I've just seen the highlights of the last round of La Liga games and as it seems to be a hot bed of ex-Arsenal players at the moment and I have to blog about anything other than Eboué here are some thoughts on what I saw/heard.

At Villereal there are two old gooners, one we all know about and wish he was still at Arsenal (or had at least stayed on a while longer) and there's Pascal Cygan too. Our long lost friend Robert Pires scored an extremely strange goal (after 0.45) in a 3-3 draw after being 0-3 down. Our old and not so  missed French centre half wasn't playing and after his two mistakes last week I'm not too surprised.

Meanwhile over at the Camp Nou our top goal scorer seems to have finally made a real impact with a hat trick against Valencia for Barcelona. Henry was, of course, helped by that ex-gooner who divided (and still does) opinion whilst at Arsenal, Hleb. He did manage to show glimpses of his Arsenal form by finding himself one on one and never looking like scoring!

Oh and one other strange North London to Spain bombshell, Ramos to Real Madrid - blimey I didn't realise that they rewarded such incompetence so highly.

but, not unfortunately, as the winger we knew and loved in 1998 at Highbury (he's talking of a comeback with his first ever club). It's been mentioned before but Arsenal have only ever really done well when we've had a wide player that both created and scored goals.

The original and best if you think in terms of goals scored was Ted Drake, anyone that scores seven goals in an away game of top flight league football certainly knew what they were doing. However, in the more modern era we've had the joys of George Armstrong, Brian Marwood, Anders Limpar, Marc Overmars and my favourite, Robert Pires.

Since Bob left though it's been difficult to replace him. Hleb had talent but didn't create or score enough and Rosicky struggles to get out of hospital for more than 2 games in a row. So one of the questions this season is whether Nasri can step up and replace the duck waddling boots of our last Frenchman to play out wide. We'll not know for a while but when I first saw Bob I realised what a player we had signed. Not because he scored immediately or beat players and certainly not for his tackling. No, he did the best thing a player can do - he never gave the ball away and was always available, once he got he pace of the league we saw what a player he was.

So let's give young Nasri a chance to shine - once he recovers from his first injury!!!!

I've beenlooking around at most of the Arsenal related blogs and message boards, nobody seems too bothered to see the back of Mr. Hleb. We've actually already got two replacements in Vela and Nasri coming into the squad so it really won't be much of an issue. It also looks as though young Mr Adebayor will be coming back with his proverbial tail between his legs but since there are still 6/7 weeks more of speculation to come we'll wait and see.

Today I spent most of the morning trying to book flights for Arsenal home games. Now it used to be relatively easy to  arrange travel to games as you looked at the fixture list and saw 38 games at 3.00pm on a Saturday. Of course, this has changed over the last 20 years, gradually at first with maybe one or two games on a Sunday. Then Sky arrived and we had Monday night games, we've even had Friday night games and, of course, with Setanta now we have 5 different potential kick off times. Then there is the added component of UEFA cup games on a Thursday which means that any Saturday game could be moved (not because of TV) to a Sunday if you're playing Everton, for example. So before booking any flight it's a search of all potential combinations before hitting the confirm button.With all that in mind, I've booked for 3 games so far - I'm now awaiting the potential CL game combinations before booking any more.

It seems I made a mistake yesterday in saying that Barloworld had pulled out of the tour due to the positive test of Duenas. Anyway Saunier Duval have pulled out today after the positive test on Riccardo Ricco, winner of two stages this year, announced this morning. There had been rumours about Ricci and, unfortunately, they seem to have been confirmed by this announcement.

L'Equipe has rumours of Chimbonda going to Newcastle or Everton , though why anyone would go near a player with his contempt for any club he seems to play for remains a mystery.

20 Minuten continues to look at the start of the Axpo Super League, here in Switzerland, this Friday night. Apparently some clubs ( Young Boys, FC Basel) offer reasonable prices to away fans but not all are so hospitable.

The truly great Kenny Everett and his DIY Bee Gees kit..... (enjoy the clip - see below). Yes, today,  a package arrived from UEFA - it was a thank you certificate and medal but medallion is the word to this huge gold coloured memento from Euro 2008. All I need now is the hair, even hairier chest and that voice - no idea where you get the kit from though!

Anyway back to the football front and it's good to see that finally the Hleb situation has been decided (though words in newspapers don't always signal the actual final point in a transfer). Can't say it bothers me one way or the other these things - players wants to go, makes a noise, agent stirs it up and club get a decent fee - move on. L'Equipe talks about various English transfer rumours here, including various Liverpool playersgoing to Stoke.

20 Minuten reports on Basel after Euro 2008 has gone. it seems that expectation swere high but businesses generally lost out, especially the restaurants (most losing 15-30% revenue, some 50%).  The paper also has an interesting (not football related) story of the American swimmer who will be going to the Olympic Games and has appeared in Playboy, just thought you might like the images!

Big "Chapeau" to Mark Cavendish for his storming stage win in the Tour de France - at one point it looked a little unsure as the final breakaway rider was caught within metres of the finish. His speed over the final 200m was truly astonishing.