Carlos Vela scored a goal for Mexico against New Zealand midweek, but also went off injured.

Burnley’s Leon Cort has said that his team won’t be holding back on us because of the Aaron Ramsey injury.

Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted we are serious title contenders.

Denilson and Andrey Arshavin are expected to be back for tomorrow, while Alex Song is suspended.

Match report to follow tomorrow.

Have your say on today’s links by leaving a comment.

Tomas Rosicky has voiced his support for the Welshman in this interview as well making a request that technical sides get the protection they deserve from referees. It is a sentiment I tend to agree with.

Meanwhile Thomas Vermaelen has joined Nicklas Bendtner in proclaiming that they and the rest of the team will be doing everything possible to win the league title in memory of for Ramsey. Two seasons ago we fell apart under the misguided captaincy of William Gallas, but the feeling I get is that things will be different this time around. I think Ramsey’s injury will prove the inspiration for a extremely strong title chance and I expect us to be in with a shot right up to the last fixture.

One of the harsh realities of Ramsey’s injury dawned on me today with the news that Arsene Wenger may look to Juventus midfielder Felipe Melo as a replacement. He’s had a fairly awful time in Italy with a team that has had a rubbish season, yet it’s clear from these comments that our manager still considers him to be a decent prospect. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see how things pan out this summer, particularly if Melo has a good World Cup performance with Brazil.

To end today’s rather scattershot round-up is the news from Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis that the club will be bringing back ‘Clock End’ to Emirates Stadium. A heart-felt reminder of our tradition or a tacky gimmick? You decide.

Right, I’m off to watch Australia play Indonesia for a place in the Asian Cup. Should be a good one.

Thoughts?

Have your say on winning it for Ramsey, Melo, or the return of Clock End by leaving a comment.

“I’m very happy to actually maybe see the end of the tunnel now because it has been a rough route, it has been very hard with ups and downs. But I am working hard to get back on the field. Hopefully in a month and a half I will be back training. I had a good pre-season and for me it was very hard to take when I heard the news that I had to have an operation and it would take that long. But I think I will come back stronger because I have learned a lot.”

Back in training in a month-and-a-half with a wicked new hairdo – what’s not to like?!

Thoughts?

Have your say on Johan Djourou’s injury by leaving a comment.

I feel like I still need one more day to organise my thoughts before I come up with a detailed entry in tomorrow’s post.

In the meantime I highly recommend that you check out the following link of Sky Sports Sunday Supplement discussion featuring among others, Times journalist Patrick Barclay.

LINK HERE

The panel of four produce a superb discussion about the Aaron Ramsey incident and the current state of unacceptable aggression in the English game, with Barclay in particular shining bright with his measured, accurate assessment of who is to blame for the occurrence of these sort of injuries.

The video is a little over 11 minutes long but is essential viewing for anyone who wants a thoughtful approach above the ridiculous frenzy of the English tabloids.

Thoughts?

Have your say on the Aaron Ramsey incident by leaving a comment.

A trip to Stoke is of course on the agenda but we’re yet to hear from Arsene Wenger regarding player availability or any of the players regarding Wenger availability.

It’s eerily quiet at the moment, a bit like that time in the N64 game Lylat Wars where Peppy declares to Fox, “It’s quiet. Too quiet!” before a fleet of baddies launches an epic attack. Except in our case the fleet of baddies will be a group of Stoke thugs and Peppy is Sol Campbell. Or something.

I managed to catch Inter Milan’s 2-1 win over Chelsea this morning and quite enjoyed the game. Diego Milito scored a typically ghost-like goal before doing nothing else in the 90 minutes while Julio Cesar, the best goalkeeper in the world, let a Solomon Kalou shot slip through his fingers. Esteban Cambiasso got the winner but I think the damage is done, Chelsea will get through and European glory will once again evade the best team in Italy.

The most interesting moment of the match from an Arsenal perspective was the injury suffered by Petr Cech. Under no pressure at all he seemed to tweak something in his knee, however the verdict from Chelsea is that it is a calf problem and he may be out for some time.

