Deadline day of the transfer window is typically a busy and exiting day, not if you’re an Arsenal fan. We’ve made one signing, 15-year-old Luke Freeman for the youth squad, hurrah! Diarra’s gone to Portsmouth but that’s about the only bit of transfer action we’ve had and I’m not expecting any more to be honest.

We have actually completed a couple of loan deals today; Randall’s gone to Burnley and Gibbs to Norwich. I don’t think we’re going to need them for the remainder of this season so it gives these two an opportunity to gain some first team experience. Let’s just hope these players want to come back after their loans this time! Theo Walcott was linked with a loan move this January but he’s told us it would be pointless. He raised the point that he trains with world-class players everyday and he wouldn’t get that experience anywhere else. He has a point.

Cesc and Flamini have been talking about the title race today. Fabregas has said that the team would be very ‘disappointed’ if we didn’t win the league this season. We’ve been on top for most of the season and even managed to create a little gap but it was our lead to lose. We’re now level on points with United with everything to play for.

Flamini’s been saying that our side’s age has nothing to do with it and that we are super confident. We do have the ability to go all the way but we’re going to need our rivals to slip up somewhere. It’s certainly going to be an interesting run in.

There’s some good news for Gael Clichy today as he’s been called up to the France squad. He’s been in sublime form and he’s more than earned his place in the squad. I’m sure he’s delighted with the news and I’m pleased for him. He’ll be joined by William Gallas, Matty Flamini, Abou Diaby and Bac Sagna. Good news to see some of those names there getting some international experience but I won’t be so pleased if they come back injured…

That’s your lot for today people, I’ve got to go. I’ll write a Man City preview tomorrow and you might get another post if we’ve signed loads of players tonight. Thanks for reading.

I don’t know why they even bothered showing up. In fact, Newcastle were worse in the second game than they were in the first! What does that say about Keegan then? We all joked that 3-0 would do nicely again, and we got our wish: top of the league again, happy days.

We played the team I thought except Wenger went for Diaby instead of Walcott on the wing. It might be a little amateur of me to say the two games were really similar, by they were. I’m considering just copying and pasting the previous match report. Just like on Saturday, our left-winger picked up an early injury. Diaby was taken out and was on the floor for some time, he was carried off on a stretcher but he came back on a few minutes later. Memories of when his leg was broken at Sunderland a few seasons ago came into mind but he was ok this time.

Both sides were getting a bit of possession and having a few attacks, but Arsenal were getting by far the more of the ball and threatening Given’s goal. I don’t know what Newcastle’s game plan was this time round but it was certainly not causing us any problems.

Unlike Saturday, we opened the scoring inside the first half. Flamini crossed from the right in the 40th minute and Adebayor added another header to his collection to make it 1-0. Manu headed it downwards making it nearly impossible to save and you had to feel that Newcastle were really going to struggle now.

The visitors hadn’t given up though, at the re-start they did have a few attacking opportunities but nothing came of them. It still reminded me that the 1-0 lead wasn’t enough to be safe, even though the Geordies might not deserve a goal they could still nick one and draw level.

We weren’t playing amazing ourselves by the way. Not that we were playing badly, but we still weren’t at our best. Still, we were too good for them anyway. Some of the boys were having brilliant games though: Adebayor is in great form at the moment, he was using his strength and pace to make a nuisance of himself and he looked like scoring a second. Clichy was once again amazing, this boy deserves some headlines and if I didn’t have that boring old template for match reports I use then I would’ve given him it today. Something along he lines of: Gael Clichy, Clichy, he’s better than Ashley, he’s gonna shag Sheryl Tweedy, Gael Clichy, Clichy!

However, he star of the show was Mathieu Flamini. He was completely controlling the midfield and chased down any ball anywhere near him. I don’t know about his nickname ‘Gattuso’…I think it’s the AC Milan midfielder who should be calling himself ‘the new Flamini’. This guy needs a new contract but there’s good news today on Arsenal.com with Mathieu saying his priority is to sign a new deal with Arsenal. Lets hope all the little details are sorted out soon.

Flamini marked his great performance with an even better goal. It came 17 minutes from time when Matty picked up the ball on the left, he cut inside and let out an absolute screamer from 30 yards. It was swerving away from the ‘keeper and went right into the opposite top corner. A brilliant strike and if you haven’t seen it, well, you better.

Fabregas wrapped things up in the 80th minute. Bendtner took long a long ball on the chest just inside the box and played a nice little touch to set up Cesc who smashed the ball into the back of the net. He needed a goal and hopefully that strike will give him a bit of confidence to find his goal scoring touch again.

So it ended up 3-0 again, an easy game really. We went top for the night but Man United are currently playing Portsmouth off the park as I type. They’re 2-0 up at half time and Chelsea are also in the lead. We’ve got Man City at the weekend so build up to that to come.

Oh by the way we signed someone

So it’s back to the Premier League tonight after those cup games and win or draw tonight and we go top. Man United play Portsmouth tomorrow evening so lets hope Dolphinhead and the gang can get a result at Old Trafford. I say if we draw tonight we can go top, but if we only came away with the one point you’d have to be quite disappointed; not only do we know that Newcastle are a team we can beat, it also gives United a chance to open gap on us.

A win here tonight is pretty much vital. We’re at that stage in the season where any slip up can cause a dramatic effect. Fabregas has reminded his team mates how important these games are.

We beat tonight’s opponents 3-0 at the weekend, so we know we can do it. However it is interesting to see how Keegan might approach this game different, tactically. It will be a test because he sort of knows that if he goes out with the same approach he may well get beaten comfortably again. We will have to be on our toes.

We’ll be back to our preferred 11 tonight. I believe we only have 16 players fully fit, so we don’t really have much choice in terms of the squad but the first 11 will look something like this:

Almunia
Sagna - Senderos - Gallas (c) - Clichy
Walcott - Fabregas - Flamini - Hleb
Adebayor - Eduardo

It’s either going to be Walcott or Diaby (who has just been offered a new deal) on the wing with Hleb on the other flank. I’d go for Theo, his pace really caused Newcastle problems, they couldn’t deal with him, so I’d play him again. On the other hand, his impact value as a sub is equally as important so I can understand if Diaby starts on the left win tonight.

