All photos shamelessly nicked from the Daily Mail, but here they are for your enjoyment:

I hope Almunia isn't offended that Beckham copied his hairdo.

As you all know by now, Arsenal absolutely demolished Slavia Prague on Tuesday. 7 goals, 6 of them were top, top quality, and the football, control and composure on displays were pure class. It was Arsenal's third 7-0 win in the last 4 years, and the Gunners' biggest win in Europe.

It was great to see this new, young team really explode, and stability has really been the key factor. They've all had about 2-3 years of playing together now, and there are options and fluidity in every position. Some of the goals were just stunning, particularly both of Cesc's. You can see all the goals here:

1-0 Cesc Fabregas
2-0 Hubacek o.g.
3-0 Theo Walcott
4-0 Aliaksandr Hleb
5-0 Theo Walcott
6-0 Cesc Fabregas
7-0 Nicklas Bendtner

Hleb was absolutely outstanding all game long, Walcott showed us what he's capable of, Adebayor was a bit useless, but worked hard as always, and everyone else was solid and strong. Eboue is still a bit uncomfortable/wasteful on the wing, but did fantastic well to set up the 7th goal, which Bendtner did showed great resolve to tuck away.

So it's quite a confidence boost ahead of Sunday's big matchup against Liverpool, who along with Arsenal are the only two undefeated teams in the Premiership. Although in many ways, because Slavia were such poor opposition, it wasn't the greatest preparation. Liverpool will be much, much tougher opposition, and will be looking to prove a point after losing to Besiktas yesterday in the Champions League. It's also reaching that stage of the season where they have dropped a lot of points, and they will need to start winning consistently now, especially against the big teams, since they have to claw back points to make up the difference.

Fernando Torres was missing against Besiktas, but will likely be back for Sunday, and no one can really predict what kind of tinkering Benitez will do with the rest of the side. Crouch scored a hattrick against Arsenal last year, so it's quite possible that he will partner Torres.

As for the Gunners, well Van Persie is still missing, and there are doubts over Eduardo. As good and exciting as Theo Walcott was against Slavia, the Liverpool defence are far, far superior, and 4-5-1 is probably the best way to go for this game - Adebayor up front on his own, with Hleb, Fabregas, and Rosicky/Eduardo supporting from deeper positions. Walcott would be a good substitute coming on against tired legs, especially against Sami Hyypia.

They key points will of course be the performances of Gallas and Toure, and how Liverpool deal with Cesc. The two centrehalves were absolutely hammered by Crouch last season, and they will need to do better this year. As for Cesc, well everything good runs through him (and Hleb of course, and Rosicky when he plays), but with options like Sissoko and Mascherano, Benitez will be looking to limit the amount of time and possession that he gets. This is where Flamini becomes important, because he battles and snaps into tackles, and gives Cesc fantastic support. I have a feeling we might see Diaby in there as well, giving an additional option in the centre.

This is the first real test for Arsenal, and they must get it right.

Arsenal have signed 24 year old Croatian striker Eduardo da Silva for the usual "undisclosed" fee. In this case, I would think it is lower, rather than higher... probably in the range of £6-8 million. Arsenal have finally signed a "Fox In The Box", because that seems to be this guy's speciality - headers, left footers, right footers, he seems very composed and clinical in the box, and that is what the Arse have been missing. They don't need anymore players to dribble past 3-4 guys and hit a curling wonder goal, they need someone to pick up the scraps from all of that, and this guy seems like the business. Here:

Da Silva, who came to Croatia from Brazil when he was 15, has been prolific in the Croatian league, scoring 73 goals in just 104 appearances for Dinamo Zagreb, and 10 goals in 15 games when on loan at Inter Zaprešić. Since taking Croatian citizenship in 2002, his national team career has been very impressive as well - he's scored 7 in 12 games for Croatia, and previously had 8 in 12 for the Croatian U-21s. Incidentally, Eduardo was also the first player to score at the Emirates Stadium in a competitive match, when Dinamo Zagreb played Arsenal in Champions League qualifying.

A lot of fans will be underwhelmed by this, when they were expecting an Eto'o or Torres or someone big (that's not to say that no one else will be signed), and despite his goalscoring record, he obviously is not a proven talent. Still, I have a good feeling about this, because from what i've seen, he really does know how to score goals... and remember, the problem for Arsenal has not been creating chances, it's been putting them away. In Da Silva, Arsene has bought the most conventional striker he's seen in years.

There's also of course the worry that he might be another Bosko Balaban. Yes, the wonderfully alliteratively named Croatian, who top scored in the league for Dinamo Zagreb, and scored 5 goals in 8 matches in World Cup 2002 qualifying. Aston Villa snapped him up for £5.8 million, and he scored precisely ZERO goals for them, got homesick, and ended up leaving on a free transfer a year later. Buttttttttttttttttt, let's try and be optimistic.

In anycase, Balaban might not be the only striker signed. Arsenal lost 3 forwards this summer (Thierry Henry, Jeremie Aliadiere and Julio Baptista), and they have only brought 2 in so far (Eduardo Da Silva, and Niclas Bendtner has returned from his loand spell), so there is certainly room for one more.

