More injury woes before Spuds

Julio "la Bestia" Baptista has been confirmed as absent for tonight's game against the old enemy at the Emirates, and could well be missing for a couple of weeks. Which is a bit of a bugger really, considering that, with RvP probably missing now for the rest of the season, he would have had his eye on a regular spot in the starting XI, rotating with Ade Cool to partner Thierry.

Injuries have hit Arsenal like a plague over the past two season. Before then we were always fairly averagely listed on the injury table, but for some reason we've been hit for six off consecutive seasonal deliveries. I don't know if the Lewin clan are doing something differently on the physio table, or if, as has been claimed in certain areas, that Arsene is rushing players back from injury too early, but something's shifted recently.

Anyway, with Baptista added to the missing list, our side for tonight is likely to be a back five of Aluminium, Hoyte, Kolo, Big Phil and not-that-Traore; a midfield of YTW, Diaby, O'Silva and not-that-Denilson; with Adebayor and Prince Ali up front. I would think that the bench will contain Rosicky, Cesc, Randall, Poom and maybe, maybe Thierry. It'll be interesting to see if Arsene is confident enough to leave Henry out of the squad completely.

All this talk of an injury-ravaged Arsenal side has, of course, led to rumours that Arsene is about to plunder the market for a last minute "panic buy". Antonio Puera of Seville and the Czech defender Ondrej Mazuch have been mentioned, whilst we've apparently agreed to take young French striker Sunu on at the end of the season.

Whispers regarding Hearts' Scottish keeper Craig Gordon are doing the rounds as well. I have to say that I'd be very happy with Gordon being installed as Jens' long-term successor. He's that rare football oddity, a good Scottish goalie, and he's also a bit of an animal on Football Manager, so that's good enough for me.

So, a goaless draw would be enough for us tonight against the Lilywhites, but I fancy a few goals either way.

Come on you Reds.

Hallelujah

No time for a proper post today. Just wanted to share the news (if you haven't already heard it) that Alexandre Song has joined Charlton Athletic on loan for the rest of the season.

Lots of fans have complained about the stick that Song has received from some areas of the Gooner support. Whilst I completely agree that getting on a player's back when he's having a poor game helps no one, case in point when Alex (allegedly) got booed at Fulham this year, Song is patently not an Arsenal-level player yet, and I'm glad that he's stepped out of the hotly contested battle for a centre midfield berth. It's a clear signal that Denilson and Diaby are both rated higher, which has reassured me that Arsene isn't going senile.

Odds on the Addicks getting relegated have now shortened dramatically.

Tuesday quickie

Right, just a quick one today, partly cos there's not much going on, and partly cos I'm busy.

I'll lead off with the UEFA team of the year (as voted by yours truly and other visitors to the UEFA website back in October, I don't know why it takes so long to collate the data) which features two Gooners in Cesc and Thierry.

It's pretty much the team I picked (although I had mad mad Jens in goal and Arsene as the gaffer) and considering it was voted for back in October I don't think you can argue with any of them that much. Some of my Man Yoo chums were whining that spaghetti head should be in there at right mid, and Gerrard should replace Cesc at centre mid, but Ronaldo, as expanded upon yesterday, did bugger all at the World Cup, and was relatively ordinary last season.

Arsenal reserves lost 3-0 to the Spuds last night, and young Henri Lansbury (he's English, despite the francophile spelling of his first name) got himself sent off. Lots of the players who would have played are in contention for tomorrow night's game, so it's not that surprising that a very young side was shown up.

The Daily Mail has run a story involving Cesc talking about clear the air talks following the one nil loss at Sheffield that has propelled us to a five game winning streak in the new year, scoring 17 goals in the process. It's good to see that a young player such as Fabregas is unwilling to give up on the title chase until it is statistically impossible. I also like where he talks about having an obligation to win something every season. What a great attitude the lad has, especially compared to other players of his age I could name.

