Merry Christmas Everyone!

For one day we can put our differences aside so Merry Christmas from myself and the rest of Vital Blackburn

Burp ! well thanks i had a very good one and feel like a right turkey now, stuffed !!! merry crimbo one and all !

Merry Christmas to everyone at Vital Arsenal.

Merry Christmas to all at Vital from India!

Please lose .

Hope you guys all enjoyed a Merry Christmas, all stuffed, happy, recovering well from the hangover and set for the Portsmouth game. k_chelski, even your Chelsea guys didn't answer your Frank's rally cry. ("We are only six points behind and we have still got Arsenal, United and Liverpool to come to our place. Anything is still possible and that's the feeling we have. We now have to go on a real run of winning games - and none of them are going to be easy - and hope that then we'll have the big players coming back.") They even gave him a bonus of losing Carvalho and Cashley. Kind of feel sorry for the remaining backline in front of Cech just back from injury. If they didn't answer to Fat Frank, I don't think the Arsenal guys far out of London can hear your request at all. Here's to 3 points at Portsmouth guys! (Shouting as loudly as I can to the south now)

Yeah Rosicky almost scored on that one! And I wonder why Clichy chose to shoot instead of taking the free kick into the box for tall guys like Bendtner to try and head it in. Though a bit too late, I still hope/think Bendtner can make a difference.

Please we need a bit of magic there!!

I really feel like we lost.

You were watching a re-run of a game from last season, it's not the real thing.

I dont like to critcize AW but why do you only give Nik 10 mins. This 4-5-1 isnt working. It puts off the balance of the arsenal way. The only really good football we have played using the 4-5-1 this season is the Liverpool game. Please have RVP back for the Everton game. And what a miss by Rosicky at the very end. He hit it with the inside of the foot instead of striking it.

yeah gunnerkid, i dont like to critize wenger too much either, he doesnt get many things wrong, but today proved that he is also human

What a sad boxing day! I hope things work for us on saturday

Oh yes Louisa, it was a chilla , thrilla and a killa, when we drew at the Bridge, against Aston Villa.

4-4-2 is the way to go against Everton otherwise we aint winning too. Hleb looked lost today and Fabregas wasn't serious, played like he was in training.

I'm sorry.. but where was Van Persie tonight? Where was he in the weekend? Has he got injured again.. I really didn't understand why Wenger went in with the same 11 during mid week.. it really didn't make sense to me unless somebody was injured. Now, we've gotta go to Everton and win, which is a very very tough game.. considering we've lost the last 2 games against them at Goodison Park. I just don't understand why AW didn't look to take the game to Pompey a bit more.. at times, it seemed as if we were content getting a 0-0.. until Gallas and Rosicky got their chances. Adebayor was poor as well.. he was totally missing today. It was truly a 'not so good' boxing day for us..

Since that Villa game of 2 halves ("brilliance and resilience" in that order), we've been using our resilience and grit and riding on our luck a little bit to win/draw games; the brilliance has just appeared in patches, don't you think?

to throw in a different idea, i dont mean to be offensive, but arsnal arnt playing great at the moment. Arsne Wengers jibes at pompey wernt particually fair, if you look at how we have played in the past, and i think he was just looking for excuses. Pompey are also going through a bad run - being wipped by liverpool (who insedentally also only got a draw, as did man u). Pompeys Home form has been pretty good of late, and only 1 goal has actually been scored since the 7-4 game - so to be perectly honest, it was expected. Cesc being off the boil was also no surprise, as we have 3 hard men in midfield, and muntari in particlar has a habit of making opositions star men disapear (ronaldo had no infulence against us at all). Good luck for the rest of the season, hope you win the title (cos we wont) and HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

Fran, I sadly feel the same. And ManU look like they just won't drop points, all other teams (including us) could one way or another. And they won't be affected by ACN at all, sigh. I'm honestly not worried about others as Chelsea still have to suffer without Carvalho and Cashley for 3 games and Cech's not at his best at all, even though their Sheva is finally finding some form. But ManU just don't seem likely to slip up, except for some injury crisis. I feel we need to keep winning to stay in touch, but to keep winning looks tough now.

and i'm not sounding defeated.. i'm just being a realist.. however, i wont be surprised if we return to the summit this saturday.. west ham can be a potential banana skin to united, but we need to be at our absolute best to return with 3 points from goodison park.. l'pool and united hv done that, no reason to think we wont

Where is the belief fellow gooners??we are going to win the league dont you worry about that just need to stay within striking distance HAVE FAITH

Stukazufuss Dudu wasnt in the squad. And highmark998 I am very optimistic. I was just saying that when we've been without RVP the formation of 4-5-1 just hasnt worked out. Ade is just too isolated.

I think we can all agree that 4-5-1 is not working, it leaves Ade too exposed and with his poor control it leads to too many lost opportunities. Also Hleb and Cesc are really playing poor at the moment and i think that is really hurting us.

This really wasn't such a bad point, Pompey is a very tough place to go and they made it very difficult for us, credit to them they played very well. We earned the right to play and matched them physically, its astounding when you compare the size of Flamini to the size of Bouba Diop, but the Flamster matched him for muscle. Cesc lacks some sharpness at the moment and our passing isn't quite as crisp, but even so a point at Fratton Park is not so bad. What we are seeing now is a role reversal of early season, when we were flying and United weren't playing so well but clinging on in there (for instance, United drew at Fratton Park in August). I can't agree that the hunger wasn't there, we battled well and Pompey created zilcho, my only gripe is that we persisted with one upfront for so long when Ade needed more help. Once again, Bendtner came on and made something happen and Rosicky's miss at the end is scarsely forgiveable, it was a terrible finish and one that cost us. All through the game I was thinking a point was a decent result, but Rosicky's miss skewed that a bit. I know it's disappointing not to be top now, but no prizes are handed out in December and if we're one point behind United in April then its really all hands to the pump. Credit to United, they're playing brilliantly right now, but they'll drop points again. Who had them down to lose at Bolton?

and i'm not being harsh on Clichy here, but his crossing is very poor, and his decision making in attacking positions is not upto the mark. how many assists has he had this season compared to Sagna or any other leftback in the league. he is a bundle of energy and defends really well, but when he finds himself in a good attacking position, he seems to lack ideas and misplaces his passes. this is where Ashley Cole was a lot better than Clichy in the attacking part of the game..

luckys i think criticism of eboue is a bit harsh...i mean he was the one goin past people...he got into very gud positions..its jus that we r lacking some luck....the reason bendtner dint play was maybe cuz he plye 25 minutes the oher and 120 bfore that and 45 bfore that...so it was my blief that wenger dint want t o overstrain him......where the ***** is RVP.....seriously ne of u guys got ne news on him...........another thing i think diaby shud satrt the next game he gives us somethin different...so shud bendtner...its time for a bit of rotation me thinks.....p.s. rosicky looks gud now...shame that he dint score but it was awfully close though....is gallas by ne nchance injured?