Securing fourth is the challenge for Arsenal now

The critics were well and truly back out after the Swansea result in midweek. A 2-2 draw is useless to our chances of contending for the title. These are the games you don't drop points in if you're a side who really believe.

This season, like usual, we have missed several key figures currently Walcott, Koscielny, Wilshere, Ramsey and we no real recognised striker to back up Giroud, with Podolski playing on the wing.

I know Podolski was injured earlier in the season but now he is back and fit Wenger needs to have him as a starting player. Likewise I say the same for Flamini. Phil Thompson on Soccer Saturday this afternoon emphasised this point, with Flamini being our only midfielder who gets stuck in, breaks up play and can build from midfield. He is the kind of player we need more of, and for me, should be in contention for team captain over Vermaelen or Arteta.

I hold the view, sorry Arsene, that we are out of the title race. Will we get lucky and see the others drop points over the next couple of weeks? I can't see it at the moment; they are the sides who don't drop points when it matters. We are out of the title race and even chasing for fourth could be difficult with Everton playing well. It will be a huge game when we play them soon.

It's been a topsy turvy season when you consider the style of football we were playing, winning dirty too against sides, and being top at Christmas.

We really need more players in the summer and Wenger has to be much more tougher in his approach to getting big players.

But if we aren't going to bring in a new attacker (rumoured to be interested in Mandzukic though he'll probably prefer joining Chelsea) then we need another winger maybe as well as defensive midfielder (Bender maybe?) and right back, if not another decent centre back! Not too much to ask for.

If we are going to win anything now it's the FA Cup, but I don't even hold much confidence of beating Wigan in the semis now. If you're going to the games though don't boo the players. Things have turned on its head but they need support of the fans to keep going. And they will need all the help they can get against rampant City this evening.

Arsenal's season looks ready to crash and burn

So game number 1000 turned out to be one that Arsene Wenger will never forget - but for all the wrong reasons!

For us it was another thumping by a big side which pretty much says clear as daylight that we aren't exactly one of those.

It reminded me of the Liverpool game as we quickly saw ourselves fall behind by more than one goal, in fact finding ourselves 3-0 down by the seventeenth minute. Wenger had been adamant pre-match that his team were ready for this battle against Chelsea, but losing at Stamford Bridge leaves me no confidence in winning the war of the title.

A big talking point was the sending off of Kieran Gibbs in the build up to Hazard's penalty and Chelsea's third goal. Oxlade-Chamberlain tried heading a shot away from goal but flung an arm out in the process, and the ball, heading wide anyway, brushed his hand. Andre Marriner, the game's referee, sent off Gibbs instead of Chamberlain who protested he was the culprit. Gibbs' suspension has now been overturned while both he and Oxlade-Chamberlain are clear to play against Swansea. It was deemed, quite rightly, that Oxlade-Chamberlain's handball was not preventing a goal-scoring opportunity as Hazard's shot was going wide of goal.

Kieran Gibbs.

I've said it before, and that's Flamini needs to start in the defensive / deep midfield position. He is a certain starter who has helped our defensive game out greatly and has provided exceptional cover. He gets the job done, much better than Arteta! I'd also like to see more of Serge Gnabry, and if the Ox had been suspended it would have gifted a wonderful opportunity for the young German midfielder to continue proving himself. After being named on the subs bench against Chelsea, I would hope he starts or features at some against Swansea, the side he scored our class second against in our 2-1 win earlier in the season.

So what does Saturday's loss do to our title chasing credentials (or what was left of them anyway)? As I said, this win sets us back in the chase for the Premier League title, and just securing a top four finish could even be a difficult task. Everton, in fifth, are by no manner a bad team at all especially under Roberto Martinez this season.

The players need to get it going against Swansea who never prove to be an easy side when we play them and a win against the Swans will get the players up for the Man City match next weekend. Needless to say it won't be an easy fixture and nobody can help but think that if we are slow out the blocks, we could see repeats of Liverpool and Chelsea all over again.

