I had been hoping that I would be back home today nice and early, ready to write a little about a certain event 20 years ago today. However, Easyjet conspired to delay my plane for three hours which whilst not the end of the world was not helped by sitting in an airport lounge with 100s of Welsh and West Country Mancs all travelling to Italy!

As a result I'm completely knackered after an exceptionally good weekend back in the UK and have little energy to blog anything of any consequence. However, I did spot one rather fanciful story in the Swiss media today (whilst checking emails) regarding a possible move of Sol Campbell to FC Basel of all places. Whether it'strue or not I think at 37 he could still play in the Swiss League!

As the league season drags its heels into the last week of an incredibly frustrating nine months there is little to inspire or interest us gooners. We want Roy Hodgson's Fulham to pip Spurs next week for the much coveted 7th place and a spot in the really, really, popular Europa League!!!! Of course, if by some chance Spurs get in it they will spend all next season moaning about how they didn't really want to be in it in the first place and Harry wants to give his U17 team a go in this prestigious competition.

Meanwhile my attention has been attracted by a) the incredibly interesting Bundesliga where 4 teams can still win the league and b) Basel's win today at Zurich that gives them a chance of retaining their title and that was something that looked highly unlikely a few weeks back.

I shall continue to have no interest in anything that Adebayor feels he needs to talk to anyone about...

I caught sight of this rather stupid statistical analysis of the world's best strikers whilst browsing around this morning. The article in the Telegraph highlighted the fact that this survey (carried out by some organisation entitled www.imscouting.com (so good a site they have an introduction from Pini Zahavi, dodgy agent) had found the best strikers int he world......

It seems that according to this study and in light of our current (interlull created) striker injury list this is the list to be perusing whilst thinking of new strikers for next season. It's bad enough that two Austrian strikers make the list but Scott Chipperfield of Basel!! He may well be a hero for the young Basel kids watching from the terraces at St Jakobs but he's 33 and I've seen him play a bit - he might, just might, get into a side like Coventry or Southampton (randomly chosen average to poor Championships sides) and not the list of top 10 strikers. Especially as he usually plays wide right midfield!

Do you think clubs or managers actually get taken in by these statistics? That's probably a rhetorical question as there are too many stupid chairmen/managers and fans who are quite willing to be gullible enough.

A few Arsenal fans have been saying (me amongst them) that Villa have had their fair share of luck in their recent performances and to a small extent that may be true but as Gary Player once said, "the more I practice the luckier I seem to get". So whatever luck they've had (or not) they are in a deserved position and leaves us (as we stand) with the intriguing possibility of a three way fight for fourth with us, Chelsea and Liverpool. As it stands none of them are in great form and it could even be that Everton sneak up as well.

What's quite odd is the media's incredulous dismissal of Aston Villa, unbeaten in ages, seven staright away wins and yet they a still have no chance of the title and only an outside chance of a top four finish. It seems they've refused to listen to the media and I for one say well played and I would, of course, much rather finish in the top 4 with one of either Liverpool or Chelsea outside.

This means, of course, that we need to win tomorrow for more than just the bragging rights and I'm not thinking it will be easy and I've not got too many good vibes about tomorrow. I just feel when there's a chance of him being found out, Harry Redknapp conjures up some luck from somewhere - I hope I'm wrong. 

Not much better for  FC Basel who staged a comeback today to get back to 2-2 after being 2-0 down to the Young Boys and then lost it in the last couple of minutes!

In those mad last few hours of the TW on Monday many rumours were heard or imagined as to why the whole saga took so long. Today we've heard that (graciously!) the other Premier League clubs think the deal was okay but what tipped the balance was when the truth came out as to the Russian's true reasons for coming to Arsenal and England in particular.

We can see below that Arshavin loves a good sing song and felt that England (in particular, London) offered great opportunities for knees up around the piano and with a plethora of Pop Idol and other such talent(less) shows he would get  plenty of chances to show us his true talent as a singer. We just hope Arsene has Simon Cowell's number..

As Sky Sports News ticker goes into 6th gear, then turbo charged and finally warp drive before exploding at 5pm today.... Here's the photo to sum up the whole TW experience.

