Lots of stuff still bubbling over from the Carling Cup game the other night.

Carlos Vela, hat-trick hero, shows he's got a good head on his shoulders by acknowledging that young players, despite being given their chance by Arsene Wenger, have to work hard if they want to make it at Arsenal. He also talks about the unity in the team, saying:

We are very close as a group of players. We have a strong friendship - it's almost like we are a family. You can see that from the way in which the team is playing.

And that's a big factor in a team's success. I know we've spoken before about how you don't have to be friends with somebody in order to play football with them, but if you are mates I think it makes a difference. You're willing to put in that bit extra.

Nicklas Bendter says the display of the youngsters has justified the boss's decision not to sign anybody before the end of the transfer window. The big Dane says:

There is talk about the strength of the squad and every year the boss says we have the players. They have showed they have the quality to do what is required. We are strong and capable enough. We are top of the table and are doing well.

There's a long way to go yet though. Bendtner has had a decent start to the season and his game looks to have become much more rounded. He's got a good eye for a pass and the technique to carry it out, he certainly knows where the goal is and more importantly he seems to be much better integrated into the first team this season. Keep it up, Nick.

And to complete the Carling Cup fun we have young Jack Wilshere being compared to Liam Brady by none other than Arsene Wenger. Well, by none other than other people whose comments Arsene Wenger has referenced, but I'd imagine those people are people know knew or played with Chippy down the years. Anyway, it's about time we had a new Liam Brady. We've had a new Vieira on more than one occasion, a new Tony Adams from time to time and Theo is, of course, the new Thierry Henry, but a new Liam Brady is something else. The manager is aware of the fact you can't put too much pressure on Wilshere but it's clear he's a very special talent. How far he goes is entirely down to him but he looks fantastic and he has a cheeky little scamp face. 

And while I don't want to go too overboard with the Carling Cup win as there's still a lot of football to be played this season, some of the results we've seen this week should put it in some kind of perspective. Fulham, Man City, West Ham and Villa all out to lower league opposition. Other Premier League clubs have merely scraped through so it's a good sign that we can do what we did on Tuesday night. 

The League Manager's Association has come to the defence of Arsene Wenger after the comments this week from UEFA President Michel Platini. It's been interesting to see how people have sided with Wenger on this one, even fans of teams who you wouldn't expect to back the Arsenal boss in any way. I suppose it goes to prove how misguided Platini's comments are. And for more on why he said what he did and his reasons make sure you tune in to tomorrow's Arsecast where I'll have an in-depth interview with France Football's Philippe Auclair to talk about Platini and our Carling Cup kids.

You might have seen that Chelsea have signed that bloke Mineiro that we had on trial with us. I suppose it illustrates brilliantly the difference between the two teams. Chelsea, short of a player in midfield, will not even consider giving a young player a chance, choosing instead to sign a guy who is basically at the tail end of his career. We had him on trial, didn't think he was good enough and now he's signed for Chelsea. How disheartening it must be to be a young player at Chelsea knowing you are never going to get near the first team. Not that I give a shit about them, nits make lice and all that.

Right, that's about that. Have a fun Thursday, if that's possible, and I'll talk to you on tomorrow's blog. 

I have to say I feel slightly envious of those who were at the Grove last night. With almost every game these days either on TV or available via a stream you really notice when there's just no way of seeing it. The fans who were in attendance were treated to a display from a team of great talent and potential and Sheffield United just couldn't live with them.

They had an average of just nineteen, n-n-n-n-nineteen, making them the youngest ever Arsenal side to represent the club. The opponents might have been a Championship side but they have plenty of experience, a decent manager and to put 6 goals past them is really an incredible result.

Nicklas Bendtner got the first two, Carlos Vela the next two, Jack Wilshere got his first Arsenal goal and Vela wrapped his hat-trick on his first competitive start for the club to complete the rout. You can see the goals here. Arsene Wenger says these are best young players he has ever worked with and it's easy to see why. Again the Carling Cup has provided us with a wonderful glimpse of not just the club's future but the present too as a number of these players showed the boss they're ready to play Premier League football. And the boss isn't scared of doing it either, saying:

They might be young but they don’t play like kids. I wouldn’t be scared to play any of them in the Premier League because they all have the talent to play at the top level. I knew they were good but I did not know how they would react to playing on the big stage.

Now the challenge is to keep them all together and integrate them into the first team over the next couple of years.

