CHAMPIONS League second round second legs have given us a couple of incredible highs over the years and a couple of lows too.

In 2005 a very sharp Thierry Henry strike beat Bayern 1-0 at Highbury, but we’d lost 3-1 in Germany in the first leg. I wrote:

“It was not only Bayern that played well. Arsenal put in a very good performance, but the damage had already been done in the first leg, by conceding three goals.”

Remember 2006?

“What an incredible night. I’m starting to write this just minutes after getting home from Highbury and I’m absolutely shattered.

“The action was simply breathtaking. The game was ridiculously end to end at times for such a precariously balanced tie. And the performance from our playas was just awesome.

“People are still talking about Real Madrid being the perfect opponents for Arsenal. What a ridiculous attempt to belittle our achievement.”

But two years ago against PSV things were not so good:

“Massive disappointments like this happen to every team (look at Barca last night) and despite what the critics will say, it’s not the end of the world and there is much to be positive about.

“But after a decent performance, not making them take the free-kick from the right place was a bloody stupid way to go out.”

And then there was last year:

“Want to know how good a performance this was? Look no further than the sustained applause offered by the Milanese at the final whistle.

“For 174 minutes we dominated Milan while treading an elimination tight-rope - an incredible ask. One slip and we were screwed. And then just when you thought it was all destined to end in glorious failure, we struck with the immaculate timing usually so typical of Italian sides.”

Great moments. Sadly the closest I stand to get to tonight’s action is possibly watching the first half online and then phone updates after that.

I miss very few Arsenal games. Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to have a mother who willingly scheduled dinner for half-time and now a girlfriend who pencils Arsenal games into her diary months in advance.

But every now and then events conspire in such a way that you have to miss an important game.

My excuse is, I think, a reasonable if fairly unique one: I’ve been offered a free ring-side seat to watch NASA fire the Space Shuttle Discovery high into the sky. Bizarre I know, but I kid you not. I’m currently in Florida for a wedding and yesterday we visited the Kennedy space centre, got talking to a NASA employee hosting a load of Japanese space VIPs and he said we could fill a few spaces he had.

Obviously it’s not technically ringside because I’d be burned to smithereens but it’s pretty much the best view in the house apparently.

It all culminated in a bizarre phone call last tonight where the person on the other end of the phone introduced himself as “Nasa”, which is not one I’ve heard of before.

So what of Roma? I’ve an uncomfortable feeling about the night. On the one hand, if we play as we have been, we should go through, because we’re not conceding and at long last we have genuine attacking options.

Equally,this does not feel like a team on the cusp of scooping the greatest trophy in club football. Next year maybe, with Arshavin involved and the top quality midfielders Arsene will undoubtedly sign this summer bedded in. But this year? I’m not quite sure.

But then we hardly looked like world beaters at this stage in 2006. One thing that has, however, always stood us in good stead in these games is an incredibly high work rate noticeably above our Premiership norm.

If we get that tonight, like we did in the first leg and against Madrid and then Milan, we have a chance.

THIS was the story of our unbelievable abundance of wingers and forwards: Eduardo, Vela, Arshavin, Eboue, RVP and Walcott all played a part. Meanwhile the quartet of Adebayor, Bendtner, Nasri and Rosicky (who would make a very decent front four on their own) were nowhere to be seen.

It is a line-up that probably won’t make it into next season completely intact. At least someone (Adebayor?) will likely leave, but such is our attacking wealth the blow would likely not be fatal. The ten of them complement each other fantastically, each offering something unique, none an obvious replica of what we already have.

I’m in America for a wedding until next Sunday, meaning this report comes courtesy of my viewing from afar and my brother, who was at the ground.

We may as well go straight into the trio of outstanding goals.

I’d argue Vela’s was best, Eduardo’s second and Eboue’s third. Not that I’m having a go at Eboue.

This was as positive a contribution as he’s made for ages and the goal was both very well taken and merited.

The crowd gave a hearty rendition of “Come to see Eboue” and as my brother points out, the line between being plain crap and being a cult hero is a thin one, as Ray Parlour and Gilles Grimandi attest. Equally though, while both Grimandi and Parlour thrived despite their lack of natural ability, Eboue has no such issues in that area. His is a problem of delivering anything like what he is capable of.

Yesterday, on top of the Roma performance, was a positive start. May it continue.

So, back to the goals. And I’d rate that Vela one top because there were so many things he had to do right for it to come off. First there was the nutmeg, then the powerful run, then the staying on his feet while being tugged all over the place (behave) and finally the toe-poked chip. It was such a good finish because had he opened his foot up the defender probably would have stole in. Footballistically it was tremendous to watch and arguably only Theo is the only other player in the squad who you could imagine scoring it.