Less than a week before the FA Cup tie with Bolton, Nicolas Anelka has come out to say that he'd like to return to Arsenal one day. I'm sure Walrus Face is thrilled about that. Here's hoping he bags an OG as well.

In closing it strikes me now that I haven't made mention of Lauren's move to Pompey, which is fast becoming an Arsenal defenders retirement home. I'll just reiterate what I said whilst the speculation was going on, to say that Wenger must've thought he would be the same after injuries kept him out for a year, that he has high hopes that Eboue will stop being a little twat and that Hoyte will become a better player, and that he didn't want to stand in the way of the nearly-thirty Lauren getting a two-year contract at a Premiership club. He was a great servant to the club, and did so well in taking over directly from an Arsenal legend (but rubbish pundit) in Lee Dixon. He was also the hardest bastard in our team, and when he and Vieira had a barney on the team bus, everyone's money was on the Cameroonian amatuer boxing champion.


Goodbye Ralph, and thanks for everything. Especially when you picked Cristiano Ronaldo up by the throat. That was ace.

Title race wide open?

Well, no to be honest, but bloody hell did it feel good to do the domestic double over Man Yoo for the first time since 97-98 (as memory serves, and look what happened that season). However, whilst we were also 12 points back at one point that year, we had a game in hand, and there weren't three clubs sitting above us. That said, the results at the weekend have left the top of the table as interesting as it has been for many a year at this stage of the season.

Whilst the game was not the peak of technical attacking excellence that many a neutral will have been hoping for, I thought it was a full blooded, frenzied example of the Premiership's top teams going at it hell for leather at each other. Clear cut chances may have been at a premium, but there was some nice football on show (most notably from Fabregas, who is just a cut above) and some crunching tackles. Both teams defended very well, the goals scored aside, and I thought it was a cracking game.

It's days like this that make you glad you know so many Man Yoo fans (I think we all know our fair share), and it's rare that after a defeat, you find so many of them as gracious as I did yesterday afternoon. It was similar after the game at Old Trafford, and whilst I think that a draw would've been a fair result yesterday, we did enough to win it.

Thierry got man of the match, which is really quite beyond me. He maybe (I'm still not sure myself) should have had a penalty, and he scored a fine header, but other than that he was completely anonymous (as was Rooney, save for his goal and a fine strike that Jens tipped on to the bar). Personally I might have given it to Evra, who was excellent (although both Arsenal goals came from his side), or Ferdinand, or Fabregas. Sky's refusal to consider a player from the losing team as man of the match is ridiculous, especially in a game that was as tight as this.

I have to say that I was fairly unimpressed with a number of individual performances, particularly from the attacking players, although this might have something to do with the excellent defensive performances put in by both sides. Hleb had another of his "I want to play centre mid" games, and Adebayor brought nothing to our game (other than a quality cross for Henry in the first half. I'm getting really bored of people raving about him because he "runs his heart out". I saw plenty of examples of him loping around the pitch yesterday). On the United side I thought that both Carrick and Scholes contributed very little in an attacking sense, and I couldn't believe that the Ronaldo that turned up is the prohibitive favourite for player of the year.

I've been saying for a while now, within my circle of football-loving friends, that spaghetti head is yet to do it against the big clubs, in the big games, or on the big stage. He had a poor World Cup (where he was upstaged by the geriatric Luis Figo), has brought nothing of note to this year's Champion's League campaign (although neither did the other United players) and has not done the business against Arsenal (twice), Liverpool or Chelsea. As this is a claim that was put against Henry for a long time (which there is now stacks of evidence to disprove, but that's another argument) I think it's a little premature to carp on about him being the best player in the world right now. I'm sure he'll go on to put in top class performances against real opposition in games with real pressure, but he hasn't done it yet. He did nothing against us yesterday, for all his tricks and touches. I honestly can't remember him beating a player.

