Latest Updates:

21 DECEMBER 2004

Brazil coach voted for Ruud and the Vieira debate

20 DECEMBER 2004

Are we giving United/Chelsea a defensive head start?

19 DECEMBER 2004

Hard fought 1-0 victory at Pompey: feels good.

17 DECEMBER 2004

Update: Champions League draw

17 DECEMBER 2004

Wenger fined, Edu looking more optimistic and £45 for Charlton

16 DECEMBER 2004

Why Van Nistelrooy can only cheat people

15 DECEMBER 2004

What's really going on with Edu? + Aliadiere hits the comeback trail

14 DECEMBER 2004

'What Ron said': A review

13 DECEMBER 2004

Unsure what Chelsea are moaning about + spare a thought for Freddie

13 DECEMBER 2004

Impassioned Pires, Henry, Cesc and Flamini halt Chelsea juggernaut

12 DECEMBER 2004

Edu 'changes mind'/Yaya Toure + final Chelsea preview

11 DECEMBER 2004

A bit of maths for Mr Mourinho

10 DECEMBER 2004

Do we have to do to Chelsea what United did to us?

09 DECEMBER 2004

Our reward for finishing top: Madrid, Barca, Germany's top two or the European Champions.

07 DECEMBER 2004

Very young Arsenal march through + playa ratings.

07 DECEMBER 2004

Tonight is a bigger game than Chelsea.

05 DECEMBER 2004

Wenger told almost whole team to improve. Did they?

As you've probably heard by now, Thierry Henry finished runner-up to Ronaldinho for the title of World Player of the Year last night. Everyone's got their point of view, but to criticise Henry's european and international form seems a little harsh considering Ronaldinho led Barca to the heights of the UEFA Cup 4th round and didn't even play in the Copa America.

Personally, the stat I think most demonstrates Henry's brilliance is the fact that during something like the last 133 league games, he's scored and set up the goals for a forward line that has only failed to score on seven occasions. It's an unbelievable record and it is one of the reasons I so enjoy watching Arsenal. On the plus side, the publication of who voted for who in the awards gives an annual reminder that the old argument of "if you haven't worked in football at the top level you're not qualified to talk about it" is complete crap. Simply look who Brazil coach, Carlos Alberta voted for and every drunken pub conversation you've ever had will seem that much better informed.

Paddy playing well?

Moving on entirely from people who spout crap, James Lawton spends a thousand words breaking the news that Patrick Vieira's not having the best of seasons. Thanks for that! The story's been the source of a bit of debate this morning: in a moment that pains him greatly, Arseblogger intimates some agreement with Lawton, but there's defence for Paddy from Arsenal wtf who use stats to show Paddy is doing as much, if not more than ever.

For what it's worth, and in incredibly boring fashion, I largely agree with both. I'm definately worried about his form but at the same time can't find a lot of fault in his work rate. He's still tackling, still closing down and has even chipped in with a couple of great goals. But at the same time his mind doesn't appear entirely focused and mistakes we can hardly afford are creeping into his game and costing us both in open play (Pompey on Sunday) and at set pieces (previous games). Hopefully he can finally put behind him both the excitement of the non transfer to Madrid and his early season injury and go on to have a great second half to the season.

See below or click on the link to the left for reaction to yesterday's game. Playa ratings to the right.

By now most of us have heard the rumours and then denials from the boss about Arsenal making a £22 million odd swoop for Ledley King in the upcoming transfer window. Whether he signs or not, I think it raises an interesting question about how Wenger adjusts the team when either Sol or Kolo are out and how it differs from the approach Jose Mourinho and Fergie take to central defensive problems.

When either one of our big two are out, the automatic reaction is to draft a centre back (usually Cygan and before long Senderos) in from the subs bench. At Chelsea, a rare injury to Carvallho or Terry sees Gallas typically move across from left-back. At United, Ferdinand and Silvestre are first choice, but Gary Neville and Gabriel Heinze are both well capable of vacating their position at full-back when required to do so.

So United and Chelsea's reserve centre backs are in fact players who can reasonably be called first team players and are also used to playing consistently in their side. On the other hand, our reserves are just that - reserves, who aren't really good enough yet to command a first team place and who are coming into one of the most important areas of the team having spent the last ten games on the bench and playing the odd reserve game at Underhill.

Sadly, neither of our regular full-backs can do what Gallas, Neville and Heinze can do for their sides. Now I'm not advocating getting rid of Ashley Cole, but there does seem a case for bringing in either a right back in place of Lauren who is capable of slotting in easily at centre-back, or else a top class defender, with Kolo moving to right back and also being first reserve centre back.

Time to change?

The last thing I'm saying is that Kolo is not good enough for centre-back. Quite the contrary. But it's imperative to have three superb centre backs just as it is to have three superb attackers. But whereas you can leave an attacker on the bench one game out of three and give him a runout with 25 minutes remeaining, there's minimal reason ever to substitute a centre back for tactical reasons. Hence, keeping three world class players at the club who can only play centre back is a nigh on impossible balancing act.

Of course, when Heinze or Gallas moves across, someone has to come in at left back. And this is when players like Quinton Fortune, Celestine Babayaro or even Wayne Bridge get a game. They may be coming in cold and they might not quite be up to the standard of their manager's first eleven, but crucially they're slotting into full back, a far less important position than centre back.

So I would advocate us spending serious money and bringing in a top quality player conforming to the specifics identified above. It could mean a change of position for Kolo and it would mean a demotion for Lauren. But so be it.

Portsmouth 0 Arsenal 1

Just the win we needed: an old fashioned, hard fought, scraped out, luck ridden 1-0 away win in December with the goal coming from the most unlikely of sources. Step forward Sol Campbell, with the game at 0-0, Pompey on top and the five point gap looking like it was about to become at least seven. He took Kolo's square ball, strode forward, carried on, made sure he had his body over the ball and then thumped in an unstoppable low effort past Ashdown from 25 yards. It was probably the most un Arsenal like goal you'll see all season and yet one of the sweetest.