Visually, Eduardo’s was probably more stunning. A delightfully dinked ball from Song (who we’ll touch on in a minute) and a ridiculous volley from Eduardo that literally flew off his once shattered ankle. In one sense it was a ridiculous thing to try given we were only one up and he had the time to finish far less spectacularly.

But Eduardo is not a player for pointless indulgence.

That he chose to take it like that suggests it was probably the most efficient way to take it.

So, Song. For months it’s felt as if my brother has been the President, Vice-President, Honary life President, Treasurer and Secretary of the Songological Society of North London, so lonely has his furrow been. I sense he may finally have recruited some fellow followers.

I’m not endorsing him as the one (because I still maintain he isn’t), but this was an admirable performance that culminated with a most unSongesque backheel for Eboue to slam in the third.

Before I go I just want to say how astonished I was by how many people headed for the exits before half-time. It began on 35 minutes and by the time the whistle went parts of the lower tier looked virtually empty.

Going to the games, you obviously see people leave. But on TV the gaps looked so much worse. The exodus was so extraordinary that I actually felt sorry for the team. What are they to think when they are playing well and leading and yet everyone still scarpers?

THE Goodplaya survey of 1,000 Arsenal fans asked who should be Cesc Fabregas’ partner in central midfield. Around two thirds of respondents cast their vote in the period after the Roma victory (when Denilson and Diaby excelled and Song only came late on) and before the Fulham game. The rest voted post Fulham.

Who should partner Cesc in central midfield?

Denilson: 438—–45%
Song: 32—–3%
Diaby: 396—–41%
Ramsey: 95—–10%
Eboue: 6—–1%
Randall: 9—–1%

So, a split. Respondents were also asked whether Denilson, Song and Diaby will make it as Arsenal players.

Denilson will make it as an Arsenal player:

Agree strongly: 212—–22%
Tend to agree: 431—–44%
Neither agree or disagree: 181—–18%
Tend to disagree: 128—–13%
Disagree strongly: 29—–3%

Song will make it as an Arsenal player:

Agree strongly: 19—–2%
Tend to agree: 99—–10%
Neither agree or disagree: 201—–20%
Tend to disagree: 381—–39%
Disagree strongly: 283—–29%

Diaby will make it as an Arsenal player:

Agree strongly: 132—–13%
Tend to agree: 428—–43%
Neither agree or disagree: 235—–24%
Tend to disagree: 159—–16%
Disagree strongly: 31—–3%

So, a fairly clear verdict. Despite only one in ten people thinking Ramsey should be partnering Cesc now, he is expected to do well.

Ramsey will make it as an Arsenal player:

Agree strongly: 389—–40%
Tend to agree: 452—–46%
Neither agree or disagree: 127—–13%
Tend to disagree: 14—–1%
Disagree strongly: 1—–0%

And finally, I asked fans to comment on the statement:

Lack of central midfielders is the biggest reason for our struggles this season:

Agree strongly: 529—–54%
Tend to agree: 302—–31%
Neither agree or disagree: 59—–6%
Tend to disagree: 72—–7%
Disagree strongly: 21—–2%

Coming next, we’ll look at Fergie’s claims that we need defenders, whether fans are too critical and whether Arsene is too indulgent.

THE Goodplaya survey of 1,000 fans asked if Arsene Wenger was still the man to take us forward and whether he should go at the end of the season if we failed to win a trophy.

This is what the fans said:

Statement: Arsene is still the man to take us forward

Total votes, followed by %

Agree strongly 652 66%
Tend to agree 204 21%
Neither 80 8%
Tend to disagree 38 11%
Disagree strongly 11 1%

Statement: Arsene should go if we don’t win a trophy this season.

Total votes, followed by %

Agree strongly 18 2%
Tend to agree 33 3%
Neither 62 6%
Tend to disagree 136 14%
Disagree strongly 738 75%

Next up, I’ll post the verdict on the midfield.

A VERY quick one as I’m writing this on Tuesday night and have to be up at 5am on Wednesday (ie six hours). I’d sat through 360 agonising minutes of league football without a goal.

Then when one finally came, I was parking the car outside the pub after getting stuck behind a particularly stubborn temporary traffic light (something London based readers will sympathise with).

Bendtner had got the goal, cutting in from the left and finishing very neatly with his left foot. It was a shot the both curled delightfully along the ground and fizzed a fair bit too.

Sadly, before long our record of not conceding went too.

And it wasn’t pretty as a low free-kick went through our wall and past the blameless Almunia, who quite justifiably assumed the wall would cover that part of the goal. I’ll give Eboue the benefit of the doubt and say it was keenness to attack the ball that saw him leave his station in the middle of the wall.

We then weren’t particularly pretty for quite a while, with very little coherence to our play. Their partnership restored, Song and Denilson were not complimenting each other, Nasri was very quiet (particularly after receiving treatment for a kick), Eboue was sporadically interesting and Bendtner was trying hard enough but scooped one great chance over. Arshavin had nice moments here or there but wasn’t seeing much of it.

