Various sources have proclaimed that it's a done deal, and to be honest this rumours has been rumbling on for months, and seems like a quite likely one.

He's French, he's very experienced, he's won loads of titles in France, and made great progress in both European and international football. He's left-footed, and can scrap and work hard just as well as he can charge forward. He's a decent finisher, if not a prolific goalscorer, and is a classy player, even if he is underrated by many (mostly because they are busy complaining about how overrated he is).

He's played a lot with Thierry Henry, and is a determined character. He'd probably be everything that Reyes wasn't, and i'm sure he'd love to work with Arsene Wenger. Plus, he's been linked many, many times before as well. Before he joined Lyon in fact, so Wenger has seen his potential ages ago.

If rumours that Gerard Houllier is going to take over as Director of Football at Arsenal are to be believed, then that makes this story even more likely than before.

A pacy, energetic winger with a bit of steel and no small amount of ability - sounds like he's needed, especially with him being left-footed (there's no one left in that department apart from Van Persie and Clichy, and of course Armand Traore in the reserves; compare that to a few years ago over overlapping periods when Edu, Silvinho, Overmars, Cole, Upson, van Bronckhorst all gave the team great balance).

Seems to be more than just speculation, and all sources seem to indicate that a deal is very close to being done (assuming it's not already wrapped up) for Legia Warszawa keeper Łukasz Fabiański.

German site GoalGate reported on April 28th, that Arsenal were interested in Fabianski , and that they had been watching him closely for the last 3 years. Then last Friday, the same website reported that Fabianski was in London and would be signing a contract over the weekend , with a reported price of €3 million.

The Sun then picked up on this a day later, when they reported with another typically awful clever headline, that Wenger was on the Luk out for a new keeper. As Sun journalists are wont to, i'm sure the writer Eric Beauchamp spent sleepless nights on extensive journeys and phonecalls to Warsaw to uncover this stunning piece of information.

Well, although the sources aren't all that fab, it really does seem like the kind of signing that Arsene would make.

Nobody really knows too much about him, but judging by his performances on Youtube, he's a strong keeper with good positioning, and decent shot-stopping:

At 1.90m he's tall enough for the Premiership, and he was picked ahead of Man United's Tomas Kuszczczak for the World Cup. He also seems like he's more than willing to get riled up when he needs to. He will though, need to learn English and get used to the physical nature of the premiership, but at 22 years of age and with Jens Lehmann staying around for one last year, i'm sure he will have the perfect chance to learn and get better.

Of course all this brings up a few more questions. Namely, what will happen to Manuel Almunia and Mart Poom? Poom of course joined the club a while ago, and is an experienced, experienced 'keeper who was at one time the toast of the Premiership when at Derby. He's only had one Carling Cup substitute apperance for the Arsenal, and I feel that he's probably there to prime for an eventual coaching role.

Almunia on the other hand is somebody that after 2 very dodgy seasons (including a dodgy Champions League final!) has finally looked composed and able this term in all his Cup appearances, as well as a 3-0 league win over Liverpool. He was always very agile, and able to make great stops, but his judgement, positioning and decision-making were always suspect. This year he has had a steady amount of games and shown himself to be upto the task, and many fans were seriously wondering whether Wenger might be inclined to let him have a run in the first team next season.

I guess we'll just wait and see.

1 man went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

I was fortunate enough to get tickets for the last home game in the Grove's debut season, and the atmosphere was tremendous yesterday. Unfortunately a certain cowardly left-back failed to appear - not on the pitch, on the bench, and not even in the stadium. It was disappointing because fans had probably been preparing all season for this moment, and all the songs that had been prepared had scant opportunity to be sung, but i've decided to theme this post accordingly.

2 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Arsenal once again showed all their failings of the season, and Chelsea showed their strengths. Arsenal went under the cosh from the kick-off, but recovered well to have a strong spell of posession, and then one the stroke of half-time when Julio Baptista broke free of the last man and was brought down in the penalty box, Gilberto duly tucked away the penalty. As a bonus, Boulahrouz was also sent off for being the last man. Arsenal had the initiatve now, and for the first 10 minutes of the second-half they had bags of chances.

3 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

And that was symbolic of the season really; Adebayor, Hleb, and notably (and unsurprisingly) Baptista all squandered chances, and Arsenal conceded an equaliser from a cross - sloppy marking as usual, Michael Essien heading in at the near post. Chelsea had shown great resilience in coming back into the game, and as the fullbacks pushed up for Arsenal, they somehow managed to dominate possession with their 10 men.