We'd started with an unfamiliar looking team: Paddy and Flamini teamed up for the first time in the middle, giving Cesc a well earned rest. With Freddie, Jose and Pennant all out, Pires went right (and got booed every time he touched the ball) and Clichy started his first Premiership game of the season. Up front the boss made what was probably a popular choice - giving the octopus like Van Persie his first start in place of Dennis who dropped to the bench.

We'd started well enough and largely controlled the first hour - even if Pompey had enjoyed a couple of good chances. Then the home side took a grip and truth be told, we were struggling to get much of a kick when up popped Sol. We then held on reasonably comfortably. Some fans will point to the fair few chances Pompey created and criticise the defending. I think that on occasion we did get sucked in but on set pieces we looked like a different side to the one that gifted Chelsea two sloppy goals a week ago. The defence's confidence is growing in Almunia, Almunia's confidence in Almunia is growing and we now have two clean sheets in three games.

Sure, we're not firing on all cylinders and there's a lot of work to do. But I don't think it was a coincidence that unlike our games against Southampton, Palace and West Brom, today we managed to hold onto our lead. Playa ratings to the right.

Bayern Munich v Arsenal
Real Madrid v Juventus
FC Porto v Inter Milan
Barcelona v Chelsea
Werder Bremen v Lyon
Liverpool v Bayer Leverkusen
PSV v Monaco
Manchester United v AC Milan

We should ourselves lucky - the German runners-up and a side who qualified in relatively mute fashion from what was an admittedly tough group containing Juve and Ajax. Fortunately for the Germans, the Dutch capitulated, losing to Macabi Tel-Aviv and only taking four points. In their two crunch encounters, Juve beat Bayern in both Turin and Munich.

The reason I say we should consider ourselves fortunate is because five minutes before the draw I realised Arsenal, with a naivity that only we seem capable of in Europe, had left ourselves completely up the creek by finishing top of our group. Why? Because we were the only one of the original eight top seeds to do so. And with 12 out of the total 16 seeds getting through, it meant that the various group runners-up we could have drawn didn't just look good on paper but were the very sides we were meant to avoid as reward for finishing top. Overall it was an excellent draw. Fergie got Milan as he predicted and Barcelona got Chelsea.

Arsene Wenger was clearly distraught following news of his fine of £15,000 for saying Ruud Van Nistelrooy "could only cheat people who don't know him."

Not quite choking back the tears a la David Blunkett, Wenger offered this heartfelt apology for his actions: "Now is the time to move on. We have an important match coming up and all my thoughts are focused on our preparation for the visit to Portsmouth on Sunday." Most papers point out that had the boss been exonerated it would have been tantamount to the F.A. saying Ruud Van Nistelrooy is a cheat.

The Telegraph said: "Despite being a record fine for a manager, many will feel Wenger got off lightly, given that `cheat' is one of the biggest insults that can be levelled." What's interesting is the lack of discussion in any paper about the simple question of whether Van Nistelrooy is in fact a cheat or not. Accusing him of being so would be very difficult, because it could leave the paper open to accusations of libel. However they would face no legal difficulty were they to defend his record. None have.

Edu

In other news, it looks like Edu's transfer situation might not be quite as cut and dry as some of the more sensationalist headlines have tried to intimate. According to The Independent: "The Arsenal midfielder Edu says that he still hopes to stay with the Gunners after his contract expires in the summer." The quotes in the article certainly sound far more like him than what I think was agent speak we heard earlier in the week.

A few sites, including EastLower.com have already made mention of the £45 Charlton are charging Arsenal fans to attend the game at the Valley on New Years Day. I can only agree with the sentiments expressed on other sites and say that I think it an absolute disgrace. At the same time, I'm a bit of a hypocrite because I'll probably be taking up the offer of buying one of those tickets seeing that depending on work commitments it could be the final Arsenal game I see live this season.

Charlton and their Christmas party

The irony is that Charlton are actually offering 'half' season tickets to fans for £170 for their 10 remaining home games. This is particularly excellent value when you consider it includes games against us, very local rivals Crystal Palace, Manchester United, Liverpool, Spurs and second in the table Eveton. All of which suggests that despite regular full houses, Charlton are having to offer tickets to home fans very cheaply and try and make it up by ripping off away fans from big teams. I'm no economist, but it just doesn't sound like a long term business plan.

The sad thing is I only found out about the ticket price on Wednesday morning. Had I known Tuesday night I could have collared Matt Holland about it when I saw Charlton out on their Xmas party in a dodgy South African bar in Covent Garden. Dean Kiely was doing karaoke at 8.30 in the evening. Which by any standards is poor. I could have also asked Holland how he manages to maintain such saintly status despite a dive against us last season that was about as bad as Bobby Pires' versus Pompey three weeks earlier. Don't worry, I didn't.

There'll be more once we've heard the draw for the Champions League second round, which will be made about 11:00GMT. I reckon we'll get Porto, Liverpool get Milan, United get Monaco and Chelsea end up with PSV. Pray, let me wrong on the last one.

The boss finally comes up in front of the F.A. today, charged with labelling Ruud Van Nistelrooy a cheat. Though he won't be there in person, it's thought Arsenal have detailed a lengthy dossier of the equine one's various attempts to end Arsenal players' careers over the past three years. All of which should be quite funny. It's thought that the boss will 'escape' with a fine for his comments in any case.

