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.

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.

It's a late one again this morning as I got the best night's sleep I've had in years last night and I'm playing catch up now. I've got a half day from work today which is a very welcome change for me and I've also sorted out a lot of time off I am due by taking a break from work from December 4th to January 18th of next year. Quite what I'm going to do in all that time I'm not sure but it has to involve a trip to The Emirates at some stage as I have no excuses about working the next day and so on.

In Arsenal news we have a game for the first time in almost 2 weeks tomorrow as the interlull is over at last. It sees our return to Premiership action against Birmingham and we all know what happened the last time we played them. On that fateful day in St. Andrews we saw Eduardo suffer an horriffic injury after a terrible "challenge" from Martin Taylor and we conceded a last minute penalty which led to a Gallas tantrum and the collapse of our season. I know it wasn't a penalty and we should have had one at the other end but our results for a few weeks after that were terrible as we struggled to cope with the pressure. Hopefully the current team has a lot more mental strength than they did then and we can rebound immediatly from any setbacks. 

Early team news is that both Clichy and Diaby have injuries from their international duty and they might not be risked in my opinion as it will give the boss a chance to see Gibbs play for the first time this season in the proper first team and there are numerous options to replace Diaby. I wouldn't mind Diaby being injured as he always comes back with a bang after any injury and that's a bit better than he has being playing recently. Fabianski is available too and Almunia is rated 50/50 in his efforts to recover from a "chest infection". I wonder if Don Vito will continue in goals as he has done very well so far but we will find out tomorrow afternoon. It appears that Nasri is almost back to match fitness and we should have him available next weekend for our trip to West Ham which is at the unusual time of 4.15 on a Sunday afternoon. Eduardo has not recovered from his injury and he will not playeither which isn't a bad thing I suppose even though his nemesis Martin Johnson is also out injured.

Cesc has spoken about how our priority is the league this season and he is absolutely right because that is the trophy that matters most to the fans. I know the Champions league would be great but it would be a bonus to win that as a 38 game haul over the season is the true indicator of the best team. Speaking of which we are again faced with 5 games in 15 days as we have to make up for the interlull and we are still involved in all competitions at this stage. At least the first team players will get a break as our youth team get a chance to give Liverpool a footballing lesson in the Carling Cup in 12 days time. The boss thinks our 2 defeats in Manchester were accidents and we came out of the games not thinking that we weren't good enough but that they reinforced the belief that the squad already has in it's own ability. He also thinks that our home form will be key this season and a win against Birmingham tomorrow will strengthen that belief I'm sure. I know we played well in those 2 games but we made bad mistakes at crucial times and we need to rectify those if we are going to get that league title that our captain craves.

Our ladies managed an 8-0 win away to Nottingham Forest last night in the league and they seem to be continuing their dominant form of last season. It also emerged than Stan Kroenke has again upped his stake in the club and he now owns 28.9% of the shares and he only needs 1% more before he has to make a bid for all shares in the club. Peter Hill Wood has given him his full backing in this and he said he would welcome him on board if he did succeed in that bid as he shares the principals of the current bord in how the club should be run. It's funny that when he bought his first shares the board wanted nothing to do with him until they realised the real threat was from Jabba the Hutt and his Red and White Holdings as they started to buy up shares. That's it for today. I'll preview the Birmingham game tomorrow as we bid to push even higher up the table in our quest for our first league title in 6 years.

Here's a clip of what Diaby can do when he is playing well.

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And to finish today's title track from Pulp. We have played some wrong shapes at times, we need to sort out the mistakes at places like City & Manure and we have at least got rid of our misfit in he who shall remain nameless.

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See You Tomorrow.

The first week of the international break is over and it only seemed like a month. In 3 days our players will return to the club but it will be Friday at the earliest before we find out how many of them will be unable to play on Saturday. With just the midweek games to go a few of our players have already booked their place at South Africa 2010.

