We play AZ at The Emirates tonight and we know that a win will as good as qualify us for the knockout stages of the competition no matter what. As a result we must approach the match with the right mindset and look to dominate them from the off. The goals don't always come early in our home European games but patience is a virtue that paid off against Olympiacos and if needs be I'm sure it will pay off tonight. I'm sure that they will look to defend from the off and to stifle us where possible particularly as they have Koeman as their manager. He has a good record against us with Ajax and PSV both frustrating us in the Champions league previously whilst he was the manager of the respective clubs. Dutch clubs have a tradition of playing attractive and attacking football but he has never done that against us but his teams have always managed to do the job required of them.

However, tonight AZ need a win if they are to have a real chance of qualifying from the group and a draw will leave them in a position  where third place and Europa league qualification is their only real option. I still don't expect to see them become adventureous in any way shape or form tonight and I think they will probably feel that their best chance of a goal is from a high ball into the box which is how they scored their last minute equaliser in their home game against us. I have to say that the sight of Koeman on the sidelines is enough to annoy me and there is nothing about the man that I like. It goes back as far as the night he single handedly knocked England out of the World Cup when he scored a wonderful free kick against them despite the fact that he should have been sent off earlier in the game. I was no lover of England and definitely not Graham Taylor at the time but it just struck me as an injustice and it's time an English club made him pay for that.

With the news that the latest player to join our ever growing injury list is Gael Clichy with a stress fracture of the back we can at least welcome Rosicky back tonight. He's not quite ready to start but it looks like he will get a run out at some stage and it's good news as he is a player who can really make a difference at times. There's no news on the exact length of Bendtner's absence but it looks like being a month at least and Clichy would seem to be out for roughly that amount of time too. It will give us a chance to see Gibbs play as part of the first team and his deputy will be Traore who is due to be back in full training tomorrow after his injury. A lot of fans including myself have thought that Clichy's form has been off for a while and we had hoped Gibbs would get a chance at some stage. I didn't think his positioning was good against Liverpool in the Carling Cup but it will be different with the first choice defence around him. He has a chance to make that left back slot his own over the next month and push for a spot in England's World Cup squad too.

The boss said yesterday that Almunia will continue in goal and Mannone will be the sub keeper. With Gibbs at left back I expect the defence to remain the same as Saturday's besides that neccessary change. Eboue has started at right back in 2 of our 3 group games so far but I think Sagna will play and his 2 assists at the weekend should make sure of that. In midfield I'm sure that the 3 that played at the weekend will continue and 2 of the front 3 are certainties with RVP and Arshavin both playing and the other player to start will probably be Eboue or Eduardo. The boss could surprise us all and play Ramsey in the midfield 3 and Diaby in the front 3 but I don't think so.

As I said AZ will look to stifle us but as long as we play our game and are patient we will get the chances and the goals should come too. Hopefully we have learned that 1 goal isn't enough against them and we can push for a 2nd or 3rd if we do get that 1st goal without over comitting ourselves. If the need arises we should be prepared to run the clock down and take the ball into the corners to make sure we qualift tonight. I predict a 3-0 win with the goals coming from Arshavin(he's due one), Diaby and RVP and Arsenal managing to get the better of Koeman at last.

In other news Stan Kroenke has bought a good whack of shares to bring his stake up to 29.6% of the club and leave him very close to the magical 29.9% mark that will mean he must bid for all other shares. At least his purchase of 427 shares at £8,500 a share is worth reporting unlike the 10 shares that he bought last week. As I have said before he keeps his cards close to his chest and no matter what speculation is out there we won't know what will happen until it actually happens. The boss has said that the next month will be crucial for us as we look to really challenge for the league as there are usually a lot of injuries in November. We have had so many injuries already that we can do without any more this month. When the players head off to play for their countries next week I will be keeping my fingers crossed that they all come back in good shape and hopefully we can keep the players who are vital to our team fit. We have Rosicky back and Vela should be available at the weekend as well with Walcott a few weeks away from returning we will at least have a few more attacking options. After tonight we play Wolves, Sunderland, Liege and Chelsea in November and 7 points from those 3 league games would be perfectly acceptable although 9 points would lay down a marker for all other challengers for the league. Just recently I have heard a few pundits changing their minds and saying that we have a chance in the league and I have even heard a few say that we have the best chance of challenging Chelsea out of all the other clubs in the league. I have said from the start of the season that we are the best bet to challenge them as Liverpool and Manure have worse teams than last season and it's good to be listened to at last although I would probably prefer if they were still writing us off. That's it for today.

