What exactly is the matter with the world of football? Over recent years the reactionary nature of those surrounding the game has spiralled out of control to the point where the press and punditry dictate edicts which then steamroll out of control to the point where Football Associations, UEFA, FIFA, even politicians become involved. Ridiculous. I am of course talking about this with the Celtic match I mind. The key points are:

1. Eduardo dived – whether this was deliberate or not.
2. Celtic conceded 5 goals over two legs and had two shots on goal over 180 minutes.
3. Prior to the penalty incident Arsenal were dominating the game as they did the entire tie.

Now, diving is wrong, of that fact there is no margin for debate, but the reaction of the commentary team, the pundits, the press and the SFA chief Gordon Smith are completely over-the-top. I could understand if it changed the course of the game, but Celtic were a bag of sh!te and were always going to lose last night. There is a certain level of paranoia that I suffer from, as I think do football fans of all teams, however, I don’t recall a furore surrounding Wayne Rooney when his dive ended the Invincibles unbeaten run on 49 games. Could this be because ‘Wazza’ is English? Likewise, when Kuyt’s dive ultimately led to our Champions League exit, did the papers hang him out to dry – of course not, it’s Liverpool isn’t it, the darlings of the media. It’s all just ridiculous. On a similar note, the commentary team made a big fuss over the lack of homegrown players in the Arsenal side (aside from the usual smug put-downs aimed at Almunia) yet when Wilshere and Ramsey came on there was very little focus on our great crop of young British talent. Funny that! I am undecided on where I stand with regard to Almunia and his England status, however, it is a bit rich to have an Italian coach criticising the Spanish stoppers national credentials. Also, if a person comes to a county, loves it, makes a positive contribution and decides that they want to join said country, why the hell shouldn’t they be eligible for national duty? The country loved Greg Rusedski (Canadian) and Kevin Pietersen (South African), I’m not entirely sure what the difference is? Arsenal’s start to the season has been terrific, I couldn’t have hoped for better, 4 wins and 15 goals, with new boy Vermaelen looking like another fantastic Wengerian purchase. But again, the general consensus in the media seems to be that Arsenals start is somehow due to the other teams all being crap. Everton away is hard game, Celtic away is a hard game. Cliché time: you can only beat the teams put in front you you, and Arsenal have done that emphatically. The big test comes on Saturday of course, at Old Trafford. Let’s face it, it isn’t going to be easy, but the players must be relishing the opportunity for some Champions League vengeance and confidence hasn’t been this high for a couple of seasons. Should we buy…. Yes. Despite the great start to the season, we are already seeing injuries mount up. Defensively we are very close to fielding Silvestre (who, incidentally I spotted cycling on Hampstead Heath at the weekend) so it would be good to get some back-up there. The big question is do we give Song a chance or bring in the oft-desired defensive midfielder. Song has looked very good. If we buy someone I would prefer that we brought in a Golden Oldie to cover for Song and aid his development, Patrick Vieira anyone? One area that we don’t require cover is attack, we seem to have an endless well of quality up front, which is precisely why Wenger will probably go out and buy a striker!!FLASH OF ARSENAL!   

There is a bit more to talk about today than yesterday. Perhaps, with all the recent talk of crisis and so forth, we have all become used to there being a page dedicated to the Arsenal in every national newspaper every single day. Perhaps no news is, as the cliché says, good news.

William Gallas is out of Saturday’s game against Wigan at the Emirates due to a calf injury. This will see the restoration of Kolo Toure into the starting line-up and I for one hope that he grabs the opportunity with both hands. He will probably be alongside Silvestre, but I would like to see Toure and Djourou in combination to see how that works. However, I suppose that there is no denying Silvestre’s experience, even if his career has been blighted by his extended tenure at Old Trafford. I realise that many fans haven’t warmed to Silvestre and I can understand why, however, you only have to see the unbridled joy on his face when he celebrates a goal to see that he is now an Arsenal player. All I am saying is give Silvestre a chance.

