When Alex Hleb departed London in the summer, muttering darkly about "politics", I think a lot of Arsenal supporters were dismissive of what we saw as excuses for someone wanting out because he couldn't hack it. Time, however, has proved, regretfully, Alex wasn't just talking out of his arse.

Lady Nina has told the world- well, the readers of the Daily Mail, which isn't quite the same thing- that she is in "total shock" at the "appalling" way she has been treated, even saying that the board "have no manners". Seems the board can be quite ruthless when they want to be, as Messrs Dein and Edelman have found out in the past. She says she doesn't want to sell her shares and Danny Fiszman, present at the Champions League draw today, which we'll get to in a bit, downplayed  the importance of Lady Nina's departure from the boardroom. Now, I'm no expert in the way of boardroom politics, even less so when it comes to the shadowy cabal in control of Arsenal Football Club, but I seem to remember reading that the board members went to some length to keep Lady Nina sweet when David Dein sold out to the russian fella. It's also been reported in the past that Lady Nina greatly enoyed watching the boys in action on the pitch and her status as director, so what went wrong? What has caused the fall out? And, more importantly, the age old question, "Cui bono?" Who benefits from this state of affairs? Too many imponderables for me, I'm afraid.

I mentioned the Champions League draw and Arsenal have been paired with AS Roma. Which, to me, is about as good as it could have got for us. Certainly not a draw to be fearful of, unless you are a Gooner intending to travel that is. The home leg will take place on February 24 with the return coming on the 11th March. The rest of the draw is to my mind very exciting for english fans, Liverpool have been paired with Real Madrid, whilst Claudio Ranieri will return to Stamford Bridge with Juventus and Jose Mourinho will take Patrick Vieira and company (how weird does that sound?) to, a familiar stomping ground, Old Trafford. Can I just say (yes I can, it's my blog) that whilst SurAlex may not be my favourite individual, his "virus" quote, picked out amongst the debris enveloping Oxford Circus station at 8.30 this morning, made me laugh? When was the last time Arsène made us laugh? Intentionally, I mean. he used to be a master of that kind of quote. Come back to us, Arsène! We're missing you.

 Wow, all that and I nearly forgot that we have a game this weekend. And not just any game, the most boring league leaders since Mourinho's Chelsea sat on top of the tree are in town. yes Liverpool FC, complete with Steven "Roy Race" Gerrard, Jamie "Hulk Hogan" Carragher and co are in town (get your cars into the garage, quick!) knowing that should they beat us, any lingering hope we have of even being involved in the title race, will be crushed. Crushed like the irish dude in Casino who wouldn't give Charlie M up when Joe Pesci put his head in a vice. Hopefully though, that won't happen. Happily, though Eduardo is continuing his recovery and Tomas Rosicky continues doing whatever it is that he does now, joined by Kolo Toure and Theo Walcott, Samir Nasri is expected to play on Sunday. And we know he can make a big difference to the way we play. And, being much better suited to the flanks than any of the guys who've been playing there recently, he should make a massive difference. I hope that Wenger learnt from the victory at Chelsea where, rather than going there and setting up to play, to use his phrase, with "the handbrake on" we went and played our way and ended up winning the game. And deservedly so. I'm sure there will be more in the way of build up tomorrow, I noticed RvP was headlined on the official site as saying that the Champions League exit last season is not forgotten. This is the first time we've met since that devastating night and, you know what? We owe them. We owe them big time. I'm glad the players realise that.  

Arsène Wenger has an explanation for the shower of shit passed off as an Arsenal performance last night. It's, to my underdeveloped school boy's mind, quite a hilarious one, are you ready for it? Are you sure? Okay, here goes...

 "We lost balls"

Alright, alright, so that's not all he said and I am guilty of taking the comment slightly out of context, but I thought it was both amusing and instructive to do so. Amusing, because I'm that kind of person and instructive because the travelling support last night might well having been asking "where are our balls?" As I have said before, it does seem a case of them not having dropped yet. The travelling support, by the way, must have been gratified to see at least 4 Arsenal players acknowledging the support (for once) at the end of a torrid evening for the Arsenal; Gibbs, Almunia and two others whose names escape me at present, whilst Eboue gave his shirt away, I can only think they've had a bit of a kicking from Arsène.

