Good morning fellow Gooners,

I am not not going to talk about the great english misfortunes of this weekend despite the temptation, I ask who among you can remember some of these great Arsenal striking partnerships? Frank Stapleton and Alan Sunderland, Alan Smith and Brian Marwood,Alan Smith and Anders Limpar, Ian Wright and Kevin Campbell, Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry, Niklas Bendtner and Arturo Lupoli?

England were on the verge of failing to reach Euro 2008 and guess who is to blame? Yes you guessed it, Arsene Wenger and Arsenal Football Club. No sooner do Arsenal reach the top of the League, personel in Football cannot wait to take a pop. Steve Coppell joined in the argument, Jose Mourinho also gave us a blast from the past with his views.

England face Croatia this evening , a must win game for Steve Mclaren's misfits. I don't know why we bother, because you know the ending, we get to Euro 2008, end up facing the Germans and they win on penalties... So just to get you in the mood here are...

The top five defeats in the history of football. And what better place for all of these to occur on the biggest stage there is: the World Cup.

The video is slightly choppy in parts, but pretty funny nonetheless. And how 'bout that Alumnia?!

(h/t to Arseblog)

Morning all, let me start this blog by stating right from the outset that I do not make a habit of bad mouthing Liverpool football club. they are a great club with history and 5 European Cups. It is neither jealousy nor sour grapes, and I would go so far as to say that my response to the events at Anfield are quite restrained.

William Gallas has the honour of becoming the captain of Arsenal FC.

It's no surprise that within minutes of the announcement, the blogs have been buzzing overtime.

What on earth is the reason behind this curious decision by Arsene?

Even if Gallas had just completed a brilliant first season on the pitch.

I hope that this latest transfer speculation about Gabby Agbonlahor is true, because he is just what Arsenal need at the moment, a natural proven goal scorer.

21 year old Gabriel Agbonlahor is half Nigerian and half Scottish but happily choose England and is a regular striker in Stuart Pearce's under 21 squad.

By Richard Clarke at Arsenal.com
Arsenal gave themselves a great chance of winning the inaugural Emirates Cup with a 2-1 win over Paris St-Germain on Saturday.
The format of this new tournament awards three points for a win, one for a draw and one for each goal scored. Valencia took five points from the first game of the afternoon with a 2-0 win over Inter.

This summer Arsene Wenger has brought in three players: Lukasz Fabianski, Bakary Sagna and Eduardo Da Silva. The first is for the future and Arsenal can only trust Wenger's previously brilliant astuteness in the transfer market when it comes to finding players with potential. Bakary Sagna looks brilliant; he has made the defence more solid and adds options going forward aswell.

It was a cold night at the Madjeski stadium, and the Reading fans started in good voice. The minutes silence passed off in memory of those serviceman who have died in conflicts past and present. The teams selected by the managers announced the respective intentions.

Reading: Hahnemann, Murty Sonko, Ingimarsson, Shorey, Convey, Gunnarsson, Harper, Hunt, Kitson and Doyle.

Finally we have signed a striker; someone that nobody even speculated about. Just makes you think how Arsene works! There were reports of him in Spain, in Italy yet he ends up with a striker from Croatia! Bought in true Wenger style with an "undisclosed fee".

In Henry we had the first Arsenal player to score at the Emirates (the DB testimonial) and now in Da Silva we have the first player who scored a competetive goal at the Emirates for Dinamo Zagreb against us in the Champions League qualifier.

...is this Copa America sucking?

In the interest of full disclosure, the two teams I root for in the Copa America, Ecuador and the USA, were the worst two teams in the group stages. So maybe that's coloring my take at the moment. But let's take a look at the quarterfinal matches.

Uruguay 4-1 Venezuela
Brazil 6-1 Chile
Mexico 6 - 0 Paraguay
Argentina 4 - 0 Peru

Hmm.

Bacary Sagna and Eduardo made debuts as Arsenal began their Austria tour by beating Genclerbirligi 3-0 at Bad Waltersdorf Stadion on Wednesday night.

The French full back played the first half and the Croatian striker came on for the final 21 minutes in this comprehensive victory over the side that had finished sixth in the Turkish League last season.

