Up For Grabs Now

Amid the understandable brouhaha over Adebayor’s delicious overhead kick, photographed in all it’s glory here, it has yet to be pointed out that this may well be the very first time during the Wenger reign that an Arsenal player has scored an overhead kick. Truly a momentous effort then.

Some will surely point to Eduardo’s chest-and-volley-on-the-swivel against City last season, but in my view that’s exactly what it was – an ingenious over the shoulder effort which can’t quite be classified as a thoroughbred overhead kick in the Ronaldinho/Crouch mould.

If you can think of others do put them in the comments, it may be that I’ve forgotten some gem or other.

It’s been one of my odder gripes over the past few seasons that we haven’t had players who were that keen to score overhead kicks. Sure, Thierry had a go once or twice, and there was never any doubt that we had players who were technically proficient enough to pull it off. For me, it’s an attitude thing. Wenger’s boys are all about crisp finishes into the bottom corner having bamboozled the entire defence in the build up. 

At their best, it’s more about running it in than walking it in, but this doesn’t involve a lot of crossing and when the ball does go in the air, our players immediately try to bring it down again to pass to a team-mate. The glorious thing about the overhead kick is that it is a desperate measure, a moment when tactics and team-mates go out the window, when all the player is thinking about is getting a shot in, however difficult that might be. And while having such intelligent players is fantastic, you do miss that impulsive, score-at-all-costs instinct that Ade showed on Tuesday.

While we’re on the topic, here’s the greatest overhead-kick I’ve ever seen. 88 minutes gone in their last game of the season, 2-2 against Valencia and needing the win to qualify for the Champions’ League, Rivaldo (having already scored both his team’s goals) produced this.

I want to see some of that from Eboue in the Champions’ League final, and then I want to see Peter Hill-Wood imitating the bloke at 0.10 in that clip. Top exultation from that man.

Moving on, it’s looking like Manuel our Spanish waiter goalkeeper will be sidelined with Le Gal for a wee while, which means Lukasz Fabianski has the chance to impress. Its a big chance for him, too. He’s been patiently chalking up cup appearances, and though he’s 24 he seems to have a good attitude and a commitment to biding his time and making it at Arsenal. He looked sharp on Tuesday and if he needs inspiration he need only remember Alex Manninger, who famously came into our 1998 side and performed heroically. Not that doing similar would necessarily mean we’d have to ship him off to Fiorentina, either.

With Djourou looking good, I hope we won’t miss Le Gal too much (though it would be very nice indeed if his injury turned out to be less serious than it looked), and with Silvestre on his way back we should have everything nothing to worry about.

Finally, if I was a betting man, which I might be, I’d haul my considerable crease onto Betfair and buy up some odds on a Liverpool comeback at Stamford Bridge. They need three goals, but they got four at Old Trafford and will, crucially, be attacking a Terry-less Chelsea, a team which often loses at home to very bad teams indeed. Plus if you do it on Betfair you can wait til Liverpool go a goal up and the odds swing enormously back towards them, sell some of your stake, and hopefully win whatever happens. Easy. Just don’t blame UpForGrabsNow if it all goes tits up.

Having endured the inevitable United comeback yesterday, there are now 6 points between us and a mentally lacerated Villa with 7 games remaining. We can now justifiably turn our full attention to the Champions’ League – and with some hope I think.

Villarreal away tomorrow night, sans Jens, but with the promise of the chance to burst United’s bloated bubble big-style in the semi-finals. There can be no failure now.

These are not opponents to be underestimated, though, and they will take a bit of beating. In the group stage they held United to 0-0 draws home and away, and they came through their second round by getting the win they needed away at Panathanaikos, no easy place to go.

The superlative Tim Vickery has an excellent profile of their manager and a few of their top players. Definitely worth a read.

They are a club, like Arsenal, which does things a bit differently. One of these things seems to be their commitment to fluid, attacking football, which I hope will mean that we spend the tie launching blistering counter-attacks, rather than simply scrapping in the odd goal from a corner after 180 solid minutes of Islington Shuffling, as is too often the case.

Always more exciting when they attack too, eh? We also seem to defend considerably better against teams who attack, so hopefully Villarreal’s style will bring the best out of our boys and we’ll see a bit of Wengerball.

Speaking of our boys, there’ll be no RvP, no Diaby, no Eduardo and, astonishingly, no Rosicky.