Fabregas has denied rumours that he is heading for AC Milan, who by the way, can go f*ck themselves. He caveated his denial with the somewhat flattering (to Milan) statement that were he ever to play in Italy then Milan would be his destination. At least he is modest eh! I suspect the Flamini had a lot to do with this story, trying to get his mate over to Italy to play with him. I have always considered Flamini to be grossly overrated – he was a mediocre version of players we have had previously (Petit, Vieira, Parlour, Gilberto, Edu, Grimandi) , but there is no denying his sale has left us short in terms of tenacity in the midfield. Going back to Fabregas, I would like to say that his statement will put an end to the constant speculation surrounding him, but it won’t of course and as I have said before that is Arsenal’s fault. Show any sign of weakness in the transfer market and the wolves move in for the kill. Unfortunately the wolves have been having a feast on our production line. When I talk about wolves by the way I mean the canine pack hunters not Wolverhampton Wanderers. It saddens me that we have become a feeder club for Barcelona; Real Madrid and AC Milan. At least we don’t sell players to our Premiership rivals (like Tottenham do). I hope that we start winning some trophies soon or Theo’s magpie gene might be activated by the prospect of shiny trophies at Man Utd, Chelsea, or his boyhood club Liverpool.

The England National team have yet again raided the Arsenal for our medical staff, this time poaching team doctor Ian Beasley to be England’s new senior team doctor. Dr Beasley follows in the wake of Gary Lewin’s sad departure from the club. Beside’s a fat salary, I wonder what the attraction is of working for the FA in this way. Is it possible that medical staff take the same pride from contributing to the England set up that players have for representing England on the pitch? I don’t like to see any of our back room staff jump ship, it creates unwanted change. It is a compliment to the Arsenal that our employees are so coveted. Having said that, we have had so many injuries during the last three years (I don’t mean proper Eduardo injuries here, I mean the weird thigh strain malady that affects all of our players) that I wonder if Dr Beasley was doing his job properly anyway. I suspect that he was making our players crush coke cans by jumping on them to sate his recycling fetish.  

Good morning. Thursday, or Friday eve as I am lobbying to rename it, is here. The hump of the week is over and the weekend beckons. After recent results all Gooners can look forward to Saturday’s 3pm kick-off against Aston Villa. Make no mistake, it will be a tough match, but Villa are going through a dip at the moment and confidence is high in the Arsenal camp following our thriller against United and our midweek glimpse of the (hopefully not too distant) future against Wigan. It will be nice to play a match at the proper time (3pm on a Saturday) for once. For the burgervan, Saturday afternoon is when football should be played, not midday, not 5.15 and certainly not on a Sunday. How is one supposed to relax in front of The Antiques Roadshow if you are fretting about the Arsenal!?

The papers and their respective websites are abuzz with stories about our young players and youth system. England Boss Fabio Capello said in an interview that “Arsenal’s academy is the perfect example of how young players should be brought along at all European clubs”. Thank you very much Mr Capello and thank you very much Arsene Wenger. Once again, those ignorami that called for Wenger’s head a fortnight ago or contributed to the media frenzy that began to build against him, please go f*ck yourselves. Yes, Tony Cascarino, that’s you.

Jay Simpson, Tuesday’s two goal hero against Wigan, was in the papers yesterday hoping that Arsenal would draw one of the big teams in the next round of the Carling Cup so our young guns could have a proper test! Furthermore Simpson said that he hoped that if we did draw a big team that they would play their strongest team against us! If that isn’t the right attitude I don’t know what is. To top it all off Simpson is himself a Gooner! Burgervan hopes that he can break into the first team. The last of the Carling Cup games were played last night, unfortunately Sperz beat Liverpool again to go through to the next round, but at least that gives us an opportunity to visit some much needed Revenge on the stupid bastards.

 

The Telegraph website has a couple of interesting stories today, one focuses on why Ashley Cole is the least popular footballer in England. Burgervan isn’t going to go into details about it here, but sufficed to say it’s because he is a world-class arse-hole. The other article is a pretend match report from a game between the Arsenal first team and their Carling Cup team. The very fact that the Telegraph would write such a report is testament to the quality of our young players (I don’t see similar reports for Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool etc). The result by the way was 4-4!

