This week is a very strange one for me. I have been due a lot of time off work and I started taking it last Friday and I will have this Friday off as well. I also have my 3rd or is it 4th wedding of the year to attend on Saturday afternoon when my wife's sister marries a fellow Gooner and fan of The Specials. The wedding reception is next door to the Arsenal supporters club in Bray but the match against Wolves may not be on in the supporters club as they have an issue with ESPN of which I'm not sure of the details. If the match isn't on in the supporters club the chances are that a good few of the members will make a trip to Gibneys in Malahide to watch the game out there. We went there last season for the league game at Manure and it was a great day out which was our version of a "Jolly Boy's Outing". I really hope that I don't have to miss out on the trip because I've being looking forward to it since last season's trip. On top of that I'll have to work out a way to keep up with the score of the match while I'm at the reception without anyone noticing. Thankfully my phone has great internet capability at a very cheap rate and I just have to remember to keep the silent mode on.

There isn't a whole heap of news to report before we play AZ tomorrow night but 1 man who has been in the news is Eboue. He made what sounded like a come and get me plea to PSG as he said he would not break his contract at Arsenal but he would like to play in Ligue 1 some day and he has always admired PSG. He apparently said that if they were to offer him a deal the reply would be positive but for now his is focused on this season for Arsenal and next summer we will have to see. Am I right in saying that he only signed a new contract a little while before the end of last season and if so we could get a transfer fee for him. I could live with selling him as in my opinion he is our 2nd choice right back and no more but I don't see anyone else coming through in that position and that is an issue that would have to be addressed if we were to sign him.

RVP has spoken about how great his family life with his wife and 2 kids is and how it makes him stable and gives him a good basis to perform. He also said that he was struggling physically after the birth of his second child recently but it's better now. If that's how he plays when he's struggling I can't wait to see what his form will be like when the baby is sleeping through the night. It was also great to hear him say that he would love to play against Man City in the quarter finals of the Carling Cup but I have a funny feeling that he might have a little bit of revenge on his mind. We all know he has an edge to his game at times and I think we can more or less guarentee sparks will fly when he next plays against he who shall remain nameless. The fans love a player who feels the same sort of emotions as they do and he added to that by saying that it was great to beat The Spuds at the weekend and he always enjoys hearing that they have lost but it's even better to beat them ourselves.

The bad news is that our reserves lost their unbeaten start to the season last night as they lost 2-0 at home to Portsmouth in a league game. I had a quick look at the reserve table and I realised that The Spuds pulled their team out of the league. With such a strong squad as they have(Robbie Keane couldn't be wrong could he) it's strange that they don't want to give their fringe players a few games so that they can remember what it's like to play the odd game. Who knows they might have had the oppurtunity to get beaten by our reserves so that they could feel just like the first team players. On a Spuds note I saw the picture below on Twitter last night and from what I can see it's a genuine DVD which can be bought from their club site in the true tradition of their DVDs that are released after they manage not to lose to us.

That's it for today.

Here's Jay Emmanuel Thomas's first senior goal on loan from Arsenal to Blackpool.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from Black Uhuru. It's good to hear RVP coming out with the right stuff that us fans want to hear.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

It's Wednesday morning and the international break is really starting to bite. There's not an awful lot going on but I'll try to report what little I can find. Young Theo Walcott was delighted to wear the number 14 shirt on Sunday in front of the man who wore it before him with such distinction. In fact he was so happy that he got Thierry Henry to sign a no. 14 shirt for him and he will treasure it forever. He was also fairly happy to get a goal in front of our greatest striker ever I would imagine. I said yesterday that I couldn't understand Theo being picked for England's under 21s but I have read elsewhere that the boss was eager for him to get a run out during the break.

