After watching last night I got this sudden belief that if we can stay fit, if the right players return and if Harry goes and spends some quality time with his (so called) cockney mates, then we could nick 3rd.

Don’t forget the spuds will get injuries and they will blow up at some point, Ade has never gone so long in his career without being blown up for offside, so that can’t last (I counted 7 minutes last night).

So providing we don’t play like we sometimes do (badly), and we realise that this team will slide down the pan if we don’t qualify top four, then we have a real chance.

So Wenger is doing what Ivan and his cohorts have begged him to do and that is to start making it look like we are in for Eden Hazard, shame on you, shame on you, that just as season ticket renewal arrives, like clockwork you are out there bigging up the signings we crave.

If it wasn’t so sickeningly predictable it would be amusing, the fact that he has sailed through the last two transfer windows and bought no one of note and starts talking about the big name we all want just before he demands your money is nothing short of wicked, shame on you Arsenal, shame on you.

Anyway it’s time we told Robin to sign on the dotted line or stop talking about what a great team this could be, it will be a far better one with you in it mate, do something outrageous and show the fans the same belief they have had in you your whole career.

I have always had faith in your ability Robin, but last season I was calling for you to be sold because your injuries were becoming farcical, must the same as Rosicky, Diaby and Gibbs’ are.

There comes a point when you weigh up the good times against the bad, you have had just over a season of greatness, you look like the injuries are finally behind you and you will be 30 when your contract runs out, so do the right thing and sign on for the rest of your career, make an Eden Hazard signing part of the deal if you would, but time to show us how you feel.

Henry had to come back, and know matter where you go, you will regret going, money aside.

I think that would lift the fans big time, that would lift the team and we could kick on, time to pay back the rape allegations and the injuries Robin, time to become a legend. I think you will!

That’s it for today folks, have a good ‘un.

Ok well a quick look at the headline will sort of illustrate that we are not happy, today the fans will attempt to show their dissatisfaction by putting black bin bags on the empty seats.

I’m not sure that will do much, if of course it is allowed by the Stalinesque stewarding that Arsenal football club will no doubt deploy today.

I think the only effective way to protest is to simply stay away, that’s the only way the board and the media will take any notice, I did of course, but one seat in 60,000 probably isn’t noticed.

Wenger will find it very, very difficult to talk his way out of that sort of protest.

He has blamed appalling injuries on this seasons results, he won’t see it as his fault, even though he could have and should have addressed that in the transfer window, he not only didn’t, he rubbed our noses in it by buying a 19 year old German crock for 400k, and that was after he told the world we didn’t need anymore midfielders.

So the only way I can see success, we haven’t won the league for 8 years and clearly won’t this year so that figure now goes to 9, and we haven’t won anything since 2005 which means 7 years.

This is indeed the lowest we have been at this point is the whole of Wenger’s 16 year reign.

So today we need to win and we need to win big, we can still get 4th place because I do believe in miracles, we just 5 points behind the chavs and the spuds will blow up at some point, so hope is there, today we play Blackburn and nothing short of a big win will do.

But please don’t tell the world every game is now a Cup Final, because your recent record in Cup Finals has been, well crap to be honest.

The great news is Chamakh is on his way back says Wenger, the bad news is he’s on his way back to us, it’s like thinking Squillaci is like a new signing.

This is the team I would put out assuming we have no injuries.

Chezzer

Sagna Mertesacker Kozzer Vermaelen

Coquelin Arteta Yossi (yes, give him a go)

Henry Robin Oxo

So I would give Ramsey a rest, drop Song and give Coquelin a chance and put Henry on from the off, with Oxo on the wing. If Henry is still not fit the why the hell did we sign him, him and Robin could cause mayhem out there with Oxo supplying them and it would be interesting to see the two of them on the pitch at the same time.

Yes it’s time to drop Theo, him and Song are way too big for their boots and if they put that effort in a pub side they would get dropped, well they would if it were my pub side.

We are 7th for a reason people and it’s not because I want Wenger out, it’s because he refuses to change, spend money and keeps playing average players expecting them to turn into Lional Messi and Xabi.