Makes sense, right?

Howdy readers. I am the new blogger for Arsenal, and I can only hope I can do the club some justice. I'm a student living in Vermont, so suffice to say my life isn't that interesting. I would like to move onto something you are interested in - namely l'Arse.

Merry Christmas to all our readers and contributors. I hope that you have enjoyed the articles on InsideArsenal Blog. This year saw the launch of the pre and post match chat rooms which have been a great success.

Fabregas_the_King is wishing peace good will and good health to all Gooners and non Gooners the world over.

There is no crisis at Arsenal. Having been predicted to drop out of the top four in the summer, there is no question that any rational Arsenal fan, would have grabbed our current league position with two hands, having followed two seasons of toying with Tottenham in fourth place mediocrity.

William Gallas celebrated his new captaincy by pulling his groin at Ewood Park this weekend. For his troubles, the Frenchman will be out for 21 days.

Noted faith healer and physio Arsene Wenger was sure of the diagnosis immediately: "He has done his groin, I knew it straight away. He will be out for three weeks."

And what of poor Jens Lehmann?

What similarity was there between today and Saturday? One main one, once again Cesc Fabregas scored one and made 2. His goal tonight was also from long range, this time however there was a massive slice of luck involved. The shot was going wide but unfortunately for Julien Escude, his attempted block gave Palop no chance as the ball hit the back of the net.

As noted below, I was away from the intertubes for several days while on vacation. I was in a well-known resort area in the United States. Which is all to say that, sometimes I forget how many Englishmen wear their club kits while on holiday overseas.

Plenty of Three Lions strips, of course. And ManYoo and Chelsea and Liverpool, both home and away.

Arsenal have taken three points from Wigan today, but they needed a couple of last-gasp goals from William Gallas and Tomas Rosicky to pull it off. This win is important for obvious reasons, but even more so as Manchester United have lost at Bolton leaving the Gunners all alone at the top of the table.

As you may have guessed from the light posting lately, my personal schedule has changed and I'll no longer be able to continue blogging at The Offside.

The last 15 months here at the Arsenal Offside have been a blast for me, and I hope that you regulars have enjoyed yourselves as well.

Arsenal are still top of the table, of course, and I look forward to following along with the next writer here at Arsenal Offside.

I logged on to the usual blurb this morning fully expecting the usual nonsense (Wenger & Fabregas kidnapped by Spanish secret service agents and forced to sign contracts with Barca/Real etc) to find out that, as usual, Wenger's out thought, out maneuvered and simply flummoxed everyone - myself included.

I'd been logging on every ten seconds to check the news all weekend as I buggered my elbow (possible fracture) playing indoor footy on Weds night and have been stuck in a sling all weekend with no drinking (painkillers) and no football (playing) allowed - slowly going mad reading message boards full of doom and gloom about the lack of news from the Arse.

It's not often I need a rant but todays utter shite from Real has gotten under my skin, that's before we even get to Gallas and his whinging and all the haters out there. Thusly I felt compelled to put a few things down for my own sanity. This is a selfish post.

First to Bernd Schuster (that new muppet/puppet installed at the Bernabeu) - in no uncertain terms, I want to be very clear here: Stop talking about our players in the press and Piss off!

While slowly marinading my brain in fine Californian wine this evening I thought I'd quickly log on to see if there was any news of the Arsenal persuasion. Fully expecting a drought other then the usual "Wenger has love child with Cesc and moves to Madrid" shite I forlornly dragged myself through the news sites, then I got to every Chav's favorite paper - Duh Sun - and read some news that was surprising and unexpected.

Red Bulls Blackburn Salzburg v Arsenal

The following post is my own opinion and I am entitled to my own opinion as is every other fan so I would like to encourage other fans who saw the match to add their own opinions in the comments below. One thing I am sick of is people flaming posters or other commentors.

Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor has crocked his groin and the club are presuming that he will not be fit for the match against Fulham on August 12.

Sheyi picked up the injury during training in Austria, and has played very little since. He should be back to training by next week.

As for that Fulham match, it will be the Gunners' opening stanza of the new English Premiership Barclays Premier League season.

