In just over 5 hours time we will be kicking off against our fiercest local rivals at The Emirates. The Spuds come to visit us in a lofty position of 3rd place for them and considering that they were rock bottom this time last year it's an excellent improvement. We have had to listen to their captain saying that their team is as good as ours and their bench is better but I think he may have forgotten that we have 2 players nominated for the Balloon d'Or and they have none. The 2 best players on the pitch today should be our captain Cesc and Arshavin and in my opinion RVP is not far behind them and the only thing that has held him back so far is the amount of injuries he has had in previous seasons which has slowed down his development. I doubted if he could lead the line in the true tradition of a centre forward but our new formation suits him as it does so many other players and I am happy to admit that I got it wrong. His form at the moment is top class and he is scoring the goals that you would expect from a player of his ability.

Ahead of the game the boss has said that the team with the most quality will win and in my opinion he is stating his belief that we have that quality and we will shove his words back down Robbie Keane's throat. He said that once they have had 12 consecutive years in the Champions league then they can compare themselves to us but they have a long way to go to get ther. He also stated that he knows who his keeper will be but he isn't going to tell us beforehand. He claims that Almunia was sick for a long time and it takes some time to come back from that. By now you will know my feelings on his "chest infection" but I doubt if we will ever know what went on. Their manager thinks that they are better than us in certain areas and we all know he means that the 6' 7" streak of misery Crouch has done very well against us at times in the past. No matter how well we play at the back it's hard at times to defend against that sort of heigth but we need to keep the chances he gets to attack high balls into the box to a minimum. Other than that they don't have a single player in their team that we would want in our team and that in itself is enough for us to control the game and take it to them from the start.

Ahead of the game it has to be remembered that they have not beaten us in our last 19 league meetings and the last time they won a league game away to us was in May 1993. We were on our way to an FA Cup final at the time and George Graham certainly was concentrating on the bigger picture. That was also the last time that they won away to any of the "big 4" and to be honest that's not exactly the form of world beaters. I have a funny feeling that Almunia will play and to be honest whoever does play in nets that has to be the weakest point in the team. Let's hope that the keeper on the day can play at his best and do everything that is expected of him. The defence picks itself again with Sagna, Clichy, Gallas and The Verminator all certainties to start in my opinion. In midfield we will see Song, Cesc and Diaby more than likely with Arshavin, RVP and A.N.Other as the front 3. I hope that we will see Nasri or Eduardo fill that position but I have a funny feeling that the boss will pick Eboue. When we managed a 0-0 draw at their ground last season we had to play for an hour with 10 players as Eboue got himself stupidly sent off. Let's hope he doesn't get the chance to do it today. Another player who could do a great job for us is Vela but it appears he has a knee injury and we might see him back next weekend.

Between the 2 teams there are only 3 clean sheets in 18 league games and we have 2 of them so I expect both teams to score today. I think we will win but it will be close and I'm going for a 3-2 win with RVP, Arshavin & Cesc scoring for us. This is the type of game that Arshavin is usually up for and a little bit of his magic could work wonders today against a pretty poor Spuds back 4. We need to play with pace and precision from the first minute to the last and impose our game upon them. We need to concentrate really hard at set pieces and defend them as if our lives depended on it. Hopefully Song can have a great game in his defensive midfield role and snuff out the threat of their players coming on to balls laid off by the stick insect. Don't forget that the draw for the quarter finals of the Carling Cup will take place at mid day and it doesn't matter who we get as our kids are afraid of nobody.

I'll be watching the game in the supporters club in The Strand in Bray but I'll only be having a couple of minerals as I have a night out planned tonight and if I have a few drinks during the game I usually drink at double the usual pace due to a mixture of excitement and nerves. We should get a very good turnout for what is a very important match and hopefully we will be cheering that victory. A few friends of mine will be at the game and again I hope Lady Arse, EduardoIsInnocent(he's due a name change) and Garantia have a great day and see a great victory for us. When they return I will be getting my Wengerball designed by Lady Arse sent to me in the post and I can't wait for it. Don't forget you can order yours too(and many more) here. That's it for today. Come on you Gooners.

Here's a look at what RVP did last season when he was fit.

