Did you guys see that goal against Mali? Class it was. Gervinho had very good technique to place it with such a tight angle in place. However the most important thing about the goal was that it fell to Gervinho to score. He could have messed that up with so much time on the ball, [...]

Right then, after a week which has been dominated by two craggy faced managers (so much so that Fabio Capello was in my post-apocalyptic dream last night wearing a gigantic gold hooped earring), it's time to turn our attention to the stuff that really matters.

Arsenal play Sunderland tomorrow and under Martin O'Neill they've been about 61 times better than they were under Mrs Doubtfire.

"Check that's not Jackie Chan, will you?" after one particularly high challenge in the African Cup of Nations (ACN) semi-finals. Ah yes. Gary O'Reilly was back on Eurosport. And welcome back too. However, the most telling comment of any international football tournament is "no goals against." And that's a quote from Cote D'Ivoire.

Some players want to leave, Arsenal will be going places this summer, the English NT is filled with jerks... your usual cup of Arse here at the Offside

We start today's blog with a subject Arsenal fans are always delighted to hear about: player departures. Park Chu-Young has indicated that if keeps getting ignored for play action, he might leave in the summer.

The winning goal for the Taranga Lions was all Gervinho in the 44th minute. The Arsenal winger robbed the ball well behind the half line, and then turned on the burners to blow past the Malian defense down the left channel, cutting in for a superb finish.

Arsenal cannot wait to have him back.

The Ivory Coast reached the final of the African Cup of Nations with a 1-0 win over Mali on Wednesday night. Cheick Tiote - reaches final of African Cup of Nations The scorer of the only goal of the game was Arsenal's Gervinho, who scored after 45 minutes and he was a target of Newcastle last summer, before he eventually joined the [.

Mali vs Ivory Coast 0-1 Highlights CAN 2012 Semifinal Cote d'Ivoire Gervinho Goal Video is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Mali vs Ivory Coast 0-1 Highlights CAN 2012 Semifinal Cote d'Ivoire Gervinho Goal Video is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Mali vs Ivory Coast 2012 ( Mali Cote d'Ivoire video below) Final score and result:- Mali vs Ivory Coast 0-1 ( Gervinho) Stade de Angondje, Libreville- 8 February, 2012- Africa [.

Just before Christmas Arsene Wenger made it clear that Chu-Young Park was now settled in London and ready to step-up to the Arsenal first team when Gervinho and Chamakh went off to the African Nations Cup. He said: "The adaptation period for him is over now so he has to come in and show he [...]

After a disappointing start to this calender year, Arsenal were finally able to secure their first Premier League win of 2012, picking up 3 vital points against Blackburn Rovers in a 7-1 demolition at The Emirates.

Once again, Robin van Persie showed just how important he is to this Arsenal side scoring three and making two others during a numbingly-cold afternoon in North London.

A first win of 2012, seven goals, a striker in the form of his life, and one of the most exciting young talents in the country. Finally a day really worth cheering about.

The emergence of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, in particular, is great news for the club. In recent times Arsene Wenger seemed to have lost his touch with bringing in exceptional young talents, with the likes of Diaby, Denilson and Walcott not fulfilling their potential, and the most exciting player, Wilshere, coming up through the club's academy.

Match Report Video By the numbers

I think we can safely say this morning that's just what the doctor ordered.

Three points, a good performance, and a day which brought no controversy, animosity, angst or worry. For a moment it looked a bit shaky, when Pedersen equalised with Blackburn's first attempt on target, but instead of setting us back it sparked us back into life and withing a couple of minutes we were two goals to the good.

For many people the low point of this season was the 8-2 at Old Trafford. And I get that completely. It was embarrassing but, you know, it was a freak. A one off. Something that's never likely to happen again and entirely down to the fact that the manager took off the Coq. Without him we had no penetration, no balls and as a team we went flaccid without him to keep us stiff in the middle of the park.

Given that Sam Allardyce supposedly had the hex over us while he was in charge at Bolton, it was interesting to find out that we've actually won 9 out of our last ten games against Bolton in the league. Until today, our last failure to beat Bolton was the rather galling 2-1 defeat last year, when Nasri choked, and we failed to defend our set-pieces.

