Pre-Match Nerves

I don't think any Arsenal fan needs to eb told how much our game against Tottenham tomorrow means. The rivalry between the two clubs is intense and shows no sign of waning, despite what could be described as a significant inequality between the two teams; it is almost 10 years since Arsenal lost to Tottenham in the league and if defeat is avoided tomorrow, the entire of the 'noughties' will have passed by without the Lilywhites enjoying league victory over Arsenal.

Those statistics perhaps present a skewed representation of the two teams' respective positions; whilst most would still describe Arsenal as the strongest team, Spurs have begun well this year. This seems to have gone to the heads of some of their players; Robbie Keane going so far as to claim that Tottenham have a stronger bench than Arsenal (just for the record, I make Arsenal's bench, if everyone is fit, Fabianski, Eboue, Gibbs, Djourou, Denilson, Walcott, Eduardo).

My head is telling me that we really should get a win at the Emirates tomorrow, we are in fairly good form, have few injury concerns and our squad looks strong. The only real area of concern is in goal, where I expect Almunia to be recalled. Though his early-season form was shaky, I hope that the time he has spent on the sidelines will have helped him to refocus. Alternatively, his confidence could be irrecoverably shattered, but this seems highly unlikely! Tottenham have a weakened team, without their most prolific striker and two most creative midfielders (Defoe, Lennon and Modric), but this does not mean that they will not present a challenge.

Despite this, I am decidedly nervous about the game. Whether this is because of our recent late lapses against West Ham and AZ Alkmaar, the nature of our goalkeeping situation or just general pre-derby nerves is unclear. Logically, as long as we avoid the basic errors we have made in the past (Clichy falling over in front of Jenas in the corresponding fixture last season, Mannone sending Diamanti's free-kick straight out to Carlton Cole last weekend) we should be able to secure all 3 points. However, something at the pit of my stomach is telling me it won't be quite that simple!

Mr predicted line-up for tomorrow goes as follow:

Almunia, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy, Song, Fabregas, Diaby, Arshavin, Van Persie, Eboue.

In my opinion there are two keys to victory tomorrow. Firstly, the team need to press Tottenham's midfielders in order to prevent them playing accurate long passes forwards and be very quick to pick up on the second ball from headers won by Peter Crouch, the frankly freakish but very effective forward. Harry Redknapp has already outlined the kind of football Spurs will be playing tomorrow and as Crouch has at least a 6-inch height advantage over either of our centre-backs and can be expected to win most balls that come to him in the air. If we act to prevent these balls coming in and pick up the pieces when they do we should be able to stifle a Tottenham team that looks lacking in midfield creativity without either Lennon or Modric.

The other priority should be to prevent the Spurs defence from settling. They have a reputation for being porous defensively and with the attacking riches available to Wenger tomorrow this should be achievable. If we line up as I expect, both Arshavin and Eboue have the pace and skill on the ball to get the better of the leaden-footed Corluka, who looks like the weakest point of the Spurs backline. If we are able to make him, and thus the rest of the Tottenham defence uncomfortable then not only will we be able to score goals, we will also deny them a platform on which to build attacks and threaten our goal.

So there we are, just over 12 hours before kick off, and Gooners around the globe are nervously and excitedly anticipating kick-off. Come on you Gunners!

Same old, same old.

Basically, nothing of great interest has happened today. The most interesting that I have come across is a piece about reported Arsenal target Clement Chantome by Gunnerblog, who watched PSG play Lyon in the French Cup final yesterday. From the sounds of it, he'd be a decent squad player, but nothing more.

Other than that, we have Wenger confirming on French TV that he thinks Nasri will be signed before the Euros begin. I think we can safely say we saw that one coming, though it's good news nonetheless, and hopefully it will stop some of the moaning that has been coming from some quarters. There is a nice article about Nasri on Footballing World, that I enjoyed reading.

In other news....

Sadly, my six-a-side team, the Heartbreak Kids lost today, which makes it virtually impossible for us to qualify for the knock-out stages of the competition. And this time, we didn't even have the excuse of being incredibly hungover...