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And to finish here's today's title track from the late great Mikey Dread. The positive reality of today is that we are better than them so we just have to play our best to win.

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See You Tomorrow.

The Spuds come to The Emirates tomorrow and prior to the game they have been busy telling anyone who will listen that they are ready to become North London's top team. Robbie Keane reckons that they have a better bench than us and that their team itself is on a par with ours. He is Ireland's record goalscorer by a country mile and yet the majority of people I know not only don't like him but they don't rate him or want him in the team. They think that players of the ilk of Caleb Folan would be a better propisition in the Irish team and criticise Keane at every oppurtunity. While I may not agree with them I can completely understand their point of view as unfortunately it is hard to like him for a number of reasons but mainly because he never stops moaning and complaining throughout any game he plays.

Peter Crouch thinks that we're a good team and that we were wrongly written off at the start of the season. He said that we can play great football as we did at the start against West Ham but that you can come back and score goals against us as West Ham proved. He hopes their defence can keep it tight at the back and that they can show their qualities that have surprised a few people this season. Their hopes of keeping it tight at the back are very small as their only clean sheet so far was the home game against Burnley and they have let in more goals than us at this stage. At a glance they appear to have a good away record with 3 wins in 5 games but upon closer inspection you realise that those 3 wins were at Portsmouth, West Ham(I know they drew with us) and Hull who just so happen to fill the last 3 spots in the table. I fully expect them to revert to type and start losing away games at a rate of knots as their ambition for the season will again become Europa league qualification. Speaking of the Europa league can somebody please tell me why some teams try so hard to qualify for it and then play a reserve side in the competition as the league is more important?

There was some bad news yesterday when the manager revealed that Fabianski had picked up another injury and that he will be out for 3 more weeks. There were a lot of rumours that he was going to start tomorrow and that it would signal the end of Almunia if he was parachuted in ahead of him but we won't know now if there was any truth in it. The manager also said that all the other injured players remain out as he named Wilshere, Walcott, Denilson & Rosicky but he never mentioned Vela at all even though he hasn't been in the squad in the last 2 games. It would be nice to know exactly what is going on with him as I, among many others, would love to see him get a run in the first team. I wonder will we ever know exactly what happened with Almunia and his "chest infection" as well. At least the other players who returned against Liverpool will be available for tomorrow and it gives the manager some options.

The match itself is at a very awkward time for me at 12.45 on a Saturday especially as it's Halloween also and family committments are always to the fore at Halloween. I'm sure I'll manage to get to the supporters club to have a couple of 7 Ups before returning home to pass out chocolate bars at the front door to various vampires and monsters. Finally for today it would seem that Barcelona are hot on the heels of our 16 year old youth player Benik Afobe if the papers are to be believed. The story runs that they will do with him what we did with Cesc and sign him up against our will when he turns professional. My understanding of the Cesc situation is that Barcelona were prepared to let him go and he then had a great tournament in the under 16 World cup for Spain and they wanted him to stay but he had already made up his mind to join Arsenal. Maybe that's not quite how it happened but I very much doubt that any story that comes from Barcelona has any truth at all in it.

Here's the goals from our 5-4 win a few years ago. I particularly like the one from Pires.

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And to finish today's title track from The Smiths. It's just for Robbie Keane who is completely and utterly unloveable even to his own countrymen.

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See You Tomorrow.

ps I hope Lady Arse, EduardoIsInnocent & Garantia have a great time at the match tomorrow and witness a great spectacle as we put The Spuds to the sword.

We played Liverpool last night in the last 16 of the Carling Cup at The Emirates and it was a very enjoyable match to watch. The boss went with the expected team more or less with the inclusion of Eastmond the only real surprise. We played some very good football at times and the new system seemed to suit Nasri very well. He seemed to be at the heart of everything that we did throughout the game and he lasted very well considering that he had only played an hour of football before last night.

