We're into the second week of the international break and I have to say that I am absolutely sick of the lack of real football. We have to make do with scraps of news and the momentum of the new season has been completely lost. The only thing to ease the boredom for me was my brother in law deciding to get married in Barcelona at the weekend but I'm back to work and blogging today. It was a great place to visit and the wedding itself was absolutely fantastic but I think I'll have to give my liver a week or 2 off to recover. It's not easy celebrating a wedding for 4 nights in a row but somebody had to do it. I got back in the small hours of this morning and somehow I have managed to make it in to work today but I can see an early night coming on tonight.

The main piece of Arsenal news today is that it appears that Djourou is out for 6 months after undergoing surgery on his knee injury. There is no official word from the club yet but the Swiss FA seems to be the main source of the news. Us fans were crying out for a new centre back to be signed but with Senderos staying it seemed the boss was happy that he had enough cover. However with his current pecking order it means that Silvestre is now our first reserve centre back and another injury to a central defender could be a disaster for us. Gallas has had a spell on the sidelines every season since he joined us and if it were to happen again we can only hope the boss comes to his senses and plays Senderos but even then it's not a great option. I don't consider Song as an alternative as he is our only holding midfielder and he will be gone for up to 6 weeks in January. The decision not to strengthen in central defence or defensive midfield during the transfer window could be coming back to haunt us much quicker than anticipated.

I was under the impression that a player could not be selected for his national squad if he had not been fit enough to play for his club in the last game before the international break but obviously I was wrong as Cesc came on as a second half sub for Spain in their 5-0 win over the Verminator's Belgium. Other players who played and made a contribution for their countries were Bendtner who got Denmark's goal in a 1-1 draw with Portugal & RVP who scored for Holland in a 3-0 friendly win against Japan. Aaron Ramsey also managed to score as Wales under 21s beat Italy 2-1 in a very good result for them.

Our under 18s played their 3rd league match of the season on Saturday and they won 3-1 at Birmingham with goals from Afobe, Deacon & Freeman which leaves them with 7 points. I have a lot of catching up to do on anything that happened over the last 4 days but the highlight for me was Chelsea having a 2 year transfer embargo placed on them by FIFA. There has also been some suggestion of a ban on transfers for players under 18 and even though it would adversely affect Arsenal I think it is a sensible move to be honest to allow young players to develop. Whether it would include players who are not under contract or not is another question though. I read on Rock The Casbah's blog that Amazon have decided to pull that Manure fans' song about our manager from their site which is good to hear. I have to leave it there as work is calling very loudly.

Here's a clip of a recent 3-1 win for Arsenal at our next opponents ground when Adebayor was interested in playing for us.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from The Specials. I can't stand international breaks and the lack of any news as a result.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

Yesterday I wrote that things looked good on the injury front after the internationals in midweek and I obviously spoke too soon. It now appears that Djourou is going to be out for a month and Fabianski will be out for 2 months. When we add them to the already injured Nasri & Rosicky it all looks a little bit too familiar for my liking. You may say that Djourou & Fabianski are not first team starters but they are both the first reserves in their position and that means if we have any more injuries in their positions Silvestre or Mannone will be in our starting 11. I know Liverpool won the Champions League with Djimmy Traore in their team in 2005 but that was a one off and we can win nothing with these players in our team.

Our injury jinx is alive and well and thriving as Theo is out for a few days and Diaby is out for a few days too with what the manager called "a little groin problem". On the plus side Vermaelen will be available for tomorrow's season opener at Everton. As it stands we have 6 players missing from the squad for that match and I'm sure Vela won't make it either. If the manager doesn't see the need to strengthen now he never will. He has to know the fans' patience is growing thin and a couple of top class players with the money we have banked is what will satisfy them. If we start dropping points due to injuries there will be an awful lot of unrest when we have the money to remedy any defficiencies in the squad.