Everytime I speak to a Spurs or Liverpool fan lately its always the same. Liverpool WILL win the league and Spurs WILL finish above Arsenal. Any arguments against those statements are immediately rubbished.

It always makes me chuckle a little. I remember last August when West Ham announced the signing of Tevez and Mascerano.

Looking at Arsenal last season it looked as though the squad looked very thin. This was most apparent in the defence and the attack. With Gallas injured for a very large chunk of the season, Arsenal were left with only 3 natural Central defenders, 2 of which were only young talents, (Senderos and Djourou). These two did an admirable job but are still learning their trade.

This week has led me to question Arsene Wenger somewhat on two fronts. These being: his tactical substitutions and his refusal to give up on certain players. Jens Lehmann has dropped two clangers in two league games. Against Fulham the players bailed him out but were not able to repeat the trick today. They were not simple errors, but down right horrible clangers.

I guess the exchange rate really is putting a pinch on international travel. The NFL's Miami Dolphins are heading to London next month to play the New York Giants in a regular season matchup at Wembley. But the gridiron football team, worth an estimated $.942 billion, couldn't get the scratch together to train at Arsenal's London Colney training ground.

When asked who he could face if Roy Keane could come back for one match, he answered Arsenal. The battles he had with members of our past midfield were always anticipated. Roy Keane and Patrick Vieria did not get on but respected each other on the pitch. I doubt we will see similar antics between "Keano" and our current midfield but the game could get tasty.

Following on from my article about reasons of defeat, I have compiled a list of defeats, which have caused a great impact in the course of footballing history. Here is the first five...of which most have been chosen of the circumstances and the drama involved.

20) Inter Milan 0 – 5 AC Milan 2005 Champions League Quarter Final

One of the most infamous Milan derbies in recent history, with a 2-0 lead from the first leg, AC were set to win, with a 1-0 lead from Shevchenko when the unruly Inter Ultras struck in protest to a goal from Argentine Cambiasso ruled out by referee Markus Merk.

Enter the top ten defeats of all time. Naturally many matches are remembered for incidents occurring of and on the pitch, perhaps with violent clashes, footballing master classes and shifts in power concerning who rules the footballing world.

10. France (4) 3-3 (5) West Germany 1982 World Cup Semi- Final

An epic football match marred by Harold Schumacher's tendency to rush out to take out man or ball, in a mindset where the end justifies the means, as it did for the Germans.

Yesterday Josh had an excellent rant, and I agree that those pathetic stewards of our national game should stop blaming Arsene Wenger's wunderkids for the demise of the national side.

I could not have been more prescient when I ran the article Twenty greatest football defeats of all time.

When Eduardo played in Olic for Croatia's second goal I couldnt help but feel a small sense of joy. That pass summed up completely why England is where it is and Arsenal are getting the blame. Before the match I explained my reasons why it is not Wenger's fault and that one pass just backed up my points.

An unusual win. Three goals off long balls (one from Almunia) and no creativity or spark until Fabregas and Hleb came off. After going 1-0 down in the first twenty minutes due to some sorry defending from a corner, it seemed as the optimistic 4-4-2 we used, with Bendtner, Eduardo and Diaby all starting, was going to fail .

I know, I know hold your horses. I don't want all this excitement to cause a stampede. But after the jump, you can see the official list of jersey numbers for the 2007-2008 season.

Eduardo will be wearing Engine, Engine, No. 9. In other newcomer news, Fabianski will wear No. 21, while Bendtner will sport No. 26. The returning players will all have their same numbers from last season.

First off I am an Arsenal fan so am naturally biased in favour of us and against everyone else. Like all football fans I start the season thinking that ‘this could be the one' and like the vast majority of fans I end up heartbroken by the end.

We are naturally optimistic in July and this optimism can reach dangerously high levels, only today I saw a thread on the BBC sport page where Fulham fans were talking about a top six finish.

I got back from holiday early Sunday morning and I couldnt sleep so I managed to watch the repeat of the PSG game on Sky Sports. Then I watched the Inter match on Sunday. Ok they were only friendlies and the opposition were not playing their full teams but these matches have put a smile on my face after what I can only describe as one of the worst summers as an Arsenal fan.