Morning all,

Arsenal made their way into the 4th round of the Carling Cup last night with a 2-0 win over West Brom. I didn't see any of it, bar the goals on Sky Sports News, but you can't argue with the result. 

The goals came from Sanchez Watt, who followed up a Carlos Vela shot, and Carlos Vela who followed up a Mark Randall chip. The visitors weren't helped by the dismissal of former Gunner Jerome Thomas for a pushy-slappy thing on Jack Wilshere and while West Brom are apparently 'disappointed' in Wilshere you can't raise your hands. Or lower your hands to someone sitting on the floor. Or something.

So on we go. Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:

We played with cohesion and intelligence. We didn’t make mistakes and in the end the natural outcome was there.

Bravo. It's good to see Carlos Vela back in action. He's been a bit like the Incredible Mexican Invisible Disappearing Man from that TV series which I might just have made up this minute. From what I can gather from various reports, both in press and eye-witness, he livened things up for us but he's unlikely to be involved this weekend against Fulham. The manager says:

He needs more time, he is not ready. He was not even ready to start tonight but he needs to work. We have Van Persie, Bendtner, Eduardo and Vela as strikers. Of course he is in my plans, he can play as a winger as well. He can play wide left, wide right, he can play central, he can play as a goalkeeper, he can do physio, the stadium announcer's job, kit man, and he does a mean Pat Rice impression. He gives you plenty of options.

He does like the Carling Cup though, doesn't he? Most of his Arsenal goals have come in that competition. In fairness most of his Arsenal appearances have come in that position but hopefully he can kick on a bit this season. You have to think the 4-3-3 really suits him so fingers crossed.

The manager was also bigging up young Jack, saying:

He has something which is very difficult to give to players, no matter how big the game is he takes the ball and takes people on. He still sometimes has a little lack of experience in his decision-making but you see there is something special there.

I suppose the best thing about the Carling Cup is the opportunity it gives players to gain experience of big games (big compared to playing Stoke reserves at Underhill, I mean). Last night will be part of the learning curve for most of them so fingers crossed a good run in this competition can help them develop.

If you were at the game or saw it on TV, feel free to pitch in on the arses with your thoughts about the performance and the players.

Not much else happening. Bordeaux have warned us off making a January move for Marouane Chamakh because he's very good at lifting up other players, apparently. That's something you generally see in the line-out during rugby union but it would certainly bring something unique to association football. Imagine Chamakh heaving Bendtner skywards to head home from 11 feet in the air against Sp*rs. Revolutionary.

Next on the agenda a return to Craven Cottage where Arsenal's performance matched perfectly with the name of the venue. We should tell the players we're going to play Fulham at Awesome Cottage or Solid Effective But Uninspiring Two Nil Win Cottage. We're so suggestible, you see.

More on that and plenty of other guff in the days to come.

Morning all,

it's Carling Cup time. In the last few seasons it has provided some really memorable nights as we're given a glimpse of the potential future of Arsenal. The boss has used the tournament to blood young players and for the most part they have responded admirably.

In the last four seasons we've reached the final once and the semi-final on two other occasions so rightly enough there's a certain level of expectation. In terms of the team tonight it'll be a platform for Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Kieran Gibbs, Armand Traore and others to put themselves in the manager's thoughts when it comes to the first team. 

It will also see the return of Carlos Vela, who makes his first appearance of the season after suffering an ankle injury with Mexico in the summer. At the back there'll be plenty of experience as Sylvester gets his first game of the season while Philippe Senderos will make his first Arsenal appearance since May 2008 when he featured in the 1-0 win over Sunderland which completed that season.

It's a game I don't think he thought he'd be taking part in, nor the boss to be honest. It looks as if the injury to Johan Djourou scuppered the move he was expected to make this summer. The manager could have let him go but chose to keep him rather than find a replacement and it looks as if he's going to start again at Arsenal with a clean slate. The manager says:

I don't believe he is starting his career again because we know how good he is, but it is a new start, let's say. He is still very young for a centre-back, he's 24-years-old and he has the future in front of him. The best 10 years are now coming for him.

I've always thought he was a good player and the point about his age is a good one. Centre-halves tend to mature later, there's a lot of learning to do in that position, and if you asked me to choose between him and Sylvester the big Swiss would get the nod every day of the week. Fingers crossed he can take what he learned at Milan and kick on now.