Here's a good goal by our left back tonight against Portsmouth reserves.

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And to finish today's title track from The Damned. It's time for us to smash up Koeman's record against us by beating his team tonight.

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See You Tomorrow.

The unbridled joy after our win against The Spuds on Saturday has subsided a little this morning as the harsh reality of returning to work after having had 3 days off sets in. With our position as North London's number 1 club no longer in any doubt(not that any Arsenal fans doubted it anyway) we can now forget about The Spuds and concentrate on a week that could be very important for us.

First up we have AZ at home on Wednesday night in our Champions league group and a win in that game will mean that they cannot catch us in the group. Olympiacos travel to Liege on the same night and it's a win win situation for us if we can beat AZ. If Olympiakos win or draw we will have qualified but if Liege win we will only need a point at home to them in our next game to qualify and a win in that game would win us the group. After that we travel to Wolverhampton for an evening kick off next Saturday in a game that will see us go 2nd in the league if we win. With the 2 teams ahead of us playing each other on Sunday afternoon it means we will make up ground on 1 or both of them if we can beat Wolves. In fact if Chelsea win it will mean that a we would keep 2nd place ahead of Manure with a game in hand and Chelsea would have a 5 point lead over us with us having that game in hand too.

A few weeks ago I said that 4 wins in a row would have us on top of the table as the next international break kicked in and we have got 2 wins and a draw in the first 3 of those games. A win at Wolves will make it 10 points out of 12 and with all 12 points our worst possible position would have been 3 points behind Chelsea with that game in hand. That draw at West Ham and the manner in which we threw away the 2 points really grates but after Saturday we look to have put it behind us.

So as you can see 2 wins this week will leave us in a real healthy position going into that dreaded interlull and I fully expect us to go out and get those wins. Our ladies beat Keynsham 4-0 yesterday to reach the semi final of the Premier league Cup and continue yet another great start to their season. The reserves have a home match against Portsmouth tonight at 7 and our youths lost 3-1 at West Ham on Saturday with our goal coming from Chuks Aneke. The Carling Cup quarter final trip to Man City has been set for Tuesday December 1st and as of yet it is not scheudled for TV although that might change. As far as I know the TV companies have not picked their live matches for the new year yet but as we're in November I would imagine they will have to do it very soon. I certainly hope so because I want to go to the Everton match which is set for Saturday January 9th but having seen the other fixtures that weekend I have a horrible feeling that our game might be switched to the Sunday. I can still go but the sooner I find out the better as the flights are so cheap at the moment.

On the injury front it seems that Bendtner will be out for at least a month with the groin injury he picked up on Saturday and we are now on top of the physio room injury league table with 9 players out at the moment. Of those 9 players 4 of them are listed as being down for a return next Saturday and we could certainly do with Rosicky in the squad at the moment to put some pressure on Diaby who didn't have the best of games at the weekend. The other 3 due back are Wilshere, Vela and Traore and they will at least increase the options the boss has for the trip to Wolves. Finally for today I read an article yesterday that said the reason that Almunia was out for so long was due to a family tragedy and if it's true my sympathies go out to him and his family. These things can be very hard to cope with and if it effected him a lot the boss was right to wait until he was ready to return. It certainly makes more sense than the "chest infection" story. That's the lot for today.

Here's the highlights from Saturday's victory as I only showed the goals yesterday.

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And here's today's title track from Jah Lion. The boss commented on all of The Spuds claims about being our equals or even betters in some cases by saying that the talking would be done on the pitch and he showed that he was the one with the wisdom and they were full of hot air as we suspected.

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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.

We travel to Alkmaar tonight with the news that Theo is out for 3-4 weeks and Rosicky is out for tonight at least but he should be back for the weekend trip to West Ham on Sunday. The boss has to make changes to the team yet again and I wonder will we ever reach a stage where all of our players are available at the same time. On the plus side we have Nasri and Fabianski making their comebacks for the reserves tonight away to Wolves and they are both very welcome back considering they haven't kicked a ball in anger yet this season between them. I haven't heard anything about Bendtner so I can only presume that he must still be injured and of course Djourou and Denilson are both long term absentees with Eduardo still suffering the effects of his exertions as a sub in our last Champions league match against Olympiakos. 

