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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An unusual mix of youth, experience took the field for Arsenal v Liverpool

The assertion in my last post about the value for money that last night’s tie offered was vindicated by the quality on display from both sides. Unlike most of Arsenal’s Carling cup games, the line-up for Arsenal boasted a fair amount of experience, with Liverpool fielding a similar mixture of youth and experience.

A 2-1 victory for Arsenal was a fair reflection of the game with Arsenal just edging out Liverpool in all areas. While Aquilani will have you believe that they were denied a clear penalty, it would have been extremely harsh to have adjudged Senderos of bring his hand to the ball. We could make a similar claim for a penalty when Sanches Watt was brought down Kuyt.

There wasn’t a player who you could say had a bad game, the obvious stand-outs were Merida, Ramsey, and Eastmond. The former performed more or less to the level that we would expect from a player long hailed as good as Fabregas. As similar to Cesc as Merida is, he looks to be stronger than our Spanish captain.

Eastmond is one of those players that has recently made the switch from defence to midfield, while he had a few appearances in the middle last season, it’s only this season that he has played regularly as a midfielder. It says a lot of his talent for him to have not only made the switch but has been good enough to make it into the Carling cup squad.

There was enough in Eastmond’s performance to suggest if he were to continue in the way he has then it won’t be long before some first team players start really worrying about their places. If I were Diaby, I would have been worried about my place in the team.

Wenger has persisted with Diaby, but with Nasri coming back to fitness, and Ramsey pushing for a starting place in the first team, the player most at risk of losing his first team spot must be Diaby.

There is, in reality, a huge difference between having a good Carling cup game and being ready for a run in the first team. It is encouraging for us to see these youngster up to the task in games like last night, and they deserve the praise they receive. The games coming up will only get tougher and those guys need us to be 100 percent behind them.

The draw for the next round is on Saturday and includes Manchester United, Manchester City, Blackburn, Portsmouth, Chelsea, Tottenham and Aston Villa. It would be nice to get Blackburn or Portsmouth, but I’m sure the players would be happy to test themselves against one of the bigger teams.

Good game, good win, goodbye, thanks for reading.

Tonight’s probable line-up:

Subs: Szczesny, Randall, Frimpong, Sunu, Merida, Senderos, Eastmond

The biggest disappointment will be the omission of Jack Wilshere who will be out through an ankle injury, Armand Traore who was really looking forward to tonight suffered a groin injury and will miss out. Wenger is set to use this game as to give some players returning from injury —Eduardo, Bendtner, and Nasri — a workout, which will mean even less opportunity for some.

I am looking forward to see how well Bartley does, at 6′3″ he could be the centre half we’ve been craving. I hope Wenger doesn’t go with Senderos tonight.

Francis Coquelin is my favourite player in the reserves, his performances in that league has been nothing short of exceptional. Although he had a good game when arsenal played West Bromwich Albion, it wasn’t what those who’ve been watching reserve games have come to expect from the young frenchman. Tonight gives him the chance to shine it what will be the biggest game of his career so far.

Merida will have to take a seat to Ramsey for the time being, and will replace Nasri on the hour mark — jezz, I sound like I know exactly what Wenger is thinking

The last time we met Liverpool in the Carling cup we scored 6, I don’t expect another 6 goal drubbing but we should progress to the next round. My bet would be Arsenal win 3-1.

Arsene has been speaking about his last minute U-turn on sending Merida to Levante for a season’s loan, his statement reinforces the idea that he is reluctant to send his “better” players out on loan.

I nearly gave him out on loan in the pre-season but, in Valencia, I made the decision to keep him because I feel he is a classy player. He just has football in his blood and these players always have a good chance to come through.

“On the day I had to make the decision and I decided to keep him. He was going for the year to Levante. It would have been good for him but I felt that he has too much quality to go out.

It seems to me that saying he has “too much quality to go out” is sending a message to those that are out on loan that they have a lot more work to do.

That’s all from me today, I’ll be back tomorrow, thanks for reading. Please share your thoughts in the comment section.

Another centre back goal, they are determied to outscore the forwards.

I’m sure that Wenger has continually repeats the mantra of keeping concentration, taking chances when presented, and killing off teams. They know that, but somehow they can’t carry it the tasks at hand.

Results like yesterday are very disappointing, especially as Arseblogger puts it,

It’s one thing being taken apart by nice football but when you’re gifting the opposition goals then you’re going to have problems. We’ve conceded 15 goals so far, I’d suggest 10 of those goals were totally avoidable

It’s even worse when the players recognise the problem, continue committing the same crimes. Vermaelen, Sagna, Clichy, Diaby, and Sagna, all came out with statements pointing out that lessons must be learnt concentration must stay sharp yet we fall at the same hurdle.

Looking at the big picture we are in a good position, yet the missed opportunities leave a sour taste in the mouth. A win would have put us 3 points behind Chelsea with a game in hand, now we will be at least 2 points behind after playing our game in hand.

There’s a lot of blame going around, most of it falling on the usual suspects. Diaby especially is coming in for what I think is undeserved stick. The free-kick that changed the game was not his fault in fact it wasn’t a free-kick even Hansen said it. Some say that he (Diaby) lost the ball too much, or gave too many bad passes, simply not true — 45 out of 48 passes found their man, and he made 8 interceptions.

The player that most disappointed was Andrey Arshavin, left on only because he is always capable of creating a moment of magic which I suspect Wenger was looking for by keeping him on. The question is whether playing with 10.5 outfield players worth that one moment of magic? A tough call to make.

Strangely I never felt that we were in control of the game, we were 2 goals up but not playing well, we needed to step up our game and in the end we didn’t.

It’s been a feature of our season we concede late goals, 7 out of 13 goals conceded in the last half hour, 4 of the 7 conceded in the last 15 minutes, it’s something to worry about. If this doesn’t stop soon, it will become a a major psychological problem, once it comes to the last 10 minutes players will start to worry about letting in that last goal instead of concentrating on the task at hand.

Hopefully we’ll keep scoring more than the opponents, because at the moment it seems we will always concede one.

