I think that's an expression that we don't hear too often nowadays and it has nothing to do with my inability to tell the difference between Swallows, Swifts or House Martins. It is the tradition, in the modern media age, to determine the whole season by following a few simple rules. Stick to the cliches, always follow the favourites, ask what ex-Liverpool players think and especially check who has made the best (sorry most) signings of players who have performed well on Championship Manager 2008-9.

If that fails then you can make bold, absolute certain predictions before the first game of the season and then change your mind immediately after said game. So Arsenal have gone from likely contenders for fifth place to "the surprise package" and Arsene has metamorphosed from a stingy, away with the fairies manager back to a true genius. Similarly Everton are now in complete disarray and should get rid of Lescott just because he's had his head turned. I love the way the media have spun this whole story, especially Hansen's take on it.  It's not that there ain't a problem here but the fact that no one sees it fit to to criticise Man City, Mark Hughes and the "new Peter Kenyon", Gary Cook says it all. Moyes says a few things and the media (who all love Man City as the new shiny toy they want) back Hughes all the way. Basically City have just gone around said they will pay Lescott millions, ignored Everton's repeated rejections and just upped the bid, upped his salary and ensured he'll put in a transfer request. That leads to an unsettled team and despite Hansen's quote on MOTD of Moyes's stance being admirable he then turns round and says he has to sell.

Meanwhile it takes a little of the gloss of our win and I've waited till the Monday to reflect a little and see all the analysis of the whole weekend. Basically the first weekend of a season is always a little strange, partly due to new faces and partly due to overwhelming hype and expectation put on one game, the first. So let's say this it was a superb performance, even if Everton were not the Everton of last season, with energy, tempo and, above all, hard work that I've been banging on about a lot in pre-season. Let's talk about the players we have not the ones we might have or might want and get them to work as a unit and maybe this season will turn out all right. 

A couple of interesting points on that first game. Did Bendtner work harder because he wore his new lucky 52 or because his mate Adebayor had f##ked off? Also did you see the moment (in a camera shot from behind Almunia's goal) where our new signing was seen urging his team mates out with passion and organisation - that's a real positive sign.

Of course, a bad result tomorrow night and it'll be back to the "we're doomed" brigade. What ever happened to patience and the bigger picture?

I'm currently reading a really interesting book, "My Father and Other Working Class Heroes", by Gary Imlach who writes about his late father's career as a footballer in the 1950s/60s and then comparing his lifestyle to the current lot of a footballer. Stewart Imlach was on the maximum wage (£14 per week) and clubs used the retention and transfer system to literally own players, who had no control over their destiny or career. It is almost sickening to read the working conditions under which they operated then and certainly when you compare it with the pampered lifestyles and outrageous money that players now have.

Considering that, it's interesting to see that Gareth Barry has shown his ambition and determination to play in the Champions League (to show how good a player he is) by joining a club that finished 4 places below (and 12 points worse off) Aston Villa. I'm trying to think why he did it, he will obviously say he is going to a club with "great ambition and a plan for the future" but it can't just be that, can it?

Oh and then I saw the £100,000 per week wages he's going to get and the fact that Manchester City are rushing it through (before Liverpool or dare I say, Arsenal, get a chance to ruin the move) shows all you need to know about the "nouveau rich" club and the player himself. I used to think both City were a decent club and Barry a decent player but now I know them both as yet more symbols of the over inflated monster (that will eat itself) that is modern football.

When I first moved to Basel the flight back to England for Saturday 3pm games left at a decent hour from our own little airport. Then Easyjet changed all the schedules around and it seems that Zurich has become their favourite and so I need to get an early train to that airport to catch a plane to Luton Airport now (and forever probably)...

So it's early and I'm tired but, at least, the mornings are getting lighter for these journeys. It seems the early news about today is that Robinho will now play for City despite their manager wanting to drop him - is that a good or bad thing, he'll probably be interested in playing as it's against a big club!

Oh and the Guardian is reporting that pretty boy Ronaldo is off (finally?) to his beloved Real Madrid for something silly like £75M!!!! Credit crunch, what credit crunch or is it just another strory like the £45M for Cesc??

Yes after 2 weeks of fairly mediocre football, lack of real stories and a shed load of bleeding injuries, the weekend is here and I get to see the Arse again. It's a real dash over the weekend with a flight to and from Zurich (Basel is too expensive this weekend due to a mad event called Basel World - a really exciting watch and jewellery fair apparently, I'm sure you're glad to hear that!). I'm just pleased that connections to Zurich airport are both easy and cheap!

