Whisper it quietly, but it's beginning to look like Robin Van Persie might just be back to his best. I say whisper, because I suspect that even loud noises are enough to injure the delicate Dutchman. Good thing he plays at the Emirates, right?

This is especially good news, given that after Manchester City's loss to on Saturday, Arsenal are basically Manchester United's only challenger for the coveted premier league title. United lead Arsenal by two points with a game and hand, but lead City by 3 points with 2 games in hand and Chelsea by 10 points (with no games in hand). For the first time in years Arsenal are in the now slightly unfamilar territory of a two horse title race, as well as being the neutral's choice for the league by default, because no one wants to see Man U win another bloody championship, especially when they've been so distinctly average all season.

Arsenal's problem in providing an effective challenge to United this season has been rooted in the wild inconsistencies of the back four, but on Saturday, thankfully, the defence was given a rest by a unbelieveably unambitious Wigan team who seemed to have come to terms with being beaten before the match had even started. Having been accompanied by only a handful of fans (barely an exaggeration, really, there were about 60 of them) and knowing full well that they were up against an overwhelmingly superior footballing force, Wigan seemed happy to camp out in their own half - even after the first goal went in, some of the players will still time-wasting, presumably to stop themselves from being on the end of a thrashing.

Consequently, Arsenal were rather given free reign to attack for about %95 of the game, and it was Van Persie who best utilised this attacking freedom by scoring his first career hat-trick. He could have had more, as could the rest of the team were it not for the first half heroics of Wigan goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi, who made more than a few top notch saves to keep the score respectable.

The regularity with which Arsenal created chances was a joy to behold, their inability to convert them being the only troublesome aspect of the afternoon. Van Persie's sharpness in front of goal makes everything else pale in comparison though, as the striker is comfortably Arsenal's biggest threat up front when he's fully fit. His first goal was typical of the Dutchman, as he ran onto a through ball from Song and fired a first time shot past the keeper for the opener. The finish was pedestrian however, when compared to his second. A lofted Fabregas pass dropped just outside the six yard box, and Van Persie was on hand to volley into the net without breaking stride.

The hat-trick seemed an inevitability when Fabregas was felled in the box (for which centreback Gary Caldwell earned his marching orders) but the Dutchman, normally clincal from 12 yards, blasted his effort miles over the bar. Having obviously earmarked a spot for the match ball on his mantlepiece, he seemed determined to bag his third, and after first curling an effort onto the post, he was duly rewarded when Theo Walcott latched onto a through ball, holding the ball up until Van Persie was able to take it off his toe and smash the ball past the goalie.

He's going to need to stay sharp too, because after the cup tipes against Ipswich and Huddersfield, Arsenal have to play Everton, Newcastle, Wolves and Barcelona. Having scored six goals in his last three games however, the striker looks like he means business.

Ipswich tomorrow, and Arsenal need to overcome a one goal deficit if they're to win their first silveware in five years. That said, I'm not really sure how worried anyone actually is about the 'five years' thing outside of the media. As far as I can tell, most Arsenal fans are content that their team has remained competitive at the highest level of football despite the financial implications of building a huge stadium. Besides, when did a football fan's enjoyment depend entirely on material success? Can't we just be happy that we can watch our team play awesome football week in, week out in our enormous and highly lucrative new stadium? Frankly I'd prefer to finish second than win the Carling Cup, which is more joke than trophy.

Spurs are looking to move to new digs soon too - let's see if they can hold on to their champions league spot when they're pouring hundreds of millions into a new home. Besides, if they build their stadium anything like they play their football, it'll look plenty flash but lack solid foundations. Ha.

So 2010 is behind us, a year of few highs and a lot of lows, especially for Arsenal and England fans, and by way of a send off I think it proper to dish out some awards to the heroes and villains of the past year in what I like to call 'The Arshies'.

Best Arshavin: A hotly contested award, but there was one candidate who stood head and shoulders above the rest. Take a bow, Andrey.

Worst Arshavin: His lackadaisical performances on the pitch this season, as well as almost running over my feet in his car outside the Emirates that one time mean that Andrey runs out clear winner.

