Life has a habit of following you around, doesn't it? As the Metropolitan line tube was arriving at Wembley Park last night, I overheard a group of northerners talking about football. One of them was being ever so slightly condescending about the Arsenal "Invincibles". When did they ever retain the title, he wanted to know. I had to point out to him that football didn't begin in 1990 and that we'd done it "three times". It is, of course only twice, that we retained the title as part of the 30's hat-trick, but I had a point to make.

The conversation continued with and without me and then the guy said something about it being a sad day for football when Thierry took Cliff Bastin's record- "Wrighty's", I interjected and then we got off the tube and made our way to Wembley Arena for the Arctic Monkeys gig, which was breathtakingly good in parts and a little slapdash in others. It's been a while since I've been so far away from a band, seated as we were in row U of the block closest to the back of the stage. Anyway, duties dispatched for the evening, the closing track 505 gave way to the theme music from the Wire (which was proper weird) and then we had a synchronised slip down beer sodden steps those further damaging my right ankle. So we headed home feeling like we'd been part of a mosh pit that we'd been able to look down on and be thankful for the seats we had- Alex Turner even stopping proceedings early on Strummer style when spotting some fighting going down.

It's ironic that that bloke was talking about it being a sad day for football when Thierry... because that seems to be what everyone's talking about today. Gabs the part time Gooner texting me to say that Thierry let himself down last night, and he is by no means alone in his opinions. But, surely some of the guys absolutely slating Thierry today should know better. Yes, it was a blatant handball, accident or no, but I don't remember Michael Owen being similarly chided for the blatant dive versus Argentina in 2002. I don't remember Rooney being taken to task for either of his dives against us in 2004 and earlier this year. Diving is not the same as handball, this is true. But they are both instances of cheating, and you're either against it, or you're for it in all its forms. The only distinction here seems to be that cheating is ok, unless it's an Arsenal associated player doing it- that sounds like I condone a Gooner doing it, I absolutely don't. I just want the same standards to apply to everyone. When wankers like Tony Cascarino have penned character assassinations on the likes of Didier Drogba, currently representing the club Cascarino is most associated with, then come and have a go at Arsenal idols. Until then you are morally bankrupt and every word you say is, in the words of Hicks, "like a turd falling into my drink". I do wonder what Liam Brady thinks of it all though.

Now I've got that off my chest, and really I couldn't care less one way or the other, Thierry is a Barcelona player now and I actually wanted Ireland to win last night, so the French lads could get some rest this summer. But you know, anything to fuck off Robbie Keane (Sorry Kev).

Moving on, I postscripted my blog yesterday evening with the excellent news that Eduardo had signed a new contract with Arsenal. Apparently, Liverpool have been linked with him in the press over the last week (whether that link was based on the fact that Liverpool is a natural home for divers one can only speculate), but I think that the "courage, bravery and commitment" that Arsène Wenger attests to is the more probable trigger for the new deal. Eduardo himself is "very pleased" to have signed on again and will go to Sunderland on Saturday, I hope, with a spring in his step and a song in his heart. But not Alex Song, that would be... odd. Now, go score some goals, Eddie!

There was more good news yesterday, very uncharacteristically for Arsenal, it transpires that Keiran Gibbs is another player who will be back in a much shorter time frame than originally feared- like next Tuesday, perhaps. The suspected broken metatarsal is only"severe brusing to the bones and soft tissue...". I think that is what is known as a bit of a result.

But wait... there's still more, yes more good news! Though the English duo of Wilshere and Walcott are a bit short for the weekend, the manager can now count on the availability of not just Fabianski, not just Armand Traore, not just Denilson (definitely in Saturday's squad, apparently), but also Carlos Vela too! Can you believe it?

I can only assume a swine flu epidemic is about to sweep in and decimate the squad, because that's too much good news for one day. Tomorrow y'all.

These bloody international breaks eh? They deprive us of the chance to see our heroes one week and then return them to us the next, only just a touch broken than they were when they went off to the far flung corners of the globe. It seems like never before has Arsène's broken down car analogy been more apt (see quote 32). With RvP and Abou Diaby already injured after the weekend- when is Abou Diaby not injured?- Aaron Ramsey and Keiran Gibbs will be heading for the treatment table on their return to Arsenal.

