A Mini Comeback

It is sad when you have to miss something that you love doing, but that the way life goes.

I have missed blogging five Arsenal matches and during the stretch Arsenal have lost their unbeaten record both in all competitions and also in the Premier League.

Many Gooners would have felt confident of taking three points at the Riverside on the weekend but Middlesbrough have this habit of doing the unexpected against Arsenal. Remember the defeat a couple of seasons ago, they were also on a bad run with Nigerian striker Benny Yakubu was yet to score since arriving from Portsmouth.

What happened? He broke the scoring duck with two goals in a 2-1 win and Arsenal left the North East empty handed, despite controlling much of the match.

However, the present crop of players in my opinion have much more resilience thus would be able to comeback from this bad patch starting with a win against Steaua Bucharest at the Emirates.

Manager Arsene Wenger had decided to start with Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann in goal which I believe a good thing to do. In a way, I sympathise with the big German as he needs quality playing time in order to keep his place in his national squad for the European Championship next year.

With Manuel Almunia playing well so far the best way for Lehmann to get first team action is to go on loan during the January transfer window, perhaps to one of the Bundesliga clubs, though this would mean a big dent to his massive ego.

Finishing second in the group would probably a good thing as a draw against Europe big guns would see Arsenal raising their game, especially against teams that would go on a winter break.

We thought the passage to the quarter-finals would be clear when drawing PSV Eindhoven last season but in the end we could not raise our game to the necessary level in order to progress all the way in the Champions' League.

Things would look more settled after the Steaua match which would be nice in order to be totally focused for the big task at the weekend, a match that could see the Premier League race being blown wide open or us pulling away from the chasing pack.

Of course, I prefer the latter.

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