Jose 'funny clown' Mourinho put his mind games hat on recently when he suggested that Arsene must be some sort of pervert because he answers questions about chelsea when the media ask him.

All this just goes to prove that Mourinho is on the edge.

He can't take the pressure.

Two games without a win and the comments of others start getting to him.

But does he have a point? Is Arsene going too far? Does he have a telescope in his room?

Anyone with half a brain will see that Mourinho is talking complete nonsense.

He was the one who came out with false accusations about David Dein rigging the fixture list, completely out of the blue.

So why is the funny clown coming out with this gibberish?

Because everything wenger said was completely true and he can't take it.

chelsea couldnt even beat bottom side Everton, they LOST at home to Charlton, and then we're pegged back to 2-2 after being 2-0 up at home to Blackburn.

All of this with a full strength or virtually full strength squad.

But lets be honest, this is just the kind of child-like behavior that Mourinho is known for

Just ask Anders Frisk and Frank Rijkaard.

Anyway, he's best just ignored...

Or better still, there's always this: http://www.punchaceleb.com/hit/mourinho/

Got that monday morning drearyness?

Not at your pin point sharpest?

Work with or going to see some spurs fans today??

Well, they've more than likely been waiting desperately since 2.50pm on saturday to meet you! Preparing a script of verbal abuse in order to try and salvage some sort respect in your eyes for their small club.

Here are some monday morning comebacks to put them in their place.... Even though all their team could manage was a slightly above average first half performance and a draw!




THEM: You were so LUCKY! We cained youz! we was all over ya! You're teams nothing now...

YOU: Oh right? You mean lucky Henry, Hleb and Cole were all injured? and that Ljungberg and Reyes were only just back from injury? and that Ljungberg had to come off injured when it was Reyes who was having a bad game? and that you were the ones who were supposed to be at home? Well I don't believe in luck anyway.

THEM: We had Davids out! If he was playing, we would've won

YOU: Well I can sit here all day long and say that if Henry, Hleb and Cole were playing, and Reyes and Ljungberg were 100%, you would've conceded another 5 goals at home.

THEM: It's your fault for having such a useless squad, stop making excuses!

YOU: If the Arsenal squad is so useless, how come the majority of your fist team got rejected by Wenger then? They only went to spurs cos they couldnt get into the Arsenal side. Carrick, Defoe, Jenas, Robinson, Davids, Reid and Dawson. Arsene had a look and said no thanks. So they joined a small club instead.

THEM: Small club!!? Who's higher in the league?

YOU: What, by 3 points after playing an extra game?

THEM: Well we cant be a small club if you're below us in the league!

YOU: So Wigan must be a massive club then because they're second? No, you're a small club because you never win any trophies or even make it into the UEFA cup.

THEM: Oh wait to the end of the season, we'll finish above youz this time!

YOU: I hear this every year. Do you not get bored of hyping up your team only for them to fail to even qualify for the UEFA cup?


By this time they probably would've walked off in defeat and denial that the team that they lie awake at night hating is still twice as good as their beloved side. Angered that they missed probably their biggest chance to beat a depleted Arsenal side in years.

Here we go!

Arsenal versus spurs, round one.

I love these games.

The build up, the hype, the electrical intensity in the atmosphere...

The buzz of anticipation until kick off on the bright green turf.

On derby days the pitch almost seems like hot concrete.

Every challenge is going to hurt, every push, every kick, every scrape, every tug.

Every celebration twice as loud, every laugh is twice as long.

This game isn't about individuals or nationalities, it's about red versus white.

This is real football

IT'S A MANS GAME.

There's no time for flinching, no time for backing out.

Full speed or nothing at all.

So wait for the moment.....

Wait for the sight....

Wait for the net to bulge and the goal frame to shudder!

Hello! Hello! We are the Arsenal boys!

Silly rumours annoy me.

Stories with no source that just blast onto the back pages when its been a slow news week

ARSENAL SWOOP FOR KAKA

VIEIRA IN SHOCK RETURN

HENRY: IT'S TIME TO MOVE ON

What a waste of space.

Someone should do a whole years research into what percentage of these kind of 'A close freind revealed' stories turn out to be true. I'd be willing to guess its less than about 20%

Vieira had one of these 'close freinds' too

I can't remember which year it was, but the second he went off on holiday to America some 'close freind' starts coming out with all this stuff about how he never wants to play for Arsenal again.

Strangely enough, when he came back he denied everything and said that someone had been lying about him.


That brings back some memories...

Summer after summer of the same annoying drawn out drama.

When he left, my feelings were split between

1. WHAT!?

2. Why now?

3. This could be cool, Arsene must have a big name replacement lined up

4. Is this a joke?

5. You might've sold him Arsene, but he's staying in my Football Manager team!

6. Well, at least I don't have to put up with long gut wrenching summers of news headline after headline about Vieira to Madrid anymore...

Now it seems we're all in for more!

How fun.

I hope Thierry doesn't leave it until the last minute. That would be really frustrating.

On a cold, wet night when a very young