He's 60 this week and on Thursday Arsene Wenger will become the longest servng manager at Arsenal football club. Since we can pretty much agree that he has also been the greatest manager of our club as well then he hasn't done too bad. There have been a raft of articles today (sorry but iPhone means no links) in the media where he says Arsenal were "crazy" to emply him in 1996. When you consider everything he has done and continues to do (multiple million profit, moving to a fabulous stadium etc) then it's hard to accept the criticism he receives. Yet we are a football club and we need success on the field but this week's financial news makes me feel much more comfortable about the future. We may still be in a relatively weaker football position but as our debts reduce and the real world catches up with the rest of the Football world then we can face it with a real positive intent. Much of which we owe to Arsene andbso I say Thank You.

Today's announcement that we have made a record profit of over £35M will inevitably lead to calls for the Board to release the cash to Arsene, who must spend it all in January to stave off the wolves baying at the Top 4 places. However, no matter how much he spends (or probably doesn't until transfer fees become relatively sane again) our major investigation and investment should be focused on assessing the ability of our players to get injured. Today we learn that Denilson will be out for 2 months (fractured back)and though no person could have anticipated the car crash (waiting to happen) for Nicklas Bendtner we need an emergency paramedic team available at immediate notice to save our players! With ER finishing on TV then maybe we could adopt a local hospital and transform part of it to an Emergency Hospital for us with the community using it on days one of our players doesn't get injured. On second thoughts that wouldn't be much use to the community would it as we have an ability to get our players injured on most days and in ever more bizarre circumstances. When Rosicky is your current fittest player we need to be worried....okay I'm going OTT now.

Do we, as Arsenal fans, suffer any more than other clubs from injuries or do have we been cursed by Darren Anderton? Maybe it's the manager's trend of buying small,nippy and technical players rather than big, physical and athletic ones (remember those days). I'm not a doctor or a physiotherapist but I would like to see someone with the right knowledge analyse our problems.

I looked at the map this morning and discovered that I live just over 100km away from the MOST IMPORTANT PUB IN THE WORLD! This is the Pub (the English media seem to overlook that it's a very typical French bar) is the one in which Arsene learnt all he needed to know about life, football and the human psyche. His interview this week has spawned a huge amount of offshoot articles that the English media love to print. Linking pubs, alcohol and football is never to great a leap but trying to link Arsene Wenger to Craig Bellamy is a step too far!

I'm not surprised by Arsene's comments as the French have always viewed bars as the place for debate and discussion (of a reasonably intellectual kind rather than a drink induced verbal jousting match) on almost any subject imaginable. How the regulars at the La Croix d'Or in Duttlenheim would have viewed our win at Fulham yesterday is anybody's guess. Certainly MOTD seemed to deem it a thoroughly unimportant game and Hansen couldn't resist a dig despite it being the sort of game he would say we never win. So we have 4 wins on the bounce and none of them have been that convincing with the Wigan game a non -event that made their win over Chelsea even more surprising than you would imagine. Does that mean we are playing well, badly or just going through the motions. I'm not sure but Fabregas seems out of sorts and (I hate saying this) maybe he's showing the body language of someone who's mind isn't 100% on the club anymore - maybe I'm just reading too much into it and the never ending rumour mills!

Mind you if anything drives you to drink it's the Sunday game of the day..... Sunderland V Wolves! I'm hoping I can find  a Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1 or even (god help me) an AXPO Swiss League game to watch instead. 

Have a good week and I'm off to get my bike and cycle to Duttlenheim for a pilgrimage and a little Alsace wine on the way....

It's funny how when you avoid any media that you think that you can help your team's performance and today that seemed to work. Today was a BBQ at our allotment and we had some friends over ( both of whom are Chelsea fans) and we spent the time eating, drinking and trying to get a decent 3G signal! Anyway we had a great time, too much beer and wine, and it was helped with Chelsea losing too! Getting home I managed to sit through the last few minutes of our game and despite the fact we didn't play particularly well we got a 1-0 win, that is progress and we need to embrace that. So what does it say about us? No idea as Wigan were awful last week against us and yet they beat Chelsea today. So all it means is that we need to beat the weaker teams whenever and however we can. Today we did let's hope that continues.

Apparently Ivan Gazidis has used the term "last resort" when referring to football transfers and has backed the manner in which Arsene has gone about business over the last four years. It poses a couple of questions in that is he saying this because he truly believes it or because the financial situation at the club dictates the need for such a policy. It also probably means that it makes it very difficult for the current board to remove Wenger (though I just couldn't see them doing it anyway) whatever he achieves over the next two seasons. I think we, as fans, have got used to this situation and the quotes come as no real surprise and we'll just have to fight off the money loaded Arab or Russian backed clubs with the resources we have.

Having seen none of last night's action it still amazes me (though it shouldn't)  that the media have managed to harp on about n incident with a young Arsenal player despite the fact they all say the WBA player was rightly sent off. It seems the gist of the story is that if you are fouled you should accept the hand from the player no matter what and not give him a piece of your mind. If you do that you can expect to be hit by the player as he just as no other option but to react... load of bollocks really. Are they trying to run a young player's career before it has even started?