It's difficult to single anyone out, especially when you haven't seen the whole game, but in pre-season Vela and Bendtner worked very well together and that seems to have continued. And for Vela to smash home a hat-trick on his first competitive start for the club is hugely impressive. Perhaps those fortunate enough to have been there last might like to share their thoughts on the players and performances in today's arses.

More thoughts from the manager on the official site and I suspect, after last night's result that our next game in this competition will be televised, giving the rest of us a chance to see these kids in action. Well done to them. As much as we love when the first team wins I think there's just a little extra glow of pride when we see Arsenal boys this young do what they did last night.

Away from the Carling Cup and the boss has responded to the comments made by Michel Platini in the French press. The woolly headed cuntbutler has made it quite clear he has a personal problem with Arsene and the comments made do not befit the highest standing official in UEFA. If he's not embarrassed about them he should be and if there's any kind of decency within that organisation then he should be made apologise for them.

The crux of Platini's argument is that Wenger is a businessman, not a football man. Which, of course, is a great load of hairy bollocks. Platini's ire should be directed at clubs who fail to be self-sufficient, who use sugar daddies owners to prop up their massive debts, not somebody who has undertaken the kind of work Wenger has. Somebody who has eschewed the idea of billionaire owners or spending big in the transfer market and has developed Arsenal with the resources at hand. He has brought through many young players of many nationalities and given them chances they would never receive anywhere else. Does that sound like a businessman to you?

And it's a bit rich, so to speak, for Platini to bemoan money in the game when he fucked off to Italy in the 80s to earn the big bucks. Since retiring from football Platini has given little back to the game he graced as a player. Now he spouts shite about having the World Cup every two years and supports Sepp Blatter's nonsensical and illegal ideas about 'home grown' players, designed purely to lower the level of club football so their precious international game can regain some standing. And that has nothing to do with them wanting their nations to be proud and powerful, it's so they can more easily sell advertising, sponsorship and corporate junkets for the World Cup and European Championships.

Platini is nothing more than a pencil-pushing administrator. A football civil servant, a low-level, yellow-bellied, half-witted, curly-haired, local politician whose influence of the game of football is restricted to inventing crazy new laws which show him to be slow-minded and verging on corrupt. For him to call Arsene Wenger a businessman is beyond pathetic. Wenger has done more for football this week than Platini has in his lifetime. He's quite entitled to think what he wants, the same way I'm entitled to call him a sad bastard for it, but the head of UEFA should not behave the way he has. The only good thing about it is that it will open up people's eyes to him and what he's really like.

Arsene 1-0 Platini (own goal).

Right so, that's about that. Let the day's creaming ourselves over the kids ... erm ... commence.

Till tomorrow.

Well, yesterday was certainly an interesting day with a match, a look at new boy Nasri and a new signing which sparked plenty of debate.

Let's start with the football and a 3-1 win over Stuttgart continued our pre-season preparations (Arsenalist has the goals and highlights). The first half was pretty dull but it gave a run out to Adebayor and van Persie up front and those 45 minutes will have done them some good. The Dutchman looked far sharper than his erstwhile colleague. Gallas started at the back alongside Djourou, Denilson in midfield with Eboue of all people, while Nasri and Walcott started on the flanks.

From what we saw of Nasri he looks quick, moves well, likes to have a shot (which is an obvious improvement on Hleb) and he can take a decent corner. I can remember Jens having to make a couple of good saves in the first half. The goals came in the second half though. Bendtner had come on and you could see what the previous couple of games had done for him. He looked quick, sharp and strong and he made the difference.

After we had gone behind it was he who ran and played a lovely ball through to Carlos Vela who took it wide and finished from a tight angle. The same two combined again for the second. Bendtner playing it into Vela, taking the return with his head and tucking it away smartly. I know he's had his critics but I think with regular playing time he could score a lot of goals in the season ahead.

The third came after typically tenacious work from Gael Clichy down our left. His cross came to Jack Wilshere, who was impressive in his short cameo, and his left footed finish was very nice indeed. Probably not the kind of scoreline Jens was hoping for against us but there you go. It's about our pre-season and it seems to be progressing very nicely.

And while we keep stressing there's not too much to be read into these games it's good to see some of the younger players really take their chances. Vela looks very useful indeed and Bendtner I've mentioned above. Walcott too looked quick and direct and while I've been very impressed with young Jack I think we need to bear in mind he's just gone 16 and we'd do well not to raise expectations too high. Let's give him time and let's keep the pressure off him.

