After a disappointing start to this calender year, Arsenal were finally able to secure their first Premier League win of 2012, picking up 3 vital points against Blackburn Rovers in a 7-1 demolition at The Emirates.

Once again, Robin van Persie showed just how important he is to this Arsenal side scoring three and making two others during a numbingly-cold afternoon in North London.

Andrei Arshavin has not appeared for Arsenal since he came on as a sub against Man United, which sparked a barrage of booing against Arsene Wenger as the Russian walked on the pitch. Arsenal fans had been severely critical of the 30 year-old this season anyway after a series of lacklustre and lazy-looking performances for [.

Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson has launched a scathing attack on Andrei Arshavin, arguing that the Russian International striker no longer cares about playing for Arsenal. Arshavin was at fault for Manchester United's winning goal against Arsenal recently, and Lawro believes it's time for the player to leave the Emirates.

So transfer deadline day came and went without much fuss. Over on the live blog we had an influx of Matthews, Willem Dafoe scoring against Sp*rs, rapping Clint Dempsey, Andrei Arshavin as Rita Hayworth and then ... a signing!

Young Germanian Thomas Eisfeld (wonderfully captured here by @gooner_nate) put pen to paper on a four year deal.

The Arsenal midfielder Andrei Arshavin was visibly shaken by the reaction of the home fans at the Emirates last week when he took to the field in place of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and considering that he was lacking in confidence before that he can't be very keen to wear the Arsenal colours again. A few weeks [.

Arsene Wenger has tried to minimize the damage to Andrei Arshavin's confidence by last weeks booing by Arsenal fans when he was brought on against Man Utd, and he may have gone just a little overboard when he said: "I love Arshavin as a man and as a player. "I don't think the fans were [...]

By Alan Duffy

Having found himself in the middle of the Andrei Arshavin/Arsene Wenger booing controversy at the Emirates at the the weekend, teenage winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has apparently now played himself into Fabio Capello's plans for the Euro 2012 finals.

Arsene Wenger keeps going on about he will only ever spend money in the transfer window if he can find "super-quality" players or "better than we already have". Well I personally think that it would be VERY easy to find players that are better than most of our current squad! So I found this excellent [.

Arsene Wenger continues to stick by Andrei Arsharvin despite being a serial under achiever in his three years at the club. Kedah management seem to be thinking that after four games their two Brazilian imports aren't up to the mark. One hasn't played yet but I guess that's just a minor detail.
The manager says the team 'play well so far' but they can't find the goal.

Arsene Wenger continues to stick by Andrei Arsharvin despite being a serial under achiever in his three years at the club. Kedah management seem to be thinking that after four games their two Brazilian imports aren't up to the mark. One hasn't played yet but I guess that's just a minor detail.
The manager says the team 'play well so far' but they can't find the goal.

Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has publicly slammed Arsenal midfielder Andrei Arshavin following Sunday's match at the Emirates.

Neville, now in his role as a Sky Sports pundit, was critical of Arsene Wenger's decision to sub the effervescent Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, especially as the struggling Arshavin replaced him.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has made it clear that he wants to follow up his impressive Premier League debut against Manchester United by starting regularly for the Gunners.

Oxlade-Chamberlain was preferred to the likes of Andrei Arshavin and Yossi Benayoun as he was surprisingly named a started for the visit of the defending champions.

Okay well we certainly all know that Arsene Wenger made a great error in replacing The Ox with Andrei Arshavin yesterday, but the fact is that he wanted Arsenal to win the game, and at 1-1 with 15 minutes to go he had to try and refresh his attacking options. Okay lets look at the [...]

Match report Video -

It's interesting that even this morning the focus appears to be on a controversial substitution when the bigger issue is the fact we've just lost our third league game in a row, taking our total of defeats in the league this season to eight.

When Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's number went up in the 74th minute many of the 60,000 at the stadium made it quite clear what they thought of the decision.

Andrei Arshavin has been supported by manager Arsene Wenger after his lazy man-marking and tackling against Luis Antonio Valencia created Danny Welbeck's match-winning goal in Manchester United's 2-1 win at Arsenal last night.

