Merry Christmas From The ArseNole

Hello all, just wanted to say a Merry Christmas to everyone that supports Arsenal and reads the site. Thanks for that. Cheers to being top of the league halfway through, and let's hope it continues.

AC Milan? Bring on the Bastards

So the Champion's League draw was today and it came out a nice one for us. We were drawn against AC Milan. The first leg will be played at the Emirates, followed by the return trip to the San Siro two weeks later. Remember playing Inter in the San Siro? We ran train on them.

Honestly, I'm not that worried about playing Milan. Everyone says it is the toughest draw we could have gotten, but has anyone watched Milan this year? They have Kaka and a bunch of old cunts. They have been terrible in the league. They won the Club World Championship or whatever it's called but there weren't any teams that could compete with us or them in the tournament.

I think we can and will beat them. We've done well in big games this year. Two draws and a win against the top four and we've looked good in the Champion's League. Who here would like another 5-1 in the San Siro?

Here's to Captain Gallas

So work is killing me. I have 42 and a half hours just this week, which is ridiculous since I work a part time job. But since I last wrote, we've had two matches and won them both, in the league against Chelsea and in the Carling Cup against Blackburn.

So first, the victory over the scum from across the Thames. Can anyone on Earth feel better than William Gallas right now? He's scored against Man United in the 93rd minute to earn a draw, and he beat his former team with a goal that he scored. I was thinking it was a bit of a stupid move to make Gallas the captain, but now I see whatever Wenger saw. The guy is massive for us. I'd say after Cesc and maybe RvP he is our most important player to the team right now. He is always steady at the back and he has shown he knows when to get forward. More importantly, he knows how to finish when he gets there.

As for the game as a whole, we pretty much had the better side in the first half. We were passing well but didn't get the goal until the 45th minute. Cesc sent in the corner and Cech made an arse of himself and forgot to grab the ball and Gallas soared to head it into the corner. The second half was very fast paced both ways and we had two more good chances to score. RvP and Cesc were both returning form injury and you would think that they both would have scored if they were up to their normal fitness levels. Chelsea had a few chances but Almunia was very solid in goal saving a few good shots from them. So it was a good win that put the pressure back on Man U and we are top of the league again. Liverpool are now ten points behind us and you wonder how long it will be until they win another title. It could be a long time with Benitez in charge.

On to the Blackburn game. We changed the entire side from the one that played against Chelsea and started such well known players as Mark Randall against Blackburn's first team side. We scored in the fifth minute when Bendtner crossed for Abou Diaby and he sent a swerving half volley into the opposite corner. Friedel never had a chance at it and it was a great goal. We almost scored right after that when Bendtner hit the bar with a good effort. The next goal didn't take long after though. We went up 2-0 on a good finish by Eduardo. On 41 mintues though Blackburn pulled one back through Roque Santa Cruz, who I've decided has too much skill to play for Blackburn very long. So halftime came and it was 2-1, but not for long as Santa Cruz put in another shortly after the restart. So it was 2-2 and the game was wide open for the taking. Randall came off for Barazite and in the 90th minute Denilson got his second booking and was sent off. It went into extra time and in the 105th minute Eduardo got his second. Alex Song of all people made a great run from the back with the ball and sent Eduardo through and he made a great finish of it. We held on with 10 men after that and got the 3-2 win.

I've been quite critical of Eduardo, but he did have a good performance in this match. Maybe this is his level though...he doesn't seem to perform at all in league matches and maybe at least for this year this will be where he makes his mark. He's been a bit shite every other time he's played. We will see.

As for Lasagna Diarra wanting to leave Arsenal, let him. He isn't all that good and if he isn't willing to work for playing time then we are better off without him. Every player that comes to Arsenal has to earn their spot. Very few times has an established player come in and just gone straight into the team. You can think of Pires, Gallas, Sol Campbell, and maybe Rosicky, but other than them, every other player has had to prove he can play to get into the team. See ya Diarra.

Alright that's all for today. Have to finish Christmas shopping. Later all. Cheers to Captain Gallas.

Middlesbrough 2-1 Arsenal

First loss of the season, and we played terribly...more to come later on today.

Newcastle vs Arsenal Preview

Hello everyone, another away league fixture today against a team coached by one of the fatest twats I know. It's up to St. James' Park to play Newcastle, a team that have really just been terrible so far this year. They defend about as badly as the scum and they haven't really scored goals either. However, this isn't one we should be taking for granted as they do have some quality players and could give us a game, especially away from home.

Some team news ahead of the game, Cesc, Hleb, Diaby, RvP, and Flamini are all out with injuries. I would assume it will be Diarra and Gilberto starting in the midfield. Denilson is the other option. Up front I can see us going with Eduardo and Adebayor, and the usual back four of Sagna, Toure, Gallas, and Clichy. Rosicky on one wing and Eboue on the other even though I don't think he's very good there. RvP is reportedly two weeks away from returning to action. Wish it was sooner.

That's really all I have for the preview so now just some news.

Bacary Sagna (my new favorite player) has delighted Arsene Wenger at how quickly he has adapted to the English game. He really has been quite good in defense AND going forward. Hoyte was better than Eboue at defending, while Eboue was the better attacker. Sagna is better than both of them at both. I didn't think we needed him during the summer, but Wenger yet again has proved me wrong.

Emmanuel Adebayor says he wouldn't mind staying with Arsenal for the rest of his career.

"In a way, Henry's departure has liberated me. Today I know I will play, so I can dare much more.

"Deep inside of me, I never wanted to leave. Arsenal is a family club, where I hope to end my career.

"The team is young and we want to win a lot of trophies together."

And you can't really say it any better than that. Ade is having a much better year this year and if you don't like him by now remember that he is still only 23 and will keep improving. He is a beast and I'd love for him to stay until his career is over.

And here is Arsene Wenger yet again talking about how we can win the Premiership.

And that's all I have. Here's a Nicky Bendtner to Chelsea story but I couldn't be arsed with it. Come on you Gunners!

Monday Morning

Yes, it's a bit of a boring title because there really isn't shite to talk about today. We had our 1-2 win over Aston Villa on Saturday, which I couldn't write about at the time because the team I coach (also named Arsenal) was playing a tournament all weekend so it took up every waking second just about. We won one game in it and lost two, although we should have and could have won all three of them, we just didn't make the most of our chances and it reminded me of Arsenal vs CSKA Moscow two years ago when we had seventy million chances and no goals.

So about the Villa match, Adebayor and Flamini were the scorers as we came back from one down to win away from home. I think this was really a quality win. Villa are a tough side to play especially away from home and to fight back from losing is really a great feat for us. That win put us five points in the clear at the top of the table still with a game up on most of the teams. Chelsea then jumped to second though with a win over West Ham. United play tonight against Fulham so that's another three points for them as well. But the point is, we are still taking maximum points from all of our games which is what we need. If we don't drop points, we can't be caught, it's as simple as that.

Our largest, Togolesist striker says we need to stay focused on every match. He's got quite a good quote on it too.

"Three or four months ago there were people saying 'we are not sure Arsenal are going to finish in the top four', and now they are mentioning we could go unbeaten for the season.

"The most important thing is to focus on our job. We don't care what people are saying. It is good that people are talking good things about the club and we are very happy about those things.

"But the crucial thing is to keep our head on our shoulders, keep on doing a good job, keep on performing like we are now and at the end of the season we can talk about whether we finish unbeaten or not."

And he is exactly right. The same people who doubted we would even have a competitive side (who clearly didn't watch us last year when we could compete even with Henry out for more than half of the games), are now saying that we can do another unbeaten season. It's still way too early for that kind of talk and for now we need to just concentrate on winning each game. We play Newcastle on Wednesday and while we should win it's these kinds of games that you can slip up on. We have injuries to some key players (Cesc, Hleb) and it's away from home against a team that can score goals. We have to keep focused and play our best and keep up this run.

Felix Magath says he is thinking of making a bid for Jens Lehmann, and thank God if he does. That man is one headache after the other this year, and hears to hoping he pisses off to Wolfsburg. Apparently he and Almunia no longer talk. That seems pretty cunty of Jens but that's what he's done best this year. It's really time for us to be rid of him.