We have been linked again to Mario Gomez, of Stuttgart. This just doesn't make any sense to me, and I sincerely doubt there is anything in it, as we have more strikers than we need at the moment. The same article also links us to Blaise Matuidi and Mouhamadou Dabo of St Etienne. These are two names that have been floating around for a while, but I suspect that they've just been picked from the promising young French midfielders bracket and linked with us for no more reason that that.

And finally, more proof that, as we all already knew, Lassana Diarra is a twat. Who is he to talk to Wenger like that? A player who couldn't make the grade at Arsenal or Chelsea, so had to settle for Portsmouth. Twat.

Let's just hope for more exciting news tomorrow.

Jean II Makoun to Arsenal? Clichy, Nasri and Calm Down!

There's very little news of note to report today. Everywhere seems to be rehashing the same transfer deals that have been circulating for the last few days. It's a shame we haven't heard any more about Nasri, but I imagine the club are still negotiating with him and his agent. As I said before, it would be much more worrying if we had his agent coming out with different statements as to the progress of the transfer, which would suggest he was trying to encourage other clubs to bid, and thus drive up his transfer fee and wages. Give it time, if we haven't heard in a week or so, then it might become a little more concerning.

The biggest thing I have come across today is this report from L'Equipe about Jean II Makoun, the Lille defensive midfielder who has been quite heavily linked with the club. For those of you who don't speak French the article says something along the lines of: Jean II Makoun has confirmed he will leave Lille in the summer, there are a number of clubs interested in him, particularly us (who are his preference) and Juventus. Makoun says that he "needs to move to a bigger club, he believes Lille will understand, and it could even be a good thing for them". He may also move to one of the bigger clubs in Ligue 1. From what I've heard, Makoun is a good player, and could possible make a good Flamini replacement, but there doesn't seem to be too much reason to get excited yet.

We've also news from Gael Clichy, who has told the press that we will not make the same mistakes we made this season in our challenge for the title next time around. Clichy was already one of my favourite players at Arsenal, but the way he has committed his future to us this summer, and the positive things he has to say about the club just make me like more and more. Not only is he a better player than Cole, he's also not a whinging, money-grabbing, syphilitic, twat.

There seems to be a lot of people getting very stressed with the lack of solid transfer activity at the club so far this summer. There's no need to panic! Take a couple and deep breaths and remember... The Summer has only just begun, and there's over three months until the transfer window closes, so there is plenty of time for Wenger and the club to sort out all the transfers we need. It should be even easier this summer, as he has already come out and told us the kind of player he wants to buy. It is almost certainly a positive thing that we are taking our time about this; Wenger wants to make sure he gets the best possible players for the best possible prices. There's no point in rushing, or in fans worrying about the lack of action.

That's all for today - but if anyone knows anything more about this Chantome bloke from PSG, other than he's a 20 year old defensive midfielder? If you do, let me know in the comments!

Transfer Roundup and Good News For Mad Germans

Once again today, we have various spurious transfer rumours flying around that link sveral different players to moves to or from Arsenal. There has been a lot of talk about Real Madrid's interest in Hleb, and quotes from his agent back this up:

"For any player in the world, it is always a great honour that a club like Real Madrid is interested in him.

"This confirms the good work that Hleb has carried out in the last years is being recognised by one of the greatest clubs in the world. Nobody can doubt that the interest of Madrid is a privilege for the player."

However, there has been nothing from either club or the player, so it may well just be a case of Hleb's agent trying to drum up interest in his client. While I accept that this is an agent's prerogative, I just wish Hleb would just come out and say something conclusive himself; does he want to leave the club? The only other commenton this issue comes from ex-Gooner Julio Baptista, who said that Hleb would be "good reinforcement" for Madrid.

Another story floating about the internet and papers today is of Milan's interest in Emmanuel Adebayor. This is just your usual load of transfer bollocks - we're not going to sell Adebayor, and he doesn't want to leave.