We cannot be complacent tonight. You’d think with playing the same team only three days ago we’d know what to expect but it’s completely the opposite. It’s a bit like when someone has to take two penalties between in one game against the same ‘keeper: Do they go the same way? Or will they try something different?

Anything like the weekend’s result would be great, and if it all goes brilliantly to plan we also have a goal difference to catch up on with United. Let’s not get too confident tonight. I’m going to predict 2-0, Adebayor and Fabregas with the goals; he’s due one. Thanks for reading.

The FA Cup draw was made this lunchtime and we’ve been picked to face Manchester United at Old Trafford. I’m sorry, but don’t we always get a hard tie in the draw? We got Burnley in the 3rd round, that’s not bad but they’re still not bad. There were 6 Premiership teams in today’s draw and I was certain we’d get one of them. What’s more annoying is that Chelsea always get the easiest draw; they’ve got Huddersfield Town at home. It’s stupid the amount of times we draw Premiership teams. Maybe it’s something to do with being ball no.1? Maybe it’s something to do with Roman Abramovich and some cheeky payments to Trevor Brooking?

Anyway, it’s a massive tie and by far the game of the round. It’s a few days before the 1st leg of the Champions League knockout games too so it’ll be interesting to see if anyone is rested. I have a feeling Arsene would’ve planned to play a second string 11 in this match but now he’s seen we’ve got United away he might think differently. The result in this game can have a big effect on our performance against AC Milan and indeed it can have a physiological effect in the title race.

We’ll think about the game in more depth nearer the time; the game will be played on either the 16th or 17th of February.

We’ve got a little bit of injury news today. Toure picked up a groin problem away with the Ivory Coast but he’s only going to be out for 8-10 days. Rosicky had to come off after 10 minutes on Saturday but his hamstring doesn’t look that bad, he’ll miss tomorrow night’s game but he might be ok for the weekend. Also, van Persie is returning to training on Tuesday but, of course, he won’t be available for another two or three weeks.

There’s a brilliant quote from Adebayor about the Bendtner incident:

“We are big guys, so we talk about it. It is behind us already. I am No 25, and he is No 26, so in the dressing room we sit very close. Sometimes it does happen. A child can fight with his father, and they are still friends again.”

So the message to Nick is: “Who’s your daddy?” Heh. In all seriousness, I think they’ll be over it now, it really wasn’t anything much and tempers do go wild when you’re 4-0 down to the scum.

Wenger’s also been talking about playing Walcott on the wing and Lehmann starting in the FA Cup.

I’ll write up a match preview either tonight or tomorrow for the Newcastle game. Until then.

So we might’ve missed out on making the Carling Cup final earlier this week but we could be on our way to Wembley in the cup that really matters. A good performance and convincing score yesterday and we’re dreaming of the FA Cup Final once again. We played a fairly strong side, Theo started with Ade up front, we had Rosicky and Diaby on the wings and Hoyte was at right back; apart from those it was full strength.

However Wenger had to change his plans after 10 minutes when Tomas Rosicky limped off again. Theo went out wide and Eduardo was brought on. I haven’t heard much detail about his problem but he’s a doubt for Tuesday’s game. Arsene said last week he wants Theo to be a striker but he did really well yesterday when he was moved out wide; he was causing Newcastle all sorts of problems with his pace.

Kevin Keegan’s side played attacking football rather than just sitting and defending and this meant the first half was wide open with chances at both ends. It was great to watch. The visitors’ best chance was when Clichy headed off the line from a curled shot. They didn’t really have much else to shout about though, a few corners, a few shots from outside the box but nothing clinical.

We had four or five decent chances but Shay Given was on form again. The best chance was probably when Eduardo found himself one-on-one in the box, he smacked it towards the near top corner but the Irish ‘keeper put it out for a corner. Also just before the break Diaby found some space and hit a shot that was perfectly dipping under the bar but it was another good save.

Half time came, both sides could be reasonably happy with themselves and were still in the game at 0-0. However we finished the half looking more deadly and we were not up for being knocked out of two cups in a week. In the second 45 we went for the kill.

We took the lead in the 51st minute from the goal-machine Emmanuel Adebayor. As the goal went in I had my hands on my head in disbelief as Eduardo found himself in space and curled a shot against the base of the post. However Ade reacted quickest to it, took a touch, then slotted it past Given to take us 1-0 up. This guy is proving something really special for us; recently we’ve seen fantastic examples of his ball control, vision, finishing, heading and pace. He’s on course for the Golden Boot now in the league, something I would never have thought not so long ago.

The goal killed the Toon; they were on the back-foot for some time and were finding it hard to get back in the game. We looked like scoring any minute and were in complete control of the game, but at 1-0 you can never be sure.

We secured our place in the next round with 6 minutes to go when Adebayor got his second. It was a well taken goal, he skillfully passed the Newcastle defense then it was a perfect finish that this time, Given couldn’t get to. It really made me think how much trouble we could be in if Togo qualified for the African Nations Cup.

Nicky Butt added the icing on the cake with a headed own goal from Fabregas’ corner, not too dissimilar to Bendtner’s in the week. It was especially nice that it was Butt who put his side 3-0 down too.

So all in all, a good afternoon for The Arsenal. Flamini, Clichy and Adebayor were all magnificent, Senderos had a pretty solid game too. Next up we’ve got Newcastle at home again, this time in the league. I’d take another 3-0. Thanks for reading.

Well the last game was one we’ll want to forget as quickly as possible so a good result tomorrow is quite important. Last year, after we went out of the FA Cup, Arsene said he considered sacrificing this competition (Carling Cup style) as it affected out league and European form. I thought after last year he will have learnt from his lesson, especially with us chasing the title this season. However with the loss to Spurs still fresh in the memory I think another loss here wouldn’t be a good thing at all.

In the last round we played a weakened side, however it was Burnley so you might expect that against a team in a lower division.

