I wouldn't be surprised to see Jack on the bench against Milan.

Don't know if he'll start the 1st leg, but if all goes to plan he should be right for the 2nd leg.

Sagna will also be back for the Milan games. Gibbs will be back in a week, and if he can stay fit, I know it's a massive if, but if he can it will offset the loss of Santos a bit.

i would be delighted to see gibbs back if he stays fit for that long, also feel for squillaci he was great in la liga with sevilla but the premiership found his weak spots

Massive game this evening...

Man City are fallible but we absolutely need to be 100% across the board. Sze...(chesny), needs to out play Joe Hart, Arteta needs to play his best game for the Gunners and Ramsay needs to stay in the game for the full 90 (not drift in and out as he has occassionaly). Gervinho must take on Richards and pin him back, similarly Walcott is our best outlet down the right up against out of position Zabaletta. RvP and Song as you were.

Tossing up between Jenkinson or Djourou or Jenkinson and Djourou without Per.

The likely team:

-------------Szeszny
Djourou---Per------Kos----TV5)
--------------Song
-------Arteta-----Ramsay
Walcott------------------Gervinho
---------------RvP

I wonder if Nasri will want to get off the pitch again after 25 mins. Maybe find a role for frimpong to rough him up a bit...!

Massive game tonight I can't wait. I'm actually optimistic that we'll get a result. But we can't have any passengers. My one worry is how Djourou is going to cope with Aguero..

Could be interesting to see whether the utd result could mentally affect city one way or the other

I think Nasri will be on the bench

Frustrating game to watch but I'm sure it would of been pretty good for a neutral.
We created enough chances to get something out of the game which is frustrating but this game is all about taking your chances.and tbf to city, they missed a few aswell. I think we lacked a bit of composure and sharpness in the final third, but was still pleasing to see that we were able to cause city a few problems.
Couple of other things:
Arshavin needs to go,seriously what was that?
Walcott went missing pretty much the whole time he was on.
Koscielny was immense,as was TV5
Miquel seemed quite nervous which suprised me a bit as I thought he played well against city in the CC.
Wouldnt of complained if we got that penalty :p but it could of gone either way imo.

So proud of the boys once again. Just not our day infront of goal. Defensively I thought, apart from the goal , we were very good as a unit. We are much more of a team this season than I can remember for a long time.

If we can keep up performances like these I won't have to many major worries about making the top 4.

Also just a special mention to Thomas Vermaelen and Laurent Koscielny. Just wow. Absolute rocks, especially Koscielny in that first half, nothing short of fucking outstanding.

Proud as punch! Yes we conceeded but hell defensively we were strong, also es was sO damn quiet until they scored and they tried to drown us out :lol:

Lads did well, but the game pointed out the obvious, Arshavin and chamakh arent players you can bring on when chasing a game. Look at the rumours, I'd rather have had Reus and/or Podolski coming on, they would at least add something.

:lol:

Bin Laden was a gooner, Gadaffi was supposed to be a liverpool fan, but I heard he was Arsenal too!

Other evil gooners that Ramsey will probably kill are: Fidel Castro, the Queen, Carlos the Jackal, the Rwandan President.
All are likely to snuff it at any stage in the near future.

There's only one Aaron Ramsey!

Kim Jong Il was a Man City fan then?

Gibbs suffers yet another injury setback in his recovery, why am I not surprised.

In good news, Zenit have confirmed their interest in Arshavin.

Shit performance, great win.

Few tired performances from the likes of Ramsey and Gervinho. THink Ramsey definitely needs a rest, I'd give Rosicky a go in his place.

Also think if we don't buy someone, Yossi should definitely be starting in Gervinho's place during the ACN. Think Frimpong needs to go on loan, really poor tonight.

Great to get the win. Not a great performance, but once again this season when it went to 1-1 I had that feeling that we'd still get up and win, a feeling that of course I didn't always have last season.

Also, what a stupid desiscion to book Robin for what was supposedly a dive.

:lol: That was fucking horrible. Don't know how on earth the referee got a yellow card for RvP out of that. If anything it should've been a penalty, if not just play on.

Would also like to thank Alan Hutton for bringing the funnies :lol:

Even I have to admit that was a horrible decision on RVP. Clear pen.

BUT

I can see the way the ref saw it, in RVP diving into the challenge, but the ref was wrong, even if he continued running he was going to be fouled.

Hutton, what an A Class dickhead. Im sure it doesn't have anything whatsoever to do with where he came from...

It really looked like Villa applied just enough pressure at times to break up the passing game (which for periods became non existent), that and a few tired players. Could have been a much different result otherwise. Good to see Mertersacker almost get one in. Rare mistake for Vermaelen in the lead up to the goal but he played a decent game otherwise. Thankyou Benayoun, its great to get that service off the bench late in the game!

He didnt really play for the contact... cant understand how he could interpret a yellow at all...

Hutton... think he got a 2nd yellow? but it should have been a straight red

What'd Hutton do?

http://watchhighlightsonline.blogspot.com/2011/12/video-hutton-tackle-on-vermaelen-2.html

And that was a minute after he fouled Van Persie and then got into a shoving match with Benayoun. Absolute tosser, it's no wonder Villa fans don't want him anywhere near the side.

Once a Hun, always a Hun.

Was pretty hilarious just watching him have some sort of mental break down in the space of a minute :lol:

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-i-ll-take-time-over-henry-decision

Go on then Mr Wenger, please, sign him up!

Henry will be a last resort. As great as it would be to have Titi back, I'd much rather buy a long term back up to Robin, but if we can't get one in January I'd be more than happy to take Thierry on loan, and I think he'd find it very hard to turn it down if Wenger asked.

Hoping to be top 4 by the morning

Team for tonight:

Team in full: Szczesny, Djourou, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Song, Arteta, Rosicky, Benayoun, Van Persie, Gervinho.

Subs: Almunia, Miquel, Coquelin, Arshavin, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Chamakh.

Walcott out due to 'illness'.

Well... that's annoying.