The teams in the draw for the Quarter-Finals of the Carling Cup are the Arsenal; Manchester united; Blackburn Rovers; Sperz; Burnley; Derby County; Stoke City; and Watford. Now, Jay Simpson may want to play Man Utd in the next round but burgervan would be happy with a home tie against Burnley; Derby; or Watford. It does seem fated that at some point we will come up against Sperz again. I hope that it isn’t in the quarter-finals. If we are to put them to the sword I would much rather we did it in the semi’s or even better at Wembley in the Final. We must always strive for maximum humiliation of Tottenham when we can.

 Everybody have a good Thursday.   

That was a superb result, really freaking vital. Probably the best result of the season so far. This is precisely the sort of game that Arsenal have slipped up on this season and I admit that as I watched the game unfold I thought that might be the case again but I was wrong. The defense played excellently (including a completely new and effective William Gallas) and kept us in contention until our guile up front wore them down. Brilliant, I was totally impressed. I saw the qualities that have to date been missing this season, e.g. strength, resilience and determination. I have never been a great admirer of Adebayor, I still don't think that he is even a wet fart in comparison to Henry or Bergkamp but he scores, all the time. When he came on yesterday it was clear that he was significantly better than poor old Bendtner. In fact he really made a massive impact. At the moment he is clearly our best choice for striker. Plus he works well with RVP which is vital.

The belief that this result will give the squad will be so beneficial. They will know now that they can play these games and not be hustled off the pitch, they will (pardon the cliché) know that they can grind out a result and also maybe the midfield and attack will have a bit more faith in the abilities of the defense.

Bad news that Tottenham won but better to get that out of the way before we play them midweek. I can't wait for that game. Great news that Chelsea finally lost at home, particularly given Scolari's ironically timed comments midweek that the Blues could emulate the Invincibles and go all season unbeaten. But what about Liverpool I hear you say? Liverpool are beatable and will slip up this season, probably much more so than Chelsea, so it's important that Chelsea drop points in games such as this.

From being virtually out of it, this weekends results have propelled us back into title contention. I still don't think we have enough of a squad to win it but at least it looks like we are gonna give it a go and for me that's what it is all about.

Tonight is the meeting about the future plans for the Auld Triangle Pub. 7.30 in the pub if anyone is thinking of going to hear what the architect has to say. It will be quite enlightening I think, not least to see the locals reaction!

Happy days are here again, the sky is blue and clear again, the premiership is back again and there are burger vans outside my house! 

I got up this morning nice and early (about 8) to go and get fried breakfast ingredients and the paper and there were fans arriving at Finsbury Park station, at 8:15. Now I know that there is commitment to the cause. I know that soaking up the vibrant matchday atmosphere is all part of it, but honestly, do people really need to get here at 8am? That's 7 hours before the match! 7 HOURS. The pubs dont open for another 3 hours and there sure as sh!t int that much to do in the area for 3 hours! Oh well, each to their own I suppose, but even so, its a bit extreme isnt it?

Surely its embarrassing enough for the nation that created football to not have a single coach capable of managing the national team but at least we should play our own players! Almunia is great, in an Arsenal shirt he has performed wonders since ousting Lehmann. Not only that, he has shown what hard work and perseverance can accomplish….. but play for England? No way, that would be ridiculous.

Le Boss has stated that this weekend comprises the real start to the season with no further International breaks until spring 2009… That’s funny, I could have sworn that the season started 2 months ago. I wonder if the season will start again after Christmas, and perhaps once more at the winter solstice? Come on Wenger you can do better than that!

After the last result…can you remember it? It was so long ago I have consigned it to legend.. Well? Okay, I’ll tell you, it was away to Sunderland, we drew 1-1, Fabregas scoring a rare header to equalise at the death (wow, that sentence had a helluva lot of footballing clichés) . Thankfully today’s game against the toffeemen is at home, so it is the perfect opportunity to get our season going again after an inauspicious start. A big part of the reason that teams get continued success is the creation of an aura of invincibility. This means that when teams play them they don’t think they can win. They might say they have a chance but really their subconscious is already beaten. This is something we achieved in the Invincibles team. We were literally unbeatable. We obviously don’t have that now, but in order to get it we need to be much more consistent, and importantly we need to learn to kill teams off. It would also be handy if we didn’t concede a goal every time somebody crossed into the box. Hopefully with Gallas out that problem will go away.