That's really about it for today as there's horse piss for news. Get back to you all tomorrow.

Wenger Sent Off in 3-1 Loss to Sevilla

The 28 match unbeaten run is over. Still undefeated in the league for the year but it's weird to have to write about a defeat, since we haven't had one since I started writing this blog. I didn't get to see the match because I've been working like a Chinese slave in a sweat shop making shoes but I did see the highlights and I realized that we were quite bad yesterday. The good news is it probably doesn't matter all that much. We're still already qualified for the next round and I think we can play with any team that will still be in the competition so I'm not that worried. We can still finish top if we win the last game of the group stage and Sevilla gets a draw or a loss. You can bet they will be going all out to win though because I'd doubt they are as confident as we are in this tournament.

So as for the match, just a couple things. Their first goal was pretty much a gift from Senderos, who it appears I have been wrong about. I really thought he would be up to the task this year but it appears he has gone downhill from the Champion's League Final run two years ago. He just never looks comfortable and makes too many dumb mistakes. He can win headers and he can really put in some hard tackles but he gets sent off too much and makes mental mistakes and I think it might be time for him to be gone. Djourou will be coming back and maybe we could bring in another defender (still want Micah Richards).

The rest of the match I have no real comment on besides Eduardo's goal. He looked really cool and collected bringing down the cross and slotting it home and I wonder where in hell that has been all year. I know he hasn't played much but it never seems like he scores in a league match and he needs to bloody get on with it. Maybe this one will help him out some.

Arsene Wenger was sent to the stands in the match and he was a tad pissed about it. He said he didn't even know why he was sent off and then when they made him go he couldn't get into the stand and so he fumbled around wondering where to go.

"When I was down (on the touchline) I said it was naive to let him gain that time. The fourth official was really difficult for the whole game. I wanted to ask him why I had been sent off."

"I did not know where to go. I could not get in the stand."

King Kolo was pissed about the ref as well. He basically said that Sevilla were the diving Spanish twats that they are all the time and that the ref let them get away with it.

"The ref sometimes helped them but when you go away it is always like that but they deserved their win. We gave everything but that's the way football goes."

However, Kolo came through with a good leadership quote as he always does, saying:

"We knew that defeat would come but we need to start again and show character. To be a winner you need to come back from these hard things."

And that's exactly the attitude we need. Don't you just love our center backs right now?

That's about it. If you would like to share your thoughts about Big Phil go for it in the comments. Later.

Wenger Prepared To Rotate

Yes, Arsene Wenger is going to rotate the squad for tomorrow's match versus Sevilla. If we win this one we clinch the top spot in the group, which would be good because I think you do have better luck against a second seed than a first. I don't think we would play Liverpool if they do qualify either, because I don't think you can play another English side yet? Maybe that's totally wrong but I think I heard that.

"Some players will be rested for Sevilla. I will rotate and it will be maybe a similar side to that against Slavia."

If you watched the match against Slavia you know that we were a bit shite and got a 0-0 draw with our first shot on goal coming in the 85th minute. Although it's not a crucial game I'd like for us to win it and clinch the top spot. Perhaps we'll see Gilberto get a game in midfield, which would be nice to watch and also it should make him a bit happier than he has been this year. I doubt Cesc will play although since he missed the Wigan match Wenger may play him some to keep him on form.

Kolo Toure is quite happy that William Gallas is the captain. He says that Gallas should be mentioned along with other great captains such as Vieira, Adams, and *cough* Thierry Henry, who was not so good of a captain perhaps.

"I have played under some fantastic captains but I think William deserves to be mentioned among those names because he is such a strong figure.

"He has great maturity in a really young team and that's so important.

"The young players listen to him because they respect him so much."

Gallas had another great performance against Wigan, with a goal and some good defense and he has shown himself to be quite a good captain so far. Hopefully he can keep the team together through this next month because it will be quite a rough one. I know at one point we have three away matches in a row. That will be a test for us and as you know we also play Chelsea.

Speaking of Chelsea, Cuntley Cole has been talking again. He's saying how he'll show the Arsenal fans something after they threw money at him at Stanford Bridge. As we all know Cole is a money-grubbing cunt and he deserves everything he gets. Like how his team have a fat twat like Frank Lampard, and how we are top of the league and have a better left back now that he is gone.

"Compared to what happened to the England guys, I am sure I will get much worse when I go back to Arsenal," Cole said in the Daily Mail.

"But I am used to it, and I am looking forward to the game. I want to go there and play them because I did not get to play there earlier this year.

"I will go there and front up. I am a grown man. They (the Arsenal fans) threw money at me at Stamford Bridge, and that was bad, but I get that every game. I love it.

"It would be nice to go there and shut some people up. It's going to be tough though."

Hopefully Gilberto or Kolo or Gallas decide to shove a foot down his throat.

And that's about all for today. Work is killing me so I haven't been able to write much but I'm trying to keep up. Match tomorrow. Up the Gunners.

Arsenal 2-0 Wigan

Another three points and really a great result considering what happened in the Man U and Chelsea games this weekend. United lost to Bolton somehow, and Essien got sent off for Chelsea, so he'll miss the game against us in a couple of weeks.

But on to our match, we had a bunch of injuries. Hleb, Fabregas, Gilberto, Diaby, and Flamini were all out, and since that is like our whole midfield, it was clear there would be a lot of changes to our lineup. So Wenger came out with this group:

Almunia
Sagna-Toure-Gallas-Clichy
Eboue-Diarra-Denilson-Rosicky
Walcott-Adebayor

So it was a young and, apart from Rosicky, unexperienced starting midfield, and with Walcott up front it really was a very young lineup as a whole.

We started off with some good movement but it didn't turn into many chances for us. Walcott looked good and created some space with his pace but like I said, we just couldn't convert any of the movement to shots. Eboue I thought was a bit crap on the wing. He missed a real sitter in the first half, just whiffed it completely, and I just don't think he's all that good on the wing. Anyone else agree?

Wigan had a few chances in the first half. In the 25th minute Marcus Bent I think it was had a good chance for a header but he sent it over the bar and that was the only real chance they had in the first, along with a through ball that Bent was caught offsides on .

So at the half it was 0-0. We were definitely on top in the game but last I checked you don't get three points for being in control of the possession and it was definitely getting frustrating for the fans if not the players and Mr. Wenger.

With the second half I really thought we would see Bendtner or Eduardo come on for Walcott, but it took awhile. We went with the same lineup for the first twenty or so minutes of the second when Eduardo came on for Eboue, which was a good change. He added more attacking power to the side and we seemed to push forward even more, but Wigan kept hanging on.

There was a bit of a scuffle a bit later, as Denilson was hacked down and I think I saw someone kick him while he was on the ground. I was howling for a red card and apparently so was Kolo who ran towards the opposing player and told him to piss off or he'd kick his cunty face in. Gallas then ran in and got into a shoving match with Heskey who had just come on. Gallas and Heskey both got yellows and everyone else got nothing. Ridiculous really.

I thought for sure Wigan would be down to ten men yet again in the 80th minute when Heskey grabbed Walcott from the back and pulled him down from the neck. It should have been a second yellow but apparently the ref drank his bollocks juice before the match so he didn't give him any card at all. Walcott had to be stretchered off but the boss says he'll be ok. It was a bit worrying because he didn't look like he was moving at all but I'm glad he's alright.

The first goal came in the 83rd minute, when Gallas charged forward into the box and Sagna found him with a good chipped cross. Gallas made no mistake and sent it into the opposite corner of the net to make it 1-0 to the Arsenal. He had his Mr. T mohawk and he looked quite ecstatic when he scored. I think he's really enjoying his play right now and I enjoy when players enjoy playing.

Almost right after we scored again. Bendtner, who had come on for Walcott, made a nice pass to Rosicky who had a perfect finish that hit off the far post and in. So 2-0 to Arsenal and you really knew it was over at that point.

So it finished 2-0 to us, and we're three points clear at the top of the league with a game in hand. Pretty bloody brilliant. Cheers fellow gooners, enjoy being top of the league.

