I’m inclined not to read too much into this ‘Arsenal probably won’t spend’ stuff coming out of the Arsenal chairman.

It’s possible that there could be outside financial pressures that we don’t know so much about - the flats at Highbury for example. But I think there could be an element of trying to knock prices down too; trying to dampen down expectations.

By talking down our spending capacity, it may be possible to strike better deals. It seems to be an open secret that two or three clubs need to sell this month, but if they think Arsenal are awash with cash, it might not be helpful for our cause.

Take Man City for example: Everyone knows they are awash with money, so any players they are linked with will be 25% more expensive. As a club, there’s hardly any point in saying “We have £40m and Wenger will spend it”, because prices will be adjusted accordingly.

I still think we will boost our squad by a couple of players. I’ve got a suspicion that deals will be tough and prices lower for most teams - the financial climate will be having more of an effect than we might care to think. But there are no dissenting voices when it comes to needing to strengthen the team. It’s patently clear it needs to happen.

Will we sell? It’s going to be interesting, isn’t it? Gallas is not happy, Toure is apparently not happy, but we can’t afford to let both go. There’d need to be like-for-like replacements lined up. The club would be nuts to weaken the squad further unless there was someone to come straight in.

And I’m not talking about “internal solutions”… Our solutions need to be external.

I don’t know what the story with Toure is, but I do know he’s not been the Kolo of old for some time. It’s a great shame as he’s got a magnificent attitude, and in his prime he’s one of the best defenders there is. On top of that he’s one of the few players we have who has any experience of challenging for (and winning) the title.

But it is true that every player has his price, and that if he wants to go, it’s better to do the deal than to dig your heels in.

Hold onto your hats…

Morning all: I’ve only just emerged from a pleasant Christmas hibernation. I didn’t make the Liverpool game (very ill - man illness) and I didn’t make the Portsmouth game (very deep in East Anglia) but it doesn’t take a genius to work out we’re still struggling.

Surprising? Not especially - our first-choice midfield of 12 months ago, when we were top, has been entirely decimated. Fabregas, Rosicky and Walcott are injured, Hleb and Flamini were sold. All the midfielders we now rely on were either new in the summer or merely backups last season. How many other top sides have a 100% different midfield to the one they had last Christmas?

But as has been pointed out elsewhere, despite playing fairly averagely we are now unbeaten in six league games, the longest we have gone unbeaten all season. Something to raise a glass to, surely? I mean, come on - small gains and all that.

The only certainty is that between now and 2nd February, the papers will be linking Arsenal with Uncle Tom Cobley and all. It has of course already started - look one way and it’s Arshavin, look the other and it’s Shay Given. There have been strong rumours about both and yet we all know there’s no point in getting excited until something actually occurs.

One final point before I clock off: what is with this Gallas love-fest? Almunia has come out all gooey over our former captain and he’s not been the only one. The only way I’ll be going all gooey over Gallas is if he stops giving away ludicrous goals and penalties. That goes for the whole defence - 23 goals conceded is not something to tell your grandkids about.

Anyway, laters.

Of goodwill to all men.

(And ruptured medial knee ligaments, dislocated shoulders, persistent hamstring injuries, discarded captains, booing your own players, poor form, shallow squads…)

Happy Christmas everyone.

Come on your reds.

Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool

Not much noise out of RotorGoat Towers I hear you say: this is because I have been struck down by a deeply unpleasant stomach ailment. This is not the time for intimate detail, let me tell you. All I’m saying is they need to paint a red cross on my front door to be safe.

Sitting like a beached whale on my sofa, I did of course catch the game on the telly. I thought we did pretty well for the most part, and was especially impressed after we went down to 10 men. We absolutely dominated the game when a man short, and Liverpool, somewhat unambitiously, seemed more than content to leave it at 1-1 with 20 minutes remaining. They could have gone for the jugular, but instead we did. I like that spirit.

I would say, overall and under the circumstances, that a draw was the right result, but I can’t say it’s a terrific result for either side. It leaves us desperately off the pace - though we knew that anyway - and though Liverpool are top, they’ve only taken 7 points out of the last 15.

I say that critically, but I shouldn’t: we are only marginally better off with 8 points from the last 15.

I think all talk of the title should stop now though, it’s total nonsense. As Andy Gray said on Sky before the game, 8 points would not be a mountain to climb if the club in question was capable of putting a 12-game winning streak together. That kind of form is but a pipe dream for us, so it’s time we lowered our sights to fourth, and concentrated on the gradual improvements that we are beginning to see. That’s the reality.

We’re off to Villa next, and that’s going to be such a tough test. We will be without Adebayor, who was very harshly sent off, and we will be without Fabregas, who has damaged his knee. At a time when our midfield is as weak as it is, the loss of the latter is depressing news indeed. The one bright spark in that department was the return of Nasri, who was excellent yesterday. Let’s pray that the gods of knee damage are kinder to us than the gods of refereeing were yesterday.

