It’s a late blog today because, well, life just got in the way.

Bloody annoying when that happens.

By now I’m sure you’ve no doubt caught up with all the goings on at Arsene’s pre-match press conference, you know that Squillaci and Diaby are a week away from returning, Vermaelen should be back playing within six weeks (providing the procedure he had actually sorts his problem). You also know that there is a chance Almunia could be leaving in this window, that Randall has extended his loan at Rotherham United until the end of the season, loads of people still want Vela yet no-one had taken him yet while Lansbury and Ramsey will be heading back out on loan again (Lansbury is heading back to Norwich for the season, Ramsey might be back off to Cardiff for a month, but Wenger does not want him to be on loan with a Premier League club as he wants him to finish the season with us.).

Quite what you need me for I don’t know, especially not when you can get a digest of the press conference on Arsenal.com now. Can’t quite say that it’s an impressive new feature, but it’s a step in the right direction for those who don’t have ATVO access.

So what else has been going on in Arsenal-land away from the press conference? Well, not much. We still haven’t signed a centre-back, according to Wenger Arshavin and Bendtner are still happy in London, and the Spuds still haven’t fecked off to Stratford.

Wigan roll up the Emirates tomorrow and it is a game we Arsenal fans should be looking forward to. If we manage to put in a shift like we did at West Ham or Leeds, then this could very well be our first real romp of the season. Think that we’ve got it easy now that we worked hard in two matches in a row and we will suffer.

The great news ahead of this match is that Wenger has said VP is only at 95% of his true form, and the thoughts of that extra 5% must surely scare defences as much as it excites us. After the changes mid-week we are likely to see Theo Van Nasregas restored to run our attack, a quad of players the excellent @Zonal_Marking has said could be the key to ending our trophy drought.

Arsene Wenger said today that “there is no room for taking anyone lighter than anyone else” and this is something that needs hammered home to the players. Too often this season we have turned up with an attitude that the lesser lights in this league offer no threat when this is simply not the case. Every team in this league are capable of taking points of any other team, more so this season than any other, and if we need a reminder of that we simply need to look at the reverse of this fixture when Wigan, with 10 men, held us to a 2-2 draw.

Lining up, we are likely to see the same defence as we saw against Leeds save for the return of Clichy. In midfield, Song and Jack should accompany Cesc, while Nasri will be moved back out wide, and Theo and VP shall return. If we line up any different to that I will be very surprised indeed.

Some of our fans may not be convinced that the team have learned to concentrate fully in every match, to press from the front and defend as a unit, but it seems that Arshavin, despite what could be described as a nightmare run of form, isn’t quite as concerned. Asked on his official website what he thought about the next match v Wigan, he replied:

“It’s Wigan. Unfortunately, we couldn’t beat them at their stadium. The next game will be held at the Emirates. The game that Arsenal have shown recently in the championship allows us to achieve the landslide victories, so I hope that the upcoming clash will be no exception. We need to catch up with the two Manchester teams.”

Arsene was a bit more pragmatic with his reply:

“Any victory tomorrow will be a fantastic result for us.”

Anyone disagree?