Yeah, It's Been Forever

So I haven't written forever and I could come up with a multitude of excuses like how I got a new job (true), have been coaching my Under 12's for a tournament next month (true), or how I lost all my fingers in a cooking incident and have been unable to type ever since. That one is false. But anyways, how have Arsenal been doing during my time you say, and what does the Arsenole have to say about it, being the leader in Arsenal nonsense. Well I suppose for the day back I'll just ramble on about that.

The League: We're a little over a quarter way into the Premiership season and we are still undefeated. Usually your table position after ten games is a good sign of what we'll see at the end of the season, and we couldn't be in a better place than first. We got through that rough patch at Liverpool 1-1 and home to Manchester 2-2 before we got winning again finally at Reading 3-1. Adebayor finally scored again, it had been like five or six matches I think and he said it was affecting his confidence but he should be on track now, so expect seventeen goals vs Wigan. We need to keep up our good form and come back from the break strong against Wigan because after that we have Chelsea which is always tough. Two draws against them last year so we'll need to improve on that this year.

Champion's League: Only game that happened while I was on my voluntary leave of absence was the return trip to Sparta Prague. I actually watched all of that game and it was probably the biggest waste of time in my entire life. It finished 0-0 and was completely boring. We didn't even have a shot until the 85th minute. Nobody had a great game and nobody was complete shite either but it did put us through to the knockout rounds.

Alright so that'll keep everyone up to date if you guys didn't read the interweb at all during my absence which is highly unlikely. Now onto some news, not that there is all that much.

Abou Diaby says he's not getting enough first team football and he's not happy about it. When asked about his future he said he likes being at Arsenal but he may look to move clubs next summer if his opportunities don't increase. I think every player in our squad must think they should start every game or something. I feel like Diaby has been in plenty of games considering he is still only 21 and is developing but it'd be a shame to lose him. He has plenty of quality and I really hope he stays.

The Telegraph has a story about us looking into Gabriel Agbonlahor, which is a horrible name for an announcer to have to shout I would think. They say we'll try to bid 15 million quid for him which is rubbish. He's not even worth half of that. He may be a good player someday but he is definitely not worth that much now.

Kolo Toure's brother, Yaya, says he wants his Barcelona team to play Arsenal in the Champion's League. It would be a real clash of titans to get two legs vs them but I don't want it yet. Be a better tie later in the competition. But can you imagine when Henry returns to play against us at the Emirates? It will be interesting.

And that's all I have. Probably throw something together too. Later

Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal

Hello everyone, I know it's been a couple days but I've been extremely busy. My Under 12's team that I coach is undefeated and we had two games over the weekend so I just couldn't be arsed to do much else.

So a point at Anfield and a valuable one. Manchester United went top of the league on Saturday with I think their 8th consecutive win so it was important for us to keep the momentum and jump back to the top against the scousers. The press and critics everywhere were saying this game would be our first real test. I don't really buy that because we have beaten City, Sevilla, Sp*rs, etc but they still labeled this as our first real challenge, and you have to say we passed. Arsene Wenger and the rest of the team say so too.

The game didn't start especially well for us, with Gerrard scoring on a free kick from about twenty five yards in the seventh minute. It was a real cannon of a goal but it left me wondering who had moved out of their place in the wall because it went right through it.

Almunia, who I thought had a very good game, saved efforts from Crouch, Gerrard and Riise and again consigned Lehmann to the bench. He's having a great year and he deserves his starting place.

So we pressed for an equalizer, much more in the second half than the first, and had a good chance when Eboue hit the post and Cesc missed on the rebound. It really should have been a goal but I find it hard to fault Cesc "The f'ing brilliant magician" Fabregas about much.

But the breakthrough did finally come, through who else but Cesc? Hleb (brilliant this season) received the ball on the left and held up play while players made runs forward. He finally saw the one he wanted though and lifted it in to Fabregas with touch that many great great players could not have displayed. It really was brilliant and Fabregas only had to toe-poke it into the net. Reina maybe could have done better but of course we're happy he didn't.

Cesc had another chance just a minute after but his effort hit the post and you could tell we really wanted the three points, but it wasn't to come. The match ended 1-1 and we remained unbeated. I'll take a point at Anfield any day.

Man of the Match: Alexander Hleb

Needs Work: The walls on our free kick defending

Several players reacted to the game afterwards. Gael Clichy says we played well enough to win but the team knows that it is still a good result at Anfield and that now we must be considered title challengers.

"Since the start of the season people have never stopped saying Arsenal are playing well but they have not played any of the big teams yet. Now we have.

"We passed out first test successfully. Next Saturday, we play Manchester United and if we get three points nobody can say Arsenal are not ready to win the title."

Robert Pires talked about how Wenger is full of magic and he is the best coach around.

Also we have William Gallas talking about how Cesc can be the best in the Premier League. I thought he was already but I guess that's just me.

You can see all the goals from the last match here.

And that's all I have for today. Have a good Monday.

Beckenbauer Tells Jens To Shut Up, Season Highlights

Hello everyone, not too much going on today but we'll cover it nonetheless. I've been informed that I should add more pictures so I'll try to start doing that when I have time to. Also, another thing, I'm taking donations to get a subscription to Arsenal TV Online so I can post the videos. If you think it's a worthwhile venture consider donating a dollar or two. Link is in the top right corner.

So on to the news, first off is Franz Beckenbauer, who is hoping Jens Lehmann shuts his fat yap because he won't win a war of words with Arsene Wenger.

"Lehmann must not make the mistake and start a confrontation with Wenger because he will not win it," Beckenbauer told Premiere TV.

"Wenger is a fair coach who does not immediately take out a player when he has a bad day. Jens Lehmann needs to be patient until he gets his chance, but he will get it.

"Lehmann will be playing for a different club by winter because Wenger will not accept that [a confrontation]."

And he is of course right. I don't know that Lehmann will ever play for Arsenal again, barring an injury to Almunia.

Manuel Almunia says in response that he has been unaffected by Jens' cuntiness. He said that he has waited three years for this chance to play in the league and now he's getting his chance and is playing well, so nothing is going to affect him. I think he's been great this year and made every save that you'd expect from him. Cmon Manuel don't listen to Jens just keep up the good saves!

Robin van Persie again spoke to the press about how wonderful the current team is playing, calling them "The best he has ever played with." Let's hope his injury heals up properly so we can get him back soon.

Theo Walcott says his patience has payed off and that his two goals against Slavia Prague "lifted a weight off of his shoulders." He had one hell of a game against Prague and I would like to see him start against Liverpool. He's had more experience in the Arsenal team than Eduardo has and I just feel like his pace would cause the slow hubcap thieves some problems.

Cheers everyone. As promised, here's a video I saw that has all the highlights for the season so far.

Arsenal 7-0 Slavia Prague

Well bloody hell. What an amazing performance we had last night. I was entirely expecting us to win the match but never in my wildest dreams did I foresee it being a scoreline like this one. You can watch all seven goals here. We really played football like you don't see anywhere else. Our one-touch passing was remarkable, under control and fluid, with pace and accuracy. If we played like this every match no team in the world could beat us. Now I know Slavia Prague aren't exactly Barcelona (who drew with Rangers yesterday so they really aren't looking good at the moment), but the performance was still so good that it really would have topped any other team in the world.

The scoring started off right away, just as I turned on the match as a matter of fact. Hleb was playing on the left and had two defenders come over to meet him. He used a bit of trickery then sent the ball back to the edge of the box for Cesc Fabregas who took a touch and then sent a curling effort right into the far corner. Really an unstoppable shot and we were off to a wonderful start.

The next goal came off of a corner kick. Cesc sent in the kick and it took a bounce or two and then was partially cleared. Hleb came and met it with power and it deflected off of a defender and into the net. I thought it should have counted for Hleb but they scored it as an own goal.

The last goal of the half looked like Slavia had Mad Jens of this year in goal. A long back pass to him was mis kicked and fell right to the feet of Lord Theo. The keeper charged at him of course and Theo did well to side step him and fire in between two defenders and into the back of the net. This was his first Champion's League goal and only his second Arsenal goal so it was good to see him get on the score sheet, especially as this was his first game really at striker.