Eboue spoke about teaming up with Kolo Toure for their country as they play Malawi on October 10th in a game where a point will qualify the Ivory Coast for the World Cup. He's looking forward to meeting his friend again and he said that Kolo called him before the Olympiacos game to wish him good luck. It was interesting to see the reception Richard Dunne got from the Man City fans on Monday night and it was also interesting to see that he wasn't too interested in celebrating his goal. He wasn't too happy with his treatment by the club but the fans still love him because he gave everthing he had to the club for 9 years. You could never say that he didn't give his all in a match and put his body on the line for his team and I'm sure he'll do the same for Villa. He could teach a certain ex Arsenal player a thing or 2 about respect and loyalty which are things that should work both ways but he thought should be given to him no matter what.

Speaking of "he who shall remain nameless" it would seem that he is now sorry for the stamp on RVP. Pardon me but I thought that he said it was an accident at first and then pleaded guilty to the FA charge. So it would seem that he now admits that he meant to stamp on an arsenal player's head for no reason other than the fact that we sold him. He went looking for trouble in that game and proceded to asssault RVP before acting the idiot in front of our fans after scoring. He also said that the reason he left Arsenal was because the boss told him he was one of the top earners at the club and the club wouldn't be able to pay him any more. Does that mean that he went looking for a pay rise after the season he had last season. In my opinion he should have been due a pay cut. We all know it was Arsenal's choice to sell him and that he would have joined any one of at least 10 clubs before City but nobody else wanted him. Overall it was a great piece of business for Arsenal as we made a large profit, cut the wage bill and got rid of a trouble maker all in one. His claims that the boss said the club was in the red and needed to sell him have been proved wrong since as we made a record profit before we sold him and we then sold Kolo too.

After reading yesterday that Sol Campbell might come back to train with Arsenal to get his fitness back I couldn't help myself thinking that I wouldn't like to see him do it. When he left Arsenal we cancelled his contract for him with the understanding that he was to join a continental club but he ended up joining Portsmouth. I was always fairly good at Geography in school and I thought that Portsmouth was on the south coast of England but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe The Spuds would like to see him train with them as he is an ex player of theirs too. Personally I think he let the boss down when he joined Portsmouth and I'd be surprised if we allowed him to train with us but you never know. Well that's the lot for today. I'll probably say a few words about the progress of the Fantasy Football tomorrow as there won't be too much else to report.

Here's a nice tribute to Paddy Vieira.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from The Cure which is all about the torture of international breaks.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

We have a home game at 1.30 this afternoon against Blackburn and it's live on the TV which gives our players an oppurtunity to show the world how the game should be played against a team put together by a man who would like to show the world how football should not be played. We beat Blackburn 4-0 at home and away last season and we have won our last 6 home league games against them with Blackburn failing to score in 5 of them. All that adds up to a belief that we should give them a good hiding today.

With Almunia unavailable due to sickness still it means Don Vito will remain in goal and hope to keep yet another clean sheet. The defence picks itself in my opinion but it is interesting that Eboue has played both Champions League matches this season but as Rock The Casbah said Gibbs has not got a look in. In midfield we will see Cesc and Song I'm sure and more than likely Diaby will play too but it would be nice to see Rosicky play alongside Cesc. RVP will lead the attack I'm sure and Arshavin will play too which probably means Bendtner will play on the right with Theo coming on at some stage for his comeback. I'd like to see Vela get another run out too and of course it would be good to see Jack and Rambo get some game time.

I can see Blackburn doing everything they can to frustrate us and we're bound to be kicked from one end of the pitch to the other in typical Allardyce fashion but it's up to our players to keep playing football and the chances will come. We have the fire power to cause them real problems and Paul Robinson dreads playing against us as he nears 100 career goals conceded against Arsenal. I predict a 3-0 win for Arsenal and I think RVP will keep up his recent form and goal scoring record against Blackburn by bagging at least 1 of the goals. A win will put us back in the thick of the race for the league as Manure got a lucky draw at home to Sunderland yesterday and Chelsea play Liverpool directly after our game today.