Afterwards, and speaking about strikers, the boss said:

We're not as short of strikers as people thought. Vela is integrating very well into the team and Bendtner was already a force at the end of last season . . . and he will confirm that this year. Overall, we are still maybe one player short. But up front we don't need anybody.

Can't argue with that although I don't think we needed a striker anyway, now that Adebayor appears to be staying anyway. It's midfield where most of us think we need the signing and yesterday's news that we had signed Amaury Bischoff was met with ...erm... not much excitement? Is that fair?

His name was linked with us a a few weeks back and on the face of it, it seems like a typical Wenger signing. Nobody's ever heard of him, he has some French heritage, nobody's ever heard of him and he's cheap. It's hard to work out why we've bought him though. His professional record amounts to one professional game for Werder Bremen, and that was 16 minutes as a substitute. He's not a kid either. He's 21 years of age, compare the amount of games Cesc or Nasri or Walcott (by the time he's 21) have played and it seems most odd indeed.

I suppose if he's a cheap gamble who is not being counted on for the first team but who might play the odd Carling Cup game then there's no real problem with his signing. What has people worried is the idea that this might be the one signing Arsene Wenger was talking about. With some time having passed and being a little less cranky and full of wine as I was yesterday, I can't see that being the case. We're short in central-midfield, no question about it. You only have to look at the fact we played Eboue in there last night. Where is Diaby this pre-season? Injured, probably, which just about sums him up.

Perhaps Bischoff will surprise us all and turn out to be another gem unearthed by the boss. Perhaps he might establish himself as a decent squad player. Perhaps though, we're looking at another Alberto Mendez or Stefan Malz. And if I had to put money on it now I think that's where it would be going. I still think we'll make a signing in midfield simply because it's obvious to everyone that we need to. There are plenty of Arsenal sites out there, many of us differ in opinion, but I think this must be something everyone agrees on. And if it's obvious to us surely, surely, it's obvious to the boss.

Speaking of midfielders it looks like we're in for quite the windfall from the sale of David Bentley. Reports this morning suggest we could make as much as £7m from the deal which really is a brilliant bit of business. And Bentley confirms his status as a proper little cunt by joining Sp*rs. He'll probably be joined by Arshavin who has always dreamed of Barcelona, would love to play for Arsenal but is settling for them because nobody else wants him. I bet it will have always been his dream to follow in Rebrov's footsteps and let's hope he does exactly that.

Cesc talks about that game at Birmingham and while he says Gallas is a 'great' captain and says he has a lot of respect for him, he also says he's ready to take over the armband. You already know what I think about that so there's no point me going on about it. To me though it's telling that he references the Birmingham game. I know that it wasn't all Gallas that day, that the players would have been affected by what happened to Eduardo and the blow of the late penalty, but my point is that someone with real leadership skills would have dragged them out of that slump much more quickly.

Manuel Almunia says he has a lot of respect for Jens Lehmann but then makes it very clear that he's enjoying life without him. When he says himself, Fabianski and Mannone are three 'very nice guys' it doesn't take much to work out what he means.

And that's about it. The squad return to London to prepare for the Emirates Cup this weekend. They'll hook up with Kolo and Cesc ahead of the games against Real Madrid and Juventus which will provide more good tests for us, bearing in mind, of course, that their pre-season preparations are a week or two behind ours.

All the same I'm looking forward to seeing the games, they are on TV right? Final thought - the new away kit looks fucking brilliant, eh?

Till tomorrow.

Good morning,

today's blog comes to you with a slight midweek *boilk* as it was Blogette's birthday last night. She's 17 now. This is not good. It's much easier to own a 10 year old or a 14 year old. 17 year olds think they have rights and want to be treated like an adult and stuff. I told her she still has one more year before all that crap comes into play.

Anyway, let's move on from terrible things to happy things and finally, at last, we have sold Alexander Hleb. To Barcelona, no less. Will they never learn? He arrived there yesterday and performed the kind of badge kissing antics you'd expect from a pervert who gets their jollies from...erm...kissing badges. He claimed to 'love' Barcelona. Pffffff. Get to fuck, you non-scoring, Willem Dafoe looking cunthound. At least wait until you've scored a goal before you do that ... oh ... score a goal ... hmmmm, might be a while. Fair enough then.