I read this morning that Wenger is frustrated by injuries, well, get over it Wenger, if you had augmented the squad in the summer then injuries wouldn’t be so costly would they? That’s the point of a squad, that’s the reason the phrase ‘lack of strength in depth’ is bandied about so readily by pundits and commentators when discussing Arsenals shortcomings.

Walcott will probably be left out of todays match according to most of the papers this morning. He has played a lot of games in the last month and has been visibly below par in the England games. Resting him is a good idea. I still think the key to the future for us lies in Walcott’s  hands. If he can fulfil his potential he could be the best English player for a long time.

So, will the Arsenal win today? Will Wenger’s team of oiks and ragamuffins deliver the goods? Yes I think so. Will they thrash Everton? Doubtful.

Burgervan Prediction: Arsenal 2-0 Everton

I’ll go out on a limb and say debut goal fro Silvestre. F*cker probably wont even play now I’ve said that.

Yay, international break is almost over. Last night's games representing the last that we have to endure for a long while. Thank God for that. England won again last night, proving that all the nation has been lacking is a manager with the discipline to put our team of overpaid simpletons in their places. Sven, for all his tactical nous didn't have the respect of the team, and that situation with the WAGs was ridiculous, but then Sven has always liked the spotlight and the ladies and I can't stay angry with a dude that boinked Ulrika! McLaren was a total incompentant. The man totally lacked balls and didn't have the tactical abilities of Wellington's backside. That sycophantic interview he gave where he referred to his players as Wazza, Stevey-G, Lamps and JT was embarrassing in the extreme. Anyway, Capello looks good, and all the while he is in charge of England it means that Theo has two great coaches helping his evolution into a great player. Having said that, Walcott was pretty average last night. The wee lad just needs to get a bit of consistency in his game and he'll be awesome.

Uh-oh worst case scenario has (almost) happened. Cesc Fabregas suffered a suspected broken nose playing for Spain against Belgium. But more worrying still are his comments which come as somewhat of a relief as it means that our 'senior' players are finally saying what we've all been thinking......e.g. that the squad is pitifully short of depth and experience. Here's what the little genius had to say:

"Our squad is a bit short on numbers and we are very young,"

"Behind me there is Denilson, who is 20, or Alex Song who is 21. Theo Walcott is 19 and Samir Nasri 21.........It's hard to imagine a midfield where I am the oldest member"

"We find it very hard to win matches, as we do not possess enough experience."

"I scored 13 goals last season but then I had plenty of allies. Tomas Rosicky (injured) was around, Mathieu Flamini covered every blade of grass and Alexander Hleb was like a brother to me out there."

"The team played with a lot of skilful touches, we were as solid as a brick wall and our opponents would not get a look in.......Now none of those players are in the side and I feel like a rare being. We are more defensive-minded and sturdy as a team but we don't play so much skilful stuff."

Oh dear. Somebody is getting disillusioned. Somebody very important is getting disillusioned. The most important member of our team is getting disillusioned.

If I can see it then Wenger can see it and one would hope that he will do something about it, otherwise it wont be a pleasant close season at all.

On the plus side we have premiership football back this weekend with Arsenal facing Everton. A tough game, one that we should win, but given our recent escapades it could well be another struggle.

Reading back through this blog I realise that it is decidedly negative in timbre! Well, sorry about that, the summer's over, I dont think we can win the league and i've had a stinking cold for the last two days so i'm f*cked if i'm going to be a ray of sunshine!

Yeah!

Dennis Bergkamp is the only man I trust to succeed Arsene Wenger at the Arsenal. Not now obviously, but on the dark day of Wenger’s departure. The only problem of course being that the Dutch master doesn’t fly so we would be managerless at away fixtures in the Champions League!! What has brought on this point is of course the great mans inspiring chat to Gael Clichy back when he was injured and was also Ashely Cole’s understudy. Bergkamp apparently visited Clichy in the treatment room back in 2005 and told him: “come back soon, and if you succeed, you will have his position” (meaning the A-Hole’s position).  Did you know that Bergkamp currently has a coaching role at Ajax? How this titbit passed me by I have no idea, but we should consider bringing him home to the Arsenal. His effect on young players would be inspiring I’m sure.