Denmark qualified by beating Sweden and that means Bendtner will be playing at the World Cup. Switzerland have almost qualified and only need a draw against Israel on Wednesday to win their group which would mean that Djourou would be at the World Cup too if he has recovered from his knee injury in time. Senderos will be there with him too but he may not be an Arsenal player by that point. Cesc is of course on the way to South Africa too as Spain kept their 100% record intact with their win at the weekend. With England through too it probably means that Theo will make the trip and he might just have Gibbs and/or Wilshere to accompany him too. Holland's group was already over and they finished it by winning every game which of course means RVP will be there too. Vela has also secured his trip as Mexico joined the USA in qualifying from their group.  With the Ivory Coast also qualifying it means Eboue will be there too.

We have quite a few players who will either qualify on Wednesday night too or will end up in the playoffs. Song will be on his way too if Cameroon win their match against Morocco next month but Rosicky's chances of going to the finals with the Czech's seem to be very remote at the moment as they need a minor miracle to make it. Arshavin's Russian team are through to the play offs but The Verminator will not be making the trip as Belgium are out desite their victory against turkey at the weekend. Eduardo doesn't look like he'jj be there either as Croatia need Andorra to get a result against Ukraine on Wednesday night for them to have a chance. With France we have Gallas, Sagna, Clichy, Diaby & Nasri all on their way to the play offs in November in their quest for a trip to South Africa. Thankfully after next month's playoffs international breaks will be on the back burner for a while as we concentrate on the real football. Thankfully he who shall remain nameless will be spending as much time at the World Cup as he does in this season's Champions league as Togo were sent packing at the weekend.

Barcelona's sporting director says that Cesc will end up playing at the Nou Camp one day and it could happen sooner than even he thinks but only if we draw them in the knockout stages of the Champions League. I really wish Barcelona had enough class to shut their mouth's about our captain but we all know that is impossible. The stories that Madrid have approached Clichy's representatives about a move in the summer wouldn't surprise me as both they and Barcelona appear to be above the rules when it comes to approaches to players who are under contract to other clubs. I know Clichy's form hasn't been great and we have both Gibbs and Traore waiting in the wings but I'm still not sure I would like him to leave.

There are also stories that Stan Kroenke has not paid £50 million to other board members for shares that he bought from them as he apparently prepares to up his stake in the club to the magical 30% mark that would mean he has to make a bid for all the other shares. Our under 18s were beaten 3-2 at Ipswich on Saturday with Henderson & Meade scoring our goals and we are still on top of the league table despite that defeat. There are reports that the boss will abandon our Austrian training camp next summer to make a lucrative trip to either Asia or the USA but I would be a little surprised if he did as he has never been swayed by the need to make money in our pre season scheudle before. Cesc has withdrawn from the Spanish squad for their match against Bosnia on Wednesday night as his granfather is very ill. Hopefully things will work out well for him and my thoughts are with Cesc. That's it for today.

Here's Vela's goal for Mexico against El Salvador.

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And to finish today's title track from Madness which is for the big 2 Spanish clubs and their continued use of the press to pursue our players.

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See You Tomorrow.

Oleole has become a hive of inactivity this weekend as club football has yet again had to take a back seat to the needs of the international game. From my own perspective I watched Ireland play the World champions Italy last night in my friend's house as we delayed our poker game until the match was over. Ireland are not the most attractive team to watch for an Arsenal fan but to be fair to them they gave everything they had and played quite well. With Italy only needing a point to ensure qualification Ireland knew they had to attack which they did from the start. I have never really thought McGeady was a good player but he gave the Italian team a hard time and you could see they were afraid of what he could do.

From a free kick on the right of the Italian penalty area Ireland managed to score the first goal as the ball was cut back to Whelan who sent a shot into the top corner as it swerved away from the keeper. His technique was excellent to hit a bouncing ball first time like that and at that stage the Italians looked worried. However Italy proceded to get themselves back into the game as one of their players rose unchallenged from a corner to head home an equaliser. After that the game seemed to be petering out as halftime came and went and Italy's goal was still intact. With only a few minutes left Ireland won a free kick on the left this time and Stephen Hunt whipped a fantastic ball to the far post which was met with a diving header by St. Ledger to put Ireland 2-1 up and within touching distance of a fantastic victory.

