Starting eleven vs Villa

So here it is: Fabianski, Sagna, Squillaci, Koscielny, Clichy, Rosicky, Song, Wilshere, Nasri, Chamakh, Arshavin Subs: Szczesny, van Persie, Walcott, Denilson, Djourou, Gibbs, Bendtner

Not the eleven I would have selected but then I am not the Arsenal manager. Will we have enough width and will we be exploited in our sweet centre? I hope not and am looking forward to being proven wrong, fingers crossed.

Half time update vs Villa

The line-up was typically unpredictable, especially given an injury to Johan Djourou in the warm up. It meant that Toure came in to partner Gallas, Silvestre replaced Clichy, while Eboue played on the right of midfield, Diaby slotted in behind a lone striking RVP.

Villa started the stronger and dominated the first half hour, we rode our luck and somehow the score remained nil nil. Sidwell rattled the woodwork from a corner, Young's deflected effort forced a magnificent Almunia save, Davies hit the cross bar with a great chip despite being offside, then Milner forced another outstanding save from Almunia.

Toure was looking decidedly shaky in his first game back for a while, every clearance was weak and went straight to a Villa player. Young's pace and trickery was causing us problems, as well as his excellent whipped deliveries from the left wing. We were also guilty of fat too many loose passes and being too weak when holding the ball up.

It was appropriate that our bright spark of the half, Denilson, was the man to break the deadlock. He won a loose ball on the edge of the box and calmly slotted the ball low with his left foot pass the bald Friedel. There was still time for another Villa chance, as Sagna did brilliantly to clear a goal bound Villa header off the line after Almunia had flapped.

If we are to bring anything away from this game we'll need to defend a hell of a lot better than we did in the first half. Losing Song with an injury is also a blow, time for young Aaron Ramsey to step up on his 18th birthday.

Not a complete disaster

Bendtner's last minute goal may be crucial come the end of the season, and salvaging a last minute draw feels so much better than losing at home. Our morale would really have suffered if we'd followed on from last weekend's controversial events, when we deserved all three points, with nulle point at the Emirates. I do like to be positive.

As Arsene says it was a bit of a hungover performance, it was by no means a dreadful performance, but our standards are pretty high these days, so mediocrity can sometimes appear worse than it really is when put alongside excellence. Theo is not the finished article yet and who would expect him to be at 18 years old, but he has developed well this season.

Villa are a very decent side and have some real pace on the counter attack, they are certainly no push over. While our squad is not quite as strong as that of our challengers, we have also been rather unfortunate with injuries with Toure, Eduardo, Rosicky, Van Persie all spending considerable time in the treatment room. We also were not at the top of our game, I am sure a mixture of emotional fatigue following Eduardo's injury and the disappointment of conceding the dodgy last minute McFadden penalty contributed to this. These are not excuses, and we cannot perform at this level regularly if we are to win the league this season.

A special mention should go to Manuel Almunia who had an excellent game, making a couple of sterling saves that kept the score at 1-0, when 2-0 would have been a step too far. Manchester United are not going to drop many points between now and the end of the season, so we'll have to sharpen up if the league is going to return to its rightful location. Milan will be a much tougher game and a performance like this repeated will undoubtedly see us knocked out of the champions league. Big Phil will need to up his game, and we must keep things tight at the back, as an early Milan goal would be a disaster.