The real football returns today as Arsenal make a trip to Steve Bruce's Sunderland as we get our league campaign up and running again. With RVP & Gibbs injured we are at least able to welcome back Theo, Denilson, Traore, Wilshere & Vela and within the week we should have Fabianski, Diaby and Gibbs available too. As I said before it's going to leave the boss with a few headaches when it comes to team selection and a few players may not be happy at being omitted. I'm sure with 2 games a week from here until just before Christmas that most of the players will get a fair crack of the whip and it's up to them to grab their chance when they get it.

With that in mind I think the team for today will be Almunia, Sagna, Traore, Gallas, The Verminator, Song, Cesc, Rosicky, Arshavin, Nasri & Eduardo with Don Vito, Silvestre, Theo, Eboue, Ramsey, Vela & Denilson on the bench. I could be wrong and the 2 players most likely to get into the team from my suggested bench are Ramsey and Eboue with Silvestre also a posibility at left back. The boss has hinted that Sagna and Gallas may be rested after playing 120 minutes for France on Wednesday night and Arshavin may be rested too after a long journey and a bitter disappointment with his country. My team is what I see as the ideal team and I would hope if we rest our 2 French defenders that Silvestre will not replace either of them. I suppose Eboue and Senderos could play but I think it's dangerous to make so many changes in the defence.

Hopefully we can get right back into the rhythm that we were in before the international break and bring our game to Sunderland. We may have more injuries than most teams in the league but Sunderland will find it difficult without Jones and Cattermole in their team. Luckily for us Jones got himself a straight red card a couple of games ago and he's serving a 3 match ban and Cattermole is out injured. We will get to see exactly how good Cana is as we were heavily linked with him last summer but the boss decided that Song was the man for him in that position. Bent has been in good goalscoring form since he left The Spuds but he will find it harder without Jones to help him. If things aren't working out up front at least we have Vela and Theo on the bench to give us options.

There was an interesting stat on the club site about us not having scored a goal in the first 15 minutes of a game yet this season despite having scored 55 goals in 19 matches and an early goal today would be very welcome. Even if we don't get that early goal I think we have more than enough to beat Sunderland as long as we give the game everything we have and don't take them for granted. I'm predicting a 2-1 win for Arsenal with Eduardo and Cesc scoring the goals that help to keep the pressure on Chelsea before they visit The Emirates next Sunday. They are having injury problems of their own too with Lampard reportedly getting a bit of RVP style placenta fluid therapy for his injury. Drogba has a broken rib or 2 thanks to Johnny Evans too and I'd love to play them without those 2 players but we'll see if Drogba returns and Lampard seems certain to miss the game.

The match is live on the radio in Ireland but I imagine I will try to get a stream and watch the game live. I'll be checking Twitter before the game as I find there's no better place to find a stream and the chat among fellow Gooners during the game is always enjoyable. I won't be visiting the supporters club for the match either as it's not live on the TV as far as I know and I'm also going to miss the Champions league group game on Tuesday night as it's my 20th wedding anniversary. I will however get to meet up with all my fellow Wicklow Gunners for the Chelsea game and I'm really looking forward to it as I haven't been able to watch a game out there since the 4-1 win against AZ on November 4th.

In other Arsenal news the boss seems happy that the qualifiers for Euro 2012 can be played on Friday and Tuesday instead of Saturday and Wednesday and he thinks that it will catch on and give players 1 extra game to recouperate after their international committments. Wojceich Szczesny has joined Brentford on loan for a month which probably means that Don Vito will play against City in the Carling Cup unless the boss feels Fabianski needs a run out after his recovery from his injury which he received against Liverpool in the last round. Our ladies have drawn the holders FCR 2001 Duisburg of Germany in the quarter finals of the ladies Champions league and if they can win that very tough tie they will have Potsdam of Germany or Roa of Norway in the semi finals. The games will be played on March 10th and 17th and I wish the ladies good luck as they will need it.

Congratulations to Lady Arse who won a football signed by the first team squad on Arsenal TV last night and hopefully we'll get to see a picture of it when it's delivered. The boss has had his say on the whole Thierry Henry/France/Ireland affair and he thinks the game should be replayed to be fair to Ireland. I agree with him but I can't see it happening with FIFA in charge. Incidentally did anyone hear a single word about the whole thing from Platini yet? The boss has also called for the introduction of video technology to ensure that we don't get these ridiculous decisions in the future and again that's up to FIFA and they are dead set against it. That's it for today.