We were in control, there were no big chances for AZ but in the last minute they scored. It feels like a defeat.

It is disappointing but here 5 reasons why it’s not the end of the world.

Vela goes down for what looks like a stonewall penalty.

1.) Even if it feels like a defeat — it wasn’t

So we didn’t win, so it feels like a loss, but it isn’t. We’re still top of the group, a win at home in the return game will see us needing at most a point from the last 2 games inn order to qualify for the next stage.

2.) We won’t be complacent at The Boleyn Ground.

So we were complacent last night, not even bothering to move out of 2nd gear, and it bit us in the as with a last minute equaliser. If anything it reminded the team that there is no place for complacency in sport.

An easy win last night might have meant a little less focus at West Ham, the equaliser should have the team looking to bounce back and show a bit more than what was on display yesterday.

3.) Alex Song

Is Song the league's most improved player?

Although he was at fault for the equaliser, Song put in another man of the match display.

I thought the turning point came for Song in the 2008 ACN, at this point he became a mainstay for Cameroon, putting in consecutive man of the match performances, and being named in the tournament’s best XI was a marker for the young man.
Despite having an indifferent 2008/2009 season he has now become on of our most important players, the problem now is who’s going to replace Song in January.

4.) Competition for places

A lot of us was of the view that the was a lack of competition for places in the squad, some player could afford to be complacent as their place in the starting 11 is secure.
It may have been an accurate assessment, but now were are seeing a genuine battle for starting spots all over the pitch which bodes well for the future.

Arsene choosing to start Manonne instead of Almunia is a clear indication to everyone that they have to work hard to keep their pick. Of course there are a few who will obviously start when fit, but the realisation that no one is immune to a “chest infection”.

5.) …and finally Arsenal could do a Spain

Here is Fabregas’ theory on how Spain went from a team that plays lovely football to European Champions.

I don`t know.  I think it was in one game we played against Sweden and we lost 2-0.  Everyone was saying they wanted to sack the manager; everyone was saying that we were the worst team in Spanish history, stuff like that.  And, from that game, I don`t know, something happened.  We came all together, we wanted to win more than ever.  We did it for ourselves and, from then on, just clicked like that.  We started playing well, confidence came back, the fans started realising we were playing well and they came next to us, next to us, following us everywhere and, at the end, we were all so together that you could see, even when I was on the bench or when I was playing, even if we were losing 1-0, you were relaxed because you knew you would come back always, and the way we played football, it was amazing.  And I think the togetherness in that team was something special.

Sound familiar?

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

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

The laws of the game state that,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A player who uses excessive force must be sent off.

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

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

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

Nikopolidis was determined to do a Mannone.

Fortunately the same van Persie scored the goal that we deserved on the night.

We all deserved a performance like last night. Perhaps determined not to have a repeat of Standard Liege, Arsenal came out with all guns blazing. Unfortunately we forgot to calibrate the gun sights, 22 shots at goal with only 2 goals to show is testament to the inaccuracy of our aim.
Wave after wave of attack came upon the Greeks’ defence only for us to be denied by our own profligacy and a determination by the Olympiacos custodian to “do a Mannone”.

Patience and discipline was the bywords for last night, Wenger summed it up saying,

“We kept our composure and kept going. We played with a desire to keep the discipline in the team. We did not do anything crazy. I always felt we could score. We have matured and a game like this shows just that.

We could be forgiven to think that the goal would never come, reminiscent of our first loss at the Emirates when West Ham was the recipient of a footballing master-class yet they left the Emirates with 3 points. I would have been cruel for us not to win last night, and the team showed the maturity and discipline to continue playing to get that result.

The popular man of the match was Arshavin, but I was particularly impressed with Rosicky who reminded me quite how good he is. He showed incredible touch, balance, pace and vision, once the Czech regains full fitness teamed with Fabregas and Arshavin our attack should be the most potent in the league.

There was not much to be done by the defence, but Eboue again is solidifying his status amongst the Arsenal faithful, whilst Clichy had one leery moment overall the defence was virtually given a night off by Olympiakos.

The final goal by Arshavin — a bit impudent, surely offside — was the icing on a cake, the champions of Greece was resolute in defence but the scoreline was no more than Arsenal deserved, another step for the gunners in their quest for that elusive trophy.

Mannone keeps Fulham out .

Apart from Mannone’s great game there were a few things that caught my attention.

How do you solve the Diaby connundrum?, for a player with such a huge talent it is infuriating to see him time and time again fail to do the simplest things right.
Don’t be fooled Diaby brings a lot to the team, he gets his fair share of tackles and interceptions, display some great pieces of skill, and can turn a nothing situation into a goal scoring opportunity with 2 strides of those long legs.
In as much as he can present a danger to the opponent, those same attributes can create a danger for us. We just want Diaby to keep the play ticking over, pass the ball when you have to, don’t try to dribble his way out of every situation, and don’t lose concentration. Will we get this from him? Only time will tell.

Cesc is having a poor run of form I know it, you know it, Wenger knows it and I’m sure Cesc knows it. However, as they say form is temporary class is permanent.
Even with his lack of form he has the class to unlock a defence with the deftest of passes as we witnessed on Saturday.
Talk of Cesc’s head being turned by Barca is way off the mark, Cesc just know he isn’t playing as well as he is capable of playing.

Pace is relative, Some people have been slating Song pace or lack of based on being left in the wake of A. Johnson, now I’m not saying that Song is pacy but there aren’t many player who could keep up with Johnson.
Other examples of comparing apples to oranges include Bellamy/Denilson, Wright-Phillips/Clichy, Rooney/Gallas.
How many midfielders have the pace to keep up with Walcott, Johnson, Lennon, Bellamy, Wright-Phillips, etc? not many.

When is Arshavin going to be 100%? I didn’t expect him to be on Saturday, but even with a full pre-season he has not yet, come on Arshavin sort it out.

Bendtner had to start against Fulham so did Diaby, simply to counter the power and Height of Fulham. Can you imagine defending set pieces againd Zamora, Hangelland etc, with Eduardo and Rosicky instead of Bendtner and Diaby.

