Arsenal Move Closer to Their Goal

I thought that things at the top of the table might have changed at the weekend and I was proved right but to be honest I thought Liverpool would have been the team to change them.

However, Liverpool failed to take any points from "Manure" but Blackburn held Chelsea to a 1-1 draw and so Arsenal finished the weekend in second place in the league having started it in third. Chelsea do have a game in though and they play that on Wednesday night away to doomed Portsmouth. A win for Chelsea in that game would see Arsenal drop to third again but importantly Chelsea would no longer have a game in hand on us.

When we lost 2-0 at Chelsea in early February we were nine points behind them and both teams had 13 games left to play. We have managed to turn that into a two point lead in just six games for us and five games for them.

We have, of course, won those six games while Chelsea have only won one of their five games and it really looks like all is not right at Stamford Bridge. With Portsmouth as good as relegated following their nine point deduction for going into administration it would seem to be an easy game for Chelsea on Wednesday night but there are other factors to be taken into account.

For a start Avram Grant is in charge at Portsmouth and wasn't too happy when Chelsea sacked him not so long ago. Added to that there is no pressure on Portsmouth because they are as good as relegated and they can play with the freedom of a team that has nothing to lose.

They are still in the FA Cup and I'm sure the players will be playing for their places in the semi final line up against either Fulham or the Spuds. With a possible Cup final to follow I'm sure that every player will want to make an impression on the manager.

After that both Arsenal and Chelsea will kick off at the same time next Saturday at three in the afternoon. Arsenal travel to Birmingham and Chelsea are at home to Aston Villa before "Manure" play in the evening game away to Bolton.

The trip to Birmingham won't be easy as they have not lost at home since September but equally Chelsea will find Villa a very difficult opponent as they are chasing for fourth place. Their draw with Wolves on Saturday was very costly for Villa and they will have to beat Sunderland at home on Wednesday night to keep their chances of claiming fourth place alive.

It's hoping for an awful lot to think that Bolton can take some points from "Manure" but they have managed a few good results at home to them in the past and I would be delighted if they managed a draw.

From an Arsenal perspective there were a few interesting things over the weekend. First of all there was the fantastic news that Aaron Ramsey has been encouraged to walk without his crutches and he is managing it. Everything has being going to plan so far and the recovery is going well for this stage of his injury.

I don't think we could hope for any news about him to be better than that but I still don't expect to see him play again until next year at the very least. We were also told that RVP will return to training this week but the boss thinks he is still a month away from playing. In a month's time we will have only three league games left and there is also the possibility that we will still be in the Champions league too. 

When RVP got injured I thought we wouldn't see him again this season but there is a possibility that I could be wrong. However, there is always the possibility that he will have a typically Arsenal setback and he will miss those last few games. I hope that's not the case but with his injury record anything is possible.

It's absolutely amazing that we have managed to keep ourselves in the hunt for the league with RVP out since early November, Bendtner missing from October until February and Eduardo seemingly unable to recover fully from all of his injuries and persecution from the media.

As I've said before, I'd love to see where "Manure" and Chelsea would be without "Shrek" and Drogba for that amount of the season and that is without having their back up strikers injured. 

Gallas will also return to the club from his rehab in France this week and he's a player we need back as soon as possible. It was worrying to hear the boss say on Friday that he hoped he would play again this season and with Vermaelen suspended for Saturday's game and Campbell possibly being rested the centre of our defence will have a strange look to it. 

I have no doubt that Song will cope admirably but I worry every time that I see Silvestre in the team. I hope the boss is being overly cautious about Gallas's injury and we can see him back in the team for at least the second leg against Barcelona on April sixth. However, with the luck we've had with injuries this season I won't be holding my breath.

The under 18s beat Cardiff 4-2 away from home on Saturday morning with the goals coming from Afobe, Ozyakup, Bihmoutine, and Ansah. They're still 11 points clear at the top of their league and they must surely be nearly finished it at this stage. The reserves have a home game against West Ham tonight and the Ladies play Milwall in the London County Cup tomorrow night.

That's just about it for today and it looks like it will be a quiet week for Arsenal as the players look to recover from the kicking West Ham gave them on Saturday. I didn't expect Zola to use tactics like that against us but to me it looked like they took it in turns to kick our players and Cesc in particular.

As I said yesterday, I was very annoyed with the accusations of diving from their players almost every time they fouled our players. The final foul count against West Ham was very high and quite how they finished the game with 11 players on the pitch is a mystery to me.

Here's a clip of Almunia saving another penalty.

See You Tomorrow.