Ya está en marcha la Copa Africana de naciones, rompiendo como siempre el calendario ya que realizarla en enero no es el mayor beneficio para los clubes que al fin y al cabo son los dueños de las cartas de los jugadores. Bastantes de ellos en Europa, aunque en esta edición el número es menor por algunos países que clasificaron por sorpresa y tienen menos futbolistas en el viejo continente o ninguno como Sudán, porque sino el número de 184 jugadores que se desempeñan ahí y jugarán ésta edición hubiera aumentado con Nigeria, Sudáfrica, Togo, Camerún o Argelia presentes.

Arsenal has suffered some terrible bad luck with defensive injuries this season. We lost Sagna, Gibbs and Jenkinson all with a 17 days in October, but the loss that has hurt us most was the loss of Santos in December. Santos was an attacking full-back and gave us extra attacking options something that has been lacking in recent weeks.

Angry, frustrated, disappointed. Once again Arsenal fans are left let-down, once again we are promised things will change and once again it is groundhog season for Arsenal, and we haven't even entered the annual departures of the close season.

Where do we start? It is obvious that things went wrong in the summer with Wenger anticipating that both Nasri and Fabregas will not leave these were the hopes of a man living in a dream land.

Angry, frustrated, disappointed. Once again Arsenal fans are left let-down, once again we are promised things will change and once again it is groundhog season for Arsenal, and we haven't even entered the annual departures of the close season.

Where do we start? It is obvious that things went wrong in the summer with Wenger anticipating that both Nasri and Fabregas will not leave these were the hopes of a man living in a dream land.

Wallowing in the glory of Henry's movie-moment comeback was not meant to last all week, but for me it has. The YouTube video I breathlessly uploaded at about midnight on Monday has now had about 37,000 hits (and Analytics tell me 90.6% of those who watched it were male, with 9.7% female how do they know this I wonder – though my brother did confidently predict that he had watched it "about 28,000 times" so maybe there's some truth in that).

Happy Friday the 13th to you.

Of course it's only unlucky if you're in certain parts of the world and if you believe in superstition. And the only superstition I believe in these days is the one Stevie Wonder belts out. Still, I hope your evening is filled with all the beautiful things this day brings: escaped lunatics wearing hockey masks and eviscerating people with a chainsaw.

Why, top of the morning to you, and you, and you with the crooked nose as well. May a squadron of Twix bars find their way into your mouth by day's end, and may time go by as smoothly as Thierry's first touch. The day has gone by that smoothly in fact; exploding capacitors and leaking transformers having taken up so much of my time that this review is sinfully late (A word of caution- never put the positive pin of the capacitor into the negative pin of the battery, unless you want the electronic equivalent of the Vietnam War in your face)

The FA Cup game against Leeds can broadly be divided into two storylines playing out in parallel- a feel-good fairytale with returning Kings, and a tragicomedy about knights whose swords have been replaced by rubber ducks.

Of course Henry had to score didn't he? For all the talk about the return and the love for the club and the sheer timing of statuesque honours, of course he had to score. For all the French connection and the highest scorer title and the completely un-Wengeresque move to accept a deficiency in his squad, of course he had to score.

After Vito Mannone moved to Hull on loan there was some suggestion that he had made available a space for non homegrown players to arrive.

Unfortunately this isn't the case. For the 2011/12 season we named five homegrown players over the age of 21, and 17 (the maximum allowed) non homegrown players.

After Vito Mannone moved to Hull on loan there was some suggestion that he had made available a space for non homegrown players to arrive.

Unfortunately this isn't the case. For the 2011/12 season we named five homegrown players over the age of 21, and 17 (the maximum allowed) non homegrown players.

The 2012 African Cup of Nations begins on January 21st in Gabon and Equitorial Guinea, and players have just reported to their respective international squads for the tournament. The next few gameweeks in the Premier League will be tough for ... Continue reading →

One week into the transfer window, I wish there were more concrete transfer new items to share. But instead, it's just the same rumors we've been reading for the last few weeks, for the most part. I'll start with players making exits, or rumored to be making exits.

Vito Mannone is now on loan with Hull, and he played today against Ipswich in an FA Cup win.

The Cold...

Is pissing off to the last degree. A few well-chosen hours of sunlight aside, the entire day in this remote corner of Rajasthan is as bone-chilling as watching Overmars running towards you at full-pelt. No central heating and no adipose have collectively ensured that that I indulge in glum sighs and sad smileys galore at the turn of the New Year.