Our FA Cup semi final match against Wigan isn't far away either. Somehow we are the favourites to win the competition, but if we carry on the way we're going, Wigan might do the business over us like they did City. They aren't a bad side on their day at all, and I get the feeling we're not in for a comfortable finish to the season.

How we looked high and mighty fine earlier on in the season, but how quickly does football change over the course of that season. If we end up struggling for fourth, and trophy less, we have well and truly crashed and burned in style. If you have any faith for sale, I might need some.

I am one disgruntled Gooner, so I'll join the queue.

Chelsea v Arsenal (FA Cup 2009).

A must win game for Arsenal tomorrow but can Wenger celebrate incredible milestone with his first win over Mourinho?

It is a well known fact that Arsene Wenger has never beaten a Jose Mourinho Chelsea side, and what it would mean if that curse is broken tomorrow.

Chelsea top the table by four points, ahead of both us and Liverpool who have 62 points each. It feels as though, for the optimistic Arsenal supporter maybe, that there is no better time than ever for Wenger to finally get one over Mourinho, in order to keep our title chasing campaign alive. 

We also have a game in hand so winning tomorrow really will set us up well. Of course Liverpool look incredibly strong and Man City have two games in hand over us (and they're only two points behind!) Every game now is a must win if we are to keep our title hopes alive, though perhaps more realistically ensuring we don't slip out of the top four.

With Wenger celebrating his 1000th game in charge of Arsenal tomorrow, a win over Mourinho would be some way to celebrate.

The game starts at 12:45pm (GMT) tomorrow, in the day's only lunchtime kick off.

Arsene Wenger's best XI - Celebrating 1000 games in charge of Arsenal

With this Saturday's match against Chelsea being Arsene Wenger's 1000th game in charge of Arsenal (and not many manager's can boast that kind of reign in the modern era), I thought I'd take a stab at the greatest eleven he could put out, from those he has had the pleasure of managing while at Arsenal.

Thinking over his eighteen years in charge of our club, he wonders where the time has gone in an exclusive interview with Arsenal Media. Of course a lot has happened over those years with its ups and downs. One of his greatest moments he says is the 2-1 win at the Emirates against Barcelona in 2011, but what about the double winning seasons of 1998 and 2002 - and claiming the Premier League on different occasions at Old Trafford and White Hart Lane? The invincibles! 

Some of the slumps which come to mind are the 2-1 FA Cup loss to Liverpool in 2001, the Champions League cup final defeat of 2006, and League Cup final defeats to Birmingham and Chelsea. Obviously not winning anything in the last nine seasons is pretty disheartening and the game has changed a lot since the 'good days'. 

However we still have the same manager who has guided us to past glories, and we probably wouldn't be doing much better if a man with his control was replaced any time soon. 

So, here's my starting XI (oh and in a 4-4-2 formation like it should be) ;)

GK: David Seaman

LB: Ashley Cole

CB: Tony Adams

CB: Sol Campbell

RB: Lee Dixon

LM: Robert Pires

CM: Patrick Vieira

CM: Emmanuel Petit

RM: Freddie Ljungberg

ST: Dennis Bergkamp

ST: Thierry Henry

Subs: Keown, Lauren, Bould, Overmars, Petit, Wright, Bergkamp.

Arsene Wenger.

To be honest there are a number of players who should make the list i.e. Cesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie, Gilberto Silva...maybe even Aaron Ramsey if he keeps up the kind of form and football he was playing before his injury earlier this season. 

Speaking of which, Ramsey and Santi Cazorla have extended their contracts with us, following the recent contract renewals of Metesacker and Rosicky. I don't think Sagna's contract will be renewed with the other big one being Wenger's own contract which also expires this summer. As the Metro put it, he's 1000 not out, but how many more games will he go on to manage Arsenal for?

The title challenging clash between Chelsea and Arsenal kicks off at 12:45pm (GMT) on Saturday.

