Del Deanus, 34, played youth team for England and Tottenham Hotspur (I know, I know) and is currently managing Ryman Division 1 North side Edgware Town FC. However I recently heard the sad news that he has been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease.

Del, has been a prolific fundraiser for MacMillan Cancer Support having run the London marathon, lost four stone on a sponsored diet and organised a football match to raise money for the charity. Lots of ex-players and celebs have pledged interest in suporting this worthy cause. Ex-footballers include the one and only Paul Merson and I we’re still waiting to hear back from the legendary Ian-Wright-Wright-Wright whether he can make an appearance but it’s not 100% yet. We’ve also got former Scum and QPR legend Les Ferdinand and ex-Chelsea hero Frank Sinclair playing for the ex-players team.

DJ Spoony, DJ Brandon Block , cast members from the British gangster movie, The Rise of the Foot Soldier, and other celebrities from music and film will be playing in the All-Star XI side who’ll be playing against a top notch non-league side, which will have players from teams including Hendon, Wealdstone, Northwood and Edgware FC.

There’s even an incredible chance for two lucky people to rub shoulders, swap tactics and play with the professional side. This once in a lifetime opportunity and we’re auctioning this prize to raise money for Del’s care and well-being in the future months. If you’re interested in not only donating the cash but also playing alongside Paul Merson and even Ian Wright email: contact@delsmatch.co.uk to bid.

Kick off’s a 3pm but gates open at 1pm for this is all day event, there’ll be bouncy castles and face painting for the kids and a licensed bar and refreshment stalls for adults, that’s sealed the deal then yeah? There’ll also be a charity auction with rare signed & match worn shirts and other sporting memorabilia to bid for.

The big day is in three Saturday’s time on the 10th May. It’s being held at Edware FC’s ground on the high street in Edware. So I’m hoping as many readers in the North London area can get down to this great event, have a laugh, meet some ex-players and just suport this great cause. Tickets are £10 for adults and £5 for under 16s and under 5s can come in for free.

For more information go to www.delsmatch.co.uk. It’s got all the links there to find the ground, you can buy tickets on line online and it’s also got information of how to enter the bidding to actually play in the game.

I hope you’ve given that a quick read today, sounds like it should be a fun event. I hope you can make it, it would be appreciated so, so much. Cheers people, and I’ll be back with normal Arsenal news tomorrow. Thanks for reading, bye.

Regular readers will know that my dad’s photo made it down to the final 11 picked by Arsene Wenger in the o2 competition to win an Arsenal Opus. Last night they held a party for the finalists in the Diamond club, which included meeting Ray Parlour, Martin Keown and Nigel Winterburn. We also got a mini tour of the stadium included.

The Diamond Club was absolutely amazing, pure luxury. I had a little wonder round and it was incredible. The bloke giving us the tour said how much it was to be apart of it and it was something like £75,000 for two seasons or £100,000 for three. However you do get free drinks and free programme so it’s not all bad. The bar was called the ’30′s Champions Bar’ and had a bronze bust of Dennis Bergkamp on the end.

The whole place was beautifully decorated with a mixture of style and class. There were decorative wood panels to every table-booth, which overlooked the Club Level restaurant below. There were also a few trophy cabinets around the place, this one with a couple of the FA Cups and old Division One Championships we’ve won. Tottenham fans, keep dreaming.

Then we went down one floor to the Directors Box below. It wasn’t quite as extravagant as the Diamond Club but it was still really nice. The view from the seating area was fantastic and the seats were so comfy. I sat in Peter Hill-Woods’ seat. It was like being in 1st class on a jumbo jet, pure luxury.

Then we went down a couple of floors to the area I was most looking forward to. We saw the players entrance where everyone arrives, as you walk through the doors there’s a big red wall with a massive Arsenal crest on and underneath it says ‘The deeper the foundations the stronger the fortress’. Then along the corridor to the dressing rooms there are loads of iconic photographs from our history. The guy showing us around also said that the away team are always made to arrive first, all the added together, it must be quite daunting when the smaller teams come to play here.