Arsene had a BIG decision to make this week: Does he sacrifice the FA Cup to aid us in the two more important competitions? Or, does he go full strength tomorrow and try and rectify the fans confidence after the result in the last game?

I’ve waited for the usual Friday press conference to find out the answer to that question but it was cancelled. Arsene is angry with the media after they tried to get Adebayor & Bendtner punished and for trying to trick him into saying things he shouldn’t say in the post-match press conference at White Hart Lane. I don’t blame him for not wanting to speak to the press this afternoon, he doesn’t have to, so why should he when they’ve pissed him off. Yes, the fans miss out on his comments but why bother when the papers will just twist his words.

So, I really don’t know how we’re going to play this tomorrow. I’m guessing it’ll be a mixture of first and second teams. Actually wait, I’ve just found this quote from a story where he’s said he wont be loaning out any of our players:

“No, [I will not loan them out] because we are very short. We have 17 fit players. You saw that at Tottenham, because the players on the bench should not have been there.

Our main targets are the Premier League and the Champions League. We will prioritise that.”

That tells me that Arsene will intend to play our Carling Cup team for the FA Cup but as far as tomorrow goes we haven’t really got a choice. I’m going to guess at this team:

Maybe Walcott will play? Maybe Cesc will play? Maybe Clichy will play? I can only guess of what I’ve read. I don’t expect us to be 100% full strength though. We’ll see tomorrow wont we.

Basically, we can’t go into uber-depressed mode if we get knocked out tomorrow. Arsene’s told us this isn’t our priority at the moment; so don’t go start thinking our season is over if we lose.

This is the first of a double header against Kevin Keegan’s re-born Newcastle, they’ll be really up for this, and they really want to do well in this competition. I can’t give you a prediction; it really can go any way. A draw would be another headache for Arsene so he won’t want that. If we do lose, I just hope it’s not by many goals, that’d be a mini disaster. It’ll be great if we win though, great for confidence and we all like the FA Cup.

I’ll write up a match report either tomorrow night or Sunday, talk to ya then.

Not really a lot going on today. A few little stories but nothing to really get excited (or depressed) about.

We haven’t heard a lot about Alisher Usmanov recently have we? I’m sure you remember him paying £75m for David Dein shares in the summer and he started buying up a decent percentage. Well the fans launched an attack on his bid to take over the club and we haven’t really heard much about that since.

Well he’s completely stalled in his buying of shares in Arsenal and now there’s suggestions he might even be trying to sell them. This is great news for us; we don’t want Jabba, or anyone taking over the club. You have to give some credit to the board who agreed to freeze all their activity with Arsenal shares making it impossible for a takeover to happen.

It looks like we’re safe for the moment then, until someone else comes in to try and buy us but we know now that if they do, someone else who has tried it has failed.

Also today, there are suggestions that Theo Walcott could be sent on loan at a lower club. The move would be good for his confidence and match experience but with our current situation with strikers and wingers I don’t think Wenger would want him to go. He’ll probably deny these stories tomorrow, but maybe he should think about it? I mean Theo is obviously lacking confidence and a spell at a Championship side might really help him. I dunno, I’m not the manager, but it’s a decision that he’s going to have to make.

Flamini’s future’s still in doubt but he’s said in this months magazine that Arsenal is his priority and that talks our on going. I think he’s going to stay but it is quite worrying as time ticks on and nothing has been sorted out. With Diarra now gone his new deal is even more important to us.

Finally, Bendtner’s Dad has got involved in the whole thing that happened with Adebayor against Spurs. His comments are really not necessary. This whole thing has been over-hyped by the media way too far; it was simply a push. These things happen all the time when players get irritated. The fact that the FA are getting involved is ridiculous, it should be a purely club matter and I’m sure Arsene will know what’s best to resolve the matter.

Thanks for reading.

Oh dear.

I guess a lot of you will have come here today to read my thoughts on the game and possibly help you see the lighter side of it. However I don’t think I’m going to be much good at that; Gunnerblog has a good piece, as does Arseblog.

A lot of people have told me I’m being stupid being upset about the game, and said, “It’s only the Carling Cup!” Yes, this is true. However a loss against Spurs is still a loss against Spurs, whatever the competition. And 5-1, well that just makes it horrible. Some Tottenham fans will say it wasn’t our reserves, but fuck them; it was, except we had injuries.

Meh, let them have their moment. What was funny was seeing them celebrate like they’d actually won the league or something. Lap of honour, shirts thrown into the crowd…I was starting to think, when are they going to bring out the trophy? Where’s the confetti? Stupid cunts.

I didn’t make the game last night (I have to admit I’m glad I didn’t go), but fair play to those fans that stayed to cheer on the boys through what must’ve been the hardest time. There were shots of Gooners leaving, I see exactly where they were coming from, and I have nothing against them. When that 4th goal went in I got up and put my jacket on in the pub. In the end I did stay to see Adebayor score a great goal for us, against them, again, heh.

Just remember this: 9 long years. Haha! Just wait until Spurs release the DVD of this. And there’ll probably be a chapter in their Opus about beating the Arsenal reserves. Bless ‘em.

There’s nothing we can do but move on from this. It really isn’t the end of the world. Our record is still hilarious against them and I think we all know that if we played our first team we would’ve shown them another lesson in football. The score flatters them too, 5-1 is not a fair reflection on the game but once you’re 3-0 down in a cup game you have to commit forward and those are the consequences.

We went 1-0 after 2 minutes, I wasn’t worried, they always score first. However when they doubled their lead I was quite concerned, but the game wasn’t over, no way. I was hoping we could get a goal back before the break but it wasn’t to be. I really thought we should’ve brought Ade on at the break but we were 3-0 not long into the second 45 and that was a hard goal to take. We had to give it everything and more at this point; I said I’m either going to see us lose to Spurs or witness the greatest comeback ever.

3-0, not completely game over but we had a massive hill to climb. Adebayor and Eduardo came on and they needed to get scoring. They scored their 4th on the hour mark, and as I said I got up to leave, had to be game over now. However Bendtner hit the bar straight away and that goal needed to go in, I couldn’t believe it. Adebayor did score with 20 minutes to go but it was fucking hilarious was watching the Spurs fan shitting themselves that we’d come back. Shows how much confidence they have in their team.

