Earlier in the week Chairman Peter Hill-Wood said that while he'd obviously like Arsenal to finish in the top four, it wouldn't be a 'disaster' if that didn't happen.

Obviously he was talking about it from a financial point of view. The implications of playing Europa League instead of Champions League are obvious.

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).

Let's calm down, it's only the FA Cup Third Rou-WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

A game dominated by Arsenal but missing a special finish was effectively ended when Thierry Henry made his return to Arsenal as a 69th minute substitute and scored a sublime winner 10 minutes later.

Season's greetings Arse addicts. It's been an unusual kind of week with two away games yielding mixed results. Yet we've probably found more praise for our performance in defeat at Eastlands than we did for our somewhat serendipitous victory at Villa Park. Football is a funny old, blah, blah, blah etc.

The Arsenal midfielder Yossi Benayoun was one of the few players to come out of the game against Olympiakos with any credit, and he believes that if he makes full use of the chances that Arsene Wenger gives him then he will win a regular starting spot in the end. The Israeli international is just [..

Former Liverpool winger Ryan Babel has revealed that he regrets his 'dangerous' use of Twitter during the latter stages of his career at Anfield.
Babel, who now plays his trade in Germany with Hoffenheim, admits that he is 'addicted to Twitter', and warned that becoming 'too emotional', can be 'very dangerous'.

Former Liverpool winger Ryan Babel has revealed that he regrets his 'dangerous' use of Twitter during the latter stages of his career at Anfield.
Babel, who now plys his trade in Holland with Hoffenheim, admits that he is 'addicted to Twitter', and warned that becoming 'too emotional', can be 'very dangerous'.

Clive Brunskill/Getty Images(Bleacher Report) Chelsea tried to complete a last minute player plus cash deal that would see Raul Meireles go to Stamford Bridge and see the Reds former sprightly attacking midfielder Yossi Benayoun come back to his Merseyside roots along with a £7 million purse.
However, Kenny Dalglish and Damien Camolli have seen off Andre Villa-Boas and his attempt to reclaim his former charge Meireles whom he sold to Liverpool at the beginning of last season while still managing FC Porto.

Eloping with Yossi Ep.7 Smokey Jol by Off The Post on Mixcloud It may not have been a classic weekend of Premier League action, but the Off The Post Podcast is back to scrape what we can from the bottom of the footballing barrel. Ben is currently serving a one Pod suspension for comments made [...]

We're finally back on schedule here at blog headquarters and since it is Friday morning on the East Coast of the United States that means it is time for all the news that is fit to print, err, type and link to about injuries and suspensions and how they impact your fantasy choices for the weekend. Arsenal vs.

Benayoun No deadline panic

Yossi Benayoun always expected his future to be decided on deadline day and held talks with Liverpool before joining Arsenal.

View the full story here: Sky Sports

A news article on 2011-09-15 08:50:54 from: Sky Sports

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Conceding late on only to a wonder-goal from Borussia Dortmund yesterday, Arsenal showed a new-found defensive solidity in their opening Champions League game of the season, and what might be the hardest of this group.

It's easy to forget that, with their nine-year absence from the competition, Dortmund are actually in it as German champions this year, and were never going to be easy to play away from home, with German grounds usually providing the best atmosphere in Europe.

Summer transfer window winners and losers: Football Spy Darren Lewis rates each Premier League club's business

Arsenal: LOSERS Are Mikel Arteta and Yossi Benayoun really adequate replacements for Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri? Arsene Wenger left his shopping far too late.

What the papers say on Thursday, September 1: Mikel Arteta, Craig Bellamy and Yossi Benayoun seal late deals

Craig Bellamy swept back into Liverpool last night as Mikel Arteta forced through a last-gasp move to Arsenal by taking a pay cut.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-09-01 08:41:23 from: The Mail

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Joe Cole's unhappy time at Liverpool to end with loan to Lille

• Cole left out of Dalglish's squads so far this season • Liverpool agree terms with Evian for Christian Poulsen Lille are on the verge of completing a season's loan for Joe Cole, thereby satisfying Liverpool's desire to save at least some of the 29-year-old's weekly wage of £90,000.

Arsenal are close to completing the signing of Brazil left-back Andre Santos and are in talks for Werder Bremen centre-back Per Mertesacker.

The Gunners have agreed a fee with Turkish giants Fenerbahce for Santos reportedly £6.2 million with the move subject to a medical and personal terms being agreed.

You thought you could escape the summer transfer window when Premier League football returned? Well, you thought wrong. And on top of the expected rumours linking Liverpool to various English defenders, there's a whole new round of rumours that just don't seem to make sense any way you come at them to dig through as we rush towards September first and begin to scrape the bottom of the proverbial barrel.

Here's the final installment of this Seasons Prem Wars trilogy sans the Lightsabres and Orks although the Death star does get a mention. This is how I fancy the top tier of the English league to look come May 2012. I'll also have a punt on the Champions League. Barcelona...no surprise there then.

Schlong in Hong Kong.

Anelka with a George Michael-esque pose

Yeah, the above phrase, from known lyrologist Christopher Bridges, is kind of lewd. Hey, at least I didn't use Bang cock in Bangkok when we were in Thailand. Area Codes, dude.

By now you should know that we're on the cusp of competing in our first organized tournament of the new season.

Players returned to Cobham for preseason training today. Say it with me: Finally.

The boys met with the new coaching staff, then got to work. After the jump, check out some assorted pics of the session. It looks like it went well very well indeed.

El jefe

Twenty-four players surfaced for our first training season of the preseason, after some 44 days of vacation.

We have all seen the rumours, we have all seen the speculation so it's about time that I put down here on record (as pre season starts today) the players I believe need to impress AVB this week or for the next 10 days. These are the players I believe may struggle to become part of AVB's plans.
Nico Anelka.

Our second end of season readers' poll takes a look at the new boys.

Signings were a talking point throughout the season. The number of outgoing parties in the summer, Michael Ballack and Joe Cole among them, peaked interest in the market from fan support very early.

Three points earned, but hardly the convincing display we sought.

Help, please?

Sunny days at The Bridge are back, weather wise. But on the pitch, I think we can all agree this was not our best display. Despite starting brightly, the Blues failed to find the net once more, until a scrum inside the box resulted in an awfully fortuitous goal for Florent and the Machine.

Not exactly the boost my fragile state needed ahead of Tuesday.

Together again

Meh.

I'd say that just about sums up Saturday afternoon at the Bridge. It was another labored performance, salvaged somewhat by the industry of Didier Drogba, the return of both Alex and Yossi and Flo's first goal for two-plus months.

Break internazionale is finito. I cannot be the only one who is overjoyed by that sentence.

Shouldn't play.

It's been a long ass while since the mighty Blues of London have taken the field in an official, competitive capacity. A week and five days to be exact.

Dom & O'Connor, celery fanatics

The Guardian has its 'five things we learned' series. Not bad. Moderately informative and enjoyable on its day. Here, though, we don't play. When we go for a five-point presentation, we do so fastly. And furiously.

Is fastly even a word?