Then we made our way to the dressing rooms. There are 4 dressing rooms, 1 for us, one for the away team and two more that are used for the Emirates Cup. You probably know that Arsene Wenger worked in Japan earlier in his career and he shared a lot of their beliefs; there’s even a Japanese garden at the training ground. Arsene designed all four dressing rooms, 2,3 and 4 are all square shaped which is supposedly unlucky and intimidating. However the home dressing room is horseshoe shaped, which is not only lucky but it allows Wenger to address his players much better.

In the players lockers there were shirts for each of the 11 finalists with our names on and no.11 on the back. I got ours signed by the three ex-players there and it’s now framed upstairs with a copy of my Dad’s photo.

There was also a plunge-pool in there for relaxing muscles and opposite that was the physio room, and no van Persie wasn’t in there.

We left the dressing room and walked down the tunnel as our players do every week. You could imagine what it would be like on a match day. A small light at the end of the tunnel gives you a glimpse of the fans and as you walk down the massive stadium gradually reveals itself. The atmosphere must be incredible for players coming out onto the pitch.

I sat In Wenger’s seat, stood in his technical area and felt what it was like to be sitting on the bench. For some reason I’ve always wanted to do that, I don’t know why. When I go to home games I usually sit in the 4th row, so I know what it’s like to be close to the front, however last night when I was down by the pitch, it felt so much different. The stadium looks so much bigger down there and I was just thinking about how the players must feel surrounded by all these fans, the immense pressure they’re under to perform. I sort of take our stadium for granted now but yesterday I started to realise how special it is.

We then went back upstairs to the Diamond Club for a Q&A with Martin, Ray and Nigel who joined us on the tour which I thought was really nice. It was good because you could ask them questions along the way or whatever you like and Ray made a few little jokes and it sort of gave the whole thing a really relaxed atmosphere and I completely forgot that they were people I idolised a few years ago, they just seemed like regular nice guys.

Ray Parlour had some funny stories to share in the Q&A, they also spoke about Arsene Wenger and how revolutionary he’s been for the club. Martin was talking about how he left the club when he was 19 because he didn’t get on with the manager and he was offered a raise of £250 a week to £300 when his contract expired and he left. He came back though obviously and became a fans favourite. Martin was also talking about Ruud van Nistelrooy, we all joked about it but he was saying about how it showed we weren’t going to be pushed about anymore.

It was a really enjoyable evening and I’m so grateful I was able to see all these things behind the scenes. That’s why I thought I’d share them with you on the blog today, hope you like it. I thought they were going to announce the winner but the bloke from o2 said they’re going to email everyone in a couple of weeks with the results and the announcement will be made before the ‘Boro game. As soon as I know anything I’ll let you know, but thanks so much to everyone who’s voted for my dad’s photo.

I’ll write up a match preview for the Birmingham game a bit later, until then.

It was a great game, nd if you missed it, then you shouldn’t have. The kids showed great determination and at times played the full-stregth Blackburn side off the park.

I’ll do the write up tomorrow morning. Until then.

But that’s boring. We want Arsenal news but there isn’t really any. I suppose if there was any big stories they’d be about injuries. So maybe it’s a good thing? There’s still another round of matches to go, I’m sure someone will find a way to injure one of our players.

The top story today I suppose if from The People who report that Spurs want three of our players. I’d be very surprised if this story wasn’t just made up but I better talk about it anyway. They’re supposed to be interested in Diaby, Denilson and Traore to add to their squad. These are three youngsters that I rate very highly and I especially wouldn’t want Tottenham getting hold of them. Apparently we’d accept a £7m bid this summer for Diaby, and we probably would after Abou’s recent quotes; but not from Tottenham. The People also say that Sven is looking at Diaby to add to his new Manchester City side.

There’s news on Jens Lehmann‘s situation too. Mad Jens played 90 minutes for Germany this weekend and his manager has told him he needs first team football this season to play in Euro 2008. Lehmann says that he’s received bids from other clubs and believes he’s better than Almunia:

“I would like to be in the thoughts of my coach. You can boil it all down to one question: Is the other goalkeeper better than me? If not, why am I not playing? I’ve shown I can win matches and titles. Even if he is just as good as me, I should be playing. There have been concrete offers. There have been some calls. But it’s possible that I’ll stay at Arsenal.”

