Thank goodness for the Sunday papers. So hellbent on printing shit they have focused more on Lionel 'I'm another Barcelona cunt' Messi's pleas to Cesc to join him at Barca and become the world's greatest midfielder than our defeat at Sunderland. Not only is this yet another insult to Cesc, it is another one to Arsenal and I for one can't wait to get them in the Champions League so the World's greatest midfielder can slam their lack of respect into the back of their net three or four times.

Do they just take it in turns at Barcelona? 'I said it last week, it's your turn.'

Cunts.

The News of the World has an interview with Arshavin where he urges Wenger to buy expensive players in January to keep our title bid on track, especially given the loss of Van Persie. Ignoring the fact that all being well VP will be back by January, the fact that they quote Arshavin as saying things such as "Arsene needs to buy new players and expensive ones. All the talented and inexpensive players are already with us and the players who could really boost our power are all costly to bring in. I realise that if we buy a star, someone in the squad will be rejected but this is fair. It is the manager's job to decide such things," you realise that a little more than a lot of 'artistic' licence has been taken as anyone who has ever heard Andrei speak knows that his English is nowhere near as fluent as this.

He does like to talk does the little magician, and he also acknowledges that he has been below par this season. Perhaps if he picks up his game there will be no need for a January signing, but I have a feeling we will see movement when the window opens. Will it be the 'expensive' signing that AA craves? I doubt it, but then Wenger has very rarely equated value/cost with talent and usually gets more of the latter for less of the former.

In Arsene we trust, and Arshavin needs to start shutting up and leaving these things to Le Boss.

By all accounts, Fran Merida looks set to spurn a move to Athletico Madrid (even though they haven't even made an offer for him) to sign a new deal with Arsenal, and there is news on Arsenal.com that the club has started contract negotiations with Gallas, Vela and Rosicky. Who here this time last year would have wanted to see Gallas's contract extended? Not many. I for one put all the blame for the trouble between him and Kolo quarely at William's door and it seems that I was more than a little unfair. It now seems imperititve that we sign him for another season or two at least. Afterall, how many seasons in a decade can you pull a Vermaelen out of nowhere? Vela is a no-brainer, we all know he will be a world-class striker if given the chance, and Rosicky's full body transplant seems to have taken so that's another no-brainer. Between the three, the only one I can see there being any problems with is Vela. Rosicky has a debt to repay the club, Gallas looks like he's finally enjoying it Arsenal, but Carlos might have doubts about the amount of football he's getting as well as his place in the pecking order. Hopefully the boss can give his the assurances he'll be requiring.

The News of the World runs a piece on Cesc saying that he can never please Wenger, but I'm pretty sure that's a really old interview so I'm not going to bother with it. We know the respect which exisits between the two of them, we know the truth. And we also know that Cesc is Arsenal's captain with Arsenal DNA. Suck it up Barca.

A little but of nonsense to end the day with and it's good to see that the ex-25 is saving hard for his retirement, only paying a cabbie £50 for a UB40 CD lying on his dashboard which he could have picked up for about £3 in HMV. Perhaps it was the word 'dash' which appealed to him, a strange word that he'd never heard before and he got a little confused. What a wab. As is Phil Brown who apparently believes he could be the next England manager. Sorry Phil, too orange. As well as being too much of a twat.

That's that for today...writitng this has made me dizzy so I'm off to do my Diaby impression with some twirling.

Til tomorrow...hopefully

Hands up who didn't see that coming? At about 20 minutes I said to Garantia this has 0-0 or 1-0 Sunderland written all over it. Maybe it's my current medical state which actively discourages getting passionate about anything lest I fall on my arse even from a sitting position, but a defeat such as this has not overly concerned me. Yes, I know, all defeats should be concerning, but this one wasn't.

And no, the reason we failed to score for the first time since May was not solely down to the fact that we had no Robin van Persie. I would, however, say it was more of a factor than I thought it would be.

We never got going, but neither did Sunderland. Their goal was quite fortunate, and no blame can be pinned to Almunia, although I would still quite happily pin a 'for sale' sign to him such was his apparent lack/lateness of reaction to most other things which came his way.