To be fair to Liverpool they played with 10 different players from their team on Sunday and we went 1 better by playing a completely different team. In the first half our 2 full backs looked a little lost at times and Gibbs in particular seemed to be caught out of position a lot but in the 2nd half they managed to up their game and Gilbert got in some very good tackles and interceptions with Gibbs also improving. Senderos had a fairly solid game with 1 or 2 lapses and to be fair to Silvestre he had a good game. Fabianski got his first game of the season and despite some good takes on some crosses he was still reluctant to come off his line too often and his kicking of back passes was not great either. In midfield I already mentioned that Nasri had a very good game in my opinion and Ramsey did quite well although he was careless in possession a few times. Eastmond played the holding role and he had a good game before coming off near the end looking absolutely knackered. Merida played well enough too although I would have liked to have seen him do a little more on the ball. He took his goal really well and he has a lot more to offer in the future I'm sure. Eduardo looked lively throughout and it would have been nice for him to mark his comeback with a goal but unfortunately he never really got any of the clearcut chances that fell to others. Bendtner had a very odd game as his passing at times was awful and he completely switched off as Liverpool equalised but he made up for it by taking his goal very well.

Early on there were chances at both ends ad Degen missed from 10 yards out for Liverpool and Bendtner from even nearer for us after some very intricate play. Our opening goal came when Eastmond won a tackle just outside the Liverpool box and the ball ran to Merida who buried it from the angle of the box on the right side into the top corner of the net on the keeper's near post. It was a great goal and I hoped that it would spur us on to more but Liverpool came into the game a lot more after that. A high ball was played to Babel who headed it back to Insua as Bendtner daydreamed and he ran forward and buried a fine shot over Fabianski to even things up. It stayed that way until half time and as the teams came off I was looking forward to more of the same.

In the second half Arsenal continued their good attacking play along with their sometimes nervous defending and eventually we retook the lead when Bendtner took a ball off Ramsey's foot in the box and turned and fired it into the roof of the net. As the game wore on Liverpool brought on Benayoun and Aqualaini to try to salvage something and they put us under a lot of pressure. At times we tried to over complicate things in defence when we should have cleared the ball but tried to be too clever. There was a good shout for handball against Senderos late on as he blocked a shot with his hands but it did seem like ball to hand to me. We brought on Randall, Watt and Coquelin for Eastmond, Bendtner and Merida in the second half and we managed to take the ball into the  corners to run the clock out which was thouroughly professional if a little unArsenal like.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable game in which Liverpool played their part and our youngsters now face a quarter final tie against one of Chelsea, Manure, The Spuds, Aston Villa, Man City, Blackburn or Portsmouth. It's unusual to see all Premier league clubs only in the Carling Cup at this stage but it appears that the competition is being taken a little more seriously this season. I would imagine the quarter final draw will be on Saturday on Sky as usual and it means our rearranged league game against Bolton on December 2nd will have to be rearranged again.

Ahead of our Saturday lunchtime game against The Spuds Robbie Keane has been claiming that they have a better squad than us. I wondered to myself if they have any world class players in their squad and I realised that they don't but we have Cesc, Arshavin & RVP who are all far too good for them. We also have Gallas, The Verminator, Rosicky, Theo, Nasri & Eduardo who would all walk into thir team. He can talk all he wants about how good he thinks they are but our players will do the talking at 12.45 on Saturday as we put them in their place as also rans in the race for the league title and the bragging rights in North London. That's it for today.

Here's the goals from last night.

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And to finish today's title track from The Smiths which is for Robbie Keane and his big mouth.

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See You Tomorrow.

We play Liverpool tonight at The Emirates in the last 16 of the Carling Cup  and it appears that the boss might just be taking this competition a little more seriously this year. He has already stated that Nasri and Fabianski will make their first starts of the season and he has also hinted that Eduardo and Bendtner will start too as they attempt to come back from recent injuries. It could just be that he feels all of these players need some game time but it could also be that he has decided to treat the Carling Cup with a little more respect. Personally I think that it's the former and he's taking the oppurtunity to give them some game time as he feels he needs them in the first team squad as soon as possible to put some pressure on the players who are playing at the moment and also to give him more options ahead of Saturday's crunch local derby against The Spuds.