The Cold...

Is pissing off to the last degree. A few well-chosen hours of sunlight aside, the entire day in this remote corner of Rajasthan is as bone-chilling as watching Overmars running towards you at full-pelt. No central heating and no adipose have collectively ensured that that I indulge in glum sighs and sad smileys galore at the turn of the New Year.

WEEKEND WRAP!

It's the FA Cup weekend, so you'd be forgiven for finally creeping out from under your blankets and rubbing your eyes... except it's another case of 'Back to the Future' and Thierry Henry has returned for Arsenal! Although you'd all like to believe this is one of monsieur Arsène's secret master plans, his arrival is meant to support the loss of Fútbolitos Gervinho and Chamakh Challo to the three-week long African Nations Cup, which kicks off on January 21st!

Kolo and his brother will soon meet up with fellow academy-ites Kalou, Eboue and Gervinho at the African Cup of Nations in .

When Gervinho, Salomon Kalou, Emmanuel Eboué and the brothers Touré convene in for the African Cup of Nations tournament to play for the Ivory Coast, it's a high school reunion of sorts.

Henry: "I just could not say no to Arsenal"The ongoing saga of finalizing Thierry Henry's two month loan to Arsenal reached its conclusion today when the Gunners announced that they had an agreement in place with the New York Red Bulls and MLS. The deal is intended to allow Arsenal to bridge the four to six week gap when Gervinho and Marouane Chamakh will be away on Africa Cup of Nations duty.

We are still a few days away from the Leeds game and I don't want to step on what will surely be another (auto paste here) splendid pre match from the master himself. But without wishing to step on toes I want to get some thoughts off my chest.

Having spent most of Christmas and New Year struggling to find the back of net I have started to change my mind about the importance of this game and who should be playing.

Good morning and welcome to a Friday ahead of what's going to be a fairly quiet weekend for us. We don't play until Monday at 7.45 (on ESPN too wouldn't it be ironic after weeks of not getting penalties if we got a pelanty?).

Ahead of that game the manager has revealed that Robin van Persie won't play, which is only to be expected.

After Vito Mannone moved to Hull on loan there was some suggestion that he had made available a space for non homegrown players to arrive.

Unfortunately this isn't the case. For the 2011/12 season we named five homegrown players over the age of 21, and 17 (the maximum allowed) non homegrown players.

Thiery Henry's short return to Arsenal is pretty much imminent but theres still some question being raised regarding the necessity of the deal as some doesn't really understand what would the Gunners gain with Henry's addition aside from a short stop gap solution.

However, the London outfit's keeper, Wojciech Szczesny, shuts down the doubters by stating that acquiring the club's legend even for only two months is very important indeed.

Consider this a 'half season review', but with one game added on. After a terrible start, followed by an excellent run, followed by a topsy turvy Christmas period, I feel we now have a good idea of how the season is going to go.

When we beat QPR and Chelsea lost at home to Villa, we leapfrogged them into 4th place.

Consider this a 'half season review', but with one game added on. After a terrible start, followed by an excellent run, followed by a topsy turvy Christmas period, I feel we now have a good idea of how the season is going to go.

When we beat QPR and Chelsea lost at home to Villa, we leapfrogged them into 4th place.

Joey Barton's recent red card against Norwich could easily be put down as Karma. Remember the incident which seen Barton over reacting to a mere slap at the start of the season from Arsenal striker Gervinho which seen the player red carded?

Joey Barton's recent red card against Norwich could easily be put down as Karma. Remember the incident which seen Barton over reacting to a mere slap at the start of the season from Arsenal striker Gervinho which seen the player red carded?

Sebastien Squillaci: Flumm-oxed

1. There are no free passes in the Premiership: Even the so called lesser teams have their moments under the sun. You underestimate them at your own peril. Teams that got bitten badly this past weekend: United, City, Chelsea, and Spurs.

Fulham 2 (Sidwell 85, Zamora 90) Arsenal 1 (Koscielny 21)
(Premiership)

It is always difficult to write a match report after a game like this. I was tempted to pen my thoughts in the immediate aftermath, but decided to let the game settle a little and write in the morning.