As per usual at this time of year, we seem to be being linked with pretty much every young player under the sun. As well, as all the Nasri stuff which is still circulating - the transfer seems no nearer conclusion, although I guess the less we hear at this stage the better - we have apparently signed Francis Coquelin, who I know nothing about other than he's a young French player (apparently a defensive midfielder). We have also been relinked with Hatem Ben Arfa here, although there doesn't seem to be any source for the story. The same page also links us to another player I've never heard of, PSGs Clement Chantome. I doubt there's anything in it, but who knows?

There is on piece of news that I was delighted to hear today, and that is that our very own Mad Jens is likely to be Germany's #1 for the Euros this summer! He's had a tough season with us, but is still a quality player. Will I support Germany now? I don't know if I can bring myself to, but I will most definitely be supporting Lehmann! He is a true Arsenal legend, and deserves a good send-off, as I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up retiring this summer.

The Glorious Heart-Break Kids, Nasri Update and GSSRP3

I am back, battered, bruised and a glorious victor. My 6-a-side team just won for the first time in ages, 3-1 against Scope in my university college's tournament. This means that if we win the next 3 games, we should qualify for the knock-out stages!

Anyway, back to more Arsenal-related things, according to J. Sanderson over at Young Guns, Samir Nasri's agent has confirmed that he is in contract negotiations with the club, but is holding out for more money, claiming that other teams are in the running too. To me, it just sounds like an agent trying to boost his client's (and thus his own) paycheck. Hopefully we'll here confirmation that the transfer is complete in the next few days.

and now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

Gooneriffic's Super Season Summary

Part 3:

What lessons have we learnt from the past seasons? What problems are there at the club and how can they be addressed? Obviously, a 20 year old guy with absolutely no information from inside the club that everyone else has, limited football skills and no coaching/management experience knows what's best for the club. To me, the main problems at the moment seem to be:

• Centre-back pairing.

• Lack of depth in midfield and defence.

We know that Wenger plans to buy a tall, powerful defender in the summer, which should help in defence – we often have problems dealing with high balls into the box, as both Gallas and Toure are 6'0” or less, and an experienced player over 6'2” should see this problem solved, whilst also giving valuable advice and guidance to the likes of Philip Senderos and Johan Djourou, who are both tall and strong players, but maybe don't quite have the experience yet to be first team regulars.

The most pressing problem, which was especially notable towards the end of the season is the lack of depth to our midfield and defence. With Flamini and possibly Hleb leaving, we not only need to replace them, but also bring in another couple of players. Whether this should be done through buying new players or promoting some of our youngsters I don't know, as I haven't seen enough of the likes of Merida, Randall and Gibbs to tell if they are ready yet. As we seem to be on the verge of signing Samir Nasri, we either won't need to buy a replacement for Hleb, or we will be one midfielder better off. Even if Flamini didn't leave, we would still have needed another central midfielder; effectively, for us, him and Cesc (with occasional help from Gilberto) were doing the same job as Anderson, Scholes, Carrick, Hargreaves and Fletcher at Man Utd, Ballack, Lampard, Mikel, Makelele and Essien at Chelsea or Lucas, Gerrard, Mascherano and Alonso at Liverpool. Again, I don't know if Denilson or Diaby would be able to fill this role next season, but I hope so. We really need more than four or five top-class players, who we would be happy to see in the line up against any of the big teams to compete throughout the season. This year, especially with the injuries to Rosicky, we have too often had to play not great players (Eboue!) in important matches. A versatile defender to provide cover across the back four would be very welcome too, as would a genuine winger (though it looks like Theo Walcott could be just this). One position we don't need to strengthen is striker, as next year we will have Adebayor, Eduardo, Bendtner, Van Persie, Walcott and Vela.

I hope that we will not have to actually buy in too many players during the summer, that our youngsters will be ready for the step up to the first team, but I don;t know whether this is the case. If not, it would be foolish not to bring in a couple of faces to remedy what was our biggest weakness last season. I don't necessarily want to see big name players aged around 22-26, but rather a couple of older heads, maybe 28-30, who will be good first team players but who will a) cost less and b) be a bit past it in a couple of years, and so not prevent our youngsters getting a game when they're a couple of years older.

Nasri, Robinho and other Rubbish

Good Afternoon Gooners!