If Adebayor’s second yellow was really a yellow, then god help football. It wasn’t aided at all by the pathetic theatrics of Arbeloa, but that happens an awful lot in football, occasionally in our team too. I mean, the Rada-trained Eboue is a case in point.

Glenn Hoddle, in the post-match interview, maintained it was a red-card offence, which means of course that it couldn’t possibly have been.

Overall, I think Wenger is right to suggest we are heading in the right direction. The adjustments are not as fast as we might like, that’s true, but when the average age of the team is about 12, perhaps a miraculous turnaround in form was never going to happen.

Onto Friday we go - a real crunch game if ever there was one. Win and we go above Villa, lose and we are six points behind.

Sharpens the mind.

No point starting this one without a miniature “hurrah” for Eduardo. Ten months after his leg was mangled, he was back last night, playing 45 minutes for the Arsenal reserves. I didn’t see it, but according to Arsenal.com, “The Croatian’s movement and trickery oozed the class that justified his fluorescent green footwear”.

I seem to remember people saying something similar about Bendtner’s pink numbers. Or did they…

Anyway, it’s a fantastic fillip to have him back, but we can’t expect him properly back for some time, even if he himself reckons he might be back in time for the FA Cup.

“I need more training and games, and if everything is okay, then hopefully in two weeks I will be ready to play.”

Now you’d better believe us - you’re not going to win the league

Open season on Arsenal’s title chances! Firstly we had Ferdinand who put it rather diplomatically on 5 live:

“I presume us, Chelsea and Liverpool will start pulling away a bit after Christmas. It’s not beyond them (Arsenal), it’s just my personal opinion that it will be between us three this season.”

Then we had Redknapp wading in with his tupp’orth:

“Arsenal aren’t going to win it this year… I think Arsenal have dropped too many points. I can’t see them coming back into it and winning the championship.”

And then Hamburg manager Jol went furthest of the lot:

“The first-team of Aston Villa are better than Arsenal and next season Villa will be playing in the Champions League… Arsenal are not so good now and are no longer automatically a top-four side.”

Well, what can you say to that? Sadly, not much. Although we are still hanging onto the coat-tails of the leaders, and could gain ground by winning on Sunday, there aren’t many Arsenal fans out there who think, as things stand, that we have the remotest chance of lifting the title. Too many weaknesses and too much inconsistency.

If we sign big and we do it quickly, if we are still 8-ish points off the top and if the others continue to drop points as they have been doing (and if we don’t), then we might have a pleasant tilt at it. But with four “ifs” in that last sentence, I don’t rate our chances.

Top four? Now that it within our grasp but again, it is currently a scrap. Villa are looking good and you can bet your house they will strengthen in January to give themselves every chance available of making fourth.

The bottom line here, and it’s not revolutionary stuff - in fact, every single Arsenal fan on every single Arsenal blog and every single football pundit has said the same thing: We urgently need to strengthen the squad in January.

And finally

Some interesting quotes about the state of play in Gallas’s head emerged yesterday, via an interview Wenger gave to France Football.

The boss indicated Gallas was “isolated” from the rest of the squad (whether he’s doing the isolating or the squad is, is not clear) and that, bluntly speaking, he’s struggling. That would make sense. While he was good for the first few games after he was relieved of the captaincy, he’s been a bit iffy since then and it looks increasingly likely he will leave in January. Fine if we have a replacement - but not fine if we don’t. He’s a very good defender but entire torrents of water have gone under the sizeable bridge now, and it’s easy to see why a clean break would be best for all.

Where have all the wide men gone?

Rather obvious answer: We only have three natural wide men, and of those Theo Walcott is out for another two months, Tomas Rosicky for another three or four or five, and Nasri has knocked his ankle for the umpteenth time this season.

Without these three, we funnel through the middle too often and find it hard to get behind opposition defences. Clichy and Sagna try their best to add that width but they cannot play both positions as well as left and right back.

As a result, the wings have been increasingly occupied by players who are not natural wide midfielders; Denilson, Diaby, Ramsey and Eboue. All four, I suspect, would rather be playing elsewhere on the pitch.

Funnily enough, we do have a naturally wide midfielder available with bite, gumption and skill - but he’s only 16. Jack Wilshere showed on Wednesday night that he is a genuine wide man. What he lacks in experience and strength he makes up for in desire and ability.

It’s a sad state of affairs that a 16-year-old looks a better bet than the 20, 22 and 25-year-olds who have been asked to play out wide in the absence of fit wide men, but that’s the way it is.

This is why Wenger is prepared to sanction a mass loan exodus in January, but that exodus won’t involve Wilshere (or Ramsey).

