Just what we need to hear from one of Arsenal fans favourites. Robin says it's time to get tough and get in the faces of the opposition. We need to do unto others what they so love to do to us. Play the pretty football, yes, but when the chips are down, put the pretty stuff on the back burner and start showing some grit and steel.

The goalkeeping dilemma at Arsenal took a new twist today, as Arsene Wenger gave Wojcneich Szczesny the Number One jersey against Barnet, but only played him for the last 22 minutes. Manuel Almunia was out "injured" yet again, and Lukasz Fabianski played the first 45 minutes wearing number 21, and the second half saw Vito [.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was speaking after his side's 4-0 win against Barnet in the first pre-season friendly of the summer and confirmed that French defenders William Gallas and Mikael Silvestre will probably leave. Wenger, who ...

Arsene Wenger has revealed that defenders William Gallas and Mikael Silvestre are expected to find new clubs shortly, while 'keeper Mark Schwarzer won't be joining the club anytime soon.

The Arsenal boss spoke on several issues after the 4-0 pre-season triumph over Barnet.

Good start: Nasri had a super game and Chamakh and Koscielny also played well, although the latter had a very small amount to do!

Reports this afternoon suggest that Eduardo is in Croatia and is on the verge of signing for Shakhtar Donetsk for around €7 million.

It all makes sense, Its understood that he was pulled out of yesterdays squad for the Barnet game at late notice. It comes soon after the boss claimed that he was in his plans for the upcoming season and also begs a few questions about arrivals.

Afternoon,

so with every minute ticking by we are getting closer and closer to Eduardo Da Silva being officially unveiled as a Shakhtar Donetsk player, the fee is agreed and the personal terms are the same as they currently are at Arsenal, he was in Colney yesterday undergoing a medical with four members of the Shakhtar medical team and there is a lot of noise suggesting that everything was fine and he passed with no problems at all.

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QPR Ladies through to Cup Final
by head coach on March 9, 2010
http://yoursoccerclub.

Sky describe tonight's FC Barcelona vs Arsenal game as "one of the biggest in Arsenal's history", which judging by the mood amongst fans out in the Catalan capital may well be true. "If we qualify it'll be on a par with Anfield '89″ claimed one Arsenal fan, though the half-empty pint swaying in his hand and glazed, fixed stare on his face implied he could have been standing outside Underhill, Barnet for a friendly and still said the same.

The universal misery of being a football fan. I picked this up from Hibs.net - no links back on there so I'm afraid I don't know where this first appeared online. Grimsby's fate is not yet decided - if both results go their way they could stay up at the expense of Barnet: Now I'm as optimistic as anyone when it comes to this twát of a football club, but after this afternoon's latest

I know, friendlies are generally boring exercises in half-assery and don't really mean anything. Still, though . . . in less than a month, we'll have football! Arsenal!:

July 17 Barnet, London, UK
July 21 SK Strum Graz, Graz, Austria
July 27 SC Neusiedl, Neusiedl, Austria
July 31 AC Milan, London, UK (Emirates Cup)
August 1 Celtic, London, UK (Emirates Cup)
August 7 Legia Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

The match against Barnet is the traditional opener of our friendly season, and I think Barnet (a club I have a soft spot for, as it was where I started my "career" on Football Manager) gets to keep all the ticket sales for that one as part of the agreement that sees our Reserves play at Underhill.

Brazilian midfielder Denilson hasn't been included in Arsenal's 22-man squad to face Barnet tomorrow after suffering a reoccurence of the groin injury which dogged him towards the end of last season.

If you missed the game against Barnet then this compilation of Emmanuel Frimpong is a must watch. And those who did watch the game will surely have enjoyed it enough to give it a second look.

There are many aspects to his play that we can appreciate. The initial moments of the video have some sideways and backward passes but that's understandable given the nature of his role.

By Ollie Irish

A stroll for Arsenal in their traditional pre-season friendly at Underhill. This from Arsenal.com's official match report:

"The tone was set after just 90 seconds when Andrey Arshavin waltzed round home keeper Jake Cole before tapping home. Jay Simpson added two more before the break as the visitors dominated.