So will we retain the form and momentum of the games prior to the Interlull or will the travelling and playing the qualifiers rendered all our pre-Interlull capability useless. It seems that most of the injuries cancel themselves out with the return of other players but there are still some doubts. It's impossible to judge and with the CL game against Villarreal to consider as well, I'm not even going to hazard a guess at our potential lineup. Manchester City, if the press are to be believed, are set to drop Robinho and may play a more defensive formation but, again, who knows. They were, of course, the last team to beat us in the league and though many things have changed in the interim, they remain a dangerous side.

Meanwhile, silently in the background, our good old mad scientist, Sepp Blatter, is secretly gaining support for his fiendish plan or, as we call it, the 6+5 rule. It seems that even MPs in Europe may be coming round to his idea of treating Sport as a special case with regard to EU labour regulation. It may or may not happen but I don't think it's quite as dead an idea as many seem to think. We need to be prepared (and I'm sure we have some contigency plans) for the unthinkable but I'm guessing that even if he succeeds there will be the inevitable appeal and court cases to go through afterwards.

Oh and I like JamRockRover's blog so much I've nicked his music idea (based on the title) - hope you don't mind mate..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgSDjNJCk0&feature=related

My mind has been anywhere but thinking about football for the past three days as I've been suffering from the flu virus hitting Switzerland at the moment. Although I'm just about okay to write this today (and apologies for my two days off) I still feel groggy as though I've been 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.

However, from my vantage point of the sofa (under the duvet) today I've just witnessed the first half of the Stoke v Manchester City game and you can understand the way Stoke lay given their resources but as for Man City, well!! Stoke down to 10 men deserved their goal. It just goes to show that despite the current criticism of Arsene Wenger, some of which is perfectly justifiable, having loads of money splashed around doesn't necessarily work either.

Of course most Arsenal bloggers are probably holding off on their writing hoping to be the first to say Arshavin has been signed, or not! It's probably a no win situation now as if we don't get him some fans will be complaining it's because we don't open the purse strings and if he does, he'll probably flop as he's got so little time to get integrated into the team and the Premier League. 

Meanwhile some good news (for the future anyway) as our Youth team won 4-0 away at Sunderland in the FA Youth Cup so perhaps we'll win one bit of Silverware this year.

Apparently UEFA are in discussions with representatives of various clubs (well all the big ones obviously not those insignificant ones like Manchester City- oh) to limit the budget available for transfers/wages to 51% of a club's annual revenue. I think many of us would like this to happen but we, unfortunately, live in the real world and there are a number of reasons why it's unlikely to happen.

1. Can you actually see any of these clubs agreeing to it or, for that matter, agreeing on anything.

2. If it ever got to be an actual ruling how many clubs would circumvent/cheat/be a little less than honest with the system and still carry on regardless. In which case UEFA wouldn't do a thing anyway.

3. Who's going to tell a rich man who has billions where and when he can spend his money (and, to be fair, whatever the morals of the argument - it's the man's money to spend)

4. How would the EU feel about it - as many of the clubs are PLCs surely they are judged by their shareholders  on their accounts and not UEFA

and, of course, the main reason....

5. UEFA are in charge! With it's highly exceptional track record of creating legislation and then enforcing it there should be no bleeding chance.

In a way it's a shame as I've always felt that clubs should be judged on their ability to manage their affairs in a manner that enables them to create a successful sporting side using the same methods available to all teams. In the case of Manchester City (& Chelsea before them) they have a financial advantage not gained by success on the pitch or by attracting sponsors or getting punters into a stadium etc. Significant moves such as Arsenal's building of a new stadium (using a business model to increase revenue) and Liverpool's (Everton, Spurs, etc.)  attempt to do the same are virtually left meaningless. It also negates the excellent job at Aston Villa, where, despite the new owners, the club seems to live within its own means and build with young talent.

First of all I have to state that I hate Bellamy nearly as much as I hated Bolton when Big Fat Sam was in charge. He's always been one of those players that fans (even of his own side) find relatively easy to dislike - the first example of real obnoxious behaviour that I remember was when he played for Newcastle at Wolves in a FA Cup game. Wolves were in the old second division then and knocked out the Premiership side yet at the end of the game there was the Welsh tosser kissing his Premier League badge as he left the pitch. Since then he seems to flatter to deceive with very occasional glimpses of a bit of pace and the odd goal whilst continuing to be petulant, injured or hitting his team mates with a 5 iron. The fact that I heard a glowing tribute from John Hartson on the radio just about sums him up.

