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.

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.

We travel to the east end of London today for a 4.15 kick off against West Ham. It's the second of eight London derbies this season with our 1-0 victory at Craven Cottage against Fulham a few weeks ago being the first. That was a very important and hard fought victory as we weren't at our best and today we will need to fight just as hard against a West Ham team who are 19th in the table. They have always played attractive football and under Zola that has not changed but their financial difficulties are making things harder for them at the moment. A win against a top team like Arsenal today would be the tonic they need to help them climb out of the relegation zone and get their season on track so we will have to make sure that we start off at the right pace and punish them for every sigle mistake they make.

The manager doesn't have too many options when it comes to team selection as we still have a host of injuried players out. I would imagine that we will see the same team starting as we did against AZ on Tuesday night although as I have said 1,000 times before I would love to see Vela get a start for a change. Eduardo is the only player available again after injury but I would imagine that he will be on the bench as he will be reintroduced slowly for obvious reasons. I predict a 2-0 win with the goals coming from RVP & The Verminator but maybe that's because they're both in my fantasy team and I need a few more points this week to stay ahead of the posse. We are better than West Ham and a win is a must as we bid to overtake The Spuds in the league table for the first time this season following their home defeat against Stoke yesterday. Depending on the result of the Liverpool and Manure game beforehand we could find ourselves in the position where no other team in the league has dropped less points than us after this game which will shorten our odds to win the league no doubt.

Usually I would go to the supporters club in The Strand in Bray to watch the game but as it's a long weekend I'll be watching the 2 games in my local with some family and some Liverpool & Manure supporting friends. I'll miss the half time preview of The Gooner Review which the club are showing but unfortunately it can't be helped and I'll have to make sure I go out to watch the midweek Carling Cup game against Liverpool in the club. There's a bit of transfer speculation about today but I'll deal with it tomorrow as time is of the essence and roast beef doesn't cook itself. That's it for today.

Here's a clip of what Vela can do given the chance.

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And to finish here's today's title track from The Smiths. We have 8 London derbies this season and if we can win at least 6 of them I think we will win the league.

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See You Tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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See You Tomorrow.

It's Monday morning and I'm back to work again after a hectic weekend. I eventually managed to see the highlights of all the weekend's action in the Premier league last night and there are still only 2 draws in 65 games. From an Arsenal perspective we have won our 2 home games quite easily and we have won 2 and lost 2 from our 4 away games. It leaves us 5th in the table 6 points off the top with a game in hand but we are no longer the top scorers as Liverpool put 6 past Hull to bring their total so far to 22 goals in 7 matches and we have 18 in 6 matches. It's great to see Phil Brown in the bottom 3 and Hull shipping so many goals at the moment. Man City can go ahead of us by avoiding defeat against West Ham tonight and I can't really see them losing to be honest.

We got out of jail on Saturday evening with a rather fortunate 1-0 win at Fulham thanks to RVP's chocolate leg and a stunning performance from Mannone. He has managed to keep 2 clean sheets in his 2 league appearences and they are our only clean sheets in the league this season. I have said here before that I think it is possible that Almunia is not injured or sick but that he was left out due to poor form and a loss of confidence. At this stage if Almunia is declared fit I can't see how Mannone will not keep his place in the team. I'm not 100% sure about Mannone yet but he has been better than Almunia in those 2 games and the boss is well aware of that. He will stay in goals for tomorrow night's match against Olympiakos at least as the boss has said that Almunia is still not ready to return and Fabianski won't be back until after the next international break at the earliest. I'll preview that match tomorrow.

The boss was very happy with the result at the weekend as he felt Fulham played very well and made it hard for us to play. He also said that he won't change his approach for the Carling Cup despite the fact that we have been drawn at home to Liverpool in the last 16. He said that he will see who is available for the game and as I said yesterday we might see Nasri & Fabianski in that game. Liverpool played a few first team players in their lucky victory over Leeds in the last round and they will need to play a few more of them if they are to have a chance against us.

