@optajean noted that Arsenal have never won in Ukraine (3 defeats, 1 draw), Portugal (2 defeats, 3 draws) and Serbia (1 defeat).

Arsenal will face SC Braga, Shakhtar Donetsk, and FK Partizan in the Champions league group stages

The best way to summarize our group is not too hard but not easy. There is the distinct possibility of losing points, but the quality amongst the other teams are such that they will also take points off each other. Winning all home games is the key to qualifying for the knock-out stages.

Shakhtar Donetsk, Champions of Ukraine.

Our history against Shakhtar has not been that great. We all remember what happened the last time we visited them, and a 3-2 win at Highbury wasn’t that convincing either.

The return of Eduardo was the first thing on our minds when they were drawn in our group, but you just know the croziallian is going to score against us. Eduardo has already netted twice in his 3 games so far for the coalminers of Donetsk and a return to form looks imminent.

Eduardo is just 1 of a group of Brazilians at the club, infact with the exception of Srna their midfield is entirely Brazilian and short (the tallest being 5’9″).

Braga the Little Arsenal.

I love Braga, I think it’s the stadium. Estádio Municipal de Braga is cut into a granite mountain and only have two stands cut into a hillside, there’s only two stands, Behind the goal at one end are the rock walls of the quarry and at the other is an open view over the city sprawling in the distance.

Not only do they have a lovely stadium, but they love Arsenal. They wear the same colours, they are called Arsenal do Minho, their youth team is Arsenal do Braga and the fans are known as Arsenalistas.

No one gave Braga a chance against Sevilla, and it would be remiss of us not to give them a chance in the group stages.

FK Partizan Champions of Serbia.

For the last 3 years they’ve been the champions of Serbian football, that though has not translated into success in the champions league. The last time the made it to the group stages of the champions league was 2003/2004 where they won 1 of their 10 matches.

This year is the they had to rely on penalty kicks to get past Anderlecht. While playing away in Serbia is always a challenge, it is not insurmountable at all.

The draw has been kind to us.

Arsenal signs Squillaci.

The days of Arsène springing a surprise on us during the transfer window seems to be long over. Arsenal.com has finally announced the signing of Sébastien Squilacci, the worst kept secret in this transfer window.

The player said

“This is an exciting move for me. Arsène Wenger is a highly respected coach who I am very much looking forward to working with and of course, I know some of the Arsenal players through the national team. Arsenal is recognised as a side that not only plays beautiful football but one that challenges for trophies at the highest level and I am very excited to be joining such a fantastic club.”

hopefully he will turn out to be a Vermaelen type signing as opposed to a Silvèstre one.

See you all next time.

Mats hummels would make an excellent addition to Arsenal's squad.

Having spent a season on loan at Borrussia Dortmund, the club was so impressed decided to sign him permanently. Leaving Bayern Munich’s assistant coach Hermann Gerland to lament that FC Hollywood made a mistake in letting go of the promising defender.

“I’ve always known that Mats had the potential to become a class defender. We should never have let him go on a permanent basis,”

According to those who follow the German league, this may be just the man Arsenal needs to shore up the defence. The timing of his tackles is impeccable. He has also shown an excellent ability to read the game for one so young and at 6 foot 3 inches he has proved a useful weapon at defending and attacking set-pieces, with 5 goals to his name.

OK so I’ve totally made that up, but most of what you read in the papers are made up and this is much more believable.

Instead of all the hullabullo about Mark Schwarzer, the real need is at centre back. Wenger has on been harping on about it for months. Yet all we keep hearing about is a damn goalkeeper.

We could buy the best goalkeeper in the world, but that won’t help us much if we allow as many 1 on 1 situations as we did last season. We’ve lost Gallas, Campbell, Silvestre and Senderos —yes I know that the last 2 aren’t really losses but you know what I mean— and the only replacement we’ve brought in is Koscielny.

There is a clear and present need to get another body in that position, at the moment we only have 3 recognized centre backs and with Djourou injured (again) that leaves us to open the season with Håvard Nordtveit as backup. As far as I can tell Nordtveit only played at right-back during the pre-season, which shows that Wenger does not regard him as a centre back.

We all know that Arsène is stubborn, but to not buy another centre back could be viewed as negligence and dereliction of duty.

So for all those who say that they are worried about the goalkeeping situation, I fear that those misgivings are entirely misplaced. What the gooner nation should really be worried about is the centre back position.

Forget about the goalkeepers, because anyone who looks at last season objectively will realise that the defence has put the goalkeepers in terribly compromising situations much too often. Van der Saar, and Cech hardly had has many saves to make as our keepers.

Once we sort out the defenders, then we can think about winning the title. Otherwise I’m afraid that we’ll have to forget about defence and just make sure we score more than the opposition.

Please note arsenal has not signed Mats Hummels, this is just to illustrate where the focus should be.

While it is by no means the only solution to our defensive woes, a change of personnel would be the most obvious change to satisfy our needs. With that in mind let’s take a look at where we stand in terms of defensive players, more precisely let’s start with goalkeepers.

First off Szczęsny looks like he will be Arsenal’s main custodian some time in the future, Arsène has said as much. He could be sent out on loan again this season, although Wojciech himself says he’d rather stay and fight for the No.1 jersey he’d be better off getting as much playing time under his belt as possible.

Mannone is the forgotten man in the goalkeeping set-up. It seems that he is in no man’s land. That is not to say that he isn’t highly regarded, but when Fabiański was brought in it was on the back of championship winning form an being goalkeeper of the year albeit in the Polish League.

So it’s fair to say that Fabiański is ahead of Mannone in the pecking order, however as a backup to the backup and looking at the 3rd choice of other teams Mannone is one of the best around. He certainly did not let us down when called upon last season.

Which brings us to the problem called Fabiański. Brought to Arsenal as the next big thing and rightly so. Arsène bought a player who was battling Artur Boruc for the Polish #1 jersey, suffice to say Fabiański ended up looking nowhere the goalkeeper he was expected to be. Yet unless Wenger buys a new keeper —something which looks increasingly unlikely— we are going to be stuck with Łukasz.

In defence of the Pole, his mistakes have all come in high profile important matches. What this says of his ability to play under pressure? We don’t know. He certainly talks the talk, but even I can admit that he does not instil confidence in those around him. The problem is he may turn out to be just what we needed, however it’s hard to see him learning his craft at a club that has ambitions of winning the league.

It is always possible that Fabiański can hit a run of form, or confidence that will make all our postulation count for nought. Players can always improve, it sometimes takes only 1 thing to click and turn you into a world beater. There are countless examples of sportsmen who were written off only to become great in their field. So don’t rule out Fabiański just yet.

The calls for Wenger to buy a new keeper is growing louder as we get closer to the end of the transfer window. The desperation has even lead to spurious reports of Mark Schwarzer handing in a transfer request, so great is his desire to join Arsenal. Other players being foisted on Arsenal includes any of the 2 at Manchester City, knowing that none of Given or Hart would be willing to sit on the bench at the eastlands it is easy to say we’ll take any.

The question is will any of those improve our goals against figure?

