Like Song, Vermaelen will get to play in the middle now

For a short period of time, we turn our attention elsewhere. There will be no worries of long ball tactics or roughhouse treatment or any of those "they don't like it when we get in their faces" attitude. At least not in the next immediate game.

Morning all,

part one of what is a very tricky threesome is out of the way and successfully overcome. Now we just have the trifling matter of a trip to Milan to play some team who have barely any pedigree in the Champions League and ... erm ... yeah.

Still, we should be boosted by what we did on Saturday.

As far as starts to difficult weeks go, that turned out to be half-decent, yeah? After eons of bumbling around in the wilderness every time our rivals slipped up, Arsenal finally took advantage of dropped points around them yesterday by squeezing past Sunderland with very little toothpaste in the tube to spare.

Time to upgrade his statue to silver

If you're a Arsenal fan today, you'll be buzzing. Nothing beats coming from behind and winning by scoring in the final minute of the game. Especially when it's an away game and we weren't firing on all cylinders. Especially when the winning goal was scored by one of the club's greatest ever player.

Time to upgrade his statue to silver

If you're a Arsenal fan today, you'll be buzzing. Nothing beats coming from behind and winning by scoring in the final minute of the game. Especially when it's an away game and we weren't firing on all cylinders. Especially when the winning goal was scored by one of the club's greatest ever player.

By Alan Duffy

Sunderland 1-2 Arsenal Premier League 11th February 2012

Some wondered if Thierry Henry's brief return to Arsenal would damage his iconic status with the north Londoners, however, in netting his second winner (and third goal) of his loan spell against an impressive Sunderland side, the Frenchman has entered the realm of the God-like for Gooners all over the world.

Down like a sacker spuds Sunderland forward James McClean scored a cheeky opener against Arsenal after defender Per Mertesacker generously fell over. The German defender left the field on a stretcher after the incident. That prompted Soccer Saturday pundit Robbie Fowler who had taken to calling the Arsenal man "Metzelder" to say: "I [.

Legend. Arsenal true blue. Competitor. Finisher extraordinaire.

You couldn't write a better script for Thierry Henry to end his England return. An added time goal for the winner against Sunderland. A bookend to the bookend he installed with his instant winner against Leeds. Both Wenger's subs made massive contributions to the victory as Aaron Ramsey scored the equalizer and Andrey Arshavin sent in a pinpoint cross to Henry lurking in front of goal to elevate his leg and guide the ball past Simon Mignolet.

Arsenal legend Alan Smith has criticised current manager Arsene Wenger's recruitment policy, which he believes could cost the Gunners a UEFA Champions League spot at the end of the season. The retired striker, who has now turned to commentating, also believes that Wenger should have pursued central defender Gary Cahill more aggressively before he was signed by their London rivals Chelsea earlier this month.

Frustration is boiling over at the Emirates- an underperforming squad has started 2012 in a well documented poor fashion.

Sadly the return of the King Thierry Henry has been tarnished by some mindless fans at Swansea on Sunday aggravating the Frenchman.

The Gunners have now lost two league games on the bounce and languish well behind their title rivals and crucially are four points behind Chelsea in forth.

Giant leap

Since it's the last day of 2011, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and may your target and aspiration be achieved next year. While everyone gets into their own party mood, there's still a game to be played for Arsenal with Queens Park Rangers visiting the Grove. The players will have to keep their celebrations on hold as we look to go back to winning ways.

Giant leap

Since it's the last day of 2011, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and may your target and aspiration be achieved next year. While everyone gets into their own party mood, there's still a game to be played for Arsenal with Queens Park Rangers visiting the Grove. The players will have to keep their celebrations on hold as we look to go back to winning ways.

WEEKEND WRAP : CHRISTMAS EDITION

Nothing warms our heart (and stockings) more than futbolitos who are committed to charity work and give back to their communities! To be fair, every club in world football makes an attempt do this but special mention must go out to Tottenham, whose efforts are equally impressive (na na, don't be hatin' this Christmas!

When was the last time you heard the words "Wenger must buy" followed by any of the following: Jagielka, Cahill, Samba, Hangeland?

It seems only weeks ago that were as many headlines linking us with other clubs' defenders as there are stars in the sky or skeletons in John Terry's closet.

Now.

To lose all four of our first team fullbacks at once to long-term injuries really is unfortunate.

As an example of serious bad luck it's right up there with Wayne Rooney finding himself at Grab-a-Granny night in the local nightclub with both arms in plaster; or Harry Redknapp taking a wrong turn into an auction house and accidentally winning 53 bids on account of his twitch.

At this stage of the season and given how well the club has done since that awful start to the season, the last news you would want to read is that we're going to be patient with the contract of Robin Van Persie. This is our captain, our inspiration and quite literally has dragged us all the way up the table.

Good day folks.

I would give you a plague update but I fear that using phrases/words like 'coughing up', 'festering' and 'redefine the colour green' aren't exactly pleasant first thing in the morning, Instead I shall crack on with what little there is terms of Arsenal news this morning.

We can start with Per Mertesacker and he's been talking about he needs time to really prove his worth.

Written by FatGingerGooner

With so much grief given out to our esteemed manager during pre season, and with another transfer window just around the corner, I thought it might be a good time to see how Wenger's apparent 'panic buys' have compared to the big money signings of some of our closest league rivals.

Written by FatGingerGooner

With so much grief given out to our esteemed manager during pre season, and with another transfer window just around the corner, I thought it might be a good time to see how Wenger's apparent 'panic buys' have compared to the big money signings of some of our closest league rivals.