No doubt, Fergie and his media pals will call it a fix, wonder why the F.A. took note of Arsene's dossier and not the one Fergie sent to the F.A. of alleged misdemeanours from Old Trafford on our part, accuse David Dein of holding too much influence at the F.A. and blame it all on Nigel Winterburn for taunting Brian McClair for his penalty miss in 1988. The hulabaloo will carry on until the weekend, giving everyone the opportunity to forget the actual facts of the case.

Cheat

Which, in case you've forgotten, are that in the Old Trafford games of May 2002, January 2003, September 2003 and October 2004, Ruud Van Nistelrooy regularly assaulted Arsenal players, including a punch to Freddie Ljungberg's chest, a stamp on Martin Keown, a terrible challenge on Lauren, an attempt to go through Patrick Vieira's back and an attempt to break Ashley Cole's leg.

On the basis that up until the time of Wenger's comments nothing had been done about any of the above incidents, I'm struggling to see what is so factually wrong about asserting that Van Nistelrooy "can only cheat people". Interesting that within hours of his comments, justice finally started to catch up with Van Nistelrooy when he was banned for the Cole incident (this despite SKY initially trying to completely ignore it).

Fergie's dossier

On the other hand, Fergie's dossier contained wholly biased evidence (that was dismissed on the grounds of its bias) on the alleged food fight, Therry Henry falling over and entirely accidentally catching Gabriel Heinze and Dennis Bergkamp making the slightest of contact with Alan Smith. The accustations were dismissed not because the F.A. are biased, but actually because they were complete bollocks.

Sadly, whilst Lauren is quite rightly condemned for trying to incriminate another player, Fergie's cynical attempt to get two of our players banned was completely indulged by a press seemingly living in perpetual fear of being banned from speaking to the rose faced one.

What's really going on with Edu? + Aliadiere hits the comeback trail

Now we've got a (sometimes fair) reputation for whinging, but Chelsea are just sounding more ridiculous by the day. Jose Mourinho is gabbling on about 'dark acts', Petr Cech's calling Graham Poll an Arsenal fan and Eidur Gudjohnsen says they were told the whistle would be blown. All of which just isn't true - Eidur Gudjohnsen knew the whole time that we were allowed to take it quick. That's why he stood on the ball initially and that's why he waved at Cech frantically after moving away. He moved away because if he didn't, he would have risked a yellow card - which is what he really should have done.

Face it: you cocked-up defensively. It happens. To us it happens very, very frequently at the moment. Get over it. And there's a good explanation of the rules on Arsenal Times from a qualified referee.

Edu

I'm unsure what to make of the latest rumours linking Edu with a move to Real Madrid. I'm not as pessimistic as some Gooners are about the chances of him staying. It seems that the sticking issue is currently money - and more often than not these things end up being sorted out (though not in the case of Wiltord admittedly). Edu's got a young family in London and had always seemed delighted to be at Arsenal until the contract negotiations came up, so if they can agree on figures I wouldn't be surprised if he stayed.

No doubt a move to Madrid or Barcelona has its appeals - but we seem to be hearing contradictory reports every day. Given that legally, formal discussions can't even take place yet, many of the reports we've read look more like they're based on agent talk than concrete discussions actually taking place. Anyway, we shall see.

Mad Charlton

Has anyone seen this by the way? Charlton are charging £45 for away fans for the game at the Valley on New Years Day. There's going to be one almighty pop soon. I just hope Keith Edelman has accounted for it in his finances for the new stadium. If not, we're up shit creek. More of that tomorrow, when I'm not suffering one of those body feels fine, head feels fine, but brain won't work hangovers.

Aliadiere

Finally, Jeremie Aliadiere is on the mend. I know some Gooners doubt if he's got the strength or the more general physical presence to make it at Highbury but I'm a lot more optimistic. Of the four non Carling Cup games he's started, three of them were really tricky away games (Liverpool, Leicester and United in the F.A. Semi) where he got thrown straight in at the deep end, and probably harshly so in the case of the United game when he clearly wasn't sufficiently recovered from injury. His only Highbury start was at home to Boro in January. And until he got injured towards half time he'd probably been the best player on the park - forcing decent saves out of Mark Schwartzer and linking up excellently with the rest of the team. So all hail his return.

'What Ron Said': A review

The normal spouting of crap about Arsenal will return tomorrow. I will just say again that I hope Freddie is ok.

'What Ron Said', a 60 minute documentary examining Ron Atkinson's use of the 'n' word, his subsequent dismissal from his jobs at ITV and the Guardian and his sudden plummet from grace, aired on BBC1 last night. It started with the classic cringeworthy 'Ron at home making tea with the family scenes', but the next 55 minutes were excellently written and narrated by Adrian Chiles - Match of the Day 2 presenter, BBC economist, BBC radio 606 presenter and West Brom fan (Atkinson famously managed the Baggies).

Genuine regret?

I thought Big Ron came across in real life as being no more intelligent than the simplistic characture we're used to from the telly. He couldn't really understand why what he'd said was so wrong and why he'd assumed pariah status for it. He was sorry, he'd said so many times and he knew he should be sorry. But you got the sense that he couldn't see what marked his comments out from any other of the banter he'd given and taken on the training pitch so many times over the years. His apologies therefore seemed more an attempt to resolve the situation he found himself in rather than real regret at the offence he'd caused. Despite meeting race councillors, consulting academic race experts, touring a museum of racist American artefacts, having the difference explained to him between the 'n' word being spoken by a black and white person and facing some of his harshest critics, by the end of the film Big Ron still seemed unable to understand the wider implications of his remark.

Possibly the most shocking part of the hour was a piece of commentary we heard during a segment about how Atkinson's West Brom team in the 70s had contained three black players - very rare at the time. A clip of Brendan Batson crossing for Cyril Regis to head in was accompanied by John Motson (I'm 90% certain it was him - if not, then apologies) saying completely straight faced: "And what excellent link up play there between the coloured players."

