Morning all,

hopefully with an important game against Porto tomorrow we can get back to something approaching normality after the last couple of days. What's done is done, what's said is said, and at this point I don't think there's anything fresh to bring to the table.

Emmanuel Adebayor, apart from saying he feels sorry for his beleaguered teammate, says Arsenal have to concentrate on results, not on style. He says:

We have to fight as a team and that is how we are going to try to achieve something this season. We just have to control ourselves, not to worry about whether we play with elegance or not. We have to forget about how we are going to dribble, how many passes we are going to make - the most important thing is to get the ball in the back of the net and that is it.

He was referring to the league and the eight point gap and even Arsene Wenger has admitted it's a miracle that we're still in the title race, saying:

We have had some indifferent games but the thing that has saved us is that we have beaten our main rivals. That has prevented some damage. We are still in there - we play Liverpool at home soon which is a chance as well. We know we can't lose any of the games against the big teams now.

And it is almost miraculous. After losing 5 games so far in the league we should be miles off the pace but the good results against Chelsea and United, along with the points the other big teams have dropped means we're still more or less in there. A win against Liverpool would close that gap to just five points and as we all know five points is no gap at all. When you consider we lost just three games during the whole of last season it tells you a lot about how odd this campaign is.

Robin van Persie has been speaking about taking chances with his right foot. He's hugely left footed and often slows things down trying to get the ball onto his good side. But he scored against Chelsea with his right, or as he rather bizarrely calls it, his 'chocolate leg'. He says:

Positive thinking is the key for me – when I have a chance I think positively. I think this is a good chance with my right foot – I can score this one. And I think you will miss many more chances with your chocolate leg if you think negatively, thinking that it’s not your strong foot.

Chocolate leg? You might snicker but the wispas around the training ground say that Robin's wrong foot is becoming a real star, bar the odd air shot. Fingers crossed it can improve, as it is somewhat flakey, and that he can score moro goals and continue that football from another galaxy.  

So while Robin is getting better it gets worse and worse for Tomas Rosicky. Initially he was due to be back in September, then October, then Christmas and yesterday we got the news that it'll March 'at the earliest' before we see him.

In one way it's hard not to feel sorry for him. He's a good player, a likable character and someone who always gives you 100% on the pitch. On the other hand he's being handsomely paid for being out with a hamstring injury for what will be well over a year. It's hard to see how he's ever going to get back to the top level because we could just as easily get to March and see another article saying how 'next season' is a more realistic goal for his return.

It would be great to see him back and this team could really use his talent and experience right now but it seems more and more unlikely as time passes. It's a real shame. 

Tomorrow is Porto, obviously, and an important game in terms of who tops the group. There'll be a fuller preview on tomorrow's game but the Hulk is still smarting from the pasting they got at the Grove and wants to make sure Porto finish top. The pressure is off but it would be nice to finish top. It doesn't guarantee an easier game, in the 2006 season we finished top of our group and got Real Madrid in the first knock-out round, while finishing in second place last season saw us draw AC Milan. With many of the groups still to be decided it's hard to say if we'd be better on top or not, although for confidence it would be good to win the group.

There's been no team news yet. You have to imagine we'll be without Nasri after the injury he picked up against Wigan and after that there's only really Gallas who might come back into the squad. Kolo Toure has been talking up his partnership with the former captain and to me it seems as if he's trying too hard to make it sound like it works. It quite clearly doesn't, the two players are not compatible and Djourou's presence in the team, and the way he plays, make that quite obvious. 

I suspect there's now a fight on between Gallas and Toure to be the one to partner the Swiss and it'll be interesting to see who comes out on top. Funny how quickly things change in football, eh?

Right, beyond that not much else to tell you. More on the Porto game tomorrow. Till then. 

Happy hallowe'en to you all. A day for spooky things like spirits, trolls, monsters and the thoughts of our defence trying to cope with Rory Delap's long throws.