When you think that the Spuds agreed to play their game against Wigan a day later due to Internationals (in which they had about one player involved) you can't help but wonder if another 24 hours would have done us much good? With the Champions League mid-week that was never going to be an option. We should have had enough on the pitch to overturn Sunderland, but this is a team which is turning their home into a fortress with only Chelsea able to go there and get three points this season.

Sure, it sucks to lose, but it is November and we aren't normally too hot on the back of an interlull. The fact that it leaves us still in second (probably slipping to third with a Man U win against Everton) five points behind Chelsea with a game in hand and them up next is no bad position to be in when you look at where we were this time last year, and where we could be this if we'd been playing like Liverpool. And where the pundits all had us pre-season.

I don't think we troubled their keeper until Sunderland had taken the lead, and while we never looked threatening we never really looked in danger. By the time we were in trouble, we had simply left ourselves too much to do with not enough time to do it.

No doubt, we'll see Gallas, Sagna, Cesc and a few others rested against Standard on Tuesday as all eyes turn to the show-down with Chelsea. All season I've been saying that it's not the games against the other 'big four' which win you the league, but the games against the Fulham's and the Sunderlands. In this case, this defeat at Sudnerland needs to see us pulling out all the stops to beat Chelsea and I think you'll see us do it.

That was our first defeat in 13 matches, so it had to come sometime. Not that there's any good time to lose, but if we have to, let it be in the league match before Chelsea come to the Grove. A good kick up the arse is sometimes what these players need, and that's exactly what they got today.

And am I right in saying there was another stonewall penalty on Vela not given? My stream and eyesight were both a bit stuttery and they never bothered to show a replay so I don't know. It very much looked like it and there was a huge shout from the travelling Arsenal fans. Another one to add to the list of penalties we still haven't gotten since Eduardo v Celtic in August. It's getting beyond a joke now.

I'll leave it there for now as my head isn't really clear enough to do a proper assesment. Needless to say, defeat is never pleasant, and perhaps I should thank my lucky stars that I'm not off this world too much as it doesn't hurt anywhere near as much as it usually does.

Something to be thankful for at least.

I'm going to try and blog after the match today as my symptoms subside as the meds build up in my system so I'm in better shape as the day goes on..but in the meantime, if you are, like me, looking for a stream for the Arsenal match, you should be able to find one at one of these sites:

http://justin.tv

http://www.atdhe.net/ (the last stream this site had was the best I've ever seen)

http://www.iraqgoals.net/

http://livefooty.doctor-serv.com/

No guarantees tho...so if you have any other streams, don't be greedy and keep them all to yourself...share, share, share :)

I'm iller today than I was yesterday and can hardly see straight to watch TV let alone put something out there in a blog but after the reaction to Henry's hand I felt I had to blog. On Twitter last night as I signed of for the evening I advised everyone to keep a look out for how this would all be Arsenal's fault. Somehow, Anelka's dive and Henry's handball are evidence of a cheating culture inbred into Arsenal players. Will we hear the same thing about Manchester United everytime Ronaldo doves at Madrid? How many years ago did Anelka leave us? Henry has been gone two seasons now, yet still, somehow, despite never having done anyting like this at Arsenal, it is all Arsenal's fault.

Then we get to the actual handball itself. As Arsenal fans we should know how it feels to be on the end of an over-reaction so nuclear that it ruins a players reputation completely. Do I agree with what Henry did? No. Did he plan it? No. Would any other player in the same situation have done the same thing on insticint? You better fucking believe they would. Don't forget, it wasn't that long ago that England players admitted they would happily dive to win a penalty to win the World Cup. Don't you dare tell me the reaction wouldn't be different if it was the other way round. If it had been Robbie Keane's hand which had deprived the French of a place at the World Cup everyone would be having a great 'ol chuckle at the French right about now. Had the French done it against any other nation except a 'home' one, no-one would have even commentated.