Italy suddenly realised that they needed to score to ensure qualification on the night or wait until Wednesday night against Cyprus to win the group. All Ireland had to do was defend well and play the game out but for some bizzare reason they went with the old adage that defence is the best form of attack. In this case the adage was proved totally incorrect as Ireland were caught on the break in the last minute and stretched at the back as Italy managed to get the goal they needed to qualify for the World Cup and leave Ireland with the unenviable task of making their way there via the playoffs. I'm sure Trappatoni read the players the riot act afterwards despite the fact that he would have been proud of them. Any team that has to face Ireland will know they have a tough task ahead of them as Ireland are unbeaten in their group and are capable of taking on any team despite their lack of real talent in some positions.

From all of the above I'm sure you can realise how little Arsenal news there is on a weekend like this. Our ladies managed an 8-1 win over Doncaster in their 2nd league match of the season to continue their 100% start to the season in all competitions. Quite a few of our players managed to score for their countries yesterday as Cesc, Gallas, Vela and Senderos(2) all got themselves on the scoresheet. There has been more speculation about Cesc joining Barcelona and Clichy has also been linked with Real Madrid. Added to that Atletico Madrid are rumoured to be chasing Fran Merida  and a number of reports have twisted the words of Ivan Gazidis to make it sound like an ultimatum to the manager that we must win trophies this season. I'll talk about some of those points tomorrow as I'm sure there won't be too much else happening. That's it for today. By the way I did manage to win the poker game I was in so all in all it wasn't too bad a Saturday night.

Here's Cesc's goal for Spain last night.

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And to finish today's title track from Radiohead. Maybe it would have been better to go to sleep for the entire international break.

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See You Tomorrow.

If I'm not mistaken the boss becomes our longest serving manager today and the 13 years he has been in charge have been hugely enjoyable as we shed our image of a hard team who played a traditional English style game to that of a team who play a contintenal game of free flowing football that's a joy to watch when we really turn it on. When he took over he inherited a fantastic defence and he kept them in place for years but he also taught them how to play football rather than just defend. He also inherited Denis Bergkamp and that was a huge bonus for him as Bergkamp proved himself to be one of the greatest Arsenal players ever.

He managed to bring in Vieira before he even started in the job and Petit, Overmars and Anelka were fantastic additions too. In his second season in charge he won the second double in the club's history with a hugely strong team who were very skillful too and for the next 3 years we were the second best team to Manure but only just. In 1999 in particular we were within a whisker of retaining that double but unfortunately a last minute penalty miss by Bergkamp brought our FA cup semi final with Manure to extra time and we were beaten by a wonder goal from Giggs. I still can't watch replays of that goal to this day as I want the Arsenal players to take him down and Seaman to stand up to the shot but I know it won't happen.

In the league that season we had to beat Leeds in a midweek game at Elland Road to go into the last game of the season on top of the table and even a draw would have left us level with them in points and goal difference. Unfortunately again somebody forgot to tell Nelson Vivas that he was supposed to be a defender and he left his man free at the back post to score the only goal of the game and virtually hand the title to Manure. In the last game they needed a win at home to The Spuds and when The Spuds went ahead their fans booed them as it could hand the league to us. Manure got the win in the end and finished with a treble by scoring 2 injury time goals against Bayern Munich in the Champions league final despite being completely outplayed.

After that Henry, Pires and Ljungberg came in and we started to play a brand of football that was a beauty to behold. We managed to win the double again in 2002 and we somehow managed to lose another title that was ours in 2003 before the manager's finest moment when we won the league in 2004 and went unbeaten in that competition all season. The fact that we sealed that league at The spuds ground made it all the better and indeed winning the league at Old Trafford in 2002 was a beautiful feeling too.