Arse.com have yet to confirm the nature of the injuries, but Keiran is suspected to have broken his metatarsal. As A Cultured Left Foot has pointed out, Keiran can now consider himself a proper footballer but that will be small consolation to him if the diagnosis is confirmed. So, the options now appear to be; to bring Eboue in at right back and switch Sagna to the left, to bring Eboue in on the left, to bring Silvestre in on the left, or to give Armand Traore his head. Clearly, Thomas Vermaelen could also do a job there but that positional switch seems utterly senseless to me. My personal favourite is to bring Traore in. He may lack defensive strength, but then so do Silvestre and Eboue and I believe that if you play and are trained in a position then surely you must be given a chance rather than seeing someone switched into that position ahead of you. Having spent much of last season- albeit further forward- in Portsmouth's first team, I think Traore must be given the chance to stake his claim. This situation is beginning to smell a little 2006ish to me, so Traore will probably end up injured, even if he does get that chance.

Stan Kroenke's right hand man (ooh, what a chance for a Red Right Hand blog title) Paul Andrews, says that his "Silent" nickname is "very unfair". Unfair it might be, but that isn't going to stop a media reliant on tale tattlers and blabber mouths. It had never really occurred to me before that the nickname could be construed as derogatory, but it seems obvious now that the media would much prefer someone like Alisher Usmanov who seems to enjoy rattling his sabre every now and then- or get one of his minions to do it on his behalf. I'm sure there are other considerations to the board's alignment with Kroenke, but I would think what really appeals to the board is the American's discretion.

We've got this far this afternoon without any personal references, but I need to share a dream or two with you. Two nights ago, I had a dream about Arsenal playing Tottenham. Despite absolutely battering them, it was 1-1 with 81 minutes played and then someone send a cross over, it looped high above Manuel Almunia's head and a Tottenham player rose to head home what turned out to be the winning goal. The player was Darren Anderton. Then last night I had a dream about Arsenal playing in a cup final at Wembley, in the last minute someone hit a shot from waaaaay out and Robin van Persie managed to deflect the ball past whoever was in goal for whichever team we playing to win the match.

What do these dreams mean? Am I, as Jo seems to think, beyond help? Or just playing too much Pro Evo?

Finally, for today, Arsène Wenger says that Samir Nasri has a handicap. In the air, I mean. He; in news that will please Gooners everywhere, has ruled out deploying Samir in the holding role that Alex Song will soon be vacating for January. Whilst praising Samir's tactical intelligence, he currectly surmises that the Frenchman is of far better use further forward and, not unsurprisingly, says that Denilson is the one likely to fill in. Within the club, we also know that Mark Randall, Francis Coquelin and the relevatory Craig Eastmond are capable of playing in that holding role, but lack experience on the big stage. Perhaps Arsène might want to think about promoting one of these guys to the bench and giving them some minutes with the... I want to say "possibility", but we all know it's a probability of Denilson being injured again.

Arctic Monkeys tonight- woohoo!

 UPDATE- Just seen that Eduardo has signed a new contract with the club. That's great news and we'll have a look at that one further tomorrow morning/afternoon/whenever I get around to blogging.

Having revisited The X Files on Friday night and watched Dracula, Prince of Darkness (coincidence that I ended up watching this a week after hearing Cesc described as the Prince of Darkness?) for the first time last night, should I have been surprised by the strange visions that permeated my night's sleep? I had a dream that I was staying at my mum's house- on my own- and that weird alien type creatures were in the pipes and bursting periodically through the plug holes, making weird noises as they did so. Obviously, I had to kill them all. Which I did, but the last one didn't give up without a fight.

And then... and then,  I had a dream about taking Tom cat to a football match at Brentford. I don't know why, but I do know that I was really worried about him running off never to be seen again. Anyway, somehow Brentford's football ground had ended up right next door to QPR's and we had to walk past them both to get to the pub. As I walked into the pub, a guy with a Liverpool scarf on got up and started screaming at the telly, which was showing football and the landlord made him leave. Entranced by this, I forgot all about Tom and then I remembered him and he was asleep under the table next to me.