Yes, Ireland were the better team, but did they score the goals they needed to go through? No, they didn't. This is something else we should get as Arsenal fans, how many times have we outplayed a team only to lose or draw to an unfortunate, unlucky, or even dubuiously acquired goal? Too many for me to remember in my present state. Football is about results, that's what we're told. Ireland had 210 minutes in which to score more than one goal. They didn't. Robbie Keane himself had enough chances to put the tie beyond France, just because he's too shit to know where the back of the net is most of the time does not give everyone the right to tear Henry apart. And that's not even taking into consideration all the matches played in the group stages where Ireland had enough opportunity to seal their place at the World Cup without having to go to a play-off.

210 minutes. 12,600 seconds. Yet all the papers and fans seem to care about is the split second in which Henry made his decision, the half a second it took for him to handle the ball, and the years which he spent as an Arsenal player.

It's a load of fuck. As much a load of fuck as the Eduardo 'incident.' How can that one split second wipe out everything he has achieved before? How can it sully everything he will do from here on in? How many times do you think it will be referred to in South Africa next year? It's an absolute joke and as Arsenal fans, Irish or not, we should know better.

You don't have to condone him, but unless you are a walking, living, breathing saint, don't you dare condemn him either.

It's a sad state of affairs when one of the only people defending him is Alex McLeish. He is right, it was an instinctual thing. It does not make him a cheat. And for Arsenal fans to be up in arms as they are is nothing short of hypocritical. I know some good friends of mine on here have taken it hard. I would suggest that you take a giant step back, take a long hard look at what Eduardo was put through, and ask yourself HONESTLY if your reaction is rational, or if you are behaving exactly as everyone else did when Eduardo 'dived' against Celtic.

I think you'll find you are...even just a little bit.

(typos, words missing etc? Apologies, double-vision makes it all but impossible to proof properly)

I could have put this as a comment but I thought it deserved to stand alone, loud and proud. Finally, we have an injury which is NOT as bad as first feared. Kieran Gibbs has NOT broken his foot.

Hallefuckinluhayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

See for yourself here if you don't believe me, I wouldn't blame you, it does seem like the stuff of fantasy

Isn't it typical, you wait all year for a horse story and then two come along at once. Like the number 7 going up the Ormeau Road in Belfast, or whatever your local bus is that decides it's too afraid to drive up a road on it's own so it'll wait for it's mate.

I'm still really sick, be prepapred for a hell of a lot more nonsense ahead. At this point, I'd even consider eating VP's horse placenta, never mind just rubbing it somewhere (why does that sound rude?)

So the boredom of the interlull has seen some bloggers and 'reporters' linking us with a move for Ol' Horseface himself. Should I even give this rumour any time at all? Perhaps only to say that it is probably the only signing we could possibly make which would see Butternut's stauts at the club rise by some height from the depths of most disliked & pointless Arsene signing.

The news coming out regarding young Gibbs injury is not heartening at all as there are suggestions that his metatarsal may be broken. Which one we don't yet know, but any break is not a good thing. Does anyone ever remember hearing of a metatarsal before the introduction of blades? Perhaps something to be looked at.

The only good thing that I can see with this latest injury is that Traore was supposed to be 'just short' for the Wolves game and the injuries we're getting are in positions where we are thankfully strong in depth. There's a lot of opposing fans out there basically telling Arsenal fans to shut up about injuries and that's what squad depth is supposed to be about and if our manager wasn't so tight we'd have no problems, but seriously, how would ANY club in the world deal with the loss of 10 fringe and current first-teamers? Not as well as Arsenal, that's how. Look at how Liverpool have imploded with the injury of two or three, look how Man U have struggled with just the sale of one of their top players, and it will be very interesting to see how Cheslea deal with the couple of injuries they have picked up recently.

Needless to say, Arsenal fans worldwide will be holding their breath as they await news from the internationals especially when you consider that the players likely to figure tonight are Cesc, Vermaelen, Gallas, Sagna, and Arshavin. Hardly what you'd call 'fringe' players. There should be some rule in place, especially with regards to the pointless friendlies, like Saving Private Ryan, when a club has already suffered a ridiculous amount of injuries, national sides should be forced to send the remaining players from that club home just to be on the safe side.