And on one other thing - was Bellamy not banned because of the offence or because the FA would have had to ban Gary Neville as well and that couldn't be considered. How a player can go up to a fan who is being restrained by two stewards and push (he didn't hit him) him in the face and get away with it is mind boggling.

When Nicklas Bendtner opens his mouth (sorry no link here - it has to be the whole URL due to oleole.com not really working with a mac!!!! http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/sep/22/nicklas-bendtner-arsenal-wenger) he often struggles to keep from launching both feet straight into it. However, his comments today about wishing to play centrally to me seem pretty sound. Van Persie is not and never will be a target player to hold the ball up (though he undoubtably has the talent to do it) as he always seems to be a better player when he is able to drift around and be able to dictate play in the final third. I don't think Holland play him centrally but as a wide player in their front three with license to kill, sorry roam. We are probably trying to emulate the Dutch/Barca style or system and I personally think that Bendtner and Van Persie would be much better suited if they switched. I'm not the manager though and so we'll just have to wait and see. With no coverage out here I've been using BBC text to see we've gone 2-0 up and that the game of the night seems to be the Stanley Matthews Memorial game between Stoke and Blackpool so I'm sure he'll be looking down and feeling right pleased. Meanwhile the game I can watch has Barca 3-0 up after 26 minutes and it could have been 5 or 6 already!

So that was a nice easy win over Wigan at the weekend which combined with a beautifully warm day and a good dose of London Pride made it an excellent Saturday. The game itself was even more one sided than most pundits would have predicted as Wigan looked to struggle with a huge amount of departures and a new manager trying to play a new style of play (as opposed to Steve Bruce's kick anything that moves). Having said that it was a great relief to get the win and let's hope that can kick start a run of good results against the "lesser" sides. We have the perfect (or not) opportunity to see if we have progressed as we play Fulham at this week and we can all remember, but desperately try to forget, our performance there last season. They have a good home record and we have to show real desire and, hopefully, start defending properly.

At least we do now have a whole new hero in Thomas Vermaelen who has made me realise that Arsene still has the knack  of spotting true talent at reasonable prices but it's so much harder these days. He is one of those few players that have become a fans' favourite immediately (I suppose our old friend has done that at City BUT we know that will end in tears) and has managed to look our best defender and goalscorer in one fell swoop!

This week it's Carling Cup time so we have to assume a  few of the FA Youth Cup team will get a run out (though many are on loan already) alongside Senderos and a few other players that haven't really played this year.

But it enables me to blog from the pub here in North London before the game. What a boon that there is always someone who doesn't lock their router signal! I'm only going to take a little bandwidth to write this short blog - honest! Anyway with a pint of Pride in one hand and the sun shining (sort of) it's a good day to be in town. Let's hope the team actually turns up today and does the work off the ball that has been missing in the last two games. It's the only way to make this system of ours work I think. I'm also Reading an article in L'Equipe that compares the invincible to the current team. Most clarifying is the reduction in average age, height and weight. We've become a lightweight, smaller and less experienced squad that struggles when the chips are down. Can't really argue with that.

After the week where we, as fans, have had to endure Adebayor and his spin doctors manipulating the media regarding his "persecution" by us, it's good to just sit back and recognise that one of the things that distinguishes a football fan is the complete and utter lack of real logic and reasoning. Yes we try to say that we are objective and you hear hundreds of fans ringing up 606 or other radio phone ins to decry players, referees or managers for their decisions or behaviour. Yet we are unable to ever admit our own failings in public. The fact is that we see things through a pair of blinkers, some of which are broader than others, that allow us only to describe and refelect based on our own team's needs. We accept Henry's run the length of the pitch but not Adebayor's (and yes there is a huge amount of difference in many respects), we'll take an offside/handball goal or a penalty unfairly gained so long as it suits us. We may have a varying degree of moral standards amongst us and some are more willing than others to accept certain events BUT we all, as fans, are biased and no matter what we say or do that will be our want. That is, I say, perfectly fair but let's not get to wound up when other fans (on their agenda) disagree. However, what is amiss is when fans who are journalists spin stories to suit their agenda and bend the truth. That is what has been most prominent to me this week following the game last weekend. Many journalists seem to have written stories to meet their own agenda and not be objective and that is very,very sad that a profession that was once deemed "independent" is now inhabited by low life who just want to spin a story... I don't like it all!

Let's face it that whatever way you look at the group stages of the Champions League they just seem to get duller and duller each year. Now this season we have the added "Platini CL Group Stages" where extra teams from smaller leagues have got to the top table of European football. How well did these sides do last night? Well apart from APOEL (sorry I have never heard of them either) managed an excellent draw at Athletico Madrid but this Spanish club is in turmoil apparently! As for Zurich and Maccabi the less said the better. Last season most people could have predicted the 16 potential qualifiers as the draw was made and only one, Bremen, didn't make it through. So we have too many predictable groups and games. So watch Arsenal make a complete hash of our "easy" group.

However, to make it more interesting most European TV stations seem to offer what the German channel calls a conference service. Here the channel does the channel hopping for you by going from game to game as highlights and goals occur. You sit in anticipation of the phrase "TOOORRRR" (German for goal) followed by the location of the goal BUT not the team. Okay it's not the most exciting thing ever invented but I'll try anything to avoid the general dullness of most games and that will probably include Inter v Barcelona tonight but who knows.