We can do away with Martin Atkinson turning a blind eye to Fabianski's mugging, Van Persie's penalty call after being fouled by Salgado in the box, and a few red cards thrown in for good measure. When teams play Blackburn, this is about a standard deviation from the normal. Not an outlier.

So what are we hearing?

The not so Special One

Jose Mourinho is feeling a wee bit omnipotent nowadays and it really makes no difference if he coaches in the Liga or not - he seems to think he owns the Serie, the Premiership, and the England national team.

Arsene Wenger was a favourite peeve of his in the Premiership because Mourinho's pret a porter policy allowed no development of young talent.

"Is the Spanish league a step down? Of course. I watched Real Madrid and Almeria last night . . . and you want to switch off after half an hour. It's not watchable!"

Wenger's words might be a shot across the bow to Fabregas and La Liga's latest transfer target, Gael Clichy but it also happens to be true.

Fue un domingo musical, por lo menos para mi. Pero, si hablamos de música, hagámoslo en serio, y no dejemos pasar la oportunidad de rendir homenaje a los grandes exponentes británicos de ese estilo transgresor y eterno que tanto nos gusta, llamado rock. Seguramente les suene de algún lado. En Manchester festeja Ian Brown, el frontman de los desaparecidos Stone Roses.

The best thing about Arsenal's brutal annihilation at the hands of Man Utd was that it came very quickly. By the end of the match one had gone through the five stages of grief. In fact, I emerged looking forward to the Chelsea match next weekend with a sense of acceptance. At this point a 7-0 thrashing looks pretty acceptable.

The number of times Fabregas has been linked with a Barca return has been so internalized that the Spanish media would have us believe that he is already jetting to the Camp Nou. It does come as a shock that he is still at Arsenal.

Yesterday, Wenger put forth his reasons why Fabregas will continue to stay and it centered around player satisfaction, development, length of contract, and the most important one of all, the desire to keep Fabregas at Arsenal.

Thomas Vermaelen is out for the next 2-3 weeks with a calf injury. He is now the fifth starter out in this most crucial part of the season.

Which means Mikel Silvestre will partner Sol Campbell and we know where that goes.

On Campbell, Wenger had this to say:

"I think he was outstanding and he has shown what a winner he is and if he won championships, you see why.

Timeline:

November 14, 2009: Robin Van Persie sustains an ankle injury against Italy in a friendly.

November 15, 2009: Dutch medical authorities based on a preliminary assessment suggests that Van Persie's injury is not severe and predict a 4-6 week lay off.

April 18th might become a day of mixed emotions for the young lad.

One year ago, the Polish goalkeeper was given a birthday start against Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-finals which turned out to be disaster (video). Today, Wenger gave Fabianski a start and his birthday blues continued against Wigan.

Ten minutes is what it took Wigan to carve up Arsenal but the squad seem to have thrown in the towel a while back.

The shifting tropes in this Arsenal season has gotten so bent out of shape.

A few weeks before Wenger was singing praises about the squad's mental strength. Of late, he has been bemoaning the lack of cohesion and discipline.

Gordon Smith, the Scottish FA chief resigned out of the blue two months shy of completing three years.

It seems a combination of personal reasons and a particularly sticky case of overstepping his authority in the Robbie Winters "diving" case caused him to tender his resignation.

Roberto Mancini was clear why City lost to Man Utd in the last minute.

"In the final minutes of a game like that you must try to keep the ball and play slowly because the game is finished," he said. "I'm angry and disappointed about this."

He was referring to Craig Bellamy losing possession of the ball while trying an ambitious 60 yard cross field pass.

Does anyone find irony in Wenger touting a 35 year old recycled ex- Arsenal defender as the find of the season?

A manager who has bet the house on his 20 year somethings to win the Premiership. What next, the return of the Invincibles?

The Big Fabianski practicing Blue Steel on the ball: "Look, Mums- no hands"

Pepe Reina is the latest goalkeeper to be linked with Arsenal.

Reina is one of the few genuine assets Liverpool cannot afford to get rid off. And that to a Premiership rival. Not going to happen.

Rene Adler of Bayer Leverkusen and Hugo Lloris of Lyon are also being mentioned as possible Arsenal targets.

Looks like a few high profile players are being pulled up by their managers.

Carlos Tevez was given a talking to by Roberto Mancini over the issue of training methods. A case of a player being too big for his boots.

Wenger admonishing the outspoken Arshavin to stop dreaming about Barca.

Roy Hodgson is fast emerging as the unanimous choice as the Premiership's manager of the year. Today, Arsene Wenger joined that chorus.

"Fulham and Roy have been fantastic," he said. "They are the ones more than anybody else who have punched above their weight. And maybe that's why Roy deserves it.

Lukasz Fabianski who handles the ball like a hot potato once again gets a chance to prove himself.

He did not do anything stupid against City last time but this time faces an aggressive Blackburn squad that scores regularly through set pieces.

Wenger has talked him up saying he should channel Emmanuel Eboue who was on the ropes last season and then effected this remarkable turnaround.

Both Blackburn's goals came from set pieces and they employed the same tactics: Crowd out Fabianski on the line so he would not be able to deal with the ball effectively. It worked to perfection.