What does it all mean? I don't know, but I do know that I felt a bit odd when I woke up just under an hour ago. Jo revived me with a coffee and then I looked at my phone, which had updated The Times Sport RSS feed on my phone; "van Persie out for months", it said. So, clearly, the next thing I did was switch on the computer and see what I could find. It transpires that Robin was chasing an early through ball when Italy's Chiellini brought him down and it looks as though, he has ruptured his ankle ligaments. Some friendly, huh? Dutch coach, Bert van Maarwijk describes the incident as a "terrible" blow for both player and club and he's not wrong. Never mind the fact that we host Chelsea in two week's time; the news that Robin will probably miss three months of the season means that we will be without the previously in form striker throughout the traditionally testing Christmas period, the ridiculously harsh Manchester United-Chelsea-Liverpool trifecta that takes place over ten days at the beginning of February and it means that he will miss the 1st leg, assuming qualification from the group, of the Champions League knock out stages. Arsène Wenger, a vociferous critic of international friendlies, has yet to make his thoughts known, but I doubt there was any champagne being popped in Totteridge last night. In fact, I heard a rumour that Arsène might even have said the f word.

I guess there's two ways of looking at this really. One is that with Nick Bendtner currently recovering from surgery, we are now a bit light in the centre forward department, especially with Eduardo's season yet to take off as he might have hoped. The other way is that, assuming he returns to north London in one piece, this is a big chance for Eduardo to get a run in what must be his favoured position and for the likes of the previously forgotten Carlos Vela to make an impact. I'm curious to see, in the short term at least, to see how Eduardo will replace the man whose playing style really has been integral to Arsenal's good run. We know Eduardo is a clever, technical player with a usually unerring eye for goal, but he's a bit lightweight, I think, compared to Robin. How well will the team adapt to playing with him up top? I championed his cause as the spearhead earlier this year, so we're about to find out if I do know what I'm talking about or not.

One man about whom there should be no doubt is young Keiran Gibbs. Simply put, he was a revelation at left back last season, when deputising for Clichy and he finds himself with an early opportunity to press his claims further this time around. He says that he wouldn't be in the first team without the coaching he has received at Arsenal. He speaks of learning how to play the game technically first and says that this is a new angle of coaching that is becoming prevalent within the country, but especially at Arsenal. Which, for anyone who played football as a junior and had to cope with the "Ten times round the pitch" approach, is quite enlightening and maybe this is something else we'll look at long after Arsène has left us and say, "You know what? That Frenchman we all used to think hated English players, God he taught them how to play didn't he?". I've mentioned before that my uncle reckons the manager's legacy will be a number of English youngsters coming out of London Colney trained to world class standards- we can see this in Gibbs and, as he himself says, Wilshere, Lansbury and Emmanuel- Thomas. But might it also be possible that the Arsenal approach is taken on at clubs across the country, producing as a result, the kind of Engish player that might, finally, be able to end 43 years (and counting) of hurt?

Not that I give a toss about England right now, I'm just saying...

Anyway, that's enough for today, I've already had to type the last part of Robin section and half the Keiran Gibbs stuff twice. Enjoy the rest of your weekends.

With much of the team news available today already covered in my blog yesterday, today's looks like being an Arse.com extravaganza ahead of the visit of AZ Alkmaar tonight.

With Keiran Gibbs coming into the team in place of the injured Gael Clichy, the boss has been talking about the young Englishman and how well he played in the aftermath of his slip in the Champions League semi final. Apparently, Keiran was set to be more involved in first team action over the coming weeks with the boss looking to rotate him with Clichy anyway. With Armand Traore, according to the extensive Arse.com injury update, due back in training from tomorrow, the situation is simply that Traore will now provide the rotation for Gibbs that Gibbs was due to provide Clichy. I wonder, though, whether Traore will be exposed as much as Gibbs would have been? There again, Traore had a season of first team football with Portsmouth last year, so Clichy's injury is a good opportunity for him as well as Keiran.

I'm sure Arsenal's current injury woes- ten first squad members are currently unavailable (did you know that, Robbie?)- were on Arsène's mind when he talked about the nightmare before Christmas that is also known as the month of November and the volume of games that coincide with the football season's transition from the late autumn sunshine and green pitches to the wintery chill enveloping various mud filled, potholed football pitches up and down the country. Although, not ours of course. Is it a coincidence that this month is traditionally the one that has us all scared to check the results on a Saturday/Sunday evening? Does the boss subconciously transmit his fear and loathing of November to the players?