Yet Manchester City have paid £14M for him after he had expressed his desire to go to Spurs and not the club in the North West and then apparently went on strike by refusing to play for West Ham. He's now at his EIGHTH club in 12 years and he's only scored (approximately) 80 goals in 300 appearances, most of which he got in spells at Norwich and Newcastle. I really can't understand why Manchester City would want him when they are trying to improve their worldwide appeal - even before the news that Kaka won't be going there.

If anyone has any real idea why players such as Bellamy keep on getting moves (along with Scott Parker, Lee Bowyer and thousands of others) I would be interested to hear..

It certainly explains the sudden desire of Robinho to get the f##k out of there!

As for Arse Shaving - who cares if he doesn't.

or John Hawley or Jeff Blockley or countless other crap players playing crap football...

Sorry I don't know what came over me there, it may be to do with the flu/cold (or whatever I have at the moment and all the drugs I've been taking)  but I was just listening to Fighting Talk and the regular gooner, Tom Watt, made a comment about Helder. He was bemoaning the current fans at Arsenal who are either booing or moaning about no new players or just not turning up and as he rightly said some people don't know how lucky they are. Yes we need players and yes our team isn't playing anything like it did but that's football - you don't always win every game and you take the highs with the lows.

When I then read a few Arsenal related blogs on Ole Ole that are also having a go at Wenger it's got me goat (though I never really liked Billy that much) because we should be talking about Wenger's eloquent assault on the Manchester City (AKA the new Chelsea). That's the real problem, especially when (don't believe the talk about our financial muscle) we have no ability to compete financially, probably even with Lerner and his Villa money. The only way way we can really do anything is try and stay under the radar and pick up a cheap player or two - I have no real expectations on Arshavin - we may even want him but only at our price and in today's mad, mad world that's beyond our means. In the past clubs could live beyond their means but not any more. That is something we should all be grateful for rather than wishing we spent millions+.

The main argument I hear is our fans pay a lot of money and that's true but you pay £30 to watch League 1 football these days, everyone charges stupid money and it still is only a small percentage of club revenue - TV accounts for most of it. Sorry I'm rambling or delirious or both at the moment so I need to go back to the drugs...

as I sit here with a decent bottle of Crozes Hermitage flicking around the channels for a little football, though, to be honest, I only started looking after I finished watching a very good film. If you get the chance (and especially those of you who want to know what life was like in the 80s in parts of England) have a watch of "This is England" - it's a bit raw (in language and content) but there is a superb acting performance by a very young kid.

Anyway, where was I, oh yes football tonight and if the Champions League qualifiers are bad then don't even get me started on UEFA Cup qualifiers - I see Manchester City are struggling against a technically good Danish side but you feel the wealth of the Premier League is far more important for Mark Hughes and his asylum seeking boss.

Of course I'm more excited about coming back this weekend for the first hom egame of the season against WBA. However, the excitement is only partly due to the match and more to do with the pre match banter - having a drink with mates I haven't seen for three months is more important than football. In fact, there has been many a time when we're sitting, drinking a pint and there is that communal feeling that we should stay in the bar and watch it on TV - we never do, of course, but it's tempting sometimes.

Oh and I haven't mentioned last night, I didn't see our game as it wasn't shown on nay of the stations I receive but I saw part of the Liverpool game and it sounds a similar game. Passionate crowd, decent side and we got the goals at the right time. I watched a bit of the Basel game and thankfully they did okay - so the return leg is wide open. There is still hope for Basel to be in Arsenal's group!

Well guess what ...NO!

Even Arseblogger is considering writing rumours himself - though I'm not sure I can go along with his whole "Eboué in a Bear suite eating Hleb" theory, even if it does have some postives. You'ld think that a weekend of sampling fine French wine would chill me out and leave me in a relaxed state concerning the silly transfer season and, you know what, I am.

So I got back in time to watch those mad "grimpeurs" climb the Tormalet and Hautacam in the Tour de France today and it set my mind thinking as to how our beloved professional, pampered, spoilt brats of footballers would cope with the truly enormous physical and mental fatigue of such a day. Oh and how does playing 90 minutes once or twice a week for zillions really hurt these days  - eh boys...

Oh anyway some blah blah from L'Equipe et al....

L'Equipe is reporting tonight that Ronaldinho has 72 hours to decide his future - Man City or Milan (can that really be a choice - no disrespect Blues fans) -  or go cap in hand back to Barcelona.

Oh and L'Equipe also mentions our small increas in Season Ticket prices but yet again (like all other papers) that our tickets are the most expensive BUT fails to mention it includes 7 cup games (total of 26 games) unlike other ST prices at other clubs that are just for Premier League games. Yes we're expensive but get the bloody facts right and compare apples with apples and not dog turds or something like that.