This will be a quickly as I'm off to the Airport to begin my plane, train, tube, and automobile trip to the Emirates, but it'll all be worth it.

Team news is as we expected, Cesc, Ade and Theo all back, VP, Diaby, and Nasri are out.  Vela is in or out depending on if we need him, but given that he didn't get back until 10.30 yesterday morning, it will be unlikely that we'll see him.  Will Gibbs be involved after the rave reviews he got playing for England during the torture that was the Interlull?  Surely he'll make the bench. Bendtner is fit to play.

I must say I'm drooling at the thought of seeing Cesc and Andrey playing with each other, god that sounds like bad gay porn, but you know what I mean.  I know we shouldn't expect too much from Cesc, but you know we do.

I see us starting 4-4-2, with Arshavin and Theo on the wings, Cesc and Denilson in the middle, and Adebayor up front with Bendtner.  At the back I hope we don't see Silvestre even on the bench.  Clichy, Sagna, Toure and Gallas should start there.

I must say, as good as that line-up is, it doesn't leave many options on the bench should we need to change things for tactical or tiredness reasons.  Let's just hope they can get the job done before their legs runs out.

Unless I can get tickets for Villareal this might just be my last match of the season, so let's make it a good one.  Another four goals would be nice, one for all the returnees and and icing from Arshavin.

Expectations, how quickly they rise!

Come on you Guuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnners!

(on an unrelated note, one of my other half's friends is doing a 'Race For Life' with Cancer Research and is dedicating it to her. If you'd like to show your support, you can do so here :) go on, you know you wanna, and it's just past pay day, you must have something left, even just £2)

Well?:

Good morning Arse lovers, what a wonderful day!  If you haven't heard, my other half got back the dreaded test results and it's all good.  Lots of treatment ahead, but that's nothing compared to how things could have been.  To say I'm relieved is a slight inderstatement.

Eduardo scored for Croatia, I bet he could have scored even when his leg was broken.  Cesc is back, Adebayor is back, VP (groin), Diaby (hip), Bendtner (knee), and Nasri (virus) are doubts, Sagna has told Juve to fuck off, and Barcelona are up to their old tricks with Cesc. 

Don't they ever get fed up?  Have you noticed how they are starting their shit-stirring earlier and earlier?  Do you think Platini or Blatter would just sit quietly by if it was Wenger or Ferguson saying this stuff? I'm sure Cesc is as sick repeating that he is happy at Arsenal as we are of hearing that Real Madrid/Barcelona want him.  If it was me, these sort of tactics would put me off ever wanting to join them.  They have no respect for any other club and their players.  He is contracted, so we can keep him til then even if he wanted to go (which we wouldn't and he doesn't so that doesn't mater).  I think more clubs need to stand up to Barcelona and Madrid, the way Man U did with the whole Ronaldo saga.  While I hate them both, you had to take their side during the whole sorry mess.  I feel an irk approaching so let's move on...

Silvestre has been talking, but I don't actually care what he has to say.  As has been pointed out in numerous blogs, we have got better since he was out of the squad.  Coincidence?  WHo knows, but I don't like to take a chance on these sort of things, so we should just leave him wherever he's been for the past few months.  I'm sure it's his face that unsettles the team, it's like having a half-man half-fish thing playing beside you and that's just fucked up.

We're linked again with Inler, and if we can we should buy him.  He's a cracker and just what we need in the middle of the park alongside Cesc.  We're also linked with Danikel Aleksic, a 17-year-old so he's about the right age.  Summer madness...in spring.  Irk alert.

More on tomorrow's match tomorrow...I've off to continue smiling...

Til tomorrow....

Three Kudos points up for grabs today:

You better bloody appreciate this blog cause I worked on it to get the figures needed to back up what I'm going to rant (well, I counted stuff, but sometimes it's nice to have a leg to stand on when you're slating someone). 

And it was all based on the fact that I fell for an April Fool...actually, I fell for more than one.  At my age, I really should know better, but some of them are so convincing, and some of them appeal to the hope that lingers inside all Arsenal fans that one day we'll sign a player we really, really want, and it will be easy and done without the madness of Arshavin's transfer.

This isn't Arsenal related, but it's worth devoting space to (and I can't bear to look how many players we lost last night).

We are all aware that Platini, and, to a lesser degree,  Blatter, have a vendetta against English football for whatever reason. Their 6+5 rule which they are determined to push through would be illegal in any other industry across Europe, and now Platini wants to limit the number of 'foreign' fans at home legs in the Champions League. 

