The day before our FA Cup replay at Leeds and it is once again quiet in Arsenal-land.

The main story on Arsenal.com concerns Chesney and his continued run in the side due to Fabianski’s injury. There were some on Twitter yesterday who were wondering if Fabianski had been ‘injured’ by Arsene. By that, I don’t mean that Wenger gave him a sly kick as he passed him at Colney, rather, that Fabianski doesn’t really have an injury and has instead been dropped.

There is, of course, no substance to this whatsoever. Add to this the fact that Fabianski has done absolutely nothing to warrant being dropped and there is no way, even if he had, that Wenger would allow a situation to unfold in which our keeper on the bench is Shea. Ni dissrespect to the young man,, simply he is a keeper of zero experience.

I understand that Wenger has a habit to say players are injured when they are in fact dropped, but this isn’t the case with Fabianski. He injured his shoulder in the warm-up for the match against Man City and while he was able to complete the match (and wasn’t tested for the full 90 minutes so had no chance to pull out of the game injured) it is this injury which is keeping him out of the side.

No conspiracy here.

Chesney has been talking about how much he is looking forward to playing tomorrow night, and confidence, something which has been a real problem with our keepers since Mad Jens left, is the least of his worries.

Speaking to Arsenal.com, Pole the Younger said:

“I treat every single game as my chance. I just want to do my best and leave the decisions to the manager.

“The manager shows faith in me, so I believe I am ready. Any time I get a chance I will try to prove to him I am ready.

“We have not conceded a lot of goals recently. We have done pretty well in the Premier League. It has the look of a decent back four and we just want to keep it going with as many clean sheets as possible.”

“It is quite a loud ground, but I enjoy the atmosphere, it gives you a bit more motivation and keeps you focused. I enjoy the games at big stadiums with big crowds.

“I played at Elland Road with Brentford and we got a draw, and I am hoping for a better result this time.”

There are some people who aren’t convinced by his ability. This comes more from not having seen much of him. I first saw him in goal around two and a half years ago and was struck immediately with his presence and ability. Since then, I’ve followed his career closely, in the reserves and out on loan at Brentford (where there still talk about him as being one of the best players they’ve ever had). Maybe this might help those who haven’t seen as much of him as others:

No matter what the level, there are some truly world-class saves in there and this young chap really could be to goalkeeping what Cesc is to midfielders.

Yes. He is that good.

His record so far, including all matches with Brentford reads Played 35 Conceded 33 Clean sheets 14, that’s a clean sheet percentage of 40% – impressive by anyone’s standards and it’s also handy to note that when he played for Brentford last year away at Leeds he was voted Man Of The Match.

In other news, apparently Sven Goran Erikson wants Henry at Leicester. Not a current Arsenal player I know, but this was a funny story. Arsenal, Barcelona, New York, Leicester. Can’t see it really can you? (No offence Leicester).

A lot of people were reporting that we were in for Richard Dunne, but not so according to the Daily Mail. The entire story, both the us looking in to him and us not going for him, are based on nothing but conjecture. But hey, at least it’s a new name that we haven’t been linked to before, well, at least not that I can remember.

A few places are linking us with the ‘new Dennis Bergkamp’ but I can’t tell if the spread across the web has all come from one baseless story or not. Regardless, €7m for a Lativan kid striker seems like just the type of signing we’d make when we’re desperate for a centre-half.  There doesn’t seem to be any foundation to this story at all from what I can see, but hey, what do I know?

In confirmed transfer news, Arsenal’s Ryo Miyaichi will join Feyenoord until the end of the season and is the first loan deal of the new partnership between the two clubs (read about that here). Don’t forget, you can check the status of all transfers in and out, both as permanent deals and loan agreements here. Only confirmed transfers will appear on this page.

And that’s your lot for today, I’ll take a look up at the possible line-up ahead of our replay tomorrow, so all that remains for me to say is if you haven’t got your Theo Van Nasregas shirt you’d better move fast as they are flying out and they won’t be on sale forever. Click the image below (showing the back of the ladies shirt) to go to the UK store which ships to the more common destinations or click here to go to the worldwide store which ships to just about everywhere on the planet from the USA store.

UPDATE:

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has joined Cardiff on loan until the end of the season.