Torres hassles Vermaelen in a previous fixture between the two sides.

Both Nicklas Bendtner and Bacary Sagna potentially to leave Arsenal in the summer

For consecutive years we had lost our top players in the summer (notably Vieira, Henry, Fabregas, Nasri, Clichy, Van Persie) but last year was different in the fact we held on to our best players and added a couple of extra faces too in Sanogo (who shows promise), Flamini and Ozil.

The rumours have already started though as to a couple of players particularly who may be on their way out of the Emirates this summer. For me I wouldn't be disappointed if both of them left the club, and they are Nicklas Bendtner and Bacary Sagna.

I'll start with the Dane by picking up on last week's reports that Bendtner travelled to Copenhagen without informing Arsene Wenger.

And he appears to have had the last straw with the Danish striker, who recently started for his country against England in an international friendly. In relation to his comments in the media, all the gaffer has done is reinstate that the striker's contract is up in the summer but that says it all and I think he's had enough of him, as have the fans.

This in turn though means we will be even more desperate for a recognised striker. We simply haven't been scoring enough goals, especially from our main strikers, and this summer we need to start actually doing more to bring in big names to get us those goals. Giroud may get a few but he is inconsistent and slow. Walcott is again inconsistent, he can't always finish, and Podolski is always preferred out on the wing but we know what he can do when he sight of the goal.

Nicky B back in the days before the excessive hair.

Sagna is rumoured to be off too as his latest reported wage demands are higher than what the board are willing to pay out. I'd be happy to see a replacement for Sagna, not that he's the worst player in the world at all, but we need someone fresher and younger (maybe someone who can cross a ball a bit better, and look more natural on the ball; I don't think his fair share of leg injuries have helped though). Carl Jenkinson can be a fairly good back-up but he's no way ready to be starting choice in my defence I'm afraid.

So who would be good enough to fill the void left by the French right-back who has interest shown in him by Inter Milan and Galatasary?

Nathaniel Clyne of Southampton is one potential target (he was certainly one of mine on FIFA...not that that means anything!) The 22-year-old has become an established member of the Saints' defence and he has bags of pace and good awareness.

Borussia Dortmund's Lukasz Piszczek is another rumoured target and I can see Wenger going for the Polish defender who would sit in front of either his Polish internationals of Fabianski or Szczesny. We've also been linked with him in the past so he should certainly be a name us fans keep an ear out for.

Following our knock-out of the UEFA Champions League last week we now give complete attention to the Premier League and FA Cup. Our narrow 1-0 victory over Spurs yesterday (thanks to Rocicky's wonderful early strike and some good defending) keeps us up with the top four. Thank goodness we don't have to play Liverpool again this season who look likely to storm through the final stretch. Our title chances are looking slimmer, however we aren't 100% out of it, while we have a great opportunity to go all the way in the FA Cup and lift a trophy for the first time in nine seasons.

Sagna signed for the club from Auxerre back in 2007.

'Booking players early could deter diving' says Wenger

Following our exit from the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday night Arsene Wenger suggested a way which could prevent players from diving so often. Some would say he's a sore loser (maybe, but I'd call him passionate about the team's success) but I think he makes a great point.

His comments on the Arsenal website (opens in new tab) come after Roben was up to his theatricals once again over our two legs against Bayern Munich.

He argues players who are deemed to have dived by the referee should be booked on the first instance. This would result in the player then being cautious about attempting to dive again as they could face being sent off. So should this be trialled in the modern game?

At the moment you do see players fall to the ground looking for a penalty and the referee waves play on and tells the player to get up. If the ref believes they have dived then they need to be more ruthless and actually book them, otherwise this system just won't work.

I think it's a great idea personally (though I'm not sure the likes of Ronaldo and Robben would be so keen) but the referees already have the difficult task of judging what is a dive and there's always a risk they can make the wrong decisions. Players may be wrongfully booked or subsequently sent off when they are truly fouled but a referee may have seen it as a dive.