As mentioned earlier, I think that both back fours did well (Clichy gave a very good account of himself against both Giggs and Ronaldo) although Eboue's despicable gamesmanship flared up again. I really am growing a strong dislike for what seems like our first choice right back, and if he hadn't delivered a fantastic cross for the winner I would have been demanding to know why Hoyte was dropped.

The bad news that has tempered my mood following yesterday's huge win is that Robin van Beast, the lad who started our comeback, has broken his fifth metatarsal and it looks like we'll be without him until sometime in March. Considering he's our top scorer so far this season (and has weighed in heavily with assists as well) it's a body blow to the rest of our season, and my flat mate Jim the bindipper must be regretting not taking me up on £20 bet to see who would score more this season, RvP or Sloth's ugly brother (Dirk Kuyt for the remedial amongst you). I thought Robin's goal was the pick of the three yesterday, less for the finish, which was quality, but more for the way that Rosicky and Cesc battled to win the ball on the right hand side. More of that please lads.

So, the Spuds midweek in the League Cup. Shrek senior is already moaning about decisions that went against his (completely outclassed) side when we met last in the league, expect more before the game on Wednesday. I hope we send out the same side that destroyed Liverpool in the League Cup and give the Spuds' first XI a tanking.

Come on you Gunners.

Midweek Arse update

Bit of a midweek clean up of stories doing the rounds today, and where better to start than the dispute which has led to nobody being able to buy tickets to either leg of the Arsenal v Spuds League Cup Semi Finals.

The Daily Mail reported yesterday that Mr Edelman and Mr Levy were each throwing their toys out of their respective prams over ticket allocation and pricing for the second leg of said match at the Emirates. According to league rules Tottenham are entitled to 15% of our total capacity, roughly 9,000. Edelman is arguing that, due to safety restrictions and extra crowd segregation methods necessary when the dirty Spuds visit the Emirates, that this is not possible, and has offered 5,000. In addition to this, Arsenal want to cut the ticket prices for this match, as we have done for League Cup matches for some time now. Spurs, who are entitled to 45% of the gate, want to charge full price.

Now personally I think that what Edelman's proposing in terms of ticket allocation is laughable and more than a little embarrassing. There may well be additional security measures that need to be imposed to keep the Lilywhites in their box, but do these measures really necessitate a 4,000 drop in possible allocation? I don't think so and I think that Edelman's just trying to get one over his Tottenham counterpart, which isn't necessary, and in fact hands Tottenham more respect than they deserve.

As for the pricing, the Spuds can go take a flying leap. We'll charge whatever the hell we like, thank you very much. I suppose the idea of getting 45% of our usual gate, which must dwarf their own, appeals to them very much, but they can't possibly believe that they should get a say in how we run our club. So get knotted Levy.

Speaking of Spurs, Cardiff City's on loan Arsenal fullback (and YamA favourite) Kerrea Gilbert will be heading to the Lane tonight for the FA Cup 3rd round replay that Cardiff earned at Ninian Park two weeks back. He expects to get a bit of stick, but is looking forward to another tussle with the old enemy. I've said it before, but it deserves repeating: I think Kerrea Gilbert should be first choice right back at Arsenal by the end of next season, especially if, as expected, Lauren leaves.

As talk turns to Ralph, there's a story going round that he's interested in a move to Lyon after quite sensibly rejecting a relegation battle with the Hammers. It'd certainly be a choice move for him, and offer him Champions League football too.

Seb Larsson seems to be about to make his move to Birmingham City a permanent deal, with reports in the press suggesting that £500,000 will be enough to make him a Blue. Personally I'm surprised at the price as I think he's a very useful and versatile player, who's probably just lacking a little in terms of being an Arsenal player. Still, good luck to the lad for the future.