4 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Some good singing on the day - "F*ck Off Mourinho", "Shit Club, No History", "Liverpool", and "Ashley Cole, is a f*cking arseh*le" amongst others. I did enjoy the "Sacked in the summer, you're getting sacked in the summer" whenever Jose Mourinho began his histrionics.

5 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Chelsea almost stole it later on in their period of dominance, when neat footwork from Joe Cole saw him place the ball high into the top left corner past Lehmann, when facing almost away from goal. But it was rightly disallowed for an offside in the buildup. Arsenal poured forward in the last 10 minutes, squandered several chances, and then with almost the last kick of the game Eboue was played in on the right, and he wound up and unleashed a high, hard shot that thumped off the crossbar. Chelsea played well, and deserved their draw, but a winner would have been nice, because Arsenal had been the brighter, more attacking force throughout.

6 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 6 men, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

I can't for the life of me understand why Khalid Boulahrouz even bothered to foul, or try and win the ball off Julio Baptista. Anybody who watches football knows that when the Beast is clear through on goal, he either softly caresses the ball into the keeper's midriff or sends it somewhere near the corner flag. Silly man, deserved his red card for being stupid.

7 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 7 men, 6 men, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

As I said, the game was symbolic of Arsenal's failings - inability to finish chances, to cope with pressure, and to concentrate and defend properly. The other side of the coin was displayed by Fulham's other team who with 10 men fought their way back into the game, and almost won it. Incredibly irritating, incredibly resilient.

8 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 8 men, 7 men, 6 men, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Even my dad, who was watching his first ever football match in person, said quite confidently that the Arsenal looked pointless up front, and needed a winger, preferrably a left winger. This is the same thing that fans have been saying all season, and if my dad who knows very little about football found it obvious enough to give such confident punditry, then it definitely is obvious. This of course means that in the summer we will sell two wingers and sign a central midfielder. What do I know anyways?

9 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 9 men, 8 men, 7 men, 6 men, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Watching the lap of honour after the game, there were some interesting things to be noted. For one, it was called a "lap of appreciation", which I guess is fair enough when you are not competing for any honours at all. Mathieu Flamini seemed alive and well, which was nice considering that many of us suspected that Arsene Wenger had drowned him in the hydrotherapy pool. I also noticed (albeit from a great distance) that Jeremie Aliadiere seemed to be wearing spectaces. Strikers with bad eyesight are about as valuable as goalkeepers with no hand (no disrespect meant to the fine participants of either the Blind or Disabled World Cups).

Anyways, the season's done. Tied for 3rd place on points, but in 4th on goal difference, I feel the team has moved up a level from last season. With the kids blossoming in the background, all that's needed is 1 or 2 good experienced players (left winger included), and things could be very, very interesting next year. Seriously. Last season Arsenal only got 4th spot on the last day of the season, and stuttered throughout. Of the 6 league games played with Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool, they lost 4, drew 1 and won 1. Pathetic. I was worried at the end of last season.

This year, of the 6 league games played with those 3, we've won 3, drawn 2 and lost 1 (to Liverpool). Both draws were against Chelsea, and both involved them coming from behind to equalise for 1-1 (and one of those was in injury time). Add to that 3-1 and 6-3 away wins over Liverpool in the FA and Carling Cups and 2 wins and 2 draws over Tottenham in 4 games, and Arsenal have dealt comfortably with the big teams. It's the small teams that have posed the problem - losses to West Ham (x2), Man City, Sheff Utd and Fulham have been unacceptable, and you add those up and it's 15 points more to the total. This is not unrealistic because in each of those matches, Arsenal dominated (sometimes 20 shots to 1), but just allowed the points to slip away. Add to those results the pairs of draws against struggling Newcastle (1-1 and 0-0) and Middlesborough (1-1 and 1-1) and that would be another 8 points. It all adds up - that's roughly 20 points, with those added to our total, we'd be contenders. All we need is to gain experience and be clinical.

10 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 10 men, 9 men, 8 men, 7 men, 6 men, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Young Arsenal midfielder Denilson has proved to be quite a sensation this season. The 19 year old arrived as an unknown (both in Brazil and Europe) when he was signed from Sao Paulo last summer, but he has shown fantastic attitude, committment and skill.