There have been other disappointments such as the UEFA Cup final defeat in 2000 to Galatasary, the FA Cup final defeat to Liverpool in 2001 and the Champions league final defeat in 2006. These were all trophies that we could have won and indeed how we didn't win the first 2 is still a mystery to me today but the Barcelona defeat was incurred with 10 men for most of the night. It's been a rollercoaster ride and I wouldn't have missed it for anything as it has been a pleasure and a privilage to see Arsenal play football that we could only have dreamed of under George Graham and winning trophies too.

Gael Clichy has been speaking about the youngsters at the club wanting to prove that the boss is right to put his trust in them. According to him they all want to win a trophy for Arsene and I can't say I have any objection to that. It's been too long since our last trophy and I'd take the FA Cup at this stage just to get the ball rolling again.

In other news our ladies beat PAOK 9-0 away from home in the first knock out round of the ladies Champions league and the home leg next week is a mere formality now. It also appears that the FA are going to form a ladies Super league which will be launched in March 2011. Stan Kroenke has increased his stake in the club yet again ahead of the AGM on October 22nd. That's it for today as there is very little else happening yet with our match not on until Sunday.

Here's a clip of the goal that won us the league at Old Trafford in 2002. If you listen carefully you will hear that it starts with a mistake by a certain "Silvestre".

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And to finish today's title track from The Pixies. When Arsene Wenger was appointed did any of us really think here comes your man to bring your club forward to a new age.

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See You Tomorrow.

After watching my Football First recording of yesterday's game and also Match of The Day 2 last night it was fairly obvious, as pointed out by Lee Dixon, that Adebayor was looking for trouble before the game even started. Just before the kick off he was wandering through the Arsenal half of the pitch as all his team mates were in their own half. Dixon said it wound him up as he sat in the stand so I can only imagine the effect it had on the Arsenal players.

As for the game itself we were on top in the first half when City scored but we then lost our way until half time. We started the second half very well and deserevedly equalised. At that stage it looked like we would win as City were struggling to cope but unfortunately Cesc played a poor pass to Clichy who bombed forward thinking he could outrun the 3 City players ahead of but he never made it and he was then caught out of position. Richards beat Song easily as he covered for Clichy and he set Bellamy up to score and we then tried to chase the game. For their third goal Clichy clattered into the back of wright Phillips and as the referee played a very good advantage but Clichy stopped and Wright Phillips continued on to cross for Adebayor to score.

We all know what happened next and it's a pity the Arsenal fans reacted the way they did but I don't think you could blame them too much as Adebayor was completely out of order. As I said yesterday I wouldn't be surprised if the Manchester police decided to act on his actions. Clichy then got caught in possession by Bellamy just outside the City box and as Bellamy broke forward Clichy chased him rather than going back to his position. When Bellamy eventually played Wright Phillips in he was in the wide right position and he finished easily enough. If Clichy had run back to his position he would have been there to stop him but as with last season all of his mistakes seem to lead to goals.

We came back soon afterwards and Rosicky scored after Cesc had played him in. At least the Arsenal players didn't give up and we created at least 4 or 5 more chances after that but we just couldn't put them away. There were some pivotal points in the match and the first one was Almunia's poor reactions to the free kick that he ended up putting into his own net inadvertently. His goalkeeping this season has been very poor and with Fabianski injured we don't have any option but to play him. Obviously the kick in the face from Adebayor on RVP was a turning point too as he should have got a red card and City should have been down to 10 players. At 2-1 the manager decided to take off our holding midfielder and replace him with Eduardo. At that stage I think Eduardo should have come on for Bendtner who didn't have the best of afternoons. He also took Sagna off and replaced him with Eboue which should only have happened if Sagna was injured. As a result we were very open at the back with Song gone and it made it too easy for City to run at us. The team was actually playing well and City were vulnerable at the back and I think if we had kept our shape we could have got back in the game. When we were 3-1 down we had a very good penalty claim turned down when Barry seemed to handle the ball in the box but the referee was poorly positioned and he missed it.

