In the past we had the ability of Stevie "He's Got No Hair but we don't Care" Bould flicking on (or passing superb balls to) for Tony Adams to score (either by headers or 20 yard left foot volleys!!) and we thought it was a thing of the olden days. Then Thomas Vermaelen arrived and it coincided with William Gallas scoring too - who needs forwards when your centre halves score 8 goals in 12 games!

It seems that this effect has rubbed off on another of our centre halves as I flicked on the TV this evening to see that Switzerland were 2-0 up after 8 minutes and both goals had been scored by Phillipe Senderos!! Arsene has obviously abandoned all defensive training at the club and is preparing the ultimate goal scoring team! Keiran Gibbs scored twice last night for England U21s (yes one was an own goal but what the heck) and it seems that we just need to get our keepers to score. Almunia has no chest infection - he's been taking intensive shooting practice and penalty taking so that he can join in with the fun... you know this makes sense.

BUT I've just seen Gallas miss a sitter for France, maybe it's not so true after all! Of course it could all be a mirage brought on by being at a beer making and tasting course all day!

Kolo makes some comments regarding "lack of leadership" at the club and how that was the reason (along with "not strengthening" the squad) for leaving (nope £100k pw and a tiff with Gallas had nothing to do with it). He's going to strike a chord with some (or many) Arsenal fans with those statements but saying them indicates two things to me. He wants to shy away from the real reasons and justify (without offending the Arsenal fans he left behind) the move to the "project" that is Manchester "Abu Dhabi" City. It seems that players have to make some sort of comment for no real reason other than it's expected these days. The media need a sound bite, the agent suggests it's good for the player and the player (or most of them) love the sound of their own voice.

Well let's look at the "lack of leadership" issue and, in particular, Toure's role in that - he was a senior player and had it in him to take a leadership role whether he was captain or not. With Fabregas as a young captain he could have a taken the opportunity to help from the back, ensuring the back four was always talking and organised. Now whether his feud with Gallas stopped that or not it strikes me that as one of the elder statesmen in a young side it had to be his role (nee duty) to step in and help the younger players.

Having said all that I'm not going to castigate Kolo too much, he's made points that have a certain ring of truth (even if he has, as all players will do, ignored some other aspects) and his criticism cannot be seen as whining in the way we saw from ye olde mercanary, Adebayor.

I've just watched a little bit of our first two pre-season friendlies and the most obvious thing that stood out from them was that there were a lot of players out on the pitch who have been sort of forgotten (or wished that we had forgotten in some cases) as the search for those new signings goes on. There are, I think, four distinct groups of forgotten players: The Young Ones who struggled to make it last year - e.g. Ramsey & Wiltshire, maybe even Bendtner to some extent The Old Ones who we thought had left or would leave - Senderos, Gallas The Ones many had hoped would have left - Eboue, Silvestre The Ones we thought had died - Thomas Rosicky Is it beyond the realms of possibility that we may get one or two of these to either step up and show true class this year or, at least, provide a depth to the squad that seemed light last year? Maybe they'll just be a sideshow and we will make one or two more signings but I do have doubts about that both from a financial stand point and Arsene's general reluctance. Who knows eh?

..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.

It seems the world at large seem to believe that making Cesc captain was the only sensible decision open to Arsene Wenger and the media will maintain the stance until we lose a couple more games, at which point Wenger will have got it all wrong and we're in crisis for eternity. Of course, if we win tonight with a mix of Carling Cup youth and first team regulars then we will be on the right path, things can get back to normal etc.

The strange thing is that the more you read some of the blogs out in cyberspace you realise that a) there's a lot of rubbish (please no comments about my mediocre offerings) out there but b) some of the fans sharing their views on the world relating to Arsenal (or their own particular club) can offer far more common sense and rational thought than much of the media. The blogs tend to more consistent and, as they are not trying to sell papers, offer a more balanced perspective even if (like mine) it's sometimes tinged with bias and the odd nasty comment against local rivals.

It seems that the news of yesterday has cheered up a few, here, but has also been recognised as the first step along a difficult path for this young squad. I also sense that though William Gallas is not Mr.Popular amongst the majority of Arsenal fans right now there is a feeling that his experience and ability are both required. The real question is whether he is a big enough man to accept the decision of Arsene Wenger and knuckle down to the role of a senior professional under a young captain who would like his support in turning things round. Unfortunately the first thing we out of the "Gallas Camp" is from his agent (GOD I REALLY HATE THESE PEOPLE) saying (as good old Kenneth Williams said) that the media has it in for poor old William. Can't they just keep quiet and move on!

Anyway let's hope the young man can lead and inspire his troops this evening.

The majority of Arsenal fans seem to be of the same mind in that they wanted Cesc to be the new captain of the club. Today that wish has come true and whilst that might seem to be a good thing, I can see one or two potential downsides. Firstly there is the issue of how it will affect him as a player. On this season's evidence there could be a problem as he is looking tired and lethargic and so we are all hoping that this appointment will reinvigorate him as an individual and as a player. The second issue could be that people think that it all can be solved just by changing the captain and we all know that isn't the case, there are deeper problems (some of which were alluded to by Gallas, albeit in such a totally unprofessional manner) within the squad. Cesc's appointment won't change our frailities but hopefully it will boost confidence and generate a team spirit amongst the young team members and enable them to be "up" for matches over the next couple of months.

The one certainty from the appointment is that the entire fan base will be totally behind Fabregas and be willing him to succeed. He has shown since his first appearance for the club his enthusiasm for the club, his ability to defy his tender years and that he seems to thrive on the big occasion. His first big task could be to try and develop a relationship with William Gallas, of all people, as his experience is needed and he is due to play tomorrow evening. How he deals with him will also be seen as a marker to the younger players on how he may develop as a captain.