Political correctness gone mad

Ron appears confused by the reaction he's received. On one side he's been slammed by many sections of the media and also by the likes of Ian Wright and the prominent Trinadian born writer Darcus Howe. But he also claims to have received a lot of support from members of the public and black footballers, some of whom he's managed and others he's met through television. The issue of public support is one that grates very close to the bone in the programme. Whilst Ron appeared well versed in ensuring any guard he'd built up wasn't allowed to slip, many of his supporters on the street appeared completely unbothered by what he'd said and sadly far more obsessed with Britain's current pet obsession: political correctness gone mad.

But the issue of the support he's received from players such as Batson, Carlton Palmer and John Barnes is far more interesting. That they've heard his comments about Desailly and also another racist remark he made in very similar circumstances during the 1990 World Cup. That they choose to stand by him (though not condone him) is understandably, and perhaps not unfairly, a source of comfort for Ron when he insists he is not a racist.

Clean Fedinand's boots

When Atkinson met Darcus Howe at the end of the programmem, Howe told Atkinson to go and work as a journalist for the National Front and to make amends for his comments by going to Old Trafford and cleaning Rio Ferdinand's boots for 10 weeks. The comments appeared brash and lacking in judgment and inevitably served only to fuel Atkinson's sense of injustice that he's paying too great a price for what he frequently refers to as "an abberation".

The programme left me wondering whether Big Ron really deserved to be welcomed back into what by any standards was a remarkably well paid and pretty cushy job. But I can't help feeling that making him spend the rest of his life as an outcast appears ridiculously punitive and would probably only result in greater resentment, less understanding and more talk of political correctness gone mad.

Sympathy?

Perhaps the forgiveness issue depends on where one sees Big Ron as fitting in. Do what were undoubtedly vicious comments put him in the list of blatant racists (such as politician turned chat show host turned politician Robert Kilroy-Silk) who know exactly what they're doing and who I believe should receive absolutely no sympathy at all. Or is Ron deserving of the allowances we occasionally reluctantly make when we hear members of our grandparent's generation making comments which, whilst once the (unacceptable) norm, clearly have no place today?

Unsure what Chelsea are moaning about + spare a thought for Freddie

I'm struggling a little on this one: Eidur Gudjohnsen was the Chelsea player responsible for dealing with the Arsenal free-kick for our second goal. Initially, he stood over the ball, clearly aware we were allowed to take the free-kick quickly. The referee then held out his arm and Gudjohnsen took two steps back. But he did not walk slowly back to the Chelsea wall. He imediately waved frantically at his goalkeeper because he knew very well that we had permission to take a quick free-kick. All of which suggests, Cech's talking crap, Mourinho's talking crap and these guys are talking crap.

I say it not to dwell on what should be old news, but only because you can't help feeling that had it happened to us we'd be accused of a) poor organisation and defending and b) whinging. There's also the point that the only reason teams are ever able or allowed to spend ages lining up defensive walls is to allow the attacker to strike the ball without an opposition player within ten yards. Read the rules and there's nothing that says: "The team who have been penalised for the foul have a right to bring the game to a halt, spend a few minutes organising a defensive wall and once they're happy that everything is properly set, allow the attackers to take the free-kick."

Chelsea top of Xmas tree

That discussed, yesterday's draw means Chelsea will be top at Christmas, but the stats show that in only 3 out of the 12 Premiership seasons have the Xmas leaders turned their festive superiority into silverware come May - and in none of Wenger's three league winning years have we been top on December 25th.

The way I see it, we've got no hope of winning the title if we can't sort out our defending from set plays. Teams like Bolton, Palace, Southampton and West Brom will continue to exploit our errors and undoubtedly cost us. But the good news is that a) we're quite capable of defending these set pieces properly and b) we're still scoring at an outstanding rate. At the current rate, we'll hit our 100th league goal of the season when we visit Birmingham on the final day of the season.

Poor Freddie

Meanwhile, spare a thought for Freddie Ljungberg, who will miss Sunday's game at Pompey with a continuation of his migraine problem and will apparently be consulting a neurologist according to SKY Sports News. And congrats to Arsene Wenger on winning 'Coach of the Year' at last night's BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards. Sadly Thierry only finished fourth in the running for European Player of the Year. I'm not going to pass too much comment, because I haven't watched enough of the three who beat him to give a truly considered opinion. But it's funny to think Michael Owen was good enough to win the same trophy three years ago.

Impassioned Pires, Henry, Cesc and Flamini halt Chelsea juggernaut

That was a fantastic game. The kind of game that leaves you with a buzz for hours afterwards and reminds you why you love football. Below are the general details of the game below - playa ratings are to the right. I not going to spend an eternity discussing the controversial moments, but what I will say is that maybe Pires wasn't fouled, but the way Eidur Gudjohnsen was waving an Petr Cech meant he for one was well aware a quick free kick was permitted. And I thought Scott Parker was very lucky when he ran into Flamini in the box late on. But that doesn't mean Arsenal deserved to win. It was the best game I've seen in a long while and a draw was the fair result.

Defeat for us would have been so much worse

And for us I thought it was a very good result and a pretty good performance too. Some of the press coverage suggests Chelsea will come out the happier having maintained the five point gap. But let's face it: another defeat for us would have been a hammer blow. But defeat for Chelsea and I would expect them to take it in their stride. It's in their nature - you can't see Mourinho's side being affected by a defeat in the same way we were after Old Trafford. In this sense we're more fragile, weaker if you will, but as Kevin McCarra pointed out last week, its what makes Arsenal what they are. So there was little to be gained psychologically, but a lot to be lost. If we're going to win what is this year an incredibly hard league, I'd be surprised if come the end of it the difference comes down to whether we were two points or five points behind after yesterday's game.

