Eduardo-o-o-o-o

Yes indeedy, the Crozillian got a game last night for the reserves against Stoke but had a very quiet first half.  To be honest, the first half wasn't a great spectacle, though some nice individual touches stood out.

I missed the first Stoke goal as I was getting my dinner out of the oven - three minutes I was away, three piddley minutes.  Jack Wilshere's equaliser for Arsenal five minutes later was just sublime, a curler from the corner of the box with the outside of his boot and I was glad I hadn't let my dinner burn a little bit longer.

A poor piece of defending meant Stoke took the lead again, the marking at the far post looking straight out of the first team manual.  By the half hour mark Eduardo had still been pretty invisible. He just didn't get into the game, and I suppose most of my disappointment came from hyping myself up about seeing him play.  What touches he did have looked neat, tidy, and strong, one of them leading to Rui Fonte missing a chance of almost Bentesque proportions.

After going down to ten men, Arsenal started to play a bit more, as Arsenal teams tend to do, and Jack Wilshere equalised with another shot from the corner of the box with the help of a little deflection and not the best goalkeeping. Rui Fonte then shaved the post with a cheeky little dink, perfectly controlled from about 16 yards out.

With six minutes to go, Nordveit hit the post from a corner whipped in by Bischoff who had done nothing else of note the whole night.  Then, with three minutes left, a Cesc-like pass put through Eduardo who poked it under the keeper and into the net...but he was offside, though he might have been level.  All of a sudden, Arsenal where starting to rip Stoke apart, precision passes through the middle.  But in the third minute off injury time Stoke missed what can only be described as a chance that made Darren Bents look almost impossible to score from.  Abysmal defending but from what could only have been three inches out the Stoke player put it the wrong side of the post. 

It finished 2-2.

The other main thing of note was that Eduardo completed the whole match.  Granted, it wasn't the most exhausting 90 minutes he's ever had in his life, but it was 90 minutes nontheless.

Fran Merida showed some impressive passes and touches, his eye for the final pass is incredibly sharp, as his ability to execute it, but gave the ball away quite a bit in the middle of the pitch.  Even given that, he definitely is looking more and more like a premier league player each time I see him. I'm a fan and hope he can fulfill what is a huge potential.

It was great to see a woman refereeing the match, given a very competent and solid display, unlike a lot of her male premier league colleagues.  I didn't catch her full name at first, but I got her first one when she was being patronised by the commentators who picked apart every decision she made, deeming them worthy of their approval or not.

After googling her, I found out she was Amy Rayner, the female referee who was the brunt of Mike Newell's sexist tirade a few years back.  I'm sure we'll be seeing her more at this level if not above.  And about time too. I particularly liked the fact that she didn't even book Mannone when he handled outside the area.  It was an accident, nothing intentional or malicious about it, and a foul for which I have always thought a straight-red was a bit harsh.  Sure when it's deliberate or when accidental stops a goal scoring opportunity, but when a keeper simply falls out of his area, it's a bit much. She did, however, have no choice in sending off Mark Randall for a disgraceful over-the-top challenge.  It was a leg breaker and a straight-red no question, and when he watches it back he should be ashamed. 

While we're on the reserves (Hugo) Ogogo will be staying at Barnet for the rest of the season.  Here's to lot's of first-team football for the 19-year-old.

Away from the actual football, we enter the world of fantasy football where the Arsharvin blah blah blah has turned into a complete farce.  I don't know what planet Zenit are living on, but they need to return to this one pretty damn soon before they're landed with a player who doesn't want to be there and not a penny nearer the £20million plus 5,000 add-ons they want.  Arsharvin is threatening to buy out his contract (which he can't do until November) and it is on the verge of getting nasty.  This isn't the Arsenal way of doing transfers and the sooner we can untangle ourselves from this mess the better...whatever the outcome.

An interesting little story sees us possibly coming to an agreement with Polish side Slask Wroclaw with a view to them becoming a feeder club for us.  I don't know anything at all about them, but the more connections we have globally the more talent Wenger can unearth and that can only be a good thing for Arsenal.

The 'Real Madrid want Wenger, Cesc, and the Arsenal tea-lady' story has surfaced again, both in the Daily Star (so it MUST be true) and on goal.com (I'm sure it's elsewhere as well).  I'm also pretty sure Wenger and Cesc have made their opinions clear on this matter so there's nothing more to discuss.  The fact that Real Madrid are a bunch of f**kers could do with more discussion.  It is in Perez's bid to become Madrid's president that he has decided to deliver Wenger to the club.

Good luck with that.  Maybe you could deliver a 30 degree, rain and snow-free February here in Ireland while you're at it.