A lot of exciting news today, according to l'Equipe, the deal for Nasri is going to be finalised in the next couple of days. From all I have seen and heard, he is a great player, and would be an excellent addition to the squad. I don't know how accurate the Zidane comparisons are, but if there's any truth in it, and we do sign the guy, this could be a huge deal for the club.

Also, In Marca, we have been linked with a deal for Robinho, who we all know is a player Wenger has long admired. If it's true, fantastic, but the story also links him to Spurs, which is just ridiculous, so I doubt there's much in it. Admittedly I can't speak Spanish at all, but I can make out the words Robinho, London, agent, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, and that his contract release is 150m Euros. I reckon it's just another player angling for a new contract.

In other news, Lyon president Aulas has said he wants Ben Arfa to stay in France, so us singing him looks very unlikely. Juventus have been linked with a £5 million deal for Big Phil, Real Madrid are linked with Hleb, and Van Persie thinks he'll be fit to play for Holland in the Euros, which means he'll come back injured and we won't see him play till December. Probably.

I was very pleased yesterday to see the site smash through the 100 hits mark, and it's now well on the way to 200! How far can we go today? If we can improve on yesterdays 73 unique visitors ... who knows? Thanks to Chris from Gooner talk to be the first to comment on one of my posts!

I'm just off to play a game of 6-a-side, but I'll be back later to post the third (and final) part of my season summary. Adios...

Toure and Senderos, and GSSSP2

Some worrying news, and some good news this morning. Starting with the good, Phil Senderos has committed himself to Arsenal for the rest of his contract. Though he has his detractors, he has shown he can play well when given a run in the team, and is still young. Hopefully in the next two years he can fulfil his potential and prove his doubters wrong.

Less positively, Kolo Toure has apparently voiced his concern at playing second fiddle to Gallas. Now I could understand his actions if this were true, but none of the sources I have seen contained any quotes from Kolo, who is a very professional player, and Arsenal through and through. To me, this just doesn't seem like the kind of thing he'd do.

And now, moving on...

Gooneriffic's Super Season Summary!

Part 2: Player-by-player summaries.

1.Jens Lehmann

Not the best of seasons for the mad German, deservedly lost his place to Almunia early on, ranted (a lot) unprofessionally in the newspapers, but played well when called upon. Still love him.

2.Abou Diaby

Clearly not a left winger, but didn't do too badly there when he was fit. His constant niggles are frustrating. I hope he gets more time playing in central midfield next season. He has lots of potential, but I don't think his long term future is at Arsenal, as much as I like him. He plays in almost the same position as Cesc, and so, unless we move regularly to a 4-5-1, I can't see him getting enough football here to achieve his potential. I would be very sad to see him go, but unless he somehow becomes a first team regular over the next season, he owes it to himself to move on really.

3.Bacary Sagna

Absolutely fantastic. This has all been said before, but he slotted perfectly into a new team, and played very well almost all season. Sagna barely had a poor game, defending very solidly and attacking effectively. Proved me wrong completely by proving just how far superior to Eboue he is (last summer I didn't think we needed a new right back. How wrong I was!). I hope he is able to recover fully from his injury, rest up during the Euros, and continue his form into next season.

4.Cesc Fabregas

Rightly acclaimed as one of the best midfielders in the world. There's not much to be said about Cesc really. He played very well at the beginning of the season, dropped of a little in the winter, and then picked up again later. The most interesting this to note is the harder edge he seems to have added to his game. To put it succinctly, he has become a right bastard on the field. His tackling is good, though the diving and exaggeration (see the Arteta incident against Everton) are slightly less welcome. Not a big problem yet though, he just needs to cut it out before it becomes one. Cesc really looks like future captain material, he drives the team on and it doesn't look the same without him.

5.Kolo Toure

Like many others, started very positively, forming a very effective partnership with Gallas in central defence. Looked tired and out of form after the ACN, but did all right at right back when he was called on to play there. Wenger's claim that he is going to sign another centre-back may cast some doubts over Toure's first team spot, but I am sure he will fit in somewhere next season.

