So the club yesterday confirmed Robin van Persie's injury and the prognosis that he'd be out for around 6 weeks. Now that it's official we can all run around and panic, throwing our hands up in the air like sometimes we feel like doing. I know, I know.

What did emerge yesterday is that Robin is set to try a revolutionary new treatment, apparently with the blessing of the club, whereby he'll travel to Serbia to have his ankle massaged with placenta fluid. Seriously. He says:

I am going to receive treatment from a female doctor. She is vague about her methods but I know she first massages you for a long time with placenta fluid. I'm going to give it a try.

It can't do any harm and if it helps it helps. I have been in contact with Arsenal's chief physio about it. The club has allowed me to have this treatment done.

It does seem odd but like he says if it helps, it helps. I mean, if there was the possibility that smearing his foot with late term abortions while quaffing great big goblets of stem cells would help I'd be all for that too. Anyway, 6 weeks from today would see him return at the end of the December. Then we have to take into account is it 6 weeks before he can return to training or 6 weeks before he plays again? I suspect it'll be the new year before we see him.

The question now is what do we do without him. The obvious choice is Eduardo. Actually, at the moment he's pretty much the only choice. Bendtner has just had his goolies operated on, Theo Walcott is still out with whatever it is that's wrong with him this time and Carlos Vela ... well ... I'm not sure Carlos Vela is even with us. I suspect he may have been kidnapped by nasty banditos but with the club using all the money we have to prettify the stadium we haven't been able to pay the ransom.

After that it's youngsters like Watt and Sunu so Eduardo it is. Whether he can stay the pace and play the amount of games we're going to need him to play remains to be seen, but he's confident he can get his shooting boots back on and not his missing boots after the chances he spurned against Sp*rs. He says:

Against Tottenham I missed one big chance in particular, when I was one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Maybe I had too much time to think about what I had to do. Sometimes it is better when you have less time to think and can act instinctively. But I will not worry about that chance, I feel strong in my head and my body. It is good that I was in the position to have the chance because if you keep doing that, then the goals will come.

He got a couple at the weekend in a Croatian friendly against Lichtenstein, a notoriously difficult team to score against, and there's now an onus on him to perform for us. He's had the luxury, so to speak, of not being essential to the team, to come on from the bench without a great deal of pressure, but now we need him so fingers crossed he can do the business. Without Bendtner and van Persie (who is 6'1) we are bit on the teenchy side up front though. Eduardo, Arshavin and let's say one of Rosicky/Nasri aren't going to knock centre-halves on their arses, are they? I'm sure we're practising lots of running through people's legs in training.

Carles Puyol is the latest to do Barcelona's dirty work in tapping up Cesc, saying not only does he hope he joins but that Barcelona don't pay very much to sign him. Does he think there's a January sale or something? I know they've bought a few players off us in the past but Arsenal is not like some kind of coffee shop. You don't get one free on your fucking loyalty card. Twats.

Arsene Wenger says Patrick Vieira needs to leave Inter Milan to get into the French squad but pretty much ruled out him moving back to Arsenal. He said:

If I had to bet, I would put my money on another country. It's complicated for him to come back to this country.

I wouldn't bet against Arsene Wenger, no sir. And while we definitely need somebody to step in and do the job Alex Song has been doing when he goes away to the ACN you do have to wonder whether Paddy would have the legs for the Premier League anymore.

Beyond that not much else happening. Tomorrow sees the final round of WC qualifiers plus another group of meaningless friendlies. Get your lucky socks on and hope for the best. There'll also be an arty kind of competition tomorrow too, more details then.

Have a good one.

Well it's all action round Arsenal way this morning and we prepare for tomorrow's match against Melchester Rovers.

With Roy Race in such good form it's sure to be quite the battle and since they were taken over by USA Soccerball Corp Inc®© they've become a force to be reckoned with. Not only have they got the best players in the world from this era, new technology has allowed them to clone the best players from times gone by. 

Roy Race and Pele up front will sure be a handful for Vermaelen and Gallas while their midfield of Cruyff, Socrates, Didier Six and David Hillier will cause us real problems unless we take real care. I think if we can get through the first two quarters we'll probably take them, you know how these clones roll. All tricks and flicks as they have that classic DNA sparkling but we know they suffer from problems with stamina. Arsene Wenger is looking forward to the game, saying:

Jesus fucking Christ, Arseblogger, wake up. This is just a dream. There's no football tomorrow at all. You've got Interlull cabin fever. Hahaha.

Noooooooooooooooooo. Stupid waking dreams. You know it's the dullest Interlull ever when the official Arsenal website is running a story with Liam Brady and a headline 'Brady - France have more pressure than us'. Now, I know Chippy is involved in the Irish set-up. He's one of Trappatoni's assistants but I just find it a little distasteful that he refers to 'us' when us includes Robbie Keane. He's not an 'us', Liamo, he's very much a 'them', even if he is wearing a green shirt.

