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.

LINK

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.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

I have to apologise for the lack of a blog today but due to a mixture of my wife's sister getting married yesterday afternoon and my wife's birthday today I haven't been near my computer in what seems like an age. I intend making up for it tomorrow by catching up on the highlights of the Arsenal trip to Wolves yesterday and giving my interpretation of events. Until then you'll have to make do with the highlights of the game which are linked below.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from Black Uhuru. I've had a little too much partying and neglected my blog as a result but let's hope come the end of the season that it's Arsenal that will be doing the partying.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

I have yet another family wedding this afternoon as my wife's sister gets married in our local church and we head to Bray for the reception in the hotel next door to the supporters club. I hope to be able to sneak out at some stage and see a little bit of the game against Wolves which kicks off at 5.30 and is live on ESPN. I'll be wearing my red shirt and Arsenal socks as lucky omens and I'm hoping for a performance to cheer us into yet another interlull.

With Rosicky and Nasri available again the boss has a few selection headaches before the game and I'm sure Eduardo will hope that he can start too. I expect Sagna to play at right back again as Eboue seems to have that berth for the Champions league and with Almunia, Gibbs, Gallas and The Verminator he will make up our defence. Cesc and Song will play in midfield I'm sure and I would be surprised if RVP and Arshavin don't strat up front. That leaves 2 places in the team between Diaby, Nasri, Rosicky, Eduardo, Eboue and Ramsey and good luck to the boss in keeping them all happy. To be honest I don't know who will play but I suspect that Diaby will be in the team with Nasri playing too.

As long as we approach the game the right way we will be too good for a Wolves team who their manager says wil attack us because there is no point in defending against us. He will learn that it's an even bigger mistake to attack us and I see a 4-0 win for Arsenal on the horizon with RVP, Cesc, Arshavin & a centre back scoring our goals. If we get that win we go 2nd in the table for 1 day at least and Manure will need a point at Chelsea tomorrow to overtake us and they will find that very hard to come by.

Sky have chosen to show 2 of our games live in January and the the games away to Bolton on January 17th and at home to Manure on January 31st will both be shown. It looks like the Everton game I am hoping to go to is safe to be on Saturday January 9th and we just have to wait for the tickets to become available early next month now. I uppose even if ESPN take the game it will just mean it will be a later kick off so I have to say I'm delighted with that. That's all for today as I have busy day ahead.

Here's a clip of what Arshavin can do.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from Lloyd Cole which is for Mick McCarthy who is hopefully going to be heartbroken tonight.

LINK

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.

LINK

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.

LINK

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.

LINK

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.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

We play AZ at The Emirates tonight and we know that a win will as good as qualify us for the knockout stages of the competition no matter what. As a result we must approach the match with the right mindset and look to dominate them from the off. The goals don't always come early in our home European games but patience is a virtue that paid off against Olympiacos and if needs be I'm sure it will pay off tonight. I'm sure that they will look to defend from the off and to stifle us where possible particularly as they have Koeman as their manager. He has a good record against us with Ajax and PSV both frustrating us in the Champions league previously whilst he was the manager of the respective clubs. Dutch clubs have a tradition of playing attractive and attacking football but he has never done that against us but his teams have always managed to do the job required of them.

However, tonight AZ need a win if they are to have a real chance of qualifying from the group and a draw will leave them in a position  where third place and Europa league qualification is their only real option. I still don't expect to see them become adventureous in any way shape or form tonight and I think they will probably feel that their best chance of a goal is from a high ball into the box which is how they scored their last minute equaliser in their home game against us. I have to say that the sight of Koeman on the sidelines is enough to annoy me and there is nothing about the man that I like. It goes back as far as the night he single handedly knocked England out of the World Cup when he scored a wonderful free kick against them despite the fact that he should have been sent off earlier in the game. I was no lover of England and definitely not Graham Taylor at the time but it just struck me as an injustice and it's time an English club made him pay for that.

With the news that the latest player to join our ever growing injury list is Gael Clichy with a stress fracture of the back we can at least welcome Rosicky back tonight. He's not quite ready to start but it looks like he will get a run out at some stage and it's good news as he is a player who can really make a difference at times. There's no news on the exact length of Bendtner's absence but it looks like being a month at least and Clichy would seem to be out for roughly that amount of time too. It will give us a chance to see Gibbs play as part of the first team and his deputy will be Traore who is due to be back in full training tomorrow after his injury. A lot of fans including myself have thought that Clichy's form has been off for a while and we had hoped Gibbs would get a chance at some stage. I didn't think his positioning was good against Liverpool in the Carling Cup but it will be different with the first choice defence around him. He has a chance to make that left back slot his own over the next month and push for a spot in England's World Cup squad too.

The boss said yesterday that Almunia will continue in goal and Mannone will be the sub keeper. With Gibbs at left back I expect the defence to remain the same as Saturday's besides that neccessary change. Eboue has started at right back in 2 of our 3 group games so far but I think Sagna will play and his 2 assists at the weekend should make sure of that. In midfield I'm sure that the 3 that played at the weekend will continue and 2 of the front 3 are certainties with RVP and Arshavin both playing and the other player to start will probably be Eboue or Eduardo. The boss could surprise us all and play Ramsey in the midfield 3 and Diaby in the front 3 but I don't think so.