In other news our youth team got another league win yesterday as the beat Crystal Palace 1-0 with Nigel Neita scoring the only goal. There isn't too much else to say today except that I'll be watching the match in the company of my fellow Wicklow Gunners in The Strand in Bray before I join some friends in my local to watch Chelsea play Liverpool and I don't know who I want to win that one. Maybe a draw would suit Arsenal best. 

Here's a clip of the type of start we could do with against Blackburn from Arshavin in this fixture last season.

LINK 

And to finish here's today's title track from Jimmy Cliff. Blackburn may think they are hard enough to take us on but they are set for a football lesson in my opinion.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

Yesterday's game went almost as well as we could have hoped for as Wigan were dispatched by 4 goals to 0 at The Emirates in relatively easy fashion. Without ever being spectacular Arsenal managed to get their league campaign back on track as 2 goals from The Verminator, 1 from Cesc and 1 from either Eduardo or Eboue depending on which report you read. I was delighted to see us get our first clean sheet of the season in the league as well particularly with our third choice goalkeeper playing. I have read reports elsewhere claiming that we still have a soft centre but you will not play many matches in a season where your opponent doesn't get a few chances at some stage.

I watched the match in The Strand in Bray along with my fellow Wicklow Gunners and I brought my wife, my sister and her boyfriend along with me as they are all Arsenal fans too. He is a season ticket holding Arsenal fan who lives in Dubai at the moment but he is a local boy from Islington. He told me that he has his ticket on the club's site each week to be bought by anyone who wants it and it means he only has to pay about £300 to renew the ticket each season. If he wants to use the ticket himself he has to give 2 months notice and it is then withdrawn from sale for that match. I intend meeting him in London in February to watch a match on a Saturday afternoon.

As for the match itself the outcome was never really in any doubt and although Arsenal were not at their scintilating best Wigan made it a little too easy for us. The first goal came from as RVP swung in a corner and The Verminator headed home to the cheers of the Arsenal faithful. The second goal came early in the second half as The Verminator strode forward from defence and played a pass wide to Eboue. He kept going and took the return pass which he then dispatched to the top corner of the net with a curling, left footed 20 yard drive. At that stage I regretted not putting him in my fantasy team as just about everybody else watching the match with me had. When I considered the fact that yesterday's blog from me was dedicated to him I couldn't believe that I had slipped up so badly but the most important thing was that he was doing it for Arsenal.

From that point on it was only a matter of how many we would win by as Wigan offered little in terms of creating chances. There were a couple of scares during the game but Arsenal were always in almost complete control. The third came when Clichy crossed from the right for Eduardo who hit the post with his shot. As the ball rebounded back into the goalmouth Diaby poked it back to Eduardo whose shot was deflected away from the keeper by the slightest touch from the stripe on Eboue's sock. Most reports give the goal to Eduardo but personally I think it should go to Eboue as it probably wouldn't have gone in without his touch. It was fitting that he should score against Wigan after all the trouble he had in the same fixture last season.

After that the game more or less petered out as Wigan waited for the full time whistle so that they could escape any more torture. Just at it seemed Arsenal wouldn't change the scoreline from a good win to a thumping, RVP laid a ball out to substitute Bendtner who played it in to the near post for Cesc to tap home from no more than a yard or so out and complete a good day at the office for Arsenal. Our top scorers in 5 league games are now Cesc and The Verminator with 3 goals each and the top scoring team in the league are Arsenal with 17 goals in 5 games. If we can get our defensive problems sorted and work on cutting out the individual errors we will have areal chance of doing something this season. At the current rate we are going to score a hat full of goals this season and hopefully some of our strikers will get in on the act as well.

Our next match is in the Carling Cup on Tuesday night against West Brom at the Emirates and I would expect to see any player who is fit and didn't start yesterday's game in the starting 11. There will also be a youngster or 2 thrown in for good measure and the youth team managed a 5-0 win against Bristol City yesterday. There were 5-0 up after 26 minutes and the goals came from Freeman(2) and Aneke(3).  There has been some talk about Eboue being a cheat because of his attempt to put the ball in the net with his hand during the game but the referee booked him and that should be the end of it. The boss says he's not a cheat but as Arsenal fans we are all fed up with his diving in matches I'm sure and I really hope he can cut it out but I doubt it as it seems to be part of his character. That's it for today.

