Robin's performance on Monday night, together with the rest of the team, left us all on a high. RvP, as our captain, had written very complimentary words about the home fans in the match programme for the game against Toon: ‘Our bond with the supporters is special and has been there a long time, but in the last few games I feel that it has reached a new level.

Robin's performance on Monday night, together with the rest of the team, left us all on a high. RvP, as our captain, had written very complimentary words about the home fans in the match programme for the game against Toon: ‘Our bond with the supporters is special and has been there a long time, but in the last few games I feel that it has reached a new level.

Arsenal vs Newcastle preview by KJ Arsenal are on a run of 4 wins so far in the league and hope to extend it to 5 against the Barcodes on Monday night. This looked a very tricky fixture a month ago but Arsenal fans must be quietly confident of our chances of getting the 3 [...]

After Tuesday's terrific but ultimately futile victory over Il Rossoneri it's back to the bread and butter of the Barclays Premier League. Only now there is a realistic chance of some jam to go on the bread.

With an unbeaten run of Premiership games stretching back to the February 1st goalless draw with Bolton, wins over Blackburn (7 1), Sunderland (1 2), Totteringham (5 2) and Liverpool (1 2) Arsenal have moved into the top four, three points clear of fifth placed and stuttering Chelsea, ten points clear of seventh placed Liverpool and five points clear of tonight's opponents sixth placed Newcastle United.

Excuse me while I cough up an organ, momentarily- I've just made the dreadful mistake of going on a post-New Year jog in weather I can only describe as ‘a bit blustery'. If I don't crumple onto the keyboard before the day's out it'll be a minor miracleeeeeeeeertttttttttttttyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyhjjj.

A non-league English football team is having internet barcodes shaved into their hair ahead of this weekend's first round FA cup clash.

Wayne Rooney's hairdresser, Daniel Johnson, is shaving intricate 'QR codes' onto the back of the heads of Bromley FC's first eleven. Each hair cut takes an hour to achieve and when they are scanned with a smartphone, the barcode will send users to the Betfair Mobile site.

Tiote and van der Vaart were convinced that, despite their differences, they could dance their troubles away.League wins at St James Park are as rare for Spurs as days where Harry Redknapp doesn't provide the press with a story-leading quote. If you remove the great Timothee Atouba's fantastic winner from the 1-0 steal back in 2004, our away record against Toon would look fairly terrible.

Tiote and van der Vaart were convinced that, despite their differences, they could dance their troubles away.League wins at St James Park are as rare for Spurs as days where Harry Redknapp doesn't provide the press with a story-leading quote. If you remove the great Timothee Atouba's fantastic winner from the 1-0 steal back in 2004, our away record against Toon would look fairly terrible.

Here we are; first home game of the new season and the second of the five massive fixtures this month.

The start wasn't as good as one would have liked but it wasn't as bad as many had feared either. Things could be a lot worse than a hard fought draw in the opening game away from home which included a strong defensive performance.

All-round stupidity will be the only memorable part of this predictable, drab encounter.

Arsene went with the expected line-up and the Gunners played higher up the pitch than would have been advisable. Whenever the Gunners got the ball out wide, and there were at least four or five defenders against an attacker or two.

Newcastle (A) – Udinese (H) – Liverpool (H) – Udinese (A) – Manchester United (A)

Five games in 16 days, each with its unique degree of significance. I don't like dramatizing the consequences of each match, especially at the start, but one gets the feeling, before the end of August Doodh ka doodh, paani ka paani ho jayega.

The Barcodes have kept United in check. There is still a lot to play for. Wenger is also getting some players back from the treatment room. I guess we can call this a good news day.

Tactically, there won't be any surprises in this game. I expect a lot of long, diagonal balls from the Spuds defenders and midfield directed towards their speedy wingers.

Andy Carroll might have made an exciting transfer story but the focus for Arsenal during Saturday's visit to St. James' Park will have to be on the teammates he's left behind. Newcastle have already defeated Arsenal once in the league. I don't think anyone will easily forget that boring, frustrating game at the Emirates when it seemed a bus full of prisoners in black and white stole three points on a set-piece.

Ahoy there. In a week which has seen both our glorious leader have a straightforward confectionary run cost him the contents of his pockets in Madrid, Pele back the move to Stratford and Jonathan Woodgate being talked up for a hop across town to our odious neighbours, it's probably just as well some actual football is being played this afternoon to take our mind off things.

There's so much going on at the moment with regards to the new stadium, political spin left, right and centre. Even Pele's talking about it. This afternoon Daniel Levy wrote an open letter on the official site which unless you're blind confirms the boards first choice is moving to Stratford.