And while there's a whole load of hype and build-up to this game it'll be a bit weird watching it. France have Arsenal players, Ireland do not have Arsenal players. Ireland have Robbie Keane, although France do have Patrice Evra which has just about swung the balance back in Ireland's favour. The other thing, of course, is Ireland's style of play. It's not exactly beautiful, flowing football. Watching Ireland play football is about as much fun as being Carlo Cudicini's pillion passenger.

Still, I'm sure I'll watch it. Just to get a bit of a football fix. Very little Arsenal news around as you'll have gathered by now. The Mail reports that Arsenal's players will give up a day's wages and match bonuses and what have you when we play Chelsea at the end of the month. It's all in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital which is the club's official charity. You've probably seen the pictures floating about of some of the lads dressed in giant furry animal suits. Here's Cesc doing his My Little Pony impression to the amusement of Andrei Sharkshavin in the minivan.

In the Mirror there's a story about young striker Gilles Sunu who wants to go on loan but Arsene Wenger is refusing to allow him to do so until he signs a new contract with the club. I'm struggling to decide if I care enough about this story to comment in any way and after a few moments I've decided that I'm not. Which is a shame because I've got column inches to fill but ... meh.

Ok, scarf competition time. The other day I asked you to choose the odd one out between John Terry's dad, Phil Brown's son and my next door neighbour's beagle. Thank you all for the answers, many of them were quite hilarious indeed and I never knew such a range of 'Son of a bitch' jokes were possible. However, it's time for the answer.

And the odd one out was - my next door neighbour's beagle. This is because if you were to set up a concession stand which had every kind of soft drink in the world and you told these three candidates they could have whatever they wanted for free, the beagle would choose a can of delicious Lilt, with it's totally tropical taste, while the other two would go straight for the Coke.

The RNG did its thing and the winner is : Matthew Martin. Well done to you, I'll be in touch, and thanks once again to Savile Rogue for the prize. And if you didn't win, don't worry too much about your cold neck. Savile Rogue are thinking of you and have given me more 100% cashmere Arsenal scarves to give away in the coming weeks. 

Right, that's that. I can't do no more. Till tomorrow.

A full list of those players affected by the Interlull was posted yesterday on the official site. While we have to accept that the French players and Arshavin have two games due to their play-off duties, it's a bit disappointing to see that Cesc could potentially play for Spain and Robin van Persie twice for Holland in meaningless friendlies.

Still, there are enough players staying at home to make the Interlull reasonably interesting from Arsene Wenger's point of view. Normally he's left with Almunia, Denilson and the spirit of Nelson Vivas so that'll make a nice change for him.

He can spend some time reflecting on the comments made by Man United's Darren Fletcher who feels that our manager's criticism of an un-named United player was responsible for their loss to Chelsea at the weekend. Fletcher said:

I think we are now seeing Mr Wenger’s comments starting to influence referees, which is a shame.

So it's only ok when his manager's comments influence referees? And here's what Fletcher needs to realise. Firstly Wenger's comments had no bearing whatsoever on the ref on Sunday giving a free kick against him. It's mostly to do with the fact that Fletcher blunderbusses around a football pitch fouling as many people as he can while mysteriously being immune to yellow cards (unless, hilariously, they are for being blatantly fouled himself only for the ref to think he was diving).

Secondly, how can he possibly expect the referee not to give a free kick when he looks like a smackhead from Trainspotting who would rob his own granny for a fix? The ref is standing there, trying to make a split-second decision. 'Did Fletcher kick that player illegally?', and he looks at him and thinks 'He looks like he'd suck off tramps under a bridge to get enough money to shoot up that sweet, sweet horse. Of course he kicked him'. 

So for Fletcher to blame Arsene Wenger is not only ludicrous, it's ignoring the real problem ... himself. I mean, it's not like he has to look like George Clooney. He can be peculiar looking but not sinister. He needs to go to a plastic surgeon, pay for a Bullardplasty and then, perhaps, referees might not treat him like a bloke with pus-filled sores between his toes who has a kitten with AIDS. Just saying.

Moving on and it appears that Nicklas Bendtner needs an operation on his dodgy groin. How this affects his absence in terms of time out remains to be seen but with modern techniques surgery isn't as nasty an option as it used to be. They no longer have to slice you open with a rusty steak knife then stitch you back together with catgut. It's all keyhole stuff and Bendtner will be hoping, given the region the surgery is in, that the keyhole is the only hole affected.

Cesc says the captaincy hasn't changed him and says that the spirit in the dressing room is really great and nobody even thinks about the Gallas incident when one fateful day he made them turn off the communal Wii during a game of Mario Kart to give a teamtalk that nobody could understand. This vexed them very much because Cesc and Gael Clichy were playing online and everyone knows you never interrupt an online game. 

Now Gallas sits alone on the bus reading Kurt Wallander novels translated from Swedish into French but without losing any of their Swedish charm, looking up now and again at his young and boistrous teammates and chuckling softly to himself as he realises that Wallander is a far grumpier grump than he could ever be - and who could blame him living in a land as cold as that?

It's funny how literature can give one a different and invaluable perspective. 