6.Philip Senderos

Doesn't even nearly deserve the majority of criticism that has come his way. Yes he didn't play too well in the second leg against Liverpool, but when Kolo was away at the ACN, him and Gallas played very well together. He has shown before that he can play well when given a run in the side, and now is not the time for Wenger to lose faith. Swiss Tony he can still become.

7.Tomas Rosicky

Immensely frustrating. Looks good and really adds to the side when fit. Is hardly ever fit. Can he stay fit after the operation he's had recently, who knows? Let's hope he can, as a healthy Tomas would be a real asset to the side.

9. Eduardo

You have to feel sorry for the guy, just starting to adjust to English football, scoring goals, playing well, and then he gets one of the worst injuries I remember seeing. I hope he recovers fully and continues his progress next season.

10.William Gallas

In football terms, Gallas has had a good season. Played well other than a few matches, and was a key part of a defence that played very well in the first half of the season. The defence as a whole didn't perform quite so well in the latter half, though I don't know how much of this can be attributed to Gallas. As a captain, Gallas has been a mixed bag. When everything was going well earlier in the season, he seemed to be doing well, but as the tide turned, his captaincy was called into question. The Birmingham incident was worrying, as were rumours that his team mates had to give him a sorting out. To be honest, I don't have enough behind the scenes knowledge to say what should happen next season.

11.Robin Van Persie

See Rosicky. Great when he is fit, but can he stay fit? One of the best players in the league when he can play, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

13. Alexander Hleb

Similarly to many other players – first half good, second half not so much. Played very well to begin with, then started to look tired, and maybe hungry for ice-cream later on. By the end of the season had reverted to the old Hleb of the previous two seasons – very frustrating. I would still like to keep him a the club, as he is a very good player, but he is definitely replaceable if he does leave.

15. Denilson

I haven't seen enough of him this season to say too much, but he looked good in the Carling Cup and decent when I saw him in other competitions. After improving so much over the previous season, this his slowed (admittedly largely due to injuries) this season. We should see more from him next season, especially with Flamini leaving.

16. Flamini

Great season. He's leaving now, and will need to be replaced, whether from within or without the squad I don't know. Let's move on.

17. Alexandre Song

Very good (apparently) in midfield in the ACN, looked good at centre-back in the tail end of the season for us. I would have liked Wenger to give him a go at replacing Flamini, but it seems he will be a defender. Good luck to him – he was proved he can be a very useful part of the squad and looks set to play a significant role in 2008/09

19.Gilberto

It's been a tough season for Gilberto as well, being displaced by Flamini, and only getting intermittent time on the pitch. He has acted very professionally throughout, and, although his performances were very poor for most of the season, more recently he has played fairly well. I hope we can hang on to him for next season, as he is one of our few very experienced players, and with Flamini gone, we can't afford to lose another player in his position.

20. Johan Djourou

Apparently disappointing in his time at Birmingham. I've only watched him play one half of football for us this season, against Spurs, and he was awful. So was everyone else to be fair though. Chalk this season off and start afresh in the next, he has a lot of potential to fulfil.

21. Lukasz Fabianski

Showed enough in the Carling Cup and at the end of the season to suggest that he will be a good back-up for Almunia next season.

22.Gael Clichy

Player of the season. Absolutely brilliant. Barely puts a foot wrong, works harder than almost anyone else on the team. His final ball could use a bit of work, but other than that he is the complete package. The way he bombs up and down the left hand side until the final minute of a match is just incredible, he must have about 5 lungs and three hearts.

24.Manuel Almunia

Big step-up for the Spaniard this season. Didn't do much wrong, and appeared comfortable in the role of first-choice keeper. Not world-class, but very decent.

25.Emmanuel Adebayor

The stick he gets is incredible. Second top scorer in the league and he still gets slated. According to Opta he has the second best shots/goals ratio as well, which, considering that the main criticism of him is his finishing, is impressive. He has looked a bit lazy at times in the second half of the season, but I would put that down to fatigue. He pulled us almost single-handedly through the early part of 2008, and has every right to be exhausted. The next test is to prove that he can keep this up next season.