Here's the Arsenal fund raising day advert in case you haven't seen it.

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And to finish today's title track from The Clash. It's for Eduardo who has his chance today to answer the call up that he has wanted since his horriffic injury last season.

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See You Tomorrow.

The debate about Thierry Henry's handball against Ireland rages unabated here in Ireland but I'm going to leave it behind and talk about some really interesting football instead. The manager told us yesterday that Denilson, Fabianski, Vela and Traore are all available to play against Sunderland tomorrow and it means that we come out of the international break with more players available than when we went in for the first time that I can remember. Of course we have lost RVP for the next 6 weeks at least and that's a shame with the form he's been in but we are the top scorers in the league and the goals are coming from everywhere in the team. With Eduardo and Vela available to play this weekend we have enough firepower to beat Sunderland but I'll preview that game tomorrow. Theo, Diaby and Wilshere are all very close to returning also and the good news about Gibbs is that he has not broken any bones but he has brusing on his bones and soft tissue on his right foot. Gibbs has a chance of being ready for the Champions league game against Standard on Tuesday and he should definitely be ready for the Chelsea game the weekend after.

There were stupid rumours in the papers last week that Eduardo was on his way to Liverpool but they have been well and truly been put to bed as he has signed a new contract at the club which will keep him with us for a few more years at least. The boss has said how he is quite happy with the outcome of the injuries for RVP and Gibbs as when he first heard they were injured he feared they would be missing for a lot longer. With Traore available to cover for Gibbs we will still have 3 of our best defence available and that will make it easier on him if he does fill in at left back. In midfield we have a wealth of talent available and the manager will have to think long and hard about who he picks and who he puts on the bench as well. Some players are bound to be disappointed by any decisions that are made but that's why the boss is paid so much money.

Some of our players did very well with their countries over the last week or so and we will have quite a few players at the World cup next year. The French squad should include Gallas, Sagna, Clichy, Diaby and maybe Nasei too. Both Senderos and Djourou should be there with Switzerland Eboue will be there with the Ivory Coast as will Song with Cameroon. I'm sure Theo will be in the England squad and Gibbs is a possibility too but I think Wilshere is very much an outside bet at this stage. Cesc is an absolute certainty for Spain and Vela, Bendtner and RVP will be there with Mexico, Denmark and Holland respectively. That's a total of 15 players at the very most who will be getting very short holidays next summer. Let's hope it doesn't affect us too much next season. In addition a number of our players scored for their countries during the last week. Ramsey got 1 against Scotland for Wales as he ran the show in a 3-0 friendly win, Eboue scored 1 of the Ivory Coast's goals in a 2-2 draw away to Germany, The Verminator managed a goal as Belgium beat Hungary 3-0, Eduardo scored 2 as Croatia beat Liechtenstein 5-0, Gallas scored the all important goal that qualified France for the World Cup against Ireland and of course Cesc scored for Spain in a 5-1 win in Austria. Our players just seem to love scoring at the moment although we have not scored a goal in the first 15 minutes of any match yet this season despite having scored 55 goals in 19 matches. That is sure to be remedyed very soon and hopefully it will be this week. With 9 matches in 29 days between now and Christmas week we can expect an awful lot to report and talk about.

I have the day off work and all next week too but I have made myself available for an hour and a half of work at 5.30 this evening that is very near to my home and the same again at 6 on Sunday evening. With football at 7.30 tonight I'll be in a hurry to get there on time but as we will be playing for 90 minutes I can live with starting a few minutes late. The Arsenal match is live on the radio tomorrow here in Ireland but as of yet I don't know if it's on the TV so I'm not sure what my plans are at 3 tomorrow afternoon. If I can't watch the game I think I'll listen in and spend the duration on Twitter too. I'm part of a fairly big Arsenal community on Twitter and news and reports come thick and fast. The goals from a game are usually available to see pretty quickly and it's always a good place to get a stream for live matches. The link to my Tweets are in the side bar and if you're new to it just send me a Tweet and I'll try to hook you up with fellow Gooners. Well that's about it for today and with our season back in full swing tomorrow things are looking up again.

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

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And to finish today's title track from Bob Marley and The Wailers. There is a poitive vibration about the club after an international break for a change despite the RVP injury.