So at halftime the score was 3-0 to the Arsenal and we really were on cruise control.

But it wouldn't stop there.

Not twenty more minutes into the second half and we were up 6-0.

The next one came courtesy of Hleb who actually got his name on the score sheet this time after not getting the credit on his first. Cesc made the assist getting it out to him charging the box from the left. He beat the defender and looked like he was shooting far post to feint the keeper but he went near post with no trouble and it was 4-0.

Goal number five was Theo's second of the day and it was right after the fourth. Hleb played him in down the left channel and Walcott produced the most Thierry Henry-like finish we've seen this season. He just tapped it with the outside of his right foot to the far post and it went off the post and in. Great finish and really a great touch by Theo.

Number six was just after that and it was also a beauty. Prague had a corner kick which we cleared and Hleb took the ball and dribbled for about half a mile before centering for Adebayor, who turned and fed Theo who sent Cesc into the box through the defense and he finished it perfectly. It was a marvelous goal and one you can watch over and over again. It was pure Arsenal and I couldn't help but cheer.

Soon after that up 6-0 Gilberto, Rosicky, and Bendtner came into the match and it kind of slowed us up for a bit. We seemed to lose that flow that we had had but it didn't matter much at this point. We still managed to get another goal though. Bendtner played a one-two with Eboue who back-heeled it back to the charging Bendtner who forced it across the line. It's good to see him get a goal and hopefully he'll be happy he got to play for a bit because I can't see him playing against Man U or Liverpool over the next week.

So the final was 7-0 to the Arsenal which tied a Champion's League record set by match fixing Juventus so it was very impressive. An all around great performance and one I will be watching again today. Fantastic.

Man of the Match: Alexander Hleb. He was just fantastic all around. He got into space, made all the passes and got on the score sheet. He should have had two and if we can get more performances from him like this one he'll be one of the players of the year.

Needs Work: What can you really say needs work after a performance like this?

If you missed this match, find it and watch it. You can see all the goals at the link at the top of the page.

Up the Gunners.

Scousers preview to come.

Arsene's B-Day, Toure Speaks, Diarra Complains

Well, Arsenal won this weekend. It hasn't stopped happening yet this year and I keep thinking it's going to be the game we slip up and every time we somehow find a way to get through it still keeping the streak alive. Now that might have jinxed us there so I knocked on wood just now and maybe you all should too just to be safe. But yeah, Arsenal beat Bolton 2-0 over the weekend which is always a tough one on the fixture list. They don't play football, they play a form of some sort of violent battle where they all line up and try to hack at as many players as they can. Yet even though we generally have a tough time, and in the first half we did, we still managed to pop in two goals to their none and I really don't think they had a shot on goal in the whole game. In fact if you look at the match stats, Almunia had zero saves. So a good win for us and we have a big week coming up. We play in the Champion's League mid-week and we go play the Scousers this weekend. Hopefully we can stay injury free.

Toure seems to be the fill in captain now that Gallas has been out, and even now when Gallas is back he is still acting the part. He is again saying that we need to avoid any complacency after this great start and that we have to keep our focus in every game.

"Last season was a really strange season because we did really well against the big teams but we slipped up against the teams that people expect us to beat," Toure told the club's official website.

"That is why this season we have to concentrate on the games in front of us - never mind if it's Liverpool or Manchester United.

"We have to keep the same focus for each game and also hope that we get a bit lucky in games and keep winning.'

Toure has been quite the leader this year and I like it because he really is the rock of our team. He's always in the lineup and always organizing the team and playing well. I'd love him to get the armband someday but we'll just have to see how it goes. Right now though, he's right, we do need to keep our focus for every game and stay on track because as we have seen in recent seasons, the teams that get off to a fast start in the league are the ones that you have to watch for in the end.

Lasagna Diarra is pissed off a lil bit, because he isn't getting to play as much as he thought he would. Did anyone really think he would get to play a lot in our midfield? He has Gilberto, Flamini, Denilson, and Diaby ahead of him as well as the irreplaceable Cesc, so he should have known that opportunities would be limited, but apparently he's had enough already. He says if he doesn't get to play more, he will look for a new club in December. Honestly i can't say that I care. He barely plays now so how could we possibly miss him? Yes I do wish some of our younger players got into the squad sometimes but we want to keep winning and right now what we are doing is working. Diarra is frustrated because he sat the bench at Chelsea and now is sitting the bench here. Well there has to be a reason for that. Maybe he should look at moving to a little bit smaller club where he can start every game. He's only 22 and could still move to a big club again but it's annoying to have him been complaining at Chelsea and now to start the same thing at Arsenal. Work hard in training and try to get a place or just move somewhere else but quit telling the press about it.

Couple more things, Denilson signed a new contract which is good news. I like him and hope to see him play more soon. And the last bit, today is Arsene Wenger's 58th birthday, so everyone wish him a happy birthday and have a pint for the greatest manager in Arsenal history. Cheers!

Arsenal AGM Meeting, Wenger for Chairman

We'll start right off with some good news. The Arsenal Board has agreed to an extension to the lock down agreement with regard to selling shares of the club. The deal they signed says that they cannot sell to any persons outside of their immediate family until the end of April 2009 and after that they have to give the other board members first option on any shares they wish to sell. This part of the deal runs until 2012 with an option to cancel in 2010. This is good news for us as it keeps Usmanov and his meat-pie demolishing self away from our club. Yes he owns 23 percent of the club now but he clearly wants more and now we know he won't get any more from the current board for at least 2 years and most likely for five. I think PHW really can't stand Usmanov and Dein and will do anything to keep him out so if one of the other board members wants to sell up their stake I think Old Petey would probably try to buy it first.

Hill-Wood continued with a message to the fans saying that the club is based on being self sufficient and they will continue to resist a takeover and will continue to have a successful business model for Arsenal.

Strangely enough, Petey went on to talk about the replacement for himself, and he thinks that the next chairman of the club should be Arsene Wenger. Peter is 71 years old and knows he won't be around forever but thinks that the greatest manager of all time should take over his place. I think this would be a great thing for the club if he decided to do it. Arsene has said in recent years that he doesn't think he will manage all that much longer, and I think by the time PHW steps down he might seriously consider the position. He's a genius when it comes to managing a team, and I think we can handle the risk of letting him run the club.

Robin van Persie is hurt. He suffered a knee injury yesterday while playing for Holland and nobody really knows how bad it is or how long he will be out. Hopefully not long because he is playing great football at the moment and he and Adebayor are really becoming a strong partnership. I think he has something like 5 goals in the last 4 matches or something which is quite a run so let's hope it isn't bad.

Kerrea Gilbert is being a bit of a prick. He's on loan at Southend and he's apparently gotten into it with his manager. He had a problem like this last year at Cardiff and never played for them again. Well now he's finding it hard to get first team football at Southend as well, and hasn't played since September 8th for the first team. He can't even start for Southend and yet he has started games for Arsenal before. This guy must be a real knob.

Thierry Henry scored two goals last night to beat Platini's goal scoring record for France. Congratulations to him.

Jens Lehmann is also stealing the spotlight once again for stupid shite, pretty much saying that he is the best human on Earth, and no other humans can ever hope to achieve what he is capable of.

"The positive for me is I am an all-around talent. I have no weakness."

Yes Jens that would be good, but theh problem is you have been complete shite this year and maybe you really just aren't that good anymore.

Jens is pissing me off. That's all I have for today. Bolton this weekend. I hate Bolton.

Bollocks About Cesc and More

So the Cesc Fabregas rumors have started up yet again. It seems like we just got done with summer transfer season and now Barca are once again going after our young Spaniard. Cesc's agent has done quite a job of letting Barca know that Cesc might be interested in a way that doesn't get anyone into trouble. As we know from the Cashley Cunt case, you are not allowed to talk directly to a player while he is under contract with another club, but Cesc's agent decided to fuel the fire with this:

"Neither the player nor I have considered the news, really, and all we're thinking about is the match against Denmark. What will be, will be," Diaz told Radio Marca.

"But 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."