Jay Simpson scored again for QPR at the weekend and they find themselves just outside the play off places alongside Henri Lansbury's Watford and a few places behind Jay Emmanuel Thomas' Blackpool. Lansbury played most of the game on Saturday but Thomas was an unused sub for Blackpool. Derby are supposedly after a loan deal for Gavin Hoyte and there are more stories of Vela going to Xerez in Spain in January. I can't imagine that he will join them as they look to be almost certain to get relegated and by the time the transfer window opens they will probably be in a very poor position in the Spanish league. That's it for today.

Here's a clip of what happened the last time we played Liverpool in the Carling Cup. It was a sweet night at Anfield for Julio Baptista.

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And to finish today's title track from Pulp.

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See You Tomorrow.

I'm sorry for the very late blog today but the 21st I was at last night was very good and when I arrived home we found the Gardai(Irish police) at the door telling our daughter to turn down the music at her birthday party. Everything was fine and we had brought a few friends with us to join in with the party. To be fair the Gardai were very nice about it and they were just as nice when they called back at 5.30 asking us to turn the music down again. We had no one to blame at that stage but ourselves even though I thought the music wasn't loud. All of this led to me having a lie in this morning and when I woke up I had to bring my son out to buy his new lap top that he had saved up for. That obviously took a few hours as we shopped around for the best deal and when we returned I had to set it up for him after which we had visitors for a couple of hours which leaves me only blogging late on a Sunday night.

Anyway enough of my hectic weekend and on to all things Arsenal. We played Fulham yesterday evening at Craven Cottage and we came away with a fortunate 1-0 victory thanks to a goal from RVP and a fantastic performance in goal from Mannone. These are the games we would have lost last season and a win whilst playing badly is a lot better in my book than a defeat when playing well which happened at Old Trafford and to a lesser degree against City. The performances will have to improve or will struggle to keep up with the pace in the league but we have the players who are capable of doing that. With Chelsea losing yesterday it puts us in the mix at the top of the table with a run of 6 games coming up that we can. It's vitally important that we don't lose any of those 6 league games and the boss may have to change things around a little to get the results we want as a few of the players who seem to be automatic choices at the moment aren't performing at the level we need. I'll go into that more later in the week as this has to be a short blog.

We drew Liverpool at home in the last 16 of the Carling Cup and the game will be played on October 27th. I'm sure that it will be a sell out and I wonder if the prices will be as low as they were against West Brom. Our next match is against Olympiakos at home on Tuesday night in the Champions league and a win is vital as it will leave us in control of the group. After that we play at home to Blackburn next Saturday and with their current manager we know what we will get from them. Anyone at the game can expect a sore neck from looking up at the Sky all afternoon. From there we move on to another international break for 2 weeks. It's unbelieveable how often these international breaks are coming around and the 2 week break is far too long in my opinion.

There are rumours of Spanish club Xerez making a bid for Carlos Vela in January ann I think we would be mad to sell him. We don't need the money and he has an awful lot to offer the team in my opinion. However the amount of time spends away with his country is a problem and the player might also be a little unhappy with his lack of game time since he came to us from his loan spell in Spain. I'll leave it there for today.

Here's the highlights from yesterday.

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And to finish today's title track from Bob Marley. The boss has a lot of work to do to get the right players for our formation and to get things working properly on the pitch.

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See You Tomorrow.

Our youngsters went out to represent the club in the 3rd round of the Carling Cup lat night and as usual they did the club proud. With a starting 11 that included 8 teenagers, a 22 year old, a 24 year old and a 32 year old Silvestre we still managed to play good football the Arsenal way. I was unable to get a stream anywhere to watch the match and I've only seen the brief highlights that I've linked below and no more. I have read a few reports on the game as well and it does seem that the sending off of former Gunner Thomas 8 minutes before half time and the introduction of Vela with half an hour left were the catalysts for our victory.