Sam got the team spot on, but seeing the way Silvestre played at left back, I am not convinced that Keiran Gibbs wouldn't have been a better option. Nicklas Bendtner? Well, I don't understand how he's ahead of Jay Simpson in the pecking order at the moment, never mind Carlos Vela. Last night was the worst of a series of ever worsening performances lately. Perhaps he is only good enough to be a supersub. The worst thing about last night is not so much the way the ball bounced off him whenever it went his way, the breathtakingly poor passes into space, but his lack of effort and any sense of urgency. Frankly speaking, to borrow a line from a classic 80's movie, Bendtner's "ego is writing cheques his body can't cash". It was him losing the ball, after about five minutes shilly shallying, that led to the second goal. Normally, I'd call it a "killer" but we were killed from the moment Abou Diaby failed to do his job from a Porto corner. Can you imagine Patrick Vieira ducking out of the way like that? No, you can't. Willy Gallas didn't exactly cover himself in glory either.

Wenger's substitutions, as ever, were an invitation to head scratch. Wilshere and Gibbs arrive to fight the (lost) cause, so Diaby, who started well and disappeared thereafter, goes off along with the only Arsenal player on the night who seemed to want to accept responsiblity for the ball. Yes, Aaron Ramsey. Now, if I thought the boss was going to start Ramsey on Saturday afternoon, I could understand it, but that's as likely to happen as Denilson suddenly learning to play on the wing, as we all know.

A desperately disapointing night then, but if the three points are secured on Saturday afternoon, I'm sure we'll all be saying that the boss did the right thing in the circumstances. Of course, as Alan Smith pointed out in commentary last night, whoever was on display last night, the players have to rouse themselves from another defeat- which, going to the Riverside, is less than ideal. At least we did this with qualification assured. That is about the only positive we can take from last night, aside from another good performance from Djourou- don't get me wrong, he had some dodgy moments last night, but generally I think he made some great blocks, passed well and did well enough to keep his place. I do not want to see him dropped on Saturday. 

I don't hold with the idea that playing at home in the second leg is a big advantage, it wasn't for Milan last season (neither was finishing top of the group as I recall), or for us the year before that, so I'm not unduly worried about finishing second. The only thing that does worry me about the thought of us drawing Barcelona is the thought that Thierry would get a bigger cheer than any of our own players. I haven't thought too much about how it would go against Barςa, and I don't particularly want to, thank you very much. I guess, though, you could even write the performance off to an extent, we did the same at Sevilla last season, the same against (hey!) Porto two years back. So this isn't new. What is new, however, is the level of frustration felt, and reassurance needed, by Arsenal fans at the moment.

Last night provided ample reason to feel even more frustrated and precious little reason to feel reassured. Not good enough, Arsènal.

“But we have not to complain. We have to get the fans on our side because the Club basically belongs to them. When you and I are gone the fans will still be there. They are the core and the strength of this Club.”

We all knew this anyway, didn't we? But it's nice to hear Arsène Wenger recognises this fact and also the fact that it is down to the team to get the fans onside. Not theo other way round. These comments come at the end of a piece with Arsenal.com entitled "Mistakes and money are not linked". Which, not entirely unexepectedly, sees him defending the rather large salaries the modern footballer earns by saying that players will make mistakes no matter how much money they earn. Which is fair enough, but ignores the fact that the reason Thierry Henry was paid eighty grand a week at his peak for us is because he was the best player in the world and could be relied on to win us matches we might not otherwise.

What I'm trying to say (this is the third rewrite of this paragraph) is Thierry Henry was on that money because he didn't make many mistakes whilst playing for us and so was more effective, whilst someone like Pascal Cygan (not that I was intending to deal in polar opposites) was an accident waiting to happen and so didn't earn astronomical sums of money. Mistakes and money are not linked? Maybe not now, but they should be.

Nowadays it seems to me there are players at the club earning big sums of money without having really done much in their Arsenal careers and that is what fans are reacting to. Especially when it's our money lining the pockets of these guys, I guess we'd all like a little more bang for our buck. I accept fully that earning more money doesn't make you immune to mistakes, but nor should you be earning big money just because you play for Arsenal.

Rant over.

Tonight's match will see Manuel Almunia skippering the side- I could say more about this, but I'm in a ranting Highbury Spy kind of mood and don't want to go on about it. Carlos Vela has been talked up again by Arsène. Whilst the manager compares him favourably to Eduardo, I don't think Ben Ingber's adage of "If you give the ball to Eduardo outside the box he'll lose it, inside the box he'll score" applies here. I think Vela is more than capable, and has proved so, of doing the work down the flanks and has some tricks that perhaps Eddie doesn't.