Here's the highlights from yesterday's game.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from Simple Minds. We proved our league campaign is Alive And Kicking with our win yesterday and we have a run of games coming up where we can put ourselves in a strong position if we approach them the right way.

LINK

See You Tomorrow. 

Everything went as well as we could expect last night as Celtic came to The Emirates and were dispatched 3-1 on the night and 5-1 on aggregate. The first goal came from the penalty spot after Eduardo was adjudged to have been tripped by their keeper and he got up to slot the penalty home himself. The second goal came early in the second half after some flowing football and it was finished off very well by Eboue. After that we made a few substitutions and Arshavin came on for Bendtner. Within a couple of minutes he finished off a pass from Ramsey with a well taken turn and shot into the corner. Celtic got their consolation goal with the last kick of the game as Donati finished off a ball to the far post very well. We were down to 10 men at the time as Ramsey had to off injured when we had already used all of our subs.

We have now played 4 games this season and won all 4 of them whilst scoring 15 goals and conceding only 3. Some so called experts have said that we are only looking good because of the poor quality of our opposition but on examining our opponents so far only Portsmouth could be said to be a poor team. Their problems are due to their current financial situation which has meant that they had to sell some of their best players and it appears to have affected their team spirit. That may have been sorted out now and they might no longer be a pushover. As for Everton I don't think anyone will spank them by a score like that at home this season and they are the same team that finished 5th last season. Celtic may not have the class of a top Premiership team but their efforts in the previous round against Dynamo Moscow and their previous home record in the Champions league were quite impressive. We totally outplayed these teams and made them look very average and if we continue to play like that we will challenge on all fronts this season.

We played well last night without ever having to over extend ourselves and Celtic's only shot on goal all night was their last minute goal. Almunia had very little to do all night and for a team who needed goals Celtic didn't show too much ambition. I thought Eboue played very well which came as a surprise to me as I was worried when I saw his name on the team sheet and I don't think he can play as a midfielder. It was good to see Eduardo starting again but it did look to me that he dived for the penalty. If that's the case it's a little disappointing as I hate to see players diving. Listening to BBC radio on my way to watch the second half in The Strand in Bray I heard their experts telling us how he had definitely dived and how unhappy they were with that. I've seen Gerrard dive on numerous occasions and heard the same experts say that "he made the best of the situation" but when Johnny Foreigner does the same thing he is a cheating diver.

After the game the boss spoke about the incident and he said he didn't think it was a penalty but he didn't think Eduardo dived either. The reporter felt free to ask him for his thoughts on it and I wonder if he would ask "Sir shits his pants a lot" or the Spanish waiter the same question after a match. With the Mnaure manager I'm certain the question would never have been asked. He also said that Cesc might be a bit short for Saturday and he took Diaby off as he had not played a lot of games recently and 3 games in a week would be pushing it a bit. With Ramsey going off injured it looks like Diaby might be starting that game. I hope if he does that he doesn't start his twirling in possession again as Manure are wise to it.

The boss is looking forward to the trip to Manure and testing the team against a top side. He thinks there's a better atmosphere at the Emirates as our good start has made the fans more optimistic and he's happy with our central defensive partnership and the amount of goals we're scoring. He said we're playing higher up the pitch and we need to be less passive at Old Trafford than we were in the Champions league last season. We have a real chance to get a good result up there as they haven't got going yet and their defence is looking weak. The boss needs to pick the right team and get them to play at the tempo that we have so far this season. If we can do that there's every chance that we can lay down a marker for the rest of the season. The key to getting that result could be the fitness of our captain so let's hope he makes it.

