We have officially entered the interlull and for the next 11 days the amount of club football news available will be at a premium as we all search for a few scraps of information on our beloved Arsenal to report. I will attempt to make this time as interesting as possible for anyone brave enough to keep reading as I run through our season so far and all the current standings in the fantasy football. I'll also keep an eye on our players as they ply their trade for their countries and we all hope that they come back in 1 piece.

Speaking of our players we have 15 of them away on international duty although only 5 of those players have truly competitive games to play as they attempt to qualify for the World cup. The other 10 have friendlies or in the case of Eboue they are playing a qualifier having already made it to the finals. If it wasn't for our glut of injuries we would have a lot more players away this week but I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Anyway it would seem that Wacott, Wilshere & Fabianski will be back when the interlull is over and Denilson and Clichy should follow soon afterwards. Bendtner however looks like he will have to have an operation on his groin injury and the length of his absence isn't certain yet. I can't find anything telling me how long Vela will be out and he isn't reported as being away with his country on the club site either. Is it just me or is he fast becoming the forgotten man at Arsenal.

Our captain has spoken about the players' fear of our fantastic goalscoring run coming to an end at some stage and he says that the fear of that is what is keeping the players focussed as they know they must keep it up to win the title that they want. A lot has been made of all the goals we're scoring at the moment and how they are being shared around the team. It is great that we have a threat from almost any player in the team(with the possible exception of the goalkeeper and the full backs) and it makes it harder for our opponents to defend against us. No team has ever scored 100 Premier league goals since it's inception in 1992 but at our current rate we will blow that completely away. However as our captain says that could dry up as it did last winter when we had that terrible run of 0-0 draws in a row but we were missing him at the time and playing without any confidence.

There's plenty of talk about Darren Fletcher saying that our boss has made him a marked man by referees and his manager is again blaming referees on their defeat to Chelsea. It's funny that Manure are a little upset by losing 2nd spot in the league to us and in my opinion Fletcher is getting what he deserves. How he ever got away with the challenge on Arshavin at Old Trafford without giving away a penalty is still a mystery to me and I'm sure any referee who saw it will have taken note of it and also his miopic manager claiming it was a fair tackle afterwards. They may have had some decisions go against them recently but these things tend to balance out over a season and we haven't had a penalty, that I know of, since Eduardo's "dive" against Celtic but I don't hear our manager complaining. As long as Manure continue to fade we will hear more and more from their manager complaining about all and sundry. Long may it continue. That's it for today.

Here's a little bit of our Russian maestro.

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And to finish today's title track from The Cure. No matter how many goals we score it's never enough as I always want more.

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See You Tomorrow.

It's Monday morning again and unfortunately the weekend is over yet again. As the mornings get darker and the nights get longer the thing that can cheer us all up is the form of our favourite football team. Luckily I'm an Arsenal supporter and we are playing the sort of football at the moment that would cheer up anybody watching it. That's the good news but the bad news is that after tonight's game between Liverpool and Birmingham the dreaded interlull returns for almost a fortnight and we will find ourselves with very little Arsenal news to report. During that time I'll try to keep an eye on the Arsenal players as they play for their countries and give my own particular twist on any news that there is. I'll also have a look at the fantasy football and see how I'm doing in all the Oleole leagues that I've set up and others too.

Having missed most of the football over the weekend I managed to play catch up last night and see all the goals on MOTD 2 as we ran out handsome winners over Wolves on Saturday to move us up to what turned out to be a second place we kept as Chelsea beat Manure yesterday. There was very little mention made of us overtaking Manure for 2nd spot with a game in hand but I would expect no more fron the BBC. I did notice in the highlights of The Spuds v Sunderland game that Darren Bent won a penalty when he was caught by the keeper but it turned out that he was on the way down before there was any contact and the commentator said that The Spuds were hard done by. It looked quite similar to how Shrek won his penalty against us at Old Trafford but if I remember on that occasion Shrek was "very intelligent" in what he did unlike Bent who of course is not a current England international. I also wonder if poor old Drogba will get his yellow card recinded after he was booked for diving against Manure. Karma is a strange thing and it was funny to see his reaction to being the sinned against for a change. I also wonder will the Manure player who purposely kicked him in the chest get his just deserts from the FA. The challenge was very similar to the one which earned Eboue a red card against Manure at Old Trafford a couple of seasons ago and if there's any consistency from the FA Evans(I think it was him) will get a 3 game ban from the FA. Knowing what the FA are like I would imagine that he will get off scot free for fear of offending their manager.