Finally, record profits again. Arsenal financial statement for last year is out. It makes for good reading, lots of numbers with pound signs before them.

That’s all from me for now, I’m looking forward to Olympiakos, thanks for stopping by.

Eduardo left to rue is attempt at fancy football

Going down 2-0 within the 1st 5 minutes is either bad luck or lack of concentration and I’d go with the latter, there was no reason for Eduardo’s heeled attempt at a pass and to compound it no one thought it prudent to close down the attacker (Mangala). Diaby could have done the job but somehow thought it a better idea to mark the space on his left —where that boy’s head is? I don’t know.

There is no question about it, our play was atrocious misplaced passes, bad marking, poor tackle and a complete bastardisation of the term free kick. Cesc was the poorest of the lot, nowhere close to what we expect from the captain and up until the second goal seemed intent on wasting every freekick.

So we were a shadow of our usual standards and letting in two goals looks bad, but the truth is most of us were confident of a comeback. Teams like Standard Liege are just not good enough. Losing those goals so early meant that we had enough time to score the 3 goals needed to win. It was just a matter of keeping our heads in the game, and once Bendtner scored that crucial goal just before the half you knew we’d go on to do the job.

That Vito Mannone had nothing to do was a testament to how much of the ball we had, with 10 men behind the ball Liege made it a chore for us and the lack of movement by some of our players made it even more difficult. The effect of our overwhelming possession would eventually be manifested in the weariness of the opposition and the last 15 minutes showed just that.

This game can only be seen as a boost for the team, who have suffered two defeats after outplaying the opponents. It’s much easier to believe that you can win from a losing position, or you can win when not at your best, when you’ve already proved it. I have the feeling that some on the team needed a game like this.

I can’t go out without mentioning something that’s been bugging me for a while. What is wrong with Clichy? I know he’s saved us from 2 goals last night, but recently he has put is in difficulty far too often. It could be that he lacks the discipline to play the current formation, or that he’s just having a slow start to the season, but his performances have been at the least worrying. He has been well known for reading a pass and nipping in just in time to intercept, but when he gets the timing wrong it can be disastrous and lately he has been getting the timing wrong. You need to sort it out Gael.

Back to Wengers comment, Shepherd admitted that in an interview Beckham was asked something similar and the answer was to the effect that he would cheat to win the World Cup. The topic of handball came up and it was noted that Sir Geoff Hurst had confessed to scoring his first of six against Sunderland with his hand. So even revered English gentlemen can pull one over the refs then eh.

Amazingly the hypocrisy does not end there. Shepherd had the audacity to say that if Rooney did a Maradona to win England the world cup it would have been instinct not cheating. Even going as far as outrageuosly claiming that diving is premeditated but putting the ball in goal with your hand is not, that’s just pure instinct.

So apologies then to Mr Maradona, we now understand that England got knocked out of the 1986 world cup by a legitimate instinctive goal.

Wenger spoke of the ridiculous rules that Platini, Blatter, and other wants to introduce to football restricting the movement of players under 18. I honestly don’t understand the uproar about children moving teams or even countries. FIFA and UEFA always seem to be reactive, instead of thinking things through they always come up with some spur of the moment edict.

What purpose will the new rules serve, if FIFA is worried about child trafficking maybe the should set up schools in poorer countries instead of giving handouts to Football Associations in exchange for votes. I am from one of those countries and have seen the good use that FIFA dollars has been put to, houses and cars for association members.

Wenger musical analogy is spot on, talent will just go to waste with no chance of blossoming. Ask people like Eboue, Song, and Drogba, ask Eduardo what chance he’d have if he didn’t move to Croatia, would Messi ever been European player of the year if he’d been left in Argentina?

The ridiculous notion that is is better for the children is a fallacy, of course if you’re from France then moving to England is not much of a difference, but tell me what is the difference between moving from Mali to France (Tigana) or Gaudeloupe to France (Thuram)? Yes they are French departments, but it’s the same upheaval as someone moving from Montserrat to England.

It’s all about protecting the investments of smaller clubs, something which we have accused Wenger and Arsenal of doing too well. There is a much better way to deal with the movement of young players, instead of a blanket ban on under 18’s.

Any club holds the registration of their players up to the age of consent in that country, they can always sell the player if the price is right. If the parents decide to move then the club has to relinquish the player’s registration. So what of teams paying off parents, or getting jobs for them? Well I don’t see the problem there, a parent must have the right to do what is best for their children and if they feel moving from Malawi to Sunderland is best for their children then so be it.

I have a nephew who this season is playing top level football in my home country (Dominica) at the age of 13, he has never done well at school but he can play football. I know his parents would willingly move to any Western European country if they got any whiff of a chance. If that doesn’t happen then I know very well what his future may hold, and if he has a slim chance now, how demoralising if FIFA get’s their way.

Eduardo did the crime now must pay the price.

Punishment does fit the crime

So UEFA in their eminent enlightenment has slapped Eduardo with a 2 match ban, we knew it was going to happen, Arsenal is going to appeal and we know what the outcome is going to be.

There is the argument that the punishment is disparate when Eboue got just a yellow card for the same offence, well that’s not entirely true. If the referee had deemed Eduardo to dive at the time then Eduardo would have gotten a yellow and crucially he would not have gotten the penalty and the ensuing goal.

Why Arsenal, Why Eduardo Why Now?

This is the real problem we have, I’m sure if it was Ronaldo instead of Eduardo, or Barca instead of Arsenal, most of us would side with UEFA. We are just unhappy that we got caught up in a sudden show of morality from UEFA, but that’s life.

Every season we have the authorities showing that they are out to make a change, stamp out cheating, respecting referees, whatever. Players get caught up in the crackdown and by the 2nd month into the season it’s back to status quo.

We would all be happier if we knew that retrospective bans are going to continue and the serial divers will get caught, but we know it isn’t going to happen and that’s what irritates us.