Then again, Ben did make that comment on New Year's Day when Eduardo was just beginning to find his feet with us. There's more to come from him, I'm sure. One thing Vela does share with Eduardo is a range of finishing that should baffle most goalkeepers. Hopefully we'll see a couple of them tonight. One of my readers has selected a team that I have to admit looks a tad more realistic than my hopes of seeing Gibbs, Hoyte and Simpson in the team, it runs like this; Almunia - Eboue, Gallas, Djourou, Silvestre - Ramsey, Denilson, Song, Diaby - Bendtner, Vela.

Thanks for this Sam, it may make more sense, but I'd still prefer to see the boys I mentioned yesterday! Enjoy the game, whoever plays and whereever you're watching...

Yes, yes and furthermore yes!

The best of the bands from the 90's era known as britpop have set aside their differences and are reforming. Blur will be playing Hyde Park on July 3rd and I very much hope to be there.

That aside, the squad for Porto has been announced and the list of absentees is notable- Cesc, Samir Nasri, Bac Sagna, Gael Clichy, RvP and Ade will all be missing. So joining the returning Gallas and Abou Diaby (until his next injury)are Keiran Gibbs, Gavin Hoyte, Mark Randall, Fran Merida, Jack Wilshere and Jay Simpson. On first reading of the squad, it appears to give the lie to Arsène's comment that he'd feel guilty if we lost top spot. But, as a blogger, you can't keep hammering a manager for not picking the kids and then when he does, questioning whether he actually wants to win the game. I guess a bit more balance is what I'm asking for.

Anyway, even if we win the game it guarantees nothing, last year we finished second and drew Milan, whilst Sevilla ended up with Fenerbahce and everyone went "Uh-oh!" but look what happened. If you're looking for an "easier" game in the last 16 of this competition you're probably going to be disappointed. You also probably haven't been watching the Arsenal this season.

So, fresh from the Carling Cup exit last week, 11 of the players who played in that game will be in the squad and it looks to me like Gibbs and Hoyte will definitely start, as should Vela. I'd like to see him paired with Jay Simpson again. I think their pace and movement could cause Porto problems, provided they get the service of course. 

Amongst all the Eboue madness going on this week, I missed the news that Eduardo, finally, returns for the Arsenal reserves against Portsmouth a week today. More good news for Theo Walcott, I say "more" like it's been all good for him recently and it hasn't, anyway, Theo has won the BBC London young footballer of the year award- beating off competition from the likes of Crystal Palace and Brentford footballers. Hat tricks for England and slaloming runs through Champions League defences will do that for you, I think. Bad news for Tomas Rosicky though, he returns to Arsenal on the 17th, but won't be seen in action till March. I think for March, we can probably read next season, possibly even never again. I hope not.

Finally, I saw Ray Wilkins interviewed on MotD on Saturday night and a thought struck me: He looks just like Darth Vader in that scene when Luke Skywalker removes the helmet at the end of Return of the Jedi. Seriously, watch it again and tell me I'm wrong...

We're there.

A strange game at the Grove last night. Arsenal's cause not helped by a side shorn of pace and width and some inexperience leading to the wrong pass being made in promising positions, much of last night was Matchday 4: The Groundhog Day version. However, the little bit of luck going went Arsenal's way. For once. Nevertheless, it still took a moment of absolute genius from the new captain to put Bendtner away. Bendtner's finish on the run matched Cesc's raking pass and the fixture that has a burgeoning history of crucial late goals had another one for the collection as we pass into the knock stages of the Champions League.

It was followed almost immediately by hilarious sending off for one of the throwbacks on display for Kyiv last night. Having rolled around on the ground earlier in the second half; when already on a yellow card, then bounced back up as soon as Kyiv got the ball back, incensed by the award of the goal- which had come from a drop ball situation, the idiot went and tried to push the referee out of the way as Kyiv went to take a free kick. A karmic payback was instant, at least he would have had first use of the showers.

Speaking of karmic payback, some people have been wondering this morning whether the same people who's only response to the introduction of Nick Bendtner was to wolf whistle at his rather fetching Nikes were the same people that vacated the stadium, as usual, 10 minutes early and so missed the same player's coup de grace. It's worth wondering about, I think. Perhaps for those people, it might even be worth thinking about.