But it’s completely unfair to rely on a 16-year-old, and Wenger is well aware of that, hence using him sparingly. What we need, to complement Rosicky, Walcott and Nasri, is a natural wide man with pace to come in in January.

Let’s add that to the lengthening list.

Quick one this morning pre-Porto. Two things in fact:

- Eboue is certain to play and will get a fine reception. I hope he doesn’t get targeted again, especially at home, but let’s not forget the reasons why he was. As well as being clumsy, his was a passionless performance against Wigan and he needs to play his own part in his redemption too. If he gives 100% in every game then all will be fine. If he doesn’t then he shouldn’t be playing - and for every good performance from Eboue there has been an average one. That’s the backdrop for the booing, not one bad performance.

- I’m all for playing a ‘weaker side’ tonight if it gives us a better chance of beating Boro on the weekend. We’re through anyway, we’ve got some niggling injuries and I’m not sold on the benefits of coming top of the group anyway. If you come top of the group, all it means is you get drawn at home first and would get drawn against a team that came second in its group. If you want to proceed you have to beat the best so it’s neither here nor there to me. Wenger has said “We are not in a position where we need to take a big gamble on players to be out for three weeks.” Quite right.

Told you it was a quick one.

Arsenal 1-0 Wigan Athletic

There are so many talking points from yesterday. For a start, we won - and that’s now two league wins in a row. It all tots up.

It wasn’t a hugely convincing win though. In fact, it was a pretty poor game to watch overall. The application was mostly there, but the quality lacked at times. As expected, Wigan made things hard for us, and after the 33rd minute, when Nasri went off injured, we found it harder ourselves with little natural width available. It’s a good job we were 1-0 up by then following Adebayor’s neat finish.

With Denilson on the right wing and Eboue on the left - a position to my knowledge he has never before played - the natural thing was for the players to cut inside and it all got a bit crowded.

We perked up considerably in the second half, hitting the post and having several excellent chances, but the second goal never came and that affected our play too. This is a team with desperately fragile confidence. It’s evident that it’s not the kind of thing we can switch back on either. Any improvements are gradual.

The biggest talking point of the day was, of course, substitute Eboue’s extraordinary substitution. In mitigation, he had been out for five weeks, and he was asked to play on the left wing, but really, the man is his own worst enemy.

Practically his first touch, on the edge of our box, saw him miskick and spoon the ball up onto his hand, giving Wigan a dangerous free kick. The crowd burst out laughing and, I’m afraid, that set the scene for an atrocious hour of Eboue at his worst. He passed the ball out of play here, to the opposition there, and, at times, Clichy even resorted to long balls over the midfield, so ineffective had Eboue become. The last straw came when he dispossessed Toure - I’d laugh if it wasn’t so tragic - and passed it straight to a Wigan player.

The fans had seen enough, and Wenger had seen enough. He was subbed to a bitter chorus of boos. If you saw the look on Eboue’s face on Match of the Day it’s hard not to feel huge sympathy for him. It’s not nice to be hung, drawn and quartered by your own fans; in fact it’s humiliating. I felt very, very sorry for him at that stage.

But like I say, he’s his own worst enemy at times. The backdrop to this is that he’s not a very popular player anyway; seemingly without a natural role and with a reputation for not pulling his weight and feigning injury.

So with Eboue, the smallest thing is magnified. Yesterday, there was little application from him, and that was the worst crime. Had he hurtled around like a banshee, yet still passed awry, I don’t think the fans would have got at him so quickly. But, maybe because he was unfit and not match ready, he looked like his heart was not in it. There’s no doubt that he was affected by the crowd’s reaction.

He might not be very popular, and his reputation does precede him, but collectively we can all agree that to vent our frustrations on him will not make things any better. He won’t improve for being booed. I won’t be sanctimonious and pretend that I haven’t directed choice words towards him; I did so a bit yesterday. But in the cold light of day I wish I hadn’t. He’s not my favourite player but I’d rather see him improve than worsen. Who wouldn’t? The fans are frustrated by him, by the way our season has gone and by our midfield in general, but humiliating Eboue is not the answer.

A fairly grey game then, but positives too. Van Persie had an excellent game and tormented the Wigan defence. He was very, very close to scoring on several occasions but it didn’t quite happen. Song was quite effective too - another player not at the top of my Christmas card list - so he deserves credit too. Almunia made a couple of very good saves and Djourou looked very good too alongside Toure.

So a win - not the funnest win, but a win nonetheless, and it’s Boro away next. If we can take three points there then we can approach the Liverpool game on the back of a run of wins, and as we saw against Man Utd and Chelsea, we have a good chance.

In the meantime, and seeing it’s the season of goodwill, I for one will give Eboue a big old clap when he comes on next. I think he needs it.