Speaking on the club site RVP said that in his opinion the kick to the face from Adebayor was malicious and he was very disappointed with it. He said that Adebayor did not apologise to him afterwards which a direct contradiction of what Adebayor said afterwards. After apologising for the celebration in front of our fans he said it was an accidental collision with RVP and he also said that he had apologised to him after the game for the accident. It appears that the FA are going to investigate both incidents by Adebayor and with trial by media now in full swing we can expect a guilty verdict and a ban for him. The Arsenal fans won't forget what happened too easily and he will get some reception at The Emirates on April 24th.

From here we have to learn how to play as a team when we are defending and Clichy and Almunia have to cut out their schoolboy errors as they are killing us. Bendtner is not a wide player and he should only play as a central striker if he is picked. There are loads of other options in that position and the boss has to start utileising them. With Rosicky back our attack looked more fluid and I would love to see him playing with Cesc & Eduardo as they are our most intelligent footballers. We have only lost as many games as Liverpool and second place is still not beyond us but I really don't think we can win the league. The boss need to tighten things up at the back before our trip to Liege on Wednesday night, In other news our under 18s were beaten 4-2 away to Leicester on Saturday with Freeman & Evina scoring for us. That's it for today.

Here's a clip of Adebayor's stamp on RVP.

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And to finish today's title track from Max Romeo. Our season had started so well but the 2 losses in Manchester were completely avoidable and could cost us in the long run.

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See You Tomorrow.

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. 

We played our final pre season friendly last night and it resulted in a 2-0 defeat away from home to Valencia. The manager started with what looks like the team he will probabaly use at Everton next Saturday with the exception of Sagna at right back for Eboue and possibly Vermaelen for Djourou at centre back if he is fit. I can't say I entirely agree with the inclusion of Bendtner & RVP in an Arsenal team playing a fluid 4-3-3 formation. I would prefer to see Eduardo playing in the middle and Theo or Wilshere on the right as I think they are more suited to this formation. In my opinion Bendtner should be a centre forward and nothing else and RVP should possibly play off a centre forward but it is hard to know where he should play.

The manager now has a week left to work with the team and fine tune everything that isn't quite working well enough at the moment. That would be a very important job under normal circumstances but with World Cup qualifying matches and international friendlies arranged for Wednesday night and the majority of our players with their countries already we will have to make do with the current state of readiness of the squad. With the players coming back to the club on Thursday and our trip to Everton on Saturday evening the best we can hope for is that we will get all our players back in one piece.

I didn't get to see the match myself as I was at a stag party but from what I have seen and read Valencia were well worth their win and according to Lady Arse it was like watching an away European match which over the last couple of years has been a fairly unremarkable experience in the main. As a result I can't comment too much on the performance but I'll trust what others have said and it seems that we could have lost by even more as our defence just does not seem to be functioning in pre season at all. Let's just hope that when the real thing gets started on Saturday we will have found our defensive feet again. On a positive note it was good to see the return of Theo, Clichy & Fabianski and hopefully we'll have Vermaelen back for Saturday.

Our youngsters managed a 2-0 victory over The Spuds today with both goals coming from Afobe. It's always nice to beat our local rivals at any level even if we always seem to do it.

If anybody wants to join the Fantasy Football leagues I'm running the deadline is 11.30 am next Saturday and the more people that join the better the competition will be. Here's the link to the game and the codes to join the leagues are below. If you have any questions feel free to ask me.

Oleole league code  4383-1847

Oleole Arsenal code  4383-1835

Oleole head to head league code  4383-1828 (in this league we will be playing against each other on a weekly basis).

I Know The Score league link & code  FC85F-XSC (this is a score predictions league and it's very enjoyable).

All of these games and leagues give us a break from supporting our team only and it eases the pain of an Arsenal defeat when your fantasy team has a good week. There are over 1 million players signed up overall already and that is increasing rapidly by the day. I'll leave it there for today.

