Fulham 0-1 Arsenal

One line from David Walsh's Times match report yesterday sums up Arsenal at the moment, in many ways:

"..though they always impress you, they don't always convince you."

It was definitely thus yesterday; we came away with a hard-fought and hugely creditable 1-0 win, but have a rookie 21-year-old Italian keeper largely to thank.

Arsenal 4 (Vermaelen 25, 49, Eduardo 59, Fabregas 90) Wigan 0
(Premiership)

Apologies for the absence over the past few days, a lack of time has left me unable to do justice to the midweek win over Liege, and the Adebayor furore. So before I get on to yesterday's game, I just want to make a few points.

1. Please tell us a bit of yourself and do you have any link or role with DPMM FC?
=> Hi Po Hui , Thanks for interviewing on bolasepako. First of all my name is Zaeri Zolkefri and I am 24 years old. Environmental advisor by education who has the passion for football. With regards to link with Brunei DPMM FC, I am just their facebook creator and I do not have specific link to the club.

Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia has stressed for Arsenal to make an important start in the upcoming 2009/10 season. Arsenal lost 5 of their first 14 matches of the Premier League last season - thus making the Gunners chasing 4th place let alone going for the title.

Manuel states "Overall we needed to be more focused at the start of the season," in the July edition of the official Arsenal magazine".

Good times at White Hart Lane

A friend posed an interesting question to me recently, the question was posed in a north London pub late last night, and it was addressed in all sincerity and it was spoken as a lifelong Spurs fan. The question, or more accurately the observation was, "I am a Spurs fan with nothing to moan about, what do I do?

Hurrah! It's Friday tomorrow, a mere day before Saturday, which is the very day of my first home league game of the season.

Weird that we'll have had just one home league game more than a month into the season, but that's how it's panned out. We've played seven, won five, lost two. Is it a disastrous start to the season?

Morning, it's Wigan on the menu today and a home game which seems like a bit of a novelty this season so far.

Only Robin van Persie is back from injury. Andrei Arshavin hasn't made it, neither has Almunia, Theo Walcott has had a setback apparently, and the others we know about already. The importance of this game should be in no doubt.

Strange records were equalled or broken this weekend.

3. Hannover scored three own goals in their match against Borussia Mönchengladbach. They set a new record for own goals scored by one team and equalled the record of most own goals in a Bundesliga match (Kaiserslautern 1-3 Stuttgart, 9th November 1963).

Dear Supporter,

We have now scored 12 goals in our first three games this season. We always feel we can score goals. The information we got after the two first games is that we scored 10 goals, we could have scored more, so that's a brilliant start. It should create confidence and momentum.

So our boys will meet Uruguay later today in a crucial World Cup qualifying match. Oh Dunga, please field Nilmar/Pato in attack! There's a high likelihood the smiling Luis Fabiano (above) will be in the starting XI, though.

The Minnestoa Lightning concluded their first road trip of the 2009 campaign with a 0-4 loss to FC Indiana. Before the Lightning left for their away games, they had an undefeated record and were sitting first place in the Midwest Division. After the 2-losses this weekend, their record is 2-2-1 and the Lightning are pushed back third place.

The Minnesota Lightning concluded their first road trip of the 2009 campaign with a 0-4 loss to FC Indiana. Before the Lightning left for their away games, they had an undefeated record and were sitting in first place in the Midwest Division. After the 2 losses this weekend, their record is 2-2-1 and the Lightning are pushed back to third place.

When we last left Chelsea they had just beaten Manchester United to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League to five points and everything looked great at the Bridge.

Then the injury big hit. First came the news that right-back Jose Bosingwa is out for three months after knee surgery.

The last two times Barca returned from international break, we failed to win our away games and subsequently had a bad result in the Champions League encounters. We always have struggled after an international break, but this time it is a make or break time for Barca. We cannot afford to lose or draw against Bilbao as it will definitely show in our all important encounter against Inter on Tuesday.

Guingamp will host AC Arles at the Roudourou tonight as they look to win their 2nd consecutive game after the 2-0 victory over Nantes in their last competitive fixture.

Guingamp have since played two friendly games, a 1-1 draw with Vannes and a 1-0 victory over Boulogne.

AC Arles were promoted to L2 last season and have made an impressive start to the season, sitting 4th ahead of tonights encounter.

You have to admire facebook for its sheer out-there-ness. According to this email, my sister, Dom from my last job, and Pendo who I worked with in Ireland, have started a zoo together.

Anyway, Bolton tomorrow. As discussed a while back, Bolton are allowing 5 shots a game more than they're making, and you'd take that wouldn't you?

You may have read about an idea I came up with about travelling for our away games, and if you haven't, we'll you have now. Im hoping to make this a regular feature, detailing various elements of travel for Newcastle United away supporters. To aid with this i shall be calling on my experience of [..

Going into this weekend's Indonesia Super League games this is how the top of the table looks.
1 – Persiba 8 4 2 2 0 13-7 14
2 – Arema 6 4 2 0 6-1 14
3 – Persiwa 4 1 2 18-10 13
4 – Persela 5 4 1 0 5-1 13
The big match is undoubtedly 2nd against 3rd in Malang between Arema and Persiwa.

A week of two tough away games, and four points gained. On the face of it, an excellent haul, and unlikely to be bettered by anyone in these two fixtures all season. Yet there is a lingering sense of disappointment following the draw at Burnley, mainly because of a sense of what might have been.

After a great start, and an unusually early goal from Cesc, who fought valiantly until forced off with a hamstring injury which will keep him out of a Hull game he would have been desperate to play in after last year's spitting row, we could have put the game to bed with chances for Arshavin and Cesc going begging.

It's as if the Premier League get bored when it comes to arranging Boxing Day fixtures. Fulham for the third time in three years? Conspiracy theorists will be having a field day.
To compound matters, we're being playing this edition away from home. If Ewood Park is a traditionally tricky venue, then Craven Cottage is just as troublesome.

The Fantasy Stuff Legends Are Made Of
For brevity's sake, I'm going to skip the game previews and discuss Studs and Duds as well as a predicted Gameweek 20 Best Eleven... It's that "in between" period in the holiday season, and we all have family / extracurricular / etc. obligations so let's go brief for these midweek fixtures.