Team selection is not going to be as difficult as usual for the boss as his options are limited in quite a few positions. Don Vito will probably keep his place in goal and the 2 centre backs are certainties unless there are more injuries we don't know about. The 2 full back positions are interesting and it's anybody's guess as to whether we will see Clichy & Sagna play or Gibbs and Eboue or some other mixture of those 4 players. In midfield I can't see any other trio besides Cesc, Song and Diaby playing and the front 3 will more than likely be RVP, Arshavin and Vela with Ramsey, Wilshere, Traore and Silvestre on the bench. Of course Eboue could well play in midfield or up front if he doesn't start in defence and I imagine Almunia will be on the bench looking completely disinterested again. The rest of the bench will be made up by whatever full backs don't play from the start.

AZ did very well to win their domestic league title last season and qualify for the Champions league for the first time ever. They play an attractive blend of attacking football but they haven't had the best of starts to this season. They sit in 6th place with 5 wins and 5 defeats in 10 matches and they have only 1 point from their 2 Champions league games so far. Defeat for them tonight would more or less finish their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages so they will have to attack us which is a very dangerous thing to do. However it did work for Liege at the start of our game away to them and we need to start with a lot more urgency tonight. Even though we're missing a lot of players we should still be too good for them and I predict a 3-1 win with RVP keeping up his recent good run of goalscoring form. I wouldn't be surprised to see Vela score too if he manages to get a start for a change. A win tonight would leave us 75% of the way through to the next round and able to wrap up our qualification in the return game against AZ at The Emirates on November 4th.

I'll be watching the match in the company of my fellow Wicklow Gunners in The Strand in Bray and due to a combination of the interlull and no TV coverage last Saturday I have not been there since October 4th. I'll more than likely be there on Sunday again as we play West Ham live on the TV again and it's a bank holiday weekend which means I will have the next day off too. As for tonight's match I'll be a little late getting there due to a prior comittment but I won't mind if we're a few goals up when I do get there. Hopefully the players can give the manager an early 60th birthday present as he turns 60 on Thursday. Their manager is Ronald Koeman and from memory I think we owe him a beating from his Ajax days when they held us twice in the Champions league under him although I could be wrong. It has happened before and I'm sure it's going to happen again at some stage.

Here's a clip of RVP's best bits from last season. I wondered at the start of the season if he could fit into the team as I didn't see him as a centre forward but he has proved me wrong so far and I hope he continues to do so.

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And to finish today's title track from David Bowie. We have to make changes to our team yet again and I long for the day that we will have every player available and be able to field an unchanged team for a change.

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See You Tomorrow.

With all the build up to our game on Wednesday and the post match analysis yesterday it slipped my notice that Man City had decided not to contest the charge against Adebayor for his stamp on RVP. Does that mean that Adebayor is no longer denying that the stamp/kick was intentional and he has indeed agreed that he knew what he was doing and intended to kick RVP in the face as he lay on the ground. If that is the case surely his ban could have been even longer than the 3 game ban he received as he had no defence whatsoever and he was totally at the mercy of the FA. However they have decided on a 3 game ban and Manure will be delighted with the outcome as he will miss their derby game at the weekend.

As for our game at the weekend it appears that the only addition to our squad from Wednesday night will be RVP as he looks like he will return from his injury in time to face Wigan. Denilson is going to be out for a few weeks with his back injury, Arshavin has only a 10% chance of playing and Almunia is still suffering with his "chest infection". Incidentally Lady Arse seems to agree with my theory on Almunia after seeing an interview with the boss yesterday. The boss confirmed that Mannone will continue in goals and let's hope he will have a slightly less interesting start to this game. His command of his penalty area impressed me but his ability to kick a ball played back to him was woeful. I hope that can be put down to nerves on the night and that he will have a better day's kicking on Saturday.

I had hoped to see Theo back by now but his back injury is progressing very slowly and I really hope we can have him back for the trip to Fulham next week. It would be good to see Ramsey or Wilshere get a chance on Saturday and hopefully Sagna will be back in from the start too. Gibbs has to be very close to replacing Clichy at the moment as his form falters at an alarming rate at the moment. Whatever team plays we have to get out concentration and tempo right as they were way off the mark on Wednesday night and we only got our win through determination and a bit of luck with our second goal.