There are arguments to say we would be better off with either of the afore mentioned 3, there are equally strong arguments to say they won’t improve the team. The accusation is that, Almunia whilst no doubt a very good goalkeeper will cost us more points than he will win us. That accusation can also be levelled Given, Schwarzer and Hart. All have made mistakes that are worse than what we’ve seen from Almunia.

It comes down to a simple numbers game, take all the points saved though excellent goalkeeping and remove from that all the points lost by shoddy work, whoever has the most points is the better goalie. I don’t have those numbers but I am sure they are available to Wenger. I’ll put my hands up and say I was wrong, but until someone shows me those figures I will argue that Almunia is not worse than any of our “targets”. Everything else is conjecture and bias.

I would conclude that the best goalkeepers out there, the kind that can really make a difference to our title aspirations, are not available at the kind of figures Arsenal is willing to work with. If we cannot get the best of the best, then it’s no use spending on players that are at best marginally better than the incumbents.

According to the premier league website the home grown rule is as follows:

clubs will be required to have a squad named of up to 25 players, of which no more than 17 can be over the age of 21 and not home grown.

The definition of home grown is trained for three years under the age of 21 by somebody in the English and Welsh professional system.

So in effect you can only have 17 players who are not homegrown in your squad, you can have any amount of under 21 players irrespective of his nationality, but once that player is 21 the homegrown rule must be observed.

The premier league also defines under-21 for the 2010/11 campaign as players born on or after 1st January 1989.

There are 22 current Arsenal Squad Members Over 21

• Almunia
• Fabianski
• Mannone
• Sagna
• Eboue
• Vermaelen
• Djourou
• Clichy
• Song
• Denilson
• Diaby

• Fabregas
• Rosicky
• Arshavin
• Nasri
• van Persie
• Eduardo
• Bendtner
• Chamakh
• Koscielny
• Campbell
• Simpson

From the above list 9 players —Mannone, Djourou, Clichy, Song, Denilson, Fabregas, Bendtner, Campbell and Simpson are all homegrown which leaves us with 13 “foreign” players

• Almunia
• Fabianski
• Sagna
• Eboue
• Vermaelen
• Diaby
• Rosicky
• Arshavin
• Nasri
• van Persie
• Eduardo Gone to Shaktar
• Chamakh
• Koscielny

So as it stands Arsenal can only afford to add 3 4 more “old” players to the squad and still meet the requirements of the Premier league rules.

I’ve left out Gallas and Silvestre and retained Campbell as per Wenger’s comments on the official site.

While I can see the thinking behind the homegrown rule, it basically means that a player must prove himself by the age of 21 otherwise the club will have to let him go to free up space for other players. This is exactly the situation with Jay Simpson who at the age of 21 now finds himself in the unenviable position of being surplus to requirements.

Simpson can still be retained, but only just. Unless Wenger decides to promote Bartley or another youngster to the Centre Back position he will have to bring in a new player add to that the possibility of a Goalie and a Defensive Midfielder then you can see how close it is for Simpson. Yet Simpson can develop to be a good premier league player, and owing to Arsenal’s style of play he could easily score as much as Darren Bent with the scoring chances we create as a team.

Unfortunately these rules are essentially forcing management to make a decision on Simpson instead of allowing him a chance to mature. There a players that make their mark at a young age, but the vast majority are not ready at 21. Players like Xavi, Drogba, and Henri could have easily been written off at that age.

It is worth it to note that you don’t have to name 8 home grown players in fact you don’t need to have 25 players either. The only criteria you have to meet is not exceeding 17 foreign players in your squad. Will this rule improve English football? will more British players come through? It remains to be seen.

Sadly there is a dearth of unbiased in depth, well researched pieces in the mainstream media. The best pieces I’ve read in the past few months are from independent bloggers, and a few journos put out quality content. If those pieces were from a single publication I’d pay for access. What I won’t pay for is the refined techniques papers use to disguise their bullshit as newsworthy.

Whenever you see phrases like “sources close to” or “reports claim” it’s bullshit.

They know that “sources” are protected so they can hide behind that, besides no one will really call them out on it.

Another of those is the word “could”. Of course anything can happen, Cesc could go to Barca or he could go to man City, he could also stay at Arsenal score 20 goals and he could win The premier league, FA cup, and the Champions league. As unlikely as anything is, anything could still happen.

There had been speculation that the roles of Pearce, the England Under-21 manager and assistant to Capello, and the goalkeeping coach Clemence could be under threat as the Italian looked to reorganise in the wake of the summer debacle. —guardian

In one sentence the Guardian is saying

while we don’t even know if Capello is going to reorganize his setup, we can speculate that is he is going to. If he does reorganise then Pearce and Clemences’s positions may or may not be under threat. The truth is we don’t know shit, we’re just writing what we would like to think might happen

The most blatant escape phrase is “rumours”, why in this day and age a newspaper is allowed to spread rumours. They clearly state in the article that it’s rumour, knowing full well that the story will be accepted as fact by the readers as opposed to what it really is —A rumour.

At least I can easily steer clear of these when they are put are in a section clearly marked rumours.

http://bit.ly/dyfxO7

In the odd case where the papers produce quotes that can be directly attributed to a known person the quotes are usually edited to make it more aligned to the tone of the article.

The Cesc to Barca saga really kicked off when in an interview Cesc said

“If I leave Arsenal, it is to play at Barca, before the World Cup I want to know my future”

Anyone can easily take this quote to mean that Cesc is not sure about his future, but is sure about where he wants to go. Until you realise what Cesc actually said was

“If I leave Arsenal, it is to play at Barca, I do not know when it will happen, I am very happy at Arsenal and I have no hurry to leave.”

the “future sorted part” was in response to another question. Dropping the I’m happy at Arsenal and replacing it with I want to know my future adds an entirely different complexion to the quotes printed which although correct was totally wrong.

However the media editors are professionals whose job it is to sell papers, and these people have had to accept that most of the media is consumed via the internet. In this age of 24hrs rolling news and and easy publishing platform for everyone makes difficult for papers, but there’s really no need to put out 600 articles a day just to compete.

I’d willingly pay £2 a week, hell I’ll even pay more I’d pay £5, but only on the condition that I’m not subject to the rubbish content that is currently being put out there. Give me good quality journalism and I’ll give you my cash, but don’t expect me to pay for the same old same old. The times have moved to a paid system yet the quality improved things are same as before and that is not acceptable.

There are good football writers around, and many good articles are printed, sadly they are completely buried under the weight of speculative stories, transfer rumours and noise. Leave the noise and nonsense to the red tops, get the good guys together and give them a platform to publish good quality material and I’d gladly pay for it.

Faux —insert foreign language here— pronunciation

I don’t mind commentators and pundits pronouncing words in the foreign tongue, but if you’re going to do it do it properly. First make sure that you have the correct pronunciation not an approximation or just what you think it should be.

Example: Dayvid Veeyar English firstname Spanish surname. It’s not that hard to say Dahvid, that’s usually the same people that have no problem saying Edgar Dahvids. It’s not hard to find out the correct way to say the name, if it’s too hard just pronounce it as an English word. Don’t pick and choose when to use Spanish or English pronunciations.

By the way the new Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny is not to pronounce, luh-RAW(NG) Cosh-chel-neh

There must be an English angle

No it doesn’t we don’t need to compare everything to the English, It’s embarrassing. England got knocked out get over it.

