and he was replaced by the in form Walcott. He made the usual quick impact as his pace left the Partizan defenders clueless and they were forced into fouling him just outside the box. The resulting free-kick from Van Persie was tipped over the bar. You could sense a goal coming now. And so it came as a horrible attempt of a clearance from another dodgy Partizan defender was seized upon by Walcott and he finished beautifully.
Chamakh was then taken off for Bendtner and the Dane had a hand in the making of the third goal. He played the ball to Song who dazzled through the opposition defence with some lovely quick feet before laying off to Nasri who sidestepped his marker before firing home with his left foot. It was another piece of brilliance from a player who is on the form of his life and I hope it dosen't come to an end any time soon. The drama wasn't finished there however as our defence was carved apart once more leaving Lazavski one on one with Fabianski only to be hauled down by Sagna who was given his marching orders by the referee. It means he will miss the first leg in the last 16 tie. From the resulting free-kick Fabianski made a fine save to kill any chance of another nervy ending at the Emirates. It was job done although it was once again unconvincing and I'm worried about our inability to kill teams off. We're far more ruthless away from home than we are at the Emirates, nobody knows why that is. There are many possible reasons. Pressure of playing at home? The fact that there's no atmosphere at the Emirates? Maybe because teams tend to attack us at their stadiums leaving them open at the back? One things for sure, we'll definately need some of that formidable away form Monday night.
Here are the final standings in our group:
| 1 |  FC Shakhtar Donetsk | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 6 | 6 | 15 |
| 2 |  Arsenal FC | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 18 | 7 | 11 | 12 |
| 3 |  SC Braga | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 11 | -6 | 9 |
| 4 |  FK Partizan | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 13 | -11 | 0 |
Obviously because Shakhtar were victorious over Braga we have to settle for 2nd place which means we will face one of Schalke, Bayern Munich, Barcelona or Real Madrid. The ideal scenario would be if we were paired with Schalke but I'm not underestimating them either. Of course we could face Barcelona again. The thought of that is daunting for some people but I'd look upon it as a chance to avenge last seasons result no matter how far behind them people might think we are. There's also the possibility of facing Mourinho again, our record against him is dissmal so I certainly wouldn't mind getting one over Wenger's old foe. Bayern Munich, again are a very good prospect, I rate them highly but also see them as defeatable. Anyway the draw takes place on Friday, the 17th of this month and the ties won't commence until February so there's plenty of important football to get through domestically between now and then.
Now I know there has been a lot of speculation surrounding Manuel Almunia's future recently but according to what the boss said today, he is going nowhere or the time being. From what I've been reading over the last couple of weeks he very nearly left in the summer for Osasuna for £1.5m but the only stumbling block was his wage demands which the Spanish outfit weren't willing to match. Almunia is a man who wants first-team football and rightly so at his age but I honestly don't think he's going to get it here. He had his chance, he fluffed it with a string of errors over the years. You may wonder why Fabianski is now in goal when he's made even bigger blunders but remember he is still very young for a keeper and has showed increbible potential over the last two months. I'll give my full backing to whoever is between the sticks but I can only see the two Polish lads battling for that in the years to come.
I'm not too fussed about Evra's annual shit stirring comments. I rate him as a player but he is honestly one of the biggest bullshitters I have ever came across. Why does he make these needless comments? If he didn't feel threatened by us then he wouldn't be saying such things. Does he make similar statements prior to matches against the likes of West Ham? No and I reckon the players should use this as motivation to earn the three points even more.
Arsene has been speaking about Arshavin's performance midweek which was shocking to say the least. He said:
"He has a game that is based on risk," said Wenger.
"He tries to make incisive passes so of course when he takes one risk and it doesn’t work for him he takes another one. So sometimes people are impatient with his decision making.
"But if you look at the numbers of Arshavin in the Premier League you will see that he is the best passer and has more assists than anybody so that means [his game is] based on gambling but as well [it is] very efficient.
"He doesn’t frustrate me because I invite him to play the game that is Arshavin’s game. That means to go forward and provoke.
"There are some days it doesn’t work but Arshavin has great quality: he analyses very well, is very honest and has a fantastic objective assessment of his own performance. He is very demanding for himself so I have a huge respect for him."
I'm a huge fan of the Russian but he can be frustrating quite a lot. He often tries to pull off the spectacular which is amazing when it comes off but can look really sloppy when it dosen't. In my opinion there's no such thing as form with him. If he plays a blinder like he did against Villa, we shouldn't expect him to put in a similar display the following week and if he plays shit like Wednesday night then it dosen't mean he's off form. The guy is just unpredictable and will always be that way. That is why Arsene finds it hard to drop him, he can come up with a moment of magic at any time. Its good to have these type of players at your disposal.
Finally for an update on Cesc. He's made brilliant progress in his recovery from the hamstring injury but the medical staff are being really careful with him this time around and will take every precautionary step necessary. Its the right way to go about things, you can't be too careful with hamstrings. He's rated as 50:50 for Monday but with or without him, if we're on our game we can give them serious problems.
That's all for today folks, hopefully I'll be back over the weekend with a preview for Monday's game. Till next time, take it easy.
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