If Arsene was thinking of doing anything other than a 4-5-1, that list could have done some of his decision making for him. He can play Bendtner up top with Ade, or else he can play 4-5-1, (with Bendtner on the wing if he really must).

Having seen Cesc chillin out max on Saturday, basking on the Denilson-Song midfield platform, I’d like to see a similar line-up, with Nasri in for Arshavin if he’s fit. I would expect Theo to start wide right, but wouldn’t be too surprised to see Eboue come in.

Our change in fortunes has seen a remarkable cooling of the raging tide of hatred and vitriol which used to be habitually spewed at Messrs Eboue and Song by certain squawling siblings amongst the internet fraternity. In the bleakest days of this season, I defended our squad and Wenger’s management at a time when the media was telling us that all was lost, and was attacked for being completely uncritical of Wenger. The acid test for my stupidity? “Won’t you criticise Wenger for anything? Do you think Alex Song is a good player?”

Now no-one’s saying that he’s Vieira, or that he’s some sort of club legend, but there seems to be a growing realisation that when he’s on form, he can do a job for us. How times change. Eboue, too, has turned opinion round spectacularly in recent weeks with some strong attacking performances, a few goals and a general avoidance of self-imposed mishap. Perhaps this is because he isn’t getting a starting place very often any more. When it gets to 60 minutes and people start wondering who’s on the bench, some have even been suggesting that (whisper this) perhaps it might be an idea to bring on Eboue.

Amid all the talk of facing up to Bobby Pires, a word, if you will for the forgotten man of Arsenal’s Invincibles, Pascal Cygan, a willing servant of the club during his short spell at Highbury who is still remembered for a number of breathtaking examples of elite-level defending. In fairness, on his day he wasn’t actually that bad and by all accounts he has enjoyed something of a transformation since joining Villarreal. But if it’s not his day tomorrow then we could be in for some fun.

A limited amount to waffle about today, as we hope that people don’t get injured as they run off to play for their respective nations. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? I think they should just abandon international football altogether except for intense qualifying sessions in odd-numbered summers and then the tournaments themselves. There would be none of this club versus country malarkey, and national matches would become a real event, rather than a sad excuse for taxi drivers and builders to dress up, get drunk and be racist over a pointless and low-quality non-match.

Arsenal is my country: based in North London but comprised of the best from all over the world, and though rooted in an English tradition able to travel anywhere and beat anyone. Surely this is a finer example of a modern British group ethic than you’re ever going to find in Wayne Rooney and chums hacking pointlessly around for an hour and half?

Andrey Arshavin wants to stay forever, he says. Racking up those fans’ favourite points again. Good job Andrey. I’ve realised that every time I write his name I want to write Andre the seal, a bad children’s movie featuring a young Joshua Jackson from Dawson’s Creek. I also want to write Andre the Giant. Since the square-framed Russian is neither a seal nor a giant I’ll try not to, but forgive me if it slips out. He said.

Anyway. Other than a few bits and bobs there’s not much Arsenal news, so instead why not pass a few minutes joining me and Grabs in our New Pursuit; free gambling with Betfair. Simply click on our banner above and follow the links – bet up to £25 and if you lose you get your money back. Pretty good deal, I think you’ll agree. We’re also going to start speculating on humorous things to do with Arsenal. Keep posted.

Also don’t forget to enter the Herbert Chapman t-shirt competition. These t-shirts really are very natty: simply click on www.upforgrabsnow.com/competition for full details.

If you still haven’t done so also remember to sign up to our email list, and you’ll never have to worry about finding the site again…

Quite a change that weekend was, I think we’ll all agree. 3 points clear in 4th, goals from everywhere, and a great sense of momentum. I much prefer this sort of weekend.

Once again the optimism of this blog proved accurate, as we pushed the Geordie bastards aside with a skilful, satisfying flourish, deftly evading the temporary threat provided by Steven Taylor and his gigantic bag of cuntite thuggery. The BBC thought it was the best half of football this season, but then those live text guys always seem a bit annoying, like they’d be the slightly annoying friend of a friend in the pub who you’d tolerate but prefer was absent. The Guardian thought it was boring. I thought it was somewhere in between, which I’m feeling pretty post-revisionist about. Particularly good was Manuel the Spanish waiter goalkeeper’s saving of Martins’ penalty. Nothing better than your keeper saving a penalty, is there? Particularly from Martins, a player whose performance for Inter Milan four years ago lives long and hauntingly in the memory. The length and hauntingness of this memory are slightly lessened by the fact that Martins is now rather shit, except for in Pro Evo where he’s still quicker than God. But still.