There were chances for both teams early on before Thomas got send off for raising his hand to the face of Jack Wilshere after the 2 of them had tangled near the half way line in the 37th minute. It left West Brom with a lot to do in the second half as Arsenal used the ball well to sap the energy of the 10 players. It also has to be said that West Brom made quite a few changes fom their team that won so impressively at Middlesbrough at the weekend. When Vela came on after an hour it proved to be too much for Albion as his class shone through. Regular readers will know how highly I rate him and how frustrating I find it that he seems to spend half of his time away with Mexico.

After 68 minutes their keeper parried a fierce shot from Vela and Watt was on hand to dispatch the ball to the net on his full debut. Then 7 minutes later a lovely chip from Randall came back off the bar and as the defender tried to usher the ball back to the keeper Vela nipped in to take the ball and finish easily. It leaves us in the draw for the last 16 of the competition which takes place on Saturday. We played with 8 teenagers last night as I said above and 2 of our 3 subs that we used were teenagers and the other one was only 20. The talent we have at our disposal is frightening when you consider that we also have 4 very good young players out on loan.

It was good to see Gibbs, Ramsey, Wilshere, Vela and Senderos getting some game time as they could all have a part to play for the first team at some stage this season. After the game the boss said that it was the introduction of Vela that made the difference and that although he has some work to do on his fitness he is still in the boss's plans. If I remember correctly Nasri should be back soon as he has been out at least 2 months already and with Rosicky and Arshavin available too the boss will have a headache just picking his attacking players. Bendtner spoke yesterday of his desire to play in a central strikers role and he must know his days on the right are numbered as more players return from injury. In my opinion the only position he should play in is the central striker's one but he has RVP ahead of him at the moment and Eduardo is such a good goal scorer that he needs more time in that role too. The boss now has until Saturday to work with the palyers before we paly Fulham at 5.30pm at Craven Cottage. The game is live on ESPN so I'll be watching it with the Wicklow Gunners yet again. Before that I have a 5 a side tonight and again on Friday night so I expect to be limping by the time I reach the 21st I'm going to on Saturday night. That's it for today. 

Here's the highlights from last night.

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And to finish today's title track from The Clash. This is for all of our youngsters who answered the call up last night and showed how bright our future will hopefully be. It's one of my favourite songs ever too.

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See You Tomorrow.

West Brom visit The Emirates tonight in the Carling Cup on the back of a 5-0 demolition of Middlesbrough away from home in the league. They have started the season very well and are one of the favourites for promotion along with the other 2 relegated teams from last season. That makes their win at the weekend all the more impressive and it keeps them on top of table also. They have been scoring plenty of goals as have Arsenal of course but we will be playing a much different team tonight. As it's the Carling Cup the boss will be giving a run out to anybody who didn't get into the starting 11 at the weekend and of course a few youngsters too.

Speaking on the club site yesterday he said that Szczesny, Ramsey, Gibbs, Wilshere ,Vela and Traore will all play and we will also see Senderos playing his first proper game since his return from Milan. I would imagine that Silvestre will play too and Rosicky and Bendtner are possibilities as they didn't start at the weekend. The other player who might play is possibly Eboue even though he played at the weekend but he might be needed at right back. It should be a very good game as West Brom like to play football just like we do and I expect plenty of goals. We have been very good at home in the Carling Cup over the last few seasons and I am predicting a 3-2 win for Arsenal and I hope to see Vela on the scoresheet. He has missed all of our season so far due to injuries received on international duty and it's great to see him back. All we need now is for Nasri to return to give us even more options. I'm sure we will have Arshavin available for next weekend too and he is enough on his own to scare any team.

The match isn't live on TV but I'll be attempting to get a stream to watch it somewhere however doubtfull the possibility of that is. In other news it was good to see that Jay Simpson managed to score 2 goals for QPR at the weekend in a very good win away to a strong Cardiff team. Hopefully he can blossom in his loan spell at QPR but even if he does the chances are we will sell him when we get him back. The boss has spoken about how The Verminator came to his attention when he had a spat with RVP at the Amsterdm tournament a few years ago and he said he made a mental note about him then and he was happy to sign him this summer. His defensive abilities and goalscoring prowess cannot be overestimated at the moment as he is our stand out player so far this season. That's it for today. If you're going to watch the kids tonight I hope you enjoy it.