20th Sept 2007 when Lithuania midfielder Saulius Mikoliunas was banned by UEFA for the same offence it was hailed as a landmark, well that was 2 years ago. This is just a show of force by UEFA, they would like us to believe that it’s taking a stand against cheating, if this is so then I’m fine with it, we’re pissed because we know that it will be another 2 years before another player gets banned. Even worse we know it won’t be Eboue, Drogba or Ronaldo those that go down nearly every game.

Whether it’s a Platini trying to get one over Wenger, or the SFA trying to get one over England — incidentally the only times that article 10 has been invoked has been when Scotland is involved— there’s not much we can do about it.

The 2 games Eduardo is going to miss will be Standard Liege and Olympiakos, 2 games which we should win with or without Eduardo, the whole episode has overshadowed the good start we’ve had to the season. Let’s not make it overshadow the rest of the season.

Reading the match reports you will find any doubt that Ashley Young penalties were won in the true British tradition of fairness and gentlemanly conduct. You see diving is purely a foreign affliction and there is no way an honest English player will go down without being fouled by the opponent.

The only mention of Youngs’ antics was in the live text on BBC by Jonathan Stevenson who wrote

Ashley Young surges into the box and goes down again, this time it didn’t look like much contact.

Sorry to say this, but if Eduardo’s a cheat, then Ashley Young’s not far behind him – let’s not pretend diving isn’t a disease caught by English players too. Young goes down so easily in the Rapid box once more, and once more it’s a spot kick.

Otherwise there is a complete news blackout on the event, cover-up, conspiracy, or pure hypocrisy? you tell me.

Champions League Draw

Arsenal headed up group H in the Champions League draw last night, the group consists of

• Arsenal
• AZ Alkmaar
• Olympiakos
• Standard Liege

Not a bad draw, although as Ivan Gazidis pointed out everyone in our group is champions of their league so we cannot take anything for granted. Having said that, barring some kind of catastrophe I can’t see why we wouldn’t get through to the knock-out rounds.

When Platini opens his mouth it’s mostly rubbish that comes out, so I wouldn’t blame anyone who dismissed his latest missive about clubs spending only what they earn by 2012. It’s a noble aspiration but unfortunately it won’t be workable, especially when people like Abromavich and co can simply dip their hands in their pocket and gift to their clubs. The salary cap doesn’t even work in league II —otherwise Sol would not be there— I can’t see how it can work across Europe.

There was another quote attributed to Platini that was genuinely surprising,

It’s mainly the owners that asked us to do something: Roman Abramovich, Silvio Berlusconi, Massimo Moratti. They do not want to fork out any more.

When people like that are worried about spending levels then there is a real problem in football, or maybe they are just scared of Manchester City’s sending power. One thing is for sure as long as Arsenal continues to be run as it is now then we should have no reason to worry. Then again jabba-the-hut is snapping up shares as fast as he can down pierogis, we should be worried about someone pay £2000 over market value for shares.

Thanks for reading, until next time.

Denilson squares up to O'Dea — the kids are growing up

Let’s get this straight, no one likes to see a player dive. If it were a Celtic player I’d be livid, but name me a team that haven’t won penalties or freekicks or a game from conning the referees— that’s right you can’t. It’s tolerated when it suits you, and maligned when it’s against you. Until the authorities pull their finger out and do something about it, then games will be won and lost by “simulation”, the fact does remain that a 5-1 aggregate had nothing to do with the penalty.

It was very disappointing to see the post match analysis descend into 30 minutes of discussion over a single event with very little about Arsenal’s great play. You can guarantee that it won’t be soon forgotten, Eduardo will be the new Ronaldo, the latest foreigner to be picked on for diving, because it’s Arsenal and because he is foreign, because English —sorry British— players don’t cheat, nor do their British managers tolerate cheating, it’s a foreign affliction.

The match analysis contained hardly anything about the transformation of Eboue a player who was booed of the field and having enough mental fortitude to improve his game and turn those boos into cheers. Nothing about Denilson whose contribution again by and large goes unnoticed.

Song who was my Man-Of-The_match hardly got a mention, another barelythat was booed by Gooners and whom no one but Arsene Wenger ever thought would make it as a Premier League player let alone an Arsenal player, no fully recognised as an essential if not vital cog in the Arsenal machine. Last night he again showed how far he’s come, so much so that Gooners are now fretting over his jetting off to the ACN in January.

Diaby’s ability to turn defence into devastating attack with 2 strides of those extra long limbs is nothing short of extraordinary. Sometimes he dallies with the ball to much, but when he gets it right it’s a sight to behold. He hasn’t been able to really string out a run of games yet, 3 years of start stop play besmirched by injuries has curtailed his progress. A tough off season training program has strengthened both his physical and mental resolve, long may it last.

The defence did their job. It’s obvious that the Galls Vermaelen partnership has blossomed well, it’s equally obvious that they have been strenuously tested yet. However it wouldn’t be in the least bit premature to say that it is a definite improvement over the previous pairings. Is letting in a goal with the last kick a problem? I doubt that if it were of importance the defence would have been switched on.

Two things before I finish

Bendtner had a stinker, although he did improve once moved to the centre, he just seems to be trying a bit too hard at the moment. I must say though that he worked hard to close down and harry players when we lost the ball, but as a forward he was pants. He needs a goal or two to boost his confidence.

At 74min Arshavin scored the third goal and the game was over, we could have easily go into 1st gear but we didn’t. It was great to see that even at that point everyone was still working hard, closing down players, making runs, and creating space. Maybe it was a waste of energy but it was great to see the huge difference in the commitment of our team even when the have no reason to, that’s all we want to see— players that are committed to the cause at all all times.

The thinking behind the system was to give our attacking players more opportunity to utilise their natural tendencies, while at the same time keeping it tight at the back. There are some drawback to the 4-3-3 but then again there is no perfect system, you use what best suits the players at your disposal— if the players are intelligent enough to adapt.

The system calls for exceptional passing and ball retention coupled with defending from the front, when the ball is lost the wingers have to play their part defensively. Offensively this suits Arsenal to a tee, with top quality midfielders and a philosophy of precise passing and ball retention it’s easy to see why it’s almost a natural system for the current Arsenal team.