Now this is obviously all horse piss because Barcelona didn't teach Cesc anything. We know that, Arsenal knows that, Barcelona knows that, and Cesc and his agent know that. He learned everything while he was at Arsenal, when he got into the first team like he never would have at Barca.

So now Barcelona have responded to this cuntery by Cesc's agent by saying they'd love to have Cesc but they don't want to pay big money. Ok then Barca, piss off then because you aren't going to get a Thierry Henry 16.1 million deal for him. Some twat that works for Barca named Txiki had this to say:

"He is a great player but the circumstances of his departure make things very difficult," Beguiristain told Avui.

"We cannot pay a great quantity for a homegrown player that decided to leave us.

"To start with he would have to show his desire to return."

That's the most ludicrous statement I've ever heard. Do they think because Cesc is from there that we'll just pitch him off there for 5 million pounds or something? We don't care where he's from, you aren't getting our little magician for cheap.

If these stories don't get you mad then I don't know what will. Once again Barcelona is using the press to talk to our players indirectly because they think they can do anything they want. It's bollocks and hopefully Cesc will honor his 10 year contract that he just signed last year.

So now that I've ranted on about that for a while it's time to talk about Jens Lehmann. He played for Germany this weekend which shows that he is fully fit and he's told the press that he expects Arsene to play him this weekend against Bolton. Now I really think Mad Jens has lost his mind and won't be playing much for Arsenal any longer. He's always been quite a nutter but he used to keep it mostly in his comments but this season in his two matches he had two quite easy plays turn into goals. I think Almunia will still be in the match against Bolton.

To add to the drama, the German National Team manager has added fuel to the fire by saying if Jens won't be first choice he needs to move in January. There have been reports that Man City will pay 1 million for him, and I say we take it. We can bring in another keeper if Wenger isn't happy with only Fabianski and Almunia and get rid of Jens. He is only causing problems by talking bad about Almunia every day and it may be time to see the back of him.

We've been linked with Sporting Lisbon centre mid Miguel Veloso while Gilberto Silva has been linked again with a move to Juventus.

Fran Merida spoke to Arsenal.com about how great it was to play for two minutes against the Newcastle first team. Surely it's all rubbish about him not being quick enough to play in the Premiership? I don't think Wenger would play him in the Carling Cup at age 17 if he didn't think he would ever make it.

That's about all I have today. Comment if you will. Later

The Battle of the Enchanted Forest

So there was this one time like, I'd say maybe 3 years ago, me and two of my best mates Kevin and Patrick were riding our Magical Unicorns through the Emerald Enchanted Forest. So we're just trotting along, laughing a frolicking in this meadow, when we go around this corner, around this grove of trees, and there is this huge Kreyt Dragon there, spitting fire. Not only that, but he had lasers that could shoot out of his eyes. Of course we're all terrified. So Patrick is like, "Oh god, Im gonna burn this mother down!" And Kevin said "You better not, You better not!" And we're all thinkin, will some white knight please come and save us!? But there was no white knight to be found, because it's an enchanted forest, and the disfigured trolls patrol the borders, and the white knights arent allowed in, of course. It's mostly for your sprites, your faeries... creatures of the night, if you will, so of course the knights arent allowed in.

So we are really scared for our lives of course at this point because the dragon had just lit a tree on fire next to us with his fiery breath. Patrick and Kevin didn't know what to do, so I had to come up with a plan fast. So I say, "Dont worry, i'll save us." So I charge up on my unicorn, because I knew the dragon's weak spot, it was his heart, because he doesn't have a heart. I saw a hollow a few meters away and snatched a branch off of the tree and sharpened it with my teeth real fast, and I galloped up and I said, "A foul upon thee dragon!!", and I thrust the branch into his heart, and I actually, slayed the dragon. And to this day, if you ask Kevin or Patrick, they'll be like, "God man, he saved my life."

Toure and Adebayor Speak

So we beat Sunderland Sunday 3-2 after blowing a two goal lead when we went up two to nil. Two goals by Van Persie who is now on quite a hot streak himself. I think that's 5 goals in 4 matches for him. Anyways, Sunderland got a red card in the 90th minute because of Paul McShane's tackle on Alexander Hleb, who had already gotten badly fouled by Mark Noble last week. Well Kolo Toure has not taken very kindly to this.

"When I saw that on the replay, I thought the intention was bad."

"He did not get to Hleb and I think sometimes it is better to relax (when a player is coming towards you).

"It can make something worse happen. The referee did well to send him off.

"I spoke to Alex afterwards and I said 'they want to kill you' - but I was just joking.

"Alex is such a great player. He is okay, all right."

Toure is filling in as captain and it's good to see him standing up for his team mates when they are attacked like that. He also spoke about winning the title, saying they don't think about it right now, but that we are playing well and want to keep it up. Confidence is sky high and if they can continue this magnificent run then the title could truly be a possibility.

Next up is Adebayor, who spoke about his strike partner, Robin Van Persie. He talked about how Van Persie's skills perfectly match his own and I have to agree. Where Robin has better skill on the ball and a better shot, Adebayor has the work rate and the size and strength that Robin lacks. Together they have eleven goals this season which is fantastic for this point in the season. He said they have built up an "automatic understanding" where they both know exactly where the other wants the ball played. Hopefully both forwards can stay healthy and continue this dominant run.

Here's some remarks from cunty United players Tevez and Evra saying how they can beat Arsenal to the title. Big words from a team who lost to us twice last season.

Micah Richards restated his desire to play for Arsenal one day. I think he's a great player and he should come in to the team after Gallas is deemed too old or too injured. Maybe sooner because Wenger has that 70 million quid war chest.

Well that's about all I have, remember if you like reading the ArseNole you can subscribe in the top right corner of this page either by email or by feed. It's quite convenient so if you read a lot try it out. Over this international break, tell me in the comments the first match you went to and the result. I like hearing about them.

ArseNole

Injury Setback for El Capitano Gallas

Hey everyone it's another day and another injury for William Gallas. He has to be the most injuredest player the ever exist. That's right, I said injuredist. Arsene Wenger said that Gallas had fully recovered and although would not be selected for the Sunderland match, he would be resuming full training along with Lehmann, Song, and Rosicky. Now Gallas has suffered another injury setback and re-injured his groin. Wenger says he probably won't be back until the end of this month.

So it's another injury for our captain and Gallas seems to be a player that if he hurts his pinky finger he's out for about 3 months. Maybe this isn't a horrible thing for us though. We have not conceded a goal while Senderos has partnered Kolo at the back. Not a single one. Gallas has shown over and over that not only does he not partner Kolo well, but he is not reliable to stay in the side as he is so injury prone. I'll probably get a lot of stick for this but maybe we should get rid of Gallas? He hasn't really contributed to the side since he has been here and we do have Djourou on loan and Gilberto and Song that can play at center back. Wenger won't sell him though, but these injuries are really becoming a problem.

Meanwhile, a story about a player who won't be leaving anytime soon. Alex Hleb says he wants to finish his career at Arsenal. I don't know about you but it always makes me like a player more when he says things like this. It shows commitment and that he really loves his team. Alex has been much improved this season, able to score goals and make passes. He's always been able to dribble well he just needed to improve other areas of his game and it looks like he has done that now.

Craig Gordon, Sunderland keeper, says it would be really nice to beat Arsenal. Unfortunately for him it won't happen. Wishful thinking though Craig.

I know it's been a short one today but there isn't much news. Good day all.

Remember to post your Sunderland predictions in the comments.

Board Meets With Kroenke, Gilberto Not Happy

Hello all, finally stopped raining here in Florida so that's good news. There isn't a lot of news today but I'll try to cover every bit of news I can find.

The Board held another meeting yesterday with ex-enemy Stan Kroenke. It's looking more and more like Old Stanley is becoming our ally against the porky prisoner from Russia. He seems to be just fine with his 12.2% and with functioning with the board instead of against them. If he pledges with the other board members not to sell his shares that will be good news for us.

The club released an official statement on the meeting saying this: "The Board of Arsenal Holdings wish to confirm that a positive meeting was held in London on October 3rd (yesterday) with Stan Kroenke.

"The meeting falls in line with the club's intention to maintain an open dialogue with large shareholders of Arsenal Football Club."

