Since I've been away, I haven't had the chance to comment on "The Dive". I want to talk about the game against the Mancs later on, so better to get these thoughts out first.  Here goes:

1. It was a deplorable dive. What's worse, is that it was unnecessary. But that's not the point. He should have been booked for simulation. And regardless of what happens, I hope he takes this event and learns the lesson that it's not worth it to dive -- once the stink of being a diver is on you, it never comes off.

 2. Over 2 legs, the differences in quality between Arsenal and Celtic were revealed. The dive, as big as it was, did not affect the overall result. It's amazing to see that Tony Mowbray and Celtic have accepted that but the Scottish FA have not.

3. Just 2 weeks ago we saw that Crystal Palace were robbed a point because the English FA acted on the belief that the referee's decision had to...

After the Everton drubbing, the question surrouding Arsenal was "were the lads that good or was Everton was that poor?"  Maybe on that day both things were in effect, but after Everton took Sigma Olomouc behind the woodshed for a 4-0 beating, I think we can state that Everton simply had a poor day at the office last Saturday and it may not have been indicative of their overall quality.

But what of the Arsenal boys?  Did they just take advantage of the locker room turmoil at Goodison Park?  Could they repeat their feat at Celtic Park and could they do it at home?

Everyone will be quick to say that Arsenal should have won against Celtic 2-0.  And on a neutral ground, that'd probably be a fair assessment.  But at Parkhead, where clubs like Manchester United and AC Milan have gone and gotten beat, a 2-0 win is a tremendous result.  More importantly, with back-to-back wins at difficult...

Ah, the first day of a brand new season.  Ain't it lovelier than a toddler pushing a stroller with a kitten in it?

Of course, when you start it off watching Hull giving Chelsea all they can handle and follow it up with Wigan playing Aston Villa off the park, you got to think that everything that's been said and written and prognosticated by the punditry, the experts and the bloggers is about as useful as thongs at the Vatican.  Or to put it in simpler terms, nothing said or written before yesterday is worth a thing.

A great example is the lads' performance at Goodison Park, a place that's tough to go to and get a result in.  Everton, consistently the best non-"Big 4" team in the Premier League know how to play with the big boys and have talent like Tim Cahill, Mikel Arteta, Tim Howard, Steven Pienaar and Marouane Fellani; all of whom would be right at home in Old Trafford or Stamford ...

Christmas morning.

Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday).

The day girls start wearing those really short shorts that signals summer is here.

I gotta say that the day the season starts (Kickoff Day?) is right besides them in terms of anticipation and excitement.

The season is perfect right now.  Good things are possible for every club out there.  

Come on you Gunners! Prove the world wrong!

I guess we start, once again, with farewells to a player.  Kolo Toure has followed the sky blue gravy trail led by Adebayor to Eastlands.  Amazingly enough, I don't feel the same reaction to his departure than I did for Adebayor.  Perhaps it's that he was the last of the Invincibles.  Probably it's because he seemed to leave for reasons other than money.  Definitely it's because, as a player and a leader, he gave his everything in every game and was always ready to stand up and be counted.  Adieu Kolo.  And thanks.

So as the Emirates Cup comes to a close today (as of now the lads lead Gers 2-0 from a good shot by Young Jack and a sweet shot by Eddie) we begin to see the shining light that is the start of the season.  In his press conference yesterday, Arsene stated that he'd like to have all his transfer business completed by this Saturday's game against Valencia.  I think that, ...

You know, for the last week or so, I've been working on this nice piece about respect and money and the Adebayor sale.  But as it so often happens when the passion dies, I can't be arsed to care about our former 20-goal scorer now that he's wearing City sky blue.  So long and thanks for the good times, Ade.  Let the City fans cheer your goals and put up with your petulance and your half-ass attitude towards playing. 

Naturally the moment Adebayor went and 25 million pounds were deposited onto the coffers at Ashburton Grove the rags, the experts, the blogs and the supporters started speculating as to who would come in to replace him.  Would Arsene spring Klaas-Jan Huntelaar from the dungeons of Real Madrid?  What about the long-rumored purchase of Bordeaux's Marouane Chamakh?  And what of the rumors linking the club with purchases for Lorik Cana, Blaise Matuidi, Brede Hangeland and...

Looking over the roster as it stands right now and I wanted to give some thoughts over the decisions that will factor into how the rest of the transfer window will follow.  My own personal thoughts as always, but I can take an educated guess or two:

1. Central Defensive Midfielder: The big key acquisition that is left to get.  Look at our roster as it stands right now and the only player capable of filling that role is Alex Song.  Not that he can't do the job, but that I think we'd rather he provide the support than be the primary option.  I've said the usual names being attached to Arsenal, so no sense in rehashing them.  The intriguing thing to consider is how soon Arsene fills that hole.  I think he saw from last year's example of Andrei Arshavin that bringing in a player sooner allows him to mesh with his teammates and helps the club hit the ground running.

2....

Allow me to dust the cobwebs off this corner of the Interwebs and remind folks that, yes, I am still alive and kicking.  Sorry for the long absence, but let's face it: unless you were an American rooting for Team USA or a South African rooting for the Bafana Bafana, there's been very little to get excited about in the world of football.

All of the recent news regarding Arsenal have been of us extending or signing to new deals our current players.  Kieran Gibbs, Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey and Robin Van Persie have each signed on the dotted line that will keep them at Ashburton Grove for the foreseeable future.  And while such dealings often will lack the kind of attraction that a new transfer purchase will bring, let's face it: it's a good sign.  By putting pen to paper, the club ensures that their hard work in developing talent doesn't just walk away after preparing and training said talent...

Isn't it nice when a transfer happens quietly and quickly?

By now you're likely to have seen that Arsenal have completed the transfer for central/left defender Thomas Vermaelen.  The Belgian was the current Ajax defender and comes with a good reputation.  And outside of Vermaelen or his agent mentioning to everyone under the sun that he was moving to Arsenal, no other word was heard about it for weeks.  Definitely not from the club, who didn't even deign to have Arsene Wenger come out and deny it like they usually do.  Maybe they felt that, in a summer where everyone is focusing on the goings on at Madrid and where David Villa, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sergio Aguero, Samuel Eto'o, David Silva and so many other talented forwards and midfielders could all end up elsewhere, that no one would really be interested in where one defender went.

But as anyone who saw Arsenal last season can attest...

Rather than starting with the Arsenal part of this story, let's start elsewhere.  Madrid to be exact.

By now, everyone knows of the sums spent and the players purchased by Florentino Perez as he appears deadset on continuing on his trend of bringing the biggest names in football to El Santiago Bernabeu.  

56 million pounds for Kaka' on Monday.  80 million pounds for Cristiano Ronaldo on Thursday.  136 million pounds.   That's a quarter of a billion dollars that was just spent to unite the reigning and former World Players of the Year under the white flag of Madrid.  

And the rumors are that this is just the beginning of a massive spending spree that could see them bring in coveted striker David Villa, the even more coveted winger Franck Ribery, right back Maicon and midfielder Xabi Alonso before the window closes in August.  

...