OK, so that story was the April Fool (and a very good one, there were more than a few of us who believed it, simply because it is the kind of crap he spouts on a regular basis).

But it got me thinking about the fact that Platini really does have an abnormal hatred for English football, always trying to think of ways to curb it or reduce it down to the level of the 'lesser' leagues (cause that's the way to go, you wouldn't want to be using the Premier League as a model of how to run a successful league would you?  Why raise the level of many when you can just pull those few above you down).  I decided to look into it.

Here are some Champions League/European Cup stats which show him for the ass that he is (this is the bit I worked on, by which I mean added up, in case you were wondering, cause I obviously wasn't working on my common sense).

Bear in mind that he has had nothing to say about Spain or Italy's dominance in the competition in recent years.

Since the European Cup's first season the winners can be broken down into the following nations:

11 - Spanish

11 - Italian

11 - English

6 - German

6 - Dutch

4 - Portuguese

1 - Scottish

1 - Romanian

1 - French

1 - Dutch

But that's all history you say, what about the Champions League, surely the English teams have ruined it by dominating it.  That's why Platini has such a problem with English teams. 

Have they really?

Since it's inception in the 92/93 season the semi finalists have consisted of:

14- Spanish

13 - English (and nine of those have been since the 04/05 season)

12 - Italian

7 - German

5 - French

4 - Dutch

2 - Portuguese

1 - Ukrainian

1 - Greek

With the finalists being:

10 - Italian (nine finals)

7 - Spanish (six finals)

6 - English (five finals)

4 - German

2 - French

2 - Dutch

1 - Portuguese

An English team didn't even make it to the semi-final stage until the 96/97 season, and only three featured in the semis up to 00/01, while Italian teams featured in the first six finals (not semi's, finals).   There has been one all-Italian final, one all-English final, and one all-Spanish final.

Winning nations of the Champions League? Here you go:

4 - Spanish

4 - Italian

3 - English

2 - German

1 - Portuguese

1 - Dutch

1 - French

As for this year, the teams you have to fear in the Champions League must be Man U and Barcelona (again), but I have not once heard him speak out against La Liga.  Or Serie A.  Maybe that's because it doesn't get reported here.  If he has, I'd be very interested to hear what he said.

So you give me a reason why Platini isn't simply bigoted/jealous/on a vendetta?  It's because the English teams are the only teams in the semi finals?  Really?  What about the 99/00 season when three were Spanish teams competiting in the semi-finals, did we hear from UEFA then?  Or 00/01 when two were Spanish teams?  Or 01/01 when it was the same? Or 05/06?  What about 02/03 when three were Italian teams? 

Football nations have peaks and troughs, this is simply the time for England.  Why can't they have it without UEFA threatening all-sorts.

And as for the Premier League's foreign players affecting the national team, look at the players they have available and coming up through the U-21's and U-18's (a huge chunk of who are Arsenal players).  The only thing wrong with England as a national team has been a chain of shit managers, or rather, managers who were shit at international level.  Steve McLaren?  Seriously?

Do you get the feeling that Platini's pissed because French teams are crap in the Champions League? 

And don't give me the crap that Platini isn't anti-English, he only wants all teams to be able to compete.  Teams from my country can't even get into the bloody Group Stages, even as Champions of their country due to the way the Champions League has been designed to eliminate the 'lesser' teams to make room for bigger clubs who can't win their domestic title.

Champions League ffs - it's right there in the bloody title! If he just wants all teams to compete, turn it back to a simple knock-out competition.  Then you'd see shocks-a-plenty, excitement, and the chance for the little guy to have a go.  Think of the revenue a small club, the Champions of Ireland, Northern Ireland, or Wales, say, would make if they were drawn against Arsenal, or Barcelona?  Wouldn't make as much money for UEFA and the big boys though would it?

Anyway, enough of this folly, I was just interested to see how the figures all panned out and now that I have we can move on.  I've made my point (I hope). With facts.  These are facts (well, the numbers are). Not allegations.  See the difference Hull? And they didn't need an extra five days to compile either.

As I said above, I haven't looked to see what the result of last nights internationals has been on the Arsenal squad, I'm off to the hospital to day for test results with my other half and my nerves are bad enough with that.