Here's the highlights from last night's match.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from Bob Marley. The boss has a lot of "work" to do but he won't get much oppurtunity this week.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

I celebrated my 1st anniversary on Oleole yesterday with a coffee and a muffin last night and I feel that I let the side down. However I intend to make up for it this weekend as it's a bank holiday weekend in Ireland and the plans for partaking in a drink or two are building rapidly. I'll be heading off to Wexford after work today and staying in a state of the art mobile home with a few friends and we'll be having a few tonight on the decking. Then tomorrow afternoon I should be off to the local pub(it's about a mile to walk) to watch The Emirates cup as we will be playing Atletico Madrid tomorrow afternoon and then back to the decking again to finish off the night. Then on Sunday I'll be driving home in the morning before heading to the supporters club in the afternoon to watch the game against Rangers and I'm meeting some friends in that pub later to make a night of it. After that I suppose I will have to take it easy on Monday just to detox before work on Tuesday. As a result of all of this I don't expect to be able to blog on Saturday but I'll do my best after that to keep up to date with what's happening in the world of Arsenal.

Anyway enough of me and on to all things Arsenal. The boss has spoken about how he feels the squad is strong enough as it is but he says that he will add to it if he can. He said that in England people think all the problems can be solved by buying players but he thinks the biggest target is to work hard in training, improve what we can and have confidence in the players that we have. He said we have money available but he will only spend it in the right way and he cannot say that we are close to signing anyone at the moment. None of that sounds very promising if, like me, you are hoping that we will improve the squad before the season starts. At the end of the last 2 seasons the manager said that he knew where we needed to strengthen over the summer but we have sold more players than we have bought each time. The players we sold were first team players in the main too and the boss is walking a very thin line with an ever increasing minority at the moment.

We have seen Diarra, Flamini, Gilberto, Hleb, Adebayor & Toure leave and they could be followed by Eboue very shortly too. In that time we have brought in Nasri, Silvestre, Arshavin & Vermaelen and in anybody's book that is not an increase in overall strength. Some of the younger players have moved into the first team squad but they have a long way to go to reach the stage where they can be considered experienced. If things get off to a bad start there will be calls for the manager's head in a way we have never heard before and we have a very tough opening to our league campagin and Champions League qualifiers too. I have every confidence in the manager but I am beginning to get a little concerned about the coming season. What we have going in our favour is that our main rivals(the other 3 of the big 4) are no stronger either. In fact Liverpool & Manure look weaker to me and Chelsea look no stronger and a year older too. If we can just sign the players that the world and his wife knows we need the league is there for the taking and I'm sure the boss must realise that too. I have a horrible feeling that he is waiting for the recession to take effect on football and as a result he is counting his pennies.

In other news it has emerged that Rosicky picked up a slight knock against Barnet and that is why we didn't see him in the last 3 pre season games. It does appear that he will play in The Emirates cup this weekend and Clichy will play too as he seems to have recovered from the injury that he had at the end of last season. It also appears that Vermaelen is going to wear the number 5 shirt which shows that he will be first choice at the back alongside Gallas but I think we knew that anyway. The rumours of Vieira coming back to the club are persisting but in my opinion there is absolutely no chance of him coming back as the boss was happy to sell him 4 years ago and he is no longer the player he was then even. England's under 19s reached the final of the European championships last night with a come from behind 3-1 win against France after extra time and Henri Lansbury was again in outstanding form as he scored a 20 yarder and also hit the bar late on. The French didn't help themselves too much as they had 3 players sent off.

Don't forget to join in the Fantasy Football at this link

The codes to join the leagues are

Oleole league  4383-1847

Oleole Arsenal league  4383-1835

Oleole head to head league  4383-1828

I Know The Score Predictions competition  FC85F-XSC

I Know The Score can now be accessed from the games icon in the toolbar of the Fantasy Premier league site or there is also a link to it beneath the Budweiser ad on the Fantasy Premier league. site. That's the lot for today. Enjoy your weekend whatever you're doing.

Here's Lansbury's goal from last night.

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And to finish today's title track from New Model Army. I'm just a little frightened that we are playing a very risky game at the moment and it might all come crashing down. I'm trying to keep the faith though.

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See You Tomorrow(or maybe the day after).