From an attacking point of view all eyes will be on Jack Wilshere. After an outstanding Emirates Cup there are those who might have expected to see more of him than we have so far but the boss is obviously being cautious. He says:

I believe last year he paid a price physically for a very demanding start. This year he is strong, more mature, and I’m sure that he will show that tomorrow.

And on Aaron Ramsey, who believes we can win the tournament, the boss had this to say:

I believe he has improved a lot. He has outstanding physical qualities - he is quick, he has fantastic stamina, he has become much more powerful with his body. I believe he is not far now from the other players and he is pushing everybody.

So there's plenty to look forward to tonight. These games are fun because there's no real pressure and I think the players are aware of that too. There's an element of freedom to how they play their football.

We should be under no illusions about our opponents though. West Brom are a very decent side, they're currently top of the Championship and hammered Boro 5-0 away from home at the weekend. Their new manager Roberto di Matteo will certainly be more focussed on promotion than a distracting cup run but Arsenal at home would be a nice scalp to take.

It should be fun. Sadly I don't think it's being televised live anywhere, which is unusual for our Carling Cup games, but the official site will have live audio commentary for ATVO subscribers and then the full game just after the final whistle. It's situations like this though that make you think there's a real niche yet to be filled. If I could pay a couple of quid and watch the game via a stream that wasn't up and down and freezing and jumping and refreshing I'd happily do it. The same goes for league games.

Maybe the Premier League and all the other officials would be better off thinking about that rather than having their team of online ankle biters trying to take down streams on match days. They're like record companies who try to stop file sharing, putting more resources into that than actually providing a service people might pay for. Look at the success of the iTunes music store. It works, it's relatively cheap, it's easy to use. 

While there are always going to be people who want everything for nothing there are more than enough people who will happily pay for quality, be it on an online "season ticket" or a match by match basis. Still, I suspect I'm pissing in the wind with this one.

Right then, that'll be that. Here's hoping the youngsters can carry on the grand traditions and set off on another exciting Carling Cup run.

Till tomorrow. 

I have to confess that I only saw the first 15 minutes of the game last night, and then just the goals via 101greatgoals.

It was still enough to see our first goal in 946 hours of football. Nicklas Bendtner trickling one home with his left foot to put us 1-0 up. I also saw West Brom's equaliser, the first goal we've conceded in a long time too. A West Brom free kick in a dangerous position was made more dangerous by the fact Eboue broke away from the wall and the shot went through the wall right where he was supposed to be. 1-1.

But two further goals in the first half were enough to win the game. I mentioned West Brom's weakness at defending set-pieces and we took advantage when Kolo Toure headed home an Arshavin free kick, then Kolo's long ball sent Bendtner through and he slammed home his second of the night.

I can't tell you much else in terms of the game or the performance. Feel free to tell me, the arses are open, but the main thing is that we scored goals and won the game. The gap between us and Aston Villa is now just three points and they play tonight as we know.

Afterwards Arsene said:

The game was decided in the first half where all the important facts happened. In the second half we controlled the game and created more chances that we didn’t take but I thought goals four and five were there to be taken.

Goals four and five? Imagine. After the last few weeks I'm happy enough with three. Let's not to be too greedy here.

And two for Nicklas Bendtner who has come in for some criticism in recent months. Nevertheless, he's now scored 10 11 goals this season so despite some admittedly dodgy performances and some poor misses he does get his share. The manager was happy for him too, saying:

He has shown tonight he has the talent to be an Arsenal player and he’s on the right path to mature. I liked his presence, his determined attitude and I thought the way he took people on showed he has improved a lot.

No doubt there are still things he needs to work on in his game but I hope those goals will give his confidence a boost and maybe reduce some of the stick he gets. He's a 20 year old striker, there are very few 20 year old strikers in double figures for their top-flight clubs this season, I'd wager. Adebayor, one of our 'senior' strikers, has just 12, so that puts in perspective a little bit.

As I said though the main thing was the three points. That the win came with three goals is another positive, as is the fact we might have had more. Of course you can pick the bones out of any game and look for negatives but we've had enough of those over the last few weeks, right?

Now we've got a few days until our next game which is Burnley in the FA Cup and our next league fixture is Blackburn in 10 days time. Sandwiched between those two games is the 2nd leg of the Champions League tie against Roma.