This morning's Sun quotes an 'Arsenal source' who spoke of dressing room discontent after the game against Sp*rs the other night. Sourcey, as I call him, says:

Everyone was going crazy in the dressing room after the game. There were a lot of raised voices and fingers being pointed. Everyone was blaming each other for Spurs’ two late goals and the manager was as angry as anyone has seen him for a long time.

Hardly a surprise, is it? I'd be more worried if there weren't some raised voices after a final 4 minutes like that. They say that the crux of the argument was the lack of leadership shown by William Gallas and Mikael Silvestre. That, of course, remains speculative. I suspect the arguing was mostly about throwing away two goals against those cunts. 

Nevertheless, Emmanuel Adebayor spoke to Arsenal TV and confirmed tempers were raised. He said:

It's better to wait. There would be a lot of words that we don't have to use and we aren't supposed to use to each other. Then we will get together and tell the truth. The nerves will calm down and everyone will have to accept their critics.

I wonder what words they're not supposed to use to each other. If I was Arsenal manager I would ban entirely use of the word 'ramekin'. It's a silly word despite the object itself being particularly handy. Still, there's obviously a bit of pointing and blaming and stuff going on within the squad and maybe that's not a bad thing. Maybe it takes the criticism of your peers for you to do something about your attitude or performance. Then again, maybe there are those that don't give a shit what anyone thinks of their performances.

The Sun goes on to say that Gallas's hamstring injury is 'convenient' for Arsene Wenger. If we take it at face value the injury provides the manager with the chance to bring back Kolo Toure in defence alongside Sylvester without having to drop the club captain. The other implication is that this isn't really an injury at all and Gallas is being dropped.

The Mirror reports that Gallas has ruled himself out of the game after harsh words with the manager. Surely that can't be true. Ok, given the fact it's Gallas it wouldn't surprise me. He's obviously an emotional person, we've seen it before, but for the captain of the club to declare himself 'injured' because he was criticised by the manager? Madness. If it is true then serious questions have to be asked about his position as captain. More serious questions than the ones that exist at the moment, I mean. And I'm being tremendously diplomatic there. I haven't suggested that he should be fired out of a cannon into the sun, or anything.

The article goes to say that Gallas, Sylvester and Adebayor were the main targets of the manager's ire with all three set to be 'dropped' for tomorrow. We might then see a central defensive partnership of Kolo + Djourou and, perhaps, Bendtner in up front alongside van Persie. Diaby and Alex Song might also come in to add some strength as we face a Stoke side that is physically quite big and strong. 

So, it's going to be interesting to hear what Arsene has to say today in his press conference. Of course he won't mention any fights or anything like that. As always he will publicly defend his players but obviously there's been quite a bit of fall-out since Wednesday night. Perhaps the team selections over the coming weeks will give us more of an idea how it all went. 

Right, on to this week's Arsecast and joining me for a blogchat about Sp*rs and stuff is GilbertoSilver from Gunnerblog. Sylvester celebrate his first Arsenal goal, Amaury Bischoff PI is there, the Man in the Bar responds to a recent cover version of his cover version of Barry Manilow's Mandy, and the usual waffle, guff and flapdoodle.

You can subscribe to the Arsecast iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too. To download this week's arsecast directly - click here (16mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

As well as that there's a dedicated Arsecast hotline available all season long should you desire to make a comment, get something off your chest, share a song a chant or hilarious anecdote. Feel free to call it any time during the week, it'll go to voicemail and you can leave your message. The number from inside the UK is 020 3286 6360 or from outside the UK it's +44 20 3286 6360.

Ok, have fun. More tomorrow. 

Bank holiday greetings to you all. The front part of my brain says 'ouch' while the rest of it says 'sweet holy mother of the sacred heart of the crucified Jesus, what have you done to me?'.

I'm choosing not to answer it. Footballers, what a weird bunch of people they are. Some of them are like politicians - evasive, full of lies and, for some inexplicable reason, they think we're as thick as bottled shit. Take Emmanuel Adebayor. No, seriously, take Emmanuel Adebayor. Haha. But really. He has actually come out and said that money is ruining football.

