Right then, after a week which has been dominated by two craggy faced managers (so much so that Fabio Capello was in my post-apocalyptic dream last night wearing a gigantic gold hooped earring), it's time to turn our attention to the stuff that really matters.

Arsenal play Sunderland tomorrow and under Martin O'Neill they've been about 61 times better than they were under Mrs Doubtfire.

Arsene Wenger is preparing the Arsenal team for a testing week ahead with three crucial away fixtures in eight days in three different competitions, and he is happy that now new injuries happened in last weeks win over Blackburn. He said: "Everybody should be available for Saturday and we have no new injuries that's [.

Even though they're one of the biggest teams in the world when it comes to money, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger told a Belgian publication that he can only splash out on new players once the team has made a profit of £20 million. This apparently means he's admitting there's a restriction on his spending at the London club and he's worried the team will suffer because of it.

Just before Christmas Arsene Wenger made it clear that Chu-Young Park was now settled in London and ready to step-up to the Arsenal first team when Gervinho and Chamakh went off to the African Nations Cup. He said: "The adaptation period for him is over now so he has to come in and show he [...]

Just before Christmas Arsene Wenger made it clear that Chu-Young Park was now settled in London and ready to step-up to the Arsenal first team when Gervinho and Chamakh went off to the African Nations Cup. He said: "The adaptation period for him is over now so he has to come in and show he [...]

For many people the low point of this season was the 8-2 at Old Trafford. And I get that completely. It was embarrassing but, you know, it was a freak. A one off. Something that's never likely to happen again and entirely down to the fact that the manager took off the Coq. Without him we had no penetration, no balls and as a team we went flaccid without him to keep us stiff in the middle of the park.

Arsene Wenger seems to be considering rotating the Arsenal team, and it could probably do with a good shake-up after four games without a win, and the foremost problem is deciding who will replace Robin Van Persie as the main striker. Marouane Chamakh is returning from a very disappointing African Nations Cup for the Moroccan [.

Bright Eis

Did anyone really expect Wenger to burn holes in Arsenal's chequebook this month? The general climate in football hinted at no, the fact that Arsene is our boss said no, and the apparent need for backup up front or at the back said – haha – no. No no no.

The quietness. It's so loud. In its quietness, of course.

According to various reports in The Sun (not linking) and The Express (won't link because of auto-playing video), there was something of a team meeting at the training ground this week. Some might call it 'crisis talks', some might call it 'group therapy', some might call it 'Trevor'.

The Arsenal striker Marouane Chamakh has been suffering from a massive loss of form since the middle of last season, but it was being hoped that a sequence of starts for Morocco at the African Cup of Nations may galvanise him to recapture some of his undoubted ability. But Morocco's opening game ended in a [.

The Arsenal striker Marouane Chamakh has been suffering from a massive loss of form since the middle of last season, but it was being hoped that a sequence of starts for Morocco at the African Cup of Nations may galvanise him to recapture some of his undoubted ability. But Morocco's opening game ended in a [.

Over the last few seasons Arsene Wenger has gathered an assortment of players, paid them good wages and has waited for them to deliver. Unfortunately, they have not delivered the goods nor have they developed into the world class players we thought they would turn into.

For a few transfer windows we have been expecting these players to be sold, but the ridiculous wages, for their limited wages has meant we have not been able to get rid of these deadwood players.

Arsenal's manager, Arsene Wenger, remains confident in his believes that splashing more money on the winter market isn't the best solution for his team, despite admitting that the current injury crisis are the reasons for their poor results in the last three league matches.

Speaking after his team's 2-1 defeat against Manchester United, Wenger stated that the results won't pushed him to commit in the market as he preferred to wait for the injured ones returning to action again.

Super Sunday is one again upon us with a couple of high profile fixtures worth watching. Manchester United travel to London to face Arsenal in the return fixture of the match they won 8-2 at Old Trafford earlier in the season.

The other big fixture of the day sees league leaders Manchester City host 3rd place Tottenham at the Etihad stadium in a day that could see their lead atop the EPL table extended or cut.