They scored their 5th on the counter attack with the last kick of the game. Really should’nt have been 5 but they did deserve to win. Also, there was a bit of a scrap between Bendtner and Adebayor, I didn’t see it and I’ve heard a few things about spitting and racism but we’ll never know what actually happened. Ade has apologised but I wouldn’t be surprised if Nicklas handed in a transfer request today.

Right, now we move on. We have Newcastle in the proper cup on Saturday and we need to forget about last night. Build up to that one to come. Talk to you tomorrow.

Stand proud Gooners.

News broke earlier today that Wenger was going to be forced to play some first team players due to our injuries and African Nations Cup players. I had a suspicion that William Gallas might be called into action to partner Senderos, however Wenger told us this afternoon that Phillippe is out so Gallas is definitely playing. Senderos was elbowed in the face at Fulham and he might’ve broken his nose. Not something I thought would be a problem but it’s enough to force him out of the game.

So Hoyte or Gilberto are going to have to fill in at centre back. Arsene said that if he got one more injury in defense he’d be forced to buy but I don’t think this will keep Big Phil out long. Hoyte had a decent second half at centre back in the 1st leg but I’d prefer to go with Gilberto’s experience. If Justin was to play in the middle then we’d need someone on the right and Sagna could get a game.

Here are the clues Arsene has given about the team:

“I will rotate the squad which means those that didn’t play on Saturday will play at Tottenham and after that I will complete it with first-team players. I will use William Gallas because I have no choice but Fabianski will play, Hoyte will play and the players that didn’t play against Fulham will all play. Walcott will feature as well.”

So that means Hoyte, Diaby, Gilberto, Bendtner, Walcott and Fabianski are all definite starters. I feel that Hleb or Rosicky is going to start tomorrow night. Theo will be playing striker so we’ll need someone on wing. Both had good games at Fulham so could be decisive tomorrow night.

I see the team being one of these two options:

It all really depends on who is going to partner Gallas; If Gilberto does then Fabregas or Flamini are going to have to come in and play central midfield. On that right wing a decision will be made on either Rosicky or Hleb depending on who is going to benefit more from a mid-week break. Both would play the same role so it’s simply a matter of fitness.

These quotes from Adebayor suggest he could play too. I wasn’t expecting him to be anywhere near tomorrow’s team but if he was to play then I guess he’d come in for Bendtner.

Randall and Mannone who’ve usually been subs in the cup are playing tonight for the reserves but Lansbury isn’t, so he could be on the bench. If he does then he’ll be sitting amongst some more familiar names. I’m expecting a strong bench because we haven’t really got anyone else!

We’ll just have to wait and see what sort of side Wenger does field but it’s guaranteed to feature some first teamers’. That’s why I think we can win. Spurs cannot put in a better performance than they did in the 1st leg and really we can’t play any worse. If we score it puts them in a lot of pressure from the away goal rule and I think we will score.

I’m really excited about this game but gutted I’m not going. I think I’m going to find a bar in Watford to watch the game with some fellow Gooners. Wherever you’re watching it, enjoy the game and cheer to boys on to Wembley. Thanks for reading.

Adebayor’s not quite on the scale of Bendtner’s 6-foot jump against Spurs when it comes to meeting headers but the man does have a massive leap in his step. Two goals on Saturday and a few more earlier in this season (Villa, Newcastle [not a header but you know] & Spurs) and Manu is proving a real goal threat from crosses. He is tall, but that’s not it; both he and Bendtner make a bigger advantage of their height by learning to jump so high. Ade has revealed why he can jump like that:

“When I was young, I used to suspend a ball from the ceiling in my mum’s house in Togo and see if I could jump high enough to head it. Every time I managed to head it, I would shorten the string attached to the ball and try to leap even higher. I don’t know how high I could go, but ever since I played for Metz in France, I’ve always come first in every jumping test.”

Interesting technique. I thought he was going to say he stands on some invisible midget or that he can actually fly but yeah. I haven’t really noticed his leap until this season but hopefully he’ll give us a few more examples before the season is up. Also in that article he talks about how well his goal scoring run is going and that he’s not really thinking about the golden boot.

Rosicky and Hleb also put in fine performances at Craven Cottage and Le Boss has compared their importance to the team like the partnership of Pires and Ljungberg. Hleb has been fantastic for us this year but Tomas hasn’t been so consistent. He has had some really good games though and Saturday’s was one of his best. The pair are just starting to settle in here and they are proving exiting players.

However the story that really got my attention was Wenger saying we might use some 1st team players against Spurs. This is a massive game and I’ve been worried that it’s going to be too much for our kids. Here’s what he said:

“The players who were on the bench at Fulham will play. But I will have to play one or two who played on Saturday because we are short in numbers.

I will see [about playing Gallas]. Come to the game on Tuesday!”

The players on the bench at Fulham were Lehmann, Hoyte, Diaby, Gilberto and Bendtner. I don’t think Wenger meant Lehmann though as Fabianski has played all the games in the run up to this. The ‘one or two’ that he mentions I think will be Gallas and Hleb or Rosicky, possibly even Cesc. However the inclusion of just those couple of players will make a massive difference, Gallas will keep things tight at the back and the other one would create a lot and just be very useful.

Eduardo’s played a lot in this competition too but I think he’ll be on the bench tomorrow night. He played 90 minutes on Saturday and Walcott was completely rested. I see Da Silva as an option on the bench who can come on if we’re in trouble.

I’m writing up a proper preview tonight for the game so I’ll save my thoughts until then. Thanks for reading.

That was exactly what we needed to forget about losing our place at the top of the table last weekend. A comfortable 3-0 win and a great performance and we’re all smiling again. It was nearly an even better afternoon when Chelsea and Man United were both being held 0-0 late into their games but in the end they both won. Liverpool are playing Villa tomorrow night but in all seriousness I’ve ruled them out of the title race in my mind for the moment anyway.

