We can say a lot about our current form and one of those things is that we seem to be rather good at creating and taking scoring opportunities this season - 50 goals do not lie. However, this site (Premier League Statistics) does a lot on the attacking side but very little on the defensive side so I'm not able to work out if we are actually better defensively than last year or not. I mean, we're told our new central defensive partnership is significantly improving our defence and scoring goals as well but I'm just not sure.

I can discover that we already have 6 players (Van Persie, Cesc, The Verminator, Diaby, Arshavin & Gallas) who have scored 3 or more PL goals and that we have 4 players with more than 4 assists too. However, I just can't help but look at how many soft goals we have conceded this year and comparing ourselves to Chelsea who have only let in 8 goals so far.

However, it's not that bad we did concede 6 in those 2 weekends in Manchester when we could and should have got a couple of points at least. Then there is the fact that last year's title winners were pretty awful in the games against the other "big 4" clubs so maybe this year we have adopted a new strategy. We just need to continue thrashing everyone at home and winning games over the so-called smaller teams away. That just means that Van Persie is right in saying that tomorrow's game is actually very important. A win before the Interlull and before United face Chelsea will send everyone off in good heart.

It won't be easy but defensively Wolves have looked like a lot of promoted clubs, open and vulnerable. That doesn't mean we can put on our "arrogant and complacent" hats on (see second half West Ham, Alkmaar(A)) and be focused "100%" - there cannot be 110% focus people please refrain from saying that! The form guide says "easy" but this year's PL has been nothing if not contradictory in many respects.

It's funny how certain individuals love the sound of their own voice right up until they suddenly realise that everything that they have been saying is a right load of bollocks. Some though just keep on repeating the same mistake and so thank you Mr Keane for your ability to give us all a great big laugh once more. Even your manager couldn't find it in his heart to support your ridiculous statements and, in some perverse manner, might actually use his team's capitulation to remind the Irish twat of this. Of course, that won't actually stop Mr Keane in the future doing a similar thing.

As for the weekend itself, there is often something missing in lunchtime kick offs and this derby was pretty uneventful (aside from one good chance for Cesc and some half chances for Arshavin & Van Persie) for 40 minutes. Spurs seemed to come with the old Liverpool plan A of hoofing it up to Crouch and seeing what happened next and aside from one excellent Song tackle we had very little to worry about. Then Van Persie scored a very decent goal (despite all the focus on "bad defending" or "bad goalkeeping" it was excellent work by the Dutchman to get to the ball first and hit it so quickly) before Cesc made the most of some sloppy play but, yet again, it still takes a rather large amount of skill and ability to beat three players and cooly finish with two other players bearing down on him. At that point the celebrations were phenomenal as the adrenalin rush from the first goal hadn't subsided one bit and the second rush kicked in! The only downside was the fact we didn't get that extra goal just to rub it in that little bit more!

Our game yesterday seemed to encapsulate much of what has been going on during most Premier League matches so far this season. Apparently the Premier League has seen the highest "goals per game" average in its entire history as well as being the highest of all the major European leagues. So as much as we have one or two concerns regarding our defensive capabilities it's good to know that this seems to be a disease affecting most, if not all, clubs including the other "big 4" teams. Combined with the fact that we have the greatest array of attacking talents that this club has ever seen then we can surely cash in this. However, if our attacking players have an off day (which we've seen before) then those are the days that we do have to defend slightly better than yesterday but it ain't going to be boring.

Watching the game against Blackburn was both enthralling (80% of the game) and quite scary (the other 20%) for a wonderful 90 minutes. I read somewhere that a reporter felt very sorry for Alexander Song because apart from the four defenders and the goalkeeper, everyone else on the team only has a desire to attack and certainly not defend. I think the reporter got that wrong since it seems Vermaelen, Clichy and Sagna seem more intent on supporting the attack at various stages too! I wonder what George Graham thinks when he watches us play now.....

