Who would have thought that Swansea at home this Saturday would be such a pivotal game in the Arsenal's Premier League campaign? Not this subscriber, that's for sure. You see, I saw the season thus far panning out like this; Geordies away, three points, nae messin', man.

Bin-dippers at home?

Against Ipswich, Arshavin picked up two assists. Here is what he said of his own performance,

It wasn't a supermatch for me. But I'm satisfied with the result. I'm glad that I was useful to the squad.

I don't think he could have said it any better even with the help of the best PR agents in the world.

Now that Arsenal's title aspirations are singularly focussed, it will be interesting to see how the League unfolds.

Arguments can be made both ways. Some people have already given up on the squad and the manager. They don't expect anything but will probably continue to whine after every game.

A lot of excellent football, some dodgy refereeing decisions going against Arsenal, and absolute chaos as the back – nothing seems to have changed.

Another stupid goal conceded towards the end means that this Cup will linger in Gooner memories as one that has further reinforced, if that were possible, the need for significant defensive improvement if the Gunners want to challenge for the top honours this season.

Well, I am not much of a transfer speculation/discussion guy but today's game and a highly unrealistic transfer rumour about a Nasri-Tevez swap got me thinking.

First, let me just mention why I don't see any sense in the swap deal with Tevez. The Argentinean is a world-class player but I don't see him fitting into the Arsenal style.

I don't think any transfer, in my limited time following football, has moved me to the extent this one did. Not even close. And I can't see it happening again in the future. Regular readers know how much I admire Fabregas, who I rated as the best player in the Premiership. So a part of me feels betrayed and resentful.

I don't think anyone who has seen Jack Wilshere play doubts his talent. Even anti-Arsenal hacks and pundits, and purveyors of ignorant, spiteful opinions in the Arsenalsphere rave about the youngster. From football legends like Wenger and Capello to common fans like this blogger, everyone has lavished undiluted praise on the next great English hope ever since he was a schoolboy.

After a long time, Europe's premier competition has thrown up a few surprises and plenty of excitement. At the time of the draw few, if any, would have expected United to bow out. Fewer still would have expected the Gunners to qualify from a tough group before the other three English clubs and with a game to spare.

I know everyone's mind is on the The Game right now. Mine is too. But time is up to it's usual tricks and is refusing to move along. I'm being tortured by this wait so I thought it would be worth discussing Flamini's tackle on Corluka from Tuesday's borefest.

Here is a video of the incident.

Newcastle (A) – Udinese (H) – Liverpool (H) – Udinese (A) – Manchester United (A)

Five games in 16 days, each with its unique degree of significance. I don't like dramatizing the consequences of each match, especially at the start, but one gets the feeling, before the end of August Doodh ka doodh, paani ka paani ho jayega.

I just glanced at the upcoming fixtures list and was pleasantly surprised by the remaining games in January. I knew there were Cup ties with Leeds and Ipswich followed by a game against West Ham but hadn't realized the next two games after that were at home against Wigan and Ipswich.

In effect, out of the next five games, three are against Championship sides and two against relegation candidates.

Arsenal served another instalment of their Paisa Vasool football giving the spectators complete value for money with plenty of thrills and chills all through the game. The important point, from the Gunners' point of view of course, was qualification to the next round and that was achieved fairly comfortably in the end.

This evening I saw a spate of headlines after England coach Fabio Capello shared a meal with some journalists. It seems most of the talk was about England's future i.e. Jack Wilshere.

Interestingly, Capello wants to play young Jack in front of his back four.

I want to put him in this position in front of the back four.

It's been a while since I looked at the Premiership table with more than a cursory glance. And what I saw left me wondering whether any team will be able to hit the 80 point mark this season.

I did a quick look back over the last decade and in each year the winning team has crossed 80 points.

I had a feeling Arsenal won't win the Carling Cup final. I said that before the game. I never expected Arsenal to get past Messi in the Champions League, certainly not without Walcott. And I didn't have high hopes from the FA Cup game as it was an away game to Old Trafford, a ground where Arsenal don't score too many goals.

Amidst all the excitement and discussion about the Kroenke takeover, I chanced upon an amusing news article yesterday. The headline caught my eye and I ended up laughing for a few minutes after reading it.

CORLUKA: I CALLED FAN AN IDIOT

These were the words that had me in splits,

I told one supporter he was an idiot.

I am covering some relatively old news in this post as I didn't have time to jot down my views earlier.

First I want to look at the words of El Capitan when he thanked the fans in the official matchday programme for the last home game. Specifically, I want to discuss his comment on the home fans,

Our home fans have constantly amazed me too – I think of the sensational atmosphere they created against Chelsea, and then against Barcelona.

The Gunners ended the season with relegation form – 2W,3L,6D – in the final eleven games of the season. The fact that this form came straight after a horror fortnight that saw heartbreak in all the Cup fixtures, including the Carling Cup final, means that even the most positive of Gooners are finding it hard to sustain the faith.

As I did with the defence, I looked at my review of the midfield from last season. It isn't as relevant now as the one about defenders was but there were a few points I could borrow,

Our midfield is integral to the way we play and the performance of the three men in the middle often decides the sharpness in our attack and the solidity of our defence.

Apologies for being two days behind a story once again but having given a great deal of time during the season, I am trying to balance it during the summer. And while I do let a lot of rumours and events go by without comment, this PR stunt from Alisher Usmanov is hard to ignore.

I don't want to repeat the comments as they've been all over the internet.

I have had this thought in my mind for a long while – to create a comprehensive list of weaknesses of Arsenal as identified by fans, pundits, and others.

