There's No Other Way.

Monday, 19 October, 09.

Well the weekend's over and it's back to work for those of us who still have a job. At the moment in Ireland it's no mean feat to still have a job as unemployment soars and we suddenly find we have nett emigration again after over 10 years of nett immigration. It's amazing how quickly things can turn for the worse and how slow our pathetic excuse for a government have been to act on our problems. As you can probably tell by now I really wish that I could spend the day at home in the comfort of my bed but at least I know I can do that next Monday as it's a bank holiday over here. Anyway enough of the woes of the world and back to the important things in life such as Arsenal and the continued joy that us fans get from watching them.

We have 2 players on the shortlist of 30 players for the Balllon d'Or and it wouldn't take a genius to work out that they are Cesc and Arshavin. I would imagine that Messi has the award wrapped up but our 2 players have to be in the top 10 at the very least I'm sure. There is no news yet on whether Theo will be available for our trip to AZ tomorrow night but the manager doubts it. He says it's not a cruciate injury but we will have to wait for the scan on Theo's knee to see the extent of the injury or if it is just a kick. I hope it's nothing serious and we will see him next Sunday against West Ham but with the luck we've had with injuries over the last few years I won't be holding my breath.

There isn't too much else to talk about from an Arsenal perspective today but there were some interesting events over the weekend that merit a mention. The goal that Liverpool conceded to Sunderland was comical and the fact that a jolly Scouser threw the beach ball on the pitch in the first place only makes it funnier. I seem to remember Man City conceding a goal a few years ago when balloons were all over the penalty area and nothing was done about it at the time so Liverpool will just have to swallow their medicine. They are in a lot of trouble with 4 defeats in their first 9 games and my prediction at the start of the season that they would struggle seems that it might turn out to be true. In our match there was an indirect free kick given against Larsson when he intercepted a pass in his own box and it went back to the keeper who picked it up. It showed the standard of refereeing in the Premier league when the referee gave the free kick as it was clearly not an intentional back pass but the referee failed to understand that at all. I have mentioned the standard of refereeing this season a few times already but the referees just don't seem to be in touch with how the game is played or what players do on the pitch.

In the Fantasy football stakes I had another very good weekend yet again but there is one more match tonight before the final positions for this week are decided. With Cesc as my captain, goals from Dunne, Taylor, Bent & Defoe, assists from Cesc and Lampard and 10 bonus points from my players too I managed 63 points in total to move into the the provisional top 10,000 before tonight's match. With the Oleole leagues still being dominated by Football Guy's friend Amer I am managing to catch up on him slowly but surely and I'm nearly at the stage where I can challenge IAWWT for 2nd place. I gave a few tips on good players to sign during the interlull and Richard Dunne and David Dunn in particular lived up to my expectations this week. It's interesting to see what players are doing very well so far and Cesc in particular is far and away the best midfielder despite a lot less game time than most of his opponents. The Verminator is right up there as the 2nd best defender behind the afore mentioned Dunne. It's interesting to see Man City struggling to keep clean sheets since they sold Dunne and Dunne has settled in immediatly at Villa and raking in the bonus points as usual. RVP is slowly but surely progressing up the strikers list and he's in 4th place now and well worth buying. I've a funny feeling he will be featuring in my team very soon. That's it for today and I'll preview the AZ game tomorrow as we look to put ourselves in a position in our Champions league group that will leave qualification almost assured at this early stage.

Here's Man City's balloon incident from a few years ago.

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And to finish today's title track from Blur. We continue to play our great attacking football and outscore every other team in England. There's no other way that I would like to hae it.

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See You Tomorrow.