26.Nicklas Bendtner

Didn't get as much playing time as I'd hoped he would, but looked promising when he did. Decision making is still a bit dodgy, but works hard, has good technique, is great in the air and has scored several crucial goals. If he continues to improve next season, he will be challenging for a regular first team spot.

27.Emmanuel Eboue

Redeeming features? None. Useless. I don't care if Wenger thinks he gives the team defensive balance. He is awful. He did break John Terry's foot though.

30.Armand Traore

Didn't look great at left-back for much of the season, but apparently his future is on the left wing. I haven't seen him play there apart from 20 minutes against Everton, during which he looked promising. Lets see how he does on loan to Portsmouth next season.

31.Justin Hoyte

Decent player, good to have as a back-up, but he's never going to be a first team regular, and if he doesn't leave this summer, you have to question his ambition.

32.Theo Walcott

Looked extremely promising, and performances at Birmingham and Liverpool showed how much he has improved after recovering from the shoulder injury that dogged him last year. Deserves a starting spot at right midfield, especially if Hleb leaves. I look forward to watching him more next season.

Sorry about the length of that, I got rather carried away. In the next instalment I will be discussing what, in my opinion, we should do to improve next season, as well as a round up of all the news.

News Roundup + Gooneriffic's Super Season Summary: Part 1!

Good morning boys and girls.

We'll start with a little of bit of news and gossip today, then the first instalment of my three part season summary.

Lots of exciting transfer rubbish today, we have been linked very heavily with Samir Nasri of Marseille in the last couple of days, in much the same way that we were with Hatem Ben Arfa this time last week. He is a very good player, so it would be good if it's true, but well, the isn't how Arsene normally conducts his transfers.

Other tired hacks wanting easy copy space link us to: Roque Santa Cruz, who is apparently coming in to replace Adebayor, who is Barcelona bound. Bollocks. The usual crowd of Jean Makoun, Lilian Thuram, Kranjcar, and a lot of reports suggesting Alberto Aquilani of Roma is on his way for £23 million. That's another I can't see happening, as far as i recall, he plays in pretty much the same position as Cesc, and so is not a player we need really. Sounds like an agent trying to help with contract negotiations to me.

Interestingly, we have some news coming from Tony Adams at Portsmouth about everyone's favourite gutless mercenary, Lassana Diarra. It seems there may be more to his departure than we imagine. Admittedly the only source is Tribalfootball, but there are direct quotes from Tony. I can't think what this other reason might be, unless either Wenger decided he wasn't going to make it here, or he somehow discovered that he goes under the nickname "Diarra the Ripper" for a reason.* Any other suggestions?

And now, drum roll......

Gooneriffic's Super Season Summary!

Part 1:

First things first. This has been a very good season for Arsenal F.C. The way it ended may have been very painful, losing out in the latter stages of both the league and the Champions League, followed by the loss and potential loss of two important players (Flamini and Hleb). However, considering that the majority of (admittedly moronic and ill-informed) pundits and journalists predicted that our season would end only in the ignominy of finishing below Spurs, it can only be regarded as a success. The CL quarter-final second leg against Liverpool seemed to encapsulate the season in about 5 glorious, and then heartbreaking minutes. The squad as a whole performed far better than in either of the two previous seasons, and many players improved dramatically.

In my view, there is only one reason why we were not able to continue the high level of football we played right through until the end of the season. Referees decisions were not to blame (not to say that we were not at the sharp end of quite a few dodgy ones), nor were embarrassing, but ultimately isolated cup defeats to Man Utd and Spurs, and neither was the Birmingham game, with Eduardo's injury and Gallas' antics, that many have pointed out as a turning point. The lack of depth in our squad was the key factor in the loss of form that saw us drop crucial points to Middlesbrough, Wigan and Villa. At that late stage in the season, key players were not performing at anything near their peaks, most obviously for me, Hleb, but due to the fact that we had a few injuries to big players, we were not able to shuffle the squad around and bring in on-form players. At either Man Utd or Chelsea, if a player is not performing, they normally have the squad depth to replace them, even if they have a few players injured. Yes we were unlucky to have players like Van Persie, Eduardo and Rosicky out for large parts of the season, but we never had more than a few injuries at a time. To compete domestically and in Europe these days, you need a bigger first team squad than we (currently) have.