This list is not a judgement on the club, manager, or the players. All the criticisms in this list aren't necessarily valid. I believe most of these arguments don't hold water upon closer inspection but want to avoid a debate on the merits of each, at least for the time being.

Sometime during the last week there was this article on the Arsenal website with a few comments from Benayoun. The Israeli skipper said that he can understand the reasons for not getting regular starts and was happy to contribute whenever he got a chance.

They say you don't change a winning team and we are on a good run so it is very difficult to get into the team.

Arsene Wenger has talked a lot about tackling. Invariably the discussion gets hijacked by clueless hacks and pundits who convert that into an Arsenal V Rest of the League debate and take pride in highlighting one or two poor tackles by Arsenal players.

According to a number of morons who have the privilege of influencing public opinion, Arsenal are just as bad as any other team when it comes to tackling.

Who says Manchester United haven't signed anyone in the January transfer window?! It seems they've added two more game changers to their list of match-winners. Lee Mason and Stephen Child haven't been officially unveiled at Old Trafford but it'll be hard to argue they've not joined Howard Webb.

I think Wenger missed a trick there.

The Premier League is said to be the best league in the world. I'm not convinced about that but I'd say the EPL is certainly the fastest league in the world. There is more end to end action in England than in any other country.

After watching games from various leagues over the last few years I've come to believe that in the Premiership the teams play as if they've to follow a basketball law – get a shot on goal within 30 seconds of getting possession.

Good strike by Rosicky as he hit it, to borrow a cricket term, 'on the rise'.

Good tenacity and delivery from Walcott. I was a bit worried when I saw blood streaming down his face just below the eye but it seems the injury was just a cut.

Anyone else impressed by the kid Eriksen?

When Bacary Sagna intercepted the ball at 55:17 on the clock in the game against Wolves, the Frenchman was facing his own goal and Wolves had 9 outfield players pressing inside the Arsenal half.

From that point the Gunners took 10 touches in just 14 seconds as the ball was moved by 7 players.

You might remember this article just after the last Wolves game where I was discussing the quick counter attack that led to the second goal in that game and how it might be a dress rehearsal for Barcelona.

As it turned out Arsenal repeated the performance against the favourites to complete the turn around.

The game against Barcelona evoked a number of emotions among all Gooners. Most were infuriated by the ref, some were disappointed with the performance, or by the tactics, or for any number of reasons. As always, there were also those who came up with irrelevant and illogical rhetoric based on their personal fancies that had very little to do with what happened on the pitch.

Before I proceed I want to mention that this article is mostly speculation about the Champions League draw and the teams in it. There won't be much about Arsenal.

Ok with that out of the way I thought I'll jot down some thoughts I had about the Champions League quarter-final draw. While the draw is held live and involves some big names associated with the game, I often get the feeling that it is, at least partially, rigged.

Before I begin, I just want to take the opportunity thank everyone who sent me supportive emails over the last couple of weeks. I'm sorry I wasn't able to reply to everyone individually. The Gooner empire is going through a difficult period and everyone has their own way of dealing with it. There was a time when I got actively involved in the discussions but now it seems pointless to go through the same arguments over and over again.

A new series of articles has been appearing on the official website these days called Loan Review. I have noticed two posts so far, one featuring Ryo Miyaichi and the other on Kyle Bartley. Both youngsters have received glowing reviews from journalists who follow their loan teams. The articles are worth the time in case you haven't read them already.

That's the sad part of the biggest game of the season I guess. One of the two teams will go home as winners. I am finding it hard to pick a team to support and that will make watching the game that much more difficult.

When the same sides met each other three years ago it was easy to support Barcelona.

I thought it might be a good idea to read what I wrote while analyzing the problems and weaknesses in defence at the end of last season. A quick glance told me that I could just copy paste some parts of that article and it will still be just as relevant.

Sample this,

...many of our top players have made big individual errors in important games.

There was a time when I spent a few hours every day browsing the Arsenalsphere. In the last 10 days or so I don't think I have totaled an hour of surfing. There is so little going on.

First a random player is linked. Then the supposed transfer moves forward. One day, according to unsubstantiated reports, a player is close to signing as terms are settled.

I haven't had the chance to gauge the general sentiment of the fans about the transfer of Clichy to Man City so I will just share my views. I think this transfer is good for all concerned.

From the player's point of view, this move will give him a fresh start in a completely different environment where he will get much better defensive support than he did at Arsenal in the last three years.

The official website had a somewhat uncharacteristic announcement this morning. Usually, we see a player introduced after a transfer is completed but in the case of Gervinho, Arsenal.com tells us that the player has agreed a deal but the transfer is subject to a regulatory process. I am guessing this has something to do with his work permit.

Arsenal.com had an interesting article today with some quotes from Thomas Vermaelen. In essence, the Belgian said that the Gunners have to leave the past behind and make a fresh start from scratch.

Everybody starts from zero and everybody has to start again.

You get a new chance and that's always a good feeling when people give you another chance to win something.

Just over a week ago I made an attempt to document all the complaints against Arsenal in a comprehensive list of weaknesses. As I'd mentioned at that time, I did not agree with many items on the list but was compiling it for the sake of having a reference point.

Today I want to compare the English national team against that collection of gripes.

Recently I'd compiled a comprehensive list of weaknesses associated with Arsenal. Then I compared how England fared against the same list. I was wondering how a team with over 40 well-known and oft-repeated issues can stay in the top four despite other clubs spending hundreds of millions. Even more interestingly, England didn't seem to have most of those weaknesses.