If Jens hadn’t reacted in the way he has over the last few months following his drop from the side, then he’d be back playing again in my opinion. By continuing to slag people off he’s only digging his hole deeper. Jens, shut up, we know you’re good, we know about all the things you’ve done for us, now just keep quiet and get on with it and you might get your place back.

The only other story was about Theo Walcott who won a penalty late in an England U21 game after a great run. He was unhappy about not being able to take the penalty and was shouting at people or something. Passion? Immaturity? Whatever. After another hilarious injury to Michael Owen for England there was a chance that Theo would get called up to the full squad, however that place has gone to fucking Darren Bent. Oh well.

Talk to you soon I guess. Don’t forget to enter this. See ya.

Not a great deal going on today, hence the late blog. I suppose the main story is that Lassie Diarra finds his situation at Arsenal ‘puzzling’. Here’s what he said:

“I am a midfielder. The French team coach recently used me on the right and I was pleased to play. But my position is in the midfield. If Willy (Sagnol) was here I would not be in the starting XI. Each time I join the French team it is a big pleasure. But it is true that my situation for my club is puzzling. But it will be sorted out soon. To be called again by Les Bleus I have to play for my club.

So that situation has to be settled quickly, I am not getting mad with that. I am patient. At Arsenal I don’t feel in competition with Bacary Sagna, as I am a midfielder. The midfielders are outstanding, but I work fine in training sessions and I am waiting for an opportunity.”

This is not the first time he’s reminded us that he’s reminded us that he’s a midfielder, not a right back. In fact it’s about the 100th time. I said the other day about how Diaby’s not happy with the lack of appearances he’s getting and it’s not helping that Diarra feels the same. He joined us from Chelsea because Ashley wants his bum he wasn’t getting played at Chelsea and thought he might be able to get first team football at Arsenal. I don’t really know why he thought he’d come straight into our first team but fair play to him to have that self-confidence.

It’s good news that Lassana has said he’s ‘not getting mad’ and that he’s just going to wait until he gets the call. Like Diaby, he’s got a hell of a lot of potential and is certainly one we’ve got to keep. However, if I’m being honest, I think that Diarra might just be the bigger talent out of the two and Diaby might make that summer move he hinted.

There’s been a lot of talk about our lack of English players recently. I haven’t really spoken about it because it’s a load of crap. England’s lack of success has nothing to do with us, they’re just shit. In fact, there are quite a few players that we’ve brought up but they’ve moved on either because they’re not good enough for Arsenal or because they like to put mobile phones up their bums. Anyway, Arsene says we’ve got homegrown talent coming through. He also says he hopes England go through to the Euros.

Tomas Rosicky got linked with a move away from Arsenal the other day but these quotes assure he’s going nowhere.

That’s about it for today I’m afraid. Don’t forget to enter yesterday’s t-shirt competition! Thanks for reading.

I can’t wait for Sunday but I’m gutted I’m not going. I went up there for the FA Cup game last year and it was brilliant, quite possibly my best away game. Tonight I decided not to go on Sunday, I could’ve got a lift up there but I have no ticket and even though there’ll probably be spares about I should really be saving my monies. If the game wasn’t on TV then I probably would’ve gone but a trip down the pub this weekend looks like the bet option.

I’ve said recently that we don’t look on great form at the moment but I was shut right up the other night as we murdered Slavia 7-0. It was a good performance but as I said t’other day, it wasn’t perfect and Wenger agrees with me. I think the result was more down to two things, Slavia weren’t great and once you score 4 then it’s easy to get more. Ooh that rhymes. Here’s what he said:

“No it wasn’t perfect. OK it is if you look at the result but I watched it again and you can see we missed some passes and some balls. No game is perfect, but some of our goals were that night.”

“The fourth, fifth, sixth and maybe the seventh.”