For those asking if the blatant dive from N'Gog last night to salvage a point for the Mugsmashers was going to get the same coverage as Eduardo's against Celtic it does appear as if he's been branded a cheat in pretty much every newspaper this morning. Which is fair enough because it was a blatant dive. I'll stop short of campaigning for his execution and subsequent deportation though.

Not much else going on so that'll have to do.  Till tomorrow.

So yesterday's epic battle complete and utter snoozefest between Chelsea and United saw the home side win through a goal that shouldn't have been allowed. It also saw Didier Drogba take his acting to a new level. I have to admit I've never seen the 'shot between the eyes resulting in some post-mortem leg twitching' one before. All credit to him for that, the hideous Predator® looking cunt.

It looked as if it was John Terry who got the goal for Chelsea and as the ball crossed the line he celebrated the ball crossing the line because he knew the game was a wrap and when you score a goal like that it's not to be sniffed at. Reminded me a bit of Charlie. Charlie Chaplin, the way he celebrated. I believe he went out last night and had a few drinks in London's hottest new Colombian nightspot - EscoBar.

The point is that we remain in second place, five points behind Terry's men but with a game in hand. We can only hope they blow the lead and it'd be a big deal if they did. Fingers crossed, nostrils closed for that one.

Lots of the papers this morning talking about us scoring 100 goals in the league and being the first team to do so since some no-marks back in the 60s. They also ignore the fact that no-mark FC had 42 games to score their goals in and not the 38 now. We'd be wise to ignore this kind of crap, there's a bit of hype starting already and frankly I think I prefer it when they don't expect much of us.

Cesc, who must have taken an Open University course in 'How to keep your feet on the ground', says:

There will be a time when we cannot score goals and everyone will say we are crazy. We have to be ready because one day it will not happen like that. It is in that moment where we have to be strong.

Exactly right. It'll only take a couple of results where we don't have a 5-a-side score before someone starts saying we're brittle, we lack quality, the start of the season was a fluke, we're no good at Lego, our singing voices are shrill and reedy and we are poor cooks whose pasta sauces lack imagination. We shouldn't fall for the hype when it's positive, nor should we let the inevitable barrage of criticism worry us too much either. 

Cesc goes on to talk about his own form. You'd think he'd be kinda pleased, what with playing really well and scoring lots of goals but if the Open University course in 'How to keep your feet on the ground' has taught him one thing it's how to keep his feet on the ground. He says:

Because I am scoring it looks like I am playing better, but I don't look at it like this. Maybe in other years I was getting in the same position but I wasn't scoring. I don't think I was at my best against Wolves but because I scored a goal it looks different. I know how to measure my performance and what I have to improve on.

Improve, you say? Yes please. I'll have a bit of that. 9 goals and 11 assists already this season. If he can do better then I'm all for it. Not that I'm unhappy with his contribution to date, you understand. I'm just greedy. Perhaps I need to go to the Open University. Or, at least, sit in front of the BBC2 at 1.30am with a notepad and a pencil. Do they still have it on BBC2? Anyway, the point is Cesc is awesome and he wants to be even awesomer and I shall not, nay, will not, argue against that.

Of course now we're into yet another Interlull. FIFA really ought to decide who goes to the World Cup with a Boggle championships or a Monopoly tournament over one night. It'd save us all from the tedium of an Interlull. And not content with making some teams engage in their WC play-off matches they have sanctioned a shit-load of friendlies. So not only do we have to worry about the players taking part in the play-offs, we have to worry about all the rest of them too.

If I ever became Supreme Dictator of the Whole Entire Cosmos Apart from The Faroe Islands Because What Would I Want With Them Anyway, I would have just one Interlull, the same duration as now, in which all matches had to be played. The entire qualification in one 14 day period. And you could only choose a player once, so if he played in the first match then he returned to his club for lazing about and being fanned with giant palm leaves. It'd make international football more interesting though, wouldn't it? 

At this stage Ireland v France on Saturday would be Anto Murphy from Ballycock Rovers v Jean-Claude Testicule from Paris Saint SingeChèvre. Now that's what I call entertainment.

Still, we'll just have to be strong and try to muddle through as best we can. Here we go again. Till tomorrow.

It's funny how when you're playing well and in good form you find things going your way, little bits of luck that can help decide a game.

I think it's fair to say we got a bit of that yesterday against Wolves. You certainly wouldn't have put too much money on the final scoreline after the first twenty minutes. The home side played very well, put us some pressure and had they a more clinical striker they might well have scored. 

For our part we looked a bit unbalanced. There were three changes from Wednesday night. Sagna came in for Eboue, as expected. Eduardo for Nasri was no real surprise but the inclusion of Aaron Ramsey at the expense of Alex Song was a bit curious. I'm sure Song needs a rest now and again, our lack of an alternative to him is a bit worrying, and I know Ramsey needs games. I'm glad to see him play as he's a huge talent, I just don't see the Welshman as a like for like replacement.