After his shennanigans in the summer he's actually come out and said that. I know. He says:

Money is killing the spirit of the game. If I had made my decision because of money, I would not be at Arsenal. I would have been in Milan or Barcelona. You know how I could be earning a lot more money than I am earning here.

So he had a decision to make. Check. He goes on to say:

There's no-one that can say today 'Adebayor told me he wanted to leave'. I decided to stay at Arsenal, told the boss I wanted to sign a new contract and eventually we did.

Right, so if he never wanted to leave why did he have to decide to stay? Plus lots of people saw an interview with him where he spoke openly about leaving. Twat. He goes on about having 'won the fans back' and how the booing never hurt him because he knew he was innocent. I dunno, these guys must live in a little bubble so far detached from reality that they have no idea what they sound like when they talk. 

Still, he's got 7 goals this season and if he keeps scoring more then I'll be happy. I'm never going to like Adebayor the way I like Cesc, let's say, or even the way I like the scraggledy looking old cat that sometimes comes into my garden and sprays his tomcat wee on the wall, but if he scores goals for Arsenal and wins us games then that's fine. There is no love. There is no winning me back. Especially when he comes out with utter shite like this. 

William Gallas talks about being his own harshest critic. That's rubbish as well. I know lots of people who are much harsher critics of Gallas than he is of himself. Not me though. Oh no. 

Sylvester says he's not a real leader but he'll do his best to try and lead the defence. He also goes on about how the current crop of young players at Arsenal can be better than the youngsters who came through at Old Trafford. If this lot can win half as much as Beckham, Giggs and Co, then they'll be doing very well indeed.

The News of the World says, for about the 564th time, that we'll sign Yaya Toure. This comes in the week where he gave an interview saying he was happy at Barcelona.  

West Ham later on. It's the first part of a very important double this week. Three points are absolutely vital if we want to keep pace with the clear Premier League favourites, Hull. Then in midweek we have Sp*rs who will have Harry Redknapp in charge. Arsenal fan Redknapp has taken over after Sp*rs sacked Ramos, Poyet and Commoli which must have cost them an absolute fortune. There is that line of thinking that it's not good to play a team when they've just changed their manager so thankfully Redknapp's first game in charge is against Bolton today.

Despite his wheeler-dealer ways I've always kind of liked Redknapp. He was generally very complimentary about Arsenal and he was a bit of a character. Now, of course, he's an utter cunt.

Anyway, here's to a good performance later this afternoon and scoring more goals than we let in.

Hasta mañana, arsebutlers. 

It's dark these mornings, isn't it? And I bet the clocks are going back/forward soon and it'll be even darker. Is that happening this weekend actually? Stupid time.

A bit of a quickie this morning. We'll start with Theo who says that other teams will be scared of playing Arsenal after seeing us lash five past Fenerbache. You might even suggest that Fenerbache were a bit scared after seeing us stick four past Porto. Theo also reckons the European win will help us focus when it comes to the league, saying:

It definitely does help because the Premier League is important as well. We always want to play well whatever game we play, but we are just looking at every game as it comes, not getting ahead of ourselves and that's all we can do really.

I can't help but think that another Blackburn type performance in the league would do a lot more for us than the European wins. That one game aside we haven't really put anyone to the sword in the Premier League and a good thumping of someone would send a nice message out.

Emmanuel Adebayor talks about winning the Champions League and improving on last season's performance. Perhaps it's a bit premature to talk about winning it just yet. There are plenty of games we need to concentrate on before we get down to the nitty gritty of Europe.

We've got two vital London derbies coming up in the space of three days. West Ham away on Sunday then Sp*rs at home on Wednesday evening. What we've done in Europe thus far is now irrelevant and all the focus must be on those two games. Adebayor will, I suppose, have a big part to play. He has replaced Robert Pires in as much as he's taken over the mantle of the bloke who always scores against Sp*rs. In his relatively short Arsenal career he's scored 6 goals against them so far and with his form a bit patchy so far this term he could do with a big goal or two in the next couple of games.