Underdog for the first time in years

It was an extraordinary match - seemingly the first time in years that Arsenal were the underdog - particularly playing at Highbury. We were incapacitated even further before kick-off by Freddie's failure to return following his migraine. So despite the fact we had a 17 year old and a 20 year old making his first Premiership start in midfield, Arsene was pretty much forced into playing four virtual strikers. 18 year old Gael Clichy could have come in, but its not Arsene's style. So were left with what was a ridiculously attacking side in light of the task ahead. The good news was that after 75 seconds Thierry Henry finally proved that he just really isn't a big game player, nodding down a long ball from Cesc, collecting the return from Reyes and burying a bullet shot past Cech. Chelsea were shocked but responded well and equalised when John Terry escaped Henry and Campbell at a corner and powered home a header. I thought we were great today, but our set piece defending is abysmal. Henry's deflected free kick gave us the lead again on 29 mins and we held on until half time despite Chelsea mostly running the game. Then 35 seconds after half time, we conceded another free-kick, defended pathetically again, and Gudjohnsen equalised.

A strong finish

Surprisinly we then got more and more into the game. Yes, Robben came close after a mazey run and we afforded Lampard and Terry stupid free headers, but rather than tire as we thought they might, Cesc and Flamini actually got more of a stranglehold of the game. And we had two great chances, firstly when Henry sliced wide with Cech out of his goal and then when substitute Van Persie slid one just the wrong side of the post. That said, Terry's header might have been going in had Gallas not blocked it. So a draw was a fair result.

Conclusion

I can't help agreeing with Myles Palmer In light of our desperately understrength midfield and the gulf in confidence between the two sides going into this game. I'm sure we've just witnessed the best Arsenal league performance in two months. And will Chelsea be left wondering if yesterday was the day they could have dealt the mortal blow to our title ambitions? And when, if not yesterday, will they ever win a league game at Highbury? One thing is for sure, they gave us the toughest test we've had this season. But we also gave them their toughest test. And it was a clean, hard fought game that was a million times better to watch than the crap we saw at Old Trafford. Click on 'Chelsea' on the right hand side for playa ratings.

Edu 'changes mind'/Yaya Toure + final Chelsea preview

The good news this morning is that Edu is not apparently going to Barcelona. Today it seems he is in fact off to Valencia. The quotes come from the News of the World and read something like this: "I don't want to be Barcelona's second choice. I'll join Valencia and I'll announce the news next month." Which is agent talk (at best) if ever I've heard it. And call me a pedant, but saying: "I'll join Valencia" (who incidently are out of the Champions League) sounds a hell of a lot like an announcement to me.

In other transfer news, Kolo has issued his once yearly plea to bring younger brother Yaya to Highbury. Apparently, and you'd never believe this, but he's not enjoying his football in the Ukraine. Not quite sure why the People had to put 10 hacks on the story.

Today's game

As for today, Arseblog reckons Almunia continues between the sticks and Freddie is still out. I'm not going to go to into the keeper thing, because frankly I'm bored by it. But Freddie missing is a blow and will probably mean Jose starts, along with Pires, Bergkamp and Henry, leaving the midfield of Cesc and Flamini looking a little lightweight. That said, when we were playing really well, I would have said that with the exception of Paddy in for Flamini, what we'll see today is probably our best midfield and strike force. However the fact we're not playing really well says that Fred is exactly the type of player we'd need to get stuck in today. So from that point of view I think him missing is a further blow.

Post match update either later tonight or tomorrow morning.

A bit of maths for Mr Mourinho

Jose Mourinho yesterday: "When you speak about Chelsea and the amount of money spent, you speak about an amount of money spent by someone [Claudio Ranieri] who is not here any more. I don't spend so much. And we have to compete with a seven-month-old team against a seven-year-old team. It's a big surprise to me, I can tell you. When Thierry Henry signed for Arsenal, was he free? Or when Patrick Vieira came here, was it on loan? As for Reyes, did Seville give them an expensive Christmas gift?"

True figures

Now frankly Mr Mourinho, excellent manager and European Cup winner you may be, but the above just isn't really true, is it? These are the facts:

Ranieri spent a total of £128 million following the arrival of Roman Abramovich at Chelsea. He took them to a finish of runners-up in the Premiership and semi-finalists of the European Cup. You've appeared remarkably willing to use these players since you came to Chelsea, and also players such as Frank Lampard and Eidur Gudjohnsen, who were bought for big money (Lampard cost as much as Henry don't you know) before Roman came to the club.

Since your arrival in August, the following players have joined the first team squad: Cech (£7m), Paulo Ferreira (£13.2m), Kezman (£5m), Drogba (£24m), Tiago (£10m), Carvalho (£19.85m), Robben (£12m). This equals £90 million. Which then made me realise, that expensive as Henry and Reyes may have been and Vieira actually wasn't, the seven above players cost £14 million more than the following:

Jens Lehman (£1.3m), Manuel Almunia (£750,000), Lauren (£7.5m), Hoyte, Campbell, Toure (£1.2m), Cygan (£2m), Senderos (£500,000), Cole, Clichy (£250,000), Vieira (£3m), Edu (£6m), Gilberto (£4.5m), Flamini (£1m), Cesc, Ljungberg (£3m), Pennant (£2.5m), Pires (£5.5), Van Persie (£2.5m), Quincy, Bergkamp (£7.5m), Henry (£10m), Reyes (up to £17m). That is every player who has represented Arsenal this season. I could add on the Carling Cup players, but they wouldn't increase the total of £76 million.

This Mr Mourinho, is the difference.

Achievements

Personally I'm not one for carping on about how unfair the financial gap is. The issue of fair distribution of wealth extends well beyond the very limited confines of football. And seeing as the Premiership is one of the most mercenery, money orientated operations anywhere on earth, serious complaints seem a little churlish.

