Morning all.

One of these days I’m going to present you with the most uplifting blog post of all time. It will contain news of a wonderful corner-turning win, and photographic evidence of William Gallas making the entire squad a cup of tea while telling them that yes, stripping him of the captaincy was the right thing to do.

I just don’t know when it will be. It’s been a bit of a sour month, for the most part, so you’ll have to forgive me the general gloom.

Will that corner-turning win be tomorrow night? For want of anything cleverer to say, it would be a good place to start. The Guardian and Times both report that Gallas, far from being squad leper, could even start the game. I find this hard to believe I must say; I suspect rather a lot of water has passed under the bridge with his teammates. I’d rather go for a clean break and move on – that would be the logical thing to do. That said, perhaps Wenger, in the light of yet another defensive shambles, figures that he’s still our best defender. And he is.

If Wenger is genuinely prepared to have him back straight away, then much depends on Gallas himself. If he was to apologise to his teammates in private (and god forbid, to the fans too in public, though don’t hold your breath), and take his lack of captaincy on the chin, then it could happen.

It might just that Wenger is spinning the situation; it might be that Gallas is genuinely contrite and wants to knuckle down. It might also be a case of realpolitik; his form has been up and down this season but he’s still better than Silvestre and Djourou.

We’ll see tomorrow.