I love that last bit. Haha. I’ll talk properly about Sunday’s game tomorrow, but as we knocked in seven in the Champions League, The Scum lost in the UEFA Cup. However more importantly, Martin Jol was sacked before the game. When I first heard I was told that he resigned but it’s been confirmed that he has been given the chop. No not in that way.

He was a very successful Tottenham manager and came so, so close to reaching that important 4th place (at our expense might I add) and now he’s gone. A poor start this season and they’ve got rid of him. Fair enough it has been a hilariously terrible start for them, but still, I always thought they’d come back to be honest as much as I’d like to dream of their relegation.

It appears that Juande Ramos’ mother is a whore as he looks set to take the job. They’re saying on Sky Sports News now that he’s on a private jet to Luton airport now to have talks with Spurs. He’s a good manager and done really well with the team at Seville, hopefully it’s a different story at The Shithole. Oh Spurs, how you make me chuckle.

Those are the two bits of news I suppose you should really know about. The rest is just about Walcott’s likeness to Thierry Henry and captain Gallas has been talking about things.

Business-wise, Stan Kroenke has been talking with Arsenal and insists his investment is a ‘partnership’ and a simple investment, nothing more sinister. Hmm.

There’s no more stories that I’ve really found that interesting. Oh, happy birthday to the Arseblog ‘Arsecast’ podcast. It was the 50th episode today too, if you haven’t been downloading it, well, you should. It’s on iTunes, only takes a click. Good to listen to in the car or wherever, a good laugh and a good insight on the week’s action. So yeah, if you haven’t checked it out already…do.

That’s your lot for tonight. A Liverpool preview tomorrow. Sorry for the lack of updates on the site recently, it’s down to a number of things, I’ve been busy and haven’t really had a chance to sit down to the computer, but mainly I haven’t really been arsed. But yeah, thanks for reading anyways.

Blah. Seems most of the real news has run out so I’ll just have to talk about how our players got on in yesterday’s internationals.

Eduardo’s second half goal meant Coatia beat Israel 1-0. It wasn’t a bad goal and you can see a clip of it here. That goal means another win for Croatia and they should qualify for Euro 08. Also in that group, England beat Estonia 3-0. The game saw Sol Campbell return to international football but the main highlight for Arsenal fans will be Ashley Cole. He could’ve claimed a goal after his ball took a wicked deflection and went in past our old goalie Mart Poom. However it was this injury in the second half which would’ve been most pleasing.

Cesc Fabregas’ Spain beat Nicklas Bendtner’s Denmark 3-1. Nick was a 2nd half substitute and came so close to scoring for his country. Iker Casillas blocked a close-range header from Bendtner with his foot and he also hit the bar from 20 yards out. The Spanish ‘keeper was finally beaten after a fine display just before time but Spain were still two goals up at this point; and just to stop any hopes of a Dane comeback they scored again 2 minutes after. Fabregas was taken off with ten minutes to go and put in a decent performance for his country.

Sagna started in France’s 6-0 thrashing of the Faroe Islands. Diarra got 15 minutes when he replaced Makelele but William Gallas could only manage a place on the bench after his recent return from injury. The game saw Thierry Henry break some sort of scoring record for France and he’s been admitting that his departure has helped Arsenal. So all smiles for the French football team as they get back to winning ways but it was a completely different story in the rugby. Haha come on England.

Mad Jens got a clean sheet against Ireland and now he expects to start against Bolton in the Arsenal side. I’m not so sure about that but we’ll see.

That’s about it as far as anything interesting goes in the international world. See you soon.

For international week there’s a fair bit of news going around so I may as well just get straight into it. The Cesc Fabregas to Barca stories have started up again. We all know that one day there is a strong possibility that one day Cesc will return home to his family, friends and club in Barcelona. It’s a day that all Gooners dread, Thierry Henry made the trip to Spain but to be honest, he is at the end of his career now. Fabregas hasn’t even reached his prime yet and he’s arguably already Arsenal’s most important player. His agent refuses to rule out a move to Barca and this week he’s said this:

“If we do hear of an offer from Barcelona, the club that taught him so much, then that would be a real compliment to Cesc.”