Anyway, with Liverpool brushing aside Aston Villa, the bus of whose wheels are falling off at an alarming hilarious rate of knots. I think Martin O’Neill must have a recurring nightmare in which Nigel Reo-Coker is a very simple man with a very simple job who suddenly ends up in a position of great power and kills the world. It’s the Emmanuel Eboue dream (don’t tell me you haven’t had it) to the nth degree, and no wonder O’Neill looks stressed. I still like him though, I must confess, despite my greatly enjoying the flaccid end to Villa’s season, and see him as a potential Arsene replacement one day.

Not that I want Arsene to go anywhere. Just as our faith in him is rewarded, so his faith in his players continues to prove enlightened. Despite his ineptitude in front of goal last weekend, the Great Dane is becoming better by the game, and given he’s only 20 I think we can expect good things from him. Remember the other strikers, reputed to be exciting, he showed off – Stokes and Lupoli both spring to mind – and perhaps we’re beginning to see what Arsene’s known all along.

Arshavin was his usual dynamo self. I think the square-figured Russian is going to become a real favourite. He’s skilful but doesn’t mind getting knocked about a bit (Russia for you), and he runs to the end. Newcastle are in real trouble now, but we’re three points clear, and how nice does that feel, particularly with United in difficulties. This season is really playing havoc with one’s loyalties, isn’t it? First you want Spurs to beat Villa, and then you want Liverpool to beat Villa. I remember in the olden days when Villa were everyone’s second-favourite team…

Anyway, a good weekend for us. A shame about Theo’s injury, but he’ll be back, hopefully alongside a revitalised and refreshed Cesc Fabregas. What a nice thought that is…

A little while until the next game, but in the meantime why don’t you amuse yourselves by entering our new Philosophy Football competition? All you have to do is answer the following question: Which formation did Herbert Chapman pioneer at Arsenal? Send your answers with your name, t-shirt size and address to admin@philosophyfootball.com

I’m wearing mine now, and Grabina says I look very fetching…

Don’t forget as well to sign up to our mailing list below

Morning all, and what an exciting morning it is as we face up to AC Roma away in the Champions League. With Chelsea and Liverpool going through last night (Liverpool, I’ll grudgingly admit, in some style) it keeps up the English representation in the competition. I really don’t understand why as a player you’d want to be anywhere but the Premiership at this point, unless you’re really addicted to constant sunshine. Or Tottenham try to buy you. If things carry on in this vein we could be left with an all-English semi-final, and what larks that would be. Although I’d like Barcelona to still be around, as long as they’re the Barcelona that’s starting to crumble rather than the comically imperious Barcelona of earlier this season 

Hopefully we’ll get at them tonight and go for the magic away goal which would all but guarantee our progress, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Arsene employ a 4-5-1 kind of a set-up, perhaps with one of the strikers playing in the hole. It also remains to be seen whether or not he’ll risk starting Eddie and Theo, or leave them on the bench to wreak havoc later on. I wouldn’t mind seeing Alex Song starting, giving him the chance to capitalise on the form he found on Sunday, but I don’t know if Arsene would back him for such an important game.

My team:

Almunia

Sagna Toure Gallas Clichy

Walcott Song Denilson Nasri

Van Persie  Eduardo

But I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bendtner start because he’s big and awkward, although personally I’m not sure this is as important in this context as being good at football, given that it’s, you know, a football match. We’ll see.

Anyway, with Roma lacking lots of their best players, and in intermittent form, I’m very optimistic about our chances tonight. The Champions League brings out the best in us, and we’re in good nick at the moment anyway.

In the meantime, don’t forget to enter our brand-new Phillosophy Football competition to win a Herbert Chapman t-shirt! Simply send the answer to the following question to admin@philosophyfootball.com, together with your name, address and t-shirt size: What was the formation that Herbert Chapman pioneered while he was at Arsenal? There’s five to be given away, and we’ll be announcing the winners at the end of the month.

Also, don’t forget to sign up to the email list below, to get your fresh slice of UpForGrabsNow love direct to your inbox every morning…

A delayed response to the stonking victory over Burnley on Sunday. Of course you’d be quite right if you said that we are a football club of sufficient stature that we oughtn’t be cheering victories over Burnley that emphatically, but the quality of our performance and our otherwise rather rickety season merits us in this instance. It also keeps us alive in the FA Cup, a competition we’ve got a good chance of winning this season, just as long as we can overcome Manchester United, Chelsea, and, er, Hull in the following rounds.

