After stating that they won't order a replay, I see that FIFA are pulling 'irregular betting patterns' out of their arse to force an extraordinary meeting on December 2nd.

Is this the first step in moving towards a backtrack and a replay order? Stranger things have happened, decide for yourself here

Two posts in one day, I know, but this is just a quickie, which might be how I have to do things until I get sorted. This article just came into my inbox, and while I know you all know how much Cesc loves Arsenal, and he has reiterated his commitment to the Gunners more often than I've had dizzy spells, it's always nice, and in this article in the Times, he even adds a new bit...

Asked whether he could stay at Arsenal for the long term, Fabregas said: "Why not? I have never really thought about it, staying here all my life, because you never know what your career will bring. It is my seventh season now, I am really happy, better than ever, so you never know." 

Read it for yourself here and if you happen to have Laporta, Messi, or Xavi's email address, please pass it along.

So, the weekend has gone, the result at Sunderland banished from our memories and filled under 'sucky November results' and we head now into Champions League action needing only a point to secure qualification for the round Liverpool won't be in. A win will see us win the group and, to be honest, other than pride and the chance to play at home on the second leg, the draw for teams winning their group is just as likely to screw you over as if you finished second.

All that being said, we have a point to prove after their last minute equaliser and we need to start learning the lessons that the first half/second half table is trying to teach us. As I said yesterday, if matches finished after 45 minutes we'd be comfortably clear at the top even with our game in hand. If it was based on second half results alone we'd be fourth. That's a hell of a drop. It was late in the second half we conceded against Sunderland, West Ham, Standard Liege and the rest, so I don't know if we need to start playing 135 minute matches in training. but it's an issue which needs addressing. And sharpish.

I don't know what it is but I have a strange feeling that we might see Carlos get a start tomorrow night in place of Eduardo. Like most other bloggers, I can see there being a lot of changes for the game against Standard. Will he risk Eddie with Chelsea looming on the Premier League horizon? I think it's safe to say that Eddie has lost his shooting boots lately, spurning chances he'd normally take with his eyes closed and on one leg. Strikers go through patches like this and all he needs is one in off his arse Gallas-style and then he'll be hitting the net from all over the place. It's only to be expected. Since he arrived at Arsenal, he has been pretty much guaranteed to score nearly everytime he plays. A dry-spell is nothing to worry about.

Should we leave him on to let him try and find his boots against the 'lesser' opposition that is Standard, risking injury? It's a dilemma, but one, no doubt, that Wenger knows the answer to. Having already stated that he doesn't like to make more than three changes between matches as it is too unsettling, we know we are going to see Eboue come in for Sagna, Gallas more than likely rested and Senderos get his first start, and I wouldn't mind seeing Merida start for Ramsey though I have a sneaky feeling we could see Denilson get his first game since his injury so there's your three right there.

Can Rosicky and Nasri start two in a row? Or will Theo get a start? Will Gibbs come in for Traore if he's fit? Personally, I hope not. If he did indeed suffer an impact injury the last thing he needs is another whack on it and I'd far rather give him the extra few days to let swelling and bruising settle and have him for Chelsea than risk him and have Traore play against the Chavs instead. Or Butternut. Which just doesn't even warrant thinking about as stress makes me dizzier.

Normally I'd hold a preview until the day of the match, but with my dizziness coming and going, I'm just getting what I can out there while I can.

As you may or may not heard, I won the Herbert Chapman football signed by the whole squad on the fans forum on Arsenal TV on Friday. Delighted to say the least. So far, though, I haven't heard from them, and since I didn't send my address with my entry (just my phone number and email address obviously) I'm starting to wonder what's going on. Anyone know how long these things take? I WANT MY FOOTBALL!!

Right, can't type anymore, have to go and rest my head or something....I hate to think how bad I'd be if it wasn't for the meds...gotta love them drugs...

Til tomorrow...hopefully once again.

{EDIT as you may have noticed, like the eagle-eyed Jamrockrover, I got all my European fixtures and results mixed up...I'm impaired, you know what I meant lol}

I have watched, rewatched, and watched again the penalty incident with Vela yesterday, it is as clear, blatant, and unmissible as the one by Fletcher on Arshavin at Old Trafford. Vela has his legged hooked clean from under him and there is no planet in the universe on which that is anything other than a stonewall penalty.

Absolutely disgraceful decision not to give. The Sunderland player isn't anywhere near the ball, he simply hacks Vela's leg away and Wylie has as clear a view as he could want. Something has to be done about this, it's bad enough when we don't get the '50:50' penalty claims, but when we are consistently being denied blatant ones such as this something MUST be done by Arsenal. Maybe if Wenger starts making a fuss in the media....then again, maybe not. Then we'd probably never get one.

Are we the only team in the Premier League NOT to get a penalty so far this season? Sure seems like it, and surely we must be the only team with so many stonewall penalty claims simply waived away.

I can't find any stats, any help to clarify would be appreciated.

Also, have a look at this  It's clear where our problems lie, even having played a game less, we would be 5 points clear of Chelsea if games finished in the first half. What happens to us and our superior fitness in the second half of matches? Is it a concentration issue? Can it be anything else?

With the obvious lack of help from refs we are going to get this season, looks like we'll need to do it the very, very hard way.

Nobody's asking for favours, just what's due under the laws of the game.

Sort it out refs. And Arsenal in the second half!

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.