Alex: what’s your concern with Eboue at LB? For me, the drawback is how he is rightfooted, and it takes the edge off his offensive game. Defensively, it’s not too much of a concern, with Chelsea not having wingers who’ll take advantage of his left foot and go on the outside. In fact, with Chelsea’s “wide” players likely to be the strikers or roaming central midfielders – who will almost certainly look to cut inside top shoot instead of crossing – it’ll work to our advantage, with him having the stronger foot on the inside for the tackline. A bit like when Chelsea deployed Bosingwa on the left against Messi, though that was primarily due to injury/suspension if I remember correctly.

Personally I don’t think we should buy, but it seems a point that can be thrown in amidst the general discussion on the KGB game.

And Walter – agree it is nice to have our regular pre-match correspondent back. You may not have realised but I introduced him to Billy The Dog at the Toppled Bollard (aka the Auld Triangle, aka the Plimpsol) about a month back, and he hasn’t been seen since, until today. Rumour is, he had a sip of one of Billy’s vodka and limes and that was it.

Pesky things, these pub landlords.

Anyway, its saturday, and that means The Thick of It is on again. Yipee. (Now that’s what I call going off topic).

Wenger’s press conference basically said it’s between Eboue and Traore for leftback – he said Silvestre hasn’t had games there this season, whereas eboue has. Plus I’d say Silvestre doesn’t have the pace to play out there, he’d be a liability if he went forward, and Anelka would just drop wide and take advantage.

Chamahk is not going to come in this january; wenger has already given a pretty logical reason bordeaux will not sell in january – champions league money. additionally we’ll have the big boy up front in bendtner in two weeks, and as he is not particularly injury prone (not at all like walcott or diaby) he will probably take the reigns up front with dudu as back up. if wenger wants to buy anyone he’ll probably assess that at the season’s end.

it will definitely be interesting to see how our trio in the middle steps up to handle monsters like essien and ballack.

And for those who call for immediate goals from Eduardo or Vela just to remind you that it took a few weeks before Van Persie could score a goal himself. So lets give them a chance an not demand goals from the first minute. Well but a goal for us after 5 minutes and 12 seconds would be allright for me.

And yes, with the dreadful news about VP I would say that the chances of bringing in another forward are higher – but much depends on how well Vela and Eduardo play. If either or both can find form when it really matters (ie now) then no, probably not, but the fact that both have got new incredibly long term contracts makes me think that there is a total belief in their ability.