Rosicky came back into the squad for Walcott who was rested for the Carling Cup game. Tomas was amazing on his comeback game. He was creating so much and was a key player for us in this game. He topped it all off with a goal 9 minutes from time. It was really good to see him play well as he’s had some anonymous performances this season.

Rosicky’s performance was great, but he was out-shone buy Alexander Hleb. He just seems to be getting better and better and yesterday he proved why he’s such an important player for us. Fabregas hasn’t been the same player like he was at the start of the season so it’s good to see Alex come through and take the creative responsibility. Not that Cesc had a bad game; just it wasn’t as special as we’ve seen.

We took the lead after 20 minutes through Adebayor. Clichy got the assist from the left wing with an absolutely perfect cross and Ade leapt like he does so well and headed us into the lead. It was a nice goal and such textbook stuff.

It was really game over from then, we were far to good for Fulham and we were playing confident football. Adebayor doubled our lead 6 minutes from half time with another header. This time it was a cross from the right from Hleb. Adebayor beat the defender again, and got his 15th goal of the season. With van Persie out it’s great that Emmanuel has been scoring goals for us and if Ronaldo wasn’t in such fantastic form he’d be top scorer in the league.

We were cruising in the second half. Fulham had no chance; they were just simply outclassed by us. We took the foot off the pedal a bit and were happy at two goals. As the half went on Fulham started to think that maybe they could find two goals from somewhere. They crowd were getting behind them and so were the commentators on talk sport. They did have a few chances but Almunia wasn’t giving away his clean sheet.

Just when the home side were starting to realize that they were running out of time Tomas Rosicky came up with our third. Eduardo supplied this one with some great work on the left and Tom came flying in with a great finish to wrap things up.

It finished 3-0 but it could have easily been more. Arsene highlighted after the game that it was nice to see us scoring three goals from crosses too; we’ve done that a few times this season which is refreshing when I think back to times when we simply could not score from any cross, or any corner, never mind how good the delivery was. You can read Arsene’s thoughts on the game here.

So next up it’s the second leg of the Carling Cup semi final at Spurs. We didn’t make one substitution in yesterday’s game which suggests that none of our preferred 11 will start. Eduardo’s scored a lot of goals in the cup but he’s made his way into the first team squad now and I’ve got a feeling Walcott could start up front with Bendtner. Wenger said in the week that Theo’s a striker and he needs to be playing more central so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him there.

We’ll maybe have some strong players on the bench but just because this is a decisive game it doesn’t mean Arsene’s going to field first team players. The games on Tuesday, which means I’m going to have to preview it tomorrow. Maybe I’ll write two posts in a day, I don’t like writing on the day of the game, sorry.

Thanks for reading.

After last weekends disappointing draw with Birmingham we’ll be looking to bounce back against struggling Fulham. With Man Utd going top and looking good and van Persie’s injury situation getting increasing frustrating it hasn’t been a good week to be a Gooner. My mate raised the point that Robin’s injury could very easily cost us the title and as much as I hate to admit it I think he’s right.

The only two injuries we have are to van Persie and Djourou, plus those away in Africa. We’ll cope without Robin for the moment; we’ve had too all season pretty much anyway so it’s not really something new to us. In this article Wenger admits that it wrong to start him against Spurs and he’s also suggested that Robin is ‘depressed’ seeing his team mates going out and playing when he can’t. So he’s gone back to Holland instead of just sitting out of training for a few weeks.

I’m expecting the same team as we saw last week just with Rosicky coming in for Walcott. The Boss has been talking about Theo today say that he will make it at Arsenal. There’s a bit of doubt about him as he came with so much expectation but Arsene insists we must give him time. So here’s the team:

Last year it was a disaster at Craven Cottage. It was my first away game for about 5 years and I was left very upset with the game. Song got a rare start and absolutely blew it, he was awful in the first half and we ended up losing 2-1. You can’t put it all down to him though, I remember it looked live van Persie was the only man on the pitch who looked like he cared.

With the draw last week and what happened last year I think our hearts might be in this a bit more. Cesc is due a decent performance too. Eduardo and Adebayor are really going to cause them problems and I hope they get a couple of goals each. Anything but a win is absolutely unacceptable and United would surely open a gap on us. A convincing win is what’s needed, three or four nil; that would make us feel better.

I’m not going to be able to catch the game tomorrow, the tickets were a ridiculous price and I’m trying to save money. It’s not on TV but they’re showing at Ashburton Grove on the screens, I don’t think I’m going to go to that but I might change my mind in the morning. Enjoy the game however you’re following it.

Thanks for reading.

I don’t know about you but Robin van Persie’s injury situation is really, really starting to piss me off. He’s so fragile, picks up a bad injury then all we fucking hear is ‘two more weeks’, then ‘two more weeks’ then again ‘two more weeks’. It’s getting to the point where I can’t even think of him as a member of our squad this season. I remember he had a good few games at the start of this season and scored a few but he’s played like one game since then.

He recovered from his extended break to play the first half against Spurs in the Carling Cup semi and got injured in that. Then he got a bad case of the flu, and now we’re being told he’s out again:

“Compared to last week we have Robin van Persie who is out for a few weeks. I believe Tomas Rosicky will be OK to come back. But Johan Djourou is out as well. He has had an inflammation of his groin and in the next two weeks he will not be capable to play.”

Ridiculous. I’m not calling for him to be rushed back from injury like that, it’s just incredibly, incredibly frustrating as a fan. Without Cesc we have Adebayor, Eduardo and Bendtner who don’t exactly fill me 100% confidence, with van Persie on the pitch I feel like we can win games in any moment. There’s nothing we can do about it, some say we should sell him. Who’d buy him though? I wouldn’t go as far to say he should go but it upsets me that I’ve contemplated it.

In other news Diarra’s move has been officially announced and he says he’ll get games there. Will he now? That’s marvelous. He’s also proved how much of a twat he is again by saying that he wouldn’t be a Portsmouth forever or something; it might be true but that’s not what you say on your first day after signing for a club! Stupid dolphin looking knob.