Happily, no such disrespect was afforded the deposed skipper, who had a mixed bag last night. He went down early; after a seemingly innocuous collision with Carlos Vela (which prompted a rousing chorus from blocks 5&6- I assume- of "Billy Gallas is our mate"), nearly gifted Kyiv a goal when having dispossessed Bangoura, he promptly gave the ball back to him and Bangoura hit the post and then before the half was out, he knocked the ball home from a corner, but was flagged offside. The second half saw him block what the commentators claimed was a goalbound shot from van Persie, it looked to me like the ball was going wide and then made a magnificent tackle in our penalty area. His evening finished at the full time whistle, when he clapped the fans in the direction of the tunnel and quickly departed the scene.

Aside from that, I thought Carlos Vela showed why he was brought into the attack, he seemed very happy to work the channels, showed good intelligence and composure when on the ball and I think Arsène should have no fears about deploying him in future first team action.

The final words on Kyiv, though, must be for Cesc Fabregas, pictured during the first half trying to organise the team, I thought he played well. Not brilliantly but at the heart of most of the good work done last night. His quick thinking to see and react to the opportunity that developed in the 87th minute was bettered only by the way he delivered the ball. It is my hope that we see a bit more of that as the season progresses.

In other news, finally, Arsenal have appointed Ivan Gazidis as the new CEO. He joins us on January 1st. Just in time for the transfer window. 

It's funny, you wouldn't have thought that the mere ceremonial act of naming a new club captain would make someone feel better about the November Arsenal have endured, but I woke up this morning feeling a lot better about things than I did yesterday.

 Perhaps my mood was helped by watching a playful, yet defiant press conference from the boss on the eve of tonight's Champions League match, which, let's not forget amid all the hysteria, will see us qualified should we win it. The squad is still skeletal though, the return of the old and new club captains offset by injuries to.... go on, guess... well I'm sure you knew already, and even if you didn't, you could have guessed without too much trouble, yes Samir Nasri and Abou Diaby are on the treatment table. Again.

What is it about the way we train our players? Really, it's ridiculous. Other teams get injuries, of course, but it seems like we have half a team out on a regular basis. Though, I have to admit, I do remember about a month ago we had a full squad of players to choose from minus numbers 7 and 9. Seems like a long time ago now.

So William Gallas is back and I hope, I really do, that the fans go easy on him tonight. He fucked up, sure he did and no, he wasn't the best captain we've ever had but I do think, as far as he could he gave it his best shot. Perhaps not being the focal point of this young team will benefit him and he can show us the form that we have seen in flashes over the last year and a half. Put it this way, I think we'd all rather him at the back then Alex Song, or Mickael Silvestre, no?

Hopefully the ten days rest will have done the new skipper some good, he should get a heroes reception tonight and I hope that this can inspire him to lead us to a much needed victory, though it is safe to say that one yellow band is not going to turn Cesc into Superman.   The man himself had this to say about his appointment (so tempting to call it a coronation, if we were in ruder health):

"It is a great honour for me to captain one of the biggest clubs in the world.

"It is a proud moment. I know it's a big responsibility but together with my team-mates, I know we have the spirit and commitment to get back to winning ways and fulfil our potential."

Wise words indeed from the man of the moment. People will have their doubts about this appointment, I include myself in that, but that isn't Cesc's problem. That is for another man to address, which we all hope he will in January, in the meantime Cesc was probably the only choice with the required stature at the club.

In other news, Bloc Party lookalike Kolo Toure has rejected transfer talk involving our conquerors at the weekend, though the sentence "Time will tell" will have Arsenal conspiracy theorists and professional worriers working overtime.

Enjoy the game tonight, y'all.

Exactly five years have passed since Ashley Cole's late, late fireworks extended Arsenal's Champions League campaign to matchday five. Tonight Arsenal can make sure that matchday five becomes an opportunity to give further exposure to the likes of Aaron Ramsay, Carlos Vela, Keiran Gibbs and co.

If they can provide half the fireworks that Arsène Wenger did in his prematch conference yesterday, they should manage it comfortably. Opinion amongst Arsenal fans appears somewhat split over not just the timing of these comments, but the validity. Reading around messageboards, there is a sense that Wenger should just shut up and get on with it, I felt like that when I heard his comments last night. I also heard Perry Groves say that he felt there was one bad tackle on an Arsenal player at Stoke on Saturday.

However, do we really expect the manager to watch 3 of his players leave a stadium injured and not speak out about it? Is this what we want, in fact? That he watches his team decimated by injuries and says nothing? I don't think so. Wenger's comments must also be taken in the context that having said his piece on Saturday evening, he's then had to listen to Thomas Sorensen gloat about Arsenal's lack of spine, with that player having shown a singular lack of spine himself in getting Robin van Persie suspended. It must all be getting a bit difficult to take, we can all accept that tackling is part of the game and that at the pace the game is played at, inevitably bad ones will happen. And we've seen more than few this season, yet only one red card handed out to an opposition player. But when you are consistently losing players because the only way to compete with them is to take them out (and there's quite a list), then that says something about the state of our game. Almost as much as ITV's complete refusal to call Steven Gerrard's cheating as it was last night.