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See You Tomorrow.

Yet another late blog today due to circumstances beyond my control yet again but as I have no work after today until Monday November 30th normal service should be resumed. I blame it all on Thierry Henry as after playing football last night I made my way home to watch the last hour of the France v Ireland World cup play off and I was delighted to hear Ireland score the goal that put them back in the tie just before I got out of my car. At half time I put on a home made pizza and quickly started downing a few bottles of Heineken to help me to ease the tension. Ireland completely outplayed France for most of the match and when they didn't take subsuquent chances that came their way I was worried. The game went into extra time and penalties loomed in half an hours time before the intervention of Henry in the first period of extra time. A high ball into the Irish box should have been cleared but it wasn't and as it was about to go wide Henry handled it twice before poking it back across the goal for Gallas to head into an empty net. If Eduardo was on a charge of purposely deceiving the referee for his supposed dive then Henry will have to be charged too but I won't be holding my breath. Apparently he even admitted it afterwards but still I don't expect FIFA or UEFA to act on his admission. It's a shame that a player I consider to be Arsenal's greatest player ever has sullied his good name by doing this and as a result the benefits for his country as it guarenteed qualification for the World Cup.

In Arsenal news Eduardo signed a new long term contract yesterday and I think that shows that the boss believes that he is over his injury troubles with his leg. I think he's a fantastic goalscorer and I'm delighted he has signed on for a few more years. Arshavin will have the summer off as Russia were beaten in their play off by Slovenia and Eboue managed to score for Ivory Coast in a 2-2 friendly draw against Germany. Cesc also managed to score a goal as Spain won 5-1 in Austria despite going 1-0 down. All of our players will be back at the club today and/or tomorrow and we will know then how we stand as regards injuries and fitness but there was some good news yesterday as the club announced that Gibbs has not broken any bones in his foot but he does have briusing to the bones and soft tissue in his right foot. If it was me I would be able to play with my left foot in that condition as it's only for standing on seeming as I'm right footed.

There isn't a whole lot of other Arsenal news today as we wait for those players to return but over here in Ireland the only football topic of conversation on the TV, Radio, in the streets and in the workplace is Henry and his apology on Twitter where he apparently said that if he hurt anyone he's "sorry". We have government ministers attempting to get the match replayed and Henry has become public enemy number 1 with the majority of the 4 million inhabitants of the Republic. I could have taken a defeat if it was deserved but to have it taken from you by foul means is a bitter pill to swallow. I have removed Henry from my list of favourite players on Oleole and it will be a long time before I forgive him. If France believe in fair play they should offer to replay the match and the main instigator behind it should be Platini. Let's see what he's really made of - as if we didn't know already. That's it for today but it should be back to all things Arsenal tomorrow.

Here's a look at Henry's handball.

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And to finish today's title track from The Clash and it expresses how we as a nation feel for Thierry Henry.

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See You Tomorrow.

The news on RVP's injury is a little more encouraging than I had first feared and according to the club he will be out for 6 weeks but we have heard that before about other players who have ended up missing for a lot longer. It does appear that the player himself has taken some advice from the Dutch FA and he will be making a trip to Serbia for a radical new treatment that involves massaging the injured ankle with fluid from a placenta. Apparently this method was used by PSV striker Danko Lazovic on a similar injury last season and it helped him to return aftera month which sounds hopeful but a little disgusting too. The player supposedly has the blessing of the club in this venture as it can't make it any worse I would imagine. RVP said that the ankle ligament was almost completely torn off when Chiellini caught him but it was not intentional and to be honest it didn't look intentional to me when I saw it. He is sure to miss the league games with Chelsea and Liverpool and with Bendtner out too the limelight will be focussing on Eduardo. From a purely selfish perspective I will have to find a replacement for RVP in my fantasy team and it's a shame as he was getting very close to Drogba in the race for the striker with the most points and helping me make my way up the overall rankings.

It would appear that RVP is again the only worthwhile Arsenal news with the exception of the ladies team who kept up their 100% start to the season by beating Sunderland 5-1 for their 13th win this season on Saturday. I can't wait for the interlull to end as the lack of anything worthwhile to write about is doing my head in. I could mention Mark Randall talking about the reserves chances of winning their league or Arshavin talking about how he is finding it hard to settle in London but what's the point as they're only filler stories while we wait for the real football to start back up on Saturday. Hopefully things will pick up fairly quickly after tomorrow night's games and we will soon know if all our other players come back intact. Keep your fingers crossed that we have no more injuries. That's it for today.

