Good Monday to you all.

Barely a day of recovery for the lads before they fly out to Turkey for tomorrow's game against Fenerbache. As yet there's little or no news about who's going to be fit but it looks like we'll be without Kolo Toure following his shoulder injury on Saturday. We await news of Samir Nasri and I do hope he'll be fit. He's had a niggly start to his Arsenal career. Almost every good thing has been balanced out by a little injury and you suspect that if we are to win anything this season we need him fitter more often.

The travelling squad is usually announced the day before the game and it'll be interesting to see who makes the trip. The players are under no illusions about how tough it's going to be with Robin van Persie saying:

It will be really tough out there. I experienced it a few years ago and the fans are amazing. It was really aggressive. You have to deal with the atmosphere. It’s not nice but if you play for Arsenal, you have to adapt and just play your game.

More on that game tomorrow. Robin has also been talking about the comeback against Everton and he reckons the side is 30-40% mental. Or something. He says:

The way we came back was fantastic. Once we scored, you could see the heads of the Everton players go down. In football, the mental aspect is really important, maybe more than 30 or 40 per cent. Sometimes it is more important than the way you play.

I'm not sure where he gets his figures from but he does have a good point. An unwillingness to be beaten is what separates good teams from great teams. Having the mental strength to dig out a result when you're playing poorly is a brilliant thing. So while the result against Everton was great you do wonder where that mental strength was against Fulham and Hull. It's too early to say we've turned any kind of corner yet. The proof will come with the results in the next few weeks. We've often been a team that thrives on momentum but so far this season we have failed to get that going. Fingers crossed we can do that as there are some big games on the horizon.

Perhaps the incessant Interlulls haven't helped us and, in today's blog brought to you by the letters R, V and P, Robin says:

We were fantastic for three-quarters of last season and then suddenly everything fell down. We have learned a lot from that. I prefer it when you can have a good long run with your club team, get together and get results.

Obviously what they've learned is that in order to not make the same mistake as last season they've decided not to have a good run until a quarter of the season is over. Revolutionary thinking, I like it. That said the disappointing results this season have come pre-Interlull when the squad has been together and not post, as you might expect. Maybe they've all been thinking about how many pairs of underpants they have to pack before they go away. They need to be more focussed on football and less on underpants.

You can read more Robin, and Arsene saying he doesn't know what kind of car Theo Walcott is, here. There's a thing - what kind of cars are our players? I don't know enough about cars to even try although Eboue could definitely be a clown car. 

Right, nothing else to report. Have a good Monday. More tomorrow. 

Three points. Not the most convincing three points we've ever won but three points all the same.

We started with a strange formation, the manager preferring to use Alex Song at right back instead of Eboue, a more natural right full. Song struggled and when Everton opened us up way to easily to score the first goal his effort to get back and defend was, at best, idle. I think perhaps he's a victim of nobody knowing what his best position is. Maybe he doesn't actually have one.

Everton had one cleared off the line as our weakness from high balls was exposed again while van Persie had our best chance of the first half, Twitchy Tim making a good save. At half-time there was a chorus of disapproval from the home fans, those that had stayed to watch the end of the half anyway, and it was very worrying.

The manager said something though at half-time and in the second we were much, much better. Theo Walcott came on for Kolo Toure who had injured his shoulder and his presence on the pitch certainly unsettled Everton. We scored quite quickly too. Just three minutes after the restart the ball fell to Nasri just outside the D and he low shot nestled in the bottom corner. Just what we needed. Walcott created a good chance for van Persie but he whacked it over with his right foot.

There then followed some aggro with Arsenal player aggrieved at Tony Hibbert's tackle on Denilson. The Everton man came flying right through the Brazilian. He may have gotten the ball but it was from behind and dangerous. When confronted by Gael Clichy he then grabbed our left back by the throat. The result, a yellow card. Shit refeering from Peter Walton. Hibbert should have been sent off. Arsenal's mood was not helped when Walton gave a goal kick when van Persie was obviously pulled down in the area - a more stonewall penalty you won't see this year.

But van Persie had the last laugh when, after Adebayor's clumsiness saw him spurn a chance and Cesc's subsequent shot was saved by Howard, he nodded home from 6 yards to put us in front. We then lost Nasri to a thigh injury with Abou Diaby coming on in his place. The game was made safe right at the death when some nice interplay between Walcott and Diaby saw Theo arrow one between Howard's legs to make it 3-1. Relief all round and the three points secured. Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:

What was very important today was that the team has shown personality by being 1-0 down. We played our season today, we could not afford to drop a point. The way we responded when we were 1-0 down was of course vital. I wasn’t nervous at half time because I had confidence and belief that we would change the game.

I think he must have been the only one who wasn't nervous. The fans were and you could see some of the players were too. Defensively we have some real issues. I think Sylvester did pretty well for the most part, after a shaky start but some of the problems we have are just down to doing the basics. Look at Lescott's header which Clichy cleared off the line. Everton played a short corner to Baines who had all the time in the world to drop in his cross. Why did nobody pick him up? Why was nobody awake to the threat in the first place?

The way we were opened up for Osman's goal was very worrying too. It wasn't like it was incredible forward play. It was simple pass and move stuff which we didn't cope with at all. Osman won't score an easier goal in his life and you have to wonder how we'll cope when we face teams whose movement and interplay in the final third is so much better than Everton's.