The draw for the Champions league group stages is on this evening and we are 1 of the top 8 seeds yet again. We could get a few tough teams from pots 2 & 3 but the most important thing is that we made it this far. With another £20 million to be banked from these games we can hopefully expect a couple of signings before next Tuesday but I won't be holding my breath. That's it for today.

Here's the highlights of the first half from last night. If I can get full highlights I'll add them later.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from UB40. As I said above I think Cesc's fitness could be the key to our chances on Saturday.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

ps I'm sure a lot of people have seen the changes on Oleole and I am only getting about 50-60% of the hits that I was previously. I'd like to hear other peoples' views on this as I intend contacting Oleole about it quite soon.

It's Monday morning and after missing yesterday's blog due to a very hectic weekend it's back to normal for me again. It would appear that while I spent 24 hours away from the world of Arsenal that a little bit of news cropped up for me to talk about. This makes a pleasent change from what we had at the end of last week when there was nothing at all to talk about.

First of all we have had to listen to Usmanov's monkey telling us that the club were wrong to sell Adebayor and especially to City as they are a big rival in the chase for 4th spot. Is this what it has come to that our ambition is to finish 4th. I don't think so and I hope not because with none of our rivals stronger, indeed some of them are weaker, this season we should be challenging for the league in my opinion. He also claimed that we have never replaced David Dein properly which is probably ignoring the job that Gazidis is doing at the club at the moment. On transfers he claimed that we won't spend any more money unless it is reinvesting the money we got for Adebayor. I seem to remember that we got £25 million for him and with the possible sales of 2 or 3 more players that could leave the manager with up  to £50 million to spend. If that was to be reinvested in the squad I think we could get 2 top class players in the positions that we need them. A little bit of faith in the boss would go a long way at the moment.

The players that may be on the way out are Kolo & Eboue and of course Senderos is for sale too. I don't know if we have had bids for Senderos yet but I think if we offered him and £10 million to Fulham we would have a good chance of landing Hangeland. The rumours are persisting about Kolo joining Man City and there does seem to be something to them. If we allow City to talk to the player it is a sign we are willing to sell which is a big turnaround since last January when we told City they could not have him. With Fiorentina supposedly chasing Eboue we could find ourselves with no players departing to the African Cup of Nations with the exception of Song. A lot of doom merchants have been predicting the demise of our league status come next January but if we have bought another central midfielder we probably won't have any first team regulars over there anyway. In fact if Kolo, Eboue and Senderos were to leave it would weaken our defensive reserves only as none of them are first team starters in my opinion at this stage. If we could just get rid of Silvestre too it would be a great bit of business. We would have to buy Hangeland as I said and with Vermaelen, Gallas & Djourou available it would leave us with plenty of options at centre back with Song as back up in an emergency. I always said Gallas was at his best alongside a ball winning centre back and Vermaelen fits that bill as would Hangeland too. However it would mean that we would need a back up for Sagna if we sold Eboue and that might cause a problem or two as Sagna had a few niggling injuries last season after his bad injury against Chelsea near the end of the previous season.

Young Carlos Vela played a pivotal role in Mexico's 5-0 demolition of the U.S.A. team in the Gold Cup final yesterday. He came on at half time with the scores at 0-0 and he proceded to score a very good goal as he clipped the ball over an advancing keeper in typical fashion. He also managed a couple of assists and hopefully we can get him back now and integrate him into the team as soon as possible. He's a player I believe should have had a lot more game time last season and I really hope he gets it this season. He's fast, tricky, intelligent and he can finish expertly in a one on one situation with the keeper.

The rumours linking Vieira with The Spuds just won't go away either and as I have said before I really hope that he doesn't join them. He was and is a true Arsenal legend and there must be some other club he can join instead of our closest rivals. When I say closest rivals I obviously mean proximity in mileage as they are nowhere near us in terms of footballing ability or history or even trophies won. I think he would enjoy playing the last few years of his career in French football so I hope that a French team can tempt him back home.

