The curse of The Gooner cover strikes again. Yesterday’s new issue featured the red carded Jack Wilshere on the front, who will presumably miss three games for his red card, although one of those the Carling Cup visit to Newcastle which I imagine he might have been rested for anyway. He’ll keep his hand in with the Champions League game on Tuesday, assuming he is not dropped for the returning Fabregas. Logically, it is Diaby who should give way.

Our number 2 was close to getting the Eboue-style bird yesterday. His performance in the role behind the striker was disappointing to say the least, but not much of a surprise really. France’s dismal display in South Africa over the summer was not purely down to Diaby, but he was part of the fulcrum of the team, who were a pale shadow of that which won back to back trophies ten years ago. You could say the same about Arsenal now and in the first ten years of Wenger’s tenure.

Unfortunately, here is a player that looked promising in 2006, got seriously injured and has rarely justified his selection since. Flashes of total brilliance are delightful, but it’s the rest that lets you down. In short, he is paid way too much money for what he gives in return and has become a joke. He weakens the team. The fear is that if Fabregas does return on Tuesday, then Diaby will be moved back and Wilshere relegated to the bench. That is the way of Wenger, but let us hope that it is not so.

There were no complaints about Wilshere’s red card from the manager or the player. Rightly so. It may not have been cynical, but was certainly reckless. It reminded me a lot of the foul Paul Gascoigne committed on Thomas Berthold in the 1990 World Cup semi-final. Wilshere has potentially as much talent as the young Gascoigne, but it must be hoped he is more level headed and able to cope with the attention that is coming his way. He will hopefully learn to cut out tackles of this type without losing the edge that makes him an obvious competitor. This boy’s not long turned 18, but there is no issue about his lacking a winning mentality. Wilshere is made of the right stuff and it’s been a little too long since Arsenal have enjoyed a number of players you could say that about. The indiscipline of the challenge was not matched by his overall performance. Alex Song seems to fancy himself going forward these days and his young partner provides insurance for these (usually fruitless) sorties by playing his postion.

There is some speculation that Cesc Fabregas did not play yesterday as some form of censure for his comments on a Spanish radio interview that his Arsenal team-mates lacked a winning mentality. It’s certainly a view that I have some sympathy with. There are some who have tasted triumph in the ranks, but invariably with clubs before they arrived in north London. Arshavin, Squillaci and Chamakh come to mind. Van Persie and Fabregas won the FA Cup in 2005 and the latter has obviously enjoyed success at international level. I hope he didn’t play because the manager simply did not want to risk injury as with the multitude of fixtures approaching in November. The performance against Birmingham shows why the captain is a vital component of the team, although we will have to get used to life without him as I think it’s more or less accepted he will be moving on next summer.

There was a guy a few seats down who, during the second half, shouted “Stop c***ing around!’ with reference to the amount of possession on the edge of the penalty area that does not always garner an attempt on goal. Certainly, there are too many occasions when a short sideways pass is made (and sometimes intercepted), when you’d have to say the odds of a goal would be improved by shooting with the hope of feeding off any rebounds. Too often promising moves broke down through over-elaboration, and when Diaby was on the ball, hw was simply so ponderous that it allowed the Birmingham defence to get back. The word ‘incisive’ has no place in an account of yesterday’s encounter.

Chamakh took a bit of a dive for the penalty, but every other side uses the dark arts so why should Arsenal play with a handicap? I’m bored of winning the fair play trophy. A friend mentioned after the game that he was disappointed with the lack of support for Chamakh when he was being hustled by Birmingham players in the aftermath of the spot kick award. It provided a little bite to the fixture which I think did it no harm. The game against West Brom was one that featured little in the way of passion from the home side.

Birmingham were pretty poor really, but Wenger’s team made hard work of them. There was certainly an argument to let Walcott on to have a go at their left back, but incredibly, the manager spurned the opportunity to remove Diaby, switch Nasri to the centre and unleash Theo. Still, a win’s a win, and with both Chelsea and Manchester United dropping two points yesterday, it has to go down as a good day for Gooners. I don’t have much faith that Arsenal can win the crunch games they need to, but it would be nice if they could at least keep things interesting. Just the five points behind Chelsea now. Mind you, level with Manchester City, who they visit next week.