After the last couple of weeks it's difficult to predict the way the match will go tomorrow let alone try and allude to the result. Based on the last week or so then Arsenal are probably favourites with a good win over United and all the players rested to let the kids have late night party before giving them notes to let them off school on Thursday. Aston Villa have lost their last two games and there have been comments that their squad have been looking tired as Martin O'Neill has played pretty much the same players in all competitions so far.

However, we all know that football and its associated Gods do not work in such a rational and logical manner so I'll be expecting a tight game which if we actually play with the same level of commitment as we did last weekend then we should win. The Guardian podcast yesterday summed it up with the comment of whether good or bad Arsenal turned up to lay good or bad Aston Villa. Maybe a few of the Carling Cup kids on the bench looking hungry to play might just convince the "first" team to work hard firstly and then play the football.

As you may know, living here in Switzerland has meant that I download a lot of podcasts tokeep up with the football news on the go and I even take time to listen to the 606 shows (despite some being extremely tiresome. On the plus side has been the return of Danny Baker (despite his anti-Arsenal kids in the Carling Cup rant though it was more to do with his seeing the whole competition as worthless) whilst the downside is the voice and views of Tim Lovejoy. Has anyone with less knowledge or ability to say anything interesting been given such a podium to air his views. Not only is he a moron as he has claimed "good" players shouldn't be sent off as the public want to see them play, he now has tried to keep up with Danny Baker by asking more obscure questions but basically it's just an attempt to air his pointless drivel.

RANT OVER

Good luck to all who are there tomorrow, including Greg with my ticket as he has only see us win once using it so far this season.

In terms of the big four clubs this week has been fairly favourable for Arsenal. With a win over Manchester United at the weekend followed by the young guns win on Tuesday night all combined with the other Carling Cup results, we're flavour of the week/day! I'm not sure how journalists get to keep their jobs when the switch and change sides more often than the Italian army. One week Arsene Wenger is on the verge of losing it/his job/the plot and the next he's back to being a genius and Ferguson is suddenly losing it etc...

It would be nice to see a certain level of consistency and you can understand why most managers generally disregard stories in the media and especially the managers of the big four. Journalists (of all media streams) seem to be forever looking for a different angle or story to justify all the different formats they need to support. As a result it becomes harder to find the true gems of a good piece of journalism.

On other fronts many Arsenal blogs are sticking a big two fingers (or similar) to Ray Wilkins for his wonderfully timed comments (see my blog from yesterday) on Arsenal using their kids to "disrespect" the Carling Cup. We saw two things last night that vindicated our approach (not that it needs vindicating) with Chelsea's so called "stars who take the cup seriously" losing to Burnley (a team with Ade Akinbyi of all people) and Liverpool playing their reserves and showing how to truly disrespect the competition by making Spurs look good.

Oh and two other stories to have a chuckle about (even if they are not such pleasant stories) are the one about Chris Morgan (a nasty player who once punched Van Persie and said it was part of the game when he was hit by someone else) who hopefully will be banned after breaking the skull of another player. The second, of course, is a repeat of the Carragher incident at Highbury with Drogba responding to a coin thrown at him last night. Let's see if the FA apply their normal consistency in both cases!

Yesterday I wrote that whatever happens I'm willing (even if others are not) to see Arsene's grand plan right through to the end. It means that on days like this we can rejoice in the glow of a joyous victory but we know that, at the moment, these young guns or, at least, their slightly older brothers will still lose games through complacency or inconsistency. Last night's game gave me even more hope because although Arsene has used the Carling Cup as a training exercise for his younger players for many years now this year has been exceptional. In the past we have seen much older players (like Gilberto or Jens) mixed with returning injured players (Rosicky is scheduled for the Carling Cup 2011) to help the kids. This year the most experienced players have been Djourou & Bendtner who though they have International as well as league experience are both very young.

Does this mean, as suggested in the Guardian MBM (minute by minute - see last paragraph) that these kids will go on and form the greatest Arsenal team of all time by winning championship after championship, of course not. However, you get the feeling that many of these players are special and can achieve more especially when mixed with a "first" team squad of limited age as well. I know I'm being overly optimistic in the light of a wonderful night but isn't that what being a football fan is about, hoping and dreaming for the best but maybe harbouring some doubts.