I can't do anything but wish the young man well and hope, pray and keep everything crossed that he can be as good a captain as the last 21 year old to have that honour.

I've just finished my Saturday morning read of L'Equipe (a paper with no equivalent or equal in the UK unfortunately - though the on-line article doesn't show the depth of the paper one) and there's a fairly decent article on the Gallas situation (even if it went to press before even more news came out of Arsenal). The subtitle to the article talks about a "media Tsunami" at the club and that's not too far from the truth - we're certainly grabbing the headlines (for all the wrong reasons) in the same way that Spurs did at the start of the season.

I love the start of the article as it begins with "Gallas didn't board the bus"..."he's not injured, not ill but simply at the heart of an affair that he, himself, started". The article also says that part of the Van Persie story included not only the insults but he apparently "montré du doigt!!" The article, like many, seems to reflect on whether he has played his last game but as he said himself that he was looking to go back to France near the end of his career .... maybe that will happen sooner rather than later.

As for today's game against Manchester City is a complete lottery to forecast from both team's inconsistency,  to our injury list and god knows how long our team will react to the whole sage this week.

 Fingers crossed!

Thanks for nothing William Gallas, you've managed to finally end any patience any Arsenal fan had with you. I've tried to find an Arsenal blog that had a good word to say about you and, well not to beat around the bush, there is a general consensus, a majority of opinion and 100% agreement that you're a c##t (see good articles by Arsenal Truth, Arseblogger &  here). Some might embellish their opinion with "some of what he says is true" but everyone is in full accord that you have gone way over the line with these comments being spewed into the open whilst you're off on International duty.

However, though many fans seem to be in agreement that it should be the end for you, certainly as an Arsenal captain and, maybe, as an Arsenal player there is little agreement that either will actually happen. On ex-Arsenal player, Nigel Winterburn, believes that Arsene won't sack him for two reasons; firstly we are not in a great situation at the moment and, secondly it will harm Arsene's position as it was his judgement to place faith in Gallas. Arseblogger isn't the only one to say that this may be the worst decision that Arsene Wenger has made as an Arsenal manager and I'm inclined to agree though that is with that wonderful virtue of hindsight. Many thought that Gallas was not ideal captain material and the way Gilberto was treated made it worse but none of us knew quite how bad it would turn out, did we honestly?

The really bad thing about the whole saga is that the front pages of all the sport websites have had for two consecutive days nothing but pictures of bloody Gallas and the corresponding crap he came out with. Being International week it's been fairly quiet so they've had no other news to divert them from highlighting my club and the disasterous conflict unleashed by the c##t.

Sacking him isn't harsh enough so I suggest stocks are installed outside the stadium and he can be left there to rot for a week or two.

Remember how the whole country used to make fun of a young Arsenal captain called Tony Adams. There were donkey chants, donkey cut-out ears and a variety of tabloid crap about a young English centre half who made a few mistakes. Did he after all this abuse:

a) Cry on the pitch like a baby

b) Moan about the other players in his team because it wasn't all his fault

c) Buckle down, work with the support of the other players and become a legend for both Club & Country.

You know for a fact that a) and b) were never going to be options for this man, even when he got sent to prison, he didn't moan, he took his punishment and came back to play his football. Yes he had flaws as both a player and an individual but did he ever give less than 100% commitment to his football and his team mates.

Now when we have a very young team we have the elder statesman of the team sending out all the wrong signals, his latest outburst seems to be a very strange reaction to our current problems and I can't see the young players reacting in a positive way. They must really be sick of being asked or told to do things by this jackass of a captain. So please Mr Gallas do us all a favour and move on if we're not good enough for your great talent.

Let's have a captain who these young players look up (not in age or experience but because they respect them as a player and an individual) and then, maybe just maybe, we can all move on.

On a positive front let's at least be happy for some of our youngsters this week, Henri Lansbury scored for the U19s (at 17) and Aaron Ramsey played for the full Welsh side in Denmark...

Always finish on a high!

Sometimes heavy rain can be a truly glorious thing. If it hadn't been p###ing it down last night and so f##king cold I may have taken a trip to the pub in Basel town, drunk too many beers, seen a wild Spurs fan celebrating yet another draw and let anger take hold of me with disastrous consequences! Maybe that would have been the case, I just don't know but I do know (and I've a feeling that my season ticket colleagues at Arsenal may agree) that I let the anger out when certain things happen and the alcohol has been consumed. I've never lashed out at someone (that's just immature isn't it and violence never solved any problem) but when a really annoying sod of a newbie football fan (who has, by definition, never really followed the game until Sky came along) flaunts himself in your face it's hard to control oneself.

So thanks to the weather and the fact that Teleclub didn't show the game last night I relied on the wonderful experience of Guardian MBM and BBC Live Text service to "see" the final 5 minutes of a game we should've won. There is something really "digital" about seeing the score appear online with no anticipation of what has unfolded or about to unfold. It's depressing and brings back really bad ceefax memories (York 1-0 Arsenal, springs to mind!).

Anyway for various reasons (one being, irony of all ironies, preparing dinner for my wife's friend's family - mum, dad, 2 sons - ALL Tottenham Supporters who didn't know the game had ended 4-4 as they have turned all media off at 88 minutes!!) such as letting the anger subside it has been good to wait before blogging today. 

So you're expecting comment - I'll just leave you with one and it's a truism: A good game for the neutrals is f##king awful for those involved.

 Oh and BTW - they're still bottom!!