That's enough film references for one paragraph, I guess.

I saw the boss talking about "Silent" Stan and the increasing volume of shares in his possession yesterday. Well, I say talking, what he said was pretty simple really. As long as his technical vision for the club is not interfered with, the ownership of the club doesn't really concern him. I guess some bloggers might take that as Arséne aggressively defending his territory, but what else is he supposed to say? You might not be surprised to hear that I agree with him.

He also took time to thank Alex Ferguson for the Manchester United manager's personal intervention regarding the obscene chants directed at our main man and the letters to be sent to Manchester United supporters. He didn't question, though I wonder, if the letters are to be sent by horseback?

Of course, tonight's game sees the return of Ronald Koeman, a man with very happy memories of north London- whether as a manager, knocking Arsenal out of the Champions League with a late Alex goal in 2007; or as a player, scoring the winning goal for Barcelona as they won the first of their three *sob* European Cups back in the early 90's. He comes here, though, under no illusion about the size of the "difficult" task in front of him. Especially as his team will have to contend with the man Koeman believes to be Holland's best, I'm not talking about Nacer Barazite either. With le boss talking up Robin's increased maturity, the player himself has been talking about how he is enjoying his new role. It seems to me that these are the keys to his success so far this season, I guess it isn't rocket science, but becoming the main man seems to have been the making of him.

Despite Robin's excellent form over the last month, though, the honour of being voted the PFA Fans' Player of the Month has fallen to club captain Fabregas. He's probably earnt it on the basis of that inspirational performance against Blackburn, though his goal on Saturday won't have hurt him either.

Of course, it was Robin and Cesc who combined for the opening goal in Holland two weeks ago, so Alkmaar know all about the difficulties of containing those two. If they can manage that, then they will have to worry about an Andrey Arshavin who hasn't seemed entirely happy over the last few weeks and an Eduardo who hasn't quite clicked into his clinical gears just yet. At least, with Bendtner on the sidelines for a month, I assume it will be Eduardo starting tonight. The inclusion of a clinical finisher as opposed to a trier who runs up and down a lot but ultimately achieves very little seems the obvious thing to do against a coach who likes to contain.

Enjoy the game, wherever you are. 

If yesterday's blog came to you via 4 hours sleep and a somewhat fragmented state of mind, then today's blog.. today's blog I'm starting to feel a little like Christian Bale's character in The Machinist. In bed at the not unreasonable time of 10.30, asleep by 11 and juddered awake by 2am. A night on the sofa finishing watching Star Wars- I'd started that one on Monday morning- before deciding I might as well eat something before getting into work early was all mine.

Before I decided to put the rest of Star Wars, perhaps not the best choice on an extremely black night of the soul, I was cruising Sky Sports News and came across Jermaine Jenas and his assertion that Tottenham's defeat at Arsenal was a one off. Er, really Jermaine?

What about this then?

Yes, I am that sad. But it tells its own tale, doesn't it? Twenty matches, 11 wins, 9 draws with 41 goals scored against 22 conceded suggests that perhaps it wasn't a one off at all. Anymore than Tottenham's third consecutive match against a member of the big four ending with them conceding three goals in defeat was. Harry Redknapp can claim there is no gap between the squads, but we all know that Arsenal are in the title race- whether they win it or not, Tottenham are in the race for a Champions League spot, if they're lucky. That is the reality gap.

To be honest, I think enough's been said, and I might not have mentioned this at all had Jenas' daft comments not interrupted my fun filled night, thoughts like fireworks exploding through my brain, on the sofa, "phenomenal squad"? the only thing phenomenal about Tottenham is the size of the ego in relation to the acheivement.

I could go on, I really could, but I don't want to lose you and I fear I might, so I will move on from Saturday's events, as the official website seems to have done.