I’m so not looking forward to the finals, I’m willing to bet it’s going to be commentary on Webb’s performance more than the 2 teams vying for the title.

The same people lauding him now was the same that had so much negative to say about him during the season.

We should follow the German system

Every tournament when England goes out there’s a universal outcry to copy the system of the current team in vogue.

There’s a lot wrong with English football culture, but to my mind the biggest problem is that everyone talks but no one does anything about it.

I’m willing to bet that there’s going to be another inquiry, another report, but no action taken.

Vuvuzela

I admit it was annoying at the start, but once you get used to it you hardly notice until someone brings it up. If it’s really that bad turn down the volume on your telly. It’s not like you’re missing anything.

It’s South Africa, that’s how they do it. Europeans sing, South Americans bang drums, each to their own.

That’s my lot for today, I’m sure there’s more, let us know what irritated our about the world cup.

Beard protest —Cesc plans to keep the beard until he signs for Barca

We all understand that it’s summer and you pretty much have to expect a protracted transfer, and being Arsenal fans we recognize that it will involve the captain of our team. This summer though there are two things that really makes my blood boil.

The first is the utter arrogance of the Barça which I’ll address in my next post. Today I want to take on the myth that once a player wants to leave then the club has no choice in the matter. Every time I hear that phrase I think why? I cannot for the life of me understand why this is held as gospel. It’s just another case of if you repeat it enough then it becomes the truth.

It’s easy to understand a lower league throwing a strop, going on strike, or just not playing well. At the top level of football that’s something you’ll never see. There have been many cases of players angling for a move, but that has never stopped them from performing to the best of their abilities. Let’s look at recent examples.

Christiano Ronaldo wanted to go to Madrid since the summer of 2007, he didn’t get his wish until 2009. What did he do in those 2 years? Every game his face showed how much he’d rather be in sunny Spain, yet he won 2 trophies and world player of the year. Not a bad return for an unhappy git.

Gareth Barry had his best season for Aston Villa after publicly saying we wants to leave Villa for Liverpool —something that Cesc has not done, even if the media would have you believe otherwise.

Didier Drogba last summer told France Football Magazine “I want to leave Chelsea.” He then went on to lead Chelsea to their first double ever, scoring 37 goals his highest season tally. Ask Chelsea if it was worth keeping an unhappy player.

Franck Ribery again last summer said “I have made up my mind, I want to leave,It will be Real or nothing.” to which Bayern replied, “We don’t need their money, and we will keep Franck come hell or high water.” sound familiar? Although his season was plagued by injuries, his unhappiness did not prevent him from helping the German club reach the champions league finals.

As I see it, far from being detrimental to the team, keeping an unhappy player may just prove to be the key to a great season. These players are professional sportsmen at the top of their games, once they step out on the pitch all they want to do is be better than the opposition. It’s no longer about the club, but about putting in the best performance you can.

None of the top sportsmen in the world wouldn’t be where they are if not for their will to be the best. A major part of their psyche is the ability to block out the world and concentrate on the field of play.

I am sure that the same would apply to Cesc, after all this whose will to win is so great that he played on against Barça after breaking his fibula. Does anyone think Cesc will sabotage Arsenal if he doesn’t go to Catalonia?

Credit crunch, taxation, financial doping, and greed has increased player costs.

It is uncharacteristic of Wenger to show his hand in transfer dealings, but this time he has said plainly that he is going to make additions to the squad, most importantly he wants to do so before the World Cup.

The boss has already said that the striker position has already been filled. Which means there’s still the problem of a backup to Song, central defence and goalkeeping– I don’t think he will get a new keeper, but that’s another story.

Buying kind of player that can really add to the quality of the squad is’s not as simple as we think. Wenger to buy the right player at the right price. No sense blowing £40m on a big name that may or may not produce the goods, likewise shopping in the sales department may prove to be no bargain.

The problem is that, every club wants to make a killing when they sell. To make matters worse the current trend is to negotiate wages net of tax, which really adds to the clubs’ outgoings.

I get the feeling that because of Wenger’s record of getting amazing players for next to nothing, we have been spoiled to the point where we expect it to happen every summer. The fact is the scouting of other teams has been catching up, couple that with the spending power of the competition and you can see the difficulty Wenger and Arsenal faces.

One other mitigating factor is that the “real” cost of players has significantly increased over the past 5 years. The increased value of the Euro, the increase in Income tax, and the inflation created by “new money” means that the calibre of player that used to cost £30.6m in transfer and wages now costs a minimum of £50m. Ironically English players are now cheaper by comparison.

Factor in the socialist payment system which is in place at Arsenal, and the conclusion is that Arsenal may have no choice but to continue with the present policy of looking for rough gems while nurturing the youth. More of the same means players that others passed on (Sagna or Vermaelen), a free transfer (Chamakh?), maybe a player who might not have fulfilled their potential elsewhere (Henry, Vieira), someone to come up from the reserves (Eastmond, Bartely).

One thing is for certain, the players we get will not be any of those names you see on fans wishlists or in the back pages. We can only trust the judgment of Wenger and his team, to get the best possible player within the constrains placed on the club. They’ve done the job before, there is no doubt that they’ll do it again.

Losing at Spurs shattered Arsenal's title dreams, but things are looking up.

I’m not angry that it was against Spurs in particular, what galls me is the insipid display of the whole team except for one or two. In my last post I mention the lack of urgency in our general approach to games and last night epitomised that trait. You’d be forgiven if you thought that it was Arsenal who played 120 minutes on the weekend while Spurs had a week’s rest.

However that’s not the tone of this post, there are lots of other places to vent this morning.

Looking at the big picture we’ve done well to be where we are, and with 4 games left we still have a chance albeit a very slim one. However we have a hurdle to overcome, and while we came close this season —yes, past tense, as far as I am concerned the season is over, we’ve been resurrected a few times already this season, there won’t be any more.— we still have not been able to jump that hurdle from potential to winners.

If anything, the rash of injuries we’ve suffered has given the boss an opportunity to take a good look at the second string players. They have been the ones in the spotlight and it has given them the opportunity to show that they deserve to be part of an Arsenal squad that will go on to dominate football in the near future. I am intrigued to see who has made the cut and who’s been cut.

I’ve looked to our friends in Catalonia for comparison you know they spent 5 years without winning a thing. Their wilderness years came between 99 and 05, years when being 2nd in the league was an achievement. Years when Champions league was but a dream, when Iniesta was a child and Xavi was their Denilson. Valdes was in Barca B, Messi was a baby and Guardiola was at the twilight of his career.

Could it be possible that we follow the same path as Barça, there are similarities. Our youth program is bearing fruit, we have a strong first eleven, and we just need one or two more to complete the squad. I doubt we are going to suffer a similar amount of traumatic injuries as we’ve had this season. Here’s what going to happen next season.

In Van Persie, Chamakh, and Bendtner we will have a lot more options upfront to deal with unforeseen circumstances. Van Persie in particular will be the lynchpin for everything, just imagine a fully fit RVP with a fully fit Fabregas working together for a full season.