At the moment we are relying heavily on the defensive abilities of Vermaelen as our other defenders seem to be getting worse as the season progresses and we could regret not signing that other defender that the fans wanted. On Wednesday night Rosicky also played very well when he was on and it's good to hear him say he has a long way to go to be at his best. He's been out for so long that it's easy to forget how good a player he is. I know Eduardo gave away the first goal on Wednesday night but I imagine that it must be hard for him to play on the left, knowing that we are a team who make chances and he is the best natural goal scorer in the squad. The sooner the better we get Arshavin, Theo, Nasri & Vela back so that we can scare the bejaysus out of opposing defences with our choice of attacking options. That's it for today.

Here's a clip of Rosicky actually scoring an important goal for Arsenal as he gets the winner against Wigan a couple of seasons ago.

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And to finish today's title track from The Fun Boy Three. I was a little surprised to say the least to hear that Adebayor didn't contest the charge against him.

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Watching what I could of yesterday's game I was reminded of my younger days as a schoolboy footballer. I played for Ballybrack Boys in the DDSL and we came from an area on the southside of Dublin that was considered to be tough enough I suppose. We had a trip to Kilbarrack which is on the northside and if you know Dublin you will know that the DART passes through there. I have a friend who works as a DART driver and he tells me that the 5 and 6 year olds routinely stone the trains most nights so that gives you an idea of how tough an area it is. Our manager was a Scotsman who loved his football and was very passionate about it but he never became involved in our "differences" with other teams. However on this occasion when we were routinely kicked up and down the pitch and I got a drop kick to my back for preventing a guy scoring a hat trick the team was particularly annoyed and things got a little heated afterwards as we got dressed on the sidelines. In the middle of all this our manager arrived from nowhere screaming at their manager "wait till we get yes in Ballybrack".

They are the thoughts that came into my head after yesterday's match and if I had heard our boss say that(or something similar) when he was interviewed afterwards I would have been delighted. It's fairly obvious to all Arsenal fans that although we hate Cashley Tweedey it now goes to a completely different level with our former no. 25. His actions yesterday were a disgrace from start to finish. His unpunished bad challenge on Cesc early on and a few other dubious tackles were followed by a deliberate attempt to kick a fellow professional and former team mate in the head which the referee also managed to miss. Is it just me or have the levels of refereeing sunk to new lows already this season. I've seen Rooney yellow carded for a straight red challenge against Burnley and then Scholes getting the same favouritism again yesterday only to get another yellow shortly afterwards anyway.

The antics of the former 25 when he scored City's third goal though were nothing short of incredible. Can any Arsenal fans remember ever seeing him run so far at the speed when he played for us? I certainly can't but maybe I'm wong. He ran straight past the City fans all the way to the Arsenal ones, slid in on his knees and almost took a bow before them. This was after he had condemned the same fans for booing him and said they weren't real fans. The referee booked him and according to FA rules that should be the end of it but as usual the FA will act further if the media coverage continues. The reaction of the Arsenal fans in that area told us how they felt about it and after seeing the police move in I wouldn't be too surprised to hear an announcement from the Manchester police to say they are investigating the invident. They have always been very forward in investigations like this in the past and I think they would have a case for an investigation into our former 25 for "inciting a riot".

I could spend all day analysing the game but we lost because of stupid mistakes again. Our goalkeeper is simply not good enough for a top European team and Clichy is continuing his form from last season where indecision in his game is rife and almost every mistake he makes is punished by a goal against us. The boss has to seriously consider his options in both of these positions. Added to that we had some strange substitutions by the boss which left us very exposed at the back to counter attacks and even though we were chasing the game we were almost too gung ho. There were positives too and the return of Rosicky was the biggest one as he score a goal and made the goal for RVP although RVP did all the hard work. Rosicky looks to be very suited to the new formation and I hope he stays fit as we need him. We have scored 13 goals in 4 league matches but we have conceded 8 and that statistic is the one that needs to be corrected. The way things are going at the moment we will probably score in every game but where are the clean sheets going to come from. I can remember Lady Arse saying before the season started that we might have to win every game 4-3 and at the moment that is accurate assessment. I'll leave it there for today and I'll talk about other people's opinions on the match tomorrow probably.