With those 4 players in the team the rest of the team shouldn't be too hard to guess as both Traore and Wilshere are unavailable through injury. The defence should be Gibbs, Gilbert, Silvestre and Senderos with Coquelin and Ramsey in midfield with Nasri and Vela joining Eduardo and Bendtner up front. It's a fairly strong team and almost every player in our team will think he has a chance of making an impression on the manager. If we play our own game and pressurise Liverpool on the ball we will give them a lot of problems no matter what team Liverpool play. It will be interesting to see if Liverpool will play a very strong team or not. I don't think Benitez will risk Torres or Gerrard as they are both so injury prone that an injury in this game would be a disaster for their chances of making up the ground they have lost in the league. They sold Alonso in the summer and he was replaced by Aqualini who has been injured ever since but it looks like he will make his debut against us tonight. It would be good to see our players give him the run around.

I don't like to watch Sky Sports News any more but I found myself watching a piece on it last night where they were reporting that Stan Kroneke had bought 10 more shares in Arsenal as he moves nearer to the magical 29.9% mark he needs to make a formal bid for all the other shares. If they are to report every 10 shares he buys they will need almost 70 more reports before he gets to that figure and it just proved to me that they try to sensationalise the smallest of events.

I'll be playing football myself from 7 until 8 tonight and then it's a quick shower and out to the supporters club in The Strand in Bray to watch the second half. If we win it means our rearranged league match with Bolton on December 2nd will be called off until some time in the new year as that will be the week for our Carling Cup quarter final. Our fixture list is becoming very congested but that's the price to pay for being a successful team and it would be worse if we never had a midweek game in Europe or a domestic Cup. I'm predicting a 3-2 win for Arsenal tonight and if Eduardo does indeed play I can see him getting at least 1 of those goals. That's the lot for today.

Here's a look at what we did to Liverpool the last time we played in this competition.

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And to finish here's today's title track from The Specials and let's hope it's the advice the manager gives the players as they take to the pitch tonight.

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See You Tomorrow.

The massive sense of disappointment that I felt after Sunday's draw with West Ham has faded enough for me to start to feel a little bit optimistic about our chances for this season. The majority of the players will not be playing against Liverpool in the Carling Cup tomorrow night and it means that they will have had almost a full week to sort themselves out before The Spuds visit us on Saturday. A win against West Ham would have been great as a win against The Spuds would have put us on top of the table even if it was only for a few hours next Saturday. That's not going to happen now but if we have actually learned our lesson from Sunday's game it could well happen later in the season. The point has been made that instead of trying to defend our 2-0 lead that we should have scored more to completely finish them off and the way we defend that seems to make sense to me.

As a result of our draw with West Ham the so called experts have written us off yet again and that suits us just fine. Our captain believes we have the desire and the ability to win the league but he thinks that there is a lot more pressure on other teams who have invested an awful lot of money in new players in the transfer market. We should have Nasri, Bendtner & Eduardo back to full fitness by Saturday and that will put a bit of pressure on the players in the team which will hopefully make them up their game just enough to help us bring St. Totteringham's day a little bit closer. I have said many times before that I would love to see Vela get a run in the first team but he wasn't even on the bench on Sunday. It must be very frustrating for him to see Eboue play as 1 of our front 3 as he can't get into the side. Along with Ramsey and Wilshere I would like to see how Vela does in the first team when he has all our other top players playing with him. I'm sure they will all play against Liverpool in the Carling Cup but it will be as part of a second string side and even though I'm sure they will play well but it's hard to judge in a match like that.

The majority of the first team will have had almost a week without a game for the first time this season and that will surley help in the build up to Saturday's local derby. I'm sure The Spuds will play a lot of their first team in the Carling Cup tonight and that will hopefully tire them a little with our players getting that much needed break. Realistically for them it's their only real chance of a trophy and it offers Europa league qualification too which is a good thing for a smaller club like them. I'll deal with that game later in the week after our match against Liverpool is out of the way.

In the fantasy football the Football Guy's friend Amer still leads the way but IAWWT has cut his lead to 7 points and I'm a further 23 points back in 3rd place. In the head to head league my team continues to sweep all before them with 10 wins out of 10 but I'm playing IAWWT this week and if he can beat me it will tighten things up at the top again. For anybody with a fantasy team don't forget that both West Ham and Aston Villa have 2 games each this week and their players are a good choice to transfer into your team if you can get the right ones. I seem to have given the kiss of death to Blackburn's David Dunn after tipping him as a good fantasy buy last week he has contracted swine flu and who knows when he will be back to his best when he does return. That's it for today.

