I despair of Arsenal sometimes, 4-0 up and still can't put the match to bed! (That's a joke by the way for those who may have over-indulged and aren't as sharp as normal). Ignoring who we were playing for the moment, I can't tell you how great it was to see the great sweeping movements we had so got used to. Quick, accurate passing, good finishing, game over by half-time. And no letting the opponents back in. Bliss!

Especially good points were Thierry's play, he really seemed up for it, and Jose scoring again. If those two things continue to happen, we'll be playing CL next season with Thierry. Hard to believe Dennis only scored his first goal of the season at the end of December, but all contributions welcome. Especially as Jose supplied and Arsene seems to have realized what a lot of us figured out a while ago, Jose plays best on the left wing. And he now tackles back with some effect as well.

The understanding on the pitch just underlines what I said a while back, we have to keep Bobby for a few more years, and it seems Arsene may break the rule and give him another two year contract. On his game he still has pretty much the best understanding with Thierry. Anyway quite frankly I think it's a stupid rule and should have gone a while back, but there you go. With Jose flying on the left, and if he continues to play well, this leaves an interesting right wing conundrum. Where does Freddie fit in, in fact does he fit in any longer? Well maybe, but he's not so important these days. My feeling is that Hleb is CM material, not a winger, so that really leaves Bobby and Freddie to fight it out. I don't think it would hurt Freddie to have to earn his place after the first half of the season he has had.

We're now up to 6th, but that may be due to Bolton not paying the electricity bill or something and still having a (partially) frozen pitch. Chances are they would have beaten Boro, but now Big Sam is complaining about fixture congestion. Welcome to European competition Sam. With United drawing, the second place downwards is getting a bit compressed now, which makes the upcoming game against United even more massive that it normally is.

Now January is virtually upon us, Le Prof is making a lot of 'don't expect us to buy anyone' noises. After a period of reflection (the whole of the first half of the season), I really do think Arsene is actually of the opinion that we have sufficient talent within the club. He may well be right, but I still can't see how we can compete with Chelsea when they can have the likes of Crespo and Robben come off the bench. I'm not suggesting we can go out and buy that sort of talent, but we do still need a greater strength in depth. We have been linked with Lazio's Ousmane Dabo due to him being upset at the utterly unacceptable Nazi salutes and attitude of Paolo Di Canio. Don't know that much about him, but at a suggested price of £1m it's gotta be worth a punt for a defensive midfielder.

Finally at was great to see Kanooooooo scoring a couple for the Baggies. I have always liked him, and it seems he is enjoying his football at the moment, so all the best to him. And a Happy New Year to all the rest of you as well.