Talk is beginning to turn to who should start up front against Man Yoo on Sunday, following professional "merker" Rio "am I Avid Merrion in one of his rubber masks" Ferdinand stating that the Mancs fear Adebayor above all others, as he feels Ade Cool gave them the most problems in the game at Old Trafford. If we take it as read that he's not talking about Henry because he didn't play in that game, it does make for an interesting discussion of who gets the nod out of RvP and Adebayor. I would play Robin, but I've got a sneaking suspicion that, if he's fully fit, we might see the Togonator starting alongside Thierry. We shall see.

What an utter shower of bastards

A very welcome 2-0 win over the bunch of total fuckwits that is Blackburn Football Club, their players, manager and supporters.

It was an away match against one of those cheeky, scrappy northern teams, the sort of game that we can't win, by all accounts in the media this season, and not only did we deal perfectly well with the combatative / heavy handed / cheating behaviour of the Blackburn side, we did it with 10 men for 77 minutes of the match.

Gilberto received the ball with his back to the Blackburn goal on the half way line. Robbie Savage flew in, from behind, fouling Gilberto at least twice before leaving him in a heap, and stood over his prone body. Obviously a little miffed, Gilberto flicked out a leg, which made contact with Savage's shin pad, and led to Savage tossing himself up ten feet in the air, doing a couple of barrel rolls whilst letting out a shriek that would rival Pavarotti. Rob Styles, being the dribbling feckless twat that he is, gave Gilberto a straight red (for violent conduct no less) and Savage a yellow.

Now, don't get me wrong, under the letter of the law Gilberto had to go, and I have no real problem with that except that on a another day with another ref he might have got a yellow. The fact is that, to the letter of the law, Gilberto now misses three games for violent conduct, which is a joke. The FA has to start looking at red cards individually. But they won't. Fuckwits. For example, Tugay's assault on Cesc, which only warranted a yellow card for the Turk, was far worse of a challenge.

Anyway, all of this is stopping me from talking about two excellent goals, the first a wonderful header from Kolo (who really should score more) from an Henry freekick and one a goal from Thierry, which almost supercedes superlatives.

Henry's goal was a perfect example of the best that our counter attacking football has to offer. Picking up the ball in our own half, Henry moved it down the left, drawing in three Blackburn players before exchanging a neat one two with Fabregas and spanking the ball past Friedel and in off the bar. Outstanding.

Plaudits to Arsene for maintaining an attacking formation when we went down to ten men, and not bringing on a defensive player for an attacker until the 67th minute. I like that Arsene decided we were going to win the game by pressing forward, and I also like the fact that Rosicky, Fabregas and Hleb operated in the centre together to great effect. Whilst some might say that our midfielders are a light touch, blessed with nought but technique really need to take another look. Fabregas is a battler in every sense of the word, and Tomas' workrate and dedication are wonderful to see. Hleb's problem is not that he is physically weak, but that he switches off too frequently. Anyway they did themselves proud on Saturday, and Clichy had an excellent game as well.

In other news Steve Bruce wants to make Fabrice Muamba's stay at St Andrews permanent. I'm not sure how this is news considering he's said the same about Muamaba, as well as Bendtner and Larsson, many times before. I imagine the only development would be if Arsenal are making noises like they are willing to sell. I think we could see Seb leaving, which would be a shame, but definitely not Bendter, nor Mumaba I would have thought, or at least not yet.

Savage is moaning that everyone's being too cynical, and that he didn't dive because Gilberto "definitely made contact" with him. When will players learn that contact is not the be all and end all of a player going down. If his missus gave him a peck on the cheek there would be definite contact, but you don't see him pirouetting through the air whilst crying for his mother then do you?

Reyes is moaning that he didn't play in the final of the Champions League last year. Whilst I did feel a little sorry for him at the time, and would actually rather have had him in the first XI than Pires on the night, he had clearly already decided that he would be leaving, and would have been the player subbed off for Almunia after Jens' red card anyway.

Take that la' - Part III: Enter la Bestia

Well, what do you say about a game like that?

As my Liverpool supporting flatmate Jim put it, it was the strangest football match involving Liverpool he has ever seen.