So we'll see how it goes with old Stanley. Anything to keep the Obese Oligarch out of our club.

The other potentially big bit of news today involves Gilberto Silva, who is not happy about losing his starting place to Mathieu Flamini. Gilberto has only started four games for us this year and I think two of those were at central defense so he really hasn't gotten the games that he normally gets. Flamini has been playing quite well though so it's very hard to drop a player in such good form.

Gilberto I think could leave in January. He's getting up in years and our central midfield is absolutely packed. If you think about it we have Cesc, Flamini, Diaby, Denilson, Gilberto all vying for two spots every game and it just won't work out that everyone is getting the playing time they want. Now Diaby and Denilson both get the Carling Cup and some Premiership games but they are young and won't expect as many, but Gilberto is used to playing every game so this is rough for him and he may want out. Just a thought.

That's about all I have today. I know it's short but there isn't much else. I'm still attempting to put together my first podcast but I'm just figuring it all out and I still need some people to do segments on it so please if you are interested email me. That's about all. Remember the prediction contest before the match this weekend. Later

Bucharest 0-1 Arsenal

Well we got the job done, even if it wasn't pretty. Arsenal won in the Romanian city of Bucharest last night with a goal from Robin Van Persie and now he's scored in two straight. Robin, Adebayor, and Hleb all passed their late fitness tests and made starts for the team even though they had been questionable yesterday morning. Our lineup looked like this:

Almunia
Sagna-Toure-Senderos-Clichy
Eboue-Cesc-Flamini-Hleb
RvP-Adebayor

As I mentioned before, we definitely were not playing at our Arsenal best today, and Bucharest thought they had taken the lead on six minutes. A free kick was sent into the box and headed hard and down and went right by Almunia into the net. I was stunned when it happened but thankfully the referee blew for offside and he clearly was on the replay.

Right after that Cesc had an unbelievable chance five yards from an open net and somehow skyed the ball over. It looked like the non-scoring Cesc of last year, not the wonder goal scorer this year. Hopefully he won't dwell on it.

Kolo Toure stopped their next best chance of the day. Almunia came way out of his box to punch clear, the ball fall to a Bucharest player who lobbed from about thirty yards and Kolo had to be there behind Almunia to head clear. Bit shoddy goalkeeping but luckily no harm done. Our goal came shortly after.

Adebayor made a great run into the box from the left and made it all the way to the end line. He turned and squared it back for Fabregas who couldn't get on the end of it but luckily the ball kept rolling and RvP was there to shoot. When he first shot I thought he was going to miss but it was his left foot and he didn't miss and we were 1-0 up.

That was pretty much the end of the game. There were a couple more chances for both teams but after the goal neither team ever looked much like scoring. It was another match where I worried we would never score, but the goal eventually came. This is the mark of a good team because we wouldn't get these results last year.

Man of the Match: Philippe Senderos was quite comfortable in defense and put in a good performance. He gets the award of Adebayor who missed some easy chances. Fabregas definitely didn't have his best day but Clichy was also good. Big Phil gets the nod though and let's hope he takes some confidence from this performance.

Needs Work: It's hard to pick these this season as we have won 9 matches in a row but I'll go with Almunia who was a little shaky in the net tonight. He had trouble dealing with some crosses and was totally caught off guard by the ball they got called offside on.

Robin Van Persie after the game gave the press a "told you so" type speech saying that he knew Arsenal would be good this year and said so, but the press laughed at him but they can't anymore.

"At the start of the season I said we will surprise - and everyone was laughing.

"Now 12 games into the season, everyone says, 'Ooh, look at Arsenal, they are a good team'. This I knew before and my mind has not changed.

"I started training early this season with Theo [Walcott] and after, when the rest of the lads came back in, I saw a great togetherness and belief and big quality. This is what I saw day in, day out."

RvP is right. Nobody gave us a chance this year and yet now we are playing amazing football. It's wonderful to watch and I am enjoying it thouroughly.

Oh and since we didn't really get the ArseNole prediction contest going before yesterday's match we'll start it before the Sunderland match this weekend. Post your score prediction in the comments and I'll add up the number of correct predictions for the year and that person will win an Arsenal prize. Standings will be shown on the website.

And that's all I have for you today. Later

Bucharest Preview

Alright Champion's League again today, and we play in Bucharest. It's gonna be a short post today as I'm quite busy, but it'll work.

And get this, the Bucharest manager will be sacked if he loses this game to Arsenal. This will only be his third game in charge and the other two were both victories, but the owner apparently doesn't think much of him and says he'll get the boot with a loss.

So now some injury news right quick. Jens Lehmann is still out so Almunia will retain his place, and probably will even when Mad Jens is fit, but we'll see. Alexander Hleb is rated as 50/50 by Wenger after that tackle by Mark Noble at the weekend. Adebayor, Diaby, Flamini, and Van Persie all also face late fitness tests to see if they'll be able to go. This could present us with a bit of a striker problem, but I think the lineup will look like this:

Almunia
Sagna-Toure-Senderos-Clichy
Eboue-Fabregas-Gilberto-Walcott
Adebayor-Bendtner

I decided that I would give Bendtner the start here as I doubt both Adebayor and RvP will pass fitness tests well enough for Wenger to risk them against Bucharest.

In other news Alisher Usmanov says he is not planning taking over Arsenal and simply wants to make football bigger in Russia. He's clearly full of it as he wouldn't say he's planning a "blocking stake" if he was just in it to make football bigger. He says there is no problem with "Russian (mafia) money coming in to the "World's biggest football club."" He is no fan and he just wants to make some money off of our club. Arseblog reported that Usmanov tried to buy into Liverpool before it was sold, so yeah he's not looking like a huge Arsenal fan anymore huh?

As for transfer rumors, we have one today. Jussi Jaaskelainen has been linked with us since contract negotiations with Bolton seem to have broken down completely. He's out of contract after this year and can talk to clubs on January 1st. He's a pretty good keeper but I'm undecided if we should try to make a move for him.

My final score prediction for the match tonight is 2-0 to the Arsenal.

Also I'd like to announce the ArseNole prediction contest. Just go to Arsenole.com, leave a comment and predict the score for the match tonight. One guess per person can be made any time before the match starts. For every match you predict correctly I will give you a point. The person with the most points will win an Arsenal prize! I will update the standings on the website after this match.

Later Gooners

Mark Noble Should Burn

Yep, I said it. Mark Noble's tackle on Alex Hleb was simply shocking and really could have broken his leg. I thought his knee was blown out for sure when I saw it and he should have been sent off. So yet another reason to hate West Ham.

Anyways, we won the match 1-0 from a RvP header from a Hleb cross and took our winning streak to eight games. We're still unbeaten on the season in all competitions and it's wonderful to get a win against West Ham who we lost to twice last year. Even better that it was on the road because I have been worried that our form was exaggerated by the fact that most of our games had been at home.

Sorry for missing the match report yesterday but I was with Lady ArseNole and didn't really have a chance to write anything.

So anyways now it's on to today's news.

The Carling Cup draw took place yesterday and we have been drawn away to Sheffield United. They were in the Premiership last year and were awful but they did beat us somehow so it may be a tough game. It's away from home but we did well away from home in the Carling Cup last year and I'd expect a win from the young guns.

Theo Walcott spoke to the press about how he's really fired up this season and about his lofty goals for himself. He says he's set a goal of 25 starts and 10 goals. I don't really think he's going to be able to get to either of them, but the 25 starts is more likely than the 10 goals. He just seems to look lost whenever he gets down by the opponents' net and when he shoots it is usually not a very good attempt. I'm hoping Walcott progresses but I did think we would have seen more from him by now. He's still young though so I'll be withholding judgment at least until next season.

Arsene Wenger spoke about Mark Noble's cuntiness and said that Hleb's leg looked like a disaster and was red and bruised all over. He did say that Hleb will be out Tuesday but he'll take it game by game after that.

Wenger also spoke about how the Premiership is more important than the Champion's League this season. This seems to be exactly the opposite of what Arsene has said the last few seasons, and it makes me wonder if he just decides what is important by how well we start in the league.