Arseblog pointed me in the direction of comments made by Ray Wilkins today and, I have to say, that I'm amazed that someone who though sometimes bland and boring could come out with such remarks.  Though he is a Chelsea boy, through and through, he was always generally smart enough to maintain an even balance on other teams yet once he returned to the "new" chelsea where the likes of Kenyon stalk it seems he had to go to the dark side. There seem to be couple of motives for the outburst and they have Kenyon's trademark thuggish boots all over them. One is the need to denigrate our youth system (though not acknowledging their cheque book system) in a week Kenyon said they will concentrate on young English talent and secondly, we play them at the end of the month - so get the first (or second) strike in early. I think even Chelsea fans who knew Wilkins as a player would have been embarrassed by these comments.

They are a bunch of toadying, lying, sly and obnoxiously evil c##ts and let's just hope that all the very good young players continue to realise where they should really go to get the best football education and, more importantly, chance to shine.

Tonight if, as expected, the average age of the team that takes the field is that of the average GCSE student then most Arsenal fans will be happy. It's the Carling Cup you see and the game is sold out due to low prices, fewer season ticket holders, better atmosphere, the chance to get to a game for many and, possibly more importantly for some, the opportunity to see the next generation - the same generation that saw off a hard northern Sheffield United 6-0 in the previous round. From previous experience we've learnt two main things from the Carling Cup: firstly, many of the kids that make the grade learn from playing in this competition and secondly, it normally goes tits up when we play the experienced players during the final stages. So let's stick with the kids whatever and, tonight, we have a tough task against a Wigan side who have played good football this season with little luck (let's hope they don't get that tonight). 

The other, more controversial, side of Arsene's youth policy is his belief that buying in an experienced player at the expense of the youngsters currently in the side actually harms the development of the younger player. In a recent Guardian piece he is quoted;

"It's not easy. You need strength because the easier part is to take a player of 28 and play him. But we went for this way. You build a player like Fábregas and when he's 19, [if] you put a player in front of him who is 26, maybe in the short-term he will do better but you will lose the player. That's why in this policy we have taken, what you say for one, you have to say for two."

I can really see this point and though there are some contradictions in terms of buying in Silvestre and also the fact that young players would not be harmed by one or two senior, experienced players around them, it's admirable even if it has split Arsenal fans. If, for example, you can beat the current Premier League and Champions League holders with a midfield of players aged 19, 21, 22, 20, & 21 then it can work but we get the inconsistency argument. The hardest part, I believe, is not the manager's or fans' patience but the fact that these days it's so hard to keep a group together for long enough to see the fruition of the development they go through together. We are already seeing the rumours of Cesc leaving if we don't win anything and I even saw some rubbish about Theo being targeted. Whether rumours are true is irrelevant because we all know many other clubs can't be bothered to nurture talent but like it ready mixed and will pay the price.

After an awful 10 days the best response was, of course, to go and get the better of the current champions (in both England and Europe - hard to digest though to may be to say that) in a pulsating game. As a result the other Arsenal bloggers have rediscovered some of their optimism regarding fourth place (we'll worry about titles if we get the opportunity), have more to say on the team and found some time to realise one performance against a big side needs to lead to some performances against the smaller clubs.

As with most Arsenal fans yesterday was a chance to actually enjoy reading the Sunday papers and even discover that Old Red nose was actually quite positive about our win if not happy obviously. He did also manage to moan about the fact they play away after all their Champions League games (as much as I hate to say it , that does sound slightly odd) and he thinks, of course, that they were denied a blatant penalty (as opposed to the one on Nasri or the Carrick foul on Diaby both missed by Webb!!). I think I'm pining for the days when he slagged us off all the time as you get the feeling he's being nice is that he doesn't think we're such a threat any more.