Back in the Boardroom, and all signs are pointing to Arsenal trying to ensure that Stan Kroenke becomes Arsenal's sole owner when that day comes (and it will come, sooner than we'd like) rather than the slimy Man-U supporting fat fuck. I'm sure there's much more to come on this story and it's sad to say, but I think the days of Arsenal being run as an old-fashioned club with a board of directors is coming to an end. 

One big sugar daddy like the rest of the big boys, and if you had to pick, which one would you choose:

or

And people wonder why I'm gay...

Another April Fool which got me was this one about us signing the Atomic Ant.  I should have known something was up with the whole thing when there was a quote from Wenger and besides, it isn't 11.58pm on August 31st so there is no way we've signed anyone. 

Another very believable story, especially when you consider that Wenger has tried to sign him 100 times already.  The alarm bells did ring a bit when I read that Wenger had been trying to sign him since he was eight, that's 14 years ago, but I dismissed that part and just got all excited that we were buying players.  Stupid hope, gets me every time.

Elsewhere, we are linked (again) with Trezequet, but I have my doubts about this one.  We already have Eduardo, Adebayor, Van Persie, Walcott, Bendtner, and Arshavin.  Maybe Ade will be leaving in the summer after all.  I doubt Trezequet will become an Arsenal player.

And that's where I'm going to leave it because I obviously don't have the brain capacity to spot the Fools from the facts....I'd be embarrassed but I know I'm not the only one who bought into at least a couple, and I didn't fall for the one about Capello moving the England badge higher so it didn't rub the players nipples...I'm not THAT gullible LMAO

But give it a few years...

Who's got their humour hat on today?

So, after wanting to settle a matter externally, Hull have submitted their (no doubt) sexed-up dossier to the FA.  They actually said that they had to because the FA was involved and they couldn't say no to the FA.  They seem to have forgotten that the FA is only involved because they contacted them. 

At every turn Hull and Phil Brown have shown themselves to be liars of the highest calibre.  Arsene Wenger never shakes Phil Brown's hand...urm, yes he does - photographic evidence.  Cesc spat and only Phil Brown saw it (but now you've added to that list) - audio evidence.  Cesc has spat at someone before, urm, no he hasn't, statements from Ballack and Bayern to back this so that counts as evidence.  Cesc spat at Brian Horton?  Not a drip of evidence.  Not a leg to stand on.  Yet miraculously, others from Hull have now stated they seen the 'incident' and have even been included in the report to the FA.  It's beyond a joke.

They have dug themselves into a hole so deep that the only way for them to get out of it  is to hope that the FA can come to a 'not proven' verdict.  They can't possibly find Cesc guilty, and they won't act against Hull for bringing the game in to disrepute by lying about a fellow professional (though I'd wager that Cesc has more professionalism in his magic little toes that the whole of Hull combined).  As I've said, it irks me,it irks the shit right out of me.  Does anyone know how long these things take with the FA, when we can expect a verdict?

While we're on the subject of people who are complete twats, Cesc has revealed how Real contacted him directly.  But they're Spanish, they're allowed to do that sort of thing.  In fact, I believe Blatter even dials the number while Platini holds the receiver.

Cesc is going nowhere. How many more times does he have to say it?  How much clearer does he have to be?

To be honest, it it wasn't for Spitgate, we wouldn't have a whole lot other than injuries to talk about.  VP has picked up a groin injury - shocker!  Didn't see that one coming, it's not like he's made of fibreglass or anything. And even though the club have stood by him throughout his injury-plagued career at Arsenal, he is the one demanding assurances - again. He'll sign an extension, I'm pretty sure of that.  He just needs to shut up.  Seriously, moaning that you've only won the FA Cup in the last four years, when you have hardly played for three of them does not endear you to fans.  As much as I love him, he needs to wind his ego in a bit and look at the bigger picture.

Yes I'm grumpy, did you notice?  I think I need fed, or coffee, or a slap. Something.

As if the above wasn't enough for us to worry about, Diaby has picked up a hip-injury.  I shit you not.  Did Wenger make a deal with the devil in our Invincible season and now he's collecting?  Adebayor back, Theo, Bendter and VP out.  Cesc back, Diaby out.  Eduardo back, Eduardo out. Come on to fuck, this has been going on all season and I'm fed up with it. 

But what can you do?  Wrap them in cotton wool?  Well, yes, if that's what it takes.  I told you the footballing gods wouldn't allow us to have a fully-fit squad.

And all this is before the next round of International matches tonight.  I fucking hate International weeks.

So, if you're feeling as crap as I am, have a read of this then watch it here.