Finally back to todays protest, I’ve been thinking what should the fans do, it’s Ok for people like me to say don’t turn up, when you’ve paid your money that can be tough, so maybe the fans should do something else, like go down to the bars 15 minutes early, it’s cold out there and the bars won’t be open, but it will show the club how you all feel, that or come out 15 minutes late for the second half.

I did that a lot last season, not so much in protest but to hoover up all the free beers Pedro and I had accumulated in Club level, beer after Arsenal is my real love and I can’t leave someone I love behind.

So if you decide to do it at the start of the second half, get a couple of pints at half time and not one.

Have a great day Grovers, early kick off, big win and enjoy the protest, whatever form it takes.

You would think. I was watching a documentry about the second World War yesterday, Germany were fighting on several fronts and often against overwhelming odds, each and every commander on the Eastern front asked their boss if they could retreat and save lives, also that way they could fight another day, each and every time he said no, when he was disobeyed, he sacked them.

Sound familiar? Now I’m not comparing our leader to Hitler, I am comparing the situation, I could go through history doing it, it’s a common mistake, it’s called being past your best, thinking you can still pull rabbits out of the hat, being blind to mistakes, thinking only you are right and listening to no one, save the little voices in your head.

Every year we end up in January with an overwhelming list of injuries, we have players coming back but many of them we all know will be back in March or later, what does he do? First of all he lies about their progress, then he refuses to buy adequate replacements, January ends, we sign no one and then he tells us they all had setbacks.

Hey, now he is getting excited about the return of Gibbs, a case of Peroni to anyone that can remember him playing anymore than 3 consecutive games, he bangs on about the return of Santos in March, he forgets to remind us that he only joined in August and although I like him, he isn’t world class, he has conned us all once again.

And when he does return, he’ll have a setback, or if he doesn’t he need 4 games to get match fitness then it will be June.

Then the summer begins, he’ll tell us he can’t compete in the market, then he’ll sell our best players, then we’ll buy a bunch of second rate or old ones, then the cycle will begin again, in between he’ll sign a few kids that no one else wanted, then he’ll loan them out, then he’ll move them on.

Meanwhile, he’ll continue to earn as much money, people won’t turn up, and before we know it we’ll have an empty stadium, he’ll have left to manage someone else and we’ll be up shite creek without a paddle.

As for people saying you couldn’t have guessed Ramsey would have had a horrific injury, nor Jack, I would say rubbish, if you play young kids against 6’4″ lumps like Ryan Shawcross, it’s bound to happen. Especially when you play them so often at such a young age.

Their bodies haven’t grown, only a twit would think otherwise. Or someone obsessed with youth.

Final word on injuries, how long has Diaby been an Arsenal player and how many games has he played, is he a sustainable model, or a massive waste of time and money? Perhaps Ivan should answer that question.

This is what Sagna said yesterday…

‘I’ve watched many games, Arsenal and others, and when you’re standing with the crowd it’s totally different, you can see open spaces that you can’t when you’re on the pitch because the angles are different. What looks easy when you’re watching a game is often more difficult on the pitch, and you realise why supporters get nervous when you do certain things. I think I understand that more now’

Smart man, I really like Sagna, he knows the game, has pace and is a real talent, what he says is true, you can see more from the stands, I often wonder why the manager doesn’t sit higher, George Graham used to for a half.

There’s a lot of talk about the 14 consecutive years of Champions League qualification, if we don’t make it 15 years, it’s down to one person and one person only. He has had 2 chances to put this squad right.

I want to say that we should beat Blackburn on Saturday, but I did say that early in the season, Wenger said we can finish top four, only now every game has to be like a Cup final, well we all know what he’s like at Cup finals don’t we!

Some may say I’ve said all this before, but what can I do, all I write about is Arsenal and what our flaky manager says in the press.

Have a great day grovers, we have a tough game coming up and a long way to go to catch the spuds, happy days.