The African Cup of Nations' effect on Arsenal sums up the slightly oddball line-up for this year's tournament. That Alexandre Song could line out against Swansea was a huge boost (at least until his somewhat floundering performance on the day). That Marouane Chamakh could not was... well... a huge boost too.

I had high hopes for Marouane Chamakh when he joined Arsenal back in 2010, however, he has failed to live up to his billing and a move away from the Emirates does not look forth coming any time soon.

I thought Chelsea striker Fernando Torres was struggling until i had a look at Chamakh's stats.

It has been another crazy week of football and there was no lack of drama with the big four (Plus two more this week). The off field news was way more interesting than the actual football to be honest and so its that time of the week, the time to relive the week that was (n't):

Arsenal:

"I think he will be a good signing, slot him at left back and we will win the league"

- Wenger talks about signing RVP's son

Finally the Arsenal we know are back.

What a rough week I have had. My week was similar to Arsenals current form, depressing. Well screw all that, we still had a great week of football. So let me give you a slightly over the top review of the week that wasn't:

Arsenal:

It was another dramatic week for the Gunners.

Arsenal has suffered some terrible bad luck with defensive injuries this season. We lost Sagna, Gibbs and Jenkinson all with a 17 days in October, but the loss that has hurt us most was the loss of Santos in December. Santos was an attacking full-back and gave us extra attacking options something that has been lacking in recent weeks.

By Alan Duffy

Gooners desperately hoping that Arsene Wenger will finally open his dusty old cheque book and splash out on Klaas-Jan Huntelaar or Lukas Podolski might have to hold that thought, as, according to the Guardian, the Arsenal boss is keen on signing up Robin Van Persie's five-year-old boy, Shaqueel (surely he'll be a basketball player?

By Alan Duffy

Gooners desperately hoping that Arsene Wenger will finally open his dusty old cheque book and splash out on Klaas-Jan Huntelaar or Lukas Podolski might have to hold that thought, as, according to the Guardian, the Arsenal boss is keen on signing up Robin Van Persie's five-year-old boy, Shaqueel (surely he'll be a basketball player?

The most frustrating thing is that, after a disastrous start to the season, we had done the hard bit.

Written off by everyone, we somehow battled back up the table, all the way to the top four.

A team that seemed to have been cobbled together off the back of Steptoe and Son's wagon on the last day of the transfer window was starting to look like it could really do the business.

Here we are in the January transfer window, and we are all excited over the new stars that will be coming to the Emirates.

There is talk of this one, and talk of that one. Yet behind all the hype in the press you have Wenger telling us what I am afraid is going to be a very big disappointment for us all, and that is they do not want to spend any money with this financial crisis going to only get worse.

Morning all, welcome to an Arsenal free Saturday. We don't play until 4pm tomorrow so there'll be lots going on to cause joy/consternation today.

Arsene's press conference was interesting yesterday. We'll come to team news etc in a little bit, but midway through he launched into quite a broadside about the way television influences the fixtures, and even suggested that cosy relationships between some clubs and the TV companies were being exploited to give those teams an advantage.

What an incredibly frustrating week not to be able to blog. Henry's return in the cup against Leeds, a dour affair until he emerged from the bench, was settled by three sublime touches a delicious through ball from Song, an immaculate piece of control, and a trademark cool finish to take the man to 227 goals for Arsenal and send thousands of Gooners into a mad bouncing frenzy.

Why, top of the morning to you, and you, and you with the crooked nose as well. May a squadron of Twix bars find their way into your mouth by day's end, and may time go by as smoothly as Thierry's first touch. The day has gone by that smoothly in fact; exploding capacitors and leaking transformers having taken up so much of my time that this review is sinfully late (A word of caution- never put the positive pin of the capacitor into the negative pin of the battery, unless you want the electronic equivalent of the Vietnam War in your face)

The FA Cup game against Leeds can broadly be divided into two storylines playing out in parallel- a feel-good fairytale with returning Kings, and a tragicomedy about knights whose swords have been replaced by rubber ducks.