But the following can be said: Wenger became the first manager in the modern era of British football to take a side unbeaten through a whole season. The previous summer he had made transfer investments more comparable with a first division side than a team about to go unbeaten over the course of a whole season. He had laid out £1.3 million to replace an aging goalkeeper and another £250,000 on a 17 year old French left-back. With three and a half months of the season left he did splash out, spending £10 million on a young Spanish striker, who great as he was, did not score his first league goal until the title was already wrapped up.

Brilliant as you and your players may be, you winning the league this season wouldn't equate to half of what we achieved last.

Do we have to do to Chelsea what United do to us?

I'm loathe to say it, but personally I think we need to try to do to Chelsea what Man United have started doing to us. Three factors mean that its going to be all but impossible to destroy them like we pick apart other teams. The first factor is their incredible wealth - they simply have excellent players all over the park, including on the bench. The second factor is our poverty in central midfield - being without Paddy, Edu and Gilberto is a massive loss. The third factor is that despite what happened in mid week, we're not in the best of form, whilst they're on top of their game.

So perhaps we need to be less pretty. Perhaps Flamini needs to break up the midfield like Phil Neville does at Old Trafford, tracking Lampard when he joins attacks and stopping him from picking out Duff and Robben. Perhaps our forwards will have to run their hearts out chasing back far more than usual. And perhaps Ashley won't be able to bomb forward as often as he would like.

One off game

I know that to suggest Arsenal should suddenly shape their game around Chelsea's threat may sound defeatist, as though we're conceding overall supremacy to the Blues in the way we all know United have to us. But this is a one off game. They're hitting their peak, we're not yet completely out of our trough. With the midfielders back and everyone else on form, I'd happily suggest taking the game to Chelsea. Indeed up until Paddy got suspended for this game, I couldn't wait to see us assault their stone wall of a defence with our full artillery. But the circumstances of Sunday's game have changed and I hope we realise that.

We must also remember that Chelsea prey on tired legs. They've been lauded for the eight goals they've scored in their past two Premiership outings, but truth be told the defending for many of them was no better than Rosenberg's in midweek. So we can't let our concentration dip, can't suddenly switch off and let Robben or Duff free in the 2nd half.

Unlike some people, I think it is possible for us to win this game. I also think it could be a draw, and there's a fair bet they could overwhelm a side still feeling their way back towards their best. But if Neville can halt Paddy, then Flamini can halt Lampard. And remember, solid as their defence is, they concede in a game more frequently than we fail to score in one. The above may all sound overly defensive, but there's rarely been any danger of us forgetting to attack. Even in the recent poor run, we scored ten goals in six games. And despite the shrinking goal difference so harked on about by Chelsea fans, Arsenal minus Thierry Henry's goals have still scored only two less than all Roman's millions have brought. More tomorrow.

Our reward for finishing top: Madrid, Barca, Germany's top two or the European Champions.

Arsenal will play either German champions Werder Bremen, German runners-up Bayern Munich, Chamions League holders Porto, Barcelona or Real Madrid in the Champions League 2nd round. Which finally disproves the theory that finishing first gives you some kind of advantage. However we will get the second leg at home, which again is meant to strengthen our position. Call me a cynic, but a possible 120 minutes to score a double weighted away goal sounds preferable to having just the 90. The odds are slightly in favour of us getting Germans because fellow group winners Bayer Leverkusen can't face either Munich or Bremen (nor group buddies Madrid). Just for the record, we're the only undefeated English team in this season's competition and one of only 3 overall (along with Juventus and Inter Milan. Along with Porto, we qualified with the fewest number of wins (two).

Almunia

I'm getting the impression that one of Friday's papers will land the world exclusive first ever interview with the man who first spotted Manuel Alumnia playing beach frisbee on the Costa Del Sol. Rarely has one so unknown received such attention. Admittedly, Alumnia's form has been a concern, but the funny thing is that many of his aerial errors have simply been a case of trying to catch when punching was the wiser option. Eventually, he learnt this against Rosenberg, which in itself we should probably take as a comfort.

And I don't buy the guff written in the press about the crowd giving Alumnia ironic cheers. I wasn't actually at the game, and I may be well off the mark on this one (like I was re Frankie Simek) but I think there a major difference between ironic, derisory cheers (the like of which Keown got as a central midfielder when he first returned to the club in 93) and deliberate attempts to encourage a guy clearly in need of a boost. Arsenal fans, quiet as they may be, are not the meanest of people and are unlikely to start dishing out cruel stick with the team 5-1 up. All I know is that I cheered in front of the TV when he caught one ball and punched another late in Tuesday's game. And my cheers were certainly not ironic. (Whether cheering at a nonrespondent TV is a little bit sad is an irrelavant aside...)

Bob Wilson

There's a really interesting article from Bob Wilson on the keeper situation in today's Times. Pick of the quotes are: "Arsène and I have long differed about Taylor’s potential. I don’t think we’ll ever know who was right or wrong because it’s unlikely he’ll get a real chance at Highbury" and "one of the reasons for dropping Lehmann was his failure to keep out Neil Mellor’s last-gasp winner for Liverpool at Anfield" and "I also think Arsenal’s defence may well be tighter and more focused with him (Alumnia) in goal rather than Lehmann. They know what to expect from Lehmann and are more casual with him behind them" and "There is nothing worse than hearing ironic cheers as you save a simple shot. Almunia faced that awful sound against Rosenborg" and "With so many points still up for grabs, the result will provide little more than a psychological boost for the winning team and the respective managers".