Here's a quick look at Croatia's 5-0 win over Liechtenstein with goals 3 and 4 coming from Eduardo.

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And to finish today's title track from The Specials which I recorded at their Dublin concert on Sunday night. The challenge on RVP may have been a fair one but it doesn't make it alright for me and I hope Chiellini gets his come uppence soon.

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See You Tomorrow.

The Spuds came calling yesterday with their claims of being the North London team on the up and by the end of the game the difference in class between the teams was there for all to see. I spoke yesterday about how good Cesc, Arshavin and RVP were and how The Spuds had nobody to match them and by the end of the game that was evident too. RVP was excellent and so was Cesc and even though things didn't quite work out for Arshavin he gave it everything he had. To be honest the 3-0 score line flattered The Spuds and they could have got a real hammering. Our unbeaten league run against them now stretches to 20 games and 10 years and the bragging rights belong to all Gooners yet again.

I arrived at the supporters club in Bray about 10 minutes before kick off and the first thing I heard was that we had drawn Man City away from home in the last 8 of the Carling Cup with the game to be played on December 1st or 2nd. I then found out the team that had been selected and it was as I had predicted with the exception of Bendtner playing wide right. It looked a strong enough team and with Defoe and Lennon missing for them my only worry was the threat posed by Crouch. To be honest our defence dealt with him fairly well and he never really got a free header in on goal in the whole game. The only time we looked vulnerable was when he laid the ball off for Keane or any of their midfielders coming forward but all in all besides a few crosses to claim Almunia had very little to do on his return to first team duty.

We started brightly and after less than 5 minutes Bentley deliberately handled the ball in our half to stop us breaking but the referee decided to ignore the rule book and didn't even bother to lecture him never mind show him a yellow card. Only a few minutes later he came in late on The Verminator and caught him right on the shin. By the laws of the game he should have being taking an early shower as it was clearly another yellow card offence but the referee again chose not to issue a card. Even Andy Gray agreed that Bentley was a lucky man to be still on the pitch. At that stage we all agreed that the most likely player to be booked first would be wearing red as the referee clearly didn't want to book anyone too early in the game because he would have had to issue a yellow card for almost anything after that.

We had our chances in the first half and the best of them fell to Cesc when his shot from inside the box was very well saved by Gomes to keep the scores level as halftime approached. The game seemed to be petering out in that first half until we won a throw on our right about 10 yards from their goal line. Sagna threw it to Cesc and he passed it straight back to Sagna who stopped the ball and dispatched a cross towards the near post. It looked to be going nowhere but RVP gave it all he had to beat his man to the ball at the near post and Gomes seemed to be surprised at the shot coming in and was beaten at his near post despite getting a hand to it. The stadium went mad and we were all pretty happy in The Strand too as we looked to be heading to half time with a 1 goal lead that didn't appear likely only moments earlier. 

As we watched the the replays of the first goal again and again on the TV the camera suddenly switched to Cesc as he buried the ball in the keeper's right hand corner of the net and after a slight pause we realised that we were 2-0 up as we had scored straight from their kick off. A misplaced Spud pass hit RVP on the knee I think and rebounded to Cesc in the centre circle and he proceded to run straight at them and beat 3 players before sticking the ball in the corner of the net from 18 yards out. Half time came soon afterwards and we found ourselves with the same lead we had at West Ham last week and we knew that we could only beat ourselves at this stage.

A short while before we scored the first goal Bendtner signalled to the bench that he had to go off as he had what appeared to be a groin injury and we were treated to the bizzare sight of him attempting to run around the pitch for what seemed like at least 3 minutes as the ball stayed in play. Why he didn't go down and demand treatment or to be helped off I don't know and we were lucky at one stage that we didn't pay the price for it. Corluka had not got forward at all but it was blatantly obvious that if he did Bendtner could not track back so he obviously pushed forward. As he ran past him Bendtner called Clichy to cover the run as he couldn't but nobody did and we were only saved because The Verminator did very well to intercept Corluka's cross. It was very unprofessional of Arsenal to allow that situation to develop with a player clearly injured and Bendtner should have gone down or we should have put the ball out when we had the chance. Thankfully we didn't pay the price and hopefully we will learn a lesson from it.