P.S. You’ll notice that there are two new features on the site for the mobile users… a ‘jump to the comment box’ and a ‘jump to the top’ link under the comment box. We’ve just saved you a whole lot of scrolling! The new mailing list launched yesterday, if you got an e-mail and you’d unsubscribed apologies,  if you want an e-mail, you can subscribe by entering your e-mail into the top box to the right of this post!

And that Mr Wenger is why the crowd were singing in unison that you don’t know what you’re doing, anymore that is. So instead of leaving it at that you get the shovel out and start digging again, now you want the team to get a pat on the back.

‘I can live with that. I do not think about the fans’ reaction, I think about how we can win our games’

Well we know you don’t care what the fans think, that’s obvious, the people that fund your salary don’t feature with you, we’ve known that on Le Grove for the last 4 years, but if you want to think how your team can win games, stop taking off your best players and stop playing your favourites all the time.

How many goals has Chamakh scored in the last year? Isn’t that what strikers do? Score goals? What on earth are you looking at when you send him on the pitch? He’s rubbish, admit you messed up and replace him, do it with all the hopeless players, we are sick of watching people trot out earning massive salaries when they probably aren’t much better than we are.

In Chamakh’s case you tell us he’s free, well that’s a myth, because what you didn’t pay in transfer fees, you did in salary, plus signing on bonus, plus agents fees, so please don’t tell us he’s there for nothing, another porky I think.

Ok so it’s not looking good for Wilshere, a setback, this is like Djourou, Vermaelen and Rosicky all over again, it’s still January, go and buy some players, go and buy Hazard or Gourcuff, or anyone decent, by the time Jack comes back our season will be over, we’ll need whoever you sign because by then we won’t have Rosicky or Yossi.

How long do we have to listen to the fibs of he’ll be back by x, it happens every year and we end up the worse for it and he’ll blame injuries.

The last thing he said was let’s see where we are at the end of the season, is that like saying judge me in May? Because he said that 3 seasons ago, but of course no one did.

So it seems the FA Cup is our easiest route to silverware this season, let’s hope he puts out our best team tomorrow and not a weakened team, because Villa won’t.

Have a great day Grover’s our season begins tomorrow!

And save stating the obvious that we should do a January swap deal with Real madrid for Jose Mourinhio which we clearly won’t, I want to talk today about what could happen should the ‘odd one’ luck out with this team, the returning players, a spud/chav collapse and if he’s involved in a massive smash up with the ‘abitofcommonsensejuggernaut’

So this is the team we could soon have lining up to pick up the points and win trophies.

Chezzer

Sagna Vermaelen Mertesacker/Kozzer Santos

Diaby Arteta Wilshere

Oxo RVP Gervinho

Bench of Theo, Ramsey, Song, Coquelin and Fabianski

Yes I left out Song for Diaby because with Jack and Arteta we would have a midfield that would and could swap around and be where they are needed, not to mention skill over lack of pace and fundamental absence of any footballing knowledge.

Also, it’s time to bench players if they aren’t pulling their weight, either because they aren’t good enough, aren’t good enough yet, or complacent because they have no competition. Either way we are neither a nursery nor an indulgence, time to man up and manage.

The back four pick themselves but Mertesacker, Kozzer and Vermaelen should be vying for the centre back role and not the full back fill in, with Santos and Sagna back we will be in good shape, with Yennaris and Gibbs as back up as I think Jenkinson has crock written all over him.

The forward line needs someone in it that can attack, cross and find the goal. If the manager thinks Oxo will get fatigued he should have saved himself £15mil or left him in the academy all season.

Now if he did something like that, dropped his hapless favourites and sold his sh!te signings Chamakh, Squillaci, Bendtner, Denilson, Djourou, Park, Almunia and Rosicky we would have the money to reduce season ticket prices, as we know that as long as he’s in charge we won’t buy a decent footballer.

For years Pedro and I were telling him to get rid of Eboue, Senderos and Denilson, he wouldn’t, he played them over and over and over again, he even made up stats for them! (most completed passes in the Premiership was a classic for spinning head) Then one day they slipped out of the door quietly and he said nothing, have we missed them? My ring piece we have!

All I’m saying is he will eventually get shot of the crap I mentioned so why not now?