I missed out on reporting the comments from Clichy over the weekend but what he seemed to be saying is that some players only join certain clubs for the maoney. I wonder if that was a dig at a certain big mouthed former team mate of his who is encouraging his new club to chase Kolo. As I said earlier I could take Kolo joining City if we reinvest the money along with the money from other sales. Speaking of Adebayor it was interesting to hear Sir Shit's His Pants A Lot saying that he had tried to get Manure & Chelsea to buy him after he had agreed terms with City. There was a delay of a few days as Adebayor supposedly considered how it would go down in Africa if their player of the year left one of the top clubs in the world to join Man City but the rumour at the time was taht he wanted Chelsea to buy him and this would give some backing to that rumour.

Finally for today we have a match tonight against a team called Szombathelyi H who I have never heard of before so I expect us to thump them before we play Hannover 96 on Wednesday. The kick off is at 6pm and it's live on the Arsenal TV online for any of you that have it. Eduardo should be playing tonight and I'll have my fingers crossed that everything goes well for him as I think we will really need his goal scoring ability this season. I'm sure we'll see some other players making their first appearence of pre season too. If you can't watch the game I'm sure you can follow it on Lady Arse's twitter which she tends to update on almost a shot by shot basis during matches.  

Here's Carlos Vela playing in the Gold Cup Final for Mexico.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from New Order. It comes from the faith we have to show in our boss at the moment as the new season draws closer.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

Three weeks from today we will all be at the heigth of our anticipation with the new season only a matter of hours away and the boring tedium of the off season will be banished for another 9 months. Until then we will just have to make do with the little bits of news that we can get and reports on pre season friendlies. Today is a day just like most of the others so far and there is very little happening. I will do my best to report what I can but it will have to be brief.

The boss has been talking about the international recession yet again and his belief that football is going to suffer as a result. He thinks that within 8 to 10 months football will suffer much more than people think. There are obvious exceptions to the current situation as Man City and Real Madrid seem to be exempt for their own reasons. It's interesting that Chelsea seem to be taking a back seat this summer as their owner has lost a fair deal of his vast fortune and they claim that they will be breaking even in the near future. Man City are loaded due to their owners having bottomless pockets and Madrid seem to be propped up by local authorities in Spain. If UEFA and or FIFA can get their house in order these clubs will have to get their books in order but that seems highly unlikely. If the manager's prediction comes true there could well be a number of fire sales as clubs try to clear their debts and I can't help but wonder if he is waiting for that scenario before he spends his money that he has available. There could well be a two tiered transfer market quite soon(if it doesn't exist already) wher players have a Real Madrid & Man City price and then another price if those clubs don't want the players. Wenger is a very shrewd operator but nobody can be sure how the markets(be they transfer ones or not) will go today, tomorrow or in the future.

We are still being linked with both Huntelaar and Chamakh but I don't think we will be signing either of them. It appears that Cana might just be a Sunderland player and he's one player we probably won't be signing. If it's true that his price is £5 million then it's obvious that our manager doesn't want him as that price is well within our range. A lot of Arsenal fans had wanted us to sign Cana and I'm sure they will be disappointed. I have only seen a montage of him on Youtube and I don't feel fully qualified to judge him but I would have to trust the manager's judgement on him.

Ex Gunner James Dunne who was released recently by the club has joined Exeter City. There are rumours linking Fiorentina with a bid of £10 million for Eboue and if it's true we should bite their hand off and add the money to our transfer fund. I know a lot of fans have come around to Eboue after his problems against Wigan last December and to be fair to him he has worked hard and put the effort in that Adebayor failed to do. I still think that his defensive abilities are poor, his concentration wanes and his temprement is a liability at the best of times. His diving and kicking of opponents have cost us in the past and they will again.