The squad depletion that Arsenal have suffered means that we should see Carlos Vela tonight, Arsène describing him as one of the best finishers he has seen. High praise indeed. Though, as always with a youngster, it was qualified with the statement that he must also adapt to the physical side, he will get his chance over the next week.

Meanwhile Tony Adams seems to be trying to further establish the Arsenal veterans home that is Portsmouth FC. He's after Dennis Bergkamp...

Enjoy the game, whereever you're watching it, if you're going get behind the boys and let's have something positive to talk about tomorrow!

How are you feeling today?

I feel good, the hurt of the last two days has dissipated and I'm now looking forward to the visit of Fenerbahce, which draws ever closer. A win tomorrow night will guarantee Arsenal qualification for the next stage of the Champions League with two games to spare. This is something to be happy about, if not celebrate exactly.

Team news ahead of the game is... I was going to say sketchy, a better word at the moment would be non existent. Though from perusing various websites, I get the impression that, thankfully, Bac Sagna may make a swift return to the fold. It's interesting to note that the game tomorrow night, when I last checked, had not sold out, despite it's General Sale status. Perhaps £50 tickets really are getting too much for fans faced with a currently under performing team. Or is it just the overblown nature of the Champions League?

Annnyway, despite the lack of team news, it seems fairly apparent that unless Wenger chooses to deploy Diaby as an attacking midfielder, Robin van Brainless will partner Nick Bendnter up front in the slowest strike partnership ever (Vela Vela Vela). Who goes into midfield is anyone's guess, Fabregas and...? At the back, and I might keep on about this until it happens, I would like to see Johan Djourou given a chance to shine and show the world that Arsenal has not become a temple for central defenders unwilling to worship at the Church of the High Ball *tortuous religious analogy ends*.

I might also be tempted to throw in Lukasz Fabianski, though Almunia did excel himself as a sweeper keeper two weeks back.  For me, this is kind of like when Sven, yes him, took Theo to the World Cup despite the youngster's inexperience. When asked why he took Walcott he replied something along the lines of "Jermain Defoe? I don't think so" His point was that he didn't rate Defoe and though Walcott might have been young, he believed (and ok, he might have swallowed- like a lot of us have- a line from le boss) that Walcott could make an impact. Of course, Theo never played after all that, but the point was Defoe wasn't good enough for him and so someone else got a chance. Well, Almunia is not good enough and so Fabianski, in my view, should be given a chance to show whether he is or not.

Not quite sure where to start or how to even begin to summarise the madness that unfolded last night. So, whilst I consider how to do that, let's consider the words of Jose Mourinho, who having spent two or three years defending Didier Drogba, finally came clean and admitted to the world that Didier is a diver. Somewhat bizarrely, he also lumped our own Robin van Persie in with him and then proceeded to tell the world that these foreigners were coached how to dive in England, though quite who was coaching Didier to dive is not made clear by Mr Mourinho...

Anyway, whatever the merits of Manchester United's 3-0 win at home to Celtic last night, the ITV bosses must be feeling a bit gutted that the real entertainment was consigned to the digital world. They weren't the only ones feling a little silly last night (if, indeed, they were).

I questioned Manuel Almunia's captaincy credentials and alluded to doubts over his suitability to be Arsenal number one, yet he was majestic in goal last night; making a great save at 0-0, which set the tone for his evening, a heroic display of blocking and sweeper keeping behind a high defensive line which enabled Arsenal's midfield to weave its' pretty patterns at will. I think that was Manuel's best game for us. I also wondered whether we'd put two good halves of football together, so good were we in the first 22 minutes, we didn't really need to.

Arsène Wenger said yesterday, as I noted here, that with a weak defence, Arsenal would look to attack. They did so. He also said that we would look to silence the crowd in the first 20 minutes. It may have taken maybe a minute longer, but Arsenal also managed to acheive that. Comprehensively so. A blog post by Baselgooner yesterday noted that he would like Arsène to give the racist Arragones a bloody nose last night. Mr Wenger didn't need to, his team did it for him. That the opening 4 goals were scored by, respectively, Adebayor, Walcott, Diaby and Song surely the salt in a festering wound. Yes, the Karma Police were out in force last night.