We play Bucharest on Tuesday and I'll get up a match preview in the next few days. Like I said before if you want to contribute to the Arsenole Podcast please email me. Click the link in the top right corner of the page.

Fat Russian Strikes Again

Once again Alisher Usmanov has bought more of Arsenal Football Club, when everyone clearly despises the man. He's now up to 23% ownership of the club and the magic number is 30% when you are forced under league rules to launch a takeover bid. He just isn't giving up on taking over the club and even though his takeover bid would undoubtedly fail, I hate to see him as even a part owner of the club I support. If he gains two more percent of the shares he will become the largest shareholder over Danny Fiszman who has 24%. Apparently there is now a petition to the league to better enforce the "fit and proper" clause for club owners started by some Arsenal fans. I suggest everyone read and sign it here. It's an official government petition so if you really want this fat twat out of your club sign up.

In response to all this rubbish, Arsene Wenger, the legend of a man, has promised that whoever the owners of the club are he'll keep them happy. He said whatever happens on club level will not affect him or his squad. He's pretty much always had this stance, through Kroenke and now Usmanov, that it didn't really concern him. I kind of wish however that he would be more vocal against a hostile takeover because look what happened at Chelsea...that certainly affected the manager and the squad. I couldn't think of anything worse than that happening at my beloved Arsenal.

Wenger also said that he never considered leaving Arsenal for another club when he was debating about signing his new contract.

About the match tomorrow, we'll still have Almunia in goal. Song, Gallas, Lehmann, and Rosicky are for sure out and Hleb is doubtful. More to come tomorrow with all of that.

That's about all I have today, really not that much news. Have a good weekend.

Quick Newcastle Review and More

See this is not your everyday match report. I also promised "and More." So be expectant although there isn't all that much more to write about today.

Our performance against Newcastle was brilliant for the youngsters but very frustrating for the first 83 minutes or so. I couldn't see the match because it wasn't on anywhere in the world so I was watching a text alert gamecast. We were taking a startling amount of shots, especially in the second half, and none of them were going in. After watching the highlights I realized that we were in possession of the ball for most of the game and had most of the attacks, although the first real chance went to Obafemi Martins. He got a head on a cross and should have put it in from about five feet away but Fabianski made a fantastic stop.

Eduardo had a couple of chances as well as Eboue and Walcott, but we just couldn't beat Shay Given as he was blocking everything we hit at him. Bendtner also sent a header over the crossbar when he probably should have scored.

Finally the breakthrough came. Eduardo fed Traore down the left and he whipped in a cross that Bendtner headed into the corner superbly. It was his first goal for the club and a brilliant one at that. You could feel the goal coming and it finally did unlike last year when we would have all the chances and never score. Good for Bendtner to get off the mark.

Another young gun got his first strike just five minutes later. Diaby made a good run into the box and beat two defenders before feeding Denilson just outside of the box who put a scorcher into the top corner and Given really had no chance. A great strike and his first for the club.

So the match ended 2-0 to the Arsenal and we're on a winning streak. It was a good all around performance for our young guns and they showed the quality they have by beating a full strength Newcastle side. Man of the match will go to Traore for me, good in defense and good going up the flank and crossing. Senderos was a bit shaky again but I really do think he will come around eventually.

So on to some other news...

Manuel Almunia says that the number 1 keeper jersey is his and Jens can keep his hands off of it. He says, "I need to hold onto the number 1 jersey with all my strength and not let go of it." He has looked quite good so far this season and I think Jens and Almunia will possibly have to fight it out, like fist-fight, cuz Jens is quite mad and I think he really wants to be first team as well. Competition is good though.

Gilberto is wanting a new deal. His current one expires at the end of 2009 and I think he'll be 32 at that time, correct me if I'm wrong. I honestly think he'll be on the way out at that point and don't think he'll get a new deal. Flamini is playing well and Diarra looks good and they both play the same role as the old Brazilian. I like Gilberto a lot but I just don't see Wenger keeping him past 2009.

Nick Bendtner told reporters that confidence is "sky high" in the Arsenal dressing room right now.

"At the moment the confidence is really, really high. The win over Newcastle was just another showing of what the club is going through at the moment.

"We are doing everything really well. Everyone is really happy and wants to play for the club."

They all are playing quite well and we'll obviously hope it continues.

That's all for the day, I'll try to do better tomorrow. Later

Carling Cup vs Newcastle Preview

Alright so we have a match today against Newcastle and it'll be in the Carling Cup, the very same cup that our youngsters (meaning even younger than Cesc) made it all the way to the final last year. Wenger always plays a young squad in these games and you know as good as the young guns played last year in the competition I'm fairly nervous about this match. Newcastle will be throwing everything they have at us since they have no real chance of any silverware that other teams actually want. It'll be interesting to see if our young defenders are ready to face N'Zogbia and Martins and the like.

The squad has been named and I think the lineup will look like this:

Fabianski
Hoyte-Song-Senderos-Traore
Eboue-Diaby-Diarra-Walcott
Bendtner-Eduardo

And the bench being: Mannone, Merida, Denilson, Hoyte, Lansbury

Could be completely wrong but what can ya do. Maybe he plays Denilson instead of Diaby because Diaby has been getting some games and it'd be nice to see Denilson, but who knows. I'm hoping we get a chance to see Merida, Hoyte, or Lansbury because they are the newest of the young generation to step up to the first team fringes.

Like I said Newcastle will be putting out a strong lineup and we will have to match them. The match is sold out so they will definitely have plenty of support from the fans. We know these young players have talent they just have to play to their maximum potential and not get intimidated by more experienced opposition.

Few other news items quickly today.

Arsene Wenger is in no rush to spend his 70 million pound transfer budget.

Peter Hill-Wood ripped into Chelsea, the small club.

Lasagna Diarra says he's ready to play the match today. (Good thing since he's starting)

And that's really all I have today. Sorry it's so short, will try to do better tomorrow.

PS if anyone wants to help me out and put something on my podcast for the site let me know at Kykins27@bellsouth.net

Arsenal FC, the Richest Club in Britain

That has a nice ring to it wouldn't you say? The board released the club's financial numbers today for the past year, and they really are astounding. You can read more about it here. The club's profits for the last year are up an amazing 274% to 51.2 million pounds. This is before "player trading" is taken into effect, meaning the losses of Reyes, Henry, Ljungberg have not been added into that profit number. Another big number in the positive for the club is that we generate 3.1 million quid per match. The overall turnover for the club for the season was 200 million quid, which makes Arsenal, not Manchester United, the richest club in Britain. In the entire continent Arsenal is only beaten in turnover for the year by Real Madrid.

Do you think the fat oligarch will realize we really don't need his investment? I realize he wants to come in and make some money off the richest club in Britain but this shows that our board runs a thriving business and it leads to wonderful football. Our numbers go up every year without foreign investment and while Chelsea's owner is driving off a great manager and Man U is loaded with debt, Arsenal Football Club continues to make more and more money and uses it to make the club even better still. Stay away Usmanov, we really don't want your sort.

In addition to all this, Keith Edelman spoke about transfer money available to Arsene Wenger. He said Wenger didn't use all of his money available in the summer and will have loads to spend in January if he wishes.

'We gave Arsene a budget in the summer and he didn't even spend all of it on transfers and hopefully we'll be able to carry that forward into future years.'

He added: 'We have got plenty of financial firepower to makes the transfers Arsene wants to make.

'We had over £70million of cash at the end of the year and if Arsene wants to spend that money we will make it available.'

Wow. 70 million is a ton of money. Now while that's all good and well that he has all this money at his disposal it's unlikely that Arsene will spend it. Look at his record and you will see that he has always favored cheaper signings and his worst signings have generally been the most expensive ones (Reyes, Jeffers). Another thing is that if the squad is still playing as well as they are now he may choose not to add to it just so that it won't have any negative effects on the team chemistry. But again, maybe he will choose to use some of it and uncover some other young gems that make this football club so great.

Tomas Rosicky will be out at least two weeks with his hamstring injury, which is a shame. He gets these little injuries every now and then and it's quite annoying, especially since we don't really have anyone to back him up on the left wing. Wenger may keep Diaby out there but maybe Walcott or Eduardo will get a run out.