3-0, it was, and it could have been quite a few more had young Theo and Robin shot slightly different. The players involved in the goals were also wonderful statement from Arsene; all new, returning or maligned. The first was an Andrey and Carl incision of a quality that promises wonderful things for the future. A silky pass, a great first touch and then a chipped finish over the keeper. These two haven’t been around long enough to learn the Islington Shuffle, and I’ve rarely been gladder. The second has had a lot of coverage as a thing of pure beauty, and who am I to disagree. After a tentative bit of IS, Alex Song floated in a miraculously surprising ball to Eduardo who smacked it with his heel into the top corner, the sort of finish which were you in the playground you would have to spend a long time justifying as being deliberate. Eduardo isn’t in the playground, and so doesn’t have to justify his sheer technical brilliance.

The third was, as well as being slick and clinical, a goal which made you want to go and check which way round the loo was flushing. LeGal passed the ball forwards to Alex Song whose deft backheel put it in the path of the onrushing Eboue, whose finish was uncharacteristically, wonderfully clinical. Gallas-Song-Eboue-goal; what odds would you have got on that combination before the match, I wonder? Alex Song’s two assists reflected a great performance, and one which left me wondering whether it might not be Denilson who’s most nervous for his place when Cesc gets back. Song is much happier sitting back than the Brazilian, who like most of our midfielders ideally would like to be the Cesc figure. What a difference a good match can make.

So from the despair and despondency of the last few weeks we find ourselves in a position where, with a good performance against Roma tomorrow night, we can find ourselves in strong contention for two trophies and right back in the hunt for fourth place against a collapsing Villa. Great News.

In other Great News, our February Philosophy Football competition has finished- congratulations to our winners Peter Hoodless, Clementina Kyremateng, Clair Lewis Peter McNulty and Cara Taylor, who are now all the proud owners of the Arsenal t-shirts. We are also proud to announce the March competition. Same deal, only this time you can win a stonker of a Herbert Chapman t-shirt from our pals down at PF.

As before, we’ve got 5 to give away, to enter you’ve simply got to answer the following question: what formation did Herbert Chapman pioneer when he was at Arsenal? Full details are here.

Don’t forget to sign into the mailing list below. Until tomorrow, grabbers, where we’ll talk about Roma and all that jazz. Been a good few days for us gooners, hasn’t it?

Morning all. Isn’t it difficult to keep one’s eyes on the football world with so much envy-inducing Caribbean-based cricket going on. Why would you want to be stuck in England worrying about Eboue when you could be in a paddling pool in Barbados? That’s what I want to know.

Mind you, some of those Caribbean guys know a lot of stuff about football. I remember in 2005 I met a rasta guy in a bar in Antigua, and after I realised he wasn’t going to hurt me it noticed this guy was complaining about our lack of strikers. This was ages ago, remember… I pointed out that Bendtner was coming through, and he said that Bendtner looked promising but wouldn’t cut it eventually as he didn’t have the application. Well, quite.

What I’ve been trying to do for the last two paragraphs, and which isn’t going to work, is avoid discussing the current Arsenal side, and more specifically discussing Saturday’s limpid 0-0 draw with Fulham, which has put us all but a minor miracle away from fourth place in the Premiership. Yet again we remained largely unthreatened, and yet again we stayed resolutely unthreatening, resulting in a kind of horrible stalemate, awful to watch.

Wenger seemed like a worried man, and I think what bothers him almost as much as not winning is that we’ve seemingly run out of attacking ideas – we’re not fun to watch. Perversely it might be more fun for everyone if we were leaking goals and scoring them – drawing 2-2 or 3-3 all the time, rather than this 0-0. It’s because it’s an Arsenal we’re not used to under Wenger, and we’re worried. There have been bad patches before, but we’ve never had a problem scoring goals. It’s a new sort of dilemma, and nobody seems to have any easy solutions to it.

This uncertainty is creeping into his own speech: after the match he said, of Walcott, Rosicky, Fabregas et al:

Let’s not make heroes of those who don’t play’

Don’t adjust your screens, this is the same manager who reminded us at Christmas time that Rosicky, Walcott, Fabregas and Eduardo would be like new signings for us when they came back. His emphasis has shifted: no longer is it ‘all the elements are nearly in place’, it’s now ‘this lot need a talking to’. And who’s going to give it? A policy whereby all the players are totally professional in their approach every game, and give it their all whilst being technically virtuoso is all well and good, except for the part where it doesn’t work and we draw nil all at home to Fulham.