Our performance against Wolves on Saturday wasn't the greatest but the fact that we ran out 4-1 winners was a testament to how our attitude seems to be a bit better recently. The manager picked the defence I expected him to pick and he also had the expected choices of Cesc, RVP & Arshavin in the team but I was surprised to see Diaby play the role that Song has made his own this season in defensive midfield. I can only imagine that it was the boss trying to see if Diaby can fill that role when Song is away on ACN duty early in 2010. With Ramsey eventually getting a start in midfield the other attacking spot was taken by Eduardo.

From what I have seen and read it would appear that we were under the cosh early on as Diaby showed that he's not as adept as Song at playing in the defensive midfield role. However Diaby got injured after 24 minutes and he was replaced by Song which immediatly gave the team more balance. Not long afterwards we took the lead when a corner from Cesc was deflected into the Wolves net by a defender under pressure from Eduardo for an own goal to put us 1-0 up. Seven minutes later it was 2-0 couttesy of another own goal from Wolves as we broke quickly. Ramsey played a ball just behind Eduardo and as he attempted a return pass it was deflected home by 1 of their defenders to give us a comfortable lead as half time approached. At that stage I was standing in the supporters club in Bray as I sneaked out of the wedding I was at between courses. Unfortunately I only stayed a couple of minutes which meant that I missed Cesc's goal on the stroke of half time which gave us a commanding lead.

The move that led to Cesc's goal was a thing of beauty as Cesc played the ball to Sagna in our half and then continued to move quickly forward. When Sagna played the ball in to the feet of RVP he immediatly laid it off to the unrushing Cesc and Cesc managed to finish easily from close in with only the keeper to beat. It was halfway through the second half when Arshavin added the 4th and final goal, for us, of the afternoon when a corner was cleared out to him and he volleyed it through  a sea of legs and into the bottom corner. In the last minute we managed to concede our usual goal with a header from a corner but the result was no longer in doubt at that stage.  With 55 goals to our name so far this season we are certainly guilty of playing some very attractive football and we are a joy to watch in my opinion.

The boss was happy with the result and he said that he rested Song but as I said earlier I think he was experimrnting and he may not like the outcome of the experiment. He thought that after the early part of the game we dominated procedings and we could have had more goals if our finishing was a bit better. It was a good result and with Chelsea to come to The Emirates soon after the interlull we find ourselves in a position where we can genuinely challenge for the title. The feeling among Arsenal fans is that this could well be our season to regain our league title after a gap of what will be 6 years next summer. I'm still in the "hoping we can sustain" our challenge camp but if we don't I certainly won't be saying I told you so. Our youth team managed a 6-0 win on Saturday morning at home to Charlton with Deacon(2), Freeman(2), Henderson & Yennaris scoring the goals to keep them on top of the league. Our ladies managed a 3-2 win at Chelsea yesterday to remain unbeaten in all copmpetitions so far this season.  I'll leave it there for today as I have a lot of reading to do to catch up on all the blogs I've missed in the last 2 days.

Here's the highlights from Saturday again.

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And to finish today's title track from Gregory Isaacs. I may be too late with my match review but I think my excuse is acceptable.

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See You Tomorrow.

RVP reckons the players are having fun at the moment and who can blame them as they have won all 10 home games this season and 4 of their 8 away games as well. When I think about it that means I have got my prediction about Arsenal's games right 14 out of 18 times this season as any regular readers will know that I always forecast an Arsenal win. In fact we should have won our 2 drawn away games and possibly our 2 lost games as well but that's water under the bridge and I'm drifting away from all the fun the players are having. It's obvious that they are enjoying their football at the moment as the goals are coming thick and fast and only Notts County can match our haul in league goals in England and they have played 5 goals more. Besides the goals though we are also playing some beautiful football and the so called experts are changing their minds about our chances of winning a trophy at a rate of knots.

We all know how fickle these so called experts are and when I hear Eamonn Dunphy on Irish television saying that we are better than Barcelona and we will win the Champions league I realise how stupid they are too. I'm not saying we won't win it but there's a long way to go and anything can happen between now and Saturday May 22nd when the final is played. There are bound to be disappointments between now and then and the strength of the team will be judged on how we react to those disappointments in my opinion. We bounced back from our defeats in Manchester with 6 wins in a row and after our slight dip with the successive draws we easily beat The Spuds and then played exceptionally well against AZ on Wednesday night. 

