The transfer rumour mill is in full swing as we delve ever forward into January 2009.  Christmas is a distant dream; the next Bank holiday is seemingly lodged irrevocably in the unreachable future; and temperatures continue to plummet at a pace akin to the demise of the economy. Manchester City appear to be buying everybody, or at least trying to, however, so far there transfer policy hasn’t borne fruit on the pitch. Whether that is to do with Mark Hughes being crap remains to be seen. West Ham appear to be selling everybody, although whether this will prevent their collapse is unknown. The Arsenal are being linked with increasing numbers of players but nothing has yet happened beyond the excellent news that Jack Wilshire has signed his first professional contract with the club. One hopes that this piece of critical housekeeping is followed up with new contracts being offered to Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott.

There is increasing speculation that Russian playmaker Andrei Arshavin will be moving to the Emirates. They say that there is no smoke without fire, although in this case one would think that the smoke and the fire are firmly in control of Arshavin’s agent. Can anyone really see Mr Wenger spending 20 million on a player?! Still, the Mirror yesterday reported that le Boss has green lighted the deal and circumstantial evidence in the form of Wenger’s statement regarding Champions League-tied players suggest something may be in the air. One cannot deny that purchasing Arshavin is an exciting prospect, however, I have been an Arsenal fan too long to get carried away by things like this. In fact, the last time that we were linked to an established top level player and we actually bought him was Dennis Bergkamp. Another player that we have been strongly linked to in the last couple of days is Matthew Upson, who, predictably West Ham have stated will not be sold. The latest rumour is that we propose a swop deal with Bendtner plus cash for Upson. This is so speculative that one wonders if there is even a mote of truth in the story. For a start, I think Wenger doesn’t believe in going back. Secondly, Upson has a terrible injury record. Thirdly, Bendy would almost certainly refuse to go there. There is also increasing chatter regarding a potential move by Toure to Manchester City. I really hope that this doesn’t happen. Toure is one of the old guard and somebody that I really hope can work back to the once high level of form he displayed. His malaria seems to have drained him of much of his energy levels in games but these illnesses take time to recover from and I am convinced that if he stays he can once again attain his old self. There has been surprisingly little news about Gallas in the last few days. He was the one player everybody expected to see out the door asap. One would think that Wenger is keen to tie up a replacement before considering letting Gallas (or Toure) go. He would very much want to avoid the situation that occurred in the summer where he let Gilberto and Flamini go without being able to sign a defensive midfield replacement. In fact, that also occurred when he sold Vieira. I remember opening the papers each day expecting to see we had signed somebody, but to no avail. I recall even Jose Mourinho saying he thought Wenger must have a replacement in mind. That turned out to be the last time that we won anything. Hmmm.

What would be nice is that if indeed we are to sign anybody we do it as quickly in order that the team can be settled and the new playing staff integrated as soon as possible. We very much want to avoid the situation in the summer where everybody was rushing about like blue-arsed flies in the closing moments of the transfer window, only to be predictably disappointed in the hunt for bargains. The fallacy that one can pick up a player cheap at the last minute has well and truly come back to bite the Arsenal on the backside as now the exchange rate is such that £1 and 1 Euro are of the same value so that the cost of players now as compared to the beginning of last summers transfer window is much higher. Also, the spectre of the Webster Ruling looms darkly on the horizon. A contract will soon be virtually worthless. I wonder who the Arsenal players are hoping the le Boss will buy. We know that Fabregas wanted Wenger to bring in Alonso in the summer, but do you think that the players look at the newspapers and see stories about Arshavin being linked and think to themselves…Hello, that would be good?!

-1 draw. Not a terrible result, but not really an anything result. Considering the lame-arsed decision to send off Adebayor and the unfortunate injury to Fabregas we were, I hate to say, lucky to take a point in the end. At least we have stopped losing. Since Fabregas became Captain we do appear to have stopped the rot. Sadly, we just aren’t very good are we. I’m not going to harp on about it but our midfield was poor yesterday, even before Cesc was taken off. They are just so weak, they give the ball away constantly, get bundled off the ball with ease, can’t pass for toffee, they over-elaborate, they lack tenacity and incisiveness and there is about as much fighting spirit as a stoned hippy at a pacifists convention. Mr Wenger, there are nine days left until the transfer window opens. Please buy a defensive midfielder to compliment Cesc and consign Song and Denilson to the bench where they can develop into the players they should be without all this chopping and changing and general bullshit. Actually, having said that I am not convinced that Song will ever make it, he seems to lack the basic things necessary to be a professional footballer, I mean the fundamental instincts like awareness etc.

