As any Gooner knows, it's the seventh anniversary of the untimely death of David Rocastle today. I could write a bunch of stuff about him, but to be perfectly frank others have already done such a great job I will merely point you in their direction. The pick of them has to be Inside Arsenal for it's insight. If you haven't already, you have to visit Rocky7 the tribute site and see if you can't spend some dosh in a very good cause. What I will say about this anniversary is that it shows the type of club we support and the type of supporter the average Gooner is. We can be very proud to be part of it.

So there was a bit of a game on Saturday. I have to be honest, by the end of the first half I had the same sinking feeling I got against the mancs in the cup. It seemed like we had absolutely nothing more to give although we had played rather better than against the mancs. Diaby had to go, any Gooner who says otherwise has already forgotten Eduardo. Neither conditions nor intent are an excuse. Le Prof brings out his magic hat and we get payback for some of the dodgy decisions that have gone against us. Only some though. It's kinda hard to put in words without being misunderstood, but we seemed like a real football team with a real manager and real guts. Don't get me wrong I love the manger and the team, but it was like the old Arsenal spirit which many have felt has been sadly lacking at times finally surfaced. The result was barely credible, but entirely earned and although Arsene's tactics can be questionable at times, he was spot on. One can only imagine how far out of his comfort zone taking such a big risk was, but he was game enough to give it a shot and boy did it work.

I don't know that we are necessarily any more in the title race than we were Friday night, except that you have to think the players have belief in themselves which appeared to be so lacking recently. Point is we are not any further out and now have impetus to build on. There are no easy games from here on in, but now we have put to bed another of our 'bogey' teams then we can win every game until the end of the season. I'm guessing we'll see less of the 'Arsenal in the North West' comments in future. It continues on Wednesday against the scousers and if we can win by two clear goals or more, we have to be in with a good shout for the semis. I'm not expecting us to score six, but it'd be nice.

What do we need from here in? Well RVP needs to sharpen up and start taking some of the chances he and others are making, you can't blame him considering his length of lay-off, but still. Ade needs to find his touch again, Sagna needs an immediate and miraculous recovery and King Kolo needs to prove he is worth playing instead of Big Phil. At the moment it's in the balance. If we start moving the ball more quickly, Theo proves he can last the full ninety and be a nuisance all the time and the Flamster signs on the line, I reckon we are good to go.