On the first comment I think Wilson clearly has a point: did Taylor ever give us the shits like Alumnia does at times? I find the second very revealing - few of us sought to blame Lehman for Mellor's strike. The third suggests reverse psychology - that rather than dropping Lehman because the defence didn't feel comfortable with him, it was in fact done to force the defence to buckle up. The fourth comment suggests perhaps I was talking crap about the ironic cheers and fifth comment is spot on, much as you'll never hear it on SKY.

There are a couple of interesting team selections ahead of Sunday. Will Freddie make it? Do we stick with Dennis, Jose, Henry and Pires in one side? Should Clichy bolster the midfield? Another of the big questions is whether Pires can provide sufficient defensive cover. Which is an opportune moment to introduce Arsenal wtf's? view that "Pires is not the defensive liability most think". I agree wholeheartedly. The question is whether Robert Pires does. More later, or maybe tomorrow. And a new goodplaya.com (with a semblance of design) is beginning to take shape very slowly.

7 December 2004 22:45GMT.

Very young Arsenal march through

Watching football on ITV: the perfect advert for SKY.

As expected Dennis returned, but it turned out to be for Fred (suffering from a migraine) rather than Jose. And the Spaniard made the most of his reprieve, settling the Highbury nerves with a well taken goal involving a shimmy, a cut back and a low finish courtesy of a Dennis pass. TH netted the second with a smart finish from the edge of the box after defender and goalkeeper had both failed to realise just how quick he is. Flamini, who had started well, got the assist. On the half hour Cesc became the 2nd youngest Champions League scorer when Robert Pires played him in following an incisive (if deflected) ball into the box from Dennis. Realising he couldn't get the shot away on his right foot, the young Spaniard hooked the ball across his body, brought it down with his chest and then deliberately shanked it into the goal with his left foot. Realising a player was fast coming in to intercept, he'd hit the ball very early, whilst it was still quite high. Excellent finish.

Then Alumnia parried a cross and was punished by Rosenberg captain Erik Hufton who hooked home. More on Alumnia in the playa ratings. Any nerves were soon quelled before half time when Henry burst into the box and was caught by the flailing leg of the keeper Espen Johnsen. In truth TH had probably lost the ball, but the keeper did seem to catch him judging by the limited replays shown on ITV (they seemed to just ignore the 4th goal when doing the half time analysis, which was all a bit odd). Bob scored. Half time came and went and Clive Tylesdsley started speculating that we might see Arsenal turn on a show in the second half. Which anyone who saw us last season knew was obviously never going to happen. It was obviously a shame for Clive, but I was delighted to see us playing out a game comfortably and conserving our energy for Sunday.

The introduction of RVP livened things up a fair bit in the best possible way (ie not like Old Trafford). He had at least three efforts of varying quality before a delightful move involving Pires, Cesc and Reyes eventually saw him dink the ball delightfully over the keeper. Marvellous. Seeing the players celebrate was extraordinary - you suddenly realised that following substitutions we had Sol Campbell, Thierry Henry, Kolo, Alumnia and seven kids on the field. (Hoyte, Clichy, Cesc, Flamini, Van Persie, Quincy, Jose).

With Panathanaikos beating PSV 3-1 we finished top of the group, undefeated and having beaten all three of our opponents over the course of the home and away games. Chelsea lost in Porto tonight (with an all but full team) and so do not have the distinction of having gone through the group stages without defeat. More analysis tomorrow.

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Tonight is a bigger game than Chelsea.

Tonight is the mother of all must win games. Not technically in the sense that a draw or even a defeat could do, but very much so in the sense that failure to qualify would probably be the biggest disapointment in Arsene Wenger's eight years in charge. An over reaction some might say, pointing to the semi final defeat to United in 99 that cost us back to back doubles, or last season's Champions League exit to Chelsea, or indeed many other European disapointments. But on none of those nights would there have been so great a sense of underachievement as we'd feel if we failed tonight. The imperious champions of England, the side who went undefeated for a whole season, falling at the first hurdle in a group of relative crap, whilst Chelsea, United and perish the thought even Liverpool march on to the next stage. For a side so determined to prove their Euro sceptics wrong, failure tonight would leave an almighty void in the season. Not even half way through it and the chance to surpass last season's achievements would have gone. It would feel like being knocked out of the Cup to a lower league side - something we've never experienced under Arsene Wenger. Should we lose to Chelsea instead, eight points would be a tough ask, but quite doable if we put one of our runs together and Chelsea stuttered even briefly. And we'd still be ahead of United.

Team News

On the team news front, Almunia plays. Jens appears a little perplexed as to what he's done wrong, and in terms of mere responsibility for goals, he's probably got a point. But I think it all comes down to the defenders having confidence in their goalkeeper. Over a fortnight ago I said "The rest of the team doesn’t trust neither him (Cygan) nor Jens Lehman and the effect is reverberating through our side." Now Myles Palmer has asked: "Did the defenders tell him (Wenger) they didn’t trust Lehmann?" And in the Standard, Micheal Hart says: "In truth, Lehmann has made a few howlers, but it is sometimes the case that coaches drop goalkeepers not simply because of their mistakes, but because of the effect their mistakes have on the other defenders. If some of the outfield players have lost faith in Lehmann, Wenger has little option but to make a change." I'm not claiming to be Mystic Meg, but I do think that just analysing Lehman's culpability for goals is perhaps missing the point. Elsewhere, Flamini and Hoyte both play, which is wise. And it looks like Dennis will return in place of Jose, which will hopefully allow the Spaniard a run against tired Norweigan legs as a 2nd half substitute. Which is exactly what I think he needs. On a final note, there's a really good, not agenda driven, not cliche ridden piece about Arsenal by Kevin McCarra in today's Guardian. Worth a read.

Oh dear, a long report.

According to the Observer, Arsene Wenger called every first-team player individually into his office last week and, with the exception of Freddie Ljungberg and Cesc, told them they weren’t playing well enough. Ian Ridley usually knows his Arsenal stuff, and if he doesn’t then his colleague Amy Lawrence does, so it’s fair to take this as true.