Arsene Wenger said of Hleb's departure:

We must firstly thank Alex for his contribution towards Arsenal Football Club during his time with us. Alex played a significant role in the three seasons he was with the Club. We are comfortable with our decision to let him go and we are all looking forward to continuing our preparations for the new season ahead.

In other words, we're not that bothered and if you can think of anything to thank the fucker for in the three years he's been at Arsenal then by all means go for it but I'm fucking stumped. He played a significant role in us winning precisely fuck all.

Frankly, I'm amazed that he's gone to Barcelona. I don't know what kind of a player they think they're getting but perhaps they were looking for someone who can dribble very well and then pass the responsibility for scoring to someone else. Or indeed the legendary pre-assist which seems to have been invented by Hlebomaniacs to justify his existence.

Far from being a backward step I honestly believe this is a good move for Arsenal. This is no blow to the team. The transfer fee is believed to be around £12m, so we've made profit on him after three years, which is no less than we deserved having been frustrated by him in that time period. I've always said that Hleb was an incredibly skillful player, his close control and touch was fantastic, his dribbling and ability to make space was almost old-fashioned (in a good way) but his record in three seasons was just not good enough. Ten goals? That is rubbish. And before anyone says his job isn't to score goals I say 'Shhhhhh'.

I'd say the jammy fucker can't believe his luck and I have to say I'm a little irked that he gets to live in Barcelona and earn lots of money. Jealous? Yes. Of course. It's raining here again today. It hardly ever rained in Barcelona and there was sun and cheap beer and mojitos. Gah. Anyway, let's hope he follows in the footsteps of other Arsenal players who have made the move from London to Catalunya - may the Overmars and Petit be with you, Hleb. No goodbyes here. We've already moved on.

On the other hand Gilberto has arrived in Greece, according to reports, and was met at the airport by 1,500 Panathaikos fans. They carried him shoulder high before placing him in a carriage which was brought to the stadium by slaves and then he was fed grapes before putting on the Panathanaikos uniform which is some kind of leather thong and a trident. More on Gilberto when his departure is confirmed but we're losing a really nice guy and proper professional. Good luck to him.

There was more bad news for Adebayor as AC Milan announced their transfer business for the summer was finished. With Barcelona the only club supposedly interested in him, and even then it seems to be fading, Wanky Lanky is going to find himself with nowhere to go now. What I'd like to know is where he is. Is he at pre-season training? If not, why not? And if he's not then stick the fucker on the bench for the first few months of the season and don't give him any kind of pay rise at all.

Andrei Arshavin shows exactly how much he wants to join Arsenal here (Spanish). The headline reads 'Call me, Barcelona'. What a fucking tart.

The squad for Saturday's pre-season friendly against Barnet has been announced and new boys Carlos Vela and Aaron Ramsey are both included. I think this is actually on the TV on Saturday, perhaps Setanta. Someone can confirm in today's Arses, no doubt.

Right, well that's about that. I suspect, and it's only a gut feeling (and that could actually be last night's Japanese food), that the Hleb move will spark a bit of transfer activity from us. Midfielder? Defender? Striker? Robot ninja? I just don't know, but someone.

Till tomorrow, Arsebandits.

Morning all,

we'll start with the Sun's story about how we are interested in Gareth Barry. They ran a story last week saying we might be trying to nick the Villa man from under the noses of Liverpool but it seemed more like the kind of story planted by Barry's people to get Liverpool to finalise the deal. However, the Sun quotes Martin O'Neill, who says:

Myself and Steve Walford both know Arsene Wenger’s assistant Pat Rice. He phoned Steve to ask how the Liverpool thing had gone and said that they might show an interest. At the end of the conversation Arsenal said ‘that’s fine’ and that they’ll let us know. That is exactly what happened

So it's hardly earth shattering. We rang Villa and said we 'might' show an interest. I don't know if he means we rang and let them know at the end but it is at least a tentative link to a midfield player. Depending entirely on the price this could be a decent move - Barry needs no time to adapt to English football, what with being English and all, but if Villa are holding out for £18m from Liverpool then that's probably put him out of our price range. The over-inflated prices of English players never ceases to amaze me though - £17m for David Bentley would be hilarious if it wasn't so depressingly stupid.

Despite apparently playing down talks of a transfer Blackburn's Roque Santa Cruz has apparently told Paul Ince he wants to leave and Arsenal are one of the potential destinations. I suppose this all depends on what happens with Adebayor. A quick search of the Spanish press shows no indication that anything new is happening on that front. Nor Hleb. The papers usually have pictures of the players when they arrive at the airport but there's no sign of Dribbly McNoscore over there yet. Sport suggests that Arsene Wenger is determined not to make life easy for Barcelona with regards Adebayor but it's really just the same old crap recycled.