There was definitely an element of good fortune to Arsenal's first two goals but perhaps the best thing to happen on the night was the injury to Diaby. And I mean that in the sense that it meant Song came on, Ramsey was free to play alongside Cesc, and we immediately looked much better. Obviously I hope Diaby's not injured in any serious way but the difference when Song came on was so obvious the manager can't be blind to it.

We went ahead through a corner from our left. At first it looked as if Eduardo had poached one in typical Eduardo style but it was an own goal from Wolves defender Ronald Zubar who really has an excellent name. The second also looked like a piece of classy finishing from Eduardo but I think it's one for the dubious goals committee. We caught them high up the pitch, Ramsey and Eduardo were 2 on 1 against the Wolves defender, Ramsey's pass was a little short and I think Eduardo was trying to chip it back over the defender for Ramsey to score. Instead it hit Craddock on the head and looped into the top corner. It was very nice to look at but I think it was another own goal.

There was nothing lucky about the third though. A sweeping move saw Bacary Sagna out on our right hand side, he crossed it into the box and Robin van Persie touched it into the path of the oncoming Cesc Fabregas who finished at the near post to make it 3-0. Sagna has perhaps responded to Eboue being considered a better attacker than him by upping his game in that area. His final ball is a lot more threatening than it was but you really won't see a better first touch than than van Persie's all season long. With his wrong foot he just killed the pace on the ball, Cesc didn't even have to break his stride to score. Sublime football and 3-0 to Arsenal at half time.

With the game essentially dead and buried the second half was a bit dull. I remember a decent chance for Eduardo, Rosicky put one over when he came on, Aaron Ramsey shot just wide late in the half, and our goal came from Andrei Arshavin. At first I thought we'd gotten lucky again, at first view it looked as if the defender had kicked the ball off the Russian and it had gone in. The replays showed he was quickest to react after the keeper's poor punch from our corner.

If you want to nitpick at all you might point to the fact that their late goal is another clean sheet gone begging. The normally faultless Thomas Vermaelen showed he's human after all when he let Craddock get away from him and the header into the top corner was pretty much unstoppable. Arsene said he's not that worried about the goals we're conceding because if you look at the stats we've had the fewest shots taken against us. Maybe the worry is we're just much better at conceding than anyone else. As I said though it seems a bit nit-picky when you score four away from home, but you're not always going to score four.

Afterwards Cesc said:

It was disappointing to concede from a set-piece like that. They played well. We were not at our best but still managed to score four.

While Arsene had this to say:

We have a style where everyone goes forward. You cannot have everything in football, but I believe we have a good balance between offense and defence, and as long as we score as many goals as we do, we can accept that.

We are in a strong position because we have a game in hand. Let’s keep strength in our belief, keep humility, and enjoy our game

The win puts us in second place in the table. It might just be temporary. In fact, I hope it is just temporary. If United get anything from today's game against Chelsea then they'll go above us and the ideal outcome of today's game is a draw. Even with a game in hand we don't want Chelsea going 5 points clear.

Of course now we're into an Interlull which really is a pain. The way we're playing at the moment you just want the next game to come, even if it is November, traditionally a difficult month for us. There's not much we can do about though beyond hoping for injury free international outings for our lads and that we can pick things up where we left off when we come back.

And that's about that. There's nothing of any great interest in the tabloids this morning so it's breakfast time. Have a good Sunday, here's to a cracking and destructive draw between Cunts and Cunts this afternoon, more tomorrow.

Some nights Arsenal just click and it's beautiful to watch. After about five minutes we put together a flowing, pacey, one-touch move which ended up with a Robin van Persie shot flying just wide of the AZ goal. After that you knew Arsenal were in the mood.

We opened the scoring through Cesc Fabregas whose low shot scuttered between a defender's legs and practically trickled across the line. The AZ keeper obviously got his hair in his eyes or something. Poor keeping it might have been but I can live with poor keeping all day long as long as it's not at our end. The second goal looked a bit like poor defending but having watched the replays it was, instead, a very good goal.

Picking up the ball in the centre of the pitch Andrei Arshavin played a fantastic ball down the middle for Samir Nasri. He took it on, wiggled his hips like some kind of footballing Elvis, putting the nearest AZ defender flat on his arse. He took it on a bit more, held off the challenges, and fnished adroitly into the bottom corner.

It was his first goal of the season and his presence in the team in the future is important. Both he and Rosicky have the ability to drive forward quickly in midfield, to beat a defender with skill and pace, where other midfield options might look for a more simple or conservative pass. It allows us to break down teams who are well organised defensively, like AZ obviously set out to be last night.

So 2-0 at half-time and given how quickly the third goal came in the second half you might go so far as to say that the team has learned the lesson of West Ham. Against Sp*rs we got the third to calm the nerves, last night wasn't nervy but the goal was important just to confirm Arsenal's superiority and to ensure the visitors didn't get any smart ideas about sneaking one and making us all a bit jumpy.