Fabregas is set to undergo medical tests on his knee today, but admitted last night to Spanish Radio that he is concerned about the injury, which is the same knee that caused his recent absence. Le Boss seemed to think it wasn’t too serious however, confirming that it was a medial knee ligament injury that could keep the boy wonder out for 1 to 3 weeks. One cannot but help think that an injury like this in a young player could have been caused by the incredibly high number of games he has played at a young age.

Robin van Persie played excellently yesterday. His touch, although not quite as silky, reminded me of the great man himself – Dennis Bergkamp. RvPs goal yesterday was an incredible piece of individual skill. If we can have a bit more like that then the future isn’t as bleak as we all fear it could be. Unfortunately Keane’s (scripted) goal was equally incredible piece of bad defending.

Yesterday I was watching a freeview music channel Christmas Songs special. Winter Wonderland came on and I was cast back into a fiery pit of Bergkamp nostalgia. Sweet baby Jesus, Bergkamp was so f*cking good. I remember belting out ‘there’s only one Dennis Bergkamp’ with a gusto that I have never experienced with any player before or since. When I thought about it some more I realised that our teams of the past had so much more in terms of personality than our current bunch of rather bland individuals. All we do now is churn out or snap up incredibly technically gifted players with nothing else about them. No tenacity and no character. Basically our team is very boring and just aren’t as much fun to support. There are no hilarious shenanigans like there used to be, no on pitch antics, no players that whip the fans up into a frenzy. It’s a shame. The team is as bland as our performances. It’s weird. Generally the character of the club has been systematically eroded over the last 5 years, unintentionally, but as a result of policy decisions made by the board and the manager. In hindsight it is obvious that not enough consideration was given to heritage, tradition and atmosphere in the design of the new stadium. In essence they have gone for functionality and capacity. We are paying for that lack of foresight now. It just feels like you are visiting a car park with a football pitch tacked on. Likewise the loss of key figures at board level is eroding the traditional links to the past that made the club sophisticated and separated them from the other sides. Soon overseas additions to the board will provide the coup de grace to our traditions. And for what? The self-sustainability model that has made our on pitch performances as generic as the rest of the club? It seems like we, the fans, have got a bum deal.

That’s what it’s all about. The stuttering ember of hope has been reignited and is now glowing merrily like Rudolph’s red nose as we enter the first day of Advent. What a bizarre season this is turning out to be. The highs of the European campaign and deserved victories against Manchester United and Chelsea versus the lows of Fulham, Stoke City, Man City and Villa. Who knows what will happen next. Arsene Wenger believes that it is a learning process - that the team are beginning to understand that the same high level of commitment is required in every game. I recall him saying something similar after the Man United result, but the team sunk to new lows in the wake of that game. Now maybe it will be different, so we hope. Never has the well worn tenet – ‘to take it one game at a time’ been so true. On Saturday we face Wigan at the Emirates. If we approach the game with the same awesome determination that we saw against Chelsea then poor Wigan won’t stand a chance.

So, to last nights game. Firstly, let’s get the boasting out of the way. A third correct burgervan score prediction of the season. Ok, I admit it, the majority of predictions have been well wrong (the estimate of a 4-0 victory over Villa was particularly bad) but it is nice to get it right for such a big game. The Arsenal were magnificent at Stamford Bridge. The whole team played well and worked their arses off for each other. Defensively we were like a different team, with Gallas loving the high pressure atmosphere and clearly thriving without the weight of the captaincy on his shoulders. Djourou, despite the unfortunate own goal, was a tower of strength beside him, and Clichy and Sagna, both great players, were spot on. Ok, the midfield perhaps came second in the battle in the centre of the pitch, but even so, the team was much more tenacious than in recent games with players like Nasri sacrificing much of his attacking verve to ensure that the team was solid defensively. Almunia really didn’t have very much to do, which was a surprise because after the Arsenal’s second goal Chelsea didn’t offer anything. It seems that this new Chelsea side are easier to break than Mourinho’s team, which was like playing against a brick wall both mentally and physically.

It seems like forever since we had our first choice strike partnership playing together. Adebayor and RVP work well together and I hope that they can both stay free of injuries because there is no doubt that we really need them. I wonder if our recent form would have been different had RVP not been sent off and subsequently banned for that silly foul. Everyone has a player that they like to see score more than any other. For me, in days gone by that was Dennis Bergkamp and before that I used to like to see Merson score. Nowadays I like to see RVP score and he certainly did that yesterday. His first goal was excellent and his second reminded me a little of Dennis Bergkamp’s first competitive goal for us against Southampton.  Yes, his first goal was offside, no, I don’t care. The number of decisions we have had against us this year more than balances out this piece of good fortune. Scolari really needs to shut the hell up. The fact is that Chelsea were fortunate to go ahead through an own goal and offered up very little in terms of goal scoring opportunities. Ergo, he can’t really complain can he? There was almost half an hour after RVP’s second goal, in which Chelsea did nada.  