It does seem churlish to criticise after a win so I'm not going to say a lot more that's negative. All I will say is that I wish Bendtner was fit because I'd like to see him get a little run of games ahead of Adebayor whose form is clearly not as good as it should be. I'd also prefer to see the manager play players in their best positions and not hope to muddle through using utility players to plug the gaps.

On the positive side Nasri got another goal (perhaps balanced by another injury) and again he looks, to me at least, like a much more productive player than Hleb ever was. Theo scored and caused all kinds of problems to the Everton defence and, of course, to come back from 1-0 down at home and win is always a good thing, even if being behind in the first place is hardly idea.

The three points yesterday were absolutely vital though with United, Chelsea and Liverpool all winning. If we can sort ourselves out against the so-called lesser lights of the league then it's going to be the games against these sides that sort out the title.

We go into Tuesday night's game with something approaching an injury crisis though. It seems Kolo's injury is ligament damage to the shoulder and according to the boss it doesn't look good. We may have Djourou back and Bendtner so that'd be something but the already thin squad is really being stretched at the moment. We'll find out more in the next day or so about the Champions League game.

In a quick Sunday round-up the News of the World reports Cesc has turned down an improved contract from the club, 'paving the way' for his exit at the end of the season. Shut up, News of the Cunts and stop trying to ruin my Sunday. Normally you'd dismiss the stuff from the NotW as bollocks but with his agent now Dein Jr and the fact they have a little bit of history in leaking stuff to papers for their own benefit I'm slightly less dismissive about it. Anyway, the bottom line is this: the best way for Arsenal to ensure Cesc stays at the club is to build a team capable of winning trophies. If we build it he will stay.

Update: Cesc is the most awesome human being on the planet. The ink is barely dry on the News of the World's first edition and he's already dismissed it as 'mischief making', saying:

A newspaper report suggesting that I have rejected a new contract is untrue. The article is just mischief-making. Everybody knows I have a long-term contract and that I am happy here. I'm focussed on doing my best for Arsenal.

Even Ming the Merciless would make this man captain of the universe. 

Julio Baptista talks about his time in London and at Arsenal. 'The Beast' will play for Roma against Chelsea this week. May he score many and injure many.

And that's really about it. It's good to get a win under our belts, no matter how nerve-wracking it was. Onwards and upwards, arsechums.

Morning all, I have the most outrageous hangover considering I didn't have very much to drink. I think one of the bottles of Paulaner must have been triple distilled and then condensed like orange juice. *boilk*

So, on the Arsecast yesterday we were wondering how Arsene would have spent his time during the Interlull. What would have been on his mind? How would he approach the Everton game? Well, he's been talking and he sounds positively bullish about the team, insisting they can get the big prize this season (the league title). He also addressed the lack of experience in midfield. He said:

We have talent, we have youth, therefore I believe we have enough quality to do it. We lack experience in some areas, I would not deny that. But you can’t have everything. I believe we can compensate for that with desire to win.

It is right we are young but I don’t believe we lost hard games because we were young, it was because of defensive mistakes.

That's absolutely true. It was the experienced players that caused us problems so far this season but my counter argument to that would be that with a better midfield it gives you a better to chance to recover from those mistakes. But that's neither here nor there and we've said as much as we need to say about that in the last little while. 

If we can cut out the mistakes at the back then we're going to be in a much better position to win, or at least not lose, games. With Gallas out for the next two games it means a chance for Sylvester to come in and add some open-mouthedness to the centre of the defence.

It looks as if Theo is going to start from the bench after playing two games for England. Arsene says:

Theo came back from England available to play but I might rest him. We play Tuesday again, that’s four games in 10 days. I felt that Walcott went away with England already tired after the Sunderland game. He’s the kind of player who plays with a lot of energy. Every time he goes, he goes 100 per cent.

From the way things are being reported on the official site it looks as if Denilson will move to the right hand side and Alex Song will play in the middle alongside Cesc. It does leave us a bit unbalanced but we've often seen Arsene play a central player on the right of midfield. Cesc has done it, I remember a time when Gilberto was played out there quite a bit. 

Nevertheless the boss has been bigging up Theo, saying he's more advanced at his age than Lionel Messi was and that he's much stronger than he used to be. The comments about Messi will raise some eyebrows no doubt. The boss cites Theo's movement off the ball as being better than the Argentine but Messi is outrageously gifted with the ball which, I suppose, more than makes up for it. It's exciting to think that Theo might develop into a player as effective as Messi though. I'm a little wet thinking about that.

Both Cesc and Robin van Persie are available today and we need our strikers to step up. The form of Adebayor and van Persie has been somewhat patchy and we really need them, as two of the more experienced players in the team, to find their not just their shooting boots but their hard working boots too.

Three points are absolutely vital today, that almost goes without saying. As the manager says we've given ourselves a bit of a handicap in the race for the title and he knows we can't have any more slip-ups. Especially at home. As the Breakfast Club said we have to get right on track. And words of wisdom from the 80s don't come any more succinct than that.

Celtic's Peter Lawwell explains why he turned down the chance to become Arsenal's Chief Exec. I suppose as a Celtic fan it must be hard to think about leaving. I'd be more interested in hearing his explanation about why he feels the need for two Ws in his name though. Talk about ostentatious.  

The Mirror links us again with Welsh goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey. He currently plays for Wolves.

Right, well that's about that in terms of news. It's all about positive thinking and getting those three points on the board.

Till tomorrow.