Here's a little bit of Ramsey and Wilshere.

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And to finish today's title track from Deprche Mode. It's a plea from me to the team but I'm sure it's one that can't be lived up to.

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See You Tomorrow.

We made the short trip to Upton Park yesterday to play West Ham in the league and after Liverpool had beaten Manure beforehand it was an ideal oppurtunity for us to put ourselves in a position to really challenge at the top of the league. Last season we rued dropped points against teams in the lower regions of the league and we hoped that it would be different this season but unfortunately we threw away 2 points along with a 2 goal lead.

The manager was able to name an unchanged team for the first time since August although that We started well and by half time we were 2-0 up coutesy of a tap in for RVP and a header from Gallas. At that stage I was very confident of us going on to win by even more but we somehow managed to hand them 2 goals from defensive errors. The free kick for the first goal should never have been awarded but when the free came in Don Vito should have pushed it away from the goal but instead he pushed it right into the centre of the goal and Cole reacted fastest to head home. Suddenly we didn't look so secure and West Ham got a penalty when Cole went down very easily under a challenge from Song. It was put away and West Ham were level much to my dismay. Right at the end I thought we had snatched a victory as a header from RVP seemed goalbound but Green saved it with his foot to deny us a victory that seemed certain at half time.

Unfortunately it would appear that the players thought the victory was certain as well and they let the game get away from them with some lazy play. We should have wrapped up the 3 points and these are the type of points that we will regret dropping in the long run. We could have been 1 point behind Manure with a game in hand and with far superior goal difference but instead only Chelsea and Liverpool managed to get a win with all the other challengers dropping points. It's dropped points like those that cost us dearly last season and for all the manager's talk of learning lessons afterwards it appears our players still need some time in the classroom. I hope that we don't end up regretting those 2 points that got away from us yesterday when the tophies are handed out at the end of the season.

From here we move on to a Carling Cup match at home to Liverpool on Wednesday night and I'm sure we will see a very different Arsenal team in that match as the manager gives the youths and reserves a run out. After that it's The Spuds on Saturday at The Emirates in an early kick off that is an absolute must win game for the fans and players. Lady Arse, EduardoIsInnocent & Garantia will all be at the game and I hope they have a great time and see a resounding victory for us. I'll be joining them all for the home game against Everton on January 9th hopefully although to the best of my knowledge the TV schedules for the new year are not set yet and that game could be switched to January 10th. That's it for today.

Here's the highlights from yesterday's game.

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And to finish today's title track from Suede which is self explanitory.

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See You Tomorrow.

We travel to the east end of London today for a 4.15 kick off against West Ham. It's the second of eight London derbies this season with our 1-0 victory at Craven Cottage against Fulham a few weeks ago being the first. That was a very important and hard fought victory as we weren't at our best and today we will need to fight just as hard against a West Ham team who are 19th in the table. They have always played attractive football and under Zola that has not changed but their financial difficulties are making things harder for them at the moment. A win against a top team like Arsenal today would be the tonic they need to help them climb out of the relegation zone and get their season on track so we will have to make sure that we start off at the right pace and punish them for every sigle mistake they make.

The manager doesn't have too many options when it comes to team selection as we still have a host of injuried players out. I would imagine that we will see the same team starting as we did against AZ on Tuesday night although as I have said 1,000 times before I would love to see Vela get a start for a change. Eduardo is the only player available again after injury but I would imagine that he will be on the bench as he will be reintroduced slowly for obvious reasons. I predict a 2-0 win with the goals coming from RVP & The Verminator but maybe that's because they're both in my fantasy team and I need a few more points this week to stay ahead of the posse. We are better than West Ham and a win is a must as we bid to overtake The Spuds in the league table for the first time this season following their home defeat against Stoke yesterday. Depending on the result of the Liverpool and Manure game beforehand we could find ourselves in the position where no other team in the league has dropped less points than us after this game which will shorten our odds to win the league no doubt.