Defensively the verdict is still out, so far the winger have done their jobs. Bendtner and Arshavin has done an excellent job at closing down and leading the point of defence, the question is whether we can keep this up over the course of the season.

The full backs have to work hard to create width, having a midfield of 3 naturally narrows the team so the onus is on the fullbacks to create that width. It can be argued that this is not a new thing for the fullbacks as they’ve been playing this role for years.

One thing is for certain the midfield is much more efficient with and without the ball, it has allowed Cesc to play to his natural attacking instincts whilst allowing Song and Denilson to keep it tight. Messrs Song and Diaby has expressed their fondness of the new system, but we are left to wonder how much the front 3 are enjoying it.

There is a worry in some quarter that the formation hasn’t allowed the front 3 to express themselves, seeing that they’ve contributed only 1 of the 12 goals scored so far. I’d agree that our strikers have yet to find their shooting boots, but it’s not down to the formation. Van Persie especially have spurned quite a few scoring opportunities, he knows though that the goals will come.

Some say that we’ve only come up against poor opposition, 12 goals in 3 matches says nothing about how good we are, or how well the formation is working. It’s more a reflection on the paucity of the opposition so far.

The question is how we are going to cope against side with a stronger midfield? I’d say that the 4-3-3 is not set in stone, it’s not like we can’t change the formation, this is not the England National side you know. The 4-3-3 can easily become a 4-5-1 and if needs be, we can always revert to a 4-4-2.

All in all we’ve had a good start to the season, the players have adapted well to the new system, and although it is way too early to pass judgement or make predictions the season looks much more encouraging than it did 2 weeks ago.

Long may it continue.

Cetlic fans in fine voice, but the 12 the man can only go so far.

It would be wrong to say that the players might have suddenly discovered a magic formula over the off-season break, but Arsenal has so far showed an edge to their game that they didn’t have at the same time last year. It is more likely that that edge was discovered during the trials and tribulation of last season.

There is a noticeable physical difference, players like Ramsey, Denilson, Wilshere and even Cesc has filled out as expected at this age. Song seems more confident, Bendtner more assured, Gallas more comfortable, and so far the displays by Tommy V. seems to have made everyone more relaxed. Not having had the chance to see Vermaelen during the pre-season, his performance has been pleasantly surprising to say the least.

Not that everything is peachy, I am a little concerned by our full backs. The narrowness in the middle of the current formation means that they — the full backs— needs to be a bit more circumspect in going forward. On a few occasions have been caught out of position but their pace helped recover the situation. It isn’t something to be despondent about and I’m sure the professionals will work on this.

The good thing about the 2 games is that we haven’t really been that good at our best, which means that there is a lot more to come from this team. We have a lot to look forward to, as there is a lot of improvement to come from that team. It’s not going to be plain sailing all the way, and we’ve only played 2 games so far, but the signs are there and today is a good day to be a gooner.

Before I sign off I must touch on the talk of inexperience, and of physical attributes or lack thereof.

The accusation of inexperience somehow misses the fact that experience is gained through victories and defeats alike, these very players have been to Istanbul and won, Rome and held their nerve in a penalty kick-off, some to Prague both Sparta and Slavia, Madrid, Turin, all places where more “experienced” teams have come unstuck. Losses in the early season to Fulham, Hull, and Stoke does not count for nothing. Getting to UCL semi-finals is experience gained, losing to United 0-1 away adds to that experience, losing at home in the UCL semi’s in the way we did can destroy a player, but iron is hardened by a mixture of periods of heat blended with a spell of cold.

There is a big difference in playing in 600 premier league games, and playing in 150 premier league games coupled with 50 Champions league games and 20 internationals. Experience is not about quantity but quality, I dare say our players are steeped in quality of games played.

Does anyone really think there is a big difference between 5′11″ and 6′1″? It’s 2 inches! If it were basketball where the added the arm span makes the difference closer to 5 inches I’d be worried, but this is football where it’s all about how high you jump. How many times have you seen Crouch out jumped by a shorter defender? Crouch may be 6′7″ but I doubt he gets more than 2 feet off the ground when he jumps, unless you count the times he uses the defender for leverage.

So 6′7″ plus 2 feet that’s 8′7″ reach, compare that to say Vermaelen who was comfortably getting up there with Felliani. If Vermalen gets 7 inches higher in his jump which is entirely possible, it means at their peak jump, Crouch and Vermaelen is the same height 8′7″. As a reference the average vertical leap for an NBA basketballer (people how you’d expect to jum higher than footballers) is officially 28 inches. Randy Moss jumps 51 inches standing still and 53 Running, Jordan 48 inches and Kadour Ziani who is 5′9 gets an amazing 61 inches off the ground. It’s not about how tall you are it’s about how high you can jump.

Anyway two games into the season 1 league and 1 UCL win there’s a lot more to go, lets get behind our squad, this is going to be a big season for all of us.

For now let’s take a look at yesterday’s international round of games and how our players came through.

For England who, barring mistakes from Rio “the leagues best centre half™” Ferdinand and Glen “The leagues most expensive right back™” Johnson generally outplayed the Dutch, Theo Walcott did not feature. Walcott had started a training session in the stadium on Tuesday evening, only to pull out. After a chat with the medical team and a tentative jog, he was back in the dressing room. We was on the bench but not used, Let’s hope it’s just a precautionary move.

Van Persie, was decent on the right for Holland, a few bits of skill on display but flying winger he isn’t, came through in one piece so that’s good news.

Of or 2 young Swiss centre halves were to face Italy, however Djourou was sent home yesterday due to inflammation in his left kneecap leaving Senderos who had a full 90 minutes under his belt, much more than he’s had all pre-season. I’d hate to see Senderos leave at this point, Already we’ve had Vermaelen out and now Djourou we are looking woefully short in that position. The thought of Silvestre starting the season at centre back does not sit well with most of us.

Gallas did not feature for France who won 1-0 against the Faroe Islands — 1-0 does not seem to be a scoreline befitting of France against such minnows— Sagna however did play the full 90 and according to this website he could have done a little more offensively and was not always at his best at the back, losing a couple of battles with Lokin. On the other hand, he was always an outlet and his delivery was at times dangerous.