As I said AZ will look to stifle us but as long as we play our game and are patient we will get the chances and the goals should come too. Hopefully we have learned that 1 goal isn't enough against them and we can push for a 2nd or 3rd if we do get that 1st goal without over comitting ourselves. If the need arises we should be prepared to run the clock down and take the ball into the corners to make sure we qualift tonight. I predict a 3-0 win with the goals coming from Arshavin(he's due one), Diaby and RVP and Arsenal managing to get the better of Koeman at last.

In other news Stan Kroenke has bought a good whack of shares to bring his stake up to 29.6% of the club and leave him very close to the magical 29.9% mark that will mean he must bid for all other shares. At least his purchase of 427 shares at £8,500 a share is worth reporting unlike the 10 shares that he bought last week. As I have said before he keeps his cards close to his chest and no matter what speculation is out there we won't know what will happen until it actually happens. The boss has said that the next month will be crucial for us as we look to really challenge for the league as there are usually a lot of injuries in November. We have had so many injuries already that we can do without any more this month. When the players head off to play for their countries next week I will be keeping my fingers crossed that they all come back in good shape and hopefully we can keep the players who are vital to our team fit. We have Rosicky back and Vela should be available at the weekend as well with Walcott a few weeks away from returning we will at least have a few more attacking options. After tonight we play Wolves, Sunderland, Liege and Chelsea in November and 7 points from those 3 league games would be perfectly acceptable although 9 points would lay down a marker for all other challengers for the league. Just recently I have heard a few pundits changing their minds and saying that we have a chance in the league and I have even heard a few say that we have the best chance of challenging Chelsea out of all the other clubs in the league. I have said from the start of the season that we are the best bet to challenge them as Liverpool and Manure have worse teams than last season and it's good to be listened to at last although I would probably prefer if they were still writing us off. That's it for today.

Here's a good goal by our left back tonight against Portsmouth reserves.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from The Damned. It's time for us to smash up Koeman's record against us by beating his team tonight.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

That's it for today.

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

LINK

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

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

The unbridled joy after our win against The Spuds on Saturday has subsided a little this morning as the harsh reality of returning to work after having had 3 days off sets in. With our position as North London's number 1 club no longer in any doubt(not that any Arsenal fans doubted it anyway) we can now forget about The Spuds and concentrate on a week that could be very important for us.

First up we have AZ at home on Wednesday night in our Champions league group and a win in that game will mean that they cannot catch us in the group. Olympiacos travel to Liege on the same night and it's a win win situation for us if we can beat AZ. If Olympiakos win or draw we will have qualified but if Liege win we will only need a point at home to them in our next game to qualify and a win in that game would win us the group. After that we travel to Wolverhampton for an evening kick off next Saturday in a game that will see us go 2nd in the league if we win. With the 2 teams ahead of us playing each other on Sunday afternoon it means we will make up ground on 1 or both of them if we can beat Wolves. In fact if Chelsea win it will mean that a we would keep 2nd place ahead of Manure with a game in hand and Chelsea would have a 5 point lead over us with us having that game in hand too.

A few weeks ago I said that 4 wins in a row would have us on top of the table as the next international break kicked in and we have got 2 wins and a draw in the first 3 of those games. A win at Wolves will make it 10 points out of 12 and with all 12 points our worst possible position would have been 3 points behind Chelsea with that game in hand. That draw at West Ham and the manner in which we threw away the 2 points really grates but after Saturday we look to have put it behind us.

So as you can see 2 wins this week will leave us in a real healthy position going into that dreaded interlull and I fully expect us to go out and get those wins. Our ladies beat Keynsham 4-0 yesterday to reach the semi final of the Premier league Cup and continue yet another great start to their season. The reserves have a home match against Portsmouth tonight at 7 and our youths lost 3-1 at West Ham on Saturday with our goal coming from Chuks Aneke. The Carling Cup quarter final trip to Man City has been set for Tuesday December 1st and as of yet it is not scheudled for TV although that might change. As far as I know the TV companies have not picked their live matches for the new year yet but as we're in November I would imagine they will have to do it very soon. I certainly hope so because I want to go to the Everton match which is set for Saturday January 9th but having seen the other fixtures that weekend I have a horrible feeling that our game might be switched to the Sunday. I can still go but the sooner I find out the better as the flights are so cheap at the moment.

On the injury front it seems that Bendtner will be out for at least a month with the groin injury he picked up on Saturday and we are now on top of the physio room injury league table with 9 players out at the moment. Of those 9 players 4 of them are listed as being down for a return next Saturday and we could certainly do with Rosicky in the squad at the moment to put some pressure on Diaby who didn't have the best of games at the weekend. The other 3 due back are Wilshere, Vela and Traore and they will at least increase the options the boss has for the trip to Wolves. Finally for today I read an article yesterday that said the reason that Almunia was out for so long was due to a family tragedy and if it's true my sympathies go out to him and his family. These things can be very hard to cope with and if it effected him a lot the boss was right to wait until he was ready to return. It certainly makes more sense than the "chest infection" story. That's the lot for today.

Here's the highlights from Saturday's victory as I only showed the goals yesterday.

LINK

And here's today's title track from Jah Lion. The boss commented on all of The Spuds claims about being our equals or even betters in some cases by saying that the talking would be done on the pitch and he showed that he was the one with the wisdom and they were full of hot air as we suspected.

LINK

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.

LINK

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.

LINK

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.

LINK

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.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.