Usually I would go to the supporters club in The Strand in Bray to watch the game but as it's a long weekend I'll be watching the 2 games in my local with some family and some Liverpool & Manure supporting friends. I'll miss the half time preview of The Gooner Review which the club are showing but unfortunately it can't be helped and I'll have to make sure I go out to watch the midweek Carling Cup game against Liverpool in the club. There's a bit of transfer speculation about today but I'll deal with it tomorrow as time is of the essence and roast beef doesn't cook itself. That's it for today.

Here's a clip of what Vela can do given the chance.

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And to finish here's today's title track from The Smiths. We have 8 London derbies this season and if we can win at least 6 of them I think we will win the league.

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See You Tomorrow.

It's Saturday morning again and the start of a long weekend here in rainy Dublin. I had to work until 7 last night and played football at 7.30 which was no mean feat as I had to travel 7 or 8 miles and collect 2 people on the way. We were a little late starting but that doesn't make much difference usually as there is no one playing after us and we can play on until 9 if we like which we always do. Much to our surprise at 8.30 we had to leave the hall as 10 basketball players appeared from nowhere and our game was over. It left us all with a very strange feeling of not having finished what we had started. Needless to say from here on in I will make sure that everybody is there well before the appointed time and we get full value for our money.

Anyway that's enough about my petty trials and I'll get down to the important business of Arsenal and all that is happening in the world of Arsenal. Unfortunately there isn't too much to report before we play West Ham tomorrow at the unusual time of 4.15. I haven't made any plans yet but I imagine that I will be watching the game in The Strand in Bray as per usual with my fellow Wicklow Gooners. The club have said that Eduardo will be available again after his injury as will Senderos as well probably but Rosicky won't make it and a decision on Bendtner will be made after training today. The real dilemna for the boss is in between the sticks as he has Almunia, Fabianski & Don Vito all fit and raring to go but only 1 of them can play and 1 more can sit on the bench. That means that we will have 1 very unhappy goalkeeper sitting in the stands and knowing that he will probably play against Liverpool in the Carling Cup next week but wanting to be in the first team squad. In my opinion he will stick with Don Vito and Almunia will warm the bench again with Fabianski starting on Wednesday night. I'll preview that game on Wednesday morning and I'll preview tomorrow's game tomorrow morning when there will hopefully be a little more to report. Finally for today Henri Lansbury bagged himself a brace of goals for Watford last night in a 4-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday. That's the lot for today.

Here's a little tribute to Eboue.

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And to finish today's title track from Bob Marley. Time will tell who our best keeper is but personally I'd prefer a new keeper to arrive in January who is genuinely world class.

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See You Tomorrow.

The club held their annual AGM yesteday and to be honest there isn't an awful lot to report from it. Most of what was said came from the boss as Stan Kroneke chose to remain silent as I predicted yesterday. He said that he feels the team will deliver a trophy this season but he thinks it is important for the team to be consistent over 10 or 15 years and to remain at the top both domestically and on a European front. Since we moved to the Emirates we have not won a trophy but we have challenged and that consistency is there and he believes we will achieve it over that time scale.

He said that he believes that the attempts by the European Union to regulate the game so as to make sure that clubs balance their books will ultimately successful and the model we are using will be of a great advantage to us. He thinks the days of sugar daddies pouring money from their bottomless pockets into clubs will be numbered and by implication those clubs will find themselves in a lot of trouble. I hope he's right but in the modern world money talks very loudly and the money that certain Russians and Arabs have is likely to influence people in power to allow them to continue to run their clubs as they see fit regardless of what it is doing to the rest of football.

The boss believes that our defence will concede less goals this season than we did last season but if that is the case we will have to start racking up a few clean sheets as we have conceded 11 in 8 games already and we only conceded 37 in 38 games last season. On the plus side as I said yesterday if we continue to score at the present rate we will bag over 150 goals in all competitions and the entertainment value of that alone is well worth the admission money. The boss also thinks that we have enough quality in the goalkeepers we have but I would dearly love to see us sign a top class keeper in January. I always thought we should have signed Friedel when he joined Villa or Blackburn as he is one of those keepers who you are shocked to see make a mistake. With our keepers we expect to see mistakes and we are not surprised when they happen even if we are annoyed.

