Injuries, Hleb is annoying me still, Gallas on the captaincy + Free Stuffs!

Afternoon Gooners, as the International break is the most boring time in the universe like ever i have left it off a few days to give you one big, informative Goon!

As you probably know, Van Persie is broken again, a hamstring injury i am told. What has he done this time? wrapped it round his neck and hung himself on it? Really, its getting really really stupid, maybe just maybe Arsene will have had enough and ship him out to Italy or something and try to cash in, he must have cost us millions in medical bills. Gallas is also injured, but his injury has not been met with the same attitude, the 'feduppiness' and dismay that Van Persie's has recieved or the same sort of attitude that an injury to Cesc would recieve.

Gallas has, for the first time described the incident at Birmingham last season, conceding he 'flipped his lid';

I made a mistake. I must admit I flipped my lid. We should have won that game easily.

"Before Arsenal, I spent six years at Chelsea. That team was capable of getting ugly wins. If we had an opportunity to win a cup, we would never miss it.

"There I became imbued with the winning culture, which doesn't exist yet at Arsenal.

"Of course, some of my Arsenal team-mates could not have appreciated my behaviour against Birmingham.

William. Shut up. This is Arsenal, not Chelsea, we are not a similar club, we are not run by some oligarch cunt with billions in the bank. We had a winning culture in the invincibles season but that was when the whole team were at their peak, this team is not even near its peak. Its bound to be inconsistant.

He also said he was made a scapegoat;

"The controversy about my captaincy? People had to find a scapegoat as we didn't win any trophies last season.

"So, they talked and talked again about the Birmingham match. Indeed I made a mistake. I must admit I flipped my lid. We should have won that game easily

Well you should be keeping your head held high, picking your players up. Not them picking you up, you are the leader so lead them. Its your responsability as captain of this great club to help them win things, something you are not doing at the moment.

O and Gallas, there are no easy games mate. Thats why we lost to Hull.

Now, when you think back to last summer when Hleb went to Barca did you consider that it might be part of a ploy to get Cesc there? Just think... They are best mates, its Cesc's hometown and he has confessed he loves the club. Something not right about that and now Hleb has tried to get Cesc at Barca, the cunt.

He said;

"We get on very well on and off the pitch. For me he is like a brother. We call each other a lot to talk about things,"

"He tells me he misses me at Arsenal and, without wanting to detract from anyone, I would love it if he came to Barca to be a part of all this.

"I will keep boring him until he changes his mind. If in the end he listens to me, I think it would be great for Barcelona."

He is a grade A prick and it looks as though he wont have his way though;

he doesn't stop insisting that he is very happy at Arsenal and with Arsene Wenger.

Thats 100% Cesc, honest and doesnt let people influence his decisions, unlike the mug that thought Barcelona was a hamlet.

This is a few days after the Spanish press yet again twisted the qoutes of an Arsenal player, claiming Cesc will leave at the end of the season.

Roy Keane has had a dig at Arsenal this week, claiming Arsene has little to do with the youth at the club;

"But you go on about the kids coming through but a lot of them have been bought from other clubs, not through the academy at Arsenal. It's the same with Chelsea."

Roy, to be fair some have been brought in from other clubs but there are a lot that have been raised at Arsenal, and just buying in a young player doesnt mean they are instantly fantasic, it takes years of teaching and nurturing. Cesc was good when he came but he is now great. Wenger has taught him a hell of a lot and it will be the same for Merida, Barazite and Ramsey to name a few.

Also, Adebayor has again gone back on a decision to retire from his country, he does like changing his mind. How much money do you think they paid?

Sagna has also said Arsenal need to defend much better. Not that we really needed to know that son!

Now for a little tip off on how to get a free, yes FREE Grolsh pint glass!

http://www.grolsch.co.uk/signup/?campaign=GLASS

Go to that site, register, and then enter GR50004 as the promotion code and the store as Tesco.

Bang, you have a free glass coming to your house!

Oh and a tip, it doesn't do the old 'You already have used this address'. So send to however many live in your house!

Any way of getting through the credit crunch!

No need to thank me! Leave us a comment.

Anyways il talk to you again soon.

Enjoy watching Theo tonight.

Pathetic, Just Pathetic.

"We were not smart enough to make the difference" - AW

Sunderland 1 - Arsenal 1
Ive just had the dis-pleasure of watching about 50 minutes of total tripe.

I don't know what has happened really, Sunderland are a second rate team and we only just managed to draw with them, it was a brilliant header from Fabregas but this team is packed with creativity but still managed to create very little. I think it is safe to say that until our league form picks up we can kiss the title goodbye.

Loyal fans have traveled for hours on end to watch these so called players win, a minimum expectation with all due respect to Sunderland, and what thanks do they get? A whole load of shite.

I could give a damn about the 'character' that might have been shown be scoring deep in injury time, what i care about is not taking control of the game and finishing it off quick. I wont go into Keane's anti football tactics but we should be winning games like that.

There is also the major point of Van Persie having a totally legitimate goal chalked off because the ball went out of play. Well it didn't, these officials are a fucking disgrace to the game. There, shove that up your wrinkly arse Platini.

Ive said this once and i will say this again, Van Persie needs a spell on the bench because its all well and good doing well in every other game, but what happens in the game that he plays shite in? Bendtner has been quality this season and was good when he came on bar one wild shot. He deserves a few starts.