Here's a clip of a great goal by Jack Wilshere which reminded me of the great Denis Bergkamp the first time I saw it. I can't wait to see whwt he can do tonight.

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And to finish today's title track from The Undertones. Our teenagers will be playing tonight and I hope they get a kick out of the experience.

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See You Tomorrow.

So here we are on a Saturday morning and it's only a few hours away from our third match in 8 days. Portsmouth visit us this afternoon and they arrive on the back of two 1-0 defeats in their first 2 matches. They have had a very unsettled summer and virtually every single pundit has forecast their relegation. They still have some good players and we have to be careful not to underestimate them as we did with too many poor teams last season.

For that reason I think we need to play our strongest team and go at them from the very start with pace and passion. If we rest players it sends out the wrong message to their team and to our fans too. If Portsmouth need a reason to get themselves up for this match then we could just hand them that reason by underestimating them. The club are giving out free scarves to all fans today and they want the fans to get behind the team from the off but if we play a weakened team in our first home game of the season it gives the wrong message to those same fans. They have waited since last May to see Arsenal play again and a weakened team would be a slap in the face to them. I know we have Celtic at home on Wednesday but we need to take it one game at a time as the saying goes.

As a result I hope and think the boss will again play the same side that played in the last 2 games as the players all deserve to keep their places again. To be honest I'd love to see Eduardo play but his fragility is still all too obvious after his injury scare on Tuesday night. Diaby performed well enough when he came on but he still doesn't know when to release the ball or when to take on the 3 players that are surrounding him. Maybe 1 in 10 times he will beat them but that means he loses the ball the other 9 times. So I see the same team starting and I predict a 3-0 win for us. I hope Bendtner can get on the score sheet and maybe a goal from RVP & Arshavin would go down nicely too.

I mentioned yesterday that Vela had an ankle injury and it has now emerged that he will be out for a month with that injury. It's the same injury that he got in the first game of the Gold Cup for Mexico but he obviously came back too soon for his country and now we are paying the price. The same can more or less be said of Theo as his exertions in the summer with the England senior team and the under 21s have led to him having his current injury and he will now not be available for the Manure game next weekend. We cannot afford any more injuries as our squad is already stretched with Nasri, Rosicky, Vela, Theo, Djourou & Fabianski out.

The manager spoke about potential transfers yesterday and he said that he might still make a defensive signing but he thinks we have enough offensive options. If we get any more offensive players injured he might be forced to give young Jack Wilshere a run in the team and that might work for our good in the long run. He also said that we are not on Hangeland's case and I  think we can take it then that we will not be signing him. He said that like him the majority of managers are after a central defender or a defensive midfielder and he has had plenty of calls from other managers asking if he knows any players that are available in those positions. The manager thinks the transfer window should have sut when the season started and while I see his point some leagues have not started yet but others started 2 weeks ago so it has to close on a date rather than at the start of the season as this varies from country to country.

He also spoke about the fact that we are playing catch up in the league along with 7 other teams and he thinks fixtures should only be scheudled when all teams are available to play. The club also announced that they are in discussions with Bendtner over a new contract but that was no secret anyway. It was also announced that Henri Lansbury has joined Watford on loan until the end of the calender year and I hope it goes really well for him as he is a player I really rate. On checking the club site last night I saw that tickets for the Portsmouth match are still on general sale and that probably means that the stadium won't be quite full. It's a bit of a worrying development so early in the season particularly as we have started so well but it is an expensive day out. I also read last night that there will be a 33% rise in Champions league money from UEFA this season which makes our qualification for the group stages all the more important. I'll leave it there for today but don't forget that you have until 11.30 this morning to make any changes to your Fantasy Football team.

Here's a clip of a great goal from Bobby Pires.

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And to finish today's title track from Big Country. Hopefully it will be like "Wonderland" in The Emirates today as we give Portsmouth a footballing lesson.

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See You Tomorrow.