Carlos Vela came back from injury to play the last 10 minutes as Mexico won through to the Gold Cup final. He even managed to score the winning goal in the penalty shoot out and he put it away very calmly. Henri Lansbury scored a penalty to help earn England's under 19s a 2-2 draw Ukraine in the European Championships. Gavin Hoyte also played from the start and Rhys Murphy came on as a sub. Fran Merida played for Spain in a defeat against Serbia and both he and Lansbury are players who I hope will have a very bright future at the club. Lansbury has had his problems with injury in the past but he had a very successful loan spell at Scunthorpe last season and he has a lot to offer. Merida is another player who looks like he could have it all but because he hasn't stepped up to the first team at the same young age as Cesc some people are writing him off but he is still young and time is on his side. Well I've managed to babble on when I thought I had nothing to say so I'll leave it there for today.

Here's a clip of Eboue at his worst but at least it was Evra he was kicking.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from The Smiths. We have 3 weeks to the start of the season and all we can do is stretch out and wait.

LINK

See You Tomorrow. 

The list of fixtures to be televised live by Sky & ESPN up until the end of November has been published and Arsenal will be playing live on the TV 6 times in that period. Out of those 6 games we are away from home in 5 of them and the only home game is against The Spuds. The away games are against Everton, Manure, Fulham, West Ham & Wolves and it's fairly obvious from the choices made that the TV executives see us as a soft target away from home and they are hoping for an upset or 2. As I said a few days ago we have a tough start with 3 of our first 4 games away from home against tough opposition because our 2nd league match of the season, against Bolton, was cancelled due to our Champions league committments.

Our 1st game against Everton on Saturday August 15th has been put back to 5.15 pm and it will be live on ESPN. I just hope that the Strand hotel in Bray has subscribed to ESPN by then and I can join the other members of the supporters club in cheering on Arsenal with the aid of a drink or 2. The good news about so many games being televised away from home is that we will have the majority of our home games at the traditional kick off time of 3pm Saturday afternoon. As a result I will have to look into the possibility of getting over to watch my beloved Gunners on either Saturday September 19th against Wigan or Saturday October 17th against Birmingham. I purposely didn't go to Oxegen this weekend(well on Sunday anyway) to see The Specials as I have promised to make a trip to The Emirates as soon as possible to meet a few fellow Gooners and have a Shandy or 2 whilst watching our team. Missing The Specials is making me sick at the moment but I'll recover. It's made a little tougher by the fact that my 18 year old son left for the festival this morning with his mates for a great weekend. I shared a few drinks(including my litre of Sambuka) with them until the small hours last Friday night and they were all trying to talk me into buying a day pass for Sunday. To say I'm sorely tempted to join them is an understatement and I might still crack. The only thing to keep me on the straight and narrow is the thought of 60,000 people at The Emirates and the bars outside before and afterwards. It's a tough life having to make choices like that.

Back to things Arsenal and the majority of our pre season games will be on ATV on line but not on Arsenal TV. I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that Setanta are broadcasting Arsenal TV and they are almost extinct at this stage. Cliff Bastin and Frank McLintock will both be inducted to The National Football Museum Hall of Fame along with former Arsenal ladies player Marianne Spacey and 5 other greats of football. The induction takes place on Wednesday September 23rd in London. We are reported to be after Ever Banega of Valencia who is a holding midfielder as is Blaise Matuidi of St. Etienne who we are supposedly also interested in yet again. Leeds turned down offers from 2 Premier league clubs for Faian Delph and we are rumoured to be 1 of those clubs. He does fit the profile for a typical Arsenal signing so we can watch to see if things develop. It looks like Juventus have eventually tied up the signing of Felipe Melo from Fiorentina and as I said yesterday I don't think we were ever in the running at that price. That would appear to be it for today.

Here's a clip of what happened the last time we played at home to Wigan which is a game I might be going to this season. You might have to scroll down the page a little to see the highlights but it was an eventful game. In the highlights Arsenal look good but it was awful on the day. You can see Eboue tackling Kolo and getting booed off at the end. I was there and he deserved it in my opinion even though I didn't take part.