Alledged long term target Miguel Veloso has ruled out a move a the Premier league, at least for the next 5 years, which, if he is any good anyway, will take him firmly out of the Arsenal price range and firmly into Chelsea. He has this interesting comment to make: I know that I am at a great club and that I must be thankful to Sporting. It's true that I had a chance to escape to England in the summer but we could not close a deal.” Is this an allusion to him almost making a move to the Arsenal. If so, it makes our list of near misses over the summer even longer than previously thought. Therefore, it also makes Wenger’s assertions that the squad we have is good enough complete bullsh!t. Although of course, this is all based on idle speculation.

International day today. The end of the boring two weeks is almost here. Today of course we all have to hope that our players do not pick up any more injuries. This is particularly true of RVP, who having declared himself fit to play for Holland tonight is I think a particular risk having already proven that his body is distinctly fragile. What I am hoping for the most though is the humiliation of Hleb at the hands of Walcott. If the weedy little Belarussian sod makes any more public pleas to try and lure Cesc away I might have to fly to the Catalan city and lay the smackdown on his candy ass! Fuckwit. Leave us alone!!! Wenger must be livid when he reads such things, that one of his former protégés is actively trying to destroy the Wenger project must be so annoying.

Then again, that is the main flaw in the Wenger project isn’t it. The players aren’t loyal, so it doesn’t work. It’s a shame though as it is based on concepts of loyalty and commitment. The fact that it doesn’t work is a sad indictment of the way that the game has gone in recent years.

Oh well, maybe it will work, maybe the sun will shine and the ice caps won’t melt. Perhaps next may, north Korea will be a top holiday destination, Palestine and Israel will be friends, dogs and cats will be living together and Arsenal will be celebrating a unique quadruple….

It appears that the rumours originating in the News of the World over the weekend that Russian Billionaire Alisher Usmanov was looking to sell his shares was, predictably, a crock of sh!t.

 

Usmanov has today insisted to the Guardian that he is committed to Arsenal. He stated: “I’m in love with Arsenal. I have no intention of selling my stake”. It is up to each and every fan to decide for themselves whether or not they believe that statement.

 

The international financial downturn has hit hard in Russia and Industrial billionaires such as Usmanov and Abramovich have allegedly lost incomprehensible sums of money. However, Usmanov has insisted that this will not force him into cutting his ties to the Arsenal. Probably because his fortune and the value of his business is so inexplicably huge that a few hundred million here and there are a drop in the ocean. He went on to say:

 

“That (selling his stake) may be possible at some point when I know Arsenal hates me. I will make sure this doesn’t happen. I have not lost one single share………As long as Arsene Wenger is manager that’s not going to happen.”

 

So there you have it. Usmanov is going to be around for the foreseeable future. What that means for the Arsenal remains to be seen. I’d rather that the club stayed out of his hands, but that is more because I like it as it is than I think Usmanov is particularly sinister. Ultimately, the people who care about the club the most – the fans, have no say whatsoever and will just have to wait and see what happens next.

 The International break continues apace, the boredom plumbs to new depths each day. Yet I am amazed by the speed with which these two weeks pass. Is the Earth spinning faster or something? England will soon be lining up against Belarus and of course arch-waif Hleb. Please shut the f*ck up Alex. Just because you clearly hate it there, stop trying to drag our players down into your mistake. I hope Wazza or Stevie-G give him a good twatting.