Ok that was a bit of fantasy but as now the whole footballing world has realised our manager tells porkies, shifts the blame to whoever is nearest, doesn’t listen to his coaching or medical staff and has complete control over our board and football club, then I may as well move onto something else, being proved right eventually gets a bit boring, so I am now going to indulge my fantasies!

I would take Mourinhio, I really would, but Ancelotti would do, anyone would to be honest as long as it wasn’t Phil Brown, Sam Allardyce of anyone connected with Tottenham or David Beckham.

Bergkamp with Steve Bould would do it! There I go again, fantasising!

Barca/Madrid was funny last night, it took Cesc all of 4 months to turn into a nasty Spanish card waving at the ref tosser, way to go Cesc, I hope you feel at home. Who taught you that, or was it in your DNA?

Finally I watched Liverpool and Man City last night, not a kid amongst them, so what chance do we stand fielding them, it’s a waste of a cup the way we play it, good luck Cardiff!

Have a great day Grover’s next up, Villa in the cup!

What he does have to do however is justify his actions to the fans, but he doesn’t do that either. When asked what cost Arsenal the game, he said a tactical error, I thought at last, he is admitting he screwed up by taking Oxo off, unfortunately what he meant by a tactical error was in fact Arshavin’s inability to defend.

He blamed Arshavin! I like Arshavin, but this season he has been arguably our worst player, so why put him on? That was like the time he subbed the sub, Eboue and Eboue got booed instead, very cynical Arsene, very, very cynical.

He can’t even admit when he screws up, the fans sure let him know though didn’t they? Apart from the poor sods in row D that were ejected for trying to unfurl an anti Wenger banner, a bit like they do in Syria eh?

This was Wenger’s explanation…

…I can understand that the fans are upset about the substitution, especially when it doesn’t work, but he (Oxlade-Chamberlain) had started to fatigue

He was sick in the week and Arshavin is captain of the Russia national team. You have an 18-year-old kid making his first Premier League start and a player who’s captain of his country and they are querying the substitution? Let’s be serious.

I’ve been a manager for 30 years and have made 50,000 substitutions. I do not have to justify every decision I make to you (the press). I stand up for it. People pay for their tickets and express their emotions. We have to deal with that, it doesn’t mean they are always right.

First of all the Southampton captain said he spoke to Oxo after the game, he tweeted he wasn’t ill and didn’t have fatigue.

Secondly yes, you may well have made 50,000 substitutions but how many of those were made between 67 and 74 minutes eh? Most of them I suspect. Obsessive compulsive, or co-incidence we needed them just at that time? I could write a list of strange calls this season, like taking Oxo off and leaving Chamakh on when we pinned Man City to the wall and ended up losing, or in years gone by like taking Bergkamp off for Senderos when we were beating the Mancs and ended up losing, the list goes on.

The time has come Arsene, greatness doesn’t last forever, Britain used to be the richest country in the world, we aren’t now,  you used to be the best manager in football, not any more you aren’t, Brian Clough ruled the world once but if history teaches us anything, nothing is ever forever.

This season started with selling our two best players and the best one had three years left on his contract and you sold him cheaply, this was followed by an 8-2 thrashing and the worst panic buying in the history of the EPL, now we need players and your head is buried in the sand.

It’s Ok people like Ian Wright saying we should get behind the team, but we have been behind the team our whole lives, but this manager has lost it, he has had 7 years of failure and in that time had £40mil+ in salary and that my friends is a joke, if a banker got that, the whole country would be going nuts.

I dare say we could still win trophies, but had we signed what we really needed this past 7 years we could have won a shed load by now, as Graham Souness said on Sunday, we are now a feeder club, but not because we have no money, but because the money we have is being spunked up the wall on mediocrity. On kids that never make it and management.

That’s how I feel, if you don’t like it then best not comment today, try and defend anything I have criticised here today by all means, I would be amazed if you could, what I witnessed on Sunday was beyond belief, ask Robin, and that was followed by a pack of lies.