Sad and frustrating, basically, but for me there’s more to it. This is just my opinion, and it’s going to get some people very wound up, but a big part of the problem is that it’s boring. It’s no fun to watch, no fun to read about, it just makes me angry. And why shouldn’t it? I feel frustrated settling down to watch these games, paying money for seats, spending hours reading and writing about this club when it’s painful. Does this make me not a real fan (an unreal fan?)? I don’t know. I don’t think it does. I’m never going to support another team, but if football is a religion, and Arsenal is my creed, I’m perhaps suffering from remembering that faith is a one-way street – you give and give to a team, and at the moment we don’t get a whole lot back.

The team exists for the fans, not the other way round. People announce with pride that they’re Arsenal through and through, as if Arsenal had somehow sacrificed something for them that they had to repay with loyalty. All I have tying me officially to the club is the money I hand over for television subscriptions, for shirts, for tickets. Emotionally I clearly have far more invested: my whole life as a fan, my personal history, friendships made through the game. Living the ups and downs is one thing, but it’s just so much more aggravating when it seems that they’re not even trying. It’s a cliché to get cross with the overpaid superstars, but I’ve never felt it before. Bloody annoying, isn’t it?

Anyway.

With Villa drawing it gives us a real chance to narrow the gap. Let’s hope we can. It’s also very funny that Tottenham lost the Tottenham Trophy on penalties, but less funny that it was to United, who this season are playing a kind of gameshow game where there’s a big pile of silver, and they have to see how high they can climb up it. A Spurs-United Carling Cup final is a bit like watching two really ugly people get off in a club: you don’t care about the ‘result’, there’re no real winners, least of all the spectators, but if they must do it, ’twere well it were done quickly (lot of Shakespeare today). 

A brief word about Arseblog, which just turned 7, and many happy returns to it. What the guy has done as a blogger is pretty extraordinary, not just within sports but across the whole internet. Writing every single day, rain or snow, matchday or ‘Interlull’, is no mean feat, let alone keeping it interesting, informative and amusing – even today, a pretty glum day:

Maybe I’m a petty man, a small, petty man, for getting my kicks from the misfortune of others, but David Bentley is rat-faced chav whose catastrophes will always be thigh-slappers to me.

There are others out there doing good stuff, but few would dispute that this is the granddaddy. It inspired us as well as countless others – as Arsenal fans we should thank our stars that he’s on our team…

That’s quite enough moaning and poo-nosing for one morning. But if you’re bored, why don’t you enter our competition? Or sign up for our email list?

Kick-off is imminent, and the big team news is that Andrey Arshavin is set to start, his hair issues having been resolved: about that, you’ve got to wonder whether it was a big sticking point in the transfer dispute…

AA: I must have my hairdresser.

Arsenal: We have many good hairdressers in England.

AA: I must have my hairdresser.

Arsenal: But your hair is quite easy to cut, you are not Mr T or J.Lo.

AA: I must have my hairdresser.

Arsenal: How does this affect your football?

AA: I must have my hairdresser.

No wonder the whole thing took so long.

Anyway. Arsenal team:

Almunia,

Sagna Gallas Toure Clichy

Nasri Denilson Song Arshavin

Bendtner Van Persie

Subs: Fabianski, Vela, Ramsey, Djourou, Eboue, Gibbs, Merida

I have to say I like the looks of this lot, particularly with Song and Denilson being given the middle. It’ll let Denilson push forward, a position he’s much happier in than holding, and Song the chance to really prove himself. Gallas and Toure will be less of a struggle, but given the colander-like nature of Sunderland’s defence I hope that we’ll have at least a goal or two to play with by the end.

Though it looks unhelpful, Chelsea beating Villa is probably good news for us in the long run – I really think the wheels are starting to fall off the Villa wagon, whilst ours are fully greased and good to go.

Watch it here

More updates after the game, but for now, come on the Arsenal! 

PS Don’t forget to enter to win your Philosophy Football t-shirt, and to sign up to get your direct Up For Grabs Now delivery…

If UpForGrabsNow aspired to originality, then today would be all about Ryan Giggs.

It would be original in the sense that it would be an Arsenal blog about a man who plays for our detested foe. But it would be original mainly because nobody, absolutely nobody, is making the point that Ryan Giggs is having a good season. I find it unbelievable.