Jack Wilshere showed just what he can bring to Arsenal this season as the Gunners recorded an impressive first pre-season win.
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It has almost become impossible to find a dissenter to the view that England have had their most gifted footballers of a generation compete for world football's biggest prize however this summer's failings in South Africa have shown that, that may not be the case.

The young Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny has taken heart from Arsene Wengers words this weekend, and believes that he has as much chance as anyone of being Arsenal's first choice keeper next season. Arsene Wenger played Lukasz Fabianski, Vito Mannone and Szczesny in Saturdays freindly against Barnet, and said after the game: "At the moment, in [.

I like watching the Emirates Cup. It gives me a good idea about the preparation levels for the coming season and also a chance to see some youngsters in action. This year is going to be even more fun because we have quite a few big names missing.

For starters, all our key central midfielders from last year are missing.

Written by Neamman

Back in the 60s, perhaps 66 or 67, we had a young player who appeared in 3 games in a month, I saw his debut. His name was Mickey Boot and he scored 2 goals in those three games, the one I saw was a nice shot from outside the penalty box. Yet he never appeared for us again and soon thereafter moved to South Africa.

Short back and sides. Tall top The Fresh Prince of Madrid has got himself a new hairdo. Cristiano Ronaldo joined his Portugal team-mates for training yesterday evening sporting a very drastic barnet. It is a variation on a theme of what the Real Madrid man has been sporting this season, but there is no doubt [.

It's looking increasingly likely that Stevenage will have another game postponed this weekend as the 'big freeze' continues in the UK. Weather warnings have been dished out to parts of North West England, the West Midlands and Southern England while Boro's re-arranged FA Trophy fixture against Vauxhall Motors was put back again to next Tuesday due to freezing conditions and snow.

After some early shocks, Africa's football "powerhouses" (and Algeria) have scraped into the quarter-finals. And at times the football has been a joy – if, sadly but understandably, overshadowed. The gun attack on Togo's team bus put the tournament into perspective, though not a proper one. Reactions were depressingly Euro-centric, more depressingly Premier League-centric and, more depressingly still but predictably, Phil Brown-centric.

League 2 - Saturday 13th Feb. 2010
Barnet is famous for the slope and Cheltenham had it to their advantage in the second half. From one visit to the ground my impression was that shooting down the slope required a bit of skill.

With the World Cup less than 6 months away, we have decided to start the build up early doors with an A to Z list of our favorite players who set the World Cup alight. Some are recent stars, some are relics from the days of black and white TV but all were mustard. The thing is, each week we will be using just stars whose surname was that week's letter, eg: this week it is letter C which gives us Carlos, Cruyff, Cannavaro etc etc.

A swashbucking display in Forest's vital 1-0 win over Swansea on Saturday will have immediately endeared him to the East Midlands faithful. Rumours of a fall out with the hard nosed Jim Gannon hastened Boyd's departure from Peterborough and his confident debut will enhance his chances of a permanent arrangement.

I know I could never stop supporting Arsenal, so its more like any support I have for the manager now will go if he sells Little Jack.

Jack Wilshere is one of the best players we have seen come through the 'youth project' at Arsenal. Yes Cesc and Clichy are pretty good, but we all know we stole them at an early age, at an age when everyone could see that they had what it takes.

With Boro's league season over and done with and the FA Trophy Final not until next weekend, it's been a rare 2 days off, so I've been looking at the results in some of the other leagues and getting a preview of what life in League 2 will be like next season. League's 1 and 2 played out their penultimate games of the season yesterday, while today was the final day in the Championship.

What to make, then, of the events at Kenilworth Road this afternoon? On the one hand, there are plenty of plenty of supporters of other clubs in the Blue Square Premier that seem to hold the viewpoint that serious crowd trouble at a Luton match has been something that has been waiting to happen for some considerable time.

