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'

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I like Cudicini I do. I knows he's not only a spud but an ex-chav as well but I've always liked him. I thought he was a great keeper, admired the way he handled things after he was shit on at Chelsea, and how could you not appreciate his gift to Henry at Highbury?

Being on a somewhat different planet for over a week now I've had a relative abscence of news in my life and what I have seen has arrived by way of Arsenal-related blogs. There was mention yesterday in Arseblog about Cudicini and a motorbike but I just figured it was a joke I didn't get as can be the case. Two broken wrists, a broken pelvis and a wrote of BM bike is a shit day all round to say the least but when you throw in an Arsenal fan as the driver of the car he collided with, well, let's just say there's no point doing the lottery any time soon.

I'm torn.  

One the one hand it's never nice to see any genuinely nice bloke injured in such a way, but on the other, it's fucking hilarious that an Arsenal fan smashed up a spud player. Why couldn't it have been Robbie Keane? Or Bentley? I doubt even the spuds fans would give a toss about that. But, such is life, it is often the least deserving who get to carry on being smug little shits while the decent ones end up pissing through a tube.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, the interlull is still very much with us.

In other news, non Arsenal related, Wayne Rooney has been talking about how he still hasn't changed his classily-named babys nappy. You'd think he'd have no problem with that seeing as he has to wash a face which resembles an arse evry day.

This is what qualifies for column inches these days. There's probably been a natural disaster of biblical proportions in the world, and I get to read about wazzas brat's manure filled nappy.

Football today is mostly of the friendly kind, apart from the monster tie which is Ireland v France later tonight. In the Wales v Scotland game, not only did Aaron Ramsey run the game, get on the scoresheet, and create the assists for the first two, he made Darren Fletcher his bitch for the entire time they were both on the pitch (from what I saw). The man who's only contribution to football seems to be to foul even tried to pull and haul Ramsey down as he went through on goal, but great feet and strength saw Ramsey bury his effort with Fletcher still hanging on to him. Referees don't penalise you because of Wenger Fletcher, they penalise you because you are a thug. And a fucking ugly one at that.

It's only coming up to half-time in the Wales v Scotland match so I've no idea how that might pan out (it's 3-0 Wales so I think I could make an educated guess), but if Ramsey can survive the rest of the kicking's he's gonna get from Flecther for making him look like an epileptic monkey, he'll have really laid down his marker for more first team starts.

And on that note, I think I shall go and feed my face. Not much else to be doing til the England B's take on Brazil, and then it's just football, football, football...for a few hours at least.

And I know it might be seen as shameless self-promotion, but you'll be needing to get xmas pressies soon so I'm just trying to help. Honest.

Go on, you know you want it...you really do

www.arsenaltshirts.com

Just for ArsenalAdam, well, it's not just for him, but he was asking if there could be some Tshirts of the Invincibles...more on the way so keep an eye out

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Well, here we go, let's give this a try. This Interlull hasn't been as kind as the last one. Inner ear problem or Amsterdam? You'd have to be as thick as a Spud to chose the ear thing, but given that there was no choice involved on my part my intelligence levels can in no way be comparable.

And just so you know, despite what Jamrock says, The Verve did lie...the drugs do work...how can you not love the NHS? Once they work out what it actually is I'll be even better and more grateful, but until then, I'm going to struggle on.

Enough of that, you've heard enough of my 'issues' over the last week or so. That being said, from what I've been reading, there hasn't really been that much else going on. Sunu wants to go on loan, Le Boss wants him to sign a new contract before he does so, no doubt aware of the lure of regular first-team football and the effect that can have on someone coming to the end of a contract. I can't say I've seen that much of him, and he hasn't made a name for himself in the reserves the way others such as Watt, Wilshere, Merida et al have, but who am I to question Wenger? He may not know a goalkeeper from a 6ft telegraph pole, but he does know youngsters, so I bow to his judgement.

Rumours abound about this player and that player being scouted by us as we head closer to January, and no doubt there is truth in the rumours that we scout players. Who the hell doesn't? But are we scouting the players detailed in the red-tops and shit-top Daily Mail? I very much doubt it. After all, when was the last time we signed someone the papers actually knew anything about (Arshavin aside)? I feel pretty certain we will see at least one arrival in January, and the non-wonky side of me thinks it will be a keeper. Blah blah blah you say as you fear I'll head off on another 'buy Akinfeev' rant, but you know it's what we need, and I'm pretty sure Wenger knows it too. Had Nervianski not required surgery, I'm pretty sure we would have seen him return to goal ahead of The Spanish Slow Reactor, but my faith in him has wained over the past season and a bit. Where I'd thought he could be world-class, I now wonder if he's even Spud-class. Harsh? Perhaps, he's young, but why is he so nervous? Is Mad Jens still stalking the place throwing evil-monkey gestures at any keeper who looks like he might become number one? It would explain a lot, even why Chesney seems the most confident of keepers. If he's daft/mad enough to manage to break both his arms at the same time you have to believe he thinks he can out-crazy the German and sees him as no threat.

Bloody hell, this is nonsense.

If you happen to be in the area, Arsenal will be showing the away match against Sunderland live in the Emirates. When you think how shit internet streams can be, it's a pretty good idea. Another way for the club to generate income and give the fans a bigger space than the Chapman or Rocket to watch the match. Result all round. It still defies me in this day and age (and with the demand for tickets far exceeding availability) that we can't get live matchs on TV in the UK. Surely there's some way they can sort out a rights package that would allow that? Who here wouldn't gladly sacrifice Match of the Day and their usual three-minute, end-of-programme coverage of Arsenal's Saturday's 3pm kick offs for a live match on TV for a quid or more a month on top of their sports package?

I'm gonna shut up now. More TShirts to design, it's become like an addiction (maybe it's actually application, but since I've never had that I don't know what it feels like). In case you've only just stumbled across this blog, check out www.arsenaltshirts.com which is getting somewhere in the region of 5,000 hits per day....if only I could find a way of converting those in to sales I'd be sorted. Perhaps my designs are just crap. Ah well, keeps me happy, and out of trouble, and doesn't involve head movement which still has the tendency to make me fall over.

It's all just a riot at the minute eh?

Til tomorrow...

It won't let you down

www.arsenaltshirts.com

Making injuries last longer since 2006

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(blog will be back very soon, next day or so I'd say if things keep going the way they are :))

And there's only 100 of them...so get it quick:

Get yours here

Anyone who has tried to email me at info@arsenaltshirts.com might have noticed that the email either bounced back or you just didn't get a response. Given the hugmungous number of hits (so many I thought there must be a glitch with the tracker at first) www.arsenaltshirts.com has received in it's first few days I thought things were a bit quiet on the email front and it turns out there was a glitch with the set up. It's all fixed now, so feel free to get in touch...and keep coming by www.arsenaltshirts.com as new designs being added all the time....

Blog-wise, I'm not sure when I'll be up to that. Went back to work today and that was an absolute disaster. I've now been instructed by the doctor to take the rest of the week off while I wait to find out what's going on (it's not an ear-infection). Sitting planted on my sofa with my laptop involves a hell of a lot less movement than being in work which is a good thing for my balance apparently but may not be seen as such in certain quarters. You know what I mean...but seriously, how much crap on TV can one person watch?

See you all soon hopefully, but, as always, if you're missing your daily Arsenal fix and don't already, go read Cesc is God by Jamrock Rover or Tales from Gillespie Road from Rockthecasbah

What are you waiting for? Go! Now!