The re-up

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
29 Nov	4:00 PM	P	Chelsea (H)	0	3	Lost

Hello... hello? Hello!

Yes, I am back again, back after an extended break. Some of you may be forgiven for thinking that the extended breaak was due to to the shock of Darren Bent's winner at the Stadium of Light on Saturday after, but readers of the blog should have noted I was less than optimistic about our chances on Saturday.

No, the truth is much simpler, if embarrassing for yours truly. On Sunday morning, before I'd had a chance to think about a blog, I dropped a mattress on my head. How? I hear you ask. Well, I'll tell you. One of the slats on our bed is broken and I was trying to fix it. As I have done a million times before, I lifted the corner of the mattress and supported it with my head. My neck no like and I spent the rest of the day and the majority of the three days following, lying on the floor with a hot water bottle for company.

Curb your enthusiasm and stifle your giggling at the back there.

Two hundred and twenty eight email later, it seems pointless and like it's going to be time consuming in the extreme, to pick my way through the last four days with a fine toothed comb, so I'll try and work out what I've missed and get back to where we are now.

The team began the weekend in second place, it is now in third- albeit with the scenario of returning to second if we win our game in hand. A situation of course that relies on all things being equal. More crucially, the weekend's not quite top of the table clash with Chelsea now assumes massive "must not lose" importance. It's not quite a "must win" but I think a team with title winning pretensions has to be winning games against direct rivals - especially with Chelsea already 8 points ahead.

I missed Arsène's press conference where it was reported that he responded quite uncharacteristically to questions about Theo Walcott's possible involvement with the World Cup. The Sun says he swore, but that doesn't neccessarily make it so, now does it? The central point he made there was, naturally, bang on. If Theo has a crap season for us, he can forget all about the World Cup. I do find myself increasingly leaning towards the view that if he was a foreigner, he'd have been bombed out by now. But then I remind myself, he is still only 20 with frightening potential.

I missed out on attending the Liege match, Ben had a ticket waiting for me in Block 6, but as I was lying on the floor at home, I was unable to take it up. Watching the game at home, I reckon it was probably for the best in the end. It was one of those, as I said to Ben earlier, where if you'd left at half-time, you wouldn't have missed that much. I thought we were exceptional in the first half and Nasri's finish for the goal (would Arshavin have got in the way had he been on the pitch?

Or was it Gallas who was still off at the time? I can't remember) matched the exceptionalness of the performance. I was delighted for the much maligned Denilson and his small ankles that he scored such a marvellous goal (my grandad will have loved that one). I was surprised that the referee let so much go during the game, including Gallas' drunken challenge that should have resulted in a penalty. I wasn't surprised to see Eboue diving again and the ref not buying it.

It saddened me that the Arsenal coaching staff saw fit to let Gallas, who following that clash of heads with Andrey, was staggering around like he'd just gone ten rounds with Manny Paquiao and looked like he had too. It scared me that Mikael Silvestre looked so poor in the second half, I'm with almost every other Arsenal blogger on this, surely Senderos is the better bet?

Perhaps not with Drogba lurking just around the corner. It also scared me that a team as poor as Liege hit the woodwork twice and should have had that penalty, you do wonder what Deco and pals would do to a defence shorn of Gallas and Clichy/ Gibbs- actually we got a graphic illustration when the teams last met in April. I have read, though, that Gallas will be ok for Sunday which is great news.

Arsène had a point talking about the tackling of the Liege players, it was only a surprise that when the red card came for one of them, it was for a ridiculous head to head with Cesc. The further the game slipped from Liege, the worse the tackling got and so Keiran Gibbs now has the "proper" footballer's injury and will miss 2-3 months of the season. Not what we need.

On a positive note and I do like to be positive, I thought Carlos Vela put in a very encouraging shift up front. Overly reliant on his left foot perhaps, but his movement, awareness and touch are all very good. I think it's safe to assume there's more to come from the Mexican superstar. Off the pitch, the news that he has agreed a contract extension (have I got that right?) is good as is the fact that the still improving Alex Song - showing he can play a bit as well as stop others playing- has signed a new contract.

Before I forget, I'd like to put a shout out to Fiorentina for denying the cheating bunch of scousers what they no doubt think of as their rightful place in the last 16- that they get to go to Anfield and put out any team they like in the final group game seems like a delicious kind of irony to me.

It's good to be back.

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