There is no way that we won’t strengthen at the back. I am willing to bet on a new goalie, retention of Campbell, a fit Djourou, and a new CB. We can also look forward to the blooding of Bartley and maybe one other from the reserves.

The midfield is where I think we have big decisions to make, we have too many players of similar ilk. There’s need for another player like Song, but I’m afraid that Arsene will look to the reserves instead of buying a readymade solution. Unfortunately I don’t see anyone in the youth system that fits the bill.

I know it’s a cop out to blame injuries, but if we just have a little more luck in that department with the addition of reinforcements Arsenal can finally make that step up and become the dominant force in English football for years to come.

Sol Campbell believes that Barça has showed the the true level of Arsenal.

Now I’m in no position to pass judgement on the psychological state of players, but what bothers me is the eagerness in which the players accept that Barça is on a completely different level to us. While it shows good grace to be magnanimous in defeat, I am left with a slight suspicion that there may be some element of self doubt in parts of the squad.

When it comes down to it Barça was indeed the better team, beating us in every statistical measurement, and the performances over the 2 legs may have been their best ever. Looking at it that way it’s easy to put your hands up and say, yes we were beaten by a better team. Sol Campbell sums up my feeling when he says.

People have to realise that you have to keep on moving, to keep on stretching yourself. It means stretching yourself in training every day. We have to look back at this game and say, “This is the benchmark. This is where we have to get to.” We need to take on board lessons from this game, be honest about it and ask, “Where do I want my career to be going?

I had high hopes for Arsenal in the second leg, simply because I didn’t think Barça could play much better than they did at the Emirates, whilst Arsenal had a lot more room for improvement in the return leg. As it happened I was partly right, Barça didn’t play much better , sadly the same went for Arsenal.

Individually to many players had below par performances, something that shouldn’t happen at this level of football. You have to bring your a game in situations like these, this season it has happened time and time again in the big games. Losing those games is less about physical ability and more about your mental approach.

The mental toughness of this team has been proven to be of a very high level. Time and time again Arsenal has come back from seemingly impossible situations, scoring in the dying minutes of games, coming from behind to in games, has showed us that the players have that ability to dig deep.

This takes me to the main point of the article. While we have the ability to dig deep and come back from the grave, we shouldn’t have to be fighting back in the first place. We seem to have the attitude that our technical superiority will prevail consequently we don’t go into into games with any sense of urgency.

While it is wonderful to have that belief in your game, the lack of urgency has been a hiderance. What happens then when our techinical ability is infact inferior to the opposition? What do you have to belive in then? What happens when your technical ability cannot overcome the physical strength of the opposition? This is where we run into problems, this is what Bacary Sagna meant when he said

Sometimes I think we play too much, we just want to do that and do not think about what is good for us – sometimes we just need to cut out the football, stop playing for a bit and just consider what will help us achieve what we want.”

We should be able to win most of our games by playing wengerball, but inevitably we will come up against teams where we will need something different. Whether it means a different approach to the game tactically, or a different approach mentally, it is clear that taking the exact same approach to every single game will fail at some point.

Bendtner and Eboue, brought together by trials, tribulations, and redemption.

It would have been nothing short of a travesty had Arsenal not had the ablility to overturn a 2-1 lead against a Porto side whom we practically gifted thoses 2 goals in the first leg and whose English travels have by and large been hopeless. Still the manner of victory was one that will be remembered not for the paucity of Porto’s game, but for the virtuosity of Arsenal’s. Any team would have struggled to hold their own against Arsenal, such was the exemplary football they produced last night.

So where do we go from here? Was last night’s display a solitary event a one-off, or is it the culmination of a patient struggle to nurture a group of youngsters into a finely tuned footballing machine? The answer as always lies somewhere inbetween.

Wenger this unwavering faith in his judgement of talent, something which is used against him in certain situations. The fact is he is not clairvoyant, there will always be players that doesn’t make the grade. However he is in a much better position to judge the qualities of any player — and much better at it — than any of us.

Think of how many players on the pitch last night that we’ve thought at one point or another was not good enough for Arsenal, even Nasri was written off as a waste of money by many of us. Yet again we see that the footballing ability is clearly there, what the team need is the consistency to put it into action on a regular basis. And that comes with time.

Sometimes it easy to look over the fence and bemoan what is on our side. We look at Rooney and say why Walcott isn’t at his level, we look at Messi and say why we don’t have a player like that. When we do this we are forgetting that truly world class players don’t grow on trees, they are a rare breed and it’s luck, money, or time that allows you to possess these stars.

One of those with time on their side is Bendtner. Derided by many after his showing against Burnley, celebrated by just as many after last night. He’s one of those player that we think we have to make do with but we don’t really have faith in is abilities. At 22 Bendtner is better than many of those we regard today as “world class” when they were his age.

At 22 Drogba was playing at Le-Mans in Ligue 2, no where close to Champions league, premier league or National team, it wasn’t until the age of 24 that Drogba start showing signs of being the player he is today. Henry was considered a failure at Juventus before joining us and even then we were quick to judge him when he didn’t have a flying start.

Take a look at the big picture. Our current team is performing way ahead of their schedule, they are still growing physically and mentally. Even if we end up not winning anything, this season has been a very positive one. Let’s not be too quick to write off our boys after a bad performance, and at the token let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves after a good performance.

Achieving our goal of world domination will come in a series of baby steps, there will be setbacks along the way and we will get over those hurdles as we’ve already shown. When we do reach that goal it will be that much sweeter. I have no doubt that we will dominate the world of football in the very near future, just be patient.

Walcott performance for England was forgettable.

I personally didn’t expect Theo to set the world alight yesterday, and he did show his some poor touches in the game. Ultimately his performance must be taken in context, and by my count he’s played a total of 748 minutes this season in all competitions, that’s 8 games, his injuries this season has been so frequent that only once has he participated in more than 3 matches in a row. how much could you really expect from a 20 year old that hasn’t had much practice this year.

Theo’s talent has no come under scrutiny,  the same pundits and their sort that was eulogising Theo after his hat-trick against Croatia are now denigrating him. What’s even more ludicrous is the  claim that he’s not getting enough playing time at Arsenal, he’s been injured for fuck sake, and when he is fit he almost always get games. These people are ready to pounce on the slightest opportunity to further their own agendas, and any below par performance by Walcott will be used as the stick to beat him with.

I can assure you that if England fails at the world cup, as they will, then they will round on a selection of predetermined scapegoats, and Theo is the 1st on that list. That’s why I’d rather he stays at home, get some rest, and come back fully fit for us next season.

Take last night for example, everyone say SWP had a blistering performance but looking at things closely you’ll realise that SWP wasn’t any better than Theo.

Over a shorter SWP lost possession as many times as Theo did, what struck me is how little service Walcott got in the game.

Wright Phillips had 2 good dribbles which ended in a created chance, one resulted in a goal that was plainly offsides, Theo created 1 chance which was fluffed by the worst player on the night, whose name won’t be mentioned.

SWP’s goals was down to luck, not just one stroke of luck but two events that would not normally happen, yes I am bitter. A rebound that fell at his feet, and a shot that had no right to beat any self respecting goalkeeper.

All I’m saying is if these people think that SWP will give England a better chance of winning the World Cup, then I’d be happy for Theo to stay home.

