Moving into third

Villa 0

Arsenal 1
(Diaby, fluke, 10th)

This was Arsene's 400th Premiership game, over the past 10 years, and it was marked by a lucky win through Diaby's fluke deflection in the 10th minute.

This win means we are still unbeaten this year in the Premiership; having garnered 19 points out of a possible 21 - which makes the stuttering start in 2006 all the more painful.

The sole game that prevented a 100% run in 2007 was the 1-1 draw against Boro at the Riverside.

Having watched countless chances ending up out of the net, it was somehow reassuring to see a really scruffy and flukey goal plus a resolute defence standing firm to give us this win.

After The 11 Days, most Gooners were feeling that the Almighty Himself was having a laugh at us - so it was nice to see some scraps thrown our way for a change.

As usual we dominated the major part of the exchanges and Diaby's fluke stood in stark contrast to the numerous misses by Jeremie Aliadere, who must feel like a stud with a stubbornly flaccid 8-incher in a Victoria's Secrets orgy.

Allie drew a great save from Sorensen with his first chance, then stepped on the ball when through and finally headed the ball into the ground so hard that it flew over the crossbar.



To their credit, Villa came back strongly and John Carew, a striker I personally admire, gave our makeshift defence a torrid time.

I sometimes wonder if we had someone like Carew to prop up our young strikers, would our season still be dead at this time.

Anyway it was a useful win and it pushed us past the Poo into third place.

For us, the comeback for 2008 has to start from now - by getting that last Champions League berth.