Again Arshavin was the architect, playing in Cesc who gave the keeper the far post eyes before slamming it home high at the near side. A fantastic goal from a truly fantastic player. He's got 8 goals already this season, a brilliant return for a midfielder, and if this new formation suits anyone, it's him. He can make goals, he can score goals, and there was a moment in the first half when he rose highest at the back post to a head a Kieran Gibbs header over that illustrated just how much he's enjoying his football right now.

With the game won at that stage the manager was able to take off van Persie and Cesc, replacing them with Eduardo and Ramsey. AZ got forward a bit and Pellé brought out a fantastic save from Manuel Almunia who pushed his close range volley onto the bar. 

The goal of the night was to follow though. We brought it out of defence, played to Eduardo whose backheel from just inside our half set Andrei Arshavin free. He took it on, played a pass I thought at first was a bit heavy for Abou Diaby, but the big man loves a goal. He stuck one of those long legs out to control it and then sidefooted it past the keeper to make it 4-0. That's his 4th goal of the season and it made for a hat-trick of assists for Arshavin.

Arshavin was replaced by Rosicky who slotted into the system flawlessly. With Arsenal claiming a penalty for handball at one end, the Dutch went up the other and scored. Perhaps a bit of defensive naivety from Kieran Gibbs but Almunia's copybook was somewhat blotted when their player drilled it home at his near post. It looked as if he was moving to his right, anticipating a cross to free AZ players on that side, but at 4-1 it didn't really matter.

Afterwards an ebullient Arsene Wenger declared the performance 'brilliant', saying:

We dominated our subject technically, tactically and overall we felt never under threat. We played with the needed confidence, technically astute, overall very happy. It's important to keep that attitude to progress, to improve and to play for each other even more. Then we can believe in our future.

While just to keep feet on the ground, Cesc said:

It's just the beginning of the season, nothing is done, we want to keep going until the end. I'll feel it is something special when we win something. We want to win and if we win something at the end we will say we had a good year.

Wise words, indeed. Performances like last night are marvelous fun but ultimately just a very small part of the bigger picture. We can enjoy them as much as we like but for the players it's important to realise that you don't get trophies for nice football and impressive performances. It's a reminder from the captain that there's a long way to go yet and a lot of work still to be done. Impressive stuff from the young man who appears to be growing into the role as the natural leader of this team. He's never going to be one of those shouting, in your face, captains, but you can see from his performances how focussed he is and that will transmit itself to the rest of the players. Leading by example, you might say.

Qualification remains unconfirmed due to other results but we just need one point from our last two games to go through, a win against Standard Liege in the next game will ensure we top the group.

So, another fantastic home performance and our form at the Grove is something a bit special this season. We've played 10, won 10 and scored 33 goals in the process. It's becoming something of a fortress, maybe for the first time since we moved from Highbury, and nobody is going to fancy playing us there. There are those who criticise, saying we have the most expensive seats in football, but it's hard to argue we're not providing value for money at home this season. 

Next up, Wolves in the league. More to come on that in the next couple of days. Have a good one.

Quick update: Stan Kroenke now owns 29.9% of Arsenal - http://tinyurl.com/yz2fol3 . 200 shares purchased, 100 of which came from Chairman PHW. Any further share purchases would require him to make a bid for the whole club.

Interesting.

Yesterday's game against Sp*rs raised so many questions for me. Having travelled that morning from Dublin knowing that Sp*rs were now stronger than us, I have to admit I was ever so worried. Robbie Keane surely wouldn't lie. Peter Crouch also had his tuppenceworth to throw in about the respective merits of both teams, suggesting that his was better than ours. He seems an amiable, honest chap. Why would he dissemble so?

And then, sitting on the tube to Victoria, I read Harry Redknapp in the papers saying that Arsenal lacked the experience for games like this. And you know what? They were all right. 

Sp*rs were stronger than us when it came to making substitutions. Keane must have raced off the pitch quicker than Billy Whizz when his number came up. And Crouchy, if I may call him that, had it spot on. His team outshone ours in the whole 'The only plan we have is to hoof it to up the lanky cunt up front who will use his elbows and lean all over our defenders' thing. Credit where it's due. 

And as for ol' Twitchy himself, Arsenal did lack experience. The experience of being shit cunts who got turned over big time without Arsenal ever really having to play that well. If it's no trouble to them at all I would very much encourage more hubristic chatter before we play them again. It does make victory all the sweeter.

There are some who might say there's little chance of a day which begins with two gin and tonics at 6am ending well. Those people would be wrong. Awake at 5am, on a flight, then a train from Gatwick having to listen to a crazy woman talking to a bloke who looked like Lee Bowyer crossed with an Orc, then to Holloway Road via the Armoury and in the pub by 10am for a breakfast pint of Guinness. It could only have been better if the pint of Guinness had bacon and sausage in it. Oooh, there's an idea. A real breakfast pint, eating and drinking. 

Folks arrived, the atmosphere built, some nervous, some quite confident that Sp*rs were going to take it all the way, songs being sung, copies of Two Halves being read having been brought to the pub by GilbertoSilver, the build up was fantastic. And inside the ground there was a real buzz. Lots of red and white and a corner of teeny-tiny white cocks.