Arsenal's AGM takes place today with Stan Kroenke expected to attend. There's no word yet as to whether or not the disgusting, fat, Man United supporting Jabba the Hut looking cunt will be there but I'd be surprised. After the usual presentation there's a Q&A session with the floor being opened up to shareholders. The manager is usually in attendance and I suspect today there might well be some difficult questions regarding the spending, or lack of, during the summer.

As always I'll endeavour to bring you an AGM report tomorrow and hopefully there'll be some coverage in tomorrow's Arsecast as well.

Not much else happening so I'll leave it there for today. Told you it was a quickie.

Good morning. It's starting to get a bit cold first thing, isn't it? After the hot, balmy summer it looks like winter is well and truly on the way. Bah.

Not a lot going on really. Emmanuel Adebayor (OleOle link) has been talking up his partnership with Robin van Persie (OleOle link), saying:

There is a good relationship between him and me. We are just enjoying playing together up front. He's a very good player. I'm using him and he's using me as well. We’re trying for a telepathic understanding and against Porto we’ve shown we can do something.

I wonder do they stay after training practising their telepathy with those test cards with pictures on them.

Ade: "Ok, Robin. Concentrate now. I'm looking at a card. I'm trying to send the image to you. What is it?"

Robin: "Is it a Barcelona shirt with a big bag of money beside it?"

Ade: "Oh man, you're good. Your turn! Your turn!"

Robin: "I'm looking at the card. What's on it?"

Ade: "Is it a footballer on crutches smoking a cigarette?"

Robin: "No".

Ade: "Well that's the image I'm getting, man. A footballer on crutches smoking a cigarette ... hitting a free kick into the upper tier"

Robin: "No, that's not it".

Ade: "What is it then?"

Robin: "It's a miniature version of Escher's 'Relativity'! You know, the one with the staircases"

Ade: "How the fuck am I meant to get that? I mean, what kind of person puts that on their psychic test cards? You make me sick. So sick I'd rather play with Bendtner".

Of course there's always the 'if' factor around van Persie, something Adebayor doesn't shy away from:

He's just back and we've only had five or six games together. Robin is a good player and if he is fit for the whole season we have a chance to do something special, that's for sure.

It was around this time last season that van Persie got injured so there's that little hurdle to get over yet. I suspect Arsene will be lighting votive candles during the upcoming international break. So we've yet to really see if they can be the kind of partnership we'd all like them to be and I do wonder if Adebayor's bigging up of the partnership is somewhat inspired by seeing how well Bendtner and Vela seem to work together. Obviously if the two of them forge a great twosome then it'd be great for the team but let's give it some time.

What's also interesting is the revelation from Adebayor that it's Cesc Fabregas who brings players together off the pitch. He says:

Robin is in contact with Fabregas and sometimes he makes everybody sit together. We are not the best friends ever but sometimes it does happen that we go to a restaurant.

I know that under the captaincy of Vieira the team socialising together was an important part of life at the club. Whether it was dinners or whatever those social events do help foster good team spirit and it's no surprise that Cesc is at the centre of it. Can I say Cesc for captain again? Of course I can. This is my blog, I can say what I like.

Cesc. For. Captain.

Former captain Patrick Vieira has backed Arsene in the wake of the comments by curly-haired cuntbutler Michelle Platini. And rightly so.

Apart from that there isn't a great deal going on. Chelsea's away draw in the Champions League last night was made even more hilarious by an injury to Didier Drogba and there's a great picture in the Sun this morning. I know I shouldn't take pleasure in the pain of others but come on, it's Drogba. How many times have we seen him writhe around in fake agony? Some real agony is nice to see. The Drog who cried wolf, haha.

Ok, that will have to do. More tomorrow with an Arsecast. Until then.

Well that was a nice way to get things going again, eh?

Blackburn away is never easy, it wasn't easy yesterday, but we spanked home 4 goals meaning in the last 3 games we've scored 11 and conceded none. It's good preparation for the midweek trip to the Ukraine and we didn't suffer any kind of Interlull hangover which we are prone to now and again.