At this time of the week I would usually be looking at the weekend fixture and considering our options for that game but as we're not playing until Sunday it seens a little too soon yet. By the time we kick off on Sunday at the unusual time of 4.15 pm I would imagine that Chelsea and The Spuds should have wins under their belt and who knows what will happen between Liverpool and Manure. City will be at half time in their match against Fulham and I have a funny feeling that Fulham might just get something out of that game if they can avoid a European hangover. The Liverpool v Manure game should be interesting as the rumours are that red beach balls and balloons will be the order of the day for Manure fans at the ground and in the pubs up and down the country.

I know I said there wasn't much to report from the AGM but I was obviousy wrong as I haven't even reported everything that the boss had to say. The good news before the weekend is that Eduardo looks he will be fit to play and hopefully Rosicky will too as we need a few more attacking options than we had on Wednesday. If you're a player of Fantasy Football don't forget to make your changes today or by 11.30 am tomorrow at the latest. I had another great week lat week and I'm now just outside the top 10,000 overall which I am quite happy with. It feels good to be competing well in the leagues I'm running and long may it continue. That's the lot for today.

This is what Eduardo can bring to the team.

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And to finish today's title track from The Clash. The boss is in complete control of almost every aspect of the club and he seems to love it.

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See You Tomorrow.

Today marks the 60th birthday of our manager which he will celebrate at the club's AGM. With the retirement age more than likely being raised by the UK government in the near future he probably won't be able to draw his old age pension until he is at least 70 which means that we can expect to have him in charge for another 10 years at least. I suppose there is a slight chance that he has a few shillings squirrelled away and he won't need to draw his state pension but I'm sure he wouldn't like to miss out on it after all the tax he has paid over the years.

He is bound to be very well received by the fans and shareholders alike at the AGM to mark the occasion and also because we have had a fairly good start to the season unlike the situation last May when some of the questions were a little hostile to say the least as we had again failed to win a trophy for the fourth season in a row. I would imagine than Stan Kroenke will be there too as he is our biggest shareholder and the rumours persist about purchases of more shares to bring him closer to the magical 29.9% mark at which he must bid for all other shares. There are 2 schools of thought on his intentions and we probably won't be any the wiser what his intentions are as he tends to play his cards very close to his chest. 

On the footballing front we have had a very good start to the season and we have scored 40 goals and conceded 15 in our 14 games so far. At this rate we will score at least 150 goals in all competitions this season and if we could just cut down the rate that we concede goals at we would be on the pigs back. I know it will be 5 years since we have won a trophy by the end of the season but I am beginning to think that the wait may well be over this season as the signs are very promising. Of course if we failed to score for a couple of games in a row that average would drop very quickly along with our expectations but for the moment I am happy in the knowledge that we are genuine contenders and playing a very attack minded game that produces lots of goals.

The down side from Tuesday night's game was the late goal we let in and our lack of concentration in defending the free kick that led to it. Before that happened I was a little worried to see the facial expressions of Don Vito and Clichy as we came under a little pressure. Don Vito didn't want the ball played back to him and he looked decidedly unhappy when it was and Clichy almost looked like he was going to cry when his man finally ran at him with the ball. Both of them are obviously suffering with a lack of confidence at the moment and while I can understand Clichy feeling this way Don Vito should be relishing the prospect of getting the ball so that he can show the boss why he should be our first choice goalkeeper. At times we still seem to be missing a little bit of steel and teams sense that they can get at us by putting us under pressure. I'm sure it wouldn't affect The Verminator and hopefully he can help some of the others to develop his mental attitude to the opposition. I don't think it's a big problem as long as we are winning but if we were to lose a game or 2 it could become a problem. Don't get me wrong I have the upmost confidence in this Arsenal team but I just wish that they were a little harder at times and didn't show any weakness to the opposition whether they felt it or not. That's it for today and hopefully there will be a little more Arsenal news to report tomorrow.

Here's a little bit of what Sagna can do.

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And to finish today's title track from David Bowie. It will be five years since our last trophy in May but I don't think that trophy will be lonely for much longer.

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See You Tomorrow.