A former player of ours has made headlines for all the wrong reasons as David Bentley was caught drink driving on Wednesday night. At one stage as he looked ready to break into our team it looked like he was the future of Arsenal but unfortunately his arrogance and over belief in his own ability has got in his way and now he is threatening to throw it all away. How can a professional footballer go out drinking 3 days before the season begins and get so drunk that he wraps his car around a tree. I suppose it happened on an international night when he thought he should have being playing for England that night and he was drowning his sorrows instead. Other players might have got stuck in and trained harder and put in extra hours on the aspects of their game that their manager wasn't happy with but that was not the path that he chose.

With our injury worries we can expect the usual players to be linked again such as Hangeland, Subotic & Matuidi and possibly even a few goalkeepers too. Obviously there has been more from Barcelona about how they're going to sign Cesc and it's all a little tideous at this stage as we all know he's going nowhere. The tapping up of players by the top 2 Spanish sides is a disgrace and nothing is done about it by UEFA. It's no wonder UEFA are seen as a joke by clubs and fans.

I was going to put a lot of effort into an in depth season preview at this stage but I will hold off until the end of the transfer window in the hope that we can sign some players and I can have a more optimistic preview. I'll finish today by linking my Fantasy Football and encouraging everyone to join in. The Football Guy has to be favourite after his performance last year(and in previous years) and there must be someone out there who can beat him. The codes for the leagues are below.

Oleole League code  4383-1847

Oleole Arsenal league code  4383-1835

Oleole head to head league code  4383-1828(we only need 2 teams to complete this league).

I Know The Score Predictions league link & code  FC85F-XSC

Finally I have a head to head league for friends & family and we need 7 more players to make it 20 for a Premiership style league. Here's the code if you're interested  4383-55806

Here's a clip of one of my favourite Arsenal goals ever by Robert Pires.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from The Specials. Before the season starts we are already suffering from our stereotypical bout of injuries and it's also for David Bentley who unfortunately is fulfilling a stereotypical role for a young English footballer. This is a John Peel Session version of the song and it changed a lot before they recorded it but it's good. I seem to remember a fellow Gooner here on Oleole went by the name Stereotype at one stage.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

I'll start off today with the latest transfer speculation for what it's worth. There is no definite news yet on the signing of Vermaelen from Ajax but the player himself has appearently said that he is looking forward to playing for us and getting a hefty pay rise. It does look at this stage as if he might well be signing for us and despite being only 5' 11" he does look like a good defender who can play at centre back or left back. He is the captain at Ajax and we could do with a leader or 2 out on the pitch. There is still some talk of Dzeko joining us but it appears Milan are in for him too and they will have a lot of money to spend if Kaka goes to Madrid. We are also said to be interested in Dentinho of Corinthians and Hangeland's name has popped up yet again. I have also read a report that we are chasing Micah Richards and that Kolo will be going in the opposite direction. Obviously at this stage this is all speculation and it is not the Arsenal way to make our transfer dealings public until the deal has been tied up.

It would also appear that Stuart Pearce will pick Theo to play in the under 21 championships for England when he has finished playing World Cup qualifiers for his country despite the fact that our manager has told Pearce that he doesn't want Theo to play. My understanding of underage football is that it is there to prepare the players for the senior team but it would appear that Pearce wants to try to win the trophy and the good of the player or his club is unimportant to him. How many other international sides have players playing for their senior team and their under 21 team at the same time I wonder. I would imagine there are too many players in that position.