He's very tenacious and highly confident (Thierry henry said he was like Cesc - when he came in for training he showed no nerves, and played like he owned the place). He's had no problems settling in, and has turned in some sterling performances having forced his way into the team since December. Although his inexperience has shown, he will get better and better.

He's been called up for Brazil already this season (without having played), and I wouldn't be surprised to see him goto the Copa America this summer and show the world what he's capable of. Some of the top players like Gilberto and Emerson have had very difficult seasons, so Denilson playing would give them a break. Dunga also has a fondness for unheralded players, so i'm fully expecting this to happen. Since Denilson hasn't played a whole lot this year, he would be in good shape for the Copa America and it would give him great experience for the coming season at Ashburton Grove.

Just a quick pre-bedtime post: Arsenal face Man City in the Premiership tomorrow. City are more or less safe from relegation, and at this point i'd say have not much to play for, so the Gunners should have a slight advantage. They can wrap up 4th place in the league if they beat City, and then it should be smooth sailing. I have a sneaking suspicion though that if they can beat City and Spurs on the weekend, that they'll have a good chance of taking 3rd place away from Liverpool.

The team will be more or less the same as it was against Bolton, but Freddie is injured so Julio Baptista will probably come in for him. At this point in the season with no Robin Van Persie or Thierry Henry, it's not really worth moaning and groaning about who plays, it's better to just get behind whoever is playing and support the team. I'm looking for Hleb to get a goal tomorrow, he really needs one, and ALL the midfielders need to spend a bit of time on shooting. Bring in Dennis and Wrighty, and let them teach a bit of brilliant technique from opposite ends of a sparkling spectrum.

And lastly, on a non-football related note, I just wanted to say a little something about Kurt Vonnegut, who passed away on April 11th. Sadly, i'm so out-of-touch with things that I didn't even hear the news till today. It's sad, sad stuff.

He was such a brilliant author - a man with morals, a social commentator, and an extraordinary abuser of genres. Insightful, witty and always ahead of his time, and able to dole out irony and advice in equal measure. His brand of satire can only be described as art.

Of the many Vonnegut quotes that are floating around at the moment, here is one of my favourites:
"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country"

I had always hoped one day to meet him, but it was not to be. Maybe it might still happen, maybe it won't. But "so it goes".

RIP Kurt Vonnegut.

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:

Judging by the rumours going around, Julio Baptista might will be here next season. Myles Palmer over at ANR seems to think that Arsene Wenger is in love with the big Brazilian (does this count as bestiality? ok, yuck), and wants him to stay.

Baptista himself has said that he has no clue.

As for Arsenal fans, I don't think any of them want to see any money spent on Baptista, a player who has looked SO inept that some even want to see the prolific Jeremie Aliadiere ahead of him on the team sheet.

I think he might settle in time, and have a lot to offer, but he has looked like a clumsy clown this season, offering up shades of what fans thought of him at Sao Paulo where they laughed at his clumsiness.

Manchester United and Chelsea both advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League today. Whilst Arsenal haven't managed to score against either West Ham or Newcastle, United thumped 7 goals past Roma at Old Trafford to win the tie 8-3 on aggregate. Chelsea dominated slightly superior opposition away in Spain, coming back from a goal down to win 2-1 in stoppage time, and 3-2 on aggregate. Gutting stuff really.

Not only that, but assuming they overcome their semi-final opposition, there is the distinct prospect of a Manchester United vs Chelsea Champions League final, and FA Cup final. YUCK!

To add to that, if things stay as close as they are, then Wednesday May 9th might very well see the Premiership title decided in 1 game, when Manchester United play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. It's almost like 3 cup finals in a row, and the only thing that could make it worse would be if Spurs reach the UEFA Cup final.

Meanwhile Arsenal, with 2 wins in their last 11 games in all competitions are still trying to figure out how to score a goal and not let the season completely fall to pieces. I don't think a single person is in Wenger's corner anymore, and certainly no one is going to put up with another "The boys have shown tremendeous spirit, and you can see that the quality is there, and they are learning and next season we will see the benefit of that and the team will be much stronger". It's a dangerous game to play, to keep building up the merits of the next season, because too long without success and the entire project will have failed, because the youngsters will want to leave.