Til tomorrow, when we find out the extent of the damage from tonight's matches.  Time to say your prayers, rub your lucky whatevers, and kiss a few nuns folks.  So an ordinary day then!

Sing to me...:

I hope you're all doing well this fine Tuesday morning. 

I've had three cups of coffee and I'm raring to go...unlike Bendtner who is back at Arsenal for treatment after wrecking his knee for Denmark. He's a doubt for Saturday so that's the one down to compensate for the return of Adebayor, how many more to follow?  With Cesc due to play against Man City, you have to reckon that someone else will pick up a knock.  That's how it works right?  That's how it's worked all season so far anyway.

We'll know in 48 hours and then it's full-steam ahead into pre-match mode.  There's very little on Bendtner out there, which reflects one of two things: 1. The injury is not that serious, or 2. The media really don't give a toss about Bendter and would rather spend thousands of pounds inking up pages of crap about Cesc....but it isn't looking very good.

Speaking of which, Spitgate has taken another turn with Hull saying they'd welcome 'an amicable end' to the whole affair.  If that's the case just shut the fuck up and carry on with your business of getting relegated. 

The fact that Hull have come out and said they would rather reach an agreement with Arsenal smacks of them having zero evidence to back up their claims.  If one of their players had spat at Pat Rice would we be happy for them simply to say 'sorry'? 

And what happens if they withdraw their complaint?  What happens regarding the slur on Cesc's character?  Isn't that libel or something? I'm pretty sure it is, and you can bet all the saliva you can muster that had it been the other way round Brown would be screaming from the top of BBC Broadcasting House that something should be done. Get up there Wenger and let them have it.  Hehe, the image of it makes me laugh.

It's amazing now, how after Phil Brown himself said no-one else saw the incident, all of a sudden (well, after five days) all of their players and coaching staff saw the incident as well.  Fuck off Phil Brown and Hull.  You've managed to wreck all the good will afforded you by playing so well in the Premier League since your promotion and now we can't wait to see you sent back to where you belong.  It wouldn't surprise me if Brown spat at Horton himself just to get a headline or three.

Shevchenko has said that he thinks Arshavin has made the right move in joining Arsenal.  While we all know this to be true, Shevchenko is hardly the authority on good moves within the Premiership, while being the master of stating the obvious.

I'm not going to comment on the stupidity of Pires statement that Arsenal need to go English if we want success.  But somebody else has here.  He's still a legend.

Although I won't truly believe it til I see him on the pitch, Rosicky is due to make his comeback in the reserves next week.  Fingers crossed he makes it that far, but, as we seen with Eduardo, loads of niggles await him on his road to full recovery.  Let him take it easy and then make up for it next year.  Does this also mean another one of our players will have to get injured?  We can't possibly have an almost fully fit squad, the footballing gods just won't allow it.  And it wouldn't be fair on the other clubs, so I'm sure if that is the case Blatter will step in and nobble a few himself.

At boardroom level, Danny Fizman sold some shares, Stan Kronke bought them (£42,500,000 worth/5,000 shares).  The club and everybody involved say it'll have no impact on Arsenal.  Time will tell, but better they go into Stan's pocket than that fat, hideous 'thing' from Uzbekistan if they have to go anywhere. 

Where Lady Nina's will go nobody knows.  The highest bidder probably.   1 share = £8,500. Bloody hell. I want some!  Even just one would make me happy.  Not for the money you understand, but to be able to say I have a share in Arsenal.  My Man U supporting mate has one (or a couple, I wasn't listening) in Man U, but then I wouldn't take those if you gave them to me dipped in honey.  Unless they came with the power to send the club into melt-down for a giggle.

Anyways, back to the football, and if we avoid defeat on Saturday that will take us to 17 unbeaten.  Are we witnessing the start of the 'New Invincibles'?

I was surprised to read this article about Adebayor.  I was convinced he was a no-brainer to leave in the Summer.  Maybe he sees what Wenger and only the most optimistic fan sees at the minute, which is the total and complete domination of England and Europe. He could still go, and would be my favourite to leave out of all the big players that generate the headlines.

It's been a strange, freak of a season, and I still say there is a monster of a surprise to come.  Let's hope it's this one.

Til tomorrow.... and don't forget to fly your flag for the Arsenal!

(all Arsenal fans thoughts. I'm sure, go out to the friends and families of those affected by the tragic events at the Ivory Coast's match. We can only imagine what you must be going through, and I don't really know what else to say.)

Who wants today's Kudos points?