The boss has spoken about how good Cesc is and how good he can become too. At only 22 years of age there is not a better player in English football at the moment and he has just won the PFA player of the month for October. The boss believes there is a lot more to come from him as long as he keeps the attitude that he has now. I know that means that Barcelona will be sniffing around more than ever and in his present form he's better than Iniesta and Xavi so let's hope that he can realise all of his footballing desires at Arsenal. He also said that the Merida deal is ready to be signed and there is a verbal agreement with the player but certain clubs are trying to destabilise him as they know he is on a free transfer in the summer and he can agree a move in January. He also said that he is not tempted to rotate his centre backs which is good news as it keeps Silvestre out of the team. The understanding that Gallas and The Verminator have developed is very good and the boss realises how important it is to keep them together. The only thing that will break up the partnership is injury or suspension but let's hope that neither thing happens.

Yesterday Stan Kroenke increased his stake in the club to 29.9% and he only needs 0.09% more before he has to make a bid for all the other shareholders' stakes but I don't thik they're obligated to sell unless his stake reaches a fairly high percentage. Peter Hill-Wood sold him 100 of the 200 shares he bought which shows the current board are happy with the possibility of him taking control of the club. As it approaches I find myself not too sure if it is the right thing for the club but I do think it is the lesser of 2 evils with Usmanov as the option that I would not like to see anywhere near the club. I just hope if Kroenke takes over that he doesn't do what the Glaziers did at Manure and basically use the club as a tool to buy itself and leave him with no debt and the club with a huge debt. The rumours are that he doesn't intend taking over just yet but it does look like it's a matter of when and not if any longer.

Here's Cesc's goal against The Spuds last Saturday again and he certainly seemed to be having fun.

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And to finish here's today's title track from The Fun Boy Three. According to RVP the players are having all the fun. As a dedicated life long fan I'm enjoying it too.

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See You Tomorrow.

The hoodoo that Koeman held over us was well and truly despatched last night as we beat AZ 4-1 at The Emirates to put ourselves on the cusp of qualification for the last 16 of the Champions league. With Liege beating Olympiacos we have not quite qualified as both of those teams can still theoretically overhaul us if results go their way. However with both of them having to beat us the chances of that are minimal to say the least. The next game for us in the Champions league is at home to Liege on November 24th and if we beat them we will win the group which is supposed to make our draw in the last 16 a little easier but you never know who will be the runners up in the other groups with the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan & AC Milan all possibilities. One thing is for sure though and that is that I won't get to see the game as it's on my 20th wedding anniversary and if I go out to watch the game I won't reach the 21st.

The game itself was easier than I thought it would be and despite pulling a goal back late on AZ never really gave us too much trouble. The boss played Eboue at right back again as he has in 3 of our 4 group matches now and Nasri came back into the first team after his long injury lay off. With Gibbs in for the injured Clichy as well it showed the quality that we have in reserve as Sagna, Eduardo, Ramsey & Rosicky were all on the bench and we still have a long list of players out injured. Our first goal came when Gallas got forward and layed the ball off to Cesc who came back inside and put his shot between the defender's legs and it beat the keeper at the near post as he seemed unsighted. Then just before half time Arshavin played a lovely ball to Nasri outside the box and he turned his man before advancing and finishing it off beautifully. That left Koeman's side in a lot of trouble at half time as they had to try to play.

The second half started as the first half finished with Arsenal dominating again and AZ trying to hump the ball into our box at every oppurtunity. It wasn't long before the 3rd goal came and it was Cesc who got it again as he was played in on the left by Arshavin and feigned to shoot to the far post but instead buried at the near post as the keeper went the other way. We were now cruising and my 3-0 prediction looked like it would be left far behind. The boss took Cesc and RVP off to rest them with 25 minutes left and replaced them with Ramsey and Eduardo which gave the 2 of them a longer run out than usual. Not too long afterwards we got our 4th as the ball was played to Eduardo on the half way line and he back heeled it into the path of the running Arshavin who brought it to the edge of the box and laid it off for the advancing Diaby. He took it under control and finished well with only the keeper to beat.