Hilario looked pretty shaky when he went on and if I’m being honest, I’d rather Lukasz Fabianski in goals than the 56-year-old Portuguese man. He’ll get a baptism of fire against Manchester City on the weekend and if the Sky Blues are smart, they’ll make sure he has plenty of work to do.

Just a quick Robin van Persie update before I go.

Dutch national team manager Bert van Marwijk has said that he expects van Persie to be playing games at the beginning of April. He’ll obviously need a fair bit of time to get back to fitness but I see no reason why he couldn’t play a significant part in the latter stages of the Champions League, or give us a final push at the end of the Premier League season should we still be in the race.

Which would be most welcome indeed.

Thoughts?

Have your say on Chelsea’s goalkeepers, Robin van Persie or Lylat Wars by leaving a comment.

Alex Song and Manuel Almunia are available again, while Abou Diaby is disappointingly omitted having sustained a medial knee ligament injury against Porto. He joins William Gallas, Andrey Arshavin and Eduardo and the long-termers on the injury table.

While Song will undoubtedly return to the starting team the manager has a difficult decision to make regarding Almunia. Should he come straight in or should Lukasz Fabianski, who had an absolute shocker against Porto, be given another chance to prove himself. The suggestion is that Almunia’s hand is not yet at 100% so there’s still a decent chance it will be Fabianski.

The rest of the team picks itself, although I would like to see Aaron Ramsey play in place of Denilson and perhaps Emmanuel Eboue, who appears to be in decent form of late, to come in on the right side of attack. His pace would be a welcome change to the less speedy Samir Nasri and Tomas Rosicky and assuming the Czech’s body is holding up OK I think Nasri should be the one who makes way.

Sunderland have not won in 12 games and we should beat them tonight. Three points are vital to keep our chase on Chelsea and Manchester United going and I can’t really see a good reason why we shouldn’t win the match.

Come on you GOOONERS!

Thoughts?

Have your say on Arsenal’s clash with Sunderland by leaving a comment.

Injuries meant the team I predicted yesterday started as Denilson slotted in for Alex Song, Samir Nasri and Tomas Rosicky supported Nicklas Bendtner up front and crucially, Sol Campbell and Lukasz Fabianski replaced William Gallas and Manuel Almunia.

This was a game dominated by four incidents: Porto’s opener, Campbell’s equaliser, the missed penalty and the winning goal.

Porto’s opening goal was officially credited to Silvestre Varela but made possible a horrible goalkeeping mistake by Lukasz Fabianski. Gael Clichy could have done a lot better to prevent Varela getting in his cross but this was bread and butter for a goalkeeper with as much talent and ambition as he has.

With our boys rocking we excellently found a way back into the game through Campbell’s thumping header. It was a great moment for the player, made possible by his determination and self-belief and a clever setup by Rosicky. The goal calmed our team, so much so that we had the better of the first half – going close from a Rosicky belter and a Bendtner header – and began the second in a good position.

Abou Diaby was having a marauding game in the centre of the park as Cesc Fabregas was cut down every time he touched the ball. But with the away goal under our belts and Porto getting in behind our wingbacks too frequently, Wenger appeared to ask Diaby to sit deeper to help out the defence. The move essentially backfired as Denilson once again failed to assert himself and Porto went on to win the game.

It may have been a different if Rosicky wasn’t denied the clearest of penalties.

I said a few weeks ago that I was starting to get sick of continuously being denied penalties, but this was the worst so far this season. After beating his marker Rosicky was clearly brought down while he attempted to cross the ball, yet the referee inexplicably waved play-on. It was unfair, ridiculous, preposterous and begs the question: when will referees forget about the Eduardo incident against Celtic and just make the decisions regarding our club based on what is in front of them?

Somewhat inevitably we were punished for that error, even if the manner in which it happened was anything but.