Oh and on the subject of Webb, I (and my other STH mates) felt he was awful on Saturday. The incident that summed it up for me was when Rafael threw the ball away in disgust at not being awarded a throw-in and yet escaped a booking. It's petty, I know, but all fans realise that any blatant dissent these days gets a card unless you do it within sight of the Man Utd manager obviously.

On a rather irrelevant but interesting note why did so many players get a brace of goals at the weekend. Off the top of my head I can remember Keane, Nasri, Bent, Tuncay, Anelka & Saha all scoring twice on the same weekend - odd that.

The other good point of the weekend was Easyjet's decision to move the flight from Basel to London from Stansted to Gatwick. Yes it's a bloody early flight but the return from Gatwick is so much better, Stansted is an abomination of an airport that is too small for the huge increase in low cost flying that it has accepted. No security queues, more space and less chavs - what more could I ask.

You travel often in hope rather than expectation but today saw us triumph over the odds. Arriving with four other season ticket holders I can honestly say that none of us (aside from some 20/20 hindsight) saw us winning today but life as football is completely unpredictable. So thanks to Nasri for the 2 goals and thanks to all the players who actually turned up and put in a shift. You don't need to win every challenge but you do need to make every challenge and today we did that so well played all. Just going back to see the end of MOTD here in the UK and so glad to be here for that sort of a game. Oh and BTW the dropped doors was a reference to the 25 minute delay on the flight over!

Because this is the most vital time to support your team, when things aren't going well, when results aren't what's expected and when the crowd can really help. Tomorrow Arsenal play Manchester United with a patched up team of broken noses, hamstring injuries and three year olds. No matter who's wearing the shirt tomorrow I ask that every one of us gooners there stand up and support them. It doesn't matter if we think that Wenger should have bought a midfielder or not, tomorrow is about being an Arsenal Supporter and not just a glory hunting fan.

I think that as someone who has to travel such a distance for many games I can ask this one small thing - if you don't agree then fine but don't boo and at least you can shout abuse at so many cnuts for 90 minutes (see Arsecast).

Bis Morgen

Well played to Nige!

Whilst contemplating the continuing and entirely predictable fallout from the various Arsene press conferences this week I was taken back to the days when I worked in a multi-national European company. Often I chatted with French, Italian or German colleagues who had, in my view though not always their own, exemplary English skills but there would always be confusion during meetings over particular words or phrases and most of the time any issues could be solved after a bit of a debate over the true meaning. Now the real test of language skills came when an individual was tired, emotional or in an arena with background noise. In those situations these individuals with excellent English language skills (who had often lived in the UK for a number of years) were more likely to make a mistake, never disastrous but a mistake nonetheless.

In the world of the press conference (where emotions run high, where reporters are noisy and managers can be tired) every word is grabbed and dissected by the baying wolves but with little consideration of the manager's mother tongue and the impact of speaking in another language. I'm not saying that Wenger doesn't say stupid things sometimes (he has, he will and he'll probably get slaughtered for them) but the use of one word or phrase that can be very contentious is highly difficult to judge when the speaker is using a foreign tongue. For all his linguistic abilities (I think he can speak 5 or 6) Wenger is still using English, which is his third language (growing up in and around Strasbourg would mean German is his second language) and you can tell that he is always thinking as he speaks. Not so much as thinking what he wants to say (he knows that) but to express it in English in an unambiguous manner and he doesn't always get it right.

If you ever see his interviews in L'Equipe, other French newspapers or on French TV(and understand French of course) his phrasing is much more fluid and coherent because there is no second stage to go through - it's much more natural.

So what does all this rambling mean. Well I think the English media have a right to hear the Premier League managers speak in English but they shouldn't be so quick to jump on the words of ANY foreign manager (especially when one word can change the whole context of the debate - see the whole debate on "deliberate", I'm sure Wenger is talking about deliberate fouls and not injury)much more carefully. I'll give you one other opinion, that of Fabio Cappello, he knew that he wouldn't speak in English until he was sure his words couldn't be twisted and as his English is not perfect yet he has to think every sentence and word carefully or the wolves will jump on them.

