Let's make no bones about it, Thomas Vermaelen's red card could be very costly to Arsenal's title charge.

The central defender has been pivotal and may be sidelined just when we needed him most, as in football parlance 'St Andrews is not an easy place to go'. To tell the truth, nowhere away from home is an easy place to go, so maybe we shouldn't read too much into that.

But we can't forget the negative associations we have with St Andrews. Memories flood back. Gallas sitting on the pitch after the game (by the way, I was one of the few not annoyed at his petulance, but it's memorable nonetheless). Clichy messing around at the back when he should have cleared. And, of course, Eduardo's horrific injury.

It would be poetic justice if Eduardo got the winner at St Andrews. I would so love that to happen. Can't see it happening though. Why? Eduardo is really out-of-form.

Quite why Wenger put Eduardo on instead of Theo Walcott against West Ham, I'm not sure. Perhaps he felt he needed the run out.

Eduardo is living proof that leg-breaking injuries are extremely difficult to recover from. Let's hope Aaron Ramsey fares better than that.

At least Diaby seems to have completely recovered from the horrific injury that he suffered. In fact, Diaby is playing some of his best games for Arsenal right now. I'm still not 100% sure about him though.

Why? It's his decision-making. When he should release the ball, Diaby often hangs on to it. I wonder if he'll ever learn. But he's only 23. He won't be at his peak for another 4 years, so I'll be patient. He's playing better than I thought he was capable of, so to some extent I've already got egg on my face and I'm very glad about that!

Long may Wenger and his under-rated players keep proving me wrong!

But coming back to Vermaelen...can we cope with Sol Campbell and Alex Song as our central defenders against Birmingham? Judging by the second half against West Ham, I'd say yes.