At the end of a week in which the world’s financial markets were turned on their heads culminating in £2.7 trillion being wiped off the global value of shares yesterday alone, what we really needed was a good Arsenal match to take our minds off the situation, but no, what we have instead is England vs Kazachstan. Not only that, I think that this is the slowest news day for Arsenal that there has been since I started this blog. With this vacuum of Arsenal info I will attempt to say something about England instead – apologies to everyone about that, I realise how dreadfully dull it is to read anything more about Wayne Rooney or John Terry after having had the back pages of the newspapers full of propaganda for the last 5 days. Capello has denied that the international career of Michael Owen is over. Surely if you are behind Defoe in the pecking order then the writing is on the wall? Rooney and Heskey look likely to play up front again giving England the look of a blunt instrument. You know what, I can’t do this. International football is boring as arseholes and only becomes interesting if Arsenal players do well, so I am going to wrap up my International segment by saying good luck Theo, and I hope to goodness that he doesn’t get injured. Sagna, easily Arsenal’s best and most consistent defender has said in an interview that we need to work on defending corners and free kicks. If he is highlighting it then it must be a problem. It suggests that every time that they concede a free kick or corner the players are nervous that something will happen. If there is no trust between defenders players lose concentration, move out of position and the problem is exacerbated. Wenger needs to get on top of this now. Stop f*cking about and appoint a defensive coach to work with the players on this aspect of the game. It isn’t enough to spout the same old clichés about ‘defending as a team’ etc. This is a flaw that can only be corrected by hard work on the training pitch. I remember being very disappointed that we didn’t purchase Alonso at the end of the transfer window, but now, a couple of months later it is plain to me that Alonso isn’t the player that we need in midfield. He would be another, albeit more experienced, skilful midfielder, whereas what we need is a skilled thug, a motivator, a driving force in the defensive midfield that can drag our gaggle of whelps through tough games and grind out results when the passing game hits a brick wall. That player isn’t Xabi Alonso. The trouble is who is this player? Some people say Yaya Toure? I’m not so sure though. This is probably the reason that we haven’t seen Mr Wenger buy, quite simply because the player he needs is hard to come by. The trouble is, our rivals have leaders throughout their teams: Ferdinand, Hargreaves, Ballack, Terry, Essien, Gerrard….. We need to address this issue in January.

Today is one of those days when I seem to have a vague sense of anxiety about something. I don’t know what I am worried about or even if there is anything to actually worry about. Have I forgotten something important at work? Was I meant to do something critical? Who knows? Maybe I am worried about the 10% drop in the value of the FTSE this morning… or maybe my slight hangover from too many ales last night has left me feeling raw?! Whatever the reason, I can categorically state that the reason for my nervousness today isn’t that Captain Gallas is injured. This is one of those weird times when injury news is a good thing, although he might be fit by the end of the international break. Surprise Surprise his injury is reported to be ‘thigh’, a recurrence of the mysterious thigh malady that is the curse of our squad.

 

Super quick news summary: Almunia shouldn’t play for England – no sh!t, he’s Spanish. Fabianski feels sorry for Rosicky – aaaaar that’s nice isn’t it. Redknapp says he hasn’t got a hope in hell of signing Traore permanently – of course he hasn’t, why has this even made the news? Pires wants Wenger to take over from Domenech - great, No Pires! Stop mentioning that sort of thing, we need Mr Wenger to stay forever and don’t want him sodding off to France!

 Actually the last point is of some interest because Traore has been playing excellently for Portsmouth since his season long loan move. It bodes well for us. The loan system is an excellent idea – Traore, hopefully, will have a whole season of premiership football under his belt when he comes back next year and will have benefited from the wise tutelage of Tony Adams. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get a player back from loan that understands how to defend. Or maybe, Tony will infuse him with a love for Jazz Flute and Chaucer.

 

Tomorrow England play Kazakhstan in a World Cup Qualifier. Clearly a game that England must win. All eyes will be on the wee lad Theo Walcott, the pressure is on for him to produce another spectacular, the nation expects it. Of course, a player, particularly a young one like Theo, can’t score a hat-trick every time they play. His elevation to national hero has been meteoric and one can’t help but feel that it has happened too soon, that he isn’t quite there yet, and that a demanding public are clamouring for too much too soon. Alternatively, Theo may go out there tomorrow and score another hat-trick! As long as he doesn’t get injured!

When I got home from the pub last night, my housemate was watching the 1960s Star Trek and in my drunken stupor I was struck by a moment of clarity - when the unthinkable happens and Wenger leaves the Arsenal we should get William Shatner to be the new boss. His half time team talks would be something to behold! His intonation would inspire the players, he’s used to working with a multi-cultural team and the Emirates looks like a spaceship… andway, it’s food for thought.