There were many contributory factors to this defeat. The fact that virtually our entire squad had played quite a few international minutes over the previous week combined with a lot of air miles would undoubtedly had an effect. The number of injuries we have been subjected to of late also made a difference, the recent injuries include RVP, Diaby, Clichy, Gibbs and Bendtner. Click to continue reading...

If there was any consolation, this was the first time this season we had really deserved to lose: both the defeats to United and City were particularly galling because we were the better team.
Credit Sunderland. While their performance wasn't out of this world, they did what they had to do. Click to continue reading...

One thing about not blogging for a week is you can sit back and watch the hysterical reactions going on in the world of football without feeling like you have to dive in and add your voice. It has been one of those weeks.

First we had the curse of the international break rear its ugly head again, in the form of injuries to Van Persie and Gibbs.

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As clear as night follows day, summer follows spring, and Phil Brown is a self promoting moron, Arsenal will get themselves in an almighty pickle with injuries long before the Christmas break.

The tradition has been continuing for many a long year, and with the news now of another injury to a reserve left back, Arsene Wenger is going to have to shuffle the pack again to get a team out at Sunderland capable of getting a result.

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Last Englishman Not Standing

There's another new name added to the injury list after the conclusion of the England U-21 game last night when Kieran Gibbs limped out of the game after just 20 odd minutes. I do not know for sure the extend of his injury but if it really is a broken metatarsal, it would mean April or May as his return date, which will also effectively mean an early end to what was supposed to be a promising season for me.

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Gibbs becomes the 12th player on Arsenal's ever lengthening injury list – he had been the club's first-choice left-back due to a stress fracture of the back suffered by Gaël Clichy.

Gibbs was forced out after only 21 minutes of the game against Lithunia, with initial reports suggesting he may have broken a metatarsal.

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by JAMES CURTIS The news this afternoon is that Stan Kroenke has ditched plans to invest in further shares at Arsenal by the end of the month, instead choosing to wait until the new year to take his shareholding to the magic 29.99% figure.

This is because Silent Stan has plunged $1 million into a Montana ranch thought to be 10,000 acres and containing 4,000 horses, in an effort to rear as much placenta as possible after yet another Arsenal player has fallen short to an ankle injury.

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So what's going on? Well hey guess what this evening Kieran Gibbs has picked up the now mandatory injury playing in the England U21 qualifier away to Lithuania. We await further news, but who thought, when we lined up for the season with three left-footed left-backs, that where left-backs were concerned, we were a touch over-subscribed?

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This happened a couple of days ago, but, you know...(shrugs). 15 Arsenal players have been called up for duty over the international break. The entire list can be found here.

Of the 15, only 5 Diaby, Gallas, and Sagna for France, Arshavin for Russia, and Song for Cameroon are playing in meaningful senior international matches, as all of their nations are trying to qualify for the World Cup.

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Another home game, another win, another game with over three goals. Nearly three months into the season and we have not scored less than three goals in a home game in any competition, it shows just how strong we have been at home this season and any team visiting the Grove will be aware of this record and aware of how strong the squad we have is.

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Remember, Remember, blah blah November.

Apart from Bonfire Night and Thanksgiving (for you Americans only) what else makes November stand out? You see, it turns out that� Arsene Wenger doesn't like November. Are we going to jump on this revelation and facebook� 'like it' ?

The reasons for Wenger's dislike of this month are down to "the volume of games" which make it difficult to maintain� the fitness levels.

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France's do-or-die match against Ireland is just around the corner, with the first match taking place on November 14th in Ireland and the second taking place on the 18th at the Stade de France (boo...). I don't know about you guys, but I'll be praying extra hard that France don't screw up against a tough Irish team.

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It was just one of those nights. Kind of like the home wins over Sevilla or Slavia Prague match in 2007. Arsenal came off 3-nil win over Spurs at the weekend, in which they had never really hit 3rd gear, and rode that 3rd gear for much of the Champions League match with AZ Alkmaar on Wednesday evening.

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It is easy to take for granted, after all it is now almost ten seasons in a row of qualification for the knock out phase of the Champions League, what a fantastic record, it's just the cherry on top that Arsene is after now. No one really expected Alkmaar to pose much of a threat and this proved to be the case. Click to continue reading...

Arsene Wenger has come out and said he has faith in Keiran Gibbs' ability to play a crucial part in Arsenal's push for Premier League and Champions League glory. The young Englishman is set to play a prominent role in the first team over the coming weeks as regular left-back Gael Clichy is facing a spell [. Click to continue reading...

The news that Gael Clichy is out for up to two months is unfortunate and may harm Arsenal's trophy ambitions. When he first started his career at Arsenal, he was very injury prone, with continuous operations on his broken metatarsals. He always seems to get injured at an awkward time for The Gunners, and will return in the New Year.

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Samir: Let it go Fab, they can't help it if they're that bad

Ok. I'll admit if you think that's lame but that pretty much sums up the match doesn't it. Andrey Arshavin had a blast as Arsenal met (thrash) Alkmaar in the Champions League encounter last night. Qualification is not mathematically secured yet but it would take a miraculous set of results for Arsenal not to go through.