I wonder has Adebayor come back to London for pre-season training. There's no reason why he shouldn't have. Conspiracy theorists amongst you have emailed saying he's been taken out of promotional literature, the shop won't print his shirt unless you specifically ask for it etc. Me, I just want life to be as awkward as possible for him which is as much as he deserves for shooting his big, fat mouth off.

Meanwhile, the agent of Andrei Arshavin is getting itchy-feet. Having seen Zenit rubbish his claims that a £19m bid from an English club had been made he's doing his best to talk up Arsenal's interest, saying his client, who dreamt of Barcelona and only Barcelona, would really enjoy it at the Grove. It really does smack of desperation now and his dreams of a big pay day securing a great deal for his client are ebbing away.

Carlos Vela is looking forward to getting his Arsenal career going and playing with Cesc Fabregas. He says:

Spain was a just winner of Euro 2008 and Cesc Fabregas was sensational. For me he is my idol and it will be a great experience to work next to him in the squad. I hope he will help me in the first months. I want to be a warrior for The Gunners.

Awesome. I want him to be a warrior too, taking to the pitch in traditional Aztec garb and spearing opponents through the eye just because they look at him funny. Seriously though I'm really looking forward to seeing this young man in the red and little bit of white of Arsenal this season. It strikes me that we are building quite an array of talent for our wings/striking positions. Wenger has said that he sees Vela as a striker more than a winger so it'll be interesting to see where he gets played in pre-season. Will he do like Walcott and blood him on the flanks (sounds a bit pervy that, actually) or throw him in at the deep end, so to speak? We'll see. Only 4 days until the first pre-season game. Sweeeeet.

Danny Fiszman has defended the increase in price in season tickets. The cost of everything is going up these days so it's inevitable that football will follow. 

And that is about that. Till tomorrow, arsefans.

Happy Friday to you all. Not a huge amount happening to be honest but we'll muddle on the best we can.

Some good news to begin with and it looks like Gael Clichy is set to sign a new 4 year deal with the club. He was certainly one of our best players last season, his consistency was fantastic and it's great that he's going to sign on. He says:

We're at the end of our discussions. Everything's going well because my intention is clear: I want to stay at Arsenal. I never hesitated, not at all. Arsenal is one of the great clubs in Europe.

And for those of us who worry about the injury-prone van Persie and Rosicky we shouldn't overlook the fact that Gael spent a long time out with an injury that was career threatening at one point. Hey, I'm trying to be positive here. Clichy says he wants to be an Arsenal legend, something his predecessor was on the road to being before he fucked off to become one of the biggest cunts on earth. Put him to shame, GC.

The Telegraph reports that we're set to offer Fabregas, Adebayor, Sagna and the aforementioned Clichy new and improved deals to ensure their futures at the club. Erm, good! What more can you say about that?

Arsene yesterday confirmed that the club were applying for a work permit for Carlos Vela and that he would be involved in first team action next season. Those of us thinking he might solve our problems in wide areas need to think again though, it seems. The boss sees him as a striker, saying:

He has played the whole season at Osasuna on the left wing and he had to work hard there. But for me it is not his position he is a central striker, an Eduardo type.

That said the boss did play Eduardo wide from time to time, but rarely as part of a four man midfield, usually when we played with just one up top. He is very quick though and the idea of himself and Theo on the wings is a bit exciting. Two absolute fliers. Take that, slowcoach full backs of other teams!

Not much else happening so we might as well move on to your regular Friday dose of Arsecastness.

On this week's show there's no blogchat, instead there are contributions from you lot about your best and worst moments of the season. Some of them are serious, some not so serious, some downright hysterical, thank you all for taking the time to call the Arseblog hotline. The Arseline? The throbbing red Arse phone? Erm...

As well as that there's a player history from The Man in the Bar, we're at home with Eboue, there's a tale of the unexpected and much, much more.

And by much, much more I mean fuck all else. Sorry, but that's the truth of it.

To subscribe to the arsecast in iTunes - click here. The direct feed URL is here. To download this week's arsecast directly - click here (14mb MP3). You can find the arsecast archives here . And you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

And that's about that. More tomorrow, Arsechums.