We’ve been lucky with injuries this international break, everyone seems to have come back free of injury. Eduardo and Arshavin played for their country which means that Arsene will, for the first time in months have to make a selection decision, instead of injuries dictating the teamsheets.

Burnley visits us this weekend in what most people see as an automatic 3 points for Arsenal, I must say tha teams at the bottom fighting for survival, like Burnley, does not make it easy for anyone. That’s why we will beat them 3-0, let’s win it for Aaron.

The general feeling on Ramsey in the media is that he is young and will be back, how the hell to they know that? We all wish Ramsey well, but there is the possibility that he’s career is over. So to say he’s young and he’ll be back is irresponsible.

Just as irresponsible as ignoring the culture of “getting stuck in” against Arsenal because “they don’t like it”. Yesterday I posted this in twitter “Should motorists who cause accidents due to careless or dangerous driving be let off because they didn’t mean it?”. If you go around driving carelessly one day you will have an accident, even if “you didn’t mean it”.

They just don’t get it. The point is this, if you repeatedly go into tackles with excessive force in a bid to intimidate your opponent, sooner or later something like this will happen. And for those of you who say he not “that type of player” maybe we should ask Fancis Jeffers who had his ankle seriously injured by Shawcross, or Adebayor who was hacked from behind outside the field of play by Shawcross, or Fabregas who had his leg raked by a stud up challenge from Shawcross… no he’s not “that type of player”

Some people even have the gall to say that a card was not deserved, I tell you if I could afford it I’d smash my TV on numerous occasions. Some of the TV and Radio pundits really do my head in. It’s as if the deliberately make these statements to wind people up —they wouldn’t, would they? The laws of football says that it is a red card for excessive force something that most pundits either don’t know or conveniently forget in their zeal to extol the virtues of English grit and determination.

This whole episode had made me realise that no amount of complaints from the Arsenal side of the fence will change anything, a culture of using the application brute force to counteract skill and technique cannot be so easily forsaken. Maybe the result yesterday may go some way to expunge the notion that we can’t handle ourselves, for as far as I saw we dealt pretty well with what Stoke had to offer and we were able to impose ourselves having Stoke to chase shadows.

The huddle at the end of the game probably meant more than a team huddle has ever meant before, this was an expression of defiance, a show of belief. Wenger has been ridiculed for his conviction in the mental strength of his team, yesterday showed if anything else that this is not the team that crumbled under the same circumstances 2 years ago.

If ever we needed an “us against the world” mentality this is it. What I saw yesterday was a team ready to go the distance, able to put tragedy and disappointment behind them and keep their eyes on the goal, no Arsenal fan would be surprised if we did go on to lift the trophy this season.

let’s win the league for Aaron

Wenger cannot be happy with the defensive lapses that can't seem to be arrested.

My feeling on the Chelsea game is far from that of despair, yes I am disappointed that we lost, and as everyone points out the total lack of defensive nous and concentration is really frigging annoying.
Unlike the previous game we were not outmanoeuvred as everyone would like you to believe.

For all the criticism of Arsenal and Wenger’s post match comments, is he really wrong to suggest that the first goal was the game changer?
How different would it be if Clichy didn’t have a senior moment and went wandering off to the near post instead of manning his position exactly where the goal went in.

What the hell was he thinking? This is not a coaching or management problem, this wasn’t even lack of concentration. he clearly saw the danger as he was pointing to the unmarked man so why Clichy I asked did you go on a walkabout? What has happen to the Clichy of 2 years ago?

Anyway my point is that this first goal so early in the game, changed the entire nuance of the match. Now we had to go all out in search of a goal, which is not what you want to do in that type of game against that kind of opposition.

To compound matters, Chelsea’s second just 15 minutes later was a case of deja deja vu. This time the blame wasn’t squarely that of Clichy as I read everywhere. Thomas Vermaelen was in a very good position to cover Drogba, what does he to? Leaves Drogba in oodles of space and motion Clichy to move over to cover the Ivorian. Does he not trust Clichy to cover the centre?

Wenger rightly pointed out that the problem is not in a striker but in the defences lapses. When the game is level the game is even both teams have to try to score will preventing the other from scoring —except for those whose entire plan is to prevent the opposition scoring and hope for a draw— the team that scores first will always have the advantage because the onus is on the other team to score. A two goal lead means that you can pretty much park the bus which is what Chelsea did, if they don’t score then the game is much more open and maybe then we wouldn’t be talking about being a striker short.

Oh how different it would be if only Arshavin had scored that goal, we’d probably be talking about how good we are and about winning the title, instead we’re calling for Wenger’s head. The margins are that small, and the difference between the top teams comes down to little errors that get punished, unfortunately we have been on the wrong side of this fine line much more than we would like.

There are 13 games left to go in the season, the best we can do is put our full support behind the team, the best they can do is put their full effort into the games. We could get lucky, other teams  could drop points, this is sport and in sport anything can happen…

Manuel opens the floodgates to a traumatic evening of football

So we lost another game against top class opponents and yes there are many reasons to hang our heads in collective shame, however this is sport and it isn’t over until the final whistle goes. We’ve taken a battering but the title is still within reach, and Chelsea’s draw with hull serves to remind us of that.

As it stands we are 6 points behind Chelsea a win on Sunday will still leave us 3 points behind Chelsea and probably 4 behind United who plays at home against Portsmouth. It is a big ask for Arsenal to win at Stamford Bridge but that’s the beauty of sport, that’s why we love the game, nothing is set in stone.

We can also take solace in the fact that Chelsea and United have to still to play each other and having lost against teams like Burnley Wigan etc who is to say that they won’t drop points elsewhere before the end of the season. The possibilities are endless and I still believe that we can do it.

There’s the return to fitness Bendtner who is never shy to talk up his prospects. The big Dane has put himself in the frame to take on the mantle left vacant by Robin van Persie, whether or not he us up to the task remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, with Chelsea letting in 60% goals from set pieces I’d be more than happy to have Bendtner in the box.

I’d hope that at least one of Ramsey or Diaby is fit for the Chelsea encounter because the thought of Denilson —who I’ve vigourously defended on many occassions— pitching up against the Chelsea midfield doesn’t fill me with confidence. Now if we could sort out the goalkeeping situation…

My predicted teal line-up for tonights game.

For the foreseeable future I won’t be able to post abundantly, but I promise to post regularly on Wednesdays and at least once on the weekends.

When the Premier League fixtures came out last summer we were all flabbergasted at the insane run of fixture the computer fixed for Arsenal starting today with Aston Villa and ending on the 10th of February with Liverpool with Chelsea and Manchester United in between.

Many see this as a make or break run of games, I’m not sure it is. I acknowledge that these games are going to be tough, but it’s no different from any of the other 34 games this season. The goal is to perform well in every game and if we do then chances are we will win.

The only game out of those four that I am concerned about is Chelsea, because frankly they are the only team that are better than us.

Aston Villa we’ve comfortably beaten already and although the game is at Villa Park, it’s not exactly a fortress over there. They tend to be negative and hit the opponents on the break, which can be a double edged sword against us.

That same technique was applied at our last meeting in The Emirates Stadium and our defence comfortably handled their counter-attacking threat. I would have been worried if Traore was still our leftback but with our regular back four well rested I am confident that we will be victorious.