At half time I commented on how Eduardo had changed the game when he came on but he hadn't had any part in either goal at all. I did think that the second half was ideally set up for a player like him who could time his runs to perfection behind a defence that was pushing forward to try to get back in the game. A little while later I was proved right as Diaby played a lovely ball through for him and I was certain he would score as he was 1 on 1 with the keeper but he got it just wrong and the keeper just about stopped it. We did manage to get a 3rd goal when Eduardo broke down the left and he was scythed down by one of their players. As we all waited for the referee to blow for the free with the linesman flagging he in fact waved played on and even though Sagna stopped he still had the ball when he realised that the game was still going on. As the Spud players had stopped too he crossed it along the goal 6 yards out it seemed that the keeper and defender had it covered but it somehow squeezed between them and there was RVP to tap in his second and our third.

After that it was just a matter of how many and when Cesc played Eduardo in again he ran with the ball from the half way line and approached the keeper who had left his box. When he placed his shot we were certain that it was going to be 4-0 but inexplicably it went wide and the scoreline stayed the same. We saw out the rest of the game with ease and our 3rd clean sheet of the season was a welcome extra to the game. The manager got very frustrated when we were 3 up and he said afterwards it was because he couldn't communicate properly with his players and he felt it was very important for us to get the clean sheet. He's right in that because after letting our lead slip against West Ham and AZ it was important to defend properly and keep that clean sheet. We moved up to 2nd in the table until Manure and Chelsea got their wins later but with Liverpool losing again and Villa drawing we are putting ourselves further ahead of the pursuing pack whilst keeping up with the pace setters. All in all it was a great day and a nd showed The Spuds that they have a long long way to go to reach our level.

Here's the goals from yesterday.

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And to finish here's today's title track from The Wedding Present which is for Robbie Keane because everyone thinks he looks daft after his claims about how good The Spuds are this week.

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See You Tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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See You Tomorrow.

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.

It's Saturday morning again and Arsenal have a game today for a change. Birmingham travel to The Emirates this afternoon for a 3pm kick off and the game evokes a lot of memories of the last time we played them. On that day at the end of February 2008 we were on top of the league as we travelled to St. Andrews looking to extend that lead against a team struggling to avoid relegation. We all know what happened to Eduardo that afternoon and the tantrum Gallas had when Clichy gave away the penalty is well documented too. What other people forget but we Gooners vividly remember is that we should have had a penalty when we were 2-1 up and that Clichy actually got the ball when the referee awarded a penalty against him in the last minute. We followed that game with only 1 win in our next 7 league games even though we managed to knock AC Milan out of the Champions league in the middle of it all. With the league gone we managed to win our last 4 games and we finished 4 points off the top if I remember correctly.

In injury news it appears that Almunia is finally back from his "chest infection" and Diaby is available to play after all but we are without Clichy, Bendtner, Eduardo, Nasri, Djourou, Denilson and Vela will be back too late from international duty to play. That's 7 players missing but to be honest we can cope without all of them against Birmingham in my opinion. The big question is if Almunia will come back into the team or if Don Vito will keep his place and the manager is the only one who knows the answer to that question. I think Don Vito deserves to keep his place but if the boss doesn't put Almunia in he will then have to wait for Don Vito to have a stinker before he can replace him. There is a definite pecking order at the club and I expect that Almunia will start but maybe the fact that we have won every game he missed will make him realise that his position is not secure. We have a good replacement for Clichy in Gibbs and many fans feel that he should have had a chance already this season as Clichy's form has not been great.

My guess at the starting line up is Almunia, Gibbs, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Song, Cesc, Rosicky, Arshavin, RVP & Theo although Eboue and/or Diaby may well also start. Our formation will be 4-3-3 of course and so long as we go about the game in the right way we should dispatch Birmingham and put them in more trouble near the foot of the table. I predict a 3-0 win for us with the goals coming from RVP, Arshavin & Theo and if we don't let up over the 90 minutes it could be even more. Goals are coming from all over the pitch as we play a brand of football that is very pleasing to the eye but is also producing results for us.