At that stage it looked like any score might be possible but we weren't to score again and in fact AZ even managed to pull a goal back. We had a corner and when the ball dropped in the box an AZ player appeared to handle it but the referee played on and they broke quickly. Gibbs lost out on the half way line as he challenged his man and as he broke forward Ramsey couldn't tackle him without risking a red card. As he closed in on the box a far post shot seemed his best option and it seems Almunia thought so too as he got his feet wrong and was beaten at the near post without actually moving for the shot. Somehow we had managed to get caught on the break when we were 4-0 up but in the great scheme of things it didn't matter. Almunia did manage a very good save when the score was 3-0 as he reacted quickly to turn a point blank shot on to the bar and besides the goal he did have a good game.

I only managed to catch the second half live as I was playing football myself and I made my way out to the supporters club in Bray for that second half to watch it in the company of some fellow Gooners. I had my Arsenal jersey on and underneath it I had my new t-shirt that I received in the post when I got home from work yesterday. It's a Lady Arse special and she was good enough to send me a programme from the Spuds match on Saturday with it. I'll be putting a photo of me in the t-shirt in my gallery and I have to say that it was well worth the money. She has loads more designs and it's well worth checking them out. Here's what the t-shirt looks like.

After the game the boss said he was delighted with a brilliant victory and he talked up the quality of our players and our attacking options that are available. He gave a lot of praise to Arshavin and when asked about him and The Verminator he said that our policy is to develop our own players and add players of special quality and those 2 are good examples of that. Speaking after the game Cesc said that we are not definitely through yet and even if we were we would still go for a win in each of our last 2 matches. He said it's too early for trophies to be handed out no matter how well we are playing and he will feel it is something special when we win something. That's what we want to hear from our captain and star player and if he continues to play like he is at the moment and with that attitude we might just get 1 of those trophies that we crave. We have already passed the 50 goal mark for the season with only 18 games played and we have done that without ever having had all of our players available to choose from. Finally for today our ladies won 3-0 away to Sparta Prague in the first leg of their last 16 Ladies Champions league game and the return game is next Wednesday night.

Here's the highlights from last night.

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And to finish today's title track from UB40. Little by little the experts are starting to think we have achance this season after they all wrote us off initially.

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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See You Tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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See You Tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

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

Here's a little bit of Ramsey and Wilshere.

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

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See You Tomorrow.

Despite never being really too troubled for almost the entire match last night we managed to throw away a 1-0 lead in the last minute and snatch a draw from the arms of victory. In the long run it shouldn't make a difference to our qualification from the group with 2 home games coming next and Olympiacos as our only real challengers for top spot in the group. They managed a late winner last night to keep their 100% home record in the group and luckily for us we shouldn't need anything from our trip to Greece in December. You could always argue that we should have had a penalty only a few minutes before AZ scored as Vela was clearly taken down in the box but the referee chose not to give it despite being perfectly placed to see it.

Last night's game was never really a classic encounter but we were in control for almost the entire night and AZ showed very little for a home side in the Champions League. Our lead came when Arshavin pressurised a defender into a mistake and Arshavin then played the ball to RVP as he ran into a goal scoring position but he unselfishly squared it to Cesc to roll into an open goal. We had chances before and after that despite never really clicking on the night but we paid the price for not taking them at the death. AZ managed to get up a head of steam of sorts and when our centre forward, Arshavin, was caught offside they pumped a long ball into the box. It was headed back across goal by a player who should have been challenged by Diaby but wasn't and as our players had all switched off their player finished very well on the volley to send their fans into ecstacy. They had a couple of chances before that and I did get the feeling that their goal was coming as the clock ticked on, particularly when Vela didn't get his obvious penalty.

It means our 7 game winning streak has come to an end but at least it wasn't ended by a defeat and it's a perfectly acceptable result in the great scheme of things despite feeling like a defeat at first due to the time of the goal. Things could be a lot worse and we just have to look at Liverpool to see how bad they could be. After their home defeat to Lyon last night they need to get a result in the away game to them in 2 weeks or they or as good as out of the Champions league. Their fans are fed up with the manager's style of football and they only tolerated it when it was bringing success but after their worst run of defeats in something like 22 years the natives are getting restless. With Manure as their next league match on Sunday things could possibly get even worse althoough if Liverpool do get a result it opens the door for us a little more so it's a win/win situation for Arsenal.