In other matter, it’s nice to see a footballer being sincere and honest about his career. Philippe Senderos has always been hailed as a deep thinking level headed person, and that really showed in his appraisal of his time at Arsenal saying.

“They gave me a fair chance. But at big clubs you have a lot of players and two or three games a week and, if they come in and do well, they will take your place. That’s what happened to me. I don’t think I’ve been unfairly treated apart from the last few months but even then the players in the team were doing well and staying in.”

“I am not bitter at leaving. Arsenal are a big club who gave me a lot and I owe a lot to them. They took me from Switzerland when I was 18 and I got to play in a Champions League final and to win the FA Cup. I am proud to say I was an Arsenal player but I couldn’t go on not playing every week. I needed to move. I didn’t just move to Everton for opportunities, I’ve moved to Everton because it’s a massive club and I can see myself growing as a player and as a man here.”

What a refreshing change from the usual bitterness espoused by most when moved on. It is fair to say that any Arsenal fan reading this can only wish Philippe well and hope that he achieves all his professional aspirations.

One more thing before I sign off. Did anyone really think that Arsène was ever interested in signing a striker? When Arsène says he is looking for the “right” player, you must recognise that he means the right player at the right price.

Who has been available in the transfer window that could fit our needs at the right price?

The oft repeated answer is that, football is a squad game and we don’t have the squad to win. That’s the refrain we constantly hear from those who know better, sadly, as with any mantra repeated enough it becomes a truth, an absolutely irrefutable belief.

Don’t believe the hype.

Anyone who takes a cursory look at the Arsenal should immediately see the gaping holes in the strength in depth arguement. To keep things simple lets look at the squad members used in the premier league so far.

While it’s difficult to pinpoint a 1st eleven let’s look at how many games we’ve missed “important” players compared to other teams. For important players we will take 2 from each area ie. 2 strikes, midfielders, defenders. Where a team uses predominantly 1 striker the we will use 3 midfielders instead.

I’ve chosen for Arsenal, Van Persie, Arshavin, Fabregas, Denilson, Gallas, Vermaelen, and Almunia.
Chelsea includes Drogba, Anelka, Lampard, Essien, Terry, Carvalho, Cech.
ManU, Rooney, Valencia, Carrick, Fletcher, Vidic, Evra, van der Saar.
Man city, Tevez, Adebayor, Barry, Ireland, Toure, Lescott, Given.

So how many times had those 4 teams had to use players other that those “important” team members?

Chelsea – 19
City – 18
United – 32
Arsenal – 29

It’s obvious that united have their injury problems and that is highlighted constantly, the whole world knows, but you can see that we are not far behind.

Now I understand that the situation is much more fluid than described here for example missing all of your centre backs is much worse than missing 4 players in different areas of the pitch, but this is where squad depth comes into play. Just as ManU have had to rely on 3rd a 4th string players so have we, the difference is ours are better.

Take the strikers for instance although I chose not to include Bendtner as important, when he is fit he plays he is a starter whom we’ve missed for 10 games, so together with van Persie we played more than half the season so far without our 2 main strikers yet we’ve scored 51 goals what does that tell you?

The fact is the people that talk about lack of squad depth are too lazy or too scared to open their eyes and see what is really happening. Where would Chelsea be if they had to play 10 games without both Drogba and Anelka, or United without Rooney and Berbatov?

The difference between us and them is that our strength lies in the team ethic, and style that courses through the club from 1st team to academy. As a result the gap between the Arsenal 1st team and the reserves is the smaller than our rivals, and Arsene will have no problem throwing in Kyle Bartley at centre back if the first 4 was injured.

Strength in depth is just an argument used by pundits who find it hard to admit that Arsenal can win this league, and that won’t change until we’ve actually won. The only thing we can do about it is give Arsenal our full support, the more we are written off as contenders the better our chances of winning.

How high does your foot have to go for it to be deemed dangerous?

A goal in 1st half injury time for West Ham lifted the home side, and they came out full of verve and gumption. As the game wore on fatigue started to set in, and the introduction of Diaby and Nasri turned the game in our favour.

Before the match there was a lot of talk about Arsene Wenger devaluing the FA Cup by playing a Carling Cup team. This was an issue on the airwaves the day before, as if someone had a crystal ball and knew the team-sheet 24hrs in advance. Funny that it was old red nose who put out a reserve squad and got said nose firmly rubbed in it by Leeds. Vela, Wilshere and Merida we the main changes while Ramsey replaced Fàbregas

Wilshere and Merida not ready yet.

So Wilshere and Merida got a chance, but didn’t show that they are quite ready for the big stage. No doubt full of talent, yesterday they were thrown into a high tempo claustrophobic game and we couldn’t have expected them to be stars of the show. At this stage of their development the are extremely inconsistent and yesterday showed just that. On another day we’d probably be talking about a glorious future for those two.

Eduardo is slowly regaining his confidence

It may not be as fast as most of us would like, but his play over the last four games have been steadily improving. His goal resembled that he scored against England some time ago, outsmarted and out-jumped Upson as he did to Gerard to score a wonderfully headed goal. 3 goals in 4 games are figures that we’ve come to expect from the Croatian predator.

The $64,0000 question

—Yes that’s a dollar sign 64,000 pound question doesn’t have the same ring— what the hell are we going to do without Alex Song? Diaby has put himself forward for the job but we all know that his skill set is better exploited further up the field.

Denilson, the natural replacement, is due to have a fitness test on Tuesday. Even if he is fit for Bolton, the worry is that his back problem won’t go away any time soon. Nasri fancies himself in the role and ex-Marseille coach Albert Emon and France boss Raymond Domenech have both stated that they see the youngster as a deep lying midfielder. Although there’s a huge difference between “deep lying midfielder and defensive midfielder”.

Anyway that’s my thoughts for today got to run.

A 28 minutes cameo from Cesc Fabregas produces 2 goals to give Arsenal the win

Listening to pundits waffle away in the build up to the game, spouting rubbish about what we need. Some think we need a striker, others still go on about an English spine, generally the usual waffle but no real substance. Most think Villa will edge it, but we know better.

13:00 team news, Almunia, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Traore, Song Billong, Denilson, Nasri, Diaby, Eduardo, Arshavin.

Happy to see Traore get the nod over Silvestre, I was quite worried that the pace of vila would be too much for Silvestre. While his experience is good to have I’m sure Villa would have targeted him with some success.

Diaby looks in the mood, after lovely build up play Eduardo get the first clear cut opportunity in lots of space but only manges to hit it straight at Freidel. great start from Arsenal nonetheless, crisp passing played almost exclusively in the Villa half for the first 6 minutes.

Villa had a 10 minute spell when our defence looked shaky but we’ve recovered and are in control of the game but that opening goal seems elusive. The first half finishes 0–0 but Eduardo should have really given us the lead.

Let’s get that goal and win the second half.

Cesc warming up on the touchline, we can win this without him but it’s a great option to have.

Agbonlahor 1 on 1 vs Vermaelen and the Belgian comes out the winner, managing to keep up with the pace of Agbonlahor and having the determination to win the scrap for the ball. That on play sums up the mood of Arsenal— not willing to give anything away.