Then the Clich, on one of his better forays forward, won a free-kick on the left. The marking wasn’t great and Kolo stole in to head home. But sometimes you get poor marking.

The point is that however poor it is, if the ball in is rubbish, it won’t really matter (ahem Cesc).

As it was Arshavin’s ball was a peach, pacey, curling and dipping and perfect for Kolo.

A third followed from more questionable defending. A long Kolo ball for once worked and Bendtner took it down on his knee and fired away a thumping half volley that the keeper could only palm in. Good work.

We started the second half on fire and Bendtner and Arshavin combined well, with each going close and neither guilty of any glaring misses. The Dane was particularly unfortunate when one effort cannoned off the post.

I really should go to bed so I’ll wrap up the playa ratings here: Almunia was very sharp and blameless for the goal, making a very decent low save early on and tipping one wide brilliantly near the end (8). Sagna was solid as ever (7), Kolo looked good enough and got a goal (7.5), Djourou a little rusty on his return (6.5) and Clichy fine but not at his swashbuckling best and still hit and miss with crosses. (6.5)

After the break Alex Song moved back to replace Kolo and did better in defence than in midfield (7), Denilson was solid enough and won some balls well (7), Nasri was very quiet, particularly after his kick (6) and the longer his debut season goes on the more it feels like Pires’ first. (Albeit he is five years younger).

Eboue got involved well enough but was a bit hit and miss (6.5). Ramsey replaced him on 66 and barring one disastrous backpass scrapped in a way it would do us no harm if more players did. (6.5) Diaby officially replaced Toure and despite a couple of lackadaisical moments, the vast majority of what he did was positive and he almost scored a fine goal, but for a deflection. (7)

And congratulations to Fran Merida on his Premiership debut. He did well I thought and looked a bit stronger than in the Carling Cup. (7)

Up front, Arshavin got his first assist and while he missed a few chances, the quality is obviously there (7). Bendtner didn’t just score two, he also set-up a fair bit, ran hard, jumped for headers and generally worked far more impressively than at times in the past. I can accept those who criticise him for slacking off at times (I am one) but I’ve never got those who rubbish him for his ability. (8.5)

His contributions are frequently decisive ones and last night the travelling hordes sung his name loudly and deservedly so.

All in all, a good night’s work and if we looked a little nervy late on, that can probably be forgiven.

A COUPLE of months ago a Virgin Money survey suggested around one in four Arsenal fans were considering cancelling their season tickets.

That figures seems a little high according to the Goodplaya survey of 1,000 fans. Of those who identified themselves as season-ticket holders, 11% (18 out of 161) said they would be giving up their seat for next season. Are the Goodplaya respondents truly representative? Maybe - I don’t know. I suppose you could argue taking the survey in the first place suggests a level of dedication above the average and therefore less likelihood of giving up your seat. Who knows.

If you are a season ticket holder, will you renew next season?

Am not a season ticket holder 821 84%
Yes I will 143 15%
No I won’t 15 2%

If the figure is correct I make it around 4,000 waiting list members being bumped up, though I suspect not all of the first 4,000 on the list will take up their option. That does not include club level.

The question I asked on whether the credit crunch had affected the number of games people went to could have been far better phrased in hindsight. Here is what you said:

The credit crunch has affected how many games I go to:

Agree strongly: 93—–10%
Tend to agree: 148—–15%
Neither agree or disagree: 504—–52%
Tend to disagree: 96—–10%
Disagree strongly: 136—–14%

EMMANUEL Eboue. Long time readers will know I don’t like him. I asked Goodplaya readers what they thought of him in the Goodplaya survey.

Firstly, I asked whether his behaviour was unacceptable. The verdict was resounding:

Agree strongly: 628—–64%
Tend to agree: 217—–22%
Neither agree or disagree: 73—–7%
Tend to disagree: 57—–6%
Disagree strongly: 10—–1%

I asked exactly the same question in November 2007 and the verdict then proves that what happened against Wigan was hardly the ignorant reaction of spectators unable to realise he was unfit and out of position, as parts of the press claimed. In the original survey the splits were 47, 34, 10, 6, 2.

Over 80% of you were inclined to agree that the heavy stick I give him is merited:

Agree strongly: 520—–53%
Tend to agree: 295—–30%
Neither agree or disagree: 69—–7%
Tend to disagree: 75—–8%
Disagree strongly: 26—–3%

And finally, I asked for opinions on the booing against Wigan:

He should not have been booed and did not deserve it: 102—–10%
He should not have been booed but had only himself to blame: 524—–53%
I didn’t boo but I can understand why people did: 281—–29%
I booed and regret it: 5—–1%
I booed and am glad I did: 73—–7%

That’s yer lot on Eboue. Coming next, a bit the board might well want to look at: how many season tickets will be given up this year.

