Morning from a wet and dreary Dublin. I was really hoping for a bit of an Indian summer in September but it turns out the Indian summer is just another Irish summer, except a bit colder.

A few bits and bobs to talk about but as we are still in the midst of the Interlull it's all a bit quiet overall.

So here we are Arsechums. We're now officially in the lull. The international lull. I shall christen it the Interlull.

Of course this should be put in context and we've just experienced the Transfer Window Peak, now known as the Tranpeak. After the huge interest in the Tranpeak, which was massively anti-climactic because of the fact we didn't bring anyone in (a NonSigTranpeak), it just makes this Interlull seem even more lullsome.

With everyone away at the moment Arsenal news is thin on the ground. I don't really want to go over the stuff that was on Arsenal.com yesterday.

It's almost like someone gauges the mood of the fans then puts up some articles which take the piss a bit. We're the angry wasp trapped in the glass which is given a good shake every now and again.

So transfer deadline day has come and gone with seemingly no activity from Arsenal. I'm told that we were in negotiations with Liverpool over the signing of Xabi Alonso but as yet no announcement has been forthcoming and at this point it seems unlikely.

Had a deal been reached then we'd probably have heard about it by now.

Morning all,

it's a very quiet start to what we all hope is going to be a very busy day. It's transfer deadline day and clubs have until midnight tonight to bring in new players before the window shuts and they have to make do with their squads until January.

Obviously we're all going to be watching anxiously, breath bated, to see if Arsene gets his chequebook out.

Arsenal's post-Fulham rehabilitation continued yesterday with a comfortable 3-0 win over Newcastle. Since that black day last week we've won two games, scored seven goals and kept two clean sheets. Not bad.

Of course you have to take the quality of the opposition into account, and both Twente and Newcastle are poor teams, but you can only beat what's in front of you.

Well, first of all, you may have noticed that I can no longer post as Tom, so I came up with this very witty moniker, but I can assure you that it is actually me (which may or may not be a good thing).

Secondly, due to a communications/brain fault on my part, and a memory like a sieve, I'm afraid I completely forgot that I had to write today's blog, despite it SAYING ON YESTERDAY'S PAGE THAT I HAD TO WRITE IT.

Let's start with the Champions League draw which was made yesterday in Monaco. I didn't see it but I assume it was the usual crack of 2 hours of utter shite before they lash out the draw in five minutes then all fuck off to have a Prince Albert, or something.

Anyway, we've got some travelling to do as we drew Porto, Dinamo Kiev and Fenerbache.

Well that was much more fun than the last few days, wasn't it?

We secured our qualification for the group stages of the Champions League for the 11th successive season with a 4-0 win over FC Twente (goals here via 101 Great Goals). The boss mixed the team up a bit. Bendtner came in for Adebayor, Fabregas replaced Eboue and Djourou came in at the back (heh) in place of Kolo.

Perhaps some football tonight can take our minds off all the stuff like ...erm... football. Er... it's the return leg against Shteve McClaren'sh FC Twente and the good news is that Cesc Fabregas is fit.

The boss says he doesn't know if he's going to play him from the start or not but I think he will.

So our thin squad got even thinner yesterday with the news that Philippe Senderos has joined AC Milan on loan for the season with an option for a permanent move.

While some people thought the signing of Silvestre (out injured until mid-September, you know! Hurrah!) added some depth and experience to the squad it turns out he was brought in to replace the big Swiss.

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.

Reaction to yesterday's 1-0 defeat by Fulham has been universally critical of the team and the manager and it's very difficult to try and find anything positive to say at all.

It was as poor a performance as I can remember, not even the 2-1 defeat at Craven Cottage a couple of seasons ago was that bad.

Hmm, where to start? *boilk* might be a good place.

Now, let's put that behind us and move on. We have a game against Fulham today and preparation has been far from ideal. With all the internationals this week the manager just had one outfield player to work with, Denilson, and that may see a revolutionary 0-1-0 formation today at Craven Cottage.

Oh Arsene, you sly old dog. You cunning old fox. You wily old goat. You crafty old mink. You artful dodger. You devious old armadillo.

Here we sit bemoaning the arrival of Silvestre, praying that you're not going to do something like use him in central defence and convert Kolo to defensive midfielder, and you let us stew for a couple of days.