Great spell of pressure by Arsenal going close on an Eduardo freekick and on the ensuing corner Carlos Cuellar clears off the line to Keep Villa in it. We just need that finishing touch.

Fabregas comes in for Denilson and the intensity from Arsenal immediately increases, Cesc tries his luck from 40 yards, Eduardo goes close again forcing a brilliant save from Freidel. Come on guys put me out of my misery get the goal.

Theo Walcott comes in for Eduardo, that should keep Villa on their toes. Fabregas wins a freekick in a dangerous area, takes it himself scores a beautiful freekick. One of those where you could see it going in as soon as it leaves the boots. That’s 2 in 2 games, someone has been putting in the extra work on the training ground.

I’m enjoying this we are playing some really good football, just need to keep the ball, keep concentration, hit Villa on the break. Textbook football from Arsenal just we needed, Nasri Traore releases Walcott on the wing who feeds Cesc for our second. This is emotional I’m close to tears we all know how much this win means to our team.

I hope Cesc isn’t hurt to bad, what a cameo 28 minutes 2 very important goals. Get well soon Cesc.

The expected flurry from Villa comes, a third would seal the victory, but Villa is a determined bunch they won’t give up until the final whistle or another goal. Cynical play from Villa it’s to be expected 2 nil down, not much time left, and the fouls are coming in thick and fast.

Diaby who is having one of those games where you think this guy is really friggin good, Song will be missed during the ACN he has developed into a beast of a footballer, really holding our midfield together…

Suddenly the Villa midfield goes AWOL, Diaby just waltzes to the 18 yard box and places the ball low and hard to Friedel left 3–0 game over I shout at the top of my lungs with Gooners all over the world. Yes get in, 4 points off the top with a game in hand what a way to end the Christmas weekend.

P.S Very good game by the referee full marks for Phil Dowd

All teams suffer their fair share of injuries, so it’s up to the manager to manage those injuries through squad rotation and depth. Wenger has to take responsible for not having the squad to cope with those injuries— or does he?

The main problem today is the lack of goals/power from the forwards as a result of van Persie being out, resulting in 3 games without a goal since that injury. So Wenger should have bought a striker when he sold the guy to Man. City. That would have meant at 5 strikers, just like the best teams in the world. Remove the two regular strikers from those teams and compare our paucity to that of other clubs.

Manchester United

• Michael Owen
• Danny Wellbeck
• Federico Macheda

The other north london club

• Crouch
• Pavluchenko
• Dos Santos

Liverpool

• David N’Gog
• Andriy Voronin
• Nabil El Zhar

Chelsea

• Salomon Kalou
• Daniel Sturridge
• Fabio Boroni

Wow a scary collection of talent available to those teams, should they suffer a similar combination of injuries I wonder how much stick they will get for not having adequate backup. Any team in the league would have major problems without 6 of their first 11.

The argument may be that Arsene should know his players are “injury prone”, I don’t buy that. You cannot claim someone in injury prone when they get injured due to bad, late, or over enthusiastic challenges form the opposition. Van Persie didn’t pull a hamstring, or hurt his groin neither did Walcott, Eduardo, Nasri, Djourou or Gibbs.

The goals will come, Eduardo and Vela are good players just like it took van Persie 5 games to get in his groove Eduardo will regain his touch, a year out of the game and an intermittent run of games does not help with sharpness.

The bigger worry is at the back, on the Manchester City showing Silvestre showed just how important it is the Gallas and Vermaelen stay injury free, any of those two getting hurt will be an absolute catastrophe. I am certain that far from buying a new striker in the winter transfer window it is more likely that Arsene will be picking up a new centre back in January.

Eduardo da Silva signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal

Cheating happens all the time in the game everyone claims not to condone it, but ultimately we do. Whether it’s claiming a throw-in when you know it’s off your body, or having a tug at the opponents on the ref’s blind side, or leaving your foot in for a split second longer, it’s all cheating and I doubt anyone can say they’ve never done it in any level of the game. It’s not right but it happens.

When you’re caught cheating you accept the punishment knowing that there are times that you have gotten away with it, I cannot understand the idea that some people claim that Henry should tell the referee that it was a handball. This is absurd, no one in their right mind would do such a thing especially with the stakes so high. In fact while feeling hard done by Thierry the Irish players admitted they would probably have done the same. A distraught Sean St Ledger said:

“We feel cheated. It’s cost a lot of us our dreams – as a boy I used to dream of playing in the World Cup, and now I’m not.

“I’m not sure Henry’s reputation has been tarnished. It doesn’t look great but he’s got his team to the World Cup finals. If it had been one of our team, we’d have probably done the same.”

The striker Kevin Doyle added:

“I don’t know about the ref not seeing it but the linesman had as good a view as anyone and him not seeing it is embarrassing. It’s instinctive and, if you can get away with it … I’m sure he was expecting the free-kick to be given and I can’t believe it’s not been caught.”

Anyone who claims they’ve never cheated in football is a liar, anyone who says that the would tell the referee is a liar, and everyone who takes this for more than an unfortunate incident is a hypocrite. If it was an Irish play who did this I doubt there would be much if any recrimination heading his way.

My biggest problem with all this is that somehow, Arsenal is to blame for all this. Henry is a Barcelona employee, what the hell does that have to do with Arsenal? Comments like “His status as Arsenal legend has gone” and “Next time Arsenal are cheated, no one can complain.” and worst of all from Pyles “Thierry Henry, you are the scum of Paris, the scum of world sport, the scum of the earth.” is so over the top it’s crazy. Although in the end Pyles asks “Is Thierry Henry any more immoral than 10,000 other footballers?

So on to real Arsenal matters Eduardo has sign a new long-term contract which can only be a good thing. In a subsequent interview, Eduardo said:

I’m very happy and I hope to stay at Arsenal for as long as I can. This period is good for me now. I feel strong in my body and I feel ready to play 90 minutes every three days if it’s needed.

What pleases me more is that the player seems totally over his injury and feels ready to put that to the test. He also said that he is ready in both his mind and body to put in winning performances for the rest of the season.

On the injury front the team medical staff has concluded that Gibbs injury is not as bad as first feared and he will time out of the game will be “short-term”.

I really didn’t want last night’s game to go into extra-time as it meant Gallas and Sagna played 120 minutes for their team. It means that Wenger has to know decide whether or not to rest the French duo. We could see a back four of Eboue, Vermaelen, Silvestre and Traore or even Eboue, Vermaelen, Senderos and Silvestre — oh joy.

That all for today folks, thanks for dropping by and don’t forget to leave a comment.

Van Persie suffers another injury during a useless international friendly

The question is how much van Persie’s injury will affect Arsenal’s title ambitions?

The prognosis on Robin van Persie torn ankle ligaments ranges from 4 weeks if you believe the Dutch medical team, to the rest of the season for those more inclined to believe the sun’s sport medicine experts. The truth is that no one really knows yet, however for the sake of this post let’s assume RVP will be out for 8 weeks, which is more than the rather optimistic Dutch estimate and includes extra time to regain some match fitness.

Before we jump to judgement as to how much it will affect the Arsenal lest list the upcoming fixtures up to January 9th.