We started very brightly in the face of a physical Blackburn team. Their lad Andrews was very lucky to stay on the pitch, I thought, after a shocking raking tackle down van Persie's ankle and a studs-up tackle on Cesc. He was obviously told to put himself about by Paul Ince but Mike Dean's refereeing was weak and the bloke didn't even get a yellow card. When you add the challenge on Eboue to the mix that's three very bad tackles on our players since the start of the season and not one of them was punished. Typically the cretinous Blackburn fans started singing 'Same old Arsenal, always cheating'.

Nevertheless we went in at half time two goals up. The first from van Persie after nice work from Walcott and right on the stroke of half-time Adebayor headed in a Denilson cross. Robin might have had a couple more in the first half and had Adebayor decided he'd even try to stay onside he might have too. All the same Blackburn looked dangerous when they came forward. Pedersen and Emerton whipped in a series of crosses from either side which had our central defence panicking. It was slightly worrying, I have to say. You always felt we could score more than them if they did get one but a better team would have taken those chances. Something to work on at the training ground.

We coped better in the second half though and beyond one very good save late on from Benni McCarthy, Almunia was relatively untroubled. I know the Spaniard has his critics but that he was alert when needed is a good sign. And keeping clean sheets behind a central defensive pairing that really doesn't quite work is good going.

Ally on the Arseblog forums worked out that in 14 games against Paul Robinson we have scored a total of 46 goals. Incredible. It was something the 'holic pointed out in the Arsecast on Friday and it was no surprise to see another couple go in. He made a decent save from a very good Eboue shot but could do nothing about the third, a penalty won by a ridiculous Eboue dive, and the fourth when fine play from Ramsey put Adebayor clean through for his perfect hat-trick (header, right foot, left foot). Typically the Arsenal fans started singing 'Same old Arsenal, taking the piss'.

A word about Eboue. He had his best game in a very long time yesterday. He looked good offensively, made good decisions in the final third, but then managed to injure himself diving for the penalty. Just classic Eboue, I suppose. He, Clichy and Nasri are all doubts for the Champions League game on Wednesday.

Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:

I am happy we didn't concede and that we always looked fluid going forward. It was a well-accomplished away game.

And the result was all important yesterday. There are definitely things we need to look at from a defensive point of view but going forward we look dangerous all the time. Walcott is playing with more confidence, Eboue is/was contributing, van Persie got another goal and Adebayor, despite having what I thought was a pretty poor game, ended up with three. In midfield I thought Cesc was quiet but he has such presence it calms the team and Denilson put in another good shift alongside him. There are plenty of positives to take from it.

And not only did we win the game, handsomely, history was made when Jack Wilshere became the youngest ever player to play for Arsenal in the league when he came on as a sub with about ten minutes to go. Cesc still holds the overall record, his appearance in the Carling Cup, but well done to young Jack and may it be the first of many.

It's good to have football back, isn't it? It makes the Sunday papers so much more enjoyable. Now we just regroup and get ourselves ready for Dinamo Kiev.

Till tomorrow.

The fallout from the Fulham game has not been pretty. Condemnation of the performance and the wafer thin squad has been widespread, and rightly so.

I've already said plenty about what we need to do about it so it is somewhat depressing to hear the manager say we're not close to signing anyone. It could be that the manager is playing his cards close to his chest, it could also be that we're just not close to signing anyone. A lot has been said about Xabi Alonso and while I would certainly love to have him I was chatting to the Mugsmasher about him last night and he doesn't think he's what we need.

Now, let me clarify that. He would most certainly improve our midfield, no question, but if we're looking for someone to do what Flamini did last season then he's not the guy. Alonso + one more would be ideal, where that one more is a Flamini style grafter. Who that might be is anybody's guess but it's one for the manager to sort out. The transfer window closes in 6 days time, there's a lot of work to do between now and then if we want to win things this season.

In my opinion he has to look at what's best for the team, not what's best for the players, if you get what I mean. Bringing in two new players in midfield would make life tough for Denilson but so what? It would mean Diaby has to stay fit and take his chances when he gets them. Competition is good and healthy, lack of it brings about results and performances like Fulham. But while it might be negative for some it would mean that players like Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilsgere learn their trade from established, experienced players instead of guys who are barely out of kindergarten in footballing terms. You have to find the right balance between youth and experience and the experience side of things is all wrong right now.