Both managers decided to put out severely weakened teams following Saturday's exertions. I was expecting this from Arsene, but not from Benitez, who I expected to go out looking to win the game and maybe salvage a little pride. In reality it was Liverpool's team that was the weaker, purely because our second string players are of such a higher standard than theirs.

With only two legitimate first XI players in our side, being Kolo and Fabregas, and three in the Liverpool side, being Hyypia, Gerrard and Bellamy, we got the chance to see a lot of players who wouldn't normally be starting for either team. On the Liverpool side I'd never seen Peltier or Guthrie play before, but it was the Argentinian Paletta, who I'd seen before and thought looked a handy player, who stood out for all the wrong reasons. Quite simply Jeremie Aliadiere took him apart all night, and I ended up feeling bad for the guy.

Whilst with four goals Baptista is going to take the headlines today (including the one on this post), man of the match was undoubtedly the aforementioned Aliadiere. He simply ran the show, and once again we were treated to another dominant League Cup from the Frenchman, who just can't seem to transfer that quality into league performances. You may argue that he hasn't been given much of a shake in that department, but when a player is given five years of opportunities, however small, and has gone out on loan to Celtic, West Ham and Wolves, and done nothing at any of them, you've got to question his long term future. Personally I think he needs to move on, if only for his own sake. I think that Bendtner will be above him in the pecking order next season, and offers something legitimately different to Aliadiere, who has shades of Thierry, RvP and Walcott in his game.

Other key performances were Cesc, as always, Kolo, as always, and Almunia, who had no chance for any of the goals in my opinion and looked surprisingly solid for him. Song had a better than usual game, capped with a goal (that he knew almost nothing about), but I still shit bricks every time he's on the ball under any sort of pressure. Traore took a bit of time to get into the game, which is to be expected at his age, but grew into himself as the game progressed. Denilson looked handy but wide midfield is obviously not his position and I think he played there through necessity rather than design. As I was saying in yesterday's post, this again highlights our lack of strength in depth in the wide positions at the moment, which will only be excentuated if Freddie does head off to West Ham with no replacement coming in.

We scored six goals last night, and it was a great performance whilst not playing to our full potential. The first half inparticular, before we scored two on the cusp of half time, was not a dominant display, but we were better in the second and you've got to say, once again, that this young group of players has a fantastic future ahead of it.

Team news v bindippers and other gossip

So, Liverpool v Arsenal round three for the season, and although the official squad has not yet been announced, Diaby has been named as definitely being in the squad for tonight's game.

I can't stress how pleased I am, both for the lad himself and for the team. In the back half of last season, and noticeably in the Champions League when he got the opportunity, Diaby was showing just how far he'd come on since joining us in the January transfer window. He offers a more accomplished, technically able player in the Gilberto position, or a more physical presence in the Fabregas position, but either way he is a big player coming back into the squad who will only make us stronger.

As far as other team news goes I'm really not too sure what to expect. After going through to the fourth round of the FA Cup on Saturday, Arsene might be tempted to play a weaker team than he might have, although after losing on Saturday the scousers are more likely to put out a stronger team than they might have, so it's a bit hard to predict. I think we can expect to see Almunia, Djourou, YTW, Aliadiere and Adebayor (if fit) to start.

News that Lauren will not be in the squad tonight due to a toe injury is tempered by rumours that he's actually subject to a bid from West Ham. I would be very, very worried about Wenger's judgement if we sold him to the Hammers after waiting for him to get fit and add some much needed stability to our right hand side. Eboue patently isn't good enough defensively and is petulant and a bit of a cheat to boot. Hoyte I don't think is going to make the grade in the long run, and isn't better than Lauren. I think we'd be crazy to let Ralph go without an adequate replacement, plus of course we'd be losing the hardest bastard in the league.