It's time now for the next installment of my season review and it's getting pretty close to the end at this stage. I haven't mentioned Eboue before and he had a strange season for us. I was at The Emirates in December when he came on as a sub for the injured Nasri and played in a wide left position. By the time the boss substituted him with a few minutes left it appeared to me that he had not tried at all. He never got back to help his full back and when he lost the ball(which seemed to be every time he got it) he didn't even try to get back and regain possession. He was booed by the home supporters and it was a hard time for the player. I didn't boo but I fully understand anyone who paid the bones of £50 to get in to watch a player not trying then booing him. When I got back to Ireland I signed what turned out to be a charter against the booing of him whilst under the influence in the supporters club and to be honest I probably wish I hadn't. After that he seemed to get a bit of a cult following among some fans and it seemed he could do no wrong. In footballing terms he didn't see too much action and it would appear that he may want to get out of the club this summer to get more first team football elsewhere. He still persists with his diving when he does play and some of his other antics leave a lot to be desired. However on a positive note he managed a couple of goals and the one he got in the FA Cup against Burnley was a very well worked goal. It made a pleasent change to see him approach the chance with a bit of composure as to me that is the thing that he has always being missing. If he is to stay it should only be as a reserve right back and I wouldn't be surprised to see him go.

When I gave my run down on the defence I neglected to mention Djourou. He had an on/off season for us and he never really seemed to get a long run in the team. For some bizzare reason the boss decided that Silvestre was a better option at the back more often than Djourou and when he wasn't injured he seemed to be on the bench. When he did play he didn't always look overly confident on the ball but he was a hundred times better than Silvestre. I still think that given a chance in the team he could become a very good defender but if we do strengthen at the back he will find his chances limited next season.

In midfield we saw very little of Ramsey and after 1 bad game against Cardiff in the FA Cup we didn't see him again for a long time whereas other players performed below par week in and week out and still kept their place in the team. It's hard to make a judgement on a player whose chances were so limited but I hope to see more of him next season and he looks like he has the class to perform at the top level. I suppose if Ramsey didn't get much of  a chance last season then poor Jack Wilshere didn't get a look in at all. They both played in the Carling Cup and performed well and I think we all know that young Jack is going to be a brilliant player in the not too distant future.

I think I'll leave it there for today and I'll finish off with the few players left tomorrow.

Here's a clip of the goal that was in 50th place of the club's top 50 goals. It's from the 25 against Newcastle in 2007.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from The Mission. I've used this title because it's a wasteland out there for real Arsenal news and all we have are rumours and conjecture.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

 The 2-0 win over Middlesbrough yesterday was routine enough. The manager picked a strong team and most of the players on show at the start of the match will be on show at Old Trafford again on Wednesday night. Cesc scored 2 good goals and as a result he tripled his league haul for the season and the one touch play was excellent at times. Without ever having to get out of first gear we were able to get our victory and we can now move on to our Champions league semi final. We gave up a few chances at the back but so does every team in every match unless their opposition is dreadful. The good thing is t150,000hat we kept the clean sheet and even equalled a club record of 8 home clean sheets in a row which goes back about 100 years. We are also unbeaten in the league in 20 games now and it is becoming a very impressive run.

There is a doubt over the fitness of Silvestre ahead of the United match after he came off at half time yesterday with a back injury but besides that there are no further players to add to the injury list. I think most fans would prefer to see Djourou playing alongside Kolo anyway even though he wasn't overly impressive yesterday. It does mean that we will go into the game with no defensive cover again if Silvestre misses out. Song will be our only other option in defence but he will be needed in central midfield which is why he was rested yesterday I would imagine. It was strange that Eduardo wasn't in the squad as I thought he would have got a run out at some stage. I hope he isn't injured again.

There has been a lot of talk today about the bosses comments on the budget in Britan. The new tax rate of 50% for any earnings over £150,000 is the problem appearently and the boss thinks that it will be difficult to attract the top players in the world when they have to pay tax at that rate. That coupled with the relatively poor exchange rate of Sterling means that the boss thinks that the glory days for the English game could be nearing an end as the top foreign players decide to play elsewhere for money reasons. To be honest the top English players won't stick around either if there is more money to be made elsewhere but who knows what tax rates other governments will introduce to try to beat the economic crisis in the coming year.