It's not unrealistic to think that by the time we play Blackburn we'll have Walcott, Eduardo and Adebayor back in contention so the squad will have a good boost heading into the final stretch of the season.

So now we keep our fingers crossed that Man City can get a result against Villa tonight (albeit without Robinho or Craig Bellamy). If they do things will start to get really interesting.

Till tomorrow.

So here we go again.

The good thing about this time of the season is that games come so quickly you don't have too much time to dwell on the disappointments. It's West Brom tonight, a team at the foot of the table, but one which caused us some problems on the first day of the season.

We won 1-0 back then, Samir Nasri scoring after 4 minutes and the 86 goalless ones that followed were, in hindsight, something of a taste to come. I don't really have anything to say about this, the implications of tonight's game. I think we all know. Win and we're 3 points behind Villa who play Man City tomorrow night. Anything else just doesn't bear thinking about.

The manager has, in his usual style, been talking up his team in public. I know it's probably designed to boost their confidence and belief but at the moment I wish he'd do in private. He says some things which are kind of hard to digest. Speaking about Manchester United, the runaway league leaders, he says:

It’s a fine line [between winning games 1-0 and drawing]. I have watched Man United get an opening here and there and they are a great side. But I don’t feel they dominate the games like we do.

That's staggering, it really is. Up there with the 'were only 1 or 2% away from dominating the league' comment earlier in the season. I didn't see us dominate Fulham, or Sunderland, or the 5 games we lost this season so it's hard to make sense of that. At a time when fans are frustrated it'd be nice if he was a little more circumspect in what he was saying. Maybe that's just me though.

In team news the only injury is William Gallas who has an ankle problem. The manager reckons he has a 'bright future' at the club. Personally, I think he'll be off in the summer and even if his form, which is probably as good as its ever been at Arsenal, is due to him putting himself in the shop window then I'm more than happy to accept that in the short-term. If it helps us achieve our goals this season then I can live with it.

Johan Djourou will come in for Gallas and I'd expect there to be a little bit of rotation in midfield. I think Eboue will probably start ahead of Arshavin and Bendtner will come back in for Vela. I watched West Brom against Everton at the weekend and defensively they are poor, the first goal they conceded was absolutely comical. They probably won't be as generous tonight but it's an area we can still take advantage of.

One thing we have to be aware of is players coming from midfield and shooting from range. They had a few good chances against Everton like that and they have a couple of handy midfielders, the Spaniard Valero is one we need to keep an eye out for.

Bottom line though is that if we can't beat the bottom team then it's hard to say we deserve to be anywhere near the top 4. Arsene knows we have to take advantage of the favour Stoke did us on Sunday, saying:

I think that Villa have lost a big opportunity to put us eight points behind and we want to take advantage of that. We have to put performances in to make us come back as quickly as possible.

And what will the Villa players be feeling if we win tonight? The pressure is on then. Instead of being 8 clear the gap is just 3, they then have to play Man City who are more than capable of beating Villa (sadly though just as capable of losing 4-0).

It's down to us. We've got to start scoring goals, tonight is where it must start again or the little lifeline we've been thrown will be snatched away again. 

Samir Nasri is feeling positive while Andrei Arshavin talks about how the 90 minutes against Fulham were a real challenge for him physically. He says:

Even before the end of the first half I felt as if I had spat my lungs out. It was a hard match for me. In the second half my legs simply refused to serve me.

I am not physically strong enough yet to play the whole of the match. But I think with each coming game I play it will be easier in this sense.

There's no doubt the 90 minutes will have done him the world of good but it'll take him some time to adjust to the pace of English football. I think tonight he'll be used from the bench, perhaps to take advantage of tired West Brom legs in the final half an hour. He's obviously the best player we have for his position, I just don't see the manager starting him twice in 3 days this early in his Premier League career.

The manager is happy with him though, saying:

I’m convinced he will soon have a tremendous influence on our game because he has a quick brain and is many steps ahead of the game. Even on Saturday he set up two great chances for Robin van Persie. They were two great passes and he had two great opportunities too.

When you can have that kind of impact on a game, it is very positive.

Add to that the impressive first half against Sunderland and it'll be very interesting to see what he can do when fully fit.