Speaking of West Ham rubbing their greasy little jellied eel gripping mitts in anticipation over our players, Freddie is reportedly the target of another bid from the East End wideboys. Various news sources are quoting a price of £7m, which you would have to say is good business for a player on the cusp of 30, and who's performances have waned in the past couple of years. Whilst I would be sorry to see him go (and my mum would be positively suicidal) you'd have to accept that it's a figure that's hard for the club to turn down. I'd certainly be happier with that than selling Ralph, even though you could argue we're deeper at right back.

Others are arguing that we wouldn't need to replace Freddie right away, certainly not until the summer. I have to say that I disagree with that. At present we only have four legitimate wide players, and two of those, Rosicky and Hleb, don't stay all that wide, tending to creep inside and end up leaving us with a very narrow midfield four. With Freddie having lost a yard or two in recent times, our only real winger is Theo, and with him not playing anything like regularly, it's something that's been worrying me for some time. The automatic Ribery to Arsenal stories have already begun, but I don't think there's any truth in that.

Good news for Nicklas Bendtner, as his reported broken ankle turns out only to be a bad sprain, and he'll only miss the next four weeks, rather than the rest of the season. Fantastic news for a promising youngster who I think everyone has high hopes for. Personally I'm not sure whether it would do him more good to have another year on loan somewhere, maybe at Birmingham if they get promoted, or if he'd be better served as our fourth striker for next season. I'm sure Arsene's got some thoughts on the subject, I'll give him a call later.

So, a win tonight to set up a semi final tie with the scum.

Come on you Gunners.

Take that la' - Part II

So, our second game against the bindippers this season, another victory, and another three goals scored. Our continuing string of good results against the other members of the big four continues, and although it wasn't particularly pretty, and despite some issues that I will be discussing further down, we were comfortable and deserving winners.

With the enforced absence of Fabregas due to suspension, Arsene set out a game plan to contain Liverpool with a narrow four in midfield, and play on the break. Whilst no one could argue that Liverpool had the lion's share of posession, they did precious little with it, and our stand in Manuel Aluminium had practically nothing to do in the first half, and wasn't really at fault for their only goal in the second.

The same could not have been said for Jerzy "I used to be a keeper, honest" Dudek, who had a bit of a mare and proved why even the slightly dodgy Pepe Reina is preferred. He should have done better with both Rosicky's second and Henry's solo strike, and I think Reina would have saved one or the other.

There were many shouts, not least from Alan Hansen (ex Liverpool) and Alan Shearer (professional twat) that Liverpool should have had a penalty, as after Xabi Alonso began his dive in the first half, he was brushed by Gilberto's knee. Absolute bollocks. Alonso did not leave his leg in to get caught, it wasn't clever forward play, he dived in an attempt to cheat the ref, and whilst a booking may have been harsh seeing as contact was technically made, it was never a penalty.

We scored three well crafted counter attacking goals, with the first, a fantastic first time strike from Rosicky following neat interchanges between himself and Hleb, being the pick of the bunch. I'm not going to bang on about what we did or how we did it particularly, suffice to say that we were not terribly impressive but played to a game plan and got the result, because I'm going to be the glass is half empty miser that I am and address some issues I have with a certain player.

I want to address Gilberto. There has been, for some time now, the belief that if you criticise Gilberto you either don't go to games, don't understand what he brings to the team, or simply don't understand football. It has become almost sacriligious to make any sort of negative comment about him, and particularly this season where he's started knocking in goals.

Gilberto is our most defensive minded midfield player. He sees a lot of the ball, he organises the midfield (or at least should do) and, along with Cesc, dictates the direction and pace of our play.