Despite all this, I feel that there are far more positives than negatives to draw from this season. The players have shown a great team spirit, and proved their doubters wrong on many occasions. We recovered from the late 2007 slump that many of our doubters thought would prove the end of the title challenge, we proved that we can cope with teams who try to bully us out of games, as well as showing that we can mix it up a bit if necessary. The team is still a work in progress, but it has come on so much over the last season. Even with the possible departures, it won't take more than a couple of tweaks to see us in the silverware this time next year!

Coming up next: player by player squad summary!

Don't go changin'!

*I have no evidence to suggest that this is Diarra's actual nickname, or that he is a mass murderer of any sort. On the other hand, I have no evidence that he isn't....

Like a Phoenix from the Ashes.

Well, it's been a long time since I last even looked at this blog. Basically, I had a very dull job over the summer, so I started writing the blog as a way to pass with time. Sadly, the office was then rearranged, so I could no longer get away with doing very little work, as my supervisor could always see over my shoulder. Since then, I've gone back to uni, been very busy and had a whole series of internet-related problems, which were finally resolved a couple of weeks ago. As I once again have some time on my hands, I decided to have another go at this. Though that was a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be best to wait until the end of the season to start afresh.

So, coming in the next couple of days: Gooneriffic's 2007/8 season summary!

Slow day at the office...

Well there's not been a huge amount of news today, which isn't too surprising really, as its a Saturday so all the papers and bloggers have been concentrating more on today's games than on anything really Arsenal-related. As per usual, all the big 4 are playing tomorrow, so I'm not too concerned about today's results, but hopefully Spurs lose again!

One of the main stories I've found today is Dunga (the Brazil manager) being a bit of a twat. Apparently he has told Gilberto to leave the club, saying: "I think he is ready for an experience in Italian football and for Juventus." Of course, despite the poor way he was treated over the captaincy, there is no way Gilberto will be leaving the club. He is far too important to the side and there is no time to replace him before the transfer window shuts, so as far as I'm concerned, there's nothing to worry about. I'll just add Dunga's name to the long list of footballing twats.

We've been linked with Morten Gamst Pedersen and Luka Modric again, but both are from tribal football, so it makes me even less inclined to believe them that I would have been anyway.

Wenger has been telling the world that he believes “we are mature enough to be title winners,” but well, I don't think we have much of a chance of the title this year. I hope and expect us to stay in contention until at least late-March, but I think it is asking too much of us to win it - maybe next year! He's also spoke about how the youngsters are growing up and getting tough this season, but it seems there's hardly a day when one of the squad isn't telling us this. Finally he talked about his new contract, that he expects to sign "very, very soon", which is good news, though I imagine most of us have been expecting him to sign up for a while now.

Rosicky and Eboue have joined the injury list that already included Adebayor, Diaby and Gilberto, which is very irritating, as it was only the other day that Tomas was telling us how he plans to stay fit more this season. Hope fully Eduardo gets a start tomorrow, as I am really looking forward to seeing him in an Arsenal shirt.

Anyway, here's to a Derby victory, and no more injuries until tomorrow!

Gooneriffic: The Beginning

Hello fellow Arsenal fans!

I have decided to start my own Arsenal blog and join the many others who document the life and times of North London's finest. I'm starting this because I enjoy thinkign and talking about the club, I need something to do at work and uni and, well, I just thought it would be laugh!

I'll keep this to just a brief introduction, then start blogging for real tomorrow (if I get round to it). I'm a young Arsenal fan, living down south, but studying up north. Sadly, on my student budget I can't afford to get to many of our home games, but I hope to attend matches around the north of the country. Doubtlessly they'll be cold, depressing affairs, watching other teams hoof both our players and the ball upfield for 90 minutes, but it'll be worth it!

I doubt many (if any!) people will be reading this, but hopefully if I carry on, eventually others will be seduced by my wit and charm, and a thriving blog will be born.

Well I'll hopefully be back with more tomorrow, so until then my friends, adieu.