I'll leave it there, the world is not a happy place at the minute. Dizziness, sickness, no Arsenal football and a player crocked almost daily, maybe I should do the lotto for tonight, afterall, the luck has to change at some point.

Before I go, I'd just like to let you know that the Tshirts on Arsenaltshirts.com have been reduced to £12.99 and the site hosting them seem to have fixed the problem which made all the images look like a big pile of blurred mush. Go have a look at the UK store (there's a USA one too incase you'd prefer to buy from that side of the pond), you won't be disappointed and there's loads of red ones as well as others you can pick your own colour of Tshirt. All very 21st century. Unless you're skint, then it's just cruel.

OMG I'm so ill again :'( this is not even funny...had to come home from work and I'm wobbling like I've had another three bottles of vodka..another sick line and another week of work while I wait for a hospital appointment. If I'm going to appear to others as if I'm plastered I would at least like the enjoyment of being so.

But at least I'm not an Arsenal left back...fucking stupid useless internationals.

Anyone know if Traore is fit yet? Will we see Butternut playing there against Sunderland? Can't see Wenger splitting The Verm/Gallas if he can help it even though Vermaelen can play left-back (he can can't he?) I supose there's always Eboue, he always does so well on the left....8O

And to think..I had so many placenta jokes lined up...

Maybe tomorrow folks, maybe tomorrow

At Asburton Grove Medical Centre, there are people who like to make optimistic statements. Then there are the players themselves who always think that they can come back sooner than they are actually able. Van Persie and the AGMC reckon he will be back in around six weeks. At Arsenal, that means anything this side of next christmas. His leg is still attached. For that we can be grateful.

Away from VP's injury, there isn't a whole lot else going on as we enter week two of the interlull. I disgracefully forgot to mention Alex Song who qualified for the World Cup at the weekend, all by himself no doubt. As a player who is rapidly establishing himself as my favourite it was very, very naughty of me. I hope he forgives me.

There's more talk about Big Phil wanting away in January and you can't really blame him. While he mightn't be everyone's cup of fondue (I couldn't find a national drink for Switzerland, and I know fondue doesn't come in cups, but work with me on this) he is too good to be relegated the bench 99% of the season. You have to feel that he will force his way out of the club when the window opens, unless the unthinkable has happened and we've lost either Gallas or The Verminator to injury. Will the boss let him go? Will he think we have enough cover with only Butternut? Will he think Kyle Bartley is ready to step up to the grown-ups team, or perhaps rely on Song to fill in should injury strike? I don't know. He won't take my calls to answer these questions so, like the rest of the world, we shall all just have to wait until January 31st to see what has happened.

After a very quiet weekend on the Arsenal.com site it seems the web-dude is back from wherever he went and there's a whole host of new nonsense on the site, such as the things Arshavin loves about England. You can't help but think this is no more than a PR exercise as he hasn't been too complimentary so far. And a not very good one at that. He talks about how he still hasn't settled, and the interviewer guy practically has to drag information out of him about what he likes about London. Apparently London is quiet and slow compared to where he is from, which is just simply mental. Really, when you listen to the interview, it's quite clear that Andrei does seem to be having trouble settling and the only thing he enjoys is work. I hope that changes, because if a player can't settle then he won't stay.

And that's all there is today, apart from the usual sales pitch...get your Arse to www.arsenaltshirts.com and pick up some xmas pressies for yourself and your gooner loving family and friends. Alternatively, you can get even cheaper Tshirts in my eBay shop (another two designs have been added and should be showing in the shop in an hour or two but you can preview them here and here), Tshirts transfers if you are of the do-it-yourself kind of person, as well as the only Arsenal Periodic Table in the Universe as either an A3 poster or a super-sized postcard. The large postcards are so good that even my Man-U supporting mate took one to promote them. How can you then, as a Gooner, resist?

You can't..go NOW!

I wrote the following before I got the news that "Van Persie has torn his anterior inferior tibiofibular ligament, and his anterior talofibular ligament has unfortunately snapped- hes out for the rest of the season." No club confirmation yet, so let's hope this is just some little journalist jumping the gun.

