Good Morning and I am back from my unexpected absence due to health reasons, and I would like to thank Josh for keeping the fort neat and tidy. So much has happened since I last bashed the keys of my computer keyboard. So if like me, you have been on another planet for the last four days, either due to the medication or because you have been abroad, let's take stock together of what has been happening in the world of domestic football in general and The Arsenal in particular.

I have to say that being under the influence of pain killers at the moment doesn't give one a clear head. What a shame that I didn't do my usual and replies to the guys who kindly tried to rub my face in it yesterday. Now most of Arsenal land knows that Fabregas the King of InsideArsenal is no lover of Adebayor.

Theo Walcott has started in the last two first team games and been very disapointing. He may have got the equaliser against Spurs but with the luck he got from this I think Francis Jeffers would have produced the same end result. His shot was off target and only the ricochet saw it roll over the line.

Why do I feel frustrated this morning? Arsenal are still in the Carling Cup and Le Boss also looked frustrated last night and referred to a failure to up our pace. The initial 25 minutes seemed to be very positive, then this Arsenal team forgot the script. Defensively I was amazed that we didn't concede more goals.

After a poor showing against Tottenham in our 1-1 draw in the Carling Cup, it is back to the Premiership and our best eleven. And it is a relief as well, as our second-string team has had some shaky moments over the past two games. We are playing Birmingham who are at 16th place in the table and we absolutely have to win.

When Arsenal won the double in the 97/98 season we had Marc Overmars and Ray Parlour on the wing. Overmars was a "proper" winger who was always looking to get at his man and get to the byline. Parlour was maybe more suited to a central midfield role but he often did the same on the other side.

In my previous reincarnation as a normal human being, I was so infatuated with all things football that I took two FA coaching courses and and decided to manage under 8 through to under 10 football. I had my son playing central defence and one rather precocious young talent playing alongside who had incredible skills but refused to accept the team ethic.

Good morning, over the next two days InsideArsenal will be consulting you to establish who are the most improved players and the best player of 2007. The best player poll will take place tomorrow. Today I would like you consider First team and players selected for the squad , who may then have come on as substitutes and not necessarily had a regular place in the team.

I am really looking forward to seeing this match tomorrow. this blog is not a pre match review as such as I am sure that tomorrow Josh will have fun letting us know the expected formation. I want to focus upon the opportunity that presents itself by the enforced exit of Eboue to the Ghanaian tournament.

The first team has been fully rested, many of them have had a full week off having been left out of both the Fa Cup and Carling Cup ties. I had believed some of them would have made an appearance on the bench on Wednesday but it was not to be. One interesting fact is Wenger has said the players were a "bit jaded" from Sunday.

Cast your minds back to the 29th November of last year and an away trip to Craven Cottage. A game which Arsenal fans would expect to win went very pear shaped and we were 2-0 down after 20 minutes. We had been susceptible to crosses and both goals came from wide areas, one from a set piece, our Achilles heel.

This trophy has become the competition that Arsene Wenger uses to provide valuable experience to the youth and reserve players. Whilst other Premiership sides lower down the division field their strongest sides in an attempt to win a piece of silverware for their clubs, the big four either field weakened sides or in the case of Chelsea, their B full strength side.

"Stand up if you hate Tottenham" every Arsenal fan knows this song, and most hardcore Gooners defy the seating regulations for a few seconds in order to comply, but how much do we still hate that sad lot known as the spuds, the scum, the sperz etc down at the Lane? Given the continuing fall out from Tuesday's Carling Cup semi-final, it occurred to one reader, that possibly Le Boss had underestimated how much it hurt to be humiliated by the scum at White Hart Lane.

A very happy 2008 to all our readers. later today we will have a Arsenal v West ham Match preview. Before that thought our readers around the World might like to see how London saw in the new year....

Good Morning and welcome to 2008. Arsenal started the year as we need them to go on with an emphatic win against the team that came into the fixture having accomplished the double over Arsenal in almost successive seasons. In fact, had West Ham won the match, then they would have been the first team to beat Arsenal three years running at home in over twenty years.

Update on previous blogs.

The full list of countries that left messages over the New Year were as follows.

Australia, Fiji, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Israel, , Kosovo, Malta ,Malaysia, Norway , Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, and the USA and Ukraine.

What's going on with Jens Lehmann? The man has demanded first team football but has rightfully been kept on the bench due to the magnificent form of Manuel Almunia. In his reign as Arsenal's no.1 the Spainiard has been in fine form. I call it a reign due to the battle that Lehmann seems to have made out of the situation.

After Arsenal's 2-0 over Burnley in the FA Cup, with easy goals by Eduardo and Bendtner, tomorrow's game is a further chance for the young guns to prove themselves. The Burnley game was not particularly pleasant - Kolo Toure's defensive greatness coupled with the class of Eduardo being the only highlights - nor particularly entertaining.

This time last year Arsenal went to White Hart Lane in the semi-final of the Carling Cup. Wenger gambled with his youngsters and we went 2-0 down before half time. It seemed an uphill task for us to come back but nothing phases this young side and they fought brilliantly to come back to 2-2 and maybe could and should have won the game.

I asked my mate if he would take a 1-0 defeat with 22 minutes left. It seemed they were more likely to get a second than we were an equaliser. However, my friend summed it up perfectly:

"No way, we are not going to lose to the scum at home, we will pull off some lucky shit here"

He was spot on.