Under little pressure from a Porto attacker a miscommunication between Campbell and Fabianski saw the defender make the softest of back-passes that the goalkeeper instinctively collected. The referee justifiably blew the whistle, demanded the ball back off Fabianski, handed it to one of the Porto attackers and he quickly passed to Falcao who sidefooted into an effectively empty net. It was a shocking moment, eventually made worse by the hope that the goal would be chalked off but wasn’t, and one that has put the tie back into Porto’s favour.

The first thing that needs to be said regarding the goal was that the referee was not to blame. It was a clear backpass, the attacking team should in no way be asked to wait for the defending team to organise for a free-kick and they are well within their rights to take it early. For someone who promotes attacking football, Arsene Wenger’s bizarre suggestion that it should not have been able to be taken quickly was nothing but hypocritical nonsense.

So who was to blame?

It would be easy to blame Fabianski completely but I feel a large part of the responsibility also lies with Campbell. Before the defender makes his microscopic touch the goalkeeper is gesturing quite clearly that he wants to collect the ball, so Campbell’s decision to make contact was a poor one. There’s no denying that the goalkeeper should have reacted by hacking the ball into touch but if Campbell can make an instinctive error to make contact then surely it’s easy to see how Fabianski could do the same by picking up the ball?

Perhaps the hardest thing to swallow was the naivety shown by Fabianski to simply hand the ball the referee. Again this was something of an instinctive decision but he should have punted it into touch before he considered giving it to the referee. Harsh, I know, but these are the sort of moments that provide stark reminders that we continue to lack the mean streak which is so necessary to win titles.

The remainder of our second-half performance was poor as we never really recovered from the second goal. Campbell’s header provided the perfect tonic to Fabianski’s early blunder but a second mistake was just too much for the team. Diaby and Rosicky faded, Fabregas continued to be chopped down every time he got the ball and our only real chance to score came late on as substitute Emmanuel Eboue’s cross for our captain was agonisingly cut out by a Porto defender.

I feel there were some big questions that came out of this game. Is 2-1 a good result? Can we turn it around in the second leg? And perhaps most importantly, what are we going to do about our goalkeepers both now and for next season?

The first two questions are relatively straightforward. No, this wasn’t a good result. A draw or a win would have been a good result and to lose in Porto in the manner we did was nothing to be happy about.

However, we can certainly still win this tie. We will likely have Alex Song and Andrey Arshavin back for the return-leg and even without that pair we have a team good enough to do the job. The first goal will certainly be important but Porto are notoriously bad travellers in Europe and with our home form as good as any side in the Champions League you have to fancy our chances. In my eyes there was nothing to suggest that Porto are unbeatable and I fully expect us to get the job done, even if we do it by the skin of our teeth.

The goalkeeper situation is a complex one and I basically have two suggestions as to what Wenger should do.

The first suggestion is to maintain Manuel Almunia as first-choice until the end of the season, before selling him and and spending decent money on a top-class goalkeeper to go straight into the team. He would then be backed up by Fabianski, Vito Mannone and the apparently awesome Wojciech Szczesny.

The second suggestion is to play Fabianski for the rest of the season. If he performs well keep him on as first-choice for next season and sell Almunia, if not, sell both goalkeepers and go with the plan above.

This might sound crazy after last night’s game but I honestly feel Fabianski could develop into a top class goalkeeper if given a decent run in the team as opposed to facing high-pressure games in fits and starts. It appears that every time he pulls on the Arsenal goalkeeping shirt he is putting too much pressure on himself and it is having a negative impact on his performances.

Perhaps he would do better if the manager pulled Fabianski aside and told him that he’s giving him the opportunity to prove himself this season. It could be argued that it might add MORE pressure on his shoulders, but I feel that a continued run in the team would give him the time to make his mark.

The risk with the second plan is that Fabianski could completely implode and cost us games. But I think that is a risk worth taking, particularly considering the alternatives. Personally I would keep him in.

Anyway, something to chew on after a tough night in Portugal.

Thoughts?

Have your say on Arsenal’s 2-1 loss to Porto by leaving a comment.