Cesc Fabregas says he could see himself in an Arsenal shirt ten years from now. He said he is enjoying his football so much and also that Henry leaving has really taken a load off everyone's shoulders.

And last for the day, Denilson is going to have a new contract soon. The young Brazilian is quite skillful and should feature in the Carling Cup tomorrow. He's kindof a Cesc-like player and I like him quite a bit and I am glad that he's getting a new contract. In fact, unlike last year when I couldn't stand Hleb or Flamini (or sometimes Eboue), I'm happy with the entire squad right now. I guess winning does that for you.

Later ArseNolians

Arsenal 5-0 Derby

Well I was expecting a win but this was so much more than that. 5-0 and we were clicking all over the pitch. I'm not going to do a full match report because there's lots to get to but I will talk about the goals really quickly.

1-0 - Diaby - Diaby hasn't always looked amazing on the left wing, to say the least, but this was a real stunner. Dribbled up to just outside the box, skipped around one defender but ran right into another. He got around him and let fly from a couple yards outside of the box and it was a real rocket into the top right corner. Good to see him get off the mark for the year.

2-0 - Adebayor - The first of Adebayor's greatest performance yet for the Gunners. He played the offside trap perfectly and timed his run to get on the end of a ball over the top, circled the keeper and it was basically a tap-in into an empty net. Great control and finishing.

3-0 - Adebayor - This one was scored from the penalty spot. Eduardo got "pulled down," although if i was a Derby fan I'd probably be upset about the call. But Adebayor stepped up to take it and you could see the confidence as he sent it low into the right corner. The keeper dove the right way but it was just too powerful for him to handle.

4-0 - Fabregas - Does he ever stop scoring? Let's hope not. He's on a six match scoring streak now and this one was brilliant too. A long range effort from the right channel that went straight for the top left corner. It was tipped but it still flew into the net. Great goal.

5-0 - Adebayor - Another great goal to complete his hat trick. The ball came to him high, he chested it down and immediately beat the defender off the dribble and fired a shot to the bottom right corner. Again the keeper got a hand to it but it was always going in. Brilliant day by Ade.

Man of the Match - Emmanuel Adebayor was amazing in this match. His first hat trick for the club and he of course gets the MOTM.

Needs Work - Although Diaby scored a goal from there today, he's really not a bloody winger Wenger. I hope he gets more time in the center.

So now on to some other news.

For those he didn't get to see it, The ArseNole made the news in London for all the Usmanov fallout that I wrote about the other day. Pretty impressive for a small site in Florida to make the news in London. I was only trying to point out the allegations against the man trying to buy our beloved club and next thing you know the site is on the news. I haven't however received any threats of legal action yet, but I'll keep you all updated.

Denilson is about to get a new deal from the club. He's going to be brilliant in the future I think and I hope he doesn't get tired of waiting to break into the first team. It's a crowded place in the center of midfield right now but he is young and will get his chance if he just waits a little bit. Looking forward to hopefully seeing him in the Carling Cup against Newcastle this week.

Arsene Wenger has talked about our newfound ruthlessness in front of goal this year.

"You can see that there is something more in there that is called ruthless and belief. I believe in the team."

As a group the whole team seems to be making much better use of chances this year than we did last. Remember losing to Sheffield United and West Ham twice? Well those are the games we are winning this year, the ones we are expected to win. We have West Ham again next Saturday, so hopefully we can keep the streak going.

In news not related to our club, Chelsea lost 2-0 to United today to begin their hopeful run of shite performances without Mourinho.

Alisher Usmanov: The Rundown

After reading my blog comment yesterday from one "phat," I realized that some people do not realize what foreign ownership by Usmanov would mean for this club, so I'm putting together this little miniature biography for you.

Alisher Usmanov

• Ranked number 142 on the Forbes list of the World's Richest People in 2007
• Gained wealth from mining, lumber, and investment
• He spent SIX YEARS IN JAIL in the 1980's for crimes of corruption and extortion against the government of the former Soviet Union
• Craig Murry's article, former ambassador to Uzbekistan, made further still allegations against Usmanov...more information below.
  

On September 20th, Bloggerheads.com, the weblog of Tim Ireland was taken down for reproducing Craig Murray's article. The removal of the host server also caused the loss of other blogs belonging to the MP Boris Johnson as well as others; none of which themselves had reproduced the article.

His lawyers had this to say:

“Mr Usmanov was imprisoned for various offences under the old Soviet regime. We wish to make it clear our client did not commit any of the offences with which he was charged. He was fully pardoned after President Mikhail Gorbachev took office. All references to these matters have now been expunged from police records . . . Mr Usmanov does not have any criminal record.”

Right, and Sp*rs are going to finish in the top four...

Craig had a response to that, saying this:

"Let me make it quite clear that Alisher Usmanov is a criminal. He was in no sense a political prisoner, but a gangster and racketeer who rightly did six years in jail. The lawyers cunningly evoke "Gorbachev", a name respected in the West, to make us think that justice prevailed. That is completely untrue."

After this was posted, Alisher's legal team shut down many blogs by threatening legal action.

Is this the kind of man we want running our beloved football club? Read the facts and then you decide...

ArseNole

Arsenal 3-0 Sevilla

What a great run we've been on, and what a great start to the Champion's League! 3-0 against the second best team in our group is really more than i could have hoped for. I guessed our goals correctly but I thought they would push a few past us but we held strong and kept them out.

Our lineup was a bit different from the match against Sp*rs, we went with:

Almunia
Sagna-Toure-Senderos-Clichy
Hleb-Cesc-Flamini-Rosicky
RvP-Adebayor

The game started off with a chance for Adebayor in the first minute but his shot just wasn't there. He's had a couple of those this season where he misses a good chance, and tonight was no exception. He really needs to get better with his finishing. I love his work rate and his energy but please Manu you have to put the ball in the net.

In the 28th minute Cesc, the goal scoring machine, had his shot from thirty yards deflect off of a Sevilla defender and right into the back of the net. 1-0 to the Arsenal.

Right at the end of the half Adebayor missed a chance and Sevilla missed two chances to equalize but nothing came of them and we went into half time 1-0 up.

Tomas Rosicky had to go off injured shortly after half time, and he seemed to have pulled his hamstring. He seems to get these nagging injuries all the time. Never serious ones thank God but ones that just keep him out for a few weeks at a time and take him out of his rhythm. Diaby came on to replace him and had quite a rough night out on the left. He's really not a winger at all and Wenger needs to put Walcott or Clichy or anyone else up there in the left of midfield because it isn't where Diaby needs to be.

A couple minutes later we had a freekick in a good position and Cesc took it. Sagna, who was brilliant in this match, headed it on to RvP's foot and he finished it easily. 2-0 to the Arsenal.

The last goal was a typical Arsenal goal. There was a poor pass out of the Sevilla defense which was intercepted by Hleb, who then waited for support, found Fabregas, who squared back to Eduardo for a nice finish. Great passing and the beautiful game was on display at the Emirates. 3-0 to the Arsenal. Good to see Eduardo score as well.

So overall it was a great performance against a good team that has won the UEFA cup two times in a row. A couple of players stood out for me, Bacary Sagna was great, Flamini gets better every game, Clichy is the best left back in England, and Cesc is...well brilliant.

Man of the Match: Cesc Fabregas - I'm getting quite used to writing this. A goal and an assist give him the award, and he had some great passing as well. World class.

Needs Work: Big Phil Senderos - Very, very sketchy in defense. Looked like he had no confidence really. Needs to get it together because we need him this season.

In other news Jose Mourinho has left Chelsea, which is good news for everyone who hated that egotistical twat. He's a very good manager but I guess after all the drama it finally caught up with them and now he's left. Chelsea will be distracted hopefully by looking now for someone to replace him and maybe they'll lose all of their matches. Hopefully.

While all this is going on at Chelsea, it's wonderful to see our manager sign a new contract and for the team to all have such a great spirit. If we can keep this up through wins AND losses, and yes there will be losses, then we have a real chance at making a run at the title this year. We need to keep playing like we're playing.

Up the Arsenal