Wenger also talks about how Fran Merida’s loan move will be great for his development. However the 17-year-old has already seen his manager at Real Sociedad, Chris Coleman leave after only a few months. Oh dear. I hope Fran gets some games out there.

That’s about it for today. We’ve got Fulham on Saturday so I’ll write up a preview tomorrow.

Before I go, I’d just quickly like to ask a cheeky favour. My Dad entered a photo for that O2 Arsenal Opus competition that’s been advertised and he made it down to the final 11 photos. It goes down to the public vote and I’d appreciate it so much if you’d take two seconds to go and vote for his photo. Just click this link and my Dad’s photo is the ‘Flying High’ one:

If you get round to doing that, thanks a lot. I’ll let you know how he gets on.Thanks for reading.

Good riddance. Well it looks like he’s finally gone then. Sky Sports are saying that he’s agreed personal terms and passed a medical and will be unveiled later this week. They’re also saying that the fee is about £5m. Nothing official from Arsenal and I can’t get on the Portsmouth website as I think their server is down.

I guess it’s literally a case of Stray Lassie putting pen to paper now and then we’ll hear something from the clubs; maybe later today, maybe tomorrow. You can’t be surprised about this transfer, we’ve known he’s off for weeks; it was just a matter of where and when.

Pompey is a good club, and he’ll probably enjoy it there but you never know with this idiot. He’s making a very bad career move here, he’s so close to a first team place with us and I’m sure in a couple of years he would’ve been one of our best midfielders. He’s a player that’s more worried by internationals than he is playing with his own club and that always annoys me.

He’s also been very mouthy and what’s the point in having to deal with him when he’s surplus to requirements? I’m tempted to ‘wish him all the best’ for his new life at Portsmouth, but I wont. He’s treated us badly and I wont miss his moaning. Also, I admit that he’s got a lot of potential and he could come back to haunt us.

This has to be the shortest Arsenal career I can remember anyway. Hope your happy now playing for a team hoping to just squeeze into the UEFA Cup and leaving a team chasing the title and with ambitions in the Champions League.

There really isn’t any other news, we’ve been linked with some young players but you can never tell how true those stories are. Russian striker Andrei Arshavin’s agent says he’s received three offers and The Independent thinks Arsenal and Spurs will be chasing him…(Arse-Shaving? Hmm). Tribalfootball says we’ve agreed terms with 17-year-old Torpedo Moscow defender Vyacheslav Dmitriev and that he’ll move in the summer. And apparently we’re still trying to sort out the deal to bring in 15-year-old Luke Freeman from Gillingham.

Right that’s it for today. God this week’s boring; feels like another international break…where are the injuries?

Thanks for reading

We’re very lucky to have a wealth of fantastic, young central midfielders. You might say we have too many, however this calendar year it could be a completely different story. At the moment we have Cesc Fabregas, Matty Flamini, Lassana Diarra, Abou Diaby, Denilson and Gilberto; plus Song, Hleb and more in the reserves that can play there. However there are a few names that you wouldn’t be surprised to see elsewhere come August.

Diarra is the one we’re all expecting to leave. Recently I’ve heard whispers that Portsmouth are coming in with a £5m bid. I understand his reasoning behind leaving but he is really missing out on a great career at Arsenal. I’ve said my bit about Diarra before so I won’t bore you with it again. If there’s any truth in that Pompey move that’d be a 3.5 million pound profit for us over the space of a few months. Not bad going!

Flamini has been linked with a move away recently as his new contract still hasn’t been sorted. Apart from Cesc, he’s probably the one in that list we’d want to keep. He’s on the last year of his deal now and he can actually start talking to other clubs as of now. Wenger insists he’s ‘hopeful’ that a new deal will be done; I’ve heard it’s simply about money now, Flamini want a decent package and after his performances this year there’s nothing we can do about his demands. Usually Wenger avoids this sort of situation but everyone thought he’d be leaving in the summer.

Mathieu doesn’t strike me as a person who’s interested in the money side of football; he’s one of the guys you’d expect to just love the game and love playing. I think he is worth signing up even if it’s for more money but I don’t know how much he’s asking for and obviously there comes a price where Wenger will just say no.

If Flamini did decide to move on I’d say Diarra was the man to come into the starting 11 but he seems completely blind to the fact he’s only a step away from the first team. We’d be in a little bit of trouble if Diarra left because Flamini was keeping him out of the team then Flamini left in the summer because of this new contract. I really hope things are getting sorted out behind the scenes; he can afford to lose one of those two but not both of them.

Diaby and Gilberto’s futures are in some doubt too. Abou is a good friend of Diarra’s and I’ve heard he’s unsettled too. I can’t imagine his preferred position is left wing but that’s the only way he seems to get in the team at the moment. Gilberto is getting on and he’s only been picked for a few games this season mostly in the cups. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him move on in the summer; maybe he’ll go back to Brazil?

With all of those there’s nothing we can do as fans but just sit and wait and see how it all unfolds. Last night Arsenal TV launched and the main feature was question time with Matt Lucas, Ray Parlour, Martin Keown and Arsene Wenger. It was quite interesting to watch and we got some decent answers out of The Boss. He says he hopes to have a mainly English side in the future and that Goodison Park is always a hard ground to play at because of the noise. He also spoke about Anelka’s move to Chelsea and that he thought about bringing him back to Arsenal. We all heard the rumors in the summer and it was quite exciting but Wenger decided against the move because he thought it’d be wrong for the club and once a player has left, they’ve left.

There’s still not much news around this week. Hopefully I’ll have something good to talk about tomorrow. Until then.

Sorry I didn’t speak to you yesterday, there wasn’t much news anyway; and there still isn’t. For once we haven’t got a midweek game so build up for Saturday’s trip to Fulham hasn’t really got underway yet. I suppose I better tell you what is going on though.

I guess the story that’s of most interest today is the news that Wenger tried to buy Beckham a few seasons ago. Most of us will remember that we were linked with a move for the, then Real Madrid midfielder. He was having a tough time adjusting to La Liga and we were looking for a right winger. Here’s what Wenger said about the move:

“David almost came to Arsenal a couple of years ago when things did not go too well during his first season with Real. I even met the people who took care of his career, but in the end, David decided to remain at Real.”