Most Improved Player: This one will need to be split in two, à la King Solomon, and half given to Gareth Bale and half to Samir Nasri. Both have looked pretty phenomenal this season.

Biggest Wanker: Lot of names to choose from for this award, but giving it collectively to everyone at FIFA seems fair (more on them later). Honourable mentions go to Phil Brown, Mark Hughes and Tony Pulis.

Best Signing: Slim pickings for this category: no one player has seemed like great business. Chamakh looks like a decent striker, but has struggled with form of late; David Silva looks like a good buy, but has hardly set the league alight. Sadly this award can only really go to Tottenham talisman Rafael van der Vaart.

Stupidest thing that Wayne Rooney did award: Hmmm, sleep with a prostitute, or prostitute himself to Man City to drive up his salary at Utd? He seems to have gotten away with both, so fair play to the lad.

Sorest losers: Barcelona, Champions League semi final, second leg. Mourinho prancing around the pitch looking super smug is enough to rile up even the most docile fan, but turning the sprinklers on them? Pretty crass Barca.

Best Supporting Actor: Chelsea's assistant manager Ray Wilkins picks up this award, as apparently, without his support Carlo Ancelotti and the rest of the cast of the Chelsea soap opera can't function properly.

Enough of that, and more on Arsenal, who despite having lost 5 games already this season are still within touching distance of the Premier League summit, thanks in part to the indifferent and downright pisspoor form of Man Utd and Chelsea respectively. Consequently this season is, at least at the moment, pretty exciting. Of course when Utd eventually and inevitably limp to the title unopposed everyone will tut and say: "Well who didn't see that one coming?" and they will decry the predictability and lack of competitiveness at the top end of the league. Well to those people I say shut up and remember that it could be worse: Spurs could have won the title. And then they will choke on their glass of merlot and think that maybe third place isn't so bad after all, as long as those brash upstarts from up the road don't finish above us.

Arsenal could win the title, they really could, and should they beat Manchester City tomorrow, then maybe we can start to believe again. The pessimist in me says that they probably won't do either of those things though. Second place is up for grabs however, as long as the Ray Wilkins-less Chelsea continue to struggle against teams like Villa, whose own troubles this season are of course well documented.

Alarmingly for the optimists among us, Man Utd are top, unbeaten, and have done all this playing pretty poorly. Rather ominously they have just recently started playing well, and look as if, like Chelsea last season, they will win the league almost by default. Plus ça change, right?

Meanwhile there has of course been the farcical proceedings over at FIFA headquarters where, as everyone knows, the delegates opted to hand over the World Cups of 2018 and 2022 to Russia and Qatar. There's been plenty said, most of it through gritted teeth and with clenched fists, and all of it reeking of sour grapes, but to my mind, far and away the most shocking aspect of the whole debacle was that people were even surprised. Surely anyone who knew anything about Blatter and his cronies could have foreseen what would happen? FIFA is a who's who of some of the richest, vilest most corruptible men in football, but apparantly everyone involved in the bids that wasn't from Russia and Qatar had no idea. Erm, hello? The writing's been on the wall from day one, and it said 'give us money'.

At the end of the day, when the dust has settled and all's said and done etc. Russia may be corrupt as hell and run by mafiosos, but it's still a big big country, and one that's dead keen on football, so I don't mind too much about them getting it. It's the decision to go with Qatar that's truly despicable. Does Qatar have a proud footballing heritage? No, the team has never even qualified for a World Cup. Is it a large country, or a well populated one? No and no, it's smaller than Wales and has a population of 1.6 million. Is it one which would allow daytime matches during the summer? Erm, no again, with temperatures soaring to a balmy 41 degress Celcius during June. Is Qatar a country where homosexuality is legal? Oh my no. So what is it that could have attracted FIFA to this incredibly wealthy country? Answers on a postcard please.

Man City tomorrow, fingers crossed for that one. News in is that Silva and super sulk, er super sub Mario Balotelli will both be out injured. Maybe Arsenal vanquished some demons against Chelsea which will allow them to play well against the big teams. Or maybe not. Probably the latter.