Here's the highlights from yesterday's game.

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And to finish the title track from The Clash which is self explanatory.

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See You Tomorrow. 

As the international break seemingly drags on endlessly there is a sparsity of Arsenal news out there. There was an interview with Cesc yesterday where he said that it's a great honour to be linked with Barcelona but he would also like to win another trophy with Arsenal. He also used the age old expression "we will see" when he was asked about his future. I know when I tell my kids we will see it means there's not a hope of whatever they want happening. I have said before that I think we need to win a trophy this season to keep Cesc but a trophy could also be the signal for his exit. It's hard to tell what next summer will bring as Madrid have bought a lot of players and if they can recapture the Spanish league it could mean we will see a genuine offer from Barcelona for Cesc.

It's hard to know how the boss and the club would react to an offer of €50 million for our captain but I do think that they would genuinely consider it. Ramsey is looking more and more likely to be the player to directly replace him and I think he is going to need more game time this season. The goal he scored for Wales under 21s at the weekend was very good and he looks ready to step up to me. The obvious problem is that there is no obvious place for him in the team at the moment but if we want him to progress he has to play more often. Denilson's place in the midfield 3 seems to be set in stone but I wonder if Ramsey will push hard enough to make the position his own.

Cesc also said that we will not be bullied by anyone and in the game against Manure we did show that side to our game but it's just a pity we couldn't keep our concentration enough to finish them off when we were clearly the better team. If we can play that well against City this weekend we are more than capable of getting a win up there. It seems that we might have Theo available for the game which is a boost and Cesc played for Spain so we can expect him back too. Rosicky was said to be fit for the Manure game but he didn't play and he didn't play for his country either but I imagine he needs to be played back in. I think that we might see him get a few minutes against Wigan and a Carling Cup start against West Brom if he hasn't had another set back. As I said there's not much else happening so I'll leave it ther for today but I can smell the weekend approaching as I start to consider my options for my Fantasy football team.

Here's a clip of Ajax showing us how Pires and Henry should have taken the penalty that I linked yesterday.

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And to finish today's title track from The Smiths. I wonder how long Cesc will be ours, will Ramsey get his chance to stake a claim and if we will eventually see the return of Rosicky.

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See You Tomorrow.

Celtic come to The Emirates tonight for the second leg of our Champions league qualifier and we hold a 2-0 lead from the match in Glasgow last week. The manner of the goals may have been a little lucky but it cannot be forgotten that we completely outplayed them. If we approach the match in the right manner there is no doubt in my mind that we will win tonight as well. When you look at the difference in class between the 2 teams you can see that Celtic are playing against a team from a different class tonight. They are used to playing teams at a Championship or League 1 level in the Scottish Premier league every week and occasionally playing a team just about capable of surviving in the Premier league when they play Rangers.

As long as we play with the same tempo as last week and move the ball around very quickly they will struggle to cope with us. I'm sure the boss will have the boys in the right frame of mind and even without our captain Cesc we still have far too much in our locker for them. As a result I predict another 2-0 win for us and an overall 4-0 win. Hopefully there will be a full house and a great atmosphere at The Emirates tonight and we will continue our 100% start to the season.

The news that Cesc will not play tonight was not exactly unexpected after he came off with a hamstring problem at half time on Saturday. When you consider the fact that Celtic took turns to kick the back of the legs off Cesc last week you could imagine that he would have got the same treatment tonight. With a trip to Manure on Saturday evening to come the boss has said that Cesc might be available for that game and he also said that Rosicky(remember him) should be available too as he is back in training.

The boss had his usual pre match press conference yesterday and it must be a joy for the press to talk to him as he will answer just about any football question they ask him. Yesterday he was asked about Sol Campbell's move to Notts County, early season surprise results, Cesc's injury, resting players, Liverpool's title chances, Blaise Matuidi and Philippe Senderos and he happily answered them all unlike some other managers who are not so accomodating to the press. For the record he said there was no bid for Matuidi and there has been no movement with Senderos either. The other answers can be seen on the club site if you are really interested in them.