Both Nasri and Fabianski made their long awaited returns from injury last night in a 2-2 draw for the reserves against Wolves away from home. Nasri got almost a 60 minute run out with Fabianski obviously playing the whole game. The goals were scored by Sunu & Watt with Nasri managing the assist on the first goal for Sunu. Jay Simpson scored for QPR yet again last night as they continued their march up the Championship table and he seems to be on a good run at the moment which won't do his price any harm if and when we decide to sell him. We are linked with a couple of players in the papers today but as it's October and the window doesn't open until January it's all mere speculation at best. The players mentioned are Cana of Sunderland(if we wanted him we would have signed him in the summer) and Ajax full back Gregory Van der Wiel. Stan Kroneke is rumoured to be about to purchase even more shares in the club as he gets even closer to the magic 29.9% mark he needs to make a bid for all shares. That's it for today. Sorry for the late post but it was unavoidable.

Here's the highlights from last night.

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And to finish today's title track from UB4O. The current events at Liverpool are food for thought for all of us as things seem to go from bad to worse for them and their season is in danger of imploding.

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See You Tomorrow.

Well the weekend's over and it's back to work for those of us who still have a job. At the moment in Ireland it's no mean feat to still have a job as unemployment soars and we suddenly find we have nett emigration again after over 10 years of nett immigration. It's amazing how quickly things can turn for the worse and how slow our pathetic excuse for a government have been to act on our problems. As you can probably tell by now I really wish that I could spend the day at home in the comfort of my bed but at least I know I can do that next Monday as it's a bank holiday over here. Anyway enough of the woes of the world and back to the important things in life such as Arsenal and the continued joy that us fans get from watching them.

We have 2 players on the shortlist of 30 players for the Balllon d'Or and it wouldn't take a genius to work out that they are Cesc and Arshavin. I would imagine that Messi has the award wrapped up but our 2 players have to be in the top 10 at the very least I'm sure. There is no news yet on whether Theo will be available for our trip to AZ tomorrow night but the manager doubts it. He says it's not a cruciate injury but we will have to wait for the scan on Theo's knee to see the extent of the injury or if it is just a kick. I hope it's nothing serious and we will see him next Sunday against West Ham but with the luck we've had with injuries over the last few years I won't be holding my breath.

There isn't too much else to talk about from an Arsenal perspective today but there were some interesting events over the weekend that merit a mention. The goal that Liverpool conceded to Sunderland was comical and the fact that a jolly Scouser threw the beach ball on the pitch in the first place only makes it funnier. I seem to remember Man City conceding a goal a few years ago when balloons were all over the penalty area and nothing was done about it at the time so Liverpool will just have to swallow their medicine. They are in a lot of trouble with 4 defeats in their first 9 games and my prediction at the start of the season that they would struggle seems that it might turn out to be true. In our match there was an indirect free kick given against Larsson when he intercepted a pass in his own box and it went back to the keeper who picked it up. It showed the standard of refereeing in the Premier league when the referee gave the free kick as it was clearly not an intentional back pass but the referee failed to understand that at all. I have mentioned the standard of refereeing this season a few times already but the referees just don't seem to be in touch with how the game is played or what players do on the pitch.

In the Fantasy football stakes I had another very good weekend yet again but there is one more match tonight before the final positions for this week are decided. With Cesc as my captain, goals from Dunne, Taylor, Bent & Defoe, assists from Cesc and Lampard and 10 bonus points from my players too I managed 63 points in total to move into the the provisional top 10,000 before tonight's match. With the Oleole leagues still being dominated by Football Guy's friend Amer I am managing to catch up on him slowly but surely and I'm nearly at the stage where I can challenge IAWWT for 2nd place. I gave a few tips on good players to sign during the interlull and Richard Dunne and David Dunn in particular lived up to my expectations this week. It's interesting to see what players are doing very well so far and Cesc in particular is far and away the best midfielder despite a lot less game time than most of his opponents. The Verminator is right up there as the 2nd best defender behind the afore mentioned Dunne. It's interesting to see Man City struggling to keep clean sheets since they sold Dunne and Dunne has settled in immediatly at Villa and raking in the bonus points as usual. RVP is slowly but surely progressing up the strikers list and he's in 4th place now and well worth buying. I've a funny feeling he will be featuring in my team very soon. That's it for today and I'll preview the AZ game tomorrow as we look to put ourselves in a position in our Champions league group that will leave qualification almost assured at this early stage.

Here's Man City's balloon incident from a few years ago.

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And to finish today's title track from Blur. We continue to play our great attacking football and outscore every other team in England. There's no other way that I would like to hae it.

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See You Tomorrow.