What was great to see was the sheer joy on the players faces when we equalised and then scored the second goal. It has been a while since I have seen such an ecstatic mobbing of a goal scorer and it showed how much this meant to everybody. Likewise at the end of the game, the celebrations were truly heartfelt - Gallas for example had to be taken off the pitch by a couple of stewards! Ahh good times.

So now we are 7 points off the top spot with all the teams above us having played once game less than us. It is frustrating seeing us beat the top sides and lose to the lesser teams. It makes you think what if?! The title is still out of reach but as the manager said in his post match interview, it isn’t as out of reach as it would have been had we lost. Can we drag ourselves back in contention? Let’s just take it one game at a time and see. We have been so inconsistent in recent games that I don’t think any of us would be in the least bit surprised if we slipped up again in our next away match against lower opposition. But, if they can take this experience, and the experience against Kyiv in midweek and just try to accrue points, we can at least try to ensure Champions League qualification and perhaps undo some of the damage we have done to our self-esteem. If we can somehow draw a line under our crapness then who knows. Maybe we can even try to finish higher than fourth. ONE GAME AT A TIME!

William Gallas, caught almost smoking by a national newspaper, is the main topic of conversation today across the blogs. On the face of things it isn’t really a big deal is it? It is, I imagine, the closest thing to the exact opposite of Wenger’s philosophy that I can think of. Also, it’s fucking stupid. Most of us have dabbled with smoking and we all know that is bloody idiotic, but if your job depends on your body being a fine tuned machine then smoking is completely insane. Particularly when a player hits their 30s and its more of a battle to keep everything working properly. This confirms the stories of a couple of weeks ago about Gallas being a simpleton. For God’s sake it is time to take the captaincy away from this tantrum prone loon and give it to somebody that takes all aspects of the job seriously.

I loved reading all those stories about Dennis Bergkamp over the past couple of days. What a frickin’ legend that guy is. I can’t wait until he comes back to the Arsenal to give the youngsters the benefit of his awesome experience. As I’ve said before I’d love it if in a few years he took over from Mr Wenger as Arsenal manager. The only problem of course being that the silly sod doesn’t fly anywhere! That is actually a big problem isn’t it? I don’t see how he hopes to ever be a top flight manager if he won’t fly? Maybe his assistant will be tasked with spiking his milk?

I hope that tomorrow against West Ham that Wenger includes Diaby from the start. Having made such an impact in the Champions League in the week he deserves a chance to prove himself in the Premiership. RVP will probably make a return to the team after being rested against Fenerbahce. I hope that RVP can get his game back to the level he was at last season before his injury.

Jose Mourinho has admitted that Drogba is a diver, but he has also given RVP the same label. True Robin has, in the past made a bit of a fuss when he hasn’t had to but to put him in the same bracket as Drogba is insulting. Mourinho takes attention seeking to another level. He is an arse-hole. Totally self-obsessed.

Here’s an interesting bit of news. There is a planning application with Islington Council for the demolition of the Auld Triangle Pub on St Thomas’s Road. For those who don’t know about this pub, it is en route from the Finsbury Park tube station to the Emirates Stadium and comprises one of the busiest of the matchday pubs. The planning application is to build a block of flats in its place. Now the Auld Triangle is by no means a great pub, in fact, it’s a bad pub but it (and its previous incarnation the Plimsoll) is and has been a key part of the matchday ritual for thousands of fans over the years. I don’t object to its demolition as long as the plans for a new building include a replacement pub – I am not familiar with the plans but I assume that they don’t have a bar attached! The deadline for objections to the planning permission is the 6^th November 2008. If anybody wants to object or support the application they should e-mail planning@islington.gov.uk quoting reference P081676 location: 52 St Thomas’s Road, Islington, London, N4 2QW. For an online link to the plans e-mail plansforauldtraingle@hotmail.com . Also, there is a meeting in the Auld Triangle on Monday 27^th October 2008 at 7.30pm at which the architect of the proposed new flats will be in the pub to answer questions about the development. It would be a shame to take away one more London pub, if you feel the same send your objections to the above e-mail.