In hindsight, my last piece before the Citeh game was a tad premature but is it me or did the Kiev game bring about a sense of deja vu?

The odds were against us, the media were drooling at the thought of Arsenal faltering in Europe as well as the league and the rather scrappy game was won by a late goal which was essentially a long ball over the top that got tucked away by the main frontman. I remember seeing Ian Wright score a similar goal when I went to watch Arsenal play Wimbledon way back when I was 10. That said, he scored several goals like that from what I remember.

But the game had a very pleasant familiarity as in some ways it was like a trip down memory lane. It's that same kind of nice familiar feeling that you get when you catch up with friends from school (the ones you actually liked, not the playground thug you're being polite to so he doesn't give you those painful wedgies he used to dish out so freely in year 4), sleeping with an old flame or seeing the usual films (at least 6 Bond films, Wizard of Oz, Santa Claus, Home Alone 1&2, Flight of the Navigator, etc) on TV over Christmas.

You know it wasn't all perfect and there were bits of it that were crap but for a little while you just get wrapped up in the cosy sentiment of it all. You snap out of it afterwards but you savour the moment, right up until the morning after or when she does one of her annoying habits (chatting on the phone for ages during or after sex, for example) that helped you get over her in the first place.

The same style of play was used for the Chelsea game and it got the result the team needed. The defence was surprisingly solid and I think Johan Djourou may well be the answer at the back. I'm not strictly on the anti-Silvestre bandwagon as to be honest, he's played for a big club for 10 years and there are only a handful of defenders with the big-match experience that he has. He was signed as back-up and I'm a lot more comfortable with him as back-up than I ever was about the likes of Cygan or Stepanovs. From what I've seen, he's shown a great deal more maturity and professionalism in his attitude than Gallas has recently and I can't exactly see him running his mouth to the press. And to be fair, he only cost 750k, which is a reasonable price for a guy with his experience.

Whilst I'm being 'fair' (in my eyes at least), apart from that cock-up that nearly gifted Kiev a goal, Gallas has shown signs of wanting to redeem himself after what can only be described as a PR disaster for all involved. If he is genuinely trying to right some of his recent wrongs then we should at least give him a chance, even if he has done monumentally stupid things. If he hadn't learnt anything then I'd still be slating him but maybe he's actually learnt the meaning of humility after 31 years.

Granted, the performance at the Bridge wasn't as good as the United game but it was still a win in a very tricky place to get a win and there were still signs of a more gritty approach to Arsenal's play. Obviously form dictates that it will all come crashing down at Wigan but we can only hope they learn from their mistakes. Until then, it's the kids against Burnley and for that we can only hope that they don't get complacent because their main striker is Ade Akinbiyi.