The game itself was odd, at first. Ref Clattenburg allowed David Bentley away with a deliberate handball and a very obvious foul in the first couple of minutes. Maybe on another day you might say the ref showed some common sense and didn't get his cards out too early, but that other day is for cunts. It was a North London derby and we wanted the pantomime villain booked. As it turned out Bentley trudged around the pitch forlornly trying to do something, anything, clearly not so much for the team as for himself. I laughed at the number of times he stood, hugging the touchline, his arm in the air like a desperate schoolboy who for once knows the answer to teacher's question, only to watch the ball messed around with or given away by his teamchums.

Gomes made a fantastic save from Cesc. So fantastic I was almost on my feet to cheer the goal but it wasn't to be. Yet. Bendtner was replaced by Eduardo after picking up a groin injury. Arshavin pootered about the place not doing very much at all, the game was a bit flat, a bit one paced and at times we were careless and sloppy in possession. Players on their heels and not their toes, missing passes and it was a bit frustrating because we knew they were there for the taking if we stepped it up a bit.

It was hard to see where the goal was going to come from. Then we got a throw on the right, it came back to Sagna who crossed it, Robin van Persie got ahead of Leadfooted King and poked it home to make it 1-0. Awesome. And I was still celebrating, and laughing, at Sp*rs when all of a sudden Cesc was clean through on goal and it was 2-0. The roar was primal. There was a man sitting behind me who was a guest of an Arsenal fan, a neutral observer in all this, and he seemed most amused at the way the second was being celebrated. 

Not that I care. I'd have lap-danced for him at that stage if he'd asked, such was my delirium. 2-0 to the Arsenal rocked around the Grove, the place was heaving. From going in at half-time 0-0 to being two up almost out of nowhere. I had to watch Match of the Day when I got home to see Cesc's goal properly and ol' Twitchy complained about the Arsenal goals saying 'There wasn't a good one between them'. I respectfully disagree. 

The first goal was marvellous, instinctive striking play, the kind of poacher's goal that would have pundits creaming themselves and telling Capello to take Michael Owen to the World Cup if he were capable of scoring that kind of goal these days. But the second. Well that was a fucking brilliant goal. What do I care if Agent Palacios gave us the ball back easily? Cesc took it, went past one man, skipped over Palacios's lunge, nutmegged Leadfoot King, brought it on and stuck it past Gomes at his near post. If that isn't a fucking good goal then I need to start watching netball instead. 

At 2-0 with this Arsenal team you can't ever be sure. Even against opposition as poor as West Ham or Sp*rs but nerves were settled early enough into the second half with the third. Apu-Apricoto took out Eduardo on our right hand side, the linesman flagged and everyone stopped thinking the ref would give the free kick. Instead he waved play on, Sagna reacted quickest, took it on, crossed towards Robin van Persie but it was meat and drink for the goalkeeper, except the goalkeeper turned out to be a vegetarian teetotaller and spat it back out into the path of Robin van Persie who put it away to make it 3-0 to the Arsenal.

When you consider Eduardo should have had at least one, possibly two, it could have been even better. Wenger went absolutely mental when Eddie missed the second chance. As it trickled wide he took off his jacket, threw it on the ground, jumped up and down, his arms extended in pure 'What the fuck was that?' mode, but it was only because he wanted to turn the screw as much as we did. 3-0 is a decent win, 4-0 or 5-0 is a right slapping and who wouldn't have wanted to inflict that yesterday?

Sp*rs only real moment of danger was when Bentley managed to produce one decent set-piece delivery but it was well saved by Almunia who looked assured and confident on his return to the team. And afterwards the consensus was that it had been easy. That for all their talk, all their bluster, Sp*rs were just ... well, they were just Sp*rs.

For us it was another three points, we've dropped only two from our last 6 league league games, a temporary move into 2nd in the table although United's win in the evening put them back above us (we do have a game in hand), and it was a reminder to our neighbours that it's what happens on the pitch and not on the back pages that counts. As Arsene Wenger "Football is not about opinion. It’s about performance". And how can you argue with that?

The pub afterwards, more songs, more pints, post-game euphoria which is what gets you through when you're sitting in Gatwick, as tired as a cunt, having another couple of gin and tonics to add symmetry to the day's proceedings. The tiredness doesn't matter when you've won 3-0, when you've had a great day out with great folk, when you realise that football, for all the frustration and vexation and disappointment it brings us at times, is probably the best thing in the world. Ever.

Only because we are the Arsenal though. 

Reaction: Arsene Wenger, Robin van Persie.

Right then, here go back into the thick of it. We've got football tomorrow and this is good. A home game against Birmingham is a relatively nice way to get things going again after the Interlull and there's some early team news.

Eduardo misses out on the chance for revenge against Birmingham as he remains out with his thigh injury. With arch-villain Martin Taylor injured anyway that will have to wait until we visit St Andrews in March. The goalkeeping situation is that Lukasz Fabianski is back yet Manuel Almunia remains 50-50 with his 'chest infection'. You have to think the Pole will come back into the side ahead of Don Vito who has done well when called upon.

