After a hard run of fixtures which leaves them just six points of the top of the league, Arsenal have, by far, the kindest run-in of the title challengers. A gritty victory over Liverpool sees them approaching GW27 with a renewed sense of optimism, as Arsene Wenger’s views that the club can still win the title now firmly vindicated.

Wenger must also be delighted to see the return to fitness of Abou Diaby in midfield to boost the club’s league bid. Diaby’s match-winning performance against Liverpool was pretty much symbolic of his form this season; protected by the presence of Alexandre Song, Diaby alongside Cesc Fabregas, has been given license to forage forward time and again this season, in a system that has worked wonders for the performances of all three.

At just 5.7m in FPL, Diaby looks an outstanding value-for-money midfielder from now till pretty much the end of the season. As mentioned in a midweek “Technical Area” article, a look at his FPL performances this season will show that in his last five home league games, Diaby has plundered a fantastic haul of 44 FPL points (14,9,6,5,10), a sure sign that, whilst Cesc picks up the plaudits, Diaby, nonetheless, most definitely grabs his fair share of the points.

With the FA Cup and upcoming Carling Cup Final causing plenty fixture frustration for many clubs, Arsenal’s exit from both competitions is at least the cause of some relief to us FPL managers; with no upcoming gameweek disruption on the horizon for Arsenal, any planning of transfers in seems comparatively straightforward.

Arsenal will be looking to claw back that six point gap as quickly as possible, and with their next seven games being (SUN, stk, BUR, hul, WHM, bir, WLV), couldn’t really ask for a better chance. Diaby’s above points return implies he may just be ready to boost his own FPL tally considerably, too.