I for one was quite interested at the time when the rumors were going about. I didn’t really see him as an Arsenal player but I thought his vision and accurate passing would be absolutely brilliant for Thierry Henry who was in the form of his life. Also, it would’ve been quite good just to piss off Man United fans.

We’re on a bit of a downer at the moment after that disappointing draw to Birmingham. It feels a bit like we lost, I even wrote ‘loss’ instead of ‘draw’ in that last sentence and went back to edit it. Wenger says he’ll take responsibility for result but if you click that link you can read what Arsene thought went wrong and it was really down to the players. Gael Clichy was one man on the pitch who gave everything the full 90 minutes and was once again brilliant. However it’s a team game and he lost drew too, he’s been talking about the game saying that the players should’ve listened to the manager.

Finally Deportivo La Coruna say we’re interested in their B team goalkeeper Fabricio who has also played for Spain’s under 20 side. The guy personally sounds as if he’d love to move here. It’s just another story, there could be some truth in it I don’t know.

That’s about it for today. Arsenal TV launches tonight just incase you don’t know, might watch that later. See ya.

What went wrong? I mean, the first half went so well. We played Birmingham off the park. The one nil lead wasn’t a lot but everyone felt sure we’d finish them off in the second half but they equalized in one of their very few attacks. No way in hell did they deserve to go back to Birmingham with a point against the league leaders (not anymore).

Walcott started ahead of Rosicky as he got sick last night, other than that it was the team everyone expected. We started really well and the visitors could hardly get out of their own half. We should’ve scored inside the first quarter of an hour. Gallas had a free header but it was soft and straight at the ‘keeper. Eduardo and Adebayor also had chances they didn’t convert but we were certainly showing the promise of a goal.

Just when I was thinking in my head that Birmingham haven’t had had an attack, they did, and it was quite a decent one. Cameron Jerome broke through the defense and shot across goal but Almunia did well to get down to his left and tipped it out for a corner.

A few minutes later Eduardo had a brilliant chance to take the lead. Hleb played a perfect cross in from the left, right onto the head of Da Silva. He met it well but it was right at Taylor, anywhere else and we were one nil up.

In the 22nd minute we did finally take our deserved lead. Eduardo was fouled in the area by Stephen Kelly; I think he might’ve got some of the ball but they were lucky not to be losing anyway. Adebayor put the spot-kick right in the corner, Taylor went the right way but he missed it by a few inches. 1-0 to The Arsenal and I was sure there was more to come. We couldn’t manage another goal before the break but we were cruising.

We had kick off to start the second half and you could obviously tell that Wenger had said that the one goal lead was too fragile and we need to add a second asap to make it game over. Every player sprinted into good positions but we sloppily lost the ball. We fought for it back but we gave away a corner to Birmingham. And would you fucking believe it Garry O’Connor scored. I haven’t seen the replay of the goal but the ball went in the back of the net with everyone looking in disbelief. I’ve read that Fabregas got a bad deflection on it and Almunia had no chance, it didn’t look like there was a lot wrong with our defending though. Their goal was completely against how the first half had gone. I couldn’t believe it.

No matter, lets pick our heads up, we’ve got a whole 40 odd minutes to take the lead again. We really pressured Birmingham, attacking with everything we had but we just couldn’t score. We brought Bendtner on with 25 minutes to go in the search for a goal.

Everyone was trying to score. Sagna and Clichy even had some decent shots on goal. As time ticked away I thought this might not be our day especially with Maik Taylor in goal.

With a couple of minutes to go we had a fantastic chance to get the goal. Hleb pulled the ball across the face of the goal but no one could stick a foot on it, I’ve heard Gallas just missed it diving in. Also in injury time Fabregas had a long range effort go wide. He scored a few of those earlier in the season and we could’ve done with one today.

It finished 1-1 and Gooners were left very disappointed. If this game was earlier in the season we would’ve won, it felt like I was watching play last season. Also it seems like forever since Cesc or Hleb has scored, a couple of months ago the goals where coming from all over the team, now we seem to be relying on just the strikers.

It wasn’t a particularly bad performance. The first half was really quite good, and the second half was just us pushing and pushing with Birmingham all behind the ball. I’m still quite upset by the score, with losing our place at the top of the table it’s been quite a bad day for us. We’ve got a chance to move on next weekend against struggling Fulham. A comfortable win there would really do us some good.

We’ll move on from this though, at least we didn’t lose. I just can’t believe we didn’t win. Speak to you soon.

We had a mini crisis after the Spurs game when Theo Walcott, van Persie, Phil Senderos and Johan Djourou all picked up injuries but the good news is that Walcott and Senderos are fit for tomorrow’s game against Birmingham. We were going to have use Gilberto or Justin Hoyte at the back as a makeshift centre back but William Gallas will be partnered by Senderos.

Robin van Persie picked up another knock so he’ll be out for this game. I’m expecting Adebayor to start with Eduardo as they did against West Ham; they both scored in that game so I don’t see why they shouldn’t play.

Birmingham, aka ‘Arsenal B’ will be fielding some familiar faces, Muamba and Larsson are set to start against us. Seb Larsson recently scored a last minute winner against Spurs which was fantastic, he’s been talking about his old club and he’s got a fantastic attitude about his move. He admits that he wasn’t going to make it in our side so moved on and got on with it. He says he’s still good mates with Cesc too. I used to like Seb at the reserve games so when he moved I’ve been following him since, he’s found the right club with Birmingham but hopefully he has an off game tomorrow.

Right, he’s how I see the team:

Lehmann will be on the bench and it could be his last. He’s going to decide this weekend whether he’s going to move back to Borussia Dortmund. So next week we’ll finally know where Jens’ future lies.

Birmingham are the only team we haven’t yet played and they’ll be no easy task. They’re a decent side and I’m sure they’ll come to upset us. Maik Taylor always seems to have the game of his life against us too. We still should win though, if we don’t take all three points I’ll be quite disappointed and United will have the chance to close us down.