Arsene Wenger has more than enough centre-backs this season after suffering with injury after injury in that department last year, but now the extras are being used to cover the wide defenders. When Arsenal played Dortmund on Wednesday Thomas Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker and Johann Djourou were all used during the 90 minutes.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and captain Robin van Persie have both emphasized that the Gunners' tremendous form to recover from a poor start to the season is a complete team effort.

Van Persie's prolific goal-scoring form has led many to frequently allude to Arsenal as a 'one-man' team and raise questions over the strength of the remainder of the squad.

Morning to you,

we're back into the swing of things now and there's Champions League action to look forward to this week, a crucial game against Borussia Dortmund that can ensure our qualifcation for the knock-out stages. For now though, the post-Norwich stuff continues with the manager feeling a lot better about the team.

Robin Van Persie grabbed all the headlines after his two goals gave the Arsenal a 2-1 win at Norwich and rightly so. Arsene Wenger also managed to garner quite a few column inches in the wake of the Premier League victory after his interview with L'Equipe in which he was less than convincing when it came to affirming his Arsenal future.

Denied again

That's our sixth consecutive Premier League win and unbeaten in the last 8 games. The win against Norwich puts us up to 6th position in the table, level on points with both Chelsea and Tottenham, albeit both have games in hand over us. On another day, this could've been a tennis score but it wasn't and ultimately a win was all that matters as we kept our good form going.

Arsenal claimed a fifth-straight Premier League victory after coming from behind to beat Norwich City 2-1 at Carrow Road.

Steve Morison gave the Canaries the lead against the run of play on 17 minutes after some lacklustre defending from Per Mertesacker, only for the Gunners to level just before the half-hour mark, predictably enough through Robin van Persie.

Robin van Persie, known fondly as Arsenal's captain 'vantastic', was once again the hero as the Gunners came from behind to win 2-1 against Norwich City at Carrow Road.

Van Persie struck near the half-hour mark to cancel out Steve Morison's 16th minute opening goal and then went on to score the decisive goal for Arsene Wenger's side at the hour-mark.

Robin van Persie, known fondly as Arsenal's captain 'vantastic', was once again the hero as the Gunners came from behind to win 2-1 against Norwich City at Carrow Road.

Van Persie struck near the half-hour mark to cancel out Steve Morison's 16th minute opening goal and then went on to score the decisive goal for Arsene Wenger's side at the hour-mark.

Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker confessed that it wasn't easy to leave Werder Bremen after five years but is now looking forward to a new challenge. Speaking to Arsenal Player, the Germany International explained that there were ...

Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker is determined to become one of the most important defenders for the Gunners. Speaking to Arsenal Player and asked if he can fill the shoes of the likes of Sol Campbell and ...

German coach Joachim Low : "You know Per, you're just like MAH SON here in the Mannschaft. We need to go on more fishing expeditions together." Per : "Oh really? I thought you were only interested in Blondes." (awkward silence) / via Bild

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After signing Per Mertesacker and being linked endlessly to Mario Gotze, Arsenal are now tipped to land another German the 23-year old winger Kevin Grosskreutz.

Grosskreutz, who is Gotze's teammate at Borussia Dortmund, guided his current team to the Bundesliga title with eight goals and seven assists last season.

The criticism of Arsène for trying to force square pegs into round holes has frequently been levelled over recent seasons. Bendtner, Eboue and Arshavin in particular have all been deployed in areas that would not be their first choice let alone the Championship Managers among us. The reason for this has generally been a lack of depth in the squad exacerbated by the perennial injury problems that have depleted us so cruelly at vital times.

Rare but deserved goal

If every match goes this way, we would all live a very long happy life. However, football and Arsenal in particular are not generally that nice to us or our hearts. Today, Arsenal won without much difficulties and without being overworked. There's one or two moments but hardly constituted as too much of a worry compared to other matches in the past.

Injuries permitting, these two will be taking a backseat

I had a topic in mind and was going to start writing today's post when a new tweet flashed on my tweetdeck. It was Arseblog and his Friday's post has already been up. The headlines tells me that I've got the same content in mind as what he wrote.

Friday again? How does this keep happening with such regularity? I don't quite know where this last year has gone. I just remembered this morning that it's just over a year since Arseblog came back under my total control, my despotic regime is progressing nicely with Commander Tom readying the technological weapons of war and .

One of the best players on the pitch on Tuesday night, Thomas Vermaelen is finally back after spending months on the sidelines with an injury. Speaking after the goalless draw at the Emirates Stadium, the Belgium ...

How are you feeling this morning?

Still glowing?

Yeah, me too.

We have kind of forgotten what it's like to enjoy a BIG win; a meaningful win; a surprise win against the odds.

Most of our surprises in the last six months have been nasty ones – the kind Mrs Gary Neville has every morning when she wakes up and sees who's beside her.

After a variable first couple of months for Arsenal, Per Mertesacker has seemingly turned a corner in terms of strengthening the backline, especially when partnered with Koscielny. He has faced some tough opposition, with the likes of Kevin Davies, Emmanuel Adebayor and Yakubu coming up against the German since August.

Hello there, time for a quick Saturday round-up for you.

Arsene's press conference took place yesterday and there was plenty to talk about with RVP, Mertesacker, right backs and even the Olympics on the agenda. We'll start with Robin though and there's the double-sided thing of wanting to rest a player who is playing most of our games, but the fact that said player is scoring most of our goals.

Arsenal skipper Robin van Persie has no doubts that despite the impending return of vice-captain Thomas Vermaelen and the continued development of summer signing Per Mertesacker, Frenchman Laurent Koscielny can go on to become a cornerstone of the club's defense based on recent performances.

Koscielny himself was a major summer acquisition last year but due to limited top-flight experience in France, it took some time for the 26-year old to adapt to English football.