Unfortunately, Gilberto gives away the ball, whether through an inability to pass five yards to an Arsenal player, or through his insistence on dicking around on the ball so that he gets caught in posession, more than any other player in our team. Against Liverpool this was brough to the fore simply by the amount of time he had on the ball. Maybe it was due to Cesc not being there, and Gilberto feeling like he had to have more of an impact on the game, but it wasn't like he was trying fifty yeard passes and failing, he was failing in moving the ball ten yards sqaure to an Arsenal player whilst under no pressure. He was also at fault for Liverpool's goal, leaving Kuyt unmarked and moving towards the ball for no apparent reason. His tendency to lose concentration is at odds with his position as vice-Captain, which is, in my opinion, more a of a statement on his seniority than his leadership qualities.

I do not deny that Gilberto does an important job for us; he does it well and it is a job that is an absolute necessity to the game we play. We must, however, be able to find another player who can do that job whilst not giving the ball away at every opportunity. The away tie at Porto is probably the best example this season, in a game where posession was of paramount importance, and his complacency was as much a threat as Ricardo Quaresma. Case in point, the fifteen minutes after Liverpool scored their goal witnessed our midfield being unable to hold onto the ball and a lack of composure at centre mid, which is surely Gilberto's responsibility.

I cannot wait for Diaby to be back in full training (he had his first session last week) and start giving Gilberto some competition for a place that he seems to think he has a right to.

My second gripe is Emmanuel Eboue. I've been noting his severly lacking defensive performances for some time now, but that's now being outshone by his simply embarrasing gamesmanship. Hoyte is a better player defensively, and Lauren is surely a shoe in when he gets back to full fitness. In the long run I hope Kerrea Gilbert gets brought back from Cardiff and given a shot, because I rate him above both Eboue and Hoyte.

Right, rant over. A great result for us, if not a great performance. Bindippers again on Tuesday night.

In other news the soon to depart Arturo Lupoli scored a hat trick for Derby, Anthony Stokes is on the brink of a move to either Charlton or Sunders, and Nicklas Bendtner broke his ankle on the battlefield they call a pitch at St Andrews, probably ruling him out for the season and giving him little chance of securing the fourth striker berth at Arsenal next season.

And we've just drawn Bolton in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup. Of course we fucking have.

Arsenal happenings

I am getting slacker and slacker.

Right, quick round up after our morale boosting demolition of Charlton (for which I had a ticket but was foolish enough to give it to my brother, who was down from Uni and hadn't yet been to the Emirates).

Chris Morgan, horrible cunt extraordinaire, has been charged for his sly punch on RvP during the Sheffield United game. Too right too, I was livid when I saw it on tele, and after Robin got booked for his protestations/running past Morgan and Morgan falling over, it's good to see this piece of work get his comeuppance. I also love the way that the Blades chairmen says that as it wasn't as bad as recent events involving Morgan, where he elbowed someone in the face for no particular reason, that he shouldn't be charged. What a load of bollocks.

Thierry is continuing to bang the drum for van Persie, saying he could go on to be one of the greats. I make no secret of the fact that I'm a huge fan of Robin's, and in fact got his name and number on my shirt this year. I've seen his potential inescapably attached to his fiery temperament and I've always been optimistic that he would turn that potential into quality, and he's certainly been markedly improved every season he's been with us. I like players that get angry and snarl and just want to win, and Robin's a winner.

Internazionale are sniffing around Gilberto. I have no idea why seeing as they have Vieira and Cambiasso, and are apparently looking at Barone as well. Everyone's favourite Irish-Brazilian has two and a half years on his contract, so nothing's going to happen til the summer anyway, if at all. Gilbert O'Silva will be over 30 by then though, and if Arsene sticks by his one year extension offers for players over 30 it'll be interesting to see if he sticks around.

Apparently Gigi Buffon might be off in the summer. I love his quote. There's arrogance and then there's Italians.

We have a Liverpool cup double coming up over the next week, and with our currently injury ravaged squad looking a little jaded I'm not overly optimistic. My flatmate's a bindipper and I will be subjected to hours of abuse should we be turned over. So lads, I'm begging you, put in a performance.


Now let us all pray to St Charlie of George, patron saint for putting one over the red half of Scouseland.

Amen.