Arshavin, who infamously replaced Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to a negative reaction throughout the Emirates Stadium, has been on the receiving end of tremendous flak for lacking energy in such a massive fixture.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has rubbished suggestions that substituting Andrei Arshavin for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain led to the club's 2-1 defeat at home to Manchester United and insists that he owes the doubters no explanation.

With the Gunners tied 1-1 after Chamberlain had assisted Robin van Persie second-half equalizer to Luis Antonio Valencia's first-half opener, Wenger brought Arshavin on to a negative reaction throughout the Emirates Stadium.

Morning all,

and let's start with some good news, for a change. Word is Thomas Vermaelen could be in line to play against United later on. He trained with the first team yesterday and assuming all went well it means he'll start the game at left back. It'll certainly add some solidity to a back four which could really do with it at the moment, but we ought not to forget that our defensive issues aren't simply the domain of that group of players.

photo by ISIphotos.com

By FRANCO PANIZO

A day after unveiling Quaker Oats as its jersey sponsor, the Chicago Fire made another big announcement.

The Fire re-signed midfielder Pavel Pardo on Wednesday, the club announced on its website.

Lots of websites are going 'black' today, Wikipedia for example, to protest against proposed new laws in the USA which will make everyone have to connect to the internet through AOL with all their family filters turned on.

I was considering going black to bemoan our transfer policy, general crapness, toilet queues at the stadium and 'The Wonder of You'.

What is UP, Arshavin! According to Spanish newspaper, Sport, occasionally loco striker Andrei was seen on Monday in Barcelona, ??where he went to shoot a sports commercial (just like Neymar did last week) in the city. And you can officially put the 'Arshavin to Barcelona?

Here we are in the January transfer window, and we are all excited over the new stars that will be coming to the Emirates.

There is talk of this one, and talk of that one. Yet behind all the hype in the press you have Wenger telling us what I am afraid is going to be a very big disappointment for us all, and that is they do not want to spend any money with this financial crisis going to only get worse.

Arsene Wenger has been talking about the latest Arsenal transfer rumours saying that Andrei Arshavin will be allowed to leave the Emirates this month, and he believes that the Russian still has a job to do for the Gunners despite a series of lacklustre performances. Wenger says that, although Arshavin seems to be lazy on [.

Happy Friday the 13th to you.

Of course it's only unlucky if you're in certain parts of the world and if you believe in superstition. And the only superstition I believe in these days is the one Stevie Wonder belts out. Still, I hope your evening is filled with all the beautiful things this day brings: escaped lunatics wearing hockey masks and eviscerating people with a chainsaw.

There have been numerous rumours saying that Andrei Arshavin is now considered surplus to requirements at Arsenal, and the Russian captain has also made it plain that he is worried about losing his place in the national team if he doesn't play regularly for the Gunners. The Zenit technical director Igor Korneev admitted last month [.

As we know the transfer window is open and that means its silly season time again.
Arsenal will be linked with every Tom, Dick and Harry from the Tombs of the Nobles to Outer 'order' Mongolia.
Some of the rumours will make you laugh, others you can take more seriously.
Lukas Podolski is a player that Arsene Wenger is supposedly looking at.

By Alan Duffy

Arsenal's lack of an alternative cutting edge to Robin van Persie was once again evident in their 1-1 draw with Wolves at the Emirates on Tuesday. While the home side peppered the Wolves' goal with shots in that game, they couldn't find a way past Wayne Hennessey.

For the last few months if speculation has been made over where Arsenal should make a signing in January it's been in the striking position.

Beyond Robin van Persie we have few options. Or, to put it another way, we have options which no longer produce goals or which the manager clearly has little faith in.

The little Russian maestro Andrei Arshavin has not looked very happy playing for Arsenal every time he has appeared on the pitch this season, even though Arsene Wenger has given him numerous chances to make an impact off the bench, and according to the Metro he has dropped behind Yossi Benayoun and Thomas Rosicky in [.