When it was first announced that Thierry Henry would be returning to the club, as an Arsenal fan, it was always going to be impossible not to get excited about the move.

Some people however, were quick to criticize the deal, stating the 34-year old forward was "past it" and this was just another "desperate" signing by Arsene Wenger.

Oh no he didn't! Thierry Henry confounds the sceptics and scores on his second debut for Arsenal. Image: Clive Mason/Getty Images Europe.

You couldn't make this stuff up, could you? But from the moment Thierry Henry appeared on the Emirates pitch for Arsenal's warm-up last night, the cheers of the crowd and the player's delight suggested something awesome was about to occur.

It's not a trick of the eye, it's not a fancy photoshop job. That is indeed Thierry Henry in an Arsenal shirt, an Arsenal shirt of 2012, wheeling away to celebrate a goal.

And not just any goal, but an Henry goal. Song played in a brilliant through ball that split the two covering defenders, Henry took one touch to control the ball, and himself, and then he curled right into the corner of the net away from the keeper's despairing dive.

Match report Video and highlights -

It's rare that I sit here in the morning to write this blog and don't quite know where to begin. This is one of those mornings.

I guess there's only one place, isn't there? The 79th minute of Arsenal's FA Cup tie against Leeds. We've dominated the game, in terms of possession, in terms of shots on goal, in every department, yet the game is heading towards a dreary, goalless conclusion.

Thierry Henry proved he can still cut it at Championship level, at least with a goalscoring Arsenal comeback. The returning legend bagged the only goal in a 1-0 win over Leeds in last night's FA Cup third round clash. Henry entered the action as a second half substitute for Marouane Chamakh (as if [.

The 2012 African Cup of Nations begins on January 21st in Gabon and Equitorial Guinea, and players have just reported to their respective international squads for the tournament. The next few gameweeks in the Premier League will be tough for ... Continue reading →

Ok then,

after a dull weekend of FA Cup action it's our turn tonight and we face Leeds at home. Last season this game was saved late on by a Cesc penalty. It was a pretty dour performance from us on the day and hopefully there'll be no repeat of that.

The manager has already said he's going to pick a strong side and while there's certainly going to be a measure of rotation, I don't know how much he can really do at the back.

One week into the transfer window, I wish there were more concrete transfer new items to share. But instead, it's just the same rumors we've been reading for the last few weeks, for the most part. I'll start with players making exits, or rumored to be making exits.

Vito Mannone is now on loan with Hull, and he played today against Ipswich in an FA Cup win.

When Arsenal posted a very emotional message on their website to fans after the departure of our then captain and talisman people wondered how we would replace him and if we would even get into the top four in the coming season. Now, in January 2012, he is coming back. Does he still have the speed?

Arsene Wenger brought in Ju-Young Park from Monaco this summer as competition for the mis-firing Marouane Chamakh, and was convinced he would be a great addition to the Arsenal squad. Wenger said on his arrival: "We are delighted to have signed Ju. He will add true quality to our attacking forces and will be a [.

Good morning and welcome to a Friday ahead of what's going to be a fairly quiet weekend for us. We don't play until Monday at 7.45 (on ESPN too wouldn't it be ironic after weeks of not getting penalties if we got a pelanty?).

Ahead of that game the manager has revealed that Robin van Persie won't play, which is only to be expected.

Morning all,

the good thing about the festive period is that if you stumble you've got a chance to make up for it very quickly. The bad thing is that so much football in such a short period of time means the possibility of stumbling is increased. We now have to wait until Monday to play again, this time in the FA Cup, and it'll be a game in which we'll as many players as possible rested.

Sebastien Squillaci: Flumm-oxed

1. There are no free passes in the Premiership: Even the so called lesser teams have their moments under the sun. You underestimate them at your own peril. Teams that got bitten badly this past weekend: United, City, Chelsea, and Spurs.

Truth be told I'd prefer the 2002 vintage, but I'd be lying if I said I was completely cold about the possible return of Sir Thierry of Henry. It's difficult not to be taken in by the romance of our all-time top scorer coming back for a few months, even if he is now one score and fourteen years old.