The great thing about this is that whilst you can work on the team concentrating and the art of tracking back you cannot teach the technique, passing, movement and football genius that is endemic amongst Fabregas, Van Persie, Rosicky, Arshavin, Walcott and Bendtner. It's obvious we haven't quite got the balance right just yet but I'd rather be watching this team develop than any other team on the planet at the moment. Is there anyone who could possibly begrudge spending the price of an admission ticket for most of our games.

Like Arseblogger said today we have a lot of pent up articles to write on how we can improve as the two week interlull starts today. Let's just start the week with a few prayers, rabbit feet and finger corssing that all our players come back uninjured.

On the Swiss side of things Basel learnt from watching us I believe and won 5-0 too! However, this was marred by violence by Basel fans.

That to me sums up a pretty good weekend back in the UK. You can tell it's the summer holiday season as 3 of 5 season ticket holders I sit with were on holiday and so some new faces got to see the game. One was a guy I worked with a long time ago and he's a decent chap with one slight flaw. He brought his son along who is a true gooner and that must be mighty hard for his Spurs supporting dad!!!

It was a game that we won easily (in the end), never got anywhere near 2nd gear against a rather inept Portsmouth side and still our forwards didn't score. They are saving their goals for the United game at the weekend. The major (potential) downside was the injury to Cesc, which is, at the moment, not entirely diagnosed. As he plays for Arsenal expect Arsene to announce it will be three weeks and we'll see him a gain in January. Seriously, it's a real shame as he looks as sharp as the season before last when he scored with ease and started to look the world class player we know he is. However, it's in games like Portsmouth where we will make 4 or 5 changes and it was good to see a decent performance but lets hope Diaby can be a little more consistent and a lot less injured this year.

At the end of the weekend it seems that Spurs are already getting the DVD of their title triumph ready as this is their best start since black and white TV was fashionable. Like Man City they have no European games and a reasonable squad but Villa looked good for 2/3s of last season before falling apart so I think we can rely on Totteringham to collapse at some point.

The final act of the weekend was to desperately turn on the phone as soon as the plane landed in Basel to find out the cricket score. Having boarded the plane with the Aussies making a fight of it at 320-5 it was great relief to discover the 348 all out on the screen. Amazing how many people wanted to know the score when 2 of us roared our approval as the plane was disembarking! TheSwiss had no idea about this cricket thing!

Oh and if anyone knows a good bar in New York to watch the game on Saturday I would be more than grateful. A friend recommended Nevada Smiths ( I think) but he said it will be full of annoying Manc twats... other ideas appreciated.

oh and very funny goings on at Anfield tonight...

Is what I would be doing if I was Cesc or Arsene now that the FA have decided to charge Cesc for the alleged spitting incident and for being on the pitch apparently. I guess they were always going to end up doing this in order to show Phil Brown and his cronies that "justice" was seen to be done and the big boys don't get preferential treatment (unless they happen to be United despite Old Red Nose's accusations). However, I don't get this "on the pitch" stuff, he's the captain of the club and they've just won a cup game in the last 5 minutes. Isn't he entitled to jump around on the pitch - every other member of staff normally does in such a situation. Anyway let's hope it will be immaterial by then regarding the need for Cesc to be on the pitch to secure the CL place and he can get a good rest for a potential CL final!!

Meanwhile on Sunday it's our bogey side of recent years, a team we haven't beaten at the new stadium and have lost to on numerous occasions at their place. Let's just hope for this...

The internet PC at Le Pub in Zinal seems the most reliable source of writing this blog but is one of those pay as you go machines and is a real pain. My laptop is proving useless as the WiFi signals seem to be completely intermittent.

So I check the sport on my mobile and see teh FA ar eto investigaate "CescGate" or whatever the tabloids are calling it and seems a case of:

a) School playground name calling, "that nasty boy spat on the floor and teacher did not see it"

b) Sour grapes on Phil Brown (aka the new BFS) part and a real dislike of Arsenal

c) A pointless waste of the FA and our time to have an investiagation when it is his word against Cesc.

I suppose it keeps the FA busy.

Wow that was quick...