Arsene Wenger spoke about the defending which lead to the goal against Fulham and said:

I feel the kind of mistake we made on the corner is not excusable. You can be beaten to the ball in the air by somebody who jumps higher than you, but you cannot concede a goal in the middle of the goal, on the six-yard line. That’s where I feel we were guilty.

He's right and he needs to look no further than his excuse for a captain to see who's to blame there. I've said all I need to say about Gallas. Rubbish captain and the manager needs to make the change now, if not sooner. Give it to Cesc, let's realise that Gallas was a badly failed experiment and move on.

Emmanuel Adebayor says Arsenal were given a warning by the Fulham result. He says:

We can't think we are untouchable. We saw that as soon as we don't play together, as soon as we don't put our spirit together, we can lose. If we want to challenge [for the Premier League], we cannot lose again. We have to put more heart in, keep focused and play our football.

I can't argue with those sentiments at all but it's amazing that after just two games of the domestic season we're having to rally the troops and call for more spirit. It's something that appeared to be lacking against Fulham and to my mind we don't have the players to address it. Last season we had Flamini constantly talking, encouraging, geeing up his mates, Cesc lead by example, Gallas was trying to prove he had what it takes, Adebayor stood up and scored goals when they were needed.

Now Cesc is injured, Flamini is gone, Gallas has proved more than once he couldn't lead a team of schoolboys and Adebayor is the guy who spent all summer trying to leave the club, despite what the manager says. It's little wonder we lack direction and played so spinelessly.

Still, there's time to put it right. Perhaps the defeat can consolidate the squad, new signings can bolster the midfield and boost confidence, a change of captain might provide more impetus and loyalty from the players who would prefer to play 'for' Cesc than Gallas, and a win against Twente would be the first step in the right direction.

I'm trying very hard not to be overly negative about us at the moment but it's not easy. There are obviously big issues that have to be sorted out. It's time for Arsene to be ruthless. We've seen him do it before but this time he may just have to swallow a little pride to make things right again. Get the seasoning and the ketchup out, boss, it'll make that pride go down easier than Paris Hilton under a nightvision camera.

One of the things that got overlooked in the wake of the Fulham game was the tackle by John Pantsil on Emmanuel Eboue. It really was terrible, over the ball and extremely dangerous. I hope the FA take a good look at it and take a good look at the referee who managed to give a free kick against Eboue for a tackle which might have broken his leg. There have been a couple of bad tackles like that already this season (Deco on Diarra in Chelsea's game against Portsmouth last week) yet on neither occasion has the perpetrator been punished. After what happened to Eduardo perhaps we're a bit more conscious of it but if someone ends up with a bad injury because refs haven't clamped down on these kind of challenges then I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.

Right, that's about it. More on the Twente game to come during the week.  

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new deal for Adebayor.

Arsenal confirmed that the striker has signed a new long term contract - and obviously someone running the website has a sense of humour because the picture they used couldn't possibly have been any better. So well done to Adebayor, he got himself a pay rise. Now the pressure is really on to show that he deserves it, time to get your shooting boots on, Ade.

Tomas Rosicky must be bored. Since he limped off at Newcastle he's had little to do but eat pies if the pictures of him at the game on Saturday are anything to go by. He's dragged up a whole lot of stuff from last season, particularly the Birmingham game. I think we can all point to that game as a turning point in our season but is there really any need for one of the players to bring it up at the start of the new campaign? He really should just shut up and concentrate on trying to be fit for more than a couple of games at a time. Then fans might be interested in what he has to say.

With so many talented youngsters at the club the best way for them to get first team experience is to go out on loan. It looks like Kieran Gibbs could spend the season at Reading, Norwegian central defender Harvard Nordtveit has joined Spanish 2nd division side Salamanca for the season while Young Guns reports Dutch striker Nacer Barazite will join Derby on loan. Good luck to all them.