Gael Clichy is a doubt with an ankle knock picked up on international duty so a first Premier League start of the season could be on the cards for Kieran Gibbs while Abou Diaby has a bit of a knock but should be ok. Aside from that I don't think we've got any other niggles but we'll get a definitive answer on that when Arsene talks to the media at his pre-game press conference today.

As I said Birmingham is a good game to try and pick up where we left off before the break. We had, since the Man City defeat, won 6 games in a row scoring 18 and conceding only 4. With the game tomorrow and a trip to Holland midweek for a Champions League tie against AZ Alcazar it's as good an opportunity as the fixture computer throws up to build momentum before we start getting back into the thick of things again. More on the Birmingham game tomorrow.

The other main news is that Stan Kroenke has upped his stake in the club to 28.9% after buying another clump of shares. I have no idea if he's paid for these ones or written an IOU or what but what's clear is that he's edging ever closer to the 29.9% stake which would require him to make an offer for all the shares. And it does look as if this purchasing is being done with the full blessing of the board. Chairman Peter Hill-Wood said:

It does look like he is edging towards a takeover, which I would welcome. I have not asked him if that is what he plans to do, but I am very relaxed about it.

If it was to happen, I don't think you can expect any big changes because he seems to like things very much the way they are.

It's the first time we've heard from the board that they'd be willing to sell up to Kroenke and you have to think that his increased presence at the club, he attended the Wigan game last month for example, means that there's a plan in place. He is board-friendly, he's not buying up these shares for fun, and at some point I suppose he's going to try and consolidate his holding.

Kroenke does have part-ownership of some sports 'franchises' in the US and I think, if the rest of the shares were held by the board he'd probably be quite happy to do the same with Arsenal. The elephant in the room, of course, is Alisher Usmanov and Red and White Holdings. We know there's no love lost between the current board and Usmanov and I can't see Kroenke and Usmanov working side by side in the years ahead so what happens will certainly be interesting. 

And while I've always been of the opinion that I'd prefer if Arsenal's ownership was more traditional, shall we say, I'd certainly feel more confident that the self-sustainable, well-run model currently employed by the club would be maintained under Kroenke rather than Usmanov. Let's wait and see what happens.

Not much else going on. Cesc talks about winning the league and there's some idle transfer speculation regarding Eboue and Atletico Madrid but with the transfer window not open until January I'm going to pass on that kind of stuff for the moment.

Right, competition winners. I've had a copy of the Official Illustrated History of Arsenal and two of Gunners Lists to give away with thanks to Octopus Books. I asked you how many times Arsenal had appeared in the FA Cup final and the answer is 17. Although I did allow 18 if you mentioned the replay against Sheffield Weds. It's funny how many people answered the question 'How many times have Arsenal won the FA Cup?', weird.

Anyway, the RNG has done its thing and the winner of the Official History book is Jeff Ferman while Richard Savage and Brian Agnew get copies of Gunners Lists. Well done to you, I'll be in touch to get details, and thanks to everyone else who entered. Better luck next time.

Now, Arsecast time. On this week's "Oh shit there's nothing to talk about" Arsecast I chat with Goodplaya about the return of the Premier League, Almunia's 'chest infection' and more. Sylvester is in there and ... erm ... that's about it. It's a shorter Arsecast than usual but it's (probably) better than no Arsecast at all. Probably.

You can subscribe to the Arsecast on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too. To download this week's arsecast directly - click here (15mb MP3), you can download a zipped version here or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

And that's that. Have a good day, more tomorrow.

Having sat here for a while, scratching only occasionally, I can now declare this Interlull officially a pain in the arse. I've had quite enough now and I demand it stops at once.

You would think with all the highly intelligent readers Arseblog has, and I'm including all three of them in this, that someone would have invented some kind of device to either provide entertainment during Interlulls or which would destroy countries therefore putting an end to international football once and for all.

Anyway, maybe that's something they can work on for the next one. In the meantime there's some scant Arsenal news starting with Arsene Wenger being impressed with William Gallas. He's probably in the best form since he joined the club and his partnership with Thomas Vermaelen shows a good deal of promise. Arsene says:

William Gallas has had a fine start to the season, which is down to both his attitude and the quality of the player. He behaves 100% as a professional and is highly focused in training.

Which, I suppose, is the very least you should expect from any player. On the partnership with the Belgian, he says:

It has gelled more quickly than I expected. This is for two reasons; first of all, Vermaelen adapted faster, and secondly William fits more comfortably on the right side of a central defence than on the left.

There are still defensive issues to sort out, no question about it, but you don't get the feeling any longer that we're ready to crumble right down the middle like we've seen in seasons past. 

Arsene also said he wouldn't be the one to name his own successor at the club when the time comes, saying it's beyond his remit. Which is absolutely right. Plus there'd surely be the temptation to have a bit of fun with that. At your goodbye press conference you might say "And it is with great pleasure that I name the next Arsenal manager - that's right, it's MOR sax crooner Kenny G! Kenny, get out here you big lug!!!"

