A quick word on the week’s events and I think it’ll be very interesting watching Arsenal.com to see who gets ‘Player of the Month’.  Of course it should be Adebayor but given his recent behaviour might they fix it to give the award to someone else thus not to condone his recent violent conduct.  Who else is there though?  Maybe Hleb?

The boy’s scored seven goals this month, five in three consecutive games, that is outstanding form and he’s got a good shout for the Barclays ‘Player of the Month’ playing like that but again his behaviour will not be condoned by rewarding his talent.  I imagine they’ll take the easy option and give it to Cristiano Ronaldo. 

Another thing, where’s Paul Robinson when you need him eh?  He did so much for Arsenal during his time as No. 1.  I miss him.

If you look back two seasons at Real Madrid, in what was the last real season of the “Galacticos” era, 2006 was the year Real’s house of cards finally collapsed.  It’s strange how on paper you can have the best team the world has ever seen but eventually egos will take over and the team becomes it’s own worst enemy.  The likes of Zidane, Roberto Carlos etc. weren’t just too old but they had perhaps nothing left to prove.   

As an Arsenal fan I can’t help finding the final scene of ‘Goal 2: Living The Dream’ hilarious.  Set and filmed during the season in question it depicts Real winning the Champions League final at the Santiago Bernabeu by beating Arsenal 3-2.  The scene is clearly filmed during the actual visit of Arsenal in February 2006, and we all know what really happened that day.  Even better, I listened to the dvd commentary and it turns out that after that defeat the Real players had to then act out scenes using extras in Arsenal shirts of them beating Arsenal and winning the game.  Genius! 

But I don’t think this is the time to make fun of Madrid, they’ve come a long way since that 0-3 loss to Barca at the Bernabeu (a game often overlooked in England because of Arsenal’s result) and now it looks like those Spanish tables are quickly turning.  They look a different side under Schuster and the result at Camp Nou in December seems to sum up the season.  The egos have left Madrid and have infected Barcelona.  Henry, Deco and even Ronaldinho seem to be shadows of their former selves.  They’ve made their names already and clearly feel they don’t need to do it again.  Think what’s happened with Ballack and Shevchenko at Chelsea but with the whole team.  A real shame as Barcelona are a team I have admired from a distance for some time.  I think changes are in order down there. 

Speaking of egos at least Ronnie and Thierry have legacies to speak of, when someone with no glittering, trophy-laden career to speak of starts behaving like he’s too good for where he is the mind boggles.  I am talking of course about Mr. Dimitar Berbatov.  By far the most over-rated player in the premiership and he seems to think he’s too good for Tottenham.  Well I can’t wait to see his move (£30m!!!!???) to Man-U condemn him to a lifetime on the bench I really can’t, he’s no way good enough to make it in the top, top flight in my opinion.  A classic example of how a bad attitude can ruin a promising career.

Ok, so let’s face it, Arsenal now are far better since the departure of Henry, his absence has liberated the younger players and they are now free to express themselves and it has paid dividends for Arsenal.  But really the way it’s been talked about recently has been insulting to the guy.  We’re talking about one of (if not the) best players the club has ever seen.  Or the Premiership for that matter. 

Thierry was a modern miracle of a player.  Yes he could be a bit of a cocky prick at times but for every time you’ve seen that think about the players who aren’t so great who behave even worse!  If one of the best players in the world is wrong to behave like that then who the f*ck do these people think they are.  Lampard, Barton and Anelka to name but a few, half the player he was and if they can get away with the way they behave then Henry can behave how he likes. 

Thierry was a shadow of his former-self last season and I think Wenger knew this, he knew letting him go was the right thing but if he’d done it in 2006 it’d be one hell of a PR disaster.  This season for Barca he’s been better than for Arsenal last season but nothing close to what he was for the Gunners in his peak, time catches up with all of us. He genuinely loved(s) Arsenal Football Club and even better than that he genuinely hated Spurs.  A true Gooner.   

It was painful seeing him in the form he was last year.  It was made worse when I was listening to our defeat to Fulham in November last year and the commentator was watching a Bolton game talking about Anelka and how “on his day, when he can be bothered, he’s better than Henry”.   Seriously, show me your 5-minute clip of Anelka “when he can be bothered”..…  and in return, I’ll lend you a 2-hour DVD