Shame on you if you didn’t catch her debut last weekend, LadyArse returns with this weeks instalment…

It was a strange week for Arsenal fans. With no mid-week match, all we had to entertain ourselves with was the protracted transfer of Arsenal old boy Sol Campbell. In becoming Arsene’s first ever ‘re-signing,’ he also becomes only the fifth player in Arsenal’s history to resign for the club.

Opinion regarding his return is divided, but the fact is that Arsenal are desperately shallow in cover for our centre-halves, and if you ask most who they would prefer between Campbell and Silvestre, there is only one winner. In fact, should we never see Silvestre in an Arsenal shirt again many would be extremely delighted.

Just to balance out the signing of a 35 year old, Wenger thought it best that he signs another kid and that came in the form of 17-year-old wonder-kid Gallindo who will go straight out on loan so Arsenal fans will have to wait another season or two before seeing if he really is a wonder.

Heading in to Sunday’s match against Bolton we knew that the teams above us had gained maximum points while the pretenders to the throne (Spurs, Villa, Man City, and Liverpool) all dropped some so a win was a ‘must-get.’

Bolton didn’t make it easy, and it was slightly sickening to hear their Neanderthal fans singing ‘same old Arsenal, always cheating’ as they set about kicking us off the park. In the end, the pure class of Cesc and his mates outshone, but had Bolton brought their shooting boots with them it could have been a very different story. Luckily for us they had their clodhopper boots on instead.

They could point to their atrocious finishing, but we could point to the two stonewall penalties we didn’t get for fouls on Cesc. The penalty embargo, it seems, is back in place. Sod them, we don’t need your fucking penalties to win a game. Hell, we don’t even need a centre-forward to be the league’s top scorers. Soon we’ll be playing without a keeper. Would anyone notice?

The difference was Cesc. Pure and simple. Alan Davies and his mates call him Jesus, and he’s the closest thing this planet is ever going to see to that mythical character. The way he creates space amongst chaos, his composure in front of goal, his assists, his vision (at times coming from the back of his head), and his commitment to the cause must surely make him one of, if not the, best midfielder in the world at the minute.

We can cope without Cesc or without Song, but without both of them we do tend to find ourselves struggling slightly. I will, however, point out for the thousandth fucking time, that we also have had most of our other players out, have no recognised centre-forward, lost most of our midfield, and have been playing for a large part of the season with our third choice left-back. Let me list them for you: VP, Cesc, Theo, Clichy, Gibbs, Denilson, Ramsey, Djourou, Rosicky, Nasri, Diaby, Eduardo, Vela. All of these have missed many, many matches, and I’m sure I’ve missed some from the list, such is the volume of players I’m trying to remember. We have sat top of the injury league all season. We have also played more games without Cesc and VP than Liverpool have played without Torres and Gerrard. Do you ever hear Wenger moaning about injuries a la Rafa? Do you hear the press making excuses for us the way they did when Man U had most of their defence out? Don’t be so bloody stupid. And yes, I will keep harping on about it until it’s actually acknowledged.

Let there be no doubt about this, we would have lost this game last year, and the year before. But we held strong, though at times I have no idea how. Vermaelen was immense and Kevin Davies didn’t get a sniff of anything other than the grass as Vermaelen planted him on his arse more often than not. You, Kevin my son, were owned by the Verminator. Don’t fucking forget it.

Clichy made his long-awaited return, on the left-side of midfield to give the industrious Rosicky a rest, while Craig Eastmond got his league debut as we lost Nasri to a hamstring. Or ninja. No-one is quite sure.

Next up, it’s Bolton again, but this time it’s in our backyard and I doubt we’ll give them as much space as they somehow found today. Win by two clear goals and we go top of the league, albeit having played a game more, and that, my friends, will be a very sweet feeling indeed.

Keeping Bolton in the bottom three will just be an added bonus.

Bring ‘em on!

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