Would this then be a call for TV replays for referees to use and make a second decision on? Maybe that's something further down the line...

Anyhow life goes on and we now turn attentions back to the Premier League with derby game coming up this weekend against Tottenham. Hopefully the squad can pick themselves up after what was a mammoth task against the present European champions. Ozil will miss this one with a hamsring injury (and the next month at least!) after sustained the injury in the opening minutes of the Bayern match on Tuesday, while Ramsey is said to be struggling to be fit enough to return this weekend as well.

Ronaldo often faces criticism for diving and cheating.

Bayern Munich 1-1 Arsenal (3-1 agg): Gunners out of the UEFA Champions League but damage was already done at the Emirates

Bayern Munich were in total control at the Alianz Arena on Tuesday evening, as they progressed through to the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals with a 3-1 aggregate win against Arsenal.

There was definitely hope and faith in us Arsenal fans of turning this tie in our favor but we didn't look like getting into this game from the word go, unlike last year where Giroud had scored after only three minutes. I think the damage had already been done in the first leg with Szczesny's sending off and Ozil's missed penalty.

We managed not to lose at their ground, which is something I guess, but we never really looked like doing much to increase our chances against Pep Guardiola's side when we know we needed goals. 

It was difficult to watch as an Arsenal fan as Bayern pretty much looked in total control from the very first whistle. We missed Flamini in the holding midfield position, who started on the bench, while Ozil was poor once again, Giroud struggled on his own, and we only did well in cutting out any real Bayern chances with Mertesacker and Kocielny looking very aware at the back. Oxlade-Chamberlain was the only attacking player who looked up for it and we should have got stuck in and hassled Bayern from the word go; we didn't and let the hosts play it around us with ease. 

Sitting back and taking it in the hope of getting forward on the counter attack was probably the message from Wenger prior to the match, but we couldn't get a foot on the ball in launching a counter attack. Hopefully the message wasn't concede and then take some momentum from that but that's sort of what happened after Bayern scored just under 10 minutes into the second half. 

Schneider was ghosting into the box, sliding through our midfield like a knife through butter, and not being picked up by anyone on more than one occasion, and he was ready to receive when the ball was cut across the box and he supplied a cool finish. My head, along with every other Arsenal fan's, dropped. All hope, however little there already had been, diminished completely as the score stood at 3-0 on aggregate.

But like I said, we hit back and were level minutes later thanks to a ferocious shot by Podolski, and a helping hand by the ref. After playing a one-two he appeared to just push Lahm enough to send him over and then smash the ball past Manuel Neuer from the tightest of angles. It was definitely a push, and Podolski briefly stopped to look at the ref assuming he was to blow for a free kick, but the German carried on noticing the free kick had not been given. 1-1.

Bayern then looked a little rattled but we still faced a tough ask in summoning another two goals from somewhere (three if we wanted to win the tie outright) but it was never going to happen tonight. 

Lukas Fabianski, standing in for the suspended Szczesny, had a solid enough night bar his kicking on a couple of occasions and did well to prevent Bayern from securing a win on the night as he saved Mandzukic's late penalty. Koscielny clipped Robben in the box with the Dutch winger making the most of it as per, but the keeper saved the resulting spot kick with his legs and got back up quickly to push the spinning ball away with Mandzukic ready to pounce.

We may have done it at the Alianz Arena last year, but coming to Bayern and scoring two goals without conceding (as the minimum) was always going to be a difficult task; lightning never strikes twice as they. 

Attentions now turn back to home with our UEFA Champions League campaign over. Our once slight grip on the Premier League has slipped recently and a top-four finish rather than outright winners looks more likely now. We are in with a chance of going all the way in the FA Cup though, and we need to take it seriously if we are to claim any silverware for the first time in nine seasons!

And with the rumours circulating as they often do...was that Wenger's last UEFA Champions League game in charge of Arsenal?

Chambo: Coming of age as he proves why he deserves
a place in England's World Cup squad this summer.