The dates for the two legged semi final of the FA Youth cup have been announced and we play Liverpool at The Emirates on Friday May 22nd with the second leg at Anfield on Tuesday May 26th which is a date that all Arsenal fans cannot forget. So our youths will get a chance to win a trophy at Anfield exactly 20 years after our greatest night ever at the same venue. From what I've seen of the youth team I think they have to be favourites to win this and i hope it's on the TV so I can get a look at it.

Here's the goals from yesterday.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from The Damned which is dedicated to the boss and his prediction of the day of reckoning coming for English football. 

LINK

See You Tomorrow

After the events of yesterday our quest for 3rd place really only exists in the bosses head and our attempts to secure 4th place are a lot safer. If it were a game of catch we would in fact be stranded in a piggy in the middle fashion. A win today and Everton can only catch us on a mathemathical basis and Villa would have to win all their games and hope we lose all ours which is highly unlikely as they haven't won a game since the turn of the century or something like that. With Liverpool and Chelsea both winning we cannot realistically overtake either of them at this stage. The basis for a title challenge is a minimum of 2 ponts per game and we would have to win every game left to us to achieve that at this stage. So realistically at the moment we are isolated in 4th place with no chance of moving in either direction.

Ahead of the game today there is no extra team news with the possible inclusion of Djourou, Almunia & Adebayor all possibilities at some stage with Wednesday night in mind. United won 5-2 at home to The Spuds testerday after being 2-0 down at the break. They were set on their way with some comical refereeing which gave that a penalty which was clearly not one and after that their right back Corluka put in one of the worst performances I have ever seen. He decided that there was no need to mark Rooney and they paid the penalty by getting thumped. As long as we can concentrate against them on Wednesday night there was nothing to fear in their team yesterday.

If we lose today which is something I can not even contemplate it will send Hull into the bottom 3 and it will really drive Phil Brown up the wall and bring his departure 1 step closer. I can't see it happening though and I am going for a 3-1 win to us with Andrey the giant scoring 1, Cesc getting 1 and Eduardo getting the last goal(if he gets on the pitch at some stage). That should then virtually secure 4th spot and Champions league qualifiers for next season where we can play any other team that will partake in the qualifiers as it is an open draw for a change but we'll worry about that in August. Middlesbrough are deep in the relegation mire and anything they can get from us today would be very welcome but if we can play with tempo and full concentration we should be able to put them away before we prepare ourselves for Wednesday night.

The youths drew 2-2 with The Spuds yesterday after being 2-0 down. They again played a very young side and it shows the depth of talent they have. We can expect The Spuds to release the video on their club site on Monday morning along with one of the defeat to United yesterday where they scuppered our Chapions league hopes by falling apart in the second half. I'm not too sure where I will be watching today's match as if I go to the supporters club for a drink in the middle of the day on a Sunday it could end up in the divorce courts. That's it for today.

 Here's  our 5-3 win against 'Boro a few years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VUfgOnnBds&feature=related

And to finish today's title track from The Cure

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOGVBN3Ph6Y

See You Tomorrow

First of all today the good news is that we might have Almunia, Djourou & Adebayor back for the match against 'Boro on Sunday. The boss said that all 3 are a possibility for Sunday and they should all be available for United on Wednesday next. He did say though that RVP & Clichy will not be available on Sunday or for the first game against United. RVP might be back for Portsmouth next weekend and Clichy is a possibility for the second leg against United but he also said what we all knew already that Gallas & Rosicky will not play again this season.

In other news Arshavin revealed that he doesn't usually swap shirts after a game but he swapped with Torres because he wanted the send the jersey back to his schoolboy coach who collects no. 9 jerseys. We have been linked with Tomas Necid a Czech international striker who plays for CSKA Moscow and certainly looks like a good prospect but half the top teams in Europe are meant to be chasing him too.