And out Kenny would come, parping on his horn as shocked onlookers tried to make some kind of sense out of what they were seeing. And when he announced his backroom staff of Baltimora, the lead singer from Mr Mister and the drummer from Glass Tiger the confusion would be palpable. And that is why Arsene won't be naming the next Arsenal manager.

Frank McLintock says Alex Song can be the next Peter Storey so if you're looking for dodgy coins or porno videos the Cameroonian is the man to see. Oh, he means football. That makes more sense, to be fair. It is somewhat funny to see Frank's positive articles appear on the official site when he's been rather critical elsewhere in recent weeks though.

The Sun says Arsene Wenger has a plan for Fran. And the plan is a five year deal and not, disappointingly, anything to do with a flan. Don't get me wrong, a five year deal for a talented young player is a great thing but there's a massive gap in the market for a rhyming flan brand. Fran's Flans! I can see world domination from here. Maybe it's something he can address when he finishes with football. Provided I don't change my name to Fran and get there ahead of him. It strikes me the young Spaniard has got some tough decisions to make in the weeks and months ahead.

The Mirror reports Cesc will return to Arsenal today which, I suppose, means that things are somewhat better in terms of his family problem and that's good news. I have to say it was not at all surprising but still somewhat disappointing that some Arsenal blogs chose to publish information and pictures that they really shouldn't have with regard to this story. Sadly there's a tabloid culture to some of these blogs and they're little more than bottom feeders scratching around for cheap hits, ignoring the rights of players and their families to a bit of privacy, especially at a difficult time.

I could go on but I won't. I just hope they realise that not everything is fit for public consumption and if they don't realise that I hope they get run over by a bus. Twice.

Right, just three more Interlull days to get through before we can get ourselves back on track. 

And finally, don't forget the gala showing of The Gooner Review takes place this evening. You can get tickets on the door. See here for more info.

Till tomorrow.

Welcome to another week of the Interlull but at least we can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

And with that light at the end of that tunnel we could see, for example, Barcelona's Txiki Begiristain and use that light to ensure that our punches got him right in his stupid, big snout. He's been giving it the usual crap about Cesc coming back to Barcelona 'one day' but hinting at a move in January.

Surely they ought to just shut up. Why can't they shut up? It's easy. If it's not him it's Laporta and if it's not Laporta it's one of the players going on about Cesc's DNA as if they were footballing CSI blokes. It is hugely disrespectful to Arsenal, not that they care about that, and it's hugely disrespectful to Cesc himself who has, at almost every opportunity, restated his commitment to Arsenal.

Whenever a story 'emerges' from the fiction fingers of the Spanish press, generally planted there by Barcelona or agents who may or not have a close association with Barcelona and, maybe Arsenal, Cesc has refuted them totally. Every single time.

It's so ming-bogglingly tiresome and, in a week when Cesc has withdrawn from the Spanish squad to be with his seriously ill grandfather, it's massively insensitive of Begiristain to start banging this drum again. I know it's probably water off a duck's back for Cesc but I'm sure more of this speculation is something he could just as easily do without at the moment. But then Barcelona only care about Barcelona.

Can you imagine the fuss they'd kick up if we started talking about one of their players all the time? They need to back off, big time. I don't think anyone's under any illusions that one day Cesc will go and play football in Spain but at the moment he's the captain of Arsenal and Barcelona need to show him and our club a bit of respect. I realise that's a bit like asking John Terry not to be the most despicable human being ever born but still.

And with a presidential election to come at the Catalan club this summer things are only going to get worse, I reckon. Perhaps Ivan Gazidis needs one more addition to his backroom squad. A 6'8" mixed martial arts expert who moves in the shadows and who can just appear behind Laporta or Begiristain as they go to their car and 'advise them' that they need to shut their stupid big mouths. Or their mouths won't have any teeth left. Leaving them on the ground clutching their incredibly painful testicles would be a hint of things to come. Come on Ivan, sort it.

Maybe all the Arsenal blogs should have a 'Messi is going to sign for Arsenal' story at some stage this week. Lash in a couple of fake quotes from an Arsenal insider and see if we can't get a reaction from the Spanish press. It might help pass the time in what's going to be another dull week.

Apart from that there's not a thing left about Arsenal to talk about. Hope you had a good weekend. Mine was quite fine. I proved a very important point as well. That my footballing ability is directly related to the length of my facial hair. I had been cultivating a fine beard, simply because I was embracing the scruffy old tramp side of me, but I realised that the more my beard grew the worse I got at football. And trust me, I can't afford to get much worse.

Having had at the multi-coloured fuzz on my face with the shears on Saturday, yesterday's game of 5-a-side was a triumph of close control, amazing finishing, hard tackling and going in goal for a rest when I was knackered (quite often indeed). I think the beard must affect my aerodynamics in a bad way. 

Funny that, eh?

Anyway, that'll have to do. Till tomorrow.