Ramsey showed bits of class negated by the inconsistency of youth against Montenegro, he could not prevent Wales from succumbing to another defeat. 2-1 loss to their host who was always favourites to win this tie, 11 minutes of highlights bits from the game can be viewed here.

Eduardo continues his rehabilitation from injury with another goal in Croatia’s 3-1 win over Bellorussia.

Two observations about Eduardo, the first is that this guy is a real finisher. How many players gives you that feeling of an inevitable goal whenever in a scoring position? Ok yeah he missed a penalty against Roma, but unlike that other guy you get the feeling that once we create the opportunities Eduardo will not waste them. The second point is that getting you legs smashed to bits does not make you “injury prone”, Rosicky is injury prone, Eduardo is not.

Vela played the last 35 minutes in Mexico’s 2-1 win over the USA, he really didn’t do much. I don’t think Vela is fit, he played 55 minutes in the Gold Cup due to injury and only had about a week of pre-season before jetting back to Mexico, at least he isn’t injured.

Arshavin got through the full 90 against Argentina in what was probably the best game of the night, I did not see any of it but you can see the goals here.

I got nothing on Eboue in Tunisia except that the score was 0-0

Bendtner got 60 minutes in a loss against Chile, whilst Vermaelen to was on the losing side featuring for the 1st 45 against Chile.

Fabregas played only the second half in a hard fought game, down 2-0 at halftime Cesc replaced Alonso and was instrumental in imposing Spain’s superiority.

So all in all a good round of internationals for our boys, hopefully Walcott and Djourou will have fully recovered for the opening game against Everton.

Talk of the morning is all about Vieira’s impending return to the Arsenal. As much as I loathe The Sun, you must admit they are very good at what they do. Ian Wright yesterday suggestion that it might be a good idea to get Vieira in, is picked up by the paper he works for, and now is being discussed all over the land.

Vieira is an Arsenal legend, but what purpose would it serve to bring him back? None whatsoever, this is just not true, the story is made up, yes he brings experience to the table but how is it going to be used when he’s stuck on the bench?

Since leaving Arsenal Vieira has been plagued by injuries, he’s won trophies in that time, but honestly, how much did he contribute to winning those titles? Anyone who really thinks about it will conclude that there is no way in hell that Vieira will be back playing at Arsenal. absolutely impossible.

Toure finally signed for City yesterday. There’s not much I have to say on this, the day we signed Thomas Vermaelen it was always thought that one of Toure and Gallas would have to leave. It must have been a close decision, but the correct one.

Toure has not been the same since that semi-final loss to Egypt in the ACN. The one where he was all over the place in Côte d’Ivoire’s defence and on one occasion completely bamboozled by Amir Zaki. He returned from that tournament injured, then suffered a bout of malaria in the summer, and put on some weight while recovering.

Toure’s form improved in 2009, but still short of his pre ACN level and knowing how much credence Wenger gives to stats and numbers, it’s no surprise then that Toure was moved on to Citeh. As far as the boss is concerned Toure had gone past the point of optimum performance, and £14m – £16m was just too good an offer to turn down.

Fans are split over this deal, all recognising that this was a good piece of business but divided over how much it hurts the team. As long as the funds from the sale of Toure and Adebayor is used well then the sales will be viewed as good for the club, however it is of no use to keep the money unspent. We should remember that there is still a month left to go in the transfer window, a lot of time for deals to be made.

Finally, it seems that we might have seen the last of Eboue. This is strictly based on the behaviour of the player after last night’s game against Hanover. Throwing gear into the crowd and waving goodbye can be construed as a sign that one is leaving, then again this could simply be Eboue playing up to the crowd, we all know how much of a joker the guy can be.

If Eboue were to leave could this be the end of an era for African players at the club? Has Wenger concluded that the loss of players during the ACN is too detrimental to the team’s progress? Whatever it is, I will miss Eboue almost as much as I’ll miss Toure, teams need to have characters and there is no doubt that Eboue is a character, love him or loathe him.

Will Arsenal challenge for the title this season as Wenger insists? Emphatically yes, I don’t think we will win the title but it will be close. United has lost Tevez and Ronaldo replaced by Owen and Valencia, Liverpool lost Arbeloa(spelling?) and Alonso (possibly), Chelsea on the other hand has bought Zhirkov a wonderful left back/winger and not lost anyone, we’ve lost Toure and Adebayor and brought in Vermaelen.

Chelsea looks to be the team to beat, Liverpool and Manchester United will suffer much more than us. Arsenal will come a close second, but will that be good enough? We’ll see.

Adebayor seems to think that as long as he doesn’t utter the exact words “I want to leave” then there’s no harm done, sadly Ade it doesn’t work like that. Of course you are powerless when teams put in bids for you, like Man. City did, but did Milan and Barcelona actually put in bids for you?

NO, there was just conjecture in the media perpetuated —under instruction or not— by the people who work on your behalf, further fuelled by your well chosen words in subsequent interviews.

I couldn’t understand why they were after me. I’d done everything, made a speech, played for three years, done my best. The way the fans behaved towards me was not nice at all.”

More like played for 2 years and coasted for one. Understand this my friend, the boos and derision in the beginning of the season was down to your off season antics, and that was expected. All it would have taken was for you to work hard, show that you wanted to be there and all would be forgiven. Unfortunately you chose the other route, one of sulking and lack of effort, how can you then expect the fans to forgive and forget then? It’s like saying you fancy someone else, then fucking us with a limp dick and still expecting the relationship to last.

“Every single summer and December, Barcelona try to buy Cesc but the fans never turned on him. But that’s life. It’s behind me,”

Er, if it’s behind you the why go on about it. Cesc has said one day he wants to play football in his home country, but even then he’s always come out and directly quash rumours of moves to Spain, which is the direct opposite of your behaviour. Fans respect that, and when Cesc leaves it will be with the fans’ blessing, not after 2 years of service but at least 6 years and close to 300 games. So don’t you ever compare your situation to Captain Soler.

