By Chris Wright

I'm usually fairly passive when it comes to getting riled up over football, but I routinely make an exception for Real Madrid's ankle-buster in chief, Pepe.

Dear sweet Jesus-on-a-stick how I hate this disgusting, conniving, cowardly, nefarious, maliciously-unhinged c**t with the burning passion of a thousand suns the most recent case in point being his Achilles-shredding, head-kicking assault on Levante's Xavi Torres during Madrid's shock 1-0 defeat over the weekend.

Morning all, sorry about the technical issues if you were trying to get to the site this morning. Gremlins. And not the cool kind that you get when you make Junichi Inamoto wet after midnight. Should be cool again now.

And speaking of gremlins, Jack Wilshere has got them in his ankle. Turns out that story yesterday in the Mirror was on the money, sadly, and Jack confirmed he'd be out for 2-3 months on his Twitter.

Good morning from a wild and windy Dublin. I think summer, such as it was, is now well and truly gone.

There's gloomy news to start with this morning involving Thomas Vermaelen. The Belgian is set to miss two months having undergone ankle surgery in Stockholm early this week. He picked up a knock away to Udinese and although Arsene Wenger was hopeful he might play against United at Old Trafford things have taken a very obvious turn for the worse.

Just when you thought things were on the up at Arsenal, and lets face it they couldn't have got much worse could they, there are reports in today's Daily Mirror saying that defender Thomas Vermaelen could be out for two months! The defender took a knock on his Achilles against Udinese two weeks ago which [.

Arsene Wenger's Arsenal side are already facing a major injury crisis, only three matches into the Premier League season. Last night it was revealed that center back Thomas Vermaelen underwent an achilles operation in Sweden, ruling out the influential Belgian for at least a month.

The injury, combined with Jack Wilshere's persistent injury problems, means that the struggling Gunners will continue to be without some of their key players.

A muggy night, a sparse crowd (hello, prep football) and Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena has the squad rotation in full effect.

Goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts returns from injury for his first start since June, Bryan Jordan slots in at right back for his second start of the season, Paolo Cardozo starts up front in his third start of the season and Chad Barrett is alongside him for his first start since, um, Monday.

Squad sheets: Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool

Harry Redknapp's distaste for the Europa League had veered into parody by the time he fielded just one of the team to have beaten Wolves last Sunday, but the importance he placed on this fixture was genuine. Spurs's early-season form has been dubious and if they are to end their six-month recession then victory against nominal rivals and a team whom they beat twice last season would be a start.