Is it any coincidence that our best performance of the season against Bolton was without him?

People will say 'if that goal counted you wouldn't be saying this', well i would. Ive thought for a while that Van Persie has been inconsistent, just read my first few blogs. He needs to be aware that Bendtner is pushing him for a start and a few splinters wont hurt him. Actually on second thoughts, he would be out for 3 months of he got one...

As you can probably tell, I'm fed up. I thought our away day blues were over, in the past, finite, caput. But no.

I have just heard Arsene's interview and he is not happy, he feels that Sunderland had a 10 man defence and Cisse and also bemoaned their constant time wasting. But I'm not going to go on about them. True champions win those sort of games, true champions, or potential champions we are not.

The chances are that i will read this later and think 'what the fuck am i on' but i really couldn't give a shit.

Not good enough Arsenal.

Interview with a cultured left foot and a Sunderland preview.

The other day i had a discussion with Jogi's Warrior of 'A Cultured Left Foot'. I asked him about the Financial status of the club, the midfield, the kids and the Porto win.

How do you see Arsenal in 3-5 years time? And in the light of the well publicised 'credit crunch' will Arsenal benefit from other teams lack of profit and financial security?

Financially, Arsenal are better placed than most to ride out the current storm. I think in the short-term it is unlikely that the Board will recommend a sale of the club to the other shareholders, especially if Usmanov is involved. He, on the other hand, will not want to sell his stake unless it is for a profit, an unlikely scenario given that he paid too much for some of his shares.

Once you get to 3 - 5 years, there will be other circumstances to bear in mind such as the directors ages and other financial circumstances - inheritance tax, etc. - come into play. I would not be surprised if after three years, there is a new owner or someone else who has a high % stake in the club, such as Kroenke.

We all know about the fantastic 6-0 demolition job our kids did over Sheffield United, Just how good do you think that win was and who will make the grade at the club?

If you look at the team, few of them will not make it. Fabianski will take over from Alumina in the next two seasons, similarly Song and Djourou in the center of defence. Vela, Bendtner, Wilshere, Merida all have the potential to do so. If I had concerns, it would be over the likes of Hoyte and Gibbs where the current players - Sagna and Clichy - are young, on top of their game with more to come. It will then depend on whether the current 'reserves' are prepared to wait for their chance.

What is your stance on the midfield, its been highlighted as our most thinly covered position, should Wenger have bought or would it be a block for the youngsters coming through such as Randall and Coquelin?

I hope I am proved wrong but I think it is an area where Arsene needs to look at signing someone. Denilson has outperformed expectations - mine at least - but the season is not even a fifth passed so it is far too early to make a judgement on him. Wenger would not buy simply for the sake of it and he must balance the immediate needs against the long-term futures of the young players but if he can get hold of a world class central midfielder now, it is of benefit to them as the youngsters get chance to develop at a natural pace rather than being thrust into the limelight too soon.

What are our title chances, and silverware chances in general? and just how many games can we afford to lose in the league?

In the league, we have as good a chance as any. The team has the experience of last season to draw upon and if they can get some consistency going, they stand a good chance of winning some silverware. Crucial to the league will be the results at Anfield, Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford. Avoiding defeat is key, winning damages your rival. United proved last season that you can lose half-a-dozen games if you keep the number of draws down in the other games. If you win 26, draw 6 and lose 6, that is 84 points and you will be there or thereabouts.

How far does the Porto win go towards making up for THAT defeat by Hull?

To be honest, I don't think it does but then no win ever compensates for a defeat unless it is a two-legged cup tie. The Hull game is over, finished. They played well, got their result. We all move on. It is one less game that Arsenal can lose this season but at the moment, the saving grace is that we are winning all of the rest of our matches. Come Christmas when the top four have all played each other at least once, we'll have a good idea of the context of the Hull game. If they beat anyone else in the top four, people will feel a whole lot better.

I have to say he talks an awful lot of sense and i totally agree with the last statement. Arsenal needed to beat Porto for the fans and their own confidence. We cant get those 3 points back and never will. We just have to be even better in the future.

Thanks for your time Jogi.

Anyways, i gave some brief team news yesterday and nothing much else has appeared so i take it that its just the regulars out injured. I also expect Song to play in midfield tomorrow, we will need some extra muscle to deal with what is bound to be a physical approach from Keane's men. If RVP didn't make as bigger impression as he did in the week i would have expected Bendtner to get a game but i don't see how he could be dropped now.

I expect an Arsenal win and i have not got one result right as yet so I'm going for a 3-1 win. hopefully.

Arsene Wenger has supported Joe Kinnear in his rage against the scummy press saying this.

Wenger has also talked about the abuse he receives from opposition fans.

Id like to take this opportunity to say this.

You know the 'Adebayoooooor his dad washes........ and his mum's a .............' song?

Well i think that song is racist, saying someones African father washes Elephants for christs sake!

Now, once an Englishman gets this kind of abuse there is outcry! Why didn't everyone kick up a stink about the Adebayor chants? Arsenal fans were going mad but nobody listened, now its an English person everyone is listening. Double Fucking Standards. Totally out of order. I'm against any kind of abuse from fans that crosses the line. The Ade chant and the Sol abuse isn't crossing the line, its about 10 miles over the damn line.

Whats your stance on this? Drop me a line!

Right, il be back late tomorrow, sadly I'm missing the game again but il blog when Ive seen the highlights.

Til then Arses, il leave you with this.