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Apologies all, I've been moving house today and cannot get near to doing a full preview of tonight's game, which starts in a matter of minutes. Suffice to say that a win is actually quite important given Chelsea's qualification last night (we play Chelsea after matchday 5, and they can concentrate entirely on that one), and I think we'll get it, 2-0.

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Remember, Remember, blah blah November.

Apart from Bonfire Night and Thanksgiving (for you Americans only) what else makes November stand out? You see, it turns out that� Arsene Wenger doesn't like November. Are we going to jump on this revelation and facebook� 'like it' ?

The reasons for Wenger's dislike of this month are down to "the volume of games" which make it difficult to maintain� the fitness levels.

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I'm sure you're all like me out there in the Gooner Nation. Still luxuriating in the warm glow of the derby win last Saturday over the Forces of Darkness. The cod DVD cover doing the email rounds with Spurs releasing a highlights video of the first forty-two minutes of the game is absolutely delicious.

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by CARL ELDRIDGE� Arsenal fans are fearful for the� future of the club after Stan Kroenke increased his stakeholding to 29.6 per cent — just short of the threshold for an obligatory takeover of 29.9 per cent, reports the Times.

Kroenke yesterday purchased another 427 shares in the parent company of the North London club from the estate of Ernest Harrison, a British industrialist, at a cost of £3.

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Last week after the fantastic win in the Carling Cup, Fran Merida told afc.com that he wanted to stay at Arsenal and that he hoped his contract would be sorted out very soon. Sadly for Fran, his agent Joseba Diaz hasn't seen the interview or possibly not even bothered to speak to Merida. Diaz has said he has an illness, well a love for Atletico Madrid which all started when he slept on red and white sheets when he was young!

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A win tonight at Ashburton Grove will see Arsenal qualify for the from the first group stage of Champions League for the 10th consecutive seasons. Not even the great Barcelonas or Real Madrids or AC Milans can lay claim to such an impeccable consistency. Tonight sees the return fixture with AZ Alkmaar who pegged us back at the final minute of the game with an equalizer.

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Childs Play

Soffo The Greek belled me last Wednesday with an invite of a freebie at The Emirates to watch Arsenal V Liverpool. I arrived to a packed Stadium but couldn't help but wonder if I'd been sucked into a May 09 Emiratian time warp. Wasn't most of this side on the pitch for the FA youth Cup final in spring?

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Phew, writing something vaguely interesting (even for me) at this time of the night here� is hard enough. Where do I start? I know, I'll start� with a Lithuanian most of you have forgotten about.

I was watching (albeit very briefly) Inter at Livorno the other day. It finished 2-0 to Inter btw.

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I'm more than sure you all heard it by now. Gael Clichy will be out for a month and Kieran Gibbs will need to take his place this November, including of course the big game ... Click to continue reading...

I'm more than sure you all heard it by now. Gael Clichy will be out for a month and Kieran Gibbs will need to take his place this November, including of course the big game ...

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by JAMES CURTIS Arsenal will be without Gael Clichy when AZ Alkmaar arrive at the Emirates tomorrow evening ahead of another Champions League encounter.

Bendtner has already been ruled out for at least four weeks with a groin problem, proving the Gunner's winter injury list is about as traditional as Christmas pudding.

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Well, just as my preview for the first match against AZ announced a monthlong injury to Theo Walcott, I'm afraid I've got more bad injury news to report here.

Gael Clichy reportedly has a stress fracture in his back, and will be out for about a month. Two weeks of that month will be the international break, but he will, at the very least, miss league fixtures against Wolves and Chelsea and Champions League matches against AZ and Standard.

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Arsenal have been rocked by the news that left back Gael Clichy is reportedly set to be out of action for close to a month after suffering a stress fracture in his lower back. Clichy will therefore miss Arsenal's next two European games against AZ and Standard Liege and the Gunners' Premier League fixtures against [. Click to continue reading...

Hello to all of you reading this on a Sunday or Monday or maybe even 3 years time when you are caught reminiscing about this game making it 20 games unbeaten against Spurs.

Like the title says, 11 seconds, that is all it took for Spurs to crumble and fall to the knees (literally when Cesc went past half of the Spurs team for his goal).

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"Welcome to my nightmare, welcome to my breakdown."

Alice Cooper's 1975 campy anthem sums up the last five minutes of the first half for Spurs.

Harry Redknapp probably regrets starting a clearly unfit Ledley King who has struggled with injuries this season. Sagna on the right whips in a cross which Van Persie reacts to more quickly, outmaneuvering King to turn the ball past Heurelho Gomes for the first goal in the 42nd minute.

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dig, dig, dig.

Good afternoon everybody! I thought it would be a good opportunity to do� another live match report as this is naturally such an important match. The big news to start off with is that we're playing in a 4-3-3 again with an attacking trident of Bentley, Crouch and Keano.

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Bendtner to repeat this act?

As an Arsenal fan, today is the day we wait with abated breath. This is the first fixture I look for whenever the new season kicks-off. For Gooners, it comes no bigger than the North London Derby. Spurs visit Ashburton Grove looking to find the first league victory over Wenger.

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Arsenal defender Gael Clichy believes the reason why the Gunners let a two-goal lead slip away last Sunday is that the English Premiership is a very tough league where even a three goal cushion may ... Click to continue reading...