The original version of yesterday's blog mused upon the plight of Liverpool, the bet I made with Luke's brother and Luke's insistence that 4 draws in a row Manchester City will finish the season crowned as champions. I forgot about that by the time I got home, but I also caught myself wondering about the Chelsea Manchester United clash at the weekend. With Arsenal playing Wolverhampton Wanderers and with Mick McCarthy's shocking record in the Premier League, it's difficult to see this as anything other than a chance to finish the weekend either in second place, or points closer to Chelsea. Honestly, the way United are playing, it's difficult to see how we won't be in second place come Monday morning, but let's not jump the gun and by doing so jump back in time to last season's assumption that games can be won by just stepping onto the pitch.

It's perhaps, with the visit of AZ Alkmaar a day ahead of us and Champions League qualification beckoning, a touch premature to be considering the Wolves game, but in a classic Arsenal touch, the players will take the field on Saturday evening with poppies embroidered into their shirts as a precursor to a shirt raffle in aid of the Royal British Legion and Help For Heroes.

Moving back to the Alkmaar game and the early team news is that Gael Clichy will be out for a month, due to a stress facture of the back. I might be wrong, but isn't this the same injury, or type of injury, that ended last season for him? Good news for Keiran Gibbs though, who showed last week just what he is made of. I look forward to seeing how he does in the month ahead with interest. Tomas Rosicky, on the other hand, returns to the squad after a short time out. So it'll be good to have him augmenting the options once more.

Stan Kroenke has made a further share purchase, the percentage of shares owned getting ever nearer to the 29.9% trigger. So that's something else to keep your eye on as I move deeper into my week from hell and Arsenal begin their traditional month of doom.

Fun and games.

A fat sleep last night and I am indeed feeling much better. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for our receptionist, who cracked her head a good one in the shower this morning. From time to time she reads this blog, actually, so hopefully by the time Sara reads this, she won't be suffering from a concussion.

But enough about the walking wounded in my life, what about the walking wounded of Arsenal? We've already covered Samir Nasri, who may be included in the Carling Cup squad for Liverpool in a week and a half's time. Eduardo's thigh problem will preclude him from avenging the near dismemberment of his ankle last February and Nick Bendtner's groin will see a limitation on our forward options further compounded by Carlos Vela's unavailability as he hitchhikes his way back from South America.

At the back, Manuel Almunia was said yesterday to be "50-50" to return to the first team after his chest infection. A month later and he's 50-50? What kind of chest infection has he got? I mean you could understand it if he had the kind of chest infection suffered by John Hurt in Alien. You know, he gets attacked by a face huggy type thing, which then secretly impregnates him, resisting all attempts to pry it off by having acid for blood that would burn his face off, if it made contact. The thing then falls off, but when he get up to have dinner with your fellow crew, or team members, a little penis looking thing with teeth eats its way through his body before bursting out through the chest cavity. And then turning into a massive black xenomorph that kills everything in its path, except the cat. And a woman clad in only vest and pants- though who that would be in the Arsenal dressing room, God only knows. Not sure there's a cat running around the Grove either, though that Highbury squirrel may well be around somewhere.

Yeah, I could understand it if Almunia had that kind of chest infection. Although, clearly, that would result in sudden and painful death, but if he doesn't have that, then what's the hold up? You can only assume that Mr Wenger, like the majority of Gooners, is none too happy with the way the Spanish waiter has started the season.

Another one who has room for improvement this season is Gael Clichy but he won't be doing that tomorrow afternoon as he picked up an ankle knock whilst on international duty with le France. I don't know about internationals, you can get all wound up about why this player isn't in their national side (as I used to regarding Wrighty and England) and then they get in their side and it's just headaches. They get injured, they have to travel all over the world, they get tired, they get demotivated or lazy, they lose form and then they go elsewhere.

That's a bit simplified I know. To boil it down further; the bottom line if you like, is that Keiran Gibbs seems certain to start tomorrow afternoon's match. I can't imagine that he will be in the team for long afterwards, but if he can continue in the vein of his embryonic yet impressive Arsenal career, he has a chance to keep Clichy's backside in bench warming mode.

