Return of the King - but Wenger must use this week for signings

By Avenell Dave

The King is back, long live the king!"

So Thierry Henry returns to Arsenal for the first time in four years and all eyes and hopes will be on our record goalscorer when he comes off the bench to inevitably one of the loudest cheers the Emirates stadium has ever heard.

A game against Leeds is just what we need to ret a few weary legs and I don't think the opposition will put up as much of a fighta s they did last season.

That said, we need to make sure that the players who do feature do enough to earn us a comfortable victory. The last thing we need is another fixture, even though I expect a reserve team look to the first XI tonight.

That said, the FA Cup is our best chance of silverware this season and we have to take it seriously, but with so many players in the famed 'red zone' and defenders stretched to breaking point, I can see a couple of young faces playing for us this evening.

In midfield, we all want to see how Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain does but as with Theo Walcott before him, the expectations don't necessarily guarantee that he will be a world beater overnight.

We have to be patient with him and hope he gets the experience to earn him a bigger role in the Premier League season.

Losing to Fulham was a massive blow and one we have to put behind us, but while we're all delighted to have Henry back at the club, he will be gone again by March and we need more permanent reinforcements.

It may well be that we're able to cope without a defensive signing, regardless of what Wenger says to the media, with Thomas Vermaelen and Bacary Sagna both nearer to fitness.

As an aside, we've lost a lot of our attacking strength by losing full-backs, because of the width and support they provide us going forward and the sooner we get them all fit again, the better.

But while Lukasz Podolski seems to be unavailable until the summer, we desperately need someone to share the load with RvP.

Haven't I said that before?

We all know that even though Maraoune Chamakh will start tonight, he is not good enough for this team, nor is Andrey Arshavin, who I suspect now wishes he could be back in Russia somewhere getting ready for the EURO2012 championships.

Not signing a goalscorer this month will almost certainly cost us fourth, signing one and we're in with a shout.

Right now, that's the best this team can hope for and while the focus quite rightly ahs to be on the FA Cup for now, a few days of respite before the Premier League begins again should be enough to see us sign the player(s) we need to push on.

Addict XI

Almunia

Yennaris Squillaci Koscielny Miquel

Oxlade-Chamberlain Coquelin Ramsey

Arshavin Chamakh Benayoun