“I know a lot of people will be saying ‘He went for the money.’ However I would like to hear of any man, if he is honest, say he would refuse if he was earning £10 and someone offered £30,”

So it is about the money then, do you realise how silly that sounds? “it’s not about the money, but I couldn’t turn down the money”. Maybe it was for the good of the club but don’t pretend like you were thinking of the good of the club when you made your decision. You were sold without your knowledge, it must have hurt, the fact is we didn’t want you any more, it was just about getting the right price.

This is my final say on the Adebayor matter, the end. Feel free to post your response, criticisms and rants in the comment section.

Yesterday afternoon I posted a comment contradicting the “Eduardo injury rumour” and was told “its on Sky Sports News Teletext, page 231″ so in effect it must be true.

I even linked to pictures of Eduardo in training and was told “it’s not Eduardo”.

Arsenal.com confirms that Eduardo's new injury just a rumour

As fans we are not in a position to have first hand knowledge of what’s going on at our club, but a little bit of googling — something I sure we all know how to do — can help sort out the truth from the rubbish.

Sometimes you can immediately tell if a story is rubbish (95% of everything) but there are subtleties used by the press to make stories seem factual when they are indeed totally made up

I would urge fans to get a subscription to ATVO so you can see interviews and press conferences in full. Sometimes hearing the words can impart more meaning than reading it.

Don’t take the opinions of pundits, ex-player, “sources”, “friends of” etc as facts, they are just a person’s opinion.

If the source is in a foreign language, don’t trust google or other online translators, the translate literally and do not impart meaning correctly.

The problem with “news” in today’s world, is that with so much competition to get stories out of the door before the next guy, no one ever bothers to check the fact or sources any more, not even the BBC.

Consider this, the first agency to carry the Nasri injury was French,complete with pictures. why? Because they bothered to send someone to cover Arsenal in Austria, not a single British media outlet has someone covering the Arsenal training camp (obviously I’d rather the trip to USA than to be stuck in some Austrian backwater).

Don’t take the opinions of pundits, ex-player, “sources”, “friends of” etc. as facts, they are just a person’s opinion.

If the source is in a foreign language, don’t trust google or other online translators, the translate literally and do not impart meaning correctly.

The problem with “news” in today’s world, is that with so much competition to get stories out of the door before the next guy, no one ever bothers to check the fact or sources any more, not even the BBC.

Consider this, the first agency to carry the Nasri injury was French,complete with pictures. why? Because they bothered to send someone to cover Arsenal in Austria, not a single British media outlet has someone covering the Arsenal training camp — obviously they’d rather a trip to USA than to be stuck in some Austrian backwater.

Friends we owe it to ourselves to question what we read, and not just take everything written for granted.

I would expect any amongst, Rosicky, Arshavin, Walcott, maybe even Barazite, or Wilshere to do the job, as long as Arsene doesn’t play Denilson on the left then we should be fine. Anyway 2-3 months out at this stage should not be a “hammer blow”, in reality it’s not more than an irritating setback.

By the time Nasri is expected back we would not yet have played 10 games.

The pundits would have you believe that this is the death knell for Arsenal trophy hopes, with the obvious City replacing us as the champions league team. I don’t share this view, partly because I am a biased Arsenal supporter, partly because it feels similar to the summer of ‘07 when Henry was sold and we where doomed to failure yet almost won the league.

The main reason why I feel his will be a great season is because with the exception of Adebayor the team has been kept together and I don’t think his (Adebayor) sale has necessarily “weakened” the team. In fact you can argue that getting rid of Ade has the effect of strengthening the “team”.

The return of Senderos, if he is indeed retained, with the purchase of Tommy V. — yes Tommy V, let’s see how long it will take for sky to take up this moniker — has brought competition for places at the back, which is always a good thing.

The only question mark is over the defensive midfield area. Now this is a concern for everyone including the boss, the problem is who can we get that would improve the squad. There are names out there, but most are either unavailable or too expensive.

To make one thing clear when I say too expensive it is from the point of benefit/cost. For example Ronaldo for Madrid is only marginally too expensive, the footballing and commercial benefits should be close to his transfer fee and wages. Whereas Arshavin was very cheap even without considering the financial benefits to the club. — anyway I digress.

Should we spend £30m on a DM just because it’s available? I think not. I would not be happy if we had spent £25m on Melo, just because the money was there. Only players like Essien is worth that amount and Melo is certainly no Essien, how many players like Essien are there? Precious few, although we had Flamini and Dolphin head who are just what we need now…

So as far as I can see we are only a DM short of trophies and who is to say that Song and Denilson cannot improve over last season.

I’ve always held to the thought that with the youth of our team, a summer can make a big difference. Two recent examples are Flamini and Adebayor, both had their best season for Arsenal come after a season of indifference. I fully expect one or two of Diaby, Denilson, Walcott, et al to have their coming of age this year.

Anyone who thinks Arsenal will be out of the top four is sadly mistaken, we more likely to win the title than to drop out of the top for — mark my words.

Whilst I am still not too keen on selling a player to a “rival” club — not that City are our rivals but they do play in our league an cup competitions— Upon some serious reflection I’ve come to the conclusion that selling Adebayor can only benefit Arsenal, and my fear of not finding an adequate replacement was miss-placed. Here’s why.

1.) Arsenal has more than enough goalscorers

The worry about finding a good replacement for Adebayor shouldn’t have even crossed my mind, because unlike most football clubs we don’t “depend” on any 1 striker to produce our goals. We basically had 3 “Strikers” last season who share the goals equally between them Ade-11, V.Persie 10, Bendtner 9, —a case for Arshavin can be made with 6 goals in half a season — nothing remarkable here considering that our strikers only make up 30 of the 68 premier league goals 44%.

It is when you look at the dependence other clubs have on their “goalscorers” then you realise that the way we play goals can come from anyone at any time.

Chelsea 45% from Anelka and Lampard.
Liverpool 54% from Gerard Kuyt and Torres.
United 44% from Ronaldo and Rooney.

My point is between Eduardo, Arshavin, Walcott, and possibly Rosicky there are much more than 11 goals to be had.

