Well, this is my blog post for around three months. You could say its been a while. Nevertheless I’ve been pretty busy in the world of reality and whilst Arsenal are still a major part of my life, I perhaps haven’t been as vocal about them so far as I was last season.

Anyway, today brought good news. The good news is that Arsenal have signed a new 5 year deal with Emirates Airlines worth £150m, meaning an extra £30m per season. Now this may not sound particularly exciting to the ordinary fan, but trust me, its pretty important. Now, I’m no accountant, but even I know there’s no real excuse for us to sell our top players anymore. The reason we did prior to now was that otherwise we would have made a loss, something many clubs operate on anyway. Let’s not forget that the kit manufacturer deal with Nike worth £13m also expires in 2014 and will no doubt be improved upon when it comes to renewal at the time of expiry. Lets just hope that these deals will lead to more investment in world class players, something which hasn’t been possible without the inevitable player sales for a while now.

Moving onto on the pitch matters, where we’re finally starting to look like we are becoming more cohesive and finding a way to get results, whether that involves playing attractive Wengerball style football, or sending crosses into the aerially dominant Giroud. Cazorla’s back to his best after a slight dip in form, Giroud looks almost unstoppable on current form and whilst Podolski may not be having the same overall impact as the other two, he’s still chipping in with a few goals, including a brilliant volley against Montpellier. There’s no doubt about it, this team is good enough to challenge for the top four or above. My only worries about the team would be if one or two of our key players got injured or if we experience another dip in form just when we start to get going. But lets try and not think about that.

The game tomorrow will be another difficult examination. Despite winning just two games this season, Villa certainly threatened to burst Manchester United’s bubble when they played them and without super-sub Javier Hernandez, the team in 2nd may well have been beaten by one whose manager is on the receiving end of a touchline ban when they face us tomorrow.

Despite their lack of star players, Aston Villa do have their own threats in Christian Benteke, the 21 year old Belgian striker who has impressed in his Premier League début season and declared his love for Arsenal, whilst Andreas Weimann has also become an important part of the team.

One player who will miss the game is Theo Walcott, a player who has seemingly  gone under the radar this season in terms of his contribution to the team. He’s out with a shoulder injury but will most likely be replaced by Oxlade-Chamberlain or Aaron Ramsey, a player who has been much maligned this season for his performances on the right wing but showed his natural ability in a short cameo against Montpellier. Personally I would rather start Chamberlain to stretch the opposition defence with his pace and dribbling, something which was noticeably lacking from his game when he started on Wednesday, as he was constantly drifting inside, leaving Sagna primarily to work the flank.

However, when on form and sticking to what he does best, Chamberlain is one of our most devastating players and gives us a viable alternative to our latest contract rebel in Theo Walcott. Who knows, maybe the new sponsorship deal will lead to the renewal of his contract. With the improvement made by Walcott this season, its imperative that he signs on for the long term. He may not be a lone striker, but he’s a bloody devastating winger.

Lets hope for a nice comfortable win tomorrow. Of course it doesn’t always work like that, but it would be nice, very nice.