Last year he signed a long-term deal at Arsenal, I think it was something like 8 years. If he stayed to the end of that then left, then he would be leaving at a similar age, and time in his career, as Thierry. Which I suppose is acceptable. However I’m sure Barcelona wont want to wait 8 years for Fabregas and will one day make a bid for him. It would have to be something quite substantial to tempt Arsene to let him go.

Another player who is still growing at Arsenal, Emmanuel Adebayor has been talking this week. He’s had a great start to the season and is already two short on what he totalled up last season. He puts this new-found ‘hunger’ down to an injury in pre-season:

“I had an injury when I was [at the pre-season training camp] in Austria and this frustrated me a great deal. When I came back I was really angry and hungry. This is one of the reasons that explains why I have had such a good start to the season.”

When Ade first joined I was far off his biggest fan but he gradually started to warm to me. Now he’s up there with my favourites and I hope he can keep on growing.

This transfer market just gone saw the most high profile departure at the club for a long time. When Thierry Henry left to play for Barcelona it broke many Arsenal fans hearts. Titi felt it was time for him to move on and he wasn’t going to win much at Arsenal if he stayed. One thing missing from his trophy cabinet is a Champions League winners medal and he believed a move to Spain would fill this spot. However since Thierry departure the Arsenal youngsters have flourished and are on maximum points in the European group stages and are top of the Premiership with a game in hand. Along with the media, Thierry has been quick to jump on the bandwagon:

“I have been watching Arsenal and see that they are playing entertaining football and winning every game home and away. I know the young players there very well and they can definitely win the Premier League and Champions League this season. I watched how they beat Sevilla in the Champions League and I think they sent out a big message to the rest of Europe. Sevilla is not an easy team to play, but Arsenal played a great game.”

I hear that he’s having some good games in La Liga and I think he got a hat-trick the other week. However I’ve also been hearing about the man we used to know, the sulking, the temper and sometimes looking disinterested. I bet he sometimes thinks he should’ve stayed at Arsenal but I think he knows as much as anyone that his departure really has improved us.

Just quickly, Lehmann’s been talking about how he’ll be back in goal for Arsenal. This just as Germany Coach Joachim Low has said that Jens must be playing first team football if he wants to represent Germany in Euro 2008. There are rumours of Lehmann making a move to Man City in January just as David Seaman did, and I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if he followed in his footsteps.

I leave you with this, a headline you don’t see everyday.

Thanks for reading.

An even quicker post becasue I just noticed these and thought you’d be interested. You might’ve seen these pictures of the 3rd shirt floating around the internet but now it’s official. Some say it’s too Barcelona, and it is, but I think I like it. I might just be getting it to stop me getting the white one. This shirt will only run for one season as a third shirt though. What’s you’re view?

And there’s a pic of the new Emirates Cup. Looks a bit tacky to me. More here. Right now I really must go to work. Have a nice day.

Your view of Arsenal last season

Last season was very average for an Arsenal fan. Were never in the title race, the FA Cup disappointed and an early Champions League exit was terrible. We did well in the Carling Cup with our youngsters losing in the final to Chelsea. Other than that the double over United was brilliant.

Your view on the season ahead for Arsenal

07/08 will be interesting, Henry’s gone but Van Persie will have a brilliant season in his absence. He looked good last year but got injured halfway through; he still ended up our top scorer though. Walcott and Adebayor will also be looking to step up and I predict good things from those two.

Eduardo was incredible at Dinamo Zagreb scoring more goals than appearances last season; lets see how he does in England. I predict 4th again, the top three have strengthened this summer and will be too much for us. Give our young side a year or two and the title will be back to where it belongs.

Who is your enemy and why?

The enemy? Well there can only one answer to that, Spurs. I despise everything about their players, the manager, their fans and the club. Growing up as a Gooner, this hatred was forced upon me, but I generally loathe this team and seeing them slip-up brings a smile to my face.

Where you think you’ll finish in the Premiership this season?

4th

Right that’s all the copying and pasting I can do for ya today. God this is hard work. Laters