Filling Flamini's Boots... solve our midfield suffering

A little over a year ago, Gunners fans were enjoying the boys sitting top of the table and games that were dominated by beautiful football from a young squad... Well, we all know how last season ended. Our already young squad got even younger as we lost the likes of Hleb, Flamini, Gilberto, Lehmann, as well as sending out Senderos on loan.
Is losing that experience what has brought us to where we are now? 5th in the Prem, struggling to have any sort of consistency, and pulling players out of position to cover a squad that was thin BEFORE our injury crisis? I think not. Hleb was great on the ball and worked our quick touch system like a master, but he had no driving attack force, scoring just 11 times in his Arsenal career in all competitions(mostly in his final season when he learned how to take a shot). I would take Sammy Nasri over Hleb any day, Sammy already has 5 goals this season and 4 assists he is a fantastic creative attacker and could just use a bit more consistency that will hopefully come the more he plays in the Arsenal system. As for Gilberto, and Lehmann both Arsenal to the core, but their time had come Gilberto's injury problems and Lehmann's temper and loss of form showed their prime had past and I was not too sad to see them go. Oh, and Big Phil was sent out on loan to gain some much needed confidence, the big Swiss goon can play he just needs to know that.
So we lost some experience with our older players but what we really lost was one Mathieu Flamini. He was one of the best impact subs we had really giving life to the squad during the 06-07 season and his last season with us we really saw what he could do and was a strong part of our system. Flamini was Cesc's defensive partner allowing Fab to play up and let his creativity shine. No one on the current squad challenges attacking play like he did full force on every ball and just a constant workhorse, the boy was everywhere on the field really challenged for the ball in midfield. He knew the Arsenal system and was wheel in. Now no one seems to fit, Song is the most inconsistent mess I have ever seen either gets beat on ever challenge or makes absurd unnecessary fouls. Diaby is too leggy and while brilliant at times with the attck when he can hold on to the ball he doesn't hold his on defensively. Denilson is fantastic and I think he is going to be a very important part of the team in years to come but when he can't handle rough play, he goes down and loses tough 50/50 balls that we need to be winning our midfield is weak. Someone needs to find Mathieu's old boots to bring some balance back to our midfield as his type of play is what we are missing at the moment. When cesc DOES come back he needs to be able to go up field creating the attack and creating vulnerability in the defense.
The other internal solution is possibly Djourou... but do we dare take him out of our unstable back four while he has been in such good form this season? So who else? A transfer possibly? Noble? Upson? I am sort of at a loss. With all the rumors floating around Im really starting to believe Arshavin is coming, but from what I have seen he is no defensive midfielder. So what to do and who needs to come in or step up? The questions I am sure we are all waiting to have answered. _TGD