Burnley 2-0 Arsenal

So that’s the Milk Cup over for another year - but I think the kids can once again be proud of their achievements. Last night we were undone by profligacy on a grand scale - Wenger counted six one-on-ones missed. Nicklas Pinkboots was guilty of two of those on a night he will want to file away discreetly. Other notable chances fell to - and were missed by - Mark Randall and Carlos Vela.

Burnley’s man mountain of a Danish goalkeeper deserves praise too. He managed to throw his 400-stone frame in front of anything and everything. It was an excellent team performance from the men in claret; despite Arsenal’s missed chances the best team won on the night.

Wenger mixed praise with criticism afterwards.

“We had six one-on-ones with the keeper and we didn’t score… We were a bit fragile at the back as well, but overall we had plenty of chances. When you do that against teams in the quarter-final of the cup, if you have six one-on-ones with the keeper and do not score, you have to question the qualification and that is what happened tonight.

You praise the goalkeeper and question the strikers.We had the potential to go through and we lost tonight against the least difficult team of the three we played. That is what young players learn. In football it is efficiency and focus from the first minute on and when you don’t have the right focus you pay for it. They have a lot to learn many of them. The potential is there, and even tonight away from home they didn’t hide, they tried to play and we had plenty of chances.”

I think most of them acquitted themselves well, but it’s clear that some of them are some distance from making Arsenal’s first team. And of course, some won’t make it at all.

But that’s what this competition is all about for us: giving experience to our younger players that they would otherwise not get. And it works too - a lot of players have made it through (Fabregas, Denilson etc) and some of last night’s young team are already first team squad members (Wilshere, Ramsey, Bendtner, Fabianski, Hoyte).

Hard to argue with the benefits of Wenger’s policy, isn’t it?

Chelsea 1-2 Arsenal

Well, that was as sweet as it was unexpected.

It’s always nice to beat the Russians, and to do so in their own back yard was especially delicious. The omens hadn’t been good: Arsenal had not secured an away point since 26th October, and were leaking goals like a sieve. Chelsea had conceded 4 goals all season, Arsenal 18. Their goal difference was - still is - embarrassingly superior to ours. During the last two games - both defeats - we had looked calamitously bad and lacked fight.

So of course, it was typical Arsenal to pull off a win. Thanks to a quick-fire brace just after the hour, we grabbed control of a game it didn’t look like we were going to grab control of, and saw the last half an hour of the game out with surprising ease.

There was no lack of effort yesterday, but for the first 60 minutes, Chelsea were largely in control. Our defence was doing pretty well, with Djourou coming in to replace Silvestre to add a bit of mobility. With Sagna back, there was more shape there too.

We had a couple of decent chances too, van Persie forcing a smart save (before Denilson dived like an arse), and Gallas just missing out on a rebound.

Unfortunately, Almunia - who had not long before punched poorly, twice - rolled the ball out, too short, and possession was conceded. The ball was whipped back in and Djourou shanked it into his own net. Almunia takes all the blame I’m afraid and while he has had some sublime moments this season, he’s looked shaky (like the rest of the team, really) over the last month or so.

So our backs were up against the wall, and a goal down, I really couldn’t see how we would get back into it. Denilson, in particular, was conceding possession for fun, and against a muscular and experienced midfield, we looked as callow as hell.

Enter van Persie. Denilson passed to the Dutchman - who was yards offside - but the lino didn’t spot it and van Persie rasped it with his wrong foot into the top right of the goal. A sublime finish. I must confess that I yelped like a helpless seal. But it was nothing to the noise that I emitted when shortly after, Adebayor headed down to RvP, who swivelled and finished neatly. The cats in the neighbourhood covered their ears.

And from then on, it was really much easier to sit the game out than you’d expect. Chelsea had no further shots on goal - in fact, they only had one all game - and the three points were ours.

I’m not going to bang on about this kick-starting our season because we’ve been here before and it hasn’t done so. Not until we’ve won three on the nose will I mention the word ‘kick’ in conjunction with the words ’start’ and ’season’.

Other observations: Our defence grew stronger throughout the game, and Djourou, despite his own-goal, did well. I think he has merited a start against Wigan, to be honest. Djourou and Gallas could be our best central pairing, given time.

Our midfield was short of guile and experience, but we know that already. But they did improve after we went ahead and that was nice to see.

And up front, though Adebayor looked a little rusty van Persie had an excellent game. Again, that’s clearly our best attacking pair. When Adebayor reaches his best, and assuming van Persie manages not to kick any more goalkeepers, then we have a stong front line. So long as they get service, they will get goals.

Overall, a lovely shot in the arm for gooners. And I’ll be glad to see the back of November; it’s been a most peculiar month indeed. A month in which we managed to beat Man Utd and Chelsea, but lose to Stoke, Villa and Man City.

Happy Monday!