According to the Russian daily Sovietsky Sports, Zenit St. Petersburg are keen on re-acquiring the Arsenal playmaker Andrei Arshavin for the original sum of €16.5 million that the North London side paid for him back in 2009. The report suggests that Zenit are hoping to bring back the little Russian with a view of appointing [.

It is being reported this morning that Arsene Wenger has put both Marouane Chamakh and Andrei Arshavin on the Arsenal transfer list in the hope of off-loading at least one (if not both) of his out-of-form players in January. Arshavin is worried about losing his place in the Russia side at the Euros next summer [.

Good morning to you.

We have the Carling Cup to contend with this evening and we take on the richest club in the world, with the biggest, most expensive squad in the world, and a manager who is complaining about a fixture pile-up. To be fair to Roberto Mancini, he's got a point. Playing Sunday then Tuesday is tough for any team but when you can replace all 11 players and call on the likes of Kolo Toure, Kolarov, Dzeko, Adam Johnson and others who didn't start the game against Liverpool then it does make life a bit easier.

Andrei Arshavin was given a rare start by Arsene Wenger in this weeks game against Fulham, but as usual he seemed distracted and uninterested. The little Russian was pinpointed by most Arsenal fans as the biggest flop of the match, but Wenger thinks that he should be excused because he hasn't played for a while.

There was something poignant about the moment, mid way through the second half, when Arsène Wenger made his first two substitutions.

Gervinho and Abou Diaby were bouncing on the touchline: primed, eager and ready while the fourth official fiddled with his number board.

Three yards away from them, on the pitch, a small Russian man was standing on his own, looking downcast and waiting for the inevitable appearance of the number 23 on the official's board.

God this Interlull is boring.

For us supporters, Arsenal news is as vital to our souls as water is to our bodies.

Like a thirsty man crawling through a desert we are on our knees, parched and desperate.

And like that thirsty man we are prone to seeing mirages: images that might be an oasis (or, in our case, a genuine Arsenal news story) but turn out instead to be no more than a trick of the Sun.

13.11.2011 - Parafrasear a Thomas De Quincey en "Sobre el asesinato como una de las bellas artes" en la puerta de una ferretería de barrio sería: "Si la vamos a hacer, hagámosla bien."
El excéntrico inglés cuenta (en su libro) sobre una Sociedad de Expertos en el Asesinato que, amén de los aspectos morales, analiza los homicidios desde el punto de vista artístico para "hacer la crítica como si de un cuadro, de una escultura o de otra obra de arte se tratara".

Ireland captain Robbie Keane believes their Euro 2012 play-off tie against Estonia is all but over after their 4-0 first-leg win.
Keane scored twice as his team thrashed their nine-man hosts in Tallinn.
"It is a great result. This game should be over now and if we don't qualify we'll be devastated," said Keane ahead of Tuesday's return leg in Dublin.

Euro flip: the Galaxy's Robbie Keane falls over Estonia's Andrei Stepanov as they struggle for the ball during a Euro 2012 qualifier today in Tallinn, Estonia (AP Photo).

*Galaxy fans need to resign themselves to losing Robbie Keane for a month or so next year after Ireland hammered Estonia today in the first leg of the nations' Euro 2012 playoff qualifier.

After topping EURO 2012 qualifying Group B, Russia is into its third consecutive European championships. Led by Arsenal attacker Andrei Arshavin and managed by respected Dutch coach Dick Advocaat, Russia is currently ranked 13th in the world by FIFA and will host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Earlier this week, the Russia adidas EURO 2012 [.

Morning all,

no doubt you've seen yesterday's announcement but to answer a number of questions that have cropped up since:

1 Yes, it will be available to purchase online, via this very website.

2 Yes, I will ship it to [insert your country name here]

3 Yes, there will be an eBook version

4 Yes, it's 99% certain there will be a wider-release paperback edition in the new year because of the fact this first print run is very limited and therefore a bit of a collector's item.

Andrei Arshavin is supposed to have "warned" Arsene Wenger he may quit becauase he is "glued to the bench" but it won't be in the January window. So despite this perceived threat, the story is that he is not leaving.

AA23 told the Telegraph (amongst others): "Right now I don't think about changing clubs.