So, no Bendtner, Eduardo, Almunia (fingers crossed) or Clichy. But Cesc Fabregas will return and Lukasz Fabianski has overcome his injury and is set to be included in tomorrow's squad. I'll be watching to see if he replaces Don Vito tomorrow. Aside from the pecking order, I don't think there's any real reason to displace the Italian Stallion, who has performed very well, but that's rarely stopped the gaffer in the past. As Alex Manninger can testify. But then Manuel Almunia is no David Seaman, he's not even a Jens Lehmann.

In the background, the intrigue level is starting to verge on the red side of things. Or red and white side of things. Silent Stanley has purchased another 90 shares, at £8,500 per share, taking him to 28.9% of all issued shares and just one single, solitary percent away from having to make a compulsory offer for all shares. It's funny, I've come to believe in Stan as a force for good, but I'm not sure I want this now. PH-W says he's relaxed about it and that he would welcome a takeover, but as we get further down this road, what else can he say? What should he say? What can he do now? I guess the doubts are bound to set in as the inevitable draws ever nearer, but it seems to me- and yes, it's been triggered by my current choice of literature- that no good can come out of one man owning the club, especially when we don't know what his intentions are.

I'd still rather him than the other fella, though.

Much to catch up on this Monday afternoon, then. The lack of posting over the weekend a result of a monumental reminder to music lovers that yes, we really have missed Blur and of the power of Roger Federer. I wanted Roddick to win, thought he could win and he should have won (and is probably having nightmares about the second set tie break). But full credit to Roger Federer, the greatest tennis player in Major history.

Whilst on my way to Hyde Park, via Wagamamas on Friday afternoon, I had my first sighting of the new away kit "wild". And, I have to say, I thought it looked quite good, to be fair. Still don't think blue is an Arsenal colour, at least not a "primary" one, but it's not as bad as I thought.

I see Keiran Gibbs is the latest youth to be tied up long term. Which is good news. It'll be interesting to see how Gael Clichy, who has been unchallenged in his status as left back numero uno since the move to the new stadium, responds to having this young, talented if raw, youngster breathing down his neck in the years to come. Importantly for us, if we could somehow hang on to both of them, it means that Clichy can be rested as and when with an imperceptible drop in quality.

The transfer front is fairly quiet. Opening the Observer yesterday, you can imagine how thrilled I was to read the headline "Adebayor ends Milan links..." That said, even a paper like the Observer can be prone to extrapolating excessively. They report his agent as saying "No. No. It is the same situation as last week" Parallel to Arsène's noncomittal attitude towards his number 25, "No. It is the same situation as last week", this comment hardly seems like the sort of thing any Arsenal fan who wants him to stay (and despite my thoughts on the matter, it seems there are a few of you who still do) would want to hear. 

Au contraire, the news that Arsenal target Felipe Melo would be allowed to leave Fiorentina, if we gave them some cash and Emmanuel Eboue, came as music to my ears. I'm not sure if this is the latest postion though, or whether Melo is intent on honouring his contract extension, on which the ink is probably still drying. Perhaps Eboue doesn't see Fiorentina as appropriate for a player of Eboue's talents, or perhaps Arsène is unwilling to let the Ivorian leave. And, to be honest, I can kind of understand why. After all, Bac Sagna is not superhuman and I can't advocate depth on the left, whilst dismissing the concept on the right. Kolo Toure has failed to convince when played there of late, which leaves us with Gavin Hoyte, who- with the best will in the world- would face quite a jump, if Sagna were to pick up a long term injury. And you just know that it would happen as soon as Eboue went.

It seems that the Cesc story is one that won't be left alone. Not by Anthony Kastrinakis anyway. The continued pressure on Arsenal has, allegedly, led to a bounty of £40m being placed on Cesc's head. Which is a little less than the price tag Cesc himself quoted last week, when asked about his future. I remember the summers spent cursing the newspapers, 2001 stands out in this regard when every day seemed to bring news of Patrick Vieira's departure. So, I won't let yet another piece of speculation from tomorrow's fish and chips wrapper get to me.

Yet.

And so normal service is well and truly resumed.

And it's resumed in a climate of newspaper "reporting" that has both of our first choice full backs targetted by Real Madrid, PSG in for Eboue, four of our centre backs hovering uncertainly by the exit door and in fact the only defender presumably to be left at the club along with new boy Vermaelen is Keiran Gibbs. Who, apparently, is to be offered a new contract and, according to Stuart Pearce, a man who surely would have eaten Theo Walcott for breakfast in his time as England's premier left back, has every chance of playing his way into England's World Cup squad next summer.