In other news our postponed home league match at home against Bolton has been provisionally rearranged for Wednesday 2nd December which is a very important date in my calender as it's my birthday. It depends on whether both teams have been knocked out of the Carling Cup or not as that is also the week for Carling Cup 5th round matches. The boss has revealed that Sol Campbell has being training with us as he looks to regain his fitness but he said it is only for that reason. I can't say I'm too happy about it after we released him to let him join a team on the continent and he joined Portsmouth instead. Never mind the fact that he walked out on his team mates at half time in a league match against West Ham. The boss has said that he thinks referees should keep their distance from players and managers and he refused to be drawn on whether Manure's manager should be punished for his outburst after their game against Sunderland. He did say that he wants all managers to be treated the same if they have something to say in the heat of the moment after a game and he doesn't think Manure's manager would want to be treated differently. I'm sure he must have said that tongue in cheek as we all know he not only expects favouritism but he also receives it. That's it for today.

Here's a clip of The Verminator's goals for us so far.

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And to finish today's title track from New Model Army. It's time for our players to get some vengance for February 23rd 2008 but in the form of a good hiding for Birmingham.

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See You Tomorrow.

There was an awful lot written yesterday about the 13 years the boss has been in charge at Arsenal and most of it was very complimentary but there were  a few people out there who couldn't resist having a go. I was on Twitter last night and somebody linked an article about Arsenal and when I opened it I found it was by Myles Palmer on Arsenal News Review. It's a site I used to quite enjoy reading even if I didn't always agree with his opinions but somewhere around a year or so ago he appeared to lose the plot and now I don't even consider reading what he has to say. It was actually amusing to see how anti Wenger he appears to have become and I now know that I have missed absolutely nothing of any interest whatsoever.

Ahead of our match with Blackburn on Sunday we found out yesterday that Theo and Bendtner will both be available again but Eduardo has had a slight recurrance of his thigh muscle injury and he will be out for a couple of weeks. He was risked when he came on as a sub on Tuesday night and that risk backfired although he did create the opening goal so it may well have paid off in fact. I wonder will he be available for his country over the next 2 weeks as we face another international break. Ahead of that break the boss said that we should see both Nasri and Fabianski very soon afterwards and that's very good news indeed. Almunia will be assessed today but the boss doesn't think he will be quite ready to face Blackburn and we should see him after the break again. Can somebody please tell me what was wrong with him as I have heard he had a chest infection among other things. I think 3 weeks is a very long time for a player to be out with a chest infection although I do realise that Arsenal players seem to recover slower than players at other clubs.

I'm sure the boss will have a lot to say today about our match on Sunday and our opponents too. If I recall correctly we have beaten them quite easily in recent seasons and of course it's always nice to put a few more goals past ex Spud Paul Robinson. I think he has conceded something like 450 goals against us in his career so far and long may it continue. It would be nice to give Big Fat Sam another stuffing too but luckly we won't have a game for 2 weeks afterwards as our players are bound to be kicked up and down the pitch and the standard of refereeing this season has been awful in the Premier league.

Thierry Henry said yesterday that he still loves Arsenal and he will come back one day as he feels he belongs with us. He would like to return to work with the boss and I'm sure all of us fans would love to see him back too although I'm not quite sure what role he would fill. A team mate of his at Barcelona, Xavi, has said that he would love Cesc to join him over there as he is a footballer with Barcelona DNA. They didn't think that when they let his contract run out in 2003 before he joined us and in my opinion the DNA here stands for "do not appreciate" as in we do not appreciate their continued statements about our captain. With all the money we have available(it must be at least £70 million) we should start asking about their players just to give them a taste of their own medicine.

Henry could show any player how to act towards a previous club and speaking of which it emerged yesterday that he who shall remain nameless got a 2 game suspended ban and a £25,000 fine for his goal celebration atgainst us last month. I hope that's the end of it but I suspect we might hear a bit more from his big mouth prior to their trip to The Emirates in April. That's the lot for today and I'll preview the Blackburn tomorrow I suppose or maybe even on Sunday. By the way I have just realised that we have 5 games in 15 days after the international break and that certainly will keep things busy here.

Here's a clip of 1 of my favourite moments under Arsene Wenger as Leahmann saved a last minute penalty against Villarreal to put us into the CL final in 2006.

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And to finish today's title track from New Model Army. As the saying goes "No pain, No gain" and we have certainly had the pain with all the injuries so it's time for the gain now.

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See You Tomorrow.