With fans eagerly awaiting a new signing (or two) Arsene Wenger says that absences make the squad stronger. It's curious logic and in one way it does make sense. Players who would necessarily have got to play otherwise get experience but it's a bit like saying famine makes you fuller because there are less people around to eat what little food there is. We're starving Arsene, buy us some chips!

Samir Nasri, who had been left out, has been called up to the France squad for their friendly this week. He'll join Gallas, Clichy and Sagna on international duty. Update: Now he's been withdrawn from the squad because of a thigh injury. Great.

Beyond that there's not much to tell you. Shaping up to be a fairly dull week so far. 

More tomorrow.

Morning all, it's the start of another week. Dreary too. The weather really is depressing for summertime.

After the chorus of boos that Emmanuel Adebayor was treated to on Saturday Arsene Wenger has urged fans to get behind the Togonator and leave what happened in the summer in the past. He says:

We have to get behind him and support him because he is of tremendous importance for the team and you want your fans to be behind him. What happened in the transfer period did not always reflect his deep desire [to stay] and there was manipulation from agents on both sides.

I'm sure Adebayor heard what happened and I have no doubt it must have been upsetting. But that's life. Sometimes you make choices and do things and you piss people off. It takes a bit of time to heal the wounds. I have no doubt there were agents sticky fingers all over what happened in the summer but ultimately the player has to take responsibility for it. I read a great quote from Gael Clichy who said of transfer rumours and speculation:

In my opinion if you want to be in a newspaper you will be in a newspaper. If you don't want to be then you won't be.

So the bottom line is that Adebayor has made his bed and as uncomfortable as it is he's got to lie in it. That said the manager is also right. Booing players rarely ends up being terribly positive but perhaps there's just only so much fans can take. Sp*rs fans gave Berbatov a good booing for wanting to go to United, Villa fans booed Gareth Barry for wanting to go to Liverpool and Arsenal fans expressed their distaste at Adebayor's apparent desire to leave by booing him. 

In an era when players are paid extortionate amounts of money and the gap between the fan and the player widens ever more maybe it's just time for the player to get a thicker skin. Especially if they rock the boat all summer and expect things to be forgotten about just because they kiss the badge in a meaningless friendly. I do hope Adebayor isn't booed again but at the same time I hope he's got the message and that, maybe, he learns something from it. And when you read stuff like this it really is a shame the way he fucked things up.

On a more positive note Samir Nasri rather enjoyed his day on Saturday. With the manager already making comparisons to Robert Pires (no pressure there then, Sammy) he spoke about his debut, saying:

I could not dream of a better start, to score in my first game after four minutes. Now I will have to continue week in and week out, and hopefully I can keep playing like that, it will be brilliant.

Yes, it will be brilliant. You could see the spark of a lethal new left side partnership between him and Clichy and I think if they get a good run of games together they could become even more dangerous. Pires and Cuntley always worked well down the left before and you get the feeling that's something the manager wants to replicate. Still, it's early days but that was as positive a start from Nasri as you could have hoped for. 

As I said yesterday with a round of meaningless international friendlies this week it's going to be a strange week on the training ground with so many players away. Not the ideal preparation for Fulham on Saturday but that's just the way it goes.

Not much else happening. Just to let anybody who has my email address know that it has changed. The old blogger @ arseblog.com email address got ruined yesterday by some bunch of spamming cunts who flooded my inbox. After downloading about 2,000 'return to sender - you spamming bastard' emails I saw there were another 7,000 waiting to be downloaded so I've nuked that address.

If you do need to get in touch please note the new address (in spam friendly format) is thearseblog AT arseblog D0T com. Please update your address books. 

Right so, enjoy the day, especially if you're a duck. Apart from the duck of death. Clint won't like that. 

So the season starts with a win, three points and a reasonable performance given the understrength nature of the side, particularly in midfield.