Oh no, hang on. There’s this. And, erm, this. In fact, it’s pretty much impossible to click on a website, turn on a telly or open a newspaper without finding some eyebrow-preening ex-professional noisily pointing out that Ryan Giggs is a good player as if this incredibly talented bloke had somehow been overlooked for the last 20 years and as if the journalist’s groundbreaking discovery comes tragically too late for poor anonymous Giggsy to ever really make a go of this professional football shenanigan.

I mean, it’s not like he’s won much during the last 20 years at Man Utd,is it?

What annoys me is that sports journalists get paid to do this. Surely they’re meant to watch sport and come up with original insights about it, right? They’re meant to have a knowledge about the game which transcends the humble understanding of the common man, you or I, we swarthy flat-capped North Bank sorts. Aren’t they?

I want to read an article about the hidden genius of Helder Postiga during his time at Tottenham, about how the young man justified his exorbitant transfer fee with a string of lung-busting performances and should never have been sold. It might be bollocks, but at least it’s contentious and thought-provoking.

Put it another way: who’s going to seriously oppose the claim that Giggs is good? Admittedly, there were large sections of Utd’s idiotic, infantile crowd who were screaming for Giggs and Scholes to retire last season while Arsenal were on top, but then presumably those supporters can’t read and are only in football for the nice shiny brands.

So, in the spirit of innovation and controversy, here are my thoughts on the Sunderland game today:

We should win. Sunderland aren’t very good.

Hopefully Arshavin will play. He is Russian.

Hopefully Eboue will not play. He is not as good at football as Arshavin. Or me.

Hopefully Vela will play a bit too. He is a bit like Eduardo, who unfortunately can’t play because his leg is sore.

Hopefully we will win. This is my opinion because I support Arsenal.

If you have any similarly shocking ideas about anything Arsenal or otherwise, stick ‘em in the comments. Don’t forget to enter our superb Philosophy Football Competition. Good luck!

Hello all, sorry for yet another hiatus in the blogtrain. Grabs and myself are, unfortunately, both hilariously busy. And, quite genuinely, we don’t particularly want to interrupt all of your interesting lives to deliver any old slice of codswallop when it’s not necessary. Aside from the mighty Arseblog, we feel that there are too many Arsenal blogs delivering daily rubbish rather than concentrating their might into less frequent but more prescient postings.

Goonette – I’m sorry you are disappointed, I hope you keep coming back, and forgive us for prioritising quality over quantity.

Anyway some bits and bobs to discuss. Ivan Gazidis has given a little interview, in which he reiterates that Arsene has money to spend. I’m not sure anyone’s ever doubted this. Perhaps it’s true that we can’t compete spending-wise with United and Man City, but I don’t think that’s been the obstacle; rather Arsene has not seen fit to spend it. And as we saw with Arshavin, a bit of shrewd manoeuvering can get you instant results: remember how close Spurs were to spending waaaay more to get him fresh out of the Euros.

We also haven’t yet spoken about the Usmanov situation, which is a tad worrying. It seems unlikely you get a blocking vote in a company unless you want to, er, block votes, or at least carry the threat of doing so. At the same time, however, you’ve got to agree that there’s no point owning 24% of a company when 25% gives you a much more important role, and despite the drop in equity prices Boss Nass Usmanov is still not a poor man, although he doesn’t seem to have spent much on his gym membership, the Gungan-looking bastard. All we can really do is wait and see, and hope that Fiszman keeps his word RE selling. I’ve got a lot of confidence in the board. Perhaps one thing the supporters could do is each bake a cupcake and send it to Red & White holdings, and hope that after eating 60,000 cupcakes he finally explodes like Mr Creosote.

Fun article here in the Mail about dream teams. These lists are always bollocks, more or less, but it’s good for a nostalgia trip. Carrick? Really?

Sunderland’s next up: what team would you pick? I really hope to see Carl and Andrey get a start, but I’m not sure it’ll happen this weekend. This is a huge run of games for us, let’s hope the boys keep their scoring boots on, and that Villa lose to Chelsea. Is it just me or are Chelsea becoming much more pitiable of late, somehow? All that money and they’re still crap, and they still bin world-class managers. You’ve got to think Mourinho goes to sleep every night with a huge grin on his face…

Don’t forget our fabulous Philosophy Football competition, and to sign up for the mailing list below. Until later, Grabbers.