Morning all.

I’m still in shock! Yaya Sanogo scored a hat-trick yesterday for Charlton. Thank goodness my local team Reading scored four. There’s no way I could have dealt with the stick from my family had his three goals won the game. Oh and don’t believe Micko when he say’s his Granny could score against Reading, remember how we huffed and puffed against them in the FA Cup last year….

Good for him though, scoring goals will do his confidence the world of good and who knows, there might be a striker in him after all. Charlton worked for Francis Coquelin, maybe the club will work wonders for our mega bucks French signing!

Back to reality- Leicester upped the stakes by winning yesterday. We dealt them a sucker punch last time out with a late goal, they did the same to Norwich so it’s back to a five point gap between them and us. City are involved in the Capital One Cup Final today and the Totts kick off at the same time as us – they face Swansea.

Today kicks off a run of tough fixtures. Arsene Wenger has said that this is the time to show our quality and Sir Chips has said we have enough in the squad to win the league. Well, something like that.

Arsene Wenger:

There is a perception that Arsenal fades in March and April. It is true we have lost the championship once or twice. But if you look over 20 years we have always finished stronger in the second part of the season.

What is different now is that on those occasions we were losing momentum. This time it’s the opposite We are chasing and gaining momentum.

He’s right, we’ve been at the top of the table before, only to fade away towards the end of the season, but this time, he and the players know they have to catch up. There’s something to fight for rather than something to cling onto and sometimes that can help a team.

Last season we came good around this time of the campaign and went on a winning run. Only a couple of bore draws and a defeat to Swansea ruined all of that just before the end of the season but we finished in style with a 4-1 defeat of WBA and a 4-0 thumping of Villa in the FA Cup Final.

Utd were one of the teams we drew against in May and that one was was at Old Trafford which is where Arsenal head to today to face a depleted and quite average Utd side. Rooney and Fellaini are definitely out as are Valencia, Schweinsteiger, Young and Shaw. Smalling, De Gea and Martial are doubts but I strongly suspect they’ll all start.

Oxlade-Chamberlain joins Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere and Tomas Rosicky on the injured list but Gabriel could be back which is good news.

I’ve no idea what to expect from this Arsenal side today as one day they can be great, the next, not so great. Scoring goals has been a problem and if the team go all gung ho again as they did against Barcelona, Utd will hurt us.

As the Champions League challenge looks over, if this group of players have anything about them, they’ll put all of their effort into the Premier League. A few need to work a lot harder for the team, one or two really need to find their form and if that happens, this team can be great again.

Arsenal need a big performance and if they remain to remain in with a chance of being crowned champions, they simply have to win today.

We battered them at home, so lets do the same away.

0-1 would do me though…. 😉

COYRRG’S!