So Arsenal didn't play particularly well against Bolton on Saturday. The passing was sloppy at times, Adebayor did his best John Fashanu impression once again (at least Fash still had his mighty elbows I suppose) and the game was pretty forgettable. But it was three points and as United showed against Sunderland recently, sometimes you have to settle for scrappy 1-0 wins against supposedly 'lesser' teams and those games can make all the difference in the long run.

Wasn't the inability to carve out scrappy 1-0 wins a criticism levelled at us by the media many times last season? And call me sentimental if you like but I can't help getting a touch nostalgic over the classic 1-0 to the Arsenal scoreline. Doesn't it remind you of the good old days when we actually used to win something from time to time?

With the current injury list (which was lucky not to be added to given Bolton's main tactic of trying cripple opposition players), the Wimbledon-esque opposition and the Siberian weather London experienced, the game was never going to be a classic. Megson's little rant about Arsenal supposedly being dirty is a bit like Stalin complaining that his political opponents used brutal, underhand and morally questionable tactics - even if Megson/Uncle Joey did have a point, their complaints are still total and utter hypocrisy. And for all their dirty (sorry, 'physical') tactics, Bolton's record against us in the last five years has been pretty impressive in terms of results so they were always likely to resort to the old tried and tested formula.

But with the aforementioned injury list, at least we've still been getting results and are now seven games unbeaten. We haven't played spectacularly in those seven games but every decent run of form has to start somewhere. Not every game of the famous unbeaten run was a classic but they still counted in the long run. The team may not be at their creative, free-flowing best and they did look pretty average but at least they're learning to win ugly, which is an improvement of sorts. In past years I wouldn't have been surprised of Bolton nicked something from the game but they didn't, so there's some improvement on recent seasons.

I know some fans will complain because of the high ticket prices and the wages of the players, etc but right now we can't afford to be picky about how we win, especially as Champions League qualification's at stake already. January isn't known for being a time of year when the most scintillating football is played, let alone when our most creative players are out injured so let's just be grateful the team are getting results even if they aren't vintage. If Arsenal do get back into the top four, will anyone be complaining about the nature of the recent victories against Wigan, Pompey and Bolton? It beats drawing 4-4 with Spurs in my opinion.

So with the current situation, we will just have to make do with good old 1-0 to the Arsenal until things pick up. Just try to think of the result as an old friend you haven't seen in a while.