Even before Morten Gamst Pedersen lined up to take the corner, a trio of Blackburn players surrounded Fabianski.

In Wenger we trust?

Wenger fumes ..........

Can we get any more redundant? When has Wenger not fumed because the game was not to his liking?

"Blackburn's main purpose every time was to stop the goalkeeper and not go for the ball. I cannot understand why the referee did not stop that.

Wanted striker with a healthy contempt for Arsenal's passing game.

Someone who takes matters into their own hands like Arjen Robben. I hope Marouane Chamkah is the answer.

Some "Exclusives" to further the notion of a club in crisis.

"Exclusive" screams the Goal.com headline which states that eight Arsenal players could be heading out the door led by Andrei Arshavin and Gael Clichy.

Funny thing is that with the focus fixed on Cesc Fabregas supposed Barca departure, you would think that the Spaniard would be at the top of that class.

The experiment of bringing Cesc Fabregas to Barca to complete Joan Laporta's Catalunyan legacy seems to have taken another twist.

The Spanish midfield maestro has his version of "In Wenger we trust" after meeting with Arsenal's gaffer.

"He told me to concentrate on my football, he told me to concentrate on the World Cup, and he told me to leave it in his hands: [that] he will deal with whatever happens in my future.

This is close to Muhammad Ali taking all that wild swinging by George Foreman to administer an eighth round knockout in that Kinshasa classic.

After soaking up that incessant "public tapping" over Cesc without the courtesy of a club to club approach, Arsenal came up with a nice right hook.

I am now convinced that Mark Schwarzer is definitely an Arsenal target.

Arsene Wenger warns Germany not to take Australia lightly. He gives the Socceroos a 40% chance to win which of course means that Schwarzer will have to pull of a half dozen saves.

Cracking start to the 2010- 2011 Premiership season. Anfield welcomes Arsenal in the post Benitez era and by that time both teams maybe missing their talismans.

14th August gets it going. For the Arsenal fixture list >>

Sol Campbell who did quite well as Thomas Vermaelen's central partner after William Gallas was ruled injured for the rest of the season in April is all set for a Toon move.

Which obviously means that Arsenal only has Vermaelen left with substantial experience as Laurent Koscielny is too raw and Johan Djourou is returning after a year's layoff from injury.

24 hours later, the price has gone up almost three fold.

Montpellier has strenuously denied any contact with Arsenal over centre back Emir Spahic, whose stock rose after last season's performance. But the club says that no one is irreplaceable for the correct amount.

Montpellier president Loulou Nicollin.

If Cesc Fabregas delayed the inevitable of moving to Barca for a year, he did so persuaded by the man who could see a move himself elsewhere after this season.

Wenger is approaching his 61st birthday and he has given himself for more years before his self imposed retirement. If he has to seek out a new challenge then he will have to do so in very short time because in his view it takes about 3-4 years to make an impact.

Jack Wilshere could see some face time at Anfield

Arsene Wenger completed one very important order of business signing a three year contract that sees him continue as Arsenal coach till 2014.

He also believes that his coaching philosophy- catch them young, watch them grow has reached its limit with the present group of Gunners.

Arsene Wenger is an outspoken critic of the Premiership's new thrust towards domestic development of players which stipulates that a maximum of 17 non- homegrown players will be included in a 25 man squad.

He has said that the rule will 'force down' the quality of the Premier League and 'paralyse' the transfer market.

Anything remotely ruthless from an Arsenal player needs to be celebrated - so it will be great to see Sebastien Squillaci carry over the attitude that forced Sevilla to sell him onto the pitch.

He will have to compete for a center back position with Thomas Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny, and Johan Djourou already on the roster.

Andy Carroll joins a merry band of Arsenal killers

Arsenal is once again in schizophrenic mode. The season opener against Liverpool ended in a draw followed by three consecutive win before the Gunners took a nose dive with a draw and two losses. They recovered against Birmingham and things looked up as we won against City and then staged a last ditch winning effort against West Ham.

"The pitch was so poor in my opinion and the game suffered a lot from it," he said. "I ask you, 'Do you want a good pitch or a bad pitch?' What do you say?"

There you have it. In order to protect his team, Wenger's rationalizations for Arsenal's continued defeats against their peers now border on the very absurd or the very petty.

Space Oddity reminds me of Arsene Wenger. Especially these lines.

"Ground control to Major Tom, your circuits dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?"

Maybe it is Wenger's famously tone deaf personality.

Arsene has been on all fours against Chelsea. Will it end today?

In a few hours Arsene Wenger's cachet of excuses will stand another test. No one exposes the systemic frailties of the Gunners in a more stark light than the Blues. And on one knows it better than Wenger because when it comes to analyzing their recent history, the manager uses the classic dodges of rationalization, denial, and projection.

It is an axiom that Arsenal will find a way to shoot themselves in the foot. And it was yet another set piece that proved their downfall. Somehow for some reason, the Gunners transform into drooling dolts dealing with corners or free kicks. After Vermaelen, it is clear that there appears to be no take charge personality to organize the defense.