I wonder about the wisdom of taking a 22 man squad to South Africa, bearing in mind their apparent acccomodation difficulties with the lions tour going on at present, but that's not for me to think about too deeply.

Meanwhile, it seems I wasn't the only person on holiday in Rome over the last week. Nick Bendtner spent a weekend in the Eternal City, prompting speculation that he could be the young striker Luciano Spalletti has in his sights. But his dad, Thomas, has come out to say that it was a prearranged visit. Honestly, I don't know what the world's coming to when a young man can't go and visit one of the most historic, awe inspiring cities in the world with some sports journo somewhere getting a pant tent. Everyone should go and visit Rome, at least once.  The cheque's in the post, I assume? Cheers.

Now, Nicky is not someone you'd expect to make a list of 50 all time Top Gunners, but the list has been compiled by the Times. And the Top, toppest Gunner of them all is one Tony Adams. The only man to captain a title winning side in three different decades, which let's face it, is an acheivement unlikey to be matched, given that footballers these days have all the loyalty of second year university students. I guess on that fact alone, he deserves the accolade, whilst three of the best players I've ever seen in Bergkamp, Vieira and Henry make up the top 5 with Alex James the solitary reminder of an even more glorious, if more distant past. People may have quibbles about this list, but at least it doesn't include a certain left back. Unlike the official Arse.com one.

I didn't get to see much of the FA Youth Cup Final last night. But Bouldie's boys are to be congratulated on a job extremely well done. Or half well done. I turned on with 10 minutes to go and was pleasantly surprised to see that a 4-1 lead had been established. The boys would have had a fifth had the linesman been paying attention to Rhys Murphy began his run from before cracking the ball home. Even at youth level, Liverpool get the benefit from dodgy decisions...

Whilst the commentators and pundits were purring over Jack Wilshere's performance, Sanchez Watt got the goal of the night with a beautiful chip and surely, as Michael Thomas pointed out, Steve Bould would have loved Jay Emmanuel Thomas' near post flicked header that completed the scoring.

It was funny to see Wilshere and co interviewed after the game, they looked like 3 schoolboys in the headmaster's study. As the commentary noted last night, better get used to the attention, Jack! Meanwhile, Steve Bould looked determined not to let the success of the night go to the boys heads, Liverpool's manager just looked like the lost Chuckle Brother. How ironic that on the 26th of May 2009, twenty years after Michael Thomas, the two teams will hit Anfield with Liverpool needing their own Michael Thomas moment. With Steve Bould, of course, having been part of that team 20 years ago, I'm sure he will be impressing on his young charges the fact that nothing's impossible. The boss was at the game last night and I wonder how many of these young tyros we will see in the Carling Cup next season.

Staying with persons young. Or a person young, here are some facts and statistics about Nicklas Bendtner that AOL might also find interesting. At the age of 21, he has scored the winning goal (with his first touch as sub) against Tottenham, an equaliser against Liverpool and a goal that, had a certain centre forward bothered to stay on his feet a couple of times, might have launched a comeback against Chelsea. He has 15 goals from 27 starts and 23 sub appearances. This breaks down, in the league, to 17 starts, 14 sub appearances and 9 goals. Which, even with the limited time afforded by those sub appearances, still means he his goalscoring ratio is about one goal every three games. This includes winning goals at Bolton, Portsmouth, Newcastle and West Brom. Not the best teams, I know. But we weren't complaining when Ade put six past Derby last season. He also scored that vital last minute winner at home to Dinamo Kiev.

So, when we rush to criticise this lad, let's remember that he is the third top scorer at the club this season, he has one league goal less than the man who thinks he is the best striker at this club and is the age Adebayor was when he signed for the club. Not wanting to go there particularly, but for the record, he is also a year younger than a certain Thierry Henry was when he signed for us. Having seen him get the message about his workrate, I agree with the boss when he says there is more to come from him. I just hope the fact his player page isn't working on Arse.com isn't significant!