And what goals, Fabregas' slide rule ball after ten minutes, taken on and slid home by a man who has been infuriating of late. Adebayor only needed four touches, and Walcott to nimbly get out of the way, to complete the job like a man born to do it. Jo had barely returned to the kitchen to get on with dinner when Walcott sped onto another Fabregas pass and rounded the keeper and slotting the ball inside the near post- are there really Arsenal fans still doubting this boy? Really?

It could have been three almost immediately after as Samir Nasri took maybe a little too long to get his shot away and drew a fine save from the keeper. It might have been a crucial save, as Fener got back into the contest via a very unfortunate Silvestre own goal. However, Abou Diaby, who must have been close to his best performance in Arsenal colours scored a cracking goal with his left foot. And all of this took place in the first 22 minutes, Jo managing to miss all 3 goals.

The sting was entirely taken out of what might have been a tricky second half when Alex Song lashed home from the corner of the 6 yard box following a free kick. Whilst Dani Guiza got on the scoresheet towards the end and my favourite pantomime villain Eboue made two astounding blocks in quick succession to prevent what looked a certain goal, Arsenal were pretty much in second gear for the majority of the second half and so we saw Aaron Ramsey make his Champions League bow. If he was awed, he didn't show it, coming on demanding the ball, knocking it around from side to side and even trying a cheeky backheel (like the one for Bendtner a few weeks back) before, as the game hit injury time, scoring a wonderful goal from the edge of the box following great work from (gasp!) Eboue. I said of his goal for the u-21s last week that he probably wouldn't beat it, but this wasn't far off. And there's so much more to come.

It was a breathtaking attacking performance, incisive and clinical. We were open at the back, but I think it was entirely understandable for a defence playing a high line (for the most part) well and missing 3/4 of the regular performers. Arsène doesn't get much credit for his tactical insight, but in my opinion he deserves it here. The high line gave us the platform to play off and his deployment of Abou Diaby was inspirational. The defending, you would think, will have to improve come Sunday afternoon and Upton Park, but with Gallas and apparently Sagna due to return, you would hope it will.

So, another great european away day for the travel club to savour, and qualification from what was thought to be a tricky group can be guaranteed, with two games to spare, when Fenerbahce come to north London. Bring them on!

I said to my girlfriend Jo, on Saturday night as I sat at her auntie Sue's 50th birthday celebrations, fulminating about the display of football that had unfolded at the Grove that evening, seeing Arsenal lose feels like being dumped. You know? You accept it, then you get angry and upset and then you let it out and you feel better. Until it bubbles up again. Today at work's been a bit like that actually, I thought I'd put the tin lid on it in my blog yesterday, but having talked about- at length- with various colleagues, the anger is rising again.

So Jo said to me, "Would you like to revisit that feeling?"

Actually, no I wouldn't. we played, we lost and Hull City have a famous scalp in their first season in the Premier League, leave it there. End of story.

 But it occured to me earlier, as I watched the Online box office painstakingly load up this morning, what the hell am I doing? Arsenal play like that on Saturday evening, come Monday morning I get myself in the queue for tickets to the Tottenham game in a month's time. Get kicked out just as I am in the process of assigning tickets for myself, Jo and my mate Gabs. And have to go through the same process all over again. Arsenal have got me- and, if you're reading this, I suspect you too- over a barrel.

Saturday evening, Arséne says "We were shocking." Monday morning, Arsenal say "Ticket for Spurs? Certainly. £67 please". "Great, thanks Arsenal. Would you like a piece of my arse too?"

So, we're going, a Wednesday night kick off against the aptly named Oneday Ramos. One day in the sun for Spurs this decade, if Arsenal play like they did on Saturday, Spurs may well get an evening in the floodlights come the 29th October. But I live in hope. We have problems we certainly need to address- we certainly haven't become a bad team overnight though and as a team, they are in good hands. Though it was depressing to hear Arsène talk about the team being a little "short". Hmmm, I'm getting a deja-vu kinda feeling here, Arsène, didn't you know this already? Before you got rid of Senderos too?

Anyway, on the bright side, changes are promised tomorrow, annnnnnnd, and, we're on ITV1! Can you believe that? No, it's not a mistake, we're playing the same night as Manchester United, but it is they who have been relegated to the world of digital television. Irony of ironies, it finally happens and it's Jo's dad's birthday, so it could be on a 20 feet high screen with 5:1 surround sound, I still won't be watching.