And someone needs to explain the purchase of Park to me in detail, why did we buy a player that is going in 18 months, not play him for six, then realise he’s no good?

Have a great day grovers and see you in the comments.

It was good to read, the passion of an Arsenal fan, the worst result of the century and what it meant to him, losing, it went on to say he had the micky taken out of him by Welbeck, Smalling and Jones and that was walking off the pitch, then it went on with text messages on the bus.

I would have Lansbury in our team over half of those we currently have, he has heart, skill and bags of stamina and he would rather go out on loan that warm the bench at Arsenal, Wenger take note, that’s what this team needs, some backbone and grit.

Although he plays for West Ham, he is going to the game tomorrow and hopes to watch it from Theo’s box, Theo’s box! Doesn’t that tell you something, years ago players gave a few friends and relatives a free ticket to the game, nowadays they get to sit in their luxury boxes, further evidence of the pampered life of an Arsenal player.

I wonder if they still get a win bonus? We need to start winning again, stop whinging about injuries, buy new players if the ones we have are broken and try and buy players that don’t keep getting crocked.

Pretty simple really, tomorrow we need to show the Mancs that we are a top team, we need to show the fans that too and beating those arrogant mancs would send a real message out to the rest, win the home games against the teams above us and we will qualify to play in the Champions League, fail to do that and we won’t, tomorrow will show us if that’s possible.

Injuries have been a factor with us for the last 7 years, if the manager can’t deal with that then perhaps it’s time to step down. That or change the training methods, as it’s either that or the inabiliity to buy the right players, you decide.

Have a great day and let’s hope the results all go our way and we have a chance to banish last weeks game to a bad memory.

And don’t forget, revenge is a dish best served cold!

So if we bought, say Carlos Tevez, we could probably then qualiify for the Champions league and get that money back, not even touch the Cesc /Nasri money that has been set aside for staff bonuses so not upsetting the board or Arsene, they still get their big trough to firk around in.

Also by saying we don’t need to qualify, he has taken away another hurdle from Wenger, you can earn £7mil, win nothing for 7 years and not even qualify for the competition the manager said was essential for a club this size. Amazing, I want his job, constant failure rewarded by big wages, I didn’t think that was possible for anyone outside the banking industry, oops sorry I forgot, we are in the banking industry.

Moving on, rather than talking about injured players, let’s talk about the fit ones. RVP, Theo, Arshavin, Chamberlain. Ramsey, Song, Rosicky and Yossi. Djourou, Mertesacker, Kozzer. Chezzer.

So that’s what it’s looking like, with Vermaelen and Henry possibles and Park, who know one seems to know why he’s here and Squillaci.

I still wouldn’t be surprised to see us turn the Mancs over, because although they are at the top, they haven’t been great, and that’s why I get so fed up, because had we just bought a few top talents, we would be challenging for the title, infuriating.

Chamakh is vowing to prove himself, great, he thinks you can be shite for 12 months and then show us you are Ok, all for £90k a week, I wonder where he got that idea from? It’s time we just got rid of players that play on reputations and spent the money on players that we know can make a difference.

I would have Tevez all day long, screw the attitude, how many have we got with attitude, Pedro told you yesterday about one of our kids with it, Bendtner puts his wages on his back, Song has one, I could go on, Tevez knows where the net is, could turn our season around and is affordable, and after what he’s been through, would be a very humble man, and he’s still very young.

We have the money Arsene, show us some intent. Have a great day Grovers countdown begins!

At the end of the Swansea debacle we were all feeling angry, me because I watched it in a bar full of Welsh birds with big mouths and I just got through giving it the big roar when we equalised, you know the rest.

A number of you went on that arduous trip and that was a long drive home, I can imagine how you must have felt, I did that from Cardiff after the Liverpool final.

So at the end of the game Thierry urges his teamates to go over to the Arsenal fans to show their appreciation, that was the right thing to do and in that he was spot on.

Then he has a go at one of the fans (apparently about a request for his boots that turned sour) and berates him for not getting behind the team, for me in this he was wrong, it’s not a case of feelings running high, you have to wonder what this fan has given up to be on those terraces, then think about what Thierry is getting to be on the pitch.