Grimsby Town have been relegated from the Football League for the first time in 99 years. A dismal run of form earlier in the season had left the East Coast club a mountain to climb after they had at one stage found themselves adrift in the League 2 relegation zone an entire 7 points from safety. The Mariners had showed some positive signs of producing an incredible escape over the last month or so, securing 4 wins and a draw within their last 6 league matches.

Burton take sting out of Bees match
Barnet 1-0 Rochdale (08:05:10)
- click on photos to enlarge image -
A rare Football League outing for these pages then. However, before you go running to tell my Mum, let me put some rhyme to this reason. We had a shoe in both camps here having befriended fans of both Barnet and Rochdale on previous *ahem* European Football Weekends.

The good thing with the ideology behind this website is the fact that unless we're dealt an absolute sucker punch of a sock to the jaw, one of the four of us writers is going to be celebrating a league win, minimum. Yeah, you have your once in a Blackburn Moon years and that is even rarer than a Blue Moon.

Transfer rumours are always in overdrive at this time of year, but this summer seems to be more busier than normal. All sorts of names have been thrown around, but the signing of Darius Charles remains the only deal confirmed by the club so far. Phil Wallace has already mentioned that there are some deals already in place and all will be revealed on June 1st, but that hasn't stopped the rumours of who those players could be?

There isn't that much news about really so I thought it would be interesting to have a look around the web to see where the Boro managers of the past are now and what they have been getting up to since their departure from Broadhall Way.

Paul Fairclough

Paul Fairclough's second spell in charge of Stevenage ended in 2002 when Phil Wallace relieved him of his duties and appointed Wayne Turner as his replacement.

Arsène Wenger will take his Arsenal team on their traditional pre-season visit to Austria, it has been confirmed.

The Gunners, who have been regular guests in Austria for almost 9 years now, will stay at a Bad Waltersdorf-based 5-star hotel from 19th to 27th July this summer.

Bet 365 is offering 16/1 on Stevenage to repeat their title success of 2009/2010 in League 2 next season. That makes them 5th favourites, below the likes of Northampton, Rotherham, Bradford and favourites Gillingham. Barnet and Accrington are favourites for relegation at 100/1. I think it's crazy that odds can be offered a full 9 weeks before the season even starts, with the summer's transfers and manager changes yet to really get going.

Well, there isn't much news about at the moment so this will be short. I expect there to be a bit of news later in the week as the club concludes talks with Eddie Odhiambo, Mark Albrighton and Mitchell Cole over their futures. There could also be an announcement soon regarding where Michael Bostwick will be playing next season.

Memories of the mid 90′s Conference days flashed through my mind this morning when I heard that Macclesfield will be Stevenage's first opponents in the football league. The Cheshire club will travel down to Broadhall Way to play Boro on the 7th August.

It will be the first time the two clubs have met since that infamous game in 1997 when Boro threw away a 2-0 lead to end up losing 3-2.

Nick Bailey is set to sign for Middlesbrough this week, pending a medical, after he agreed personal terms with Boro. In a recent interview with the SkySports he thanked Charlton Athletic and their fans for the two year experience with the London club which saw him score 26 times in 93 appearances resulting in Gordon Strachan seeking the midfielder's signature.

Morning all,

Sol Campbell spent the day up in Glasgow yesterday in talks with Celtic about a move up there for next season. The Mirror report there is a two year deal on the table and he will be paid 30,000 a week, I have heard that its only a one year deal but it matters little.

As pre-season approaches, the game against Barnet is just 11 days away, us Arsenal bloggers have got to begin our own preparations.

As the players return to work on their fitness, technique, passing, shooting, tactics and everything else, we have to find a way to get back into the swing of things ourselves.

Nicklas Bendtner's Denmark were eliminated from the Fifa World Cup in late June, during the tournament Bendtner played through the pain barrier as he tried to rally his fellow Danish troops he managed a goal and assist in 3 games during the short time in South Africa.

Since then Bendtner has tried to enjoy his well earned break, but has spoken on the battle with the re-occuring groin problem, and how it can sometimes mysteriously come and go.