So did things get better? In some ways yes. We weren’t great by any means, but we scored thrice and even kept a clean sheet. And with the exception of Almunia’s butter fingers on one occasion, the fear that we were about to concede a late equaliser was based on precedent rather than the action out in front of us. Playa ratings, with a special ‘Did things get better’ theme, are below.

Truth be told, many of the faults Wenger highlighted in that meeting were probably still on display yesterday. But anyone who thought we were suddenly going to pick up where we’d left off against Villa so many weeks ago was always going to be disappointed. These things take time and yesterday was, fingers crossed, a positive first step. Funnily enough, I thought the most improved person was Wenger himself. Whilst, with the exception of Alumnia in goal, injuries meant the starting eleven pretty much picked itself, his substitutions were spot on. Most notably they included Clichy on for Reyes - on paper defensive but in reality it gave us much better shape and sturdiness and probably was the difference between the typical late equaliser and winning the game.

Steve Bruce

Before the playa ratings, one final note on Steve Bruce, who thought 3-0 flattered us. Yes, his team worked hard and yes, we weren’t at our best. But they had one effort of any note in the entire 90 minutes, whilst we scored three good goals, could have got a couple more and should have had a penalty. Yes, our opener did involve the ball breaking suddenly into the path of Pires, but outside of Highbury this is actually how a great many Premiership goals are scored. Panicking the defenders into rushed clearances is what we should be doing more and not less often. We’re a team who, despite our recent problems, still average over 2.5 goals per game and have the division’s top and joint second top goal scorers. So stop moaning and get rid of Emile Heskey.

By the way, does anyone else think Freddie should start up front with Henry against Chelsea, leaving Bob on the right, Cesc and Flamini in the middle and Clichy on the left, with Jose playing the role of impact substitute. Any takers?

Defeat with dignity and classic Old Trafford hypocrisy.

I’m writing this whilst watching SKY fill time waiting for the Spurs v Liverpool game to finish. It’s bloody painful.

United’s goal was a farce from our view – Djorou took his eye off the ball and then slipped on the awful Old Trafford surface, Clichy then slipped too and Alumnia somehow let the ball through his fingers. So we were 1-0 down after 20 seconds.

United had started with a far stronger team than ours – nine of their starting eleven all had more Premiership experience than any of our side. So it was always going to be an uphill task. United went on to have the better of the first half – Richardson dragging a shot wide and seeing Alumnia making a good save from his snap drive. All we could manage was Van Persie almost nicking the ball off Tim Howard’s feet and Pennant having a low free kick saved.

The game had been amazingly clean for a United v Arsenal affair, with the exception of RVP who truth be told was running around a bit like a headless chicken. Twenty seconds into the second half he lost the ball, and though he successfully tackled back on Richardson, the Dutchman then needlessly performed some bizarre blocking, cum raised elbowing manoeuvre on Richardson. Things then kicked off a bit and Van Persie (rightly) and Richardson (perhaps a little unluckily) got booked.

We had the majority of the possession in the second half but failed to create enough chances. Van Persie showed great skill to play Quincy in but he took too long and failed to get his shot in. Late on Van Persie cut inside from a free-kick and fired in a low shot that went a yard or so wide of the post.

In the final minute Richardson was then lucky not to be sent-off when he caught one of our players with a very obviously late tackle that would undoubtedly have merited a 2nd yellow card had the ball gone out of play before the final whistle. Alas it didn’t and so SKY were able to happily brush it all the carpet and ignore it.

A minute earlier we’d had what I thought was an excellent call for a penalty when Van Persie crossed in a free-kick looking for Hoyte who was marked by Rossi. Both men had a hold of each other’s shirts but it was Rossi who slipped and as he fell he clearly dragged Hoyte to the ground. A clear penalty? No. But a damn sight more a penalty than either of the two we’ve conceded at Old Trafford in the past two seasons. But again easily dismissed on SKY.

To be fair, United deserved it. We simply didn’t create enough and the emphasis was on us to come back into the game. But we also limited a much, much stronger side to 1-0 on their own patch. Still I’m happy with how we played and the players equipped themselves well.

The boss admitted that Van Persie had got too involved in things and said he had thought about bringing him off. Watch the media completely ignore that. For his part, Ferguson (cheeks looking suspiciously red) called for the F.A. to investigate Van Persie’s elbow (which actually caught Hoyte!) He knows it’s not going to happen because RVP was booked for his role in the incident, meaning the F.A. can’t take further action. Mark my words… he’ll still cite is as evidence of F.A. bias towards Arsenal.

There’ll be playa ratings tomorrow (probably), but in the meantime, consider these questions:

1) What, exactly, is the difference between Lauren signalling for his opponent to be booked and Fergie calling for the F.A. to investigate an Arsenal player? Why does one (quite rightly) get slammed by the media whilst the other is indulged by the very same journalists?

2) When will the F.A. do something about ‘that song’ the United fans sing about Wenger? I’m not saying its quite on the level of racist chanting, but its foul, slanderous and continues unchecked every time. There is no reason why the boss should have to put up with it whenever he stands up.

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Latest playa ratings:

v Portsmouth (1-0) - NEW

v Chelsea (2-2)

v Rosenberg (5-1)

v Birmingham (3-0)

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Welcome to the redesigned goodplaya.com. The new version covers everything from the beginning of December forwards and is much like the old version, except it's perhaps a little easier on the eye. The blog still appears in the middle, links to previous posts to the left, playa ratings above (click on the relevant team) and links to good sites on the tab on the far left. Any goodplaya submissions (instances of Arsene using the phrase 'good player') or any other correspondence is most welcome. The email address is up the top. Enjoy.