As I ‘chased the stream’ on Saturday (a relatively new phenomenon), I did reflect on the nature of watching the Arsenal these days: if you can’t see it, you can probably hear it; if you can’t hear it, then you can read it on Twitter or online.

I ended up on Twitter and got the gist of things well enough.

Injuries do seem to have hit us hammer-hard this season, don’t they? Shorn of much of our midfield for much of the season, and much of our strikeforce for other parts of it, we now have to contend with a defensive crisis of substantial proportions.

Having no Gallas, Almunia, Clichy or Djourou for Wednesday’s Champions League game and Sunday’s FA Cup game is hard luck in the extreme.

It has the potential to break the season, if we’re honest – so with that in mind we’ll need a solid defensive shield just ahead of the back five until some of the key bodies are back. Gibbs and Fabianski are promising but raw, while Silvestre is experienced but injury-prone. We can’t afford any more injuries, that much is certain.

It could be a key few weeks for the much-maligned but much-improved Alex Song on that basis. If we don’t require him at centre-half then he will certainly have a job to do just in front of the back four.

Alex Song = Key. Now I never thought I’d use those two words together, I really didn’t.

Right, must away. Laters.