Meanwhile, the boss is- perhaps to his chagrin- still talking him about himself. Arsenal.com has a short piece called "Arsenal is the Club For Me". Lord Kitchener must be spinning. He also talks about how he appreciates the fans support and doesn't appreciate criticism from shareholders who will have seen the value of their shares rocket- off the back of his efforts. He doesn't say that last bit, but I'm sure he was thinking it at least. I would have been.

Having talked up Jack Wilshere's England prospects- I can't see how young Jack is going to get into our first team, never mind the England one- lst season, before consigning him to the reserves for the rest of the season, Mr Wenger is now talking up Keiran Gibbs' England prospects. Which is interesting for a couple of reasons. One is the season Gael Clichy's just had. Not that it was terrible, just a dip in his standards. I wouldn't imagine Gael is going anywhere, but then I was talking to an Arsenal fan after the Chelsea game who reckons Gael is indeed off to pastures new. That same Arsenal fan, though, didn't rate Song in central midfield, so... Of course Keiran, if he is to play for England, would have to play for us first- unless he went elsewhere and I don't think that's what Arsène was talking about.  My second reason is, if he was to play for England, of course he would have to depose a certain player now plying his trade for the South West London Mercenaries.

That really would be something, wouldn't it? 

I don't know where to start today. On the one hand gloating about Chelsea's last minute exit at the hands of Barcelona last night, and their rather ridiculous reaction to it, seems kind of small minded given that it came 24 hours after we were humiliated on our home turf by Manchester United. But, you know... John Terry, Ashley Cole, Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba, especially Didier Drogba, if you can't laugh at them after last night, when can you?

This is true: Last night, at 9.19, I sent Randall the Spurs fan a text saying "What is Drogba like?". Obviously that was before Iniesta's cracking strike and the scenes that followed as Chelsea tried to recreate Arsenal at Old Trafford, 2003. Chelsea might have got the shit end of the stick with a few decisions last night, but look at Drogba's reaction to being tackled by Toure the Younger. Look at the sending off of Abidal and look back to last week when Barca were complaining about a referee and Chelsea, in a rather high and mighty fashion, responded that they didn't worry about referees. Oh, really boys?

Long story short, I reckon the best two teams are in the final and that is probably as it should be.

Leaving that aside, the blog today, I suppose, is a tale of two strikers. Neither of them particularly covering themselves in glory. I heard this morning on the BBC- or was it last night on Sky Sports News?- that Nick Bendtner had apologised after being photographed coming out of a nightclub. I thought to myself, "Why does he need to apologise?"

And then I saw the photos. Oh. My. Word. Nick, Nick, Nick, what were you thinking? As it goes, I don't have a problem with him doing what he did, he isn't the first youngster to go out and have a few after a game, and he certainly won't be the last. But I can see that others might. I don't think there's any real need to go on about this one, as I'm sure le gaffeur will have had a word or two. And that should be enough to put an end to the matter. Put it this way, nobody will be complaining if he launches himself off the bench and grabs a goal on Sunday. Ok, that's a bit laissez faire maybe, but at the end of the day, I'm not the moral compass for our football club and at the end of the day, Bendtner is one of the most improved footballers at the club- the current joke going round the Online Gooner, runs along the lines of, "Did he tell Ade when he came on on Tuesday, 'I'm only on because you're shit?'" Unthinkable a year ago.

Speaking of Adebayor. Rather worryingly, and no doubt he'll be contradicting himself in a few days anyway, he has pledged his future to the club. I can't think of a player whose stock has peaked and troughed in such speedy fashion. Eighteen months ago, we wondered how Thierry would be replaced, a year ago it looked like we had a pretty good answer but Ade has turned out to be fools gold. And whilst I can't think of a player's stock rising and falling so quickly, neither can I think of a footballler who has united so many Arsenal fans: Not one wants to see him in an Arsenal shirt come August. In fact, it's about the only thing we can all agree on at the moment.

One of the enduring images of the second leg of the semi final was the look on Keiran Gibbs face as Park put Manchester United in control of the match. Well, aside from the rows of emptying seats in the second half, that is. Kolo Toure has come out in support of the youngster and his performances thus far. Rightly so. I'm sure that if- when- he takes the field against Chelsea, the guy who has been one of our brightest stars in the last month, will be afforded the reception he deserves.