Already denied the services of Andrey Arshavin and Alex Song, our team has now been robbed of William Gallas, Eduardo and Manuel Almunia due to respective calf, hamstring and hand injuries.

While Eduardo’s absence shouldn’t affect the result too much, Gallas’ problem will see Sol Campbell drafted into the starting line-up, which should be novel if nothing else. Campbell was brought back to the club with this sort of situation in mind so there’s no real reason why he shouldn’t be able to get the job done. Away legs tend to be more about away goals rather than clean sheets but Thomas Vermaelen alongside Campbell a shutout remains achievable.

Denilson should step in for Alex Song, one of Tomas Rosicky or Samir Nasri for Arshavin while Lukasz Fabianski has been given a huge opportunity to stake his claim as a potential first-choice goalkeeper after the injury to Almunia.

The Polish goalkeeper recently spoke of his frustration at being unavailable and unable to capitalise when Almunia had his early season wobbles (which haven’t really stopped, mind you) so I’m sure he will be fired up to make the most of this opportunity. He’s unlikely to receive the aerial bombardment of a typical Premier League game and like Denilson, appears to me to be a player that might perform better in European competition. I am keen to see how he performs.

Despite the injuries it has to be said that we have a strong team and one that is capable of not only holding Porto at their home ground, but going there and winning. Nicklas Bendtner’s return to the team has given us a focal point while Abou Diaby and Cesc Fabregas, our two creative midfielders, are in excellent form at the moment. We might be missing five players but we’re still looking good.

It’s worth keeping in mind that if tonight turns out to be a disaster, with the second leg three weeks away we are likely to have a number of players back to try and overturn any deficit. Recent history might suggest that we will probably be without MORE players for that leg but I’m sure you get the point.

European football is back and I’m excited. Come on Arsenal!

Thoughts?

Have your say on Arsenal’s trip to Porto by leaving a comment.

The agenda for this week sees the away leg of our Champions League Round of 16 clash with FC Porto followed by a home game in the league against Sunderland. They are two games that probably sit in the medium-hard difficulty ranking but nevertheless two games that we need to produce good results in.

Three points against Sunderland on Saturday are a must while a point in Portugal could probably be considered a good result. Not that we won’t want to see our boys take a lead back to The Emirates for the return leg in three weeks time.

Usually second round Champions League games are played a week apart but for various reasons UEFA have decided to stretch the games over a longer period. How it might affect things I really don’t know, but there is little doubt we have a superior team to Porto and should qualify through the quarter-finals.

Having said that, Porto are a side that continue to defy the odds on the European stage and very nearly knocked Manchester United out of the competition last time around, so we need to be careful. Unsurprisingly, the manager agrees.

There has been no team news released over the weekend but the fallout from the Liverpool game all but confirmed the absences of Andrey Arshavin and Alex Song with respective hamstring and knee problems. The extent of both players injuries are unknown at this stage – although neither are expected to be serious – but both players will be sorely missed.

Arseblogger suggested that Arshavin’s absence might allow recharge his batteries and come back stronger, but I think he’s actually been playing quite well and would have been relishing the opportunity to play his first knockout game ever for the club. Meanwhile Song has been a colossus for us this season and whoever comes in to cover him – most likely Denilson – will have their work cut out to cover his absence.

In other news around the traps Arsene Wenger has praised Abou Diaby for his recent form, stating that he has “become a very strong player”. I don’t think anyone would disagree.

His development this season has been superb and he has deservedly become a favourite of the Arsenal supporters. He brings with him pace, power and physical presence as well as a natural goal threat that many of our midfielders lack. Indeed, his performances have been so good this season that he has become first choice ahead of Denilson, with the manager going for Diaby, Song and Cesc Fabregas as the midfield trio when they are all available.

Anyway, I might leave it there for today. More tomorrow.

Have your say on all things Arsenal by leaving a comment.

I’ll speak to you on Monday and in the meantime – enjoy your weekend.

Cheers.