And this interview with Cesc Fabregas's agent seems to indicate the same. He was being asked about whether Cesc wanted to join Real or Barca, or leave Arsenal because of Henry's departure, but said that Cesc wanted to stay and was looking forward to the new season, because Arsenal were going to sign lots of new players. Quotes are below:

"Thierry was a very important player for them and it is normal that now he is no longer there, everyone thinks it is very bad news for the club.

But Arsenal are going to buy a lot of good players and they are going to be a major team both in the Premier League and Champions League.

Without Thierry, Cesc is one of the best players at Arsenal and this is fine for him, he is happy with the responsibility."

Arsenal deservedly beat Bolton 2-1 today at Highmirates, going down early on (as usual) to a Nicolas Anelka goal (as usual) from the opposition's first chance (as usual). But they showed great spirit and good football to equalise and then take the lead just after the restart. Tomas Rosicky scored the equaliser after great work from Emmanuel Adebayor and some not-so-great work from Bolton's right-back/human-celery-stalk Nicky Hunt. Rosicky had looked super up for this from the start, and after taking on the Bolton defence and trying all manner of shots, it was no surprise that he stole in to capitalise on the gangly one's mistake - Hunt tried to chest Ade's cross to their keeper, but didn't sense Tommy sneaking in behind him, and he neatly dispatched the ball past Juskalaineaieiaaaieiein.

The winning goal was a special moment - 44 seconds after the break, Gilberto played a great through ball for Cesc to run on to. "El Matador" took a touch to compose himself, dummied a defender, set himself up and fooled Faye into thinking he would shoot to the far post, and then splendidly placed the ball high into the near post. His first goal since August, and his first Premiership goal this season... the first shot scored in 62 attempts on target!

The joy was all too evident on his face, and he jumped up and down madly for a few minutes before getting back to the task at hand - which was to hang on to the lead and beat Bolton. This was almost blown to bits with the horribly profligate finishing that Arsenal keep showing - About Diaby first missing a clear header on goal, and then completely messing up a one-on-one chance. He first pushed Baptista out of the way when the ball was played through, and then ran at the keeper and weakly shot straight at him when he could have set Baptista up for an easy tap-in.

Then straight down the other end, Eboue horribly handled the ball in the box, but somehow referee Rob Styles styleshly signalled that it was unintentional and ball-to-hand when it clearly wasn't. Sam Allardyce complained afterwards of course, being the insufferably ugly and painful walrus that he is, but on balance of play Arsenal deserved the win, they had 9 shots on goals to Bolton's 2.

The usual defensive problems were all too evident though - Bolton's goal came from a long ball and Kevin Nolan was given all the freedom in the world to head the ball back across goal. Lehman clawed it away, and Anelka opportunistically knocked the rebound in. Oh, and you know that rule about how strikers always score against their former clubs, well it's beginning to piss me off? Anelka with 3 against us since he signed for Bolton, and he had another 3 or 4 when playing for Man City. Annoyance!

Ok, i've had enough of this writing business for the day. I'll sign off, but first I must mention Freddie Ljungberg. He looked committed and threatening all game, but most importantly he seemed to step up a gear and try and drive the team on once we went a goal down. He never let our heads drop, and was important today even if he missed his scoring chances.

Finally... a bit of an oddity/treat. If you're using IE, then highlight the image below with your mouse. If you're not using IE, then use IE for this. Then once you've seen it, please explain it to me:

So explain this to me - while fans all over the world are gettin hunted down and banned, and clubs being fined for their misbehaviour, why were Chelsea fans allowed to throw things on the pitch all game and get away with it?

Okay, yes, we know they are a bunch of classless, ignorant pigs, mostly Johnny-come-latelys and plastic fans, and even the traditional sort that were basically trashy drunks, were only slightly better than Spurs supporters to begin with. But even then, on an occassion like this - a cup final against a major rival, with millions of people watching (yes, millions of people watched, that was the effect of Arsenal's FOOTBALLERS reaching this final), you would have expected them to behave.

Instead, things were thrown onto pitch all game long - food, paper, plastic, all kinds of nonsense. Cesc Fabregas was hit by a piece of celery when taking a corner kick, several others players had to dodge and throw-away stuff. Manuel Almunia, the most non-controversial nice-guy figure that you could ever find was even struck by something from the crowd, and required treatment from the physio. (This was right when Arsenal had conceded the corner from which John Terry got kicked in the head, and it was because the Arsenal physio was close by treating Almunia that Terry's life was not jeoparised). It's funny that Chelsea get away scot-free again. In 2002 at Highbury, when a pound coin got thrown at Jamie Carragher, the fan responsible was hunted down and banned for life. Can you imagine any such thing being done by Chelsea? No chance. Why? Same reasons again, primarily a sheer lack of class, and additionally a lack of control, and a lack of standards being set by a club that despite breaking all the rules, persists with a siege mentality like no other. You have shameful people like Abramovich and Kenyon who have broken every rule in the book, and then bragged about it, and you have the ultra- (but very talented) Mourinho, and they've created this bizarre pseudo-posh yob culture at the club. It's honestly quite painful.

"Where were you when you were shit?"


Cesc holding up celery that the Chelsea fans threw