And there you go. All the stock phrases at the end of the blog to encourage the team appear to have little or no effect. Their mojo has run out. We need a new one.

Fingers cro ... no. Come on you .... nah. Kill them to ... nope.

Just fucking win.

That'll do. 

So the season starts with a win, three points and a reasonable performance given the understrength nature of the side, particularly in midfield.

There's nothing like an early goal to settle the nerves and that's exactly what we got. It was a lovely goal too. Bendtner played it wide to Clichy, who fed it to Denilson whose run into the box was excellent, he cut it back for new boy Samir Nasri to sidefoot home and to make it 1-0. A debut goal for Nasri will do him the world of good and I liked what I saw of him yesterday. Good on the ball, isn't afraid of having a shot and he works hard. Of course you can't make any judgements based on one performance but it's a positive start for him.

In midfield we had Theo on the right and Emmanuel Eboue in central midfield alongside Denilson. Theo was very quiet in a game where you really wanted him to shine and Eboue, shock horror, had a very decent game in the middle. Obviously he's not the solution to that problem, not by a long way, but credit where it's due. The 1-0 scoreline might have had people a bit more nervous than they would have liked but I think if Cesc had had the chances Eboue had yesterday we'd have won the game by at least three goals.

There were a couple of scary moments, Almunia made a good save after the otherwise impressive Djourou wrongly tried to play offside and the young Swiss made up for it by clearing the rebound off the line. We huffed and puffed a bit up front. Adebayor was trying too hard, if you know what I mean, and he missed a couple of half-decent chances. One moment late in the second half saw him try a Kanu style trick when he should have just played a simple pass to Nasri who was wide open and when the trick didn't come off there was the extraordinary sound of him being booed.

I can't really remember that happening to a player before but it's most certainly a hangover from the summer. I don't think booing players is a good idea but I can understand why some fans, still vexed from his behaviour during the close season, chose to express their distaste. It didn't happen just because he messed up that chance. Still, he worked hard despite not much coming off for him and he made a chance for van Persie who poked it wide with the outside of his left foot. He also crossed for van Persie to head straight at Carson. He put one just wide himself when he really should have scored but hopefully he'll get his head together and his shooting boots on for the next game.

In the end though we didn't really look like adding to the one goal nor did West Brom look like they were going to score. Kolo Toure came on in place of Theo and the fact we had Eboue in central mid and Toure as a right winger shows you how the squad stands at the moment.

The main thing though was the result. Three points on the opening day is not to be sniffed at, no matter who you're playing, we kept another clean sheet and we will get better than this. Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:

I am pleased with the fact that we didn't concede a goal. We scored two on Wednesday, one today, so it's better than the reverse. Overall it was a good week for us. A winning start, a win in the Champions League, so yes a good week.

And given how nervous fans were heading into these two games I think you can call it a good week. There are many positives to take from it and also things that must have become clear to the manager in terms of how the squad needs to be bolstered, but we shall wait and see what happens there.

In other news Justin Hoyte has left Arsenal to join Middlesboro. I think every Arsenal wishes him well up there (apart from twice a year) and I hope his career kicks on. The fee is around £3m which, when you add to the £12m for Hleb, the £1m for Gilberto and the money received from the sell-on of Rat Faced Chav to Sp*rs from Blackburn puts us in the black for our summer dealings. Let's just hope there's too much money under Arsene's mattress for him to have a good night's sleep. He may just have to spend some.

Could some of it go on Liverpool's Xabi Alonso? The News of the World reports Alonso is fed up with Benitez after he tried to sell him all summer and bring in Gareth Barry. I think he'd be an excellent signing and while he is cup-tied in Europe it's only for the group stages of the Champions League, I think. He would be eligible for the knock-out rounds as he's only played in the qualifying round. That said if I were Liverpool I wouldn't possibly sell him to us. It'd make no sense whatsoever to obviously strengthen one of your rivals. Still, stranger things have happened.

Update: I'm wrong. He'd be cup-tied for the whole CL season. 

Reports from Spain this morning say that Arsenal will allow Fran Merida to go on loan for the season to Real Sociedad. He spent the last part of last season on loan at the Basque club and a full campaign is seen as good for his development. Good luck to him there.

And that's really about it. There's a strange week ahead for the squad with many of them on international duty. These early season friendlies really are a pain in the hole and we can only hope that the lads come through unscathed. It may just give Arsene time to count up all the pennies in his jar and go shopping though. Fingers crossed.