We have another huge week coming up for the team with United home and away in the space of a week in the Champions league semi final and 'Boro before that, Portsmouth during it, Chelsea after it and then United again. In fact for our next six matches every second one is against United so it would be a great time to keep up our unbeaten run. The club has obviously taken in extra money from our FA Cup and Champions league runs and the home game against United will generate over £4 million in gate receipts alone. The TV money will also be adding up at this stage and the extra money from Sky too won't go astray either. All of this lovely lolly should go a long way towards addressing the current shortages in the squad come the summer with a top quality centre back the first priority. I'm coming around to Song as our midfield partner for Cesc but we still need someone else of quality in that position to strengten the squad. I also think if  a striker of the quality of Torres came along we should buy him no matter what to complete the team. If this meant 1 or 2 left I could live with that as long as Cesc, Arshavin, Theo, Sagna, Nasri, Clichy & Eduardo stay.

Quite how I managed to get to this point I'm not too sure but I'll finish today on the sory that gave the blog it's title. It's an interview by the BBC with Mathieu Flamini in which he talks about his love for Arsenal among things. I'll link it below and if you go to it remember to read the article as well as viewing the ideo as there is a lot more in the article.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/8010235.stm

And below is the title track from The Smiths which comes from Flamini and how much he seems to be missing us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBj9AQJ3a6I&feature=related

See You Tomorrow.

This is going to be a quick post yet again as time is my enemy tonight. I have to make sure that I have tied up all the loose ends that I can to make sure I get to the supporters club to enjoy tomorrow night's match against Villarreal. It means tomorrow's blog will be early and will include a preview of the match and a prediction as to the score and potential scorers. If I'm lucky enough to make it to the bookies tomorrow I'll put a bet on my predictions to give me the added excitement of having some money riding on it - as if tomorrow night needs added tension.

Ahead of the game the squad news is that Diaby is available again but Djourou is still out. We will probably know tomorrow the extent of his injury but the boss fears that it is cartliage damage which would probably end his season. There has been a lot of talk about bringing Senderos back from Milan for the remainder of the season but I don't know if that is possible or how the player would feel about it after we more or less decided he wasn't for us anymore. He did play over 100 games for Arsenal and it is unusual to send a player like that out on loan if he is in a team's long term plans. I can't see him coming back myself but you never know  needs must and all that.

The boss has being talking about the strength shown by the players and he says they deserve a trophy this season. As a fan I could do with a trophy too but by this time tomorrow night we will know about our chances in one competition and we will have a semi final to follow in another. After tonight's defensive performance from Chelsea the only way we can play them at the weekend is to attack. They have conceded 7 goals in their last 2 home games and Cech looks short of confidence to me. He also says that while we can't win the league we will have a big say in it's outcome as we play the 3 teams in contention in our last 6 games. I still maintain if we had got Arshavin in at the start of January we would be at least 6 points better off now as we drew too many games before he was settled into the side. Imagine how we would view the league if we were level with Chelsea and still had those 3 teams to play again his season. The smallest decisions can have such a huge impact at times in football.

Adebayor has being have his fair share to say too and he says he wants a trophy this season and he believes we can win 1 too. He says that trophies are a must for big clubs and if we want to be a big club we need to win trophies. He also says that he didn't want to leave last summer as he wants to win trophies at Arsenal and that other people had him down to leave the club but not him. I'm not so sure about that but he did stay and even though his form has not been as good as last year he has an important role to play in the run in. He is the best player we have who can play up front on his own if he puts his mind to it and remembers how the offside rule works.

A former great of ours, Tony Adams, has reitterated his desire to one day manage the club but he reckons he has a long way to go yet before he reaches such heigths. With Pat Rice retiring this summer there are a lot of people who would like to see Tony alongside Arsene but I think he still wants to prove himself first and he certainly has not done that yet. Finally for today the boss says he is no fan of the PFA awards as the ballott is too early in the season. Certainly the nominations for this season are virtually all United players(except Gerrard) as they were in such a strong position when the ballott was taken. If they end up with nothing it will make it all look a little silly but it is a big if(I can dream).