LINK

And to finish here's today's title track from The Smiths which comes from my intended destination in September or October.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

ps I've just checked out the price for flights to London for the Wigan game and it's €19 return. The bus to Oxegen is €20 and it takes longer. I think I made the right choice.

pps Don't forget to sign up to my Fantasy Premier League(s). All the details are in yesterday's blog.

It's Monday morning and the majority of the players should be back to start their pre season training this morning. There are a few obvious exceptions with Cesc, Theo & Kieran Gibbs all having just finished tournaments in the last week they will have a little while longer off and Vela is playing in the Gold Cup in the states which has just kicked off so we won't see him for a few weeks at least. I'm sure there will be a host of photos on the club site later today or tomorrow at the latest and I'll put a few of them in my photos. After that there's just 12 days to the first pre season friendly which is at Barnet as usual and then the countdown to the real thing will begin.

There are a lot of rumours out there about players coming to the club and going from the club. The rumours about Melo persist and the latest player rumoured to be offered to Fiorentina in part exchange is Senderos after Eboue was linked yesterday. I'm still not sure that we would be willing to offer €25 million for any player as it seems to go against what the boss stands for. There was also a story yesterday that the 25 would be off to Milan with us getting €20 million and Flamini as well. While I would love this to be true I don't think it's going to happen. I know the boss would be happy to see the back of the 25 but after the season he had is he worth that amount of money? As for Flamini he was fantastic for us in his last season but he never really showed that form before or after that and I wonder will he be able to recapture that form if he comes back to us.

With the new season just 40 days away now I've been looking at the league fixtures for next season and it would appear that we have a fairly tough start to our season. In our first 4 games we have trips to Everton, Manure & Man City with a home game against Portsmouth in there as well. If we are going to be contenders in the league we will get an idea early on as those 3 away games are going to be tough. We will also miss a game due to our Champions League qualifiers and if we don't hit the ground running we could be in a tight spot by mid September. It is crucial that we get any new players in as soon as possible and we don't have any more of the last minute transfer deals that we have had recently. A settled squad will have a much better chance of getting the good start that is essential for the confidence of the squad as a whole. So it's up to the boss and Gazidis to sort things out as soon as possible. That's the lot for today.

Here's a clip of Carlos Vela in action for us seeming as he is playing in the Gold Cup at the moment.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from Bob Marley & The Wailers which is for the players who are coming back to work today.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

It's Sunday morning and normal service has returned with another early post from me. In a strange twist we are reported to be in negotiations with Fiorentina for Felipe Melo who only extended his contract with them earlier this week. At the time they told the press that there was a get out clause in his contract which was set at €25 million and we are supposedly rumoured to be offering a fee plus Eboue which is approaching their valuation. I don't know what value they have put on Eboue but I would imagine it is a minimum of €10 million if Melo is worth €25 million. I wouldn't be at all worried if Eboue left as I think he is a bit of a headless chicken. However I would wonder who we would have as back up to Sagna but I suppose Kolo can do that job if he stays.

We are also rumoured to be interested in Blaise Matuidi of St. Etienne who has stated his desire to leave the French club. Another player we have appearently shown an interest in previously, Eden Hazard of Lille, has also let it be known that he would like to join us too. Elsewhere it has been reported that the 25 has decided to stay at The Emirates which may come as a surprise to the boss who seems prepared to sell him. The boss did say during the week that he will only be buying more players if anyone leaves but I don't think he would announce that he is in the market for players as he likes to play his cards close to his chest. It will be interesting to see how the situation with the 25 develops.

There isn't an awful lot else to talk about today and the club still haven't announced the contract extension for RVP. I think I'll have to give a little run down on the fixture list for the new season during the coming week as news seems very thin on the ground. Hopefully there will be a transfer or two to talk about as well. That's it for today.

Here's one fan's mini tribute to Jack Wilshere.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from New Model Army which is for all of the players who are trying to let Arsenal know that they are available.

LINK 

See You Tomorrow.