I usually manage 3x45 minute Spinning sessions during the week at my local gym, which just happens to be located within the FC Basel stadium complex, St. Jakobs. I discovered today that when the team return from their winter break for training they also use the gym as part of their preparations for the resuming of their season. So I'm warming up when the entire first team squad walks past followed by our good old ex-Tottenham manager, Christian Gross, who smiled as I picked up my Arsenal towel in front of him! Many of the players were happy to talk to people and certainly didn't strike me as prima donnas.

I can't quite imagine this happening with any of the Premier League sides (and yes I realise how small the little old Swiss League is) though you could see at at some lower league sides. It always amazes me the sheer physical size of many football teams and Basel, despite not being amongst the European elite (whatever the last 32 place in the Champions League may say), are a big set of lads.

So that was better than talking about the TW. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

When I first moved out to Switzerland there were 2 Easyjet flights a day from Basel to Luton which made it perfect for flying back to games on the weekend. Now as I look to book tickets back for the Roma and Fulham games (unfortunately a combination of family events and poor train connections between Plymouth and London mean these are the next games I can get to!!) they've completely buggered up their flight schedules from Switzerland to the UK. I can't even get a Saturday morning flight from Zurich any more so it looks like BA will be getting used more often and my BA miles total will drop quickly. It's not the end of the world in any sense but these changes never seem to be announced whilst I get email after email telling me of NEW routes from Gatwick to Spain or Iceland. What good is that to someone living in Switzerland!!!!

Anyway I have, at least, sorted out my travel plans for that week and let's hope the team finds a bit of spark from somewhere. The most noticeable thing about the game yesterday was the lack of pace all over the pitch, both in terms of our players' movement and the speed with which we moved the ball around. Switching Nasri to the centre and the impact of Vela helped but it wasn't too pretty to watch and you can understand Arsene's desire to improve our creative play at the end of that game.

Anyway off to drink beer and watch the Mancs with some Americans who have no real idea of what goes on but for the privilege of this I have agreed to watch their team (New York Giants) straight afterwards in some play off game. Apparently it will last four hours and we drink lots of beer, well the second bit sounds fine.

Do you remember the days when the New Year was just about parties and resolutions (not meant to be kept of course) rather than the start of this artificially created "Transfer Window". I think most people have forgotten the reason it was even created in the first place (apparently it was to do with differing rules in Europe and the EU negotiations...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz). What does it actually achieve?

Well obviously the most important people during these times are the media, who now have carte blanche to write any rumours, gossip or random guesses they dare to dream up. Since this is, for many, their raison d'etre and they've had four months with no opportunity it's generally seized with gusto! Many websites drop off the radar for weeks only to be reinvigorated by the chance to try and excite fans with stories about Johhny nobody's Mr 15% saying he's definitely* interested in coming to YOUR club!

 So keep calm, enjoy tonight and let the month look after itself.

* - depending on money, other clubs' interest, the weather or his astrological forecast

It's a bit of a ritual watching the Sports Personality of the Year show. It's been getting gradually worse over the years and the BBC try ever more wearisome ideas to "modernise" or bring it to the licence payer (hence the setting in a arena in Liverpool). However, I always watch it (on & off and generally it's been Sky+ed or equivalent so I can miss the truly gruesome bits). This year, a year that was generally agreed to be one of the best years of British sport, what was most obvious was the general lack of discussion or celebration of our wonderful game of football. Aside from a truly generous and sincere standing ovation for Sir Bobby Charloton and a few token nods towards coaches and teams, the game was rightly ignored.

You see the people who were celebrated last night were the people who aren't on the back pages every day of the year (or front pages for drinking, drugs or sex) like many of our pampered footballers. As a bit of a cycling fan I was so pleased to see people like Chris Hoy get justifiable reward for his sacrifice and effort in a tough sport. It wasn't just because of their sporting achievements but the general feeling that many of them were like you and I and didn't feel themselves to be better than you and I. It's a generalistion that is probably unfair on some footballers of today but it would be nice to think that the credit crunch could just hang around long enough to see the hyped up game get dragged down a notch or two....

p.s. Sorry no Arse comment today but I needed to get that off my chest.

p.p.s. Meanwhile here in Switzerland, Basel are in freefall, losing 5-1 to the bottom of the table side yesterday!!!