I've just read the latest comments from Arsene Wenger regarding the game at Stoke and, as is often the case, there is a just argument in there somewhere but it will always get lost in the British media because of the point of the attack. As with other statements he's made in the past (often after a Bolton game!!) the attack will be perceived as an unjust and vile attempt by this foreign manager (who's bloody French for Christ's sake) to get rid of the blood and guts of the good old English game (see this blog for the typical reaction).

In fact I'm convinced he makes these comments for two reasons, one is the pure frustration of losing a game and the fact he lingers over the defeat (these comments are often made 2 or 3 days after the event). The second and more just complaint is that certain players, he believes, make rash and unjustifiable physical challenges on Arsenal players. The problem with this second and valid point is that of proving it to a public who have brainwashed by the media with the "look at how many red cards his teams have" and "he never sees anything when it's his player" campaigns that may have started with rumour but are now perceived as fact. I once delved through the records to look at our red card record and over his first 10 years Arsenal had about the 6th or 7th BEST disciplinary record but the the press never let facts get in the way of a story. On the other point he makes it easy for the media because he does come out with some ludicrous excuses sometimes and, as a result, his good points are missed, never heard or ignored.

Let's just take the challenge on Adebayor on Saturday, the Stoke player did him with a studs up slide on his ankle OFF THE F##KING PITCH and didn't even concede a foul (the ball had long gone out for a throw) never mind a booking, yet neither this challenge or the one on Walcott were discussed on MOTD. Yet in the same game the petulance of Van Persie (and it was f##king stupid) is given a red card. Now I'm not excusing the Dutchman but where's the justice in that.

What I would like Arsene to do is to come to a press conference in a less emotional state of mind and categorically state that he has no problem with sides being physical (a la Bolton /Stoke) within the LAWS of the game but he would just like refs to actually punish (or maybe the FA on video evidence) clear and deliberate fouling (aka Kevin Nolan's "it's all right to give Walcott a kick" comments). 

The other galling point is that he's the most friendly to the media of most of the managers, he always makes himself available (unlike Old fergie) to the press, will answer any question thrown at him, give his opinion and won't eff and blind at reporters when they say the wrong thing (oh that's you again fergie) to him. Of course he makes stupid comments, of course he defends his players when they shouldn't be defended and of course he makes excuses sometimes but then which manager doesn't.

Many Arsenal fans have always approached the month of November with a mixture of both fear and trepidation. It's always been difficult to say whether this is an irrational dread, or not, of, what is plainly, just another month of the season but for whatever reason the fear won't have been helped by the result at Stoke City on November 1st!

As a black mood hangs over many supporters I thought I'd try and uncover the mysteries of the month of November by looking at our results during that month over the Wenger reign. Starting with his first full season in 1997/8 our league results have been as follows:

Nov 1997 - P4W1D0L3 (Includes that 3-2 home win over Man Utd)

Nov 1998 - P4W1D2L1 (we also lost 0-5 to Chelsea in the League Cup)

Nov 1999 - P4W3D0L1 (Losing to Spurs)

Nov 2000 - P4W1D1L2

Nov 2001 - P3W1D1L1 (Beating Utd 3-1 and losing to Charlton at home 4-2!)

Nov 2002 - P4W3D0L1 (Beating Spurs)

Nov 2003 - P4W3D1L0 (HURRAH UNBEATEN AT LAST - Beating Spurs again)

Nov 2004 - P4W1D2L1 (Beating Spurs again)

Nov 2005 - P3W3D0L0 (Blimey 100% - we've beaten the jinx!)

Nov 2006 - P5W1D2L2 (OR maybe not)

Nov 2007 - P3W1D1L1

Overall - P42W19D10L13 (Hardly title winning form)

So it might not be conclusive but we don't have a good record and this month looks as hard as we've ever faced!

On the bright side, in 1997 we lost on 1st November to Derby and then followed it up the following weekend with a win over Man Utd - so maybe it might happen this weekend. Straw clutching is about to start apace with Arsenal fans I think. That 1997 November was followed by another early December defeat and led to Tony Adams rallying the players at a team meeting - not sure we've got anyone who can do that anymore!