Kick off’s at 3 and it’s not on TV so those of you not going you’ll have to find a stream on the internet to watch it. Enjoy the game, thanks for reading.

With Diarra future still in doubt the debate goes on whether he’ll be leaving us or not. To be honest, I’ve reached the point where I really don’t care and even though I know he’s decent, I don’t really want him to be an Arsenal player if he’s this mouthy little bitch. This article from the Guardian says Diarra asked to be left out of the cup games because his move away from Arsenal made him unfocussed. The story also mentions his move to Newcastle broke down because he was asking for nearly £90,000 a week! If that is true this guy is not only annoying but also stupid. I Thierry Henry was getting paid that much, who does he think he is?

Yes, he will be a good player one day and a valuable member to whatever team he ends up at, he probably knows that. However for now he’s just a squad player. With Flamini’s contract still not sorted he could be in our first 11 next year; I’m sure behind he scenes Arsene knows if Matty’s off or not though. At the moment we have a great supply of centre midfielders: Fabregas, Flamini, Gilberto, Diarra, Diaby and Denilson. However, come August I wouldn’t be surprised if Gilberto, Diarra and Diaby had gone, with the possibility that Flamini could go to. I’m sure Wenger will sort it out but it’s a bit worrying.

One player I thought might leave this window was Gilberto Silva. He’s dropped out of the side and I thought he might look else to get some games but he’s been brilliant about it. He wants to stay and fight for his place. This is actually quite good news because with our recent injuries to Senderos (he is having a fitness test today) and Djourou he could be vital for us as a centre back.

Plus, I’d much rather have the experienced, professional that is Gilberto than the moaning, greedy Diarra. Here’s what he said:

“This is what I have in mind, to get back in the team and hope I can achieve that as soon as possible. But I know the team is playing well and so are the guys in my position, especially Mathieu. I will do my job, and I did that again against Tottenham which was another good opportunity for me to show that I am capable to come back into the team. At the moment, I prefer not to think about moving and to fight for my position.”

See this is what Diarra should be saying. You get a lot of respect for this and Diarra could do with an attitude like this. Now he’s going to ruin his career by fucking off to Newcastle or Portsmouth or Spurs or something, I don’t care. Arsenal is the best club in the world for a developing player. I’m not just being bias. We give more opportunities than anyone else when it comes to the kids. Arsene’s not frightened to use them in important games either. The fact is: Diarra is an idiot if he wants to leave; he’s really not that far off the first team.

We play Birmingham tomorrow, I’ll write a preview up for that later today. I’ve just bought my tickets for AC Milan away, can’t fucking wait. Speak to you later.

It wasn’t the best performance by our kids last night. In fact, I might go as far to say it was the worst performance this season. However, Tottenham were playing very well. Yet they still couldn’t beat us, hilarious. I’ve never seen us lose to the scum and for a moment I thought that last night might be the night but we kept at it and scored the equalizer.

I bet the traveling fans will be feeling very hard done by but we were on top for a lot of the game and maybe a draw was fair. It does set it up nicely for the away leg though.

It was pretty much the team was as I expected except van Persie started ahead of the rested Eduardo and Diarra wasn’t in the squad so Gilberto started in the middle; Lassana surely must be leaving now, the only other explanation is what Gunnerblog said and that it might be a sort of punishment to him.

We started quite well, it was a little cagey but we were having all the attacks. Paul Robinson was dropped for Radek Cerny and he made a good save to deny Bendtner’s close range header from RVP’s cross early on.

However it was Spurs that opened the scoring. In the 37th minute Berbatov found Keane (which he’d done on a couple of occasions prior to the goal) who went through who squared it to Jenas who tapped it in. There were shouts for offside, I really don’t know if it was or not. They executed the move as if Senderos and Djourou weren’t even there, it was poor defending.

Spurs were having a decent spell, so we did well to keep the score at 1-0 before half time. It wasn’t great but I still had belief that we’d score in the second half; it always happens, they score first, fuck up then we usually go on to win.

At half time Djourou was taken off for Sagna, he wasn’t having a good comeback but after the game Arsene said his substitution was due to him picking up a muscle problem. Robin van Persie was also replaced at the break and would you fucking believe it he’s got another injury. Initially it sounded not great but today Wenger said it’s not major but he has got man flu. His fitness situation is getting ridiculous but at least he’s not out for long with this one. Senderos also got injured last night leaving us with just one centre back in Gallas. Justin Hoyte played there last night and Wenger says we have Gilberto and Sagna as options but you have to think it might be wise to bring someone in. I don’t know how bad the Swiss defenders injuries are though.

Tottenham were by far the more confident side. The ‘Carling Cup side’ were showing just why they are not our first 11 and I was getting really worried. Spurs came close on a few occasions to making it 2-0 and that would’ve been disastrous. Defoe (with a ridiculous new hair cut) should’ve scored but thankfully he’s a pile of shit and he missed.

I was beginning to start losing belief. When Traore hit the worst free kick I’ve seen for a long time I thought this might not be a night to remember. However in the 78th minute Walcott answered our prayers and got us that vital, vital equalizer. Theo had a quiet evening but he made a good run and Eduardo played him a good ball to run on to. Lee Young-Pyo managed to get a tackle in on Theo just in front of the ‘keeper but his block managed to deflect of Walcott’s chest/arm and it went into the back of the net.

I didn’t give a fuck how it went in, I went crazy with relief. Theo ran past the Spurs fans with a finger to his lips as they’d just been singing, “You’re just a shit Aaron Lennon.” Theo scored in the final last year but this goal was just as important.

Both sides had some heart-in-the-mouth moments with chances to get a second goal but in the end it finished 1-1. Did we deserve it? I don’t care, in fact if we didn’t it makes it more hilarious. “You’ll never beat The Arsenal!” Echoed around the Grove and how very true it is. Tottenham’s first team, who played some great football, couldn’t manage to beat our reserves who were having a game to forget. Magic.

It’s back to the league now with Birmingham on Saturday, build up to come. Thanks for reading.