REMEMBER all that hoo-hah over William Gallas earlier this season?

It feels like a long time ago now. And the Goodplaya survey, which around two thirds of respondents replied to after the Roma game but before Fulham and the rest after Fulham, says as much.

He may have been stripped of the club captaincy, but just one in five fans want to see Gallas sold, with the vast majority actively against such an idea. The 62% backing him is admittedly down on the 82% who said he had redeemed himself when the last Goodplaya survey was held when we were flying high in November 2007, but it’s not bad.

Arsenal should sell Gallas

Agree strongly: 62—–6%
Tend to agree: 139—–14%
Neither agree or disagree: 175—–18%
Tend to disagree: 361—–37%
Disagree strongly: 247—–25%

The recent defensive shut-outs seem to have made a real impression on people: it’s hard to believe that back in December when we were chaotic at Villa Park, three times as many people would have been for the Gallas-Kolo partnership than against it.

Gallas and Toure can work as a partnership:

Agree strongly: 86—–9%
Tend to agree: 519—–53%
Neither agree or disagree: 158—–16%
Tend to disagree: 198—–20%
Disagree strongly: 25—–3%

And what of Djourou and Senderos? On both, it’s a complete split: there is no consensus on whether the former should start and the latter should be brought back.

Djourou should start, irrespective of who his partner is:

Agree strongly: 78—–8%
Tend to agree: 272—–28%
Neither agree or disagree: 346—–35%
Tend to disagree: 259—–26%
Disagree strongly: 28—–3%

Senderos should be brought back:

Agree strongly: 121—–12%
Tend to agree: 274—–28%
Neither agree or disagree: 180—–1%
Tend to disagree: 273—–28%
Disagree strongly: 136—–14%

But whatever happens, the fans do want a new defender:

Arsenal need to sign another central defender:

Agree strongly: 455—–46%
Tend to agree: 291—–30%
Neither agree or disagree: 100—–10%
Tend to disagree: 118—–12%
Disagree strongly: 21—–2%

And that completes part two of the Goodplaya survey results. Next, it’s Eboue.

ON FRIDAY I launched the second ever Goodplaya survey and over a thousand of you took the time to respond. Thanks.

Firstly, congrats to Stuart McKay on winning the ArsenalTVOnline subscription.

Now, onto the results. And we’ll start with the relatively uncontroversial topics of Manuel Almunia and the left-back berth.

A year ago I asked if Almunia would become a world class keeper given time. Just 11% said he would. This year I asked if he was now a top-class keeper (I should have said world class again) and most of you said he was.

Almunia is now a top class goalkeeper:

Agree strongly: 172—–17%
Tend to agree: 503—–51%
Neither agree or disagree: 192—–19%
Tend to disagree: 96—–10%
Disagree strongly: 26—–3%

As for Gael Clichy’s dip in form, the consensus is it is nothing serious:

Clichy’s dip in form is just a blip:

Agree strongly: 495—–50%
Tend to agree: 371—–38%
Neither agree or disagree: 66—–7%
Tend to disagree: 45—–5%
Disagree strongly: 6—–1%

But were it to be, there is confidence in Gibbs:

Gibbs looks a good back-up to Clichy:

Agree strongly: 388—–39%
Tend to agree: 440—–45%
Neither agree or disagree: 111—–11%
Tend to disagree: 45—–5%
Disagree strongly: 0—–0%

None of that was too controversial. But in part two, which I’ll post shortly, we look at the far less clear cut issue of central defenders.

… Is that compared to going after the league title, you get a lot more leeway from those around you as we saw at Villa Park yesterday. With 17 points from 33, we’re fairly fortunate to even be in the hunt frankly, let alone in a position to close the gap to three tomorrow night.

I haven’t got too much to say this morning, but I do want to clear one thing up: Arsenalistically speaking, Man United winning was definitely what we wanted. Look at it this way: had Spurs won, they’d have had something to crow about. But United winning is totally insignificant: if they go on to win the league too (and perhaps other cup competitions), the fact they won the Carling Cup is hardly going to add greatly to the pain, even if it means completing the quidruple or whatever it is they are after. Equally, if the Carling Cup is the only thing they win, it will hardly diminish the hilarity of them collapsing completely elsewhere.

So all in all, a welcome result and another great David Bentley moment.

Finally for today, you will remember I gave away a subscription to (and shamelessly promoted) ArsenalTVOnline in Friday’s blog. If you watched their Saturday afternoon show for the Fulham game, drop them a line here to tell them what you thought of it.

Today is the final day to win that subscription. All you need to do is take the Goodplaya Arsenal survey to be in with a chance of winning. Hundreds of you already have and the results, which I’ll post from tomorrow, are fascinating. The survey is here.