It's strange how managers are always moaning about too many games and yet at the moment a lot of clubs are only playing once a week unless they are in Cup replays. It should, in theory, a chance for players to recuperate (although Cesc is taking the opportunity for a much needed break) and teams to be refreshed but, in reality, it seems that players (and agents) grab the headlines with whining and moaning. Thankfully it doesn't seem to involve any Arsenal players at the moment. No, according to the media it's Chelsea and Liverpool in crisis - erm isn't that the top two teams in the league - they really need to worry then!

As for the TW - it's dull, dreadfully dull and when James Beattie being transferred is big news it's duller than dull - it's Belgian dull.

With the news about Cesc and the suspension of Adebayor, the old Arsenal would have turned up at Aston Villa on Boxing Day, rolled their sleeves up and showed the rest of the league what they are made of. This team will most likely wallow in self pity, miss their captain, think about leaving in January and moan about the referee!

That's the significant difference with these young players and the teams of the past. You can't blame the youth of the team because players like Adams, Rocastle and Merson showed the right attitude from an early age. Oh well as I sit down for the start of the holidays at the mother in law we can but hope...

Merry Christmas to you all

p.s.   Blogs may become more incoherent and alochol induced over the festive period!

It's going to continue this roller coaster of a season as we approach the crucial Christmas period, none of us have any real idea which team will turn up tomorrow or for the next game or the next. We'll certainly have a little more optimism with a new captain, a good couple of wins and the return of the odd player or two. But we won't be certain and that anxiety could spread to the players if we start badly tomorrow. The crowd at the new stadium can become quite quiet and negative relatively quickly (and it's not just at Arsenal - Liverpool were booed off on Monday despite being top and having had their best season start in the Premier League).

This is the time for patience with the team, patience with the new captain and a little bit of hope, fingers crossed (or thumb holding if you're Polish!) and just support the team. 

Some odd bits of news today, apparently Ronaldo nearly signed for us. I had heard that Wenger had been looking at him but I don't know what purpose it serves to makes such comments now. Another United player, Giggs, is saying that Ramsey is Wales' future - so will Wenger adopt Fergie-like policies and make sure he's injured for every friendly.

Finally, some good news about Eduardo who looks to be on the final stages of recovery, though there may be a while before he plays in the first team but think how that Carling Cup game might have been different with him on the pitch.

..or something along those lines.

I think many Arsenal fans struggled to get through last night's game, it was an odd one indeed. From the continuing coverage on Arsenal's very own "The Truman Show" that is "The Billy Show" to the 59,500 (cough, cough) pairs of eyes watching the new captain take to the stage plus the various side shows - it was an "interesting" evening.

In essence we struggled, unsurprisingly, to play with any fluency or pace and it looked, from the first 5 minutes, that this was always go to be a long evening. During the 90 minutes there were little flashes of potential equally mixed with minor scares but sometimes it seemed that it was like watching an Arsenal game on a dodgy internet stream. Our passages of play never quite got into focus and the players seemed, somehow, to be out of sync with each other on numerous occasions. 

However, for all our flaws in our play last night there was (just) enough effort and concentration to make up for the lack of confidence and experience. That and, for once this season, a little bit of lady luck saw us go through after one real alarm (yet more thanks to Almunia) when Cesc made the most of a (rightly) uncontested drop ball (It WASN'T a free kick Mr. Pleat!!!) to put our own Puss in Pink Boots through to score with a superb finish.

So, as the boss remarked afterwards, we got through and we can hope the recovery has started though with our injuries and a game at Stamford Bridge this weekend we need to hold on to some of any luck going. The Champions League can be left out of our minds until February and we ask our new guy from the Soccer League to sort out one or two additions in January. BUT....

You know what I will take from last night's game, not the sight of Cesc in charge or Willie Gallas's face after he nearly let them into score but the 10 minutes or so of Jack Wilshere. 16 years old and as composed a European début since a young Spaniard probably! He looks too young to be on the pitch with the big boys but that his very appearance is what makes Arsene who he is and what he stands for. Whilst the world of football tries to eat itself with money grabbing agents and even more greedy players there still is an innocence of a young kid wanting to just play. It may not last but the memory will still be there.