There's nothing like an early goal to settle the nerves and that's exactly what we got. It was a lovely goal too. Bendtner played it wide to Clichy, who fed it to Denilson whose run into the box was excellent, he cut it back for new boy Samir Nasri to sidefoot home and to make it 1-0. A debut goal for Nasri will do him the world of good and I liked what I saw of him yesterday. Good on the ball, isn't afraid of having a shot and he works hard. Of course you can't make any judgements based on one performance but it's a positive start for him.

In midfield we had Theo on the right and Emmanuel Eboue in central midfield alongside Denilson. Theo was very quiet in a game where you really wanted him to shine and Eboue, shock horror, had a very decent game in the middle. Obviously he's not the solution to that problem, not by a long way, but credit where it's due. The 1-0 scoreline might have had people a bit more nervous than they would have liked but I think if Cesc had had the chances Eboue had yesterday we'd have won the game by at least three goals.

There were a couple of scary moments, Almunia made a good save after the otherwise impressive Djourou wrongly tried to play offside and the young Swiss made up for it by clearing the rebound off the line. We huffed and puffed a bit up front. Adebayor was trying too hard, if you know what I mean, and he missed a couple of half-decent chances. One moment late in the second half saw him try a Kanu style trick when he should have just played a simple pass to Nasri who was wide open and when the trick didn't come off there was the extraordinary sound of him being booed.

I can't really remember that happening to a player before but it's most certainly a hangover from the summer. I don't think booing players is a good idea but I can understand why some fans, still vexed from his behaviour during the close season, chose to express their distaste. It didn't happen just because he messed up that chance. Still, he worked hard despite not much coming off for him and he made a chance for van Persie who poked it wide with the outside of his left foot. He also crossed for van Persie to head straight at Carson. He put one just wide himself when he really should have scored but hopefully he'll get his head together and his shooting boots on for the next game.

In the end though we didn't really look like adding to the one goal nor did West Brom look like they were going to score. Kolo Toure came on in place of Theo and the fact we had Eboue in central mid and Toure as a right winger shows you how the squad stands at the moment.

The main thing though was the result. Three points on the opening day is not to be sniffed at, no matter who you're playing, we kept another clean sheet and we will get better than this. Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:

I am pleased with the fact that we didn't concede a goal. We scored two on Wednesday, one today, so it's better than the reverse. Overall it was a good week for us. A winning start, a win in the Champions League, so yes a good week.

And given how nervous fans were heading into these two games I think you can call it a good week. There are many positives to take from it and also things that must have become clear to the manager in terms of how the squad needs to be bolstered, but we shall wait and see what happens there.

In other news Justin Hoyte has left Arsenal to join Middlesboro. I think every Arsenal wishes him well up there (apart from twice a year) and I hope his career kicks on. The fee is around £3m which, when you add to the £12m for Hleb, the £1m for Gilberto and the money received from the sell-on of Rat Faced Chav to Sp*rs from Blackburn puts us in the black for our summer dealings. Let's just hope there's too much money under Arsene's mattress for him to have a good night's sleep. He may just have to spend some.

Could some of it go on Liverpool's Xabi Alonso? The News of the World reports Alonso is fed up with Benitez after he tried to sell him all summer and bring in Gareth Barry. I think he'd be an excellent signing and while he is cup-tied in Europe it's only for the group stages of the Champions League, I think. He would be eligible for the knock-out rounds as he's only played in the qualifying round. That said if I were Liverpool I wouldn't possibly sell him to us. It'd make no sense whatsoever to obviously strengthen one of your rivals. Still, stranger things have happened.

Update: I'm wrong. He'd be cup-tied for the whole CL season. 

Reports from Spain this morning say that Arsenal will allow Fran Merida to go on loan for the season to Real Sociedad. He spent the last part of last season on loan at the Basque club and a full campaign is seen as good for his development. Good luck to him there.

And that's really about it. There's a strange week ahead for the squad with many of them on international duty. These early season friendlies really are a pain in the hole and we can only hope that the lads come through unscathed. It may just give Arsene time to count up all the pennies in his jar and go shopping though. Fingers crossed.

Ok, enjoy your Sunday, Arsebandits. More tomorrow.