Ok, enjoy your Sunday, Arsebandits. More tomorrow.

So here it is. At least. The new season. Are you excited? Chomping at the bit? Psyched? Pumped?

Yeah, all of those things. As usual on the eve of a big game we hear a lot from Arsene Wenger at his pre-match press conference. Sometimes on a Saturday morning I look at the glut of stories and it's amost intimidating thinking about how to sort them and present them.

I suppose the main thing is the team news and we have Kolo Toure and Samir Nasri back compared to the squad that faced Schteve McClaren'sh Eff-shee Twente, but the boss admits Kolo is still a little bit short of fitness. He says he doesn't have any choice but to rush him back because of injuries. I wonder will he start though? Djourou was good the other night so he may stick with the Swiss and Gallas and have Kolo there just in case. If he starts Kolo it's because of concerns over Gallas and that he might be better with Kolo alongside him, we'll see.

I think Nasri will start on the left and I just have a feeling that because of the inexperience of Ramsey and Denilson that Walcott will make way for Eboue on the right hand side. The boss will call it 'balance', or something.  

He also spoke about having money to spend, saying he could splash out £30m on a player if he wanted to. When asked why he didn't, he said:

For £30million you speak about a striker. I have Van Persie, Adebayor, I have Bendtner who I was patiently building up to be at the level I want him to be. So why should I buy? Now I have Carlos Vela, Eduardo Da Silva. We have the quality. That’s why.

Which is fair enough. What is interesting though is that it's yet more confirmation that the money is there. There has been a consistent message from the club and from the manager that funds are there, despite what some scaremongerers would have you believe, yet the manager chooses to spend more frugally than some people would like. 

He talks about balancing the books (obviously important) and developing talent (citing Adebayor for whom we paid £4m) and those are fine things. However, when there's a big need for a player in a very important part of the squad then there are times when you have to spend big and I think that's what he's going to have to do to get the midfielder we need.

Interesting Rafa Benitez, in his pre-match press conference, let slip that he had no part in the talks 'about Alonso and Arsenal', referring to his board. So obviously there was more to that story than we actually thought. With Alonso now cup-tied for this season's Champions League it may do one of two things. Firstly we may go back and make a lower offer for the player because it does affect his value. Secondly it may end whatever interest we have and make us look elsewhere. I'm somewhat comforted by the fact we were looking at a player of his quality instead of some unheard of Algerian wonderkid. The Guardian reports that Alonso has asked to leave so who knows?

When it comes to signings though he's still playing his cards close to his chest, saying we're not close to signing anyone but that he's relaxed because there are 16 days left to do it. On the other hand though you hear him talk about how the physical demands on Ramsey and Denilson are high after the Twente game and you wonder why he doesn't hurry it up a bit. Signings will come though, I'm sure of that. 

In terms of the season ahead though the boss believes we can win the title and is aware that silverware, which has eluded us in recent years (albeit by the skin of its teeth a couple of times), is necessary. He says:

Every season is a season when you have to win something. For me the two massive trophies are the Premier League and the Champions League. We were close in both competitions [last season]. So let's go and try again. We want to win things.

Hurrah. I want to win things too. I mean I want Arsenal to win things. Although I wouldn't mind winning something, like the Euromillions jackpot but I'll get back on track now. We have a reasonable start to the season, the fixtures could certainly have been more tricky, so it's a good chance for us to get off to a good start. We saw what happened a couple of seasons ago when we started poorly and were basically out of contention by the end of September. Although I do remember United losing a couple of games early on last season and look where they ended up, the cunts.

Anyway, I'm sure the players have at the moment are focussed, ready for what lies ahead and hungry for success and trophies. Today's game against West Brom should be interesting. Very much a footballing side (something Arsene Wenger will appreciate) in the Championship last season there's the suggestion that they may modify their style for the Premier League and be more direct and physical as they battle for survival. We'll see today. It'll be a tough test for the lads, promoted teams always have this great vim going into new seasons and to play their first game against one of the top teams will ensure they're going to give us a good scrap today.

Fingers crossed we can get off the start we all want. I'm feeling those little butterflies already. God, I missed those butterflies. Football is back. I love football. I love Arsenal.

Come ooooooooooooooon.