2.) Money available for that elusive Defensive Midfielder.

In as much as we don’t really need another striker, it would be very likely that the money from the sale of Adebayor will go into securing the midfield. If the mooted £25m fee is accurate then it will be much more easier now to recruit, not only can we afford to buy a player but the amount freed up in wages (£4.1m/year) is a boon to the club.

3.) More goodwill from the fans

One thing that has marked out the 2008/2009 Season at the Emirates was the level of Animosity towards the players, culminating in the Eboue incident on Dec 6. Although it was Eboue who bore the brunt of it, although no one can deny it was a build up of frustration borne out of the insipid, lethargic, and laggard display of the team, it can be argued that it was the attitude of the other Emmanuel that started it out.

The feeling is that, with Adebayor gone will be the root of the fans rancour, not to mention the disruptive influence in the dressing room. Altogether Arsenal should be a much nice place to be

4.) No more offsides

Not much to say here. While some may say that Adebayor’s offsides comes naturally from him hugging the shoulder of the last man. The truth is that a lot of the offsides are from Goal kicks, again frustrating the fans and I’m sure frustrating to other team members.

How many times have we won a header from a goal kick (both our and the opposition) only for play to be brought back because Ade couldn’t be bothered to get back in position?

5.) One less player gone to Africa Cup of Nations.

Unless Arsene Wenger goes out and buy Chamkah, then we will retain our full strikeforce during the ACN. Yes Eboue, Toure, and Song, will be out but with Vermaelen in, Senderos back and that new DM bought with the cash for Ade the ACN won’t have as huge effect as in previous years.

Overall I think we will be a bit more balanced without the spectre of a want away player in the squad, at the very least a lot of fans will be appeased by this sale.

What do you think?

The biggest casualty in all of this is the fans, we read and accept what is published in the media without the slightest bit of doubt, failing to stop and realise that it’s just a load of bull designed to make us buy papers or click links.

It’s all gone by the wayside in search of “hits”. With so many news outlets battling for a piece of the market, the race to out do each other leads to lazy, ill informed and desperate reporting.

This is exacerbated by the lack of any real relationship between the clubs and the media. Except for official press releases, customary post match interviews and press conferences, there is hardly any other avenue of information for majority of journos.

There are exceptions of course, the more experienced journalist may have some inside contacts, they do get some exclusives borne out of long standing relationships built over the years, but it is not nearly enough to satisfy the need for daily scoops. The plain fact is that most of the time there really is nothing to “report”. So what’s a hack to do?

Regurgitate, reproduce and translate.

This is the most common technique used today. It’s very easy and it fills column inches, this technique is more suited to electronic media and thus makes up nearly 50% news on the net.

Watch out for the lack of fact checking on these, as the stories usually originate form dubious sources and are reproduced with total disregard for the veracity of the original.

Be very wary of those that originate from overseas, usually the original is simply put through google translator with the most sensational bits used for maximum effect. Scant regard for context or meaning can take a story from ordinary to scandalous. Case in point the Cesc leaving for real story incidentally it’s back on the table according to Marca.

Using old quotes and passing it off as recent or exclusive usually escapes scrutiny and is sometimes used to reinforced the next technique.

speculate and exaggerate

This needs little explanation it’s used subtly and is quite effective. Readers get easily caught out and make too much out of a non story. As I write I’m listening to news of major problems at Arsenal. Tales of boardroom unrest and Wenger hit by lack of funds, all powered by Usmanov’s questioning the financial advice of Rothschild.

The funny thing is that it is usually spelt out in the story that it is speculation, however for some reason we don’t seem to see that disclaimer.

There is nothing really wrong with speculation in itself, it can lead to healthy discussion, but we must remember that we are discussing a theory. Speculation can be based on facts, but it is still just an opinion formed in consideration of the fact.

Invent, fabricate and Machinate

This last technique is used mostly as a last resort, but recently it has being used more often than before. Obviously making up stuff can be dangerous even illegal, but inventive phrasing can easily skirt around the edges.

Whenever you see quotes attributed to “sources”, “insiders”, “friend of”, “people close to”, alarm bells should start ringing in your head. The fact that they can hide behind the “cloak of anonymity” makes fabrication even easier.

Vela only played 5 minutes last night against Nicaragua

I was determined not to pass judgement on the Concacaf Gold Cup and decided to take in the Mexico v Nicaragua game, which started well but in the 5th minute Carlos Vela went down from a challenge, spent the next 5 minutes getting treatment and was eventually taken off, thus ended my interest in the game.

Vela was taken to hospital for xrays which showed the injury to be less serious than first feared. Mexican team doctor Dr. Radames Gaxiola said in a statement

“The injury that is present is medial tibial pain, affecting the ligaments on the left leg,In simplest terms, he has a sprain.”

So good news on that front. The news is not so rosy in the UK where The Sun, determined to press ahead with it’s summer of bullshit stories, claims that Arsenal has set a price of £40m for Fabregas. Quoting a “gunners insider” —whatever that means— the Sun reports that “there comes a point when the money is too good to turn down” sounding suspiciously like something I keep hearing on talkshite radio.

Apparently in desperation to raise funds in order to strengthen the midfield Arsenal is willing to part with the strongest cog in said midfield. Don’t they realise how stupid that sounds?

It’s hard for me to decide which is sillier, the Sun or it’s gullible readers who no doubt will read this news and accept it as fact. Just like they did over the last 2 days with the Melo deal and Flamini return.

On the Flamini thing, I find it hard to understand some fans actually would accept Flamini back in a bid to get rid of Adebayor.

God knows I was pissed of with the Togoleese for his poor work-rate and his lackadaisical displays last season, but in the cold light of day as a striker his numbers are not far away from Torres, Drogba, etc.

Take a look at Adebayor’s stats over the last 2 seasons and think about this.

As an Arsenal fan you don’t watch much Serie A of La Liga, you mostly see some goal highlights and the odd game. If Ade was playing for Inter or Milan or even say Valencia and was offered to us at £20m would you take him?

Let me know you answer in the comment section.