Here's a clip of why I hate Gary Neville(remember how he single handedly destroyed Reyes for us while the referee looked on).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MyDIZHGqDw&feature=related

And to finish today's title track from Radiohead(especially for Adebayor).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSRrEP4Lwlc

See You Tomorrow.

With our current predicament in the leage every game is like a cup final for us at the moment. At 3 o'clock tomorrow afternoon we take on Sunderland at The Emirates in a game that is absolutely a must win for us. Our injury woes are well documented at this stage and the boss can only work with the players he has available. In my opinion Arshavin & Vela must start and RVP is obviously a dead cert. That leaves 2 places besides the defenders and I think Bendtner & Denilson are a shoe in for those spots. The defence more or less picks itself but I would put Djourou in at centre back as we need some heigth to mark Jones. I think that Gallas should probably play alongside him as he is in better form than Kolo at the moment with Sagna & Clichy obviously in the full back berths.

I'm posting this late at night for the second day in a row because work has been so busy. Usually I would do it on my lunch hour but I don't seem to get anywhere near an hour these days. Anyway enough of my problems and back to all things Arsenal. I hope we can keep the pace of our game at the level we had for a large part of Monday's game and if we impose ourselves on them I can't see them having a chance. I will be very disappointed if Eboue starts as he needs to be taught a lesson by the boss and the best way to do that is to leave him warming the bench for the rest of the season. He has had plenty of chances after his various misdemeanours in the past.

I'll leave you with a clip of Eboue up to his stupidity in the Champions league final in 2006. He should really have been sent off for the challenge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuOQ08tbdyk&feature=related

And to finish the title track for today from The Smiths. The title comes from our need to start winning league games now. With Chelsea & Villa playing each other tomorrow we will gain on 1 or both of them as long as we win. A draw will not suffice as we are 7 points behind Villa & 5 behind Chelsea. We need to start scoring goals in the league as 38 from 25 games is very poor by our standards. Mind you nobody is rattling in the goals this season and the boss was right when he said, a few weeks ago, that the league is becoming very defensive. Any here's the brilliant song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U5HpeA_WSo

See You Tomorrow

The good news is that Arshavin is appearently going to sign for us today according to all and sundry. I know he's flying in from Dubai but the title comes from the fact that he's a Russian and appearently it's a bit chilly over there sometimes. I am at work at the moment and I am writing this as fast as I can off the top of my head on a very short break so pardon me if it's jibberish. Work has been so busy recently that it's hard to keep up with everything here on Oleole. I have a lot of blogs to catch up on and comments to post.

I have just seen our team for today and RVP & Djourou are both out. I can't believe that we are playing Kolo and Gallas against Carlton Cole. Has Wenger learned nothing from our mistakes of the past. As for RVP being out. If he's not injured(and I don't think he is) what the hell is Wenger playing at. He is our best player and inspiration at the moment and we need him on the pitch for every minute of every game. Without his goals and general play at the moment we are nothing special at all. I hope this doesn't backfire on the manager because a draw or a loss today would be a disaster and West Ham are playing very well at the moment. I hope they come out and play football but they didn't do that at home against us so I have my doubts today.

Finally today, as work calls, young Henri Lansbury has joined Scunthorpe United on a month's loan. We have so many players out on loan at the moment that it could effect our chances of winning the FA Youth Cup but I hope not. I do hope the month goes well for him as he is a very good prospect and unusually for Arsenal he's English.

If you didn't see my prediction yesterday I said we would win 1-0 and RVP would score. He will have to do it from the bench if I am to be proved right. At least Song isn't playing though.

Here's a clip of Nasri who will be very important today with RVP out.

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=lAO9Pp-iko8

And to finish the title track from the late, great Bob Marley(he had better join us now as I was saving this title for him for the last month).

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=lAO9Pp-iko8

See You Tomorrow.