After over a week mostly off the radar, it took until late Saturday evening, and an email from a South African in America (thanks Greg) for me to find out about Van Persie. Greg said he needed a drink after hearing about VP's injury, and I had no clue what he was talking about. The first thing that came into my head was 'break' so off I went to Sky Sports. Nothing. Arsenal.com. Nothing, though no surprise there as they are usually the last to break most Arsenal stories.

After finding it via google and emailed links, my next thought, after ‘for fuck's sake,’ was maybe this was the opportunity needed to play Theo through the middle. Eduardo is already accomplished there, and Vela should be getting more starts, so while it is an awful thing, I think we have more than enough all round to cover, and while I’m sure there’ll be doom and gloom merchants about, I think they either don’t know or forget how deadly Vela’s touch and finish are. And he's just one of many who can step in.

Finger’s crossed as like you I’m reading two months – rest of season so the best thing I think I can say is at least it’s not Vermaelen or Gallas.

The injury hokey-cokey and that damn November jinx hits again, but if you look around the clubs who had players away on pointless duty, most picked up knocks. No point yapping about it.

I'm sure there are quite a few Arsenal fans out there going ballistic at the news. After all, it was a friendly too far away from the World Cup to be of any benefit, but we also have to remember that this is Van Persie. This is what happens to him. This is what happens to Arsenal. I would be very interested to see the injury stats for the past year or so comparing us to all other clubs in the Premier League. I think we can safely assume it is one league we would be top off, yet you never hear Wenger bemoaning all the injuries (he might moan about VP, but that's an International thing, not an Arsenal injury crisis thing). Look at the crying Rafa has done over the past few weeks, and the Spuds. Boo fucking hoo as they say round these parts. I've asked it before and I'll ask it again, I'd love to know when we were physically able to field the same team two games in a row? Also, has there been a week in the last 12-18 months were we haven't lost a player to injury? Sure as hell doesn't feel like it.

And that wasn't yapping, it was just pondering. Just to be clear on that.

I suppose if you wanted to take positive thinking to a new level you could always look at the fact that all these injuries mean our players won't suffer so much from burn-out throughout the season, and who knows, if VP is out for a few months, we can always hope he can come back, fresh and firing, for the run-in.

Elsewhere, the Internationals were rather kinder to Aaron Ramsey who single handedly destroyed the Scots. Sagna and Gallas got the goal and clean sheet they wanted to take back to Paris for Wednesday, Arshavin & Russia won 2-1 against Slovenia, though I'm sure they're not best pleased about conceding an away goal, while Vermaelen showed he is ready to step in for VP if needed by bagging yet another goal as Belgium beat Hungary 3-0. Cesc and Spain beat Argentina 2-1, Xavi Alonso showing yet again why Liverpool are mental by scoring both, Eduardo also got two as Croatia spanked Lichtenstein showing he's ready to fill in as well,  Senderos was not involved as Switzerland lost their 11-game unbeaten record 1-0 to Norway,  Mannone played in goal as his Italian u21 side lost 2-0 away to Hungary, Lansbury got a call up to the England u21 squad which defeated Portugal, though he didn't get any minutes, and Gibbs played the full 90 and managed to not get one single mention in a minute-by-minute report which is good for a defender I suppose, but maybe not for one who likes to get forward as much as Kieran. Did I forget anyone? I don't think so, I think everyone else is injured.

Away from the Internationals and back to Arsenal and it is great to hear Fran Merida speaking about how he is only focused on Arsenal. Let's hope he gets his pen out pretty sharpish and signs his new deal. Who knows, with the need to shuffle things around, he might just get more game-time than he would have thought. He said ""I am committed to Arsenal and I am only thinking of playing there,” which is something he's probably going to have to say a lot in the next few years if he really does turn out to be Cesc Mark II.

To finish, I think there is only one thing to do, and that is to quote Greg, the South African in America. He sums everything up perfectly "This whole season's gonna be about us defying the odds, fuck the rest. Viva ARSENAL!"

What else could you put on a Tshirt with the crazy one? Yes, it says 'crazy muthafucka'

www.arsenaltshirts.com