Before the game I called for a victory first and foremost. After the Birmingham it was important to pick up three points again and if we could produce a good performance to boot then that would be an added bonus. In the end, we got both and with the team Fulham had it was always going to go one way.

You will read many a match report and blog tonight and tomorrow morning regarding how bad we were tonight, how humiliating it is to lose to Spurs and maybe the mistake Wenger made before the game. To be honest there is nothing more to say and it is hard to take any pleasure from a brilliant goal from Adebayor.

Todays fifth round draw saw a unique event, and that was the first time in over five decades that no replays are being scheduled. So what you see is what you will get on the weekend of the 16th and 17th of February. Just far enough beyond Valentine's day to allow us lads to watch the game.

I bet Benitez will be hoping that Liverpool put up a better display next round.

Fabregas the King rarely enters the fever pitched transfer speculation, but with the confirmation from Middlesbrough that a third Premiership club has entered the race to sign this promising centre back this is worthy of comment. His performance against Thierry Henry whilst playing for Middlesbrough at the Emirates should at least have convinced Le Boss of his undoubted quality and injury concerns surrounding Kolo Toure, now would be the time to get one over on the scum and shore up our defence!

Good morning all, It is no surprise to me that Mathieu Flamini won the vote for the most improved player of 2007 by a landslide. He polled 65% of first preferences and was followed by Alexander Hleb and finally Emmanuel Adebayor. Well done to everyone and the excellent comments.

Today is the big one.

After Oldham knocked out Everton, Coventry beat Blackburn and Huddersfield embarrased Birmingham, the game against Burnley always had the potential to be a banana skin tie. The pitch was awful, the conditions not much better and the atmosphere electric - maybe what one might call a traditional FA Cup tie.

Readers of InsideArsenal are being spoilt today, with two blogs for the price of one. Josh has done the pre match review, and the final team selection will be confirmed an hour before kick-off. I am taking the opportunity to redress the imbalance of media coverage of this Arsenal squad over recent months by having another rant.

I thank all of you who have provided comments to the debate in the aftermath of being outplayed by Tottenham last night.

Following such a lively discussion this morning concerning the centreback position,and in the absence of Kolo Toure and Alexandre Song, Which player should be groomed or bought in the event of the nightmare scenario such as Willie Gallas getting a 3 match ban or getting injured, it is time to vote and express a view.

Some of you with Digital TV services should be aware that the Official Arsenal TV Channel has started test broadcasting on Setanta. On Sky it is channel 423 and the service starts up at 5pm GMT each day. It is also available on other digital services I believe such as Virgin Media.

The official launch of the service is January 14th 2008.

I can only remember one really good half of Football this Arsenal team has played in the Premier League since we ran out in the second half against Villa. Let me look at the games we have played:

Arsenal vs Villa (2nd half) - we came out 2-1 up but after that held on throughout the half and never looked like scoring.

Some of you with Digital TV services should be aware that the Official Arsenal TV Channel has started test broadcasting on Setanta. On Sky it is channel 423 and the service starts up at 5pm GMT each day. It is also available on other digital services I believe such as Virgin Media.

The official launch of the service is today.

Morning all. Fabregas_the_king is away for the next couple of days so myself and Josh are in charge!!!! Josh will be posting later today but I thought I would take the chance to remind our great viewers about everything www.insidearsenal.co.uk has to offer.

Insidearsenal Toolbar:
We start with the re-launch of our fantastic toolbar.

Yesterday, for a brief part of coverage time, Sky Sports News broke some breaking news to fans. It disapeared soon after and I have not heard much since but it still disapointed me and it seems he is off. It stated that Arsenal and Portsmouth were in the middle of negotiations regarding the transfer of Lassana Diarra.

If you remember last season's Carling Cup Semi-Final, you will recall the tie was poised in pretty much the exact same way. With the score's level at 2-2, the return leg could have gone either way. There is no doubt that last year we had the psycholigical edge going into the second match having come from 2 goals down and drawn a game we could and should have won.

Remember how we felt after Paris? the loss to Barcelona and with having ten men on the field and the whole world against us? Today will feel a little like that. But the reason for bringing up the Champions League, is to point out to the Scum supporting media, and Scum fans who will come on here to gloat and to try and make out out that Tottenham have come of age and this is will be the new Spurs Dynasty, is to point out to their pathetic little brains, that they will never see the likes of a Champions League final in their little lifetimes.

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Just when the club needed to close ranks, and revive the memories of a football club triumphant in success, and before the images of the two Arsenal players in conflict at White Hart lane was fading from our minds. The unacceptable face of Arsenal football club reared it's ugly head.

The FA Cup draw has been completed and we have been dealt the worst possible draw. Before the game I thought we would get either Manchester United or Chelsea, however I had a feeling it would be at the Emirates. It is just our luck we would draw the team playing brilliant football in their own backyard.

The FA Cup draw has been completed and we have been dealt the worst possible draw. Before the game I thought we would get either Manchester United or Chelsea, however I had a feeling it would be at the Emirates. It is just our luck we would draw the team playing brilliant football in their own backyard.

Happy New Year to all Gooners and I can only apologise for this very brief preview. Firstly I was absolutely thrilled to get greetings on this site from Israel, Malta Bangladesh and Oz, The other contributions from South Africa and Malaysia also confirm that Gooners are spread the world over, and each one of you belongs to an amazing family.

Having seen Fabregas the King's report of yesterday's match I will not go into much detail of events. You have all read what the goal was like and as I mentioned last time, it seems the flag stationed at one point in the Emirates: "I Arsene we trust" really must be adhered to.