Fixtures up to Van Persie's return

A cursory look at the fixtures shows that Robin won’t be missing too many important fixtures, Chelsea on the 29th and Liverpool in December looks to be the biggest games. It would not be so wrong to assume that Van Persie would have been rested for the remaining Champions League fixtures, he wouldn’t have been taking part in the Carling cup games either, which leaves 9 Premiership games and an Fa Cup match (depending on the opponent I’m sure he would have been rested for this game also).

For all the talk of how much offensive options we have I find it rather silly that the loss of RVP would mean a collapse of our season. The same people who were doubting Robin’s effectiveness in a 4-3-3 formation now is questioning Arsenal’s effectiveness without him.

I am confident that Eduardo will step up to the plate, at the very least the laughable rumours of his impeding departure to Liverpool has be quashed. I don’t see Eduardo as being less effective than RVP in the striker role, more likely he will relish the opportunity to show how good he can be.

It seems that we forget there is also Carlos Vela and Theo Walcott coming back from injury lay-offs. Theo in particular will bring something we’ve been missing on the pitch… pace. We’ve already shown that we can get goals from all over the pitch, add to the team Rosicky and Nasri and you’ll see that there’s really no need to fear.

When we started the season Van Persie scored only once in the first 5 games, there was talk of him not being up to the task, now we’re doomed without him? I’d be more worried if we had lost Gallas or Vermaelen, but I don’t think losing a striker is going to affect us that much.

I can’t see any reason why we won’t continue scoring 3 goals a game without RVP, yes Van Persie was on a run of form, but the team is red hot too bringing in Eduardo is just adding fresh wood to the furnace.

Derby goalscorers, enjoying the win as much as we did.

Speaking of humility, It has been reported that Almunia’s absence in the team was not down to a chest infection — of course we didn’t believe that story for one minute — but rather Wenger allowing him time to deal with the accidental death of his mother-in-law.

Although Almunia stuck to his training schedule Wenger thought it better not to put the Spaniard in goal. Sagna suffered a similar loss last year and admitted it affected his form for a while, it was prudent of Wenger not to use Almunia in a position where any mistake means a goal conceded. Good call by Wenger, and my condolences to Manuel Almunia and Family.

The difficulty for some in the media to acknowledge Arsenal as true title contenders is incomprehensible, most of the weekend reports put the reasons for the humiliation of the cockerels down to their inept defending. The view of Fabregas’ goal was a complete contrast to the masturbation we witnessed over Owen’s goalscoring exploits.

One person who has the humble pie in the oven is Alan Hansen. His piece in the telegraph acknowledges the defensive improvements in the team, and although not making us the leading title contender he has replaced his beloved Liverpool in the top 3 contenders with Arsenal.

Robin van Persie has been enjoying the weekend as much as us, remarking saying

It always feels good to beat Spurs. It even feels good when we don’t play them and they get beaten, so it’s especially good when we’ve played them.

He described Fabregas’ goal as brilliant, and had more to do with his ability than Spurs’ defensive frailties. The Dutchman would love to have an opportunity to avenge the loss at the Eastlands, but he won’t get his chance just yet. It seems that van Persie is enjoying is life right now, let’s just keep things that way with a win against AZ Alkmaar on Wednesday.

Thanks for reading, don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comment section.

attempt on goal for “Robbie “blabbermouth” Keane for even that shot was off target. O how his preposterous ranting came home to roost. If that was an attempt to gee up his team-mates then he should have kept it indoors, the witless sod.

The second goal put the game away at a time when Tottenham was quite comfortable in their tactics. Fabregas left 2 players on the arse in that run for the second goal.

3 goals obviously, No.3 Bacary had a good game putting in exactly 3 good crosses, 3 bad crosses, 3 good clearances, and setting up 2 goals.

Bad passes by Diaby Diaby, all game. I know I had to look at this again, while watching the game I’d swear that Diaby was playing for the opposition, he actually lost the ball a 11 times during the game, 5 times trying to take on his man.

seconds elapsed between the time Fabregas got his first touch and the time he released the shot for his goal. Lots of talk about how Tottenham switch off for that goal, none about how good Fabregas’ dribble was. If it was Torres or Rooney we’d never hear the end of it.

6 shots off target, but does it really matter when you create as many chances as Arsenal does. Arsenal are often accused of having no end product, this season so far we’ve proven this to be wrong, we’ve created 132 scoring opportunities in 10 games and scored an average of 3.2 goals a game if we can score 20% of chances created then we are projected to score 106 goals this season.

Tackles won by Song, some people still refuse to give Song credit. To question the wisdom of Wenger in not signing Palacios is absurd, again it come down to the mentality of going in hard. Palacios look more of a hardman than Song, but is he more effective? Palacios is inferior to Song in nearly every department, tellingly Song conceded 50% less freekicks than Palacios, won 42% more tackles, and had 40% more interceptions than his counterpart.

first team players out injured for Arsenal, so much for Spurs “injury problem” they have a grand total of… 4 players injured, what was that about strength in depth?

Nine different managers since the last time they beat us in the premier league, back in ’99.

One of the most pervasive myths in English football is the “he got the ball first, so it’s not a foul” nonsense I keep hearing in every single football game I watch.

The tackle which lead to Walcott’s 3 month lay-off is a prime example of the ignorance of the English football fraternity.

The laws of the game state that,

A direct free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any
of the following seven offences in a manner considered by the referee to be
careless, reckless or using excessive force:

• kicks or attempts to kick an opponent
• trips or attempts to trip an opponent
• jumps at an opponent
• charges an opponent
• strikes or attempts to strike an opponent
• pushes an opponent
• tackles an opponent

Notice that there is no mention of winning the ball or not, as long as a tackle is careless, reckless or using excessive force, then it’s a foul. So it is down to the referee to determine what is careless, if in his opinion it wasn’t at least careless then it’s no foul.

So how do you define “careless”, well the referees handbook defines careless as follows.

“Careless” means that the player has shown a lack of attention or
consideration when making a challenge or that he acted without precaution.

No further disciplinary sanction is needed if a foul is judged to be careless

Ask yourself if Ridgewell acted with consideration or precaution in that challenge then let me know if it wasn’t a foul.

Now that we agree it was a foul did it warrant a card? Again going by the referees’ guidelines it was at least a yellow.

“Reckless” means that the player has acted with complete disregard to the
danger to, or consequences for, his opponent

A player who plays in a reckless manner must be cautioned.

It is clear that the tackle fits with FIFA’s description of Reckless perfectly. There was a blatant and obvious disregard for the consequencies of the tackle, so yes it was reckless.

Surely Ridgewell may have deserved a yellow, but no more. Again you may be wrong on this point, and again it comes down to ignorance of the rules.

“Using excessive force” means that the player has far exceeded the necessary
use of force and is in danger of injuring his opponent.

A player who uses excessive force must be sent off.

It can be argued that there wasn’t “excessive force” in this case, another player might not have been hurt by the same tackle.

However there was no need to go in with this amount of force in the first place, at the velocity and angle Ridgewell came in there was always going to be one outcome, taking out the ball and the man.

A slightly different angle could have seen Ridgewell win the ball cleanly, but that wouldn’t have been the Birmingham way, would it?