There are rumours about Jay Simpson going out on loan again and also about Fran Merida being offered a new deal. I don't think Simpson is going to get much of a look in as far as the first team squad is concerned and it would be good to see Merida getting a new contract as he has a lot to offer.

I was asked to play indoor football at 7 tonight and I agreed before I realised that I would miss the first half of the Arsenal match. I'll be driving out to the supporters club in The Strand in Bray to see the second half and hopefully I won't miss too much. That's it for today.

Here's a clip of a great goal by Paddy Vieira against Manure.

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And to finish today's title track from Bob Marley. If you're lucky enough to be at The Emirates don't forget to give the team all your support by getting up from your seat and cheering them and of course standing up if you hate a certain team that have never played in the Champions League.

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See You Tomorrow.

I will start today with a mention for my local Arsenal supporters club as we had our AGM last night and everything went very well. Our finances are in good shape and things are looking good for the upcoming season. We have plans for a trip to Gibneys in Malahide after last season's trip went very well. If things go to plan we will also have a trip for as many as possible of us to The Emirates and we can get tickets to virtually any home game that Arsenal play. I must say that I'm looking forward to Saturday afternoons/evenings/Sunday afternoons/Monday nights/Tuesday nights/Wednesday nights at the club watching Arsenal for the next 9 months with the hope of some silverware at the end of it all. Luckily I play football on Fridays and that only leaves Thursdays to worry about.

The boss spoke yesterday about potential signings in the current transfer window. He said we might bring in one defensive player and one offensive player but that most of the business is done between August 26th and August 31st. He said we might bring in a player if Senderos goes to Everton but he said at the same time that we still have 5 centre backs(including Song). Is a replacement for Senderos to be included in those 2 potential signings or not? I'm a little confused at the moment by our boss as he seems to be constantly contradicting himself. At the end of last season he told us that he would complete all transfers before we returned to pre season training as he wanted any new players to blend in with the squad. Then he said a couple of weeks ago that he will sign any players before the season starts and now we are being told that most deals happen at the end of the window. Can we take from that statement that he expects to pick up another Silvestre style "bargain" at the last minute as clubs look to make something happen. I sincerely hope not but seeming as he doesn't appear to have any definite targets I can only assume we will take whoever is available at the last minute. I cannot imagine that the world class players we need will be available as last minute bargains.

Another thing I have found a little odd is hearing Roy Hodgson saying that we have not made a bid for Hangeland every week. Is he trying to drum up some interest in his player to get some money for a player who hasn't/won't sign a new contract. The boss was asked about Hangeland yesterday and he did say that we had looked at him but we had not made an approach for him as of yet. If Senderos decides to stay it is only to secure a free transfer next summer as he knows he is at the back of the queue when it comes to first team chances. In my opinion that means he's not part of the manager's plans so we should sign Hangeland anyway.

The boss has more or less ruled out signing Vieira again and Inter confirmed that we have not made any enquiries for him. Another player we are being linked with is Zezinho of Juventude who is a young Brazilian we have appearently had a bid turned down for in the past but we might be prepared to raise that bid to get him. We are also rumoured to be upping our bid for Chamakh but I have said before that I don't think he's the player we need. The boss also compared Jack Wilshere to a young Rooney and he thinks he has to learn to play with the rest of the team a bit more at the moment. He also confirmed that yesterday's rumour about Rosicky was right and he will be out for up to 6 weeks with a hamstring problem. We all know how long his last 6 week injury took to heal so I won't be holding my breath on this one. Cesc had hoped our injury jinx was over but it's 2 down already before the season starts. That's not good.

Later today we will know our fate in the Champions league qualifiers and as I said yesterday the options are Fiorentina, Atletico Madrid, Celtic, Anderlecht & Tiramasou(as Lady Arse put it). Bring them on and let the football begin.

Finally for today here's all the Fantasy Football info yet again. There's only 8 days to go to the start of the season so this weekend is a great time to sign up. These are the codes you will need for my leagues.

Oleole League code  4383-1847

Oleole Arsenal league code  4383-1835

Oleole head to head league code  4383-1828

I know The Score predictions link and code  FC85F-XSC

Here's the goal our scouts saw Zezinho score with his chocolate leg as RVP would say.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from Gregory Isaacs. The boss looks like he will wait until midnight on August 31st to sign new players and taht's too late in my opinion.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.