Millions of fans around the world aren't paying hard-earned money to see a team be slowly educated, they are doing so to see a challenge take place. The education of youngsters is supposed to be something that's happening in the background. Maybe it's just the frustration of today, and maybe i'm ignoring the big picture, but Arsene has left himself with far too much to do, and unless there is serious rebuilding in the summer, a lot of people will have no faith at all come next season. All deficiences have been clearly exposed this season - the inexperience, the lack of goalscorers, and the lack of effective players - and Arsene Wenger, with his fondness for youngsters, perception that goalscorers aren't important, and penchant for buying technicians, dribblers and passers, is to blame for all of them.

But deep down I think we all still suspect, despite his best efforts to confuse us, that Arsene still knows. Make it happen next season Boss. Please.

Those of you who've watched Arsenal this season, will have known the eventual outcome within 15 minutes of the start of yesterday's game against West Ham. It was the same old story. Arsenal created a glut of chances and didn't score. You wondered whether West Ham would pinch one off a counter-attack, and sure enough on the stroke of half-time they did. And then Arsenal continued to create a glut of chances but to no avail. SAME. OLD. STORY. One-nil not to the Arsenal.

There was all the intricate passing, pretty football, and scintillating build-up play and movement that you'd expect of Arsene Wenger's sides, but nothing at the end of it. To take Arjun's “just can't score” metaphor a step farther, this Arsenal team have all the foreplay imaginable, but when it comes down to getting the job done, they just can't raise themselves to the task. There's far too much fannying around, and the look completely impotent without their big guns. Excuse me for that series of puntences please. I just couldn't help myself.

The point is that Arsenal can't really find a goal from anywhere at the moment with Robin Van Persie and Thierry Henry both out for the rest of the season. Judging by his overall lack of mobility and effectiveness, Julio Baptista has proved to be more of an “immovable object” than an “unstoppable force” - talk about the biggest let down of the season.

Emmanuel Adebayor, is always a threat, but is not prolific, and can't be expected to shoulder the goalscoring burden alone for long periods. He does so much, so well, but needs people around him to finish. Aliadiere? Well he's quick, slippery, works hard and holds up the ball well, but has all the threat and accuracy of a water pistol. And that's about it.

It was a 3^rd straight league defeat, and things are becoming pretty serious now. They are 5 points behind Liverpool, and 3 ahead of Bolton, and barely clinging onto that last Champions League spot with a game in hand. The problem is that there is absolutely nothing to look forward to in terms of personnel, because everyone who could be fit right now is fit, they're just not good enough to score goals, and ultimately that is the basis of football. Wenger might wax lyrical about how Cesc, Hleb, Rosicky, Denilson and Freddie pass and move and dribble, and how unlucky Arsenal are to not be winning, but he's not fooling anyone. It's the old cliché of “goals win games”, except by having a team devoid of finishers, he's in a way responsible for them being unlucky. Some solution will have to be found to solve this problem for the remaining league games, then come the summertime, it's time for some investment.

With Arsenal's most potent strikeforce consigned to treatment tables for the rest of the season, nostalgia has taken over amongst the fans, who tired of the tootless duo of Julio Baptista and Jeremie Aliadiere, have glossed over the problems in the partnership between Thierry Henry and Robin Van Persie, and decided that they are in-fact Batman and Robin.

Well, there is no doubt that if Van Persie and Henry were still fit and playing, that Arsenal would be in at least 1 of the 2 remaining cup competitions, and playing much more imposingly in the league. But as a pair, it is very hard to judge if they combine well or not, especially since they are both such brilliant individual talents, but not always the best fit for each other.

Well, here are the statistics i've collected below, and hopefully you guys can draw your own conclusions:

Games Started Together: 15 (won 8, drawn 3, lost 4)
Goals scored in those games: 24
Games in which both have scored: 2
Goals scored by Van Persie: 6
Goals scored by Henry: 8 (2 pen)
Assists by Van Persie for Henry: 1 (1 pen)
Assists by Henry for Van persie: 1 (1 pen)

Van Persie - All Appearances (starts + subs): 31 (25+6)
Total goals scored by Van Persie: 13 (1 pen)
Assists by Van Persie: 8 (3 pen)

Henry - All Appearances (starts + subs): 27 (24+3)
Total goals scored by Henry: 12 (2 pen)
Assists by Henry: 4 (1 pen)

* note that for assists, pen = when that player was brought down and a penalty was awarded