Arsenal remain the only EPL team still in with a chance of complete a unique quadruple of trophies, after their FA Cup third round replay success over Championship side Leeds United.

Barcelona await in the Champions League next month and the Gunners’ serene progress to the Carling Cup Final was jolted by a surprise 1-0 defeat to another Championship side, Ipswich Town in the away leg of the two-legged semi-final last week.

But their serene progress to a 3-0 win over struggling West Ham in the EPL last Saturday evening keeps them very much in the title hunt, two points behind both Manchesters, City and United, with the visit of struggling Wigan to the Emirates this Saturday.

 

Meanwhile, Belgian defender Thomas Vermaelen faces at least another six weeks on the sidelines, after undergoing surgery in Sweden this week on his long-term Achilles tendon injury.

And Brazilian midfielder Denilson stoked controversy earlier this week when he appeared to criticise the club’s Spanish captain Cesc Fabregas for a lack of “leadership.”

An early Samir Nasri goal settled Gunners nerves at Leeds. And further goals from right-back Bacary Sagna and substitute Robin Van Persie ensured there would be no repeat of their surprise loss at Ipswich.

Captain Cesc Fabregas criticised Ipswich’s tactics, saying: “I don’t know if it is long ball or a rugby kick,” after the Arsenal defence failed to deal with Ipswich’s direct route to their winner. “But it worked for them.”

The return leg is at the Emirates this coming Tuesday.

Fabregas himself came under criticism from team-mate Denilson, who reportedly claimed the 23-year-old was “not a born leader.”

Subsequently, everybody has attempted to play down talk of a rift, including the two players themselves.

Fabregas used social networking site Twitter to dismiss the matter as a “misunderstanding.” And Gunners supremo Arsene Wenger blamed the misunderstanding on “bad translators or good translators with a bad spirit.”

Wenger described the treatment of Vermaelen’s injury as “not a real surgery but a procedure.”

He claimed the tendon was “very rarely injured and they tell me many people do not have one at all,” before adding that he would be fully recovered in six weeks “if all goes well.”

Meanwhile Denilson and striker Marouane Chamakh look set to overcome knocks to be fit for the Wigan game, Wenger describing them as “small doubts.” Goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski’s shoulder injury keeps him on the sidelines.