Yes I know Thierry is our most high profile fan, but let’s not forget that he didn’t get behind the team when he buggered of to Barca because he no longer believed the Wenger dream, let’s not forget what Arsenal bribed him with for one more season (£10mil) and please don’t think he is now playing for us for nothing.

That poor frustrated fan was behind the team as that sucker was there, and no doubt got abuse all the way across Swansea for losing, Thierry you were right to thank the fans but wrong to berate him for doing something you didn’t do, namely getting behind the team.

You would do better if you had a quiet word with your boss and explained to him why his best players including you keep leaving and why we have won nothing for 7 years, that would be getting behind the team.

As we’ll never know what you are being paid I can’t say for sure what Wenger could have bought, but we sure as hell need to buy a few players, we sure as hell should spend the Cesc/Nasri money and we sure as hell don’t need lecturing to by a celebrity fan. Even one that graced our team for years. So sorry mate, you were wrong.

Vieira, Cesc, Nasri, Petit, Overmars, Anelka, Hleb and you my friend, all left because you didn’t back the manager. So people that live in glasshouses…

So we need a defender and Chelsea get Cahill, Wenger wanted him but Bolton didn’t play his game, we should have gone back and Wenger should have swallowed his pride, he didn’t and now we are trialling a 5 foot dwarf from Oman. Happy days.

I’m sure the spuds will implode and I’m sure the chavs will drop points, but unless we go out and buy some decent players, we’ll have even less money next year.

Wenger’s latest gem is the January transfer window is the wrong time to buy players, so why did he buy Adebayor, Theo Walcott and Diaby in one then? Also he doesn’t like the summer either, so does that mean there is never a right time to buy players?

He is getting to the age now where someone should look at his material before a press conference, he really does come out with some garbage.

Anyway, Pedro tells me that today could well be the millionth comment, no prizes just bragging rights, so for all the negative Arsenal apologists there are out there, this proves without doubt this is cyberspace’s most popular place to blog, so thank you all and see you in the comments!

Have a great day Grovers, you never know…

Don’t get me wrong here, I was one that was calling for the return of the great man as I wasn’t the person who refuses to give contracts to 30 year olds, Thierry is better than Chamakh, Park and most forwards in the EPL combined, as was Campbell better than what we had at the time and Lehmann better than Almunia.

And don’t forget that Henry left us, and for what? To win the European Cup which he duly did as he knew Arsenal never would.

But I’m thinking what Wenger is doing is throwing up a huge smokescreen to save buying what we do need and getting rid of what we don’t.

Chamakh and Park are hopeless, get rid of them, Arshavin is a top player that has lost his way and Squillaci isn’t good enough for the reserves, so get rid of them all and bring in some quality, we all know they’ll go eventually but strike now and we can replace them in this window.

Remember me saying last year we should get rid of Bendtner and Denilson? Shows how good they were that we couldn’t sell either of them and now Bendtner can’t even get in the Sunderland side, how many years did we suffer those two? How long do we have to suffer the former?

I was talking to one of the Dortmund coaches yesterday, I asked him if Mario Goetze was going to join Arsenal, he said no, I aked him if he wanted Rosicky back, he laughed his nuts off and said no thanks, you keep him, he always was a crock.

Boy does that say a lot. So my point is that Wenger wheels in an Arsenal legend who scores, yes it was only Leeds, but no one else manaaged it, Wenger starts crowing and we the fans get diddled again, all we are after is qualification of a European trophy we can never win because we don’t invest is enough quality, so it’s self perpetuating.

We sign all these kids at a young age because they are the stars of tomorrow and apart from one, Wilshere, they all leave or get moved on, even Luke Freeman went yesterday. Remember the fanfare when we signed him?

So my point is this cycle has to be broken or nothing will ever change, yes it’s great to have Thierry back, but a few defenders, a world class playmaker and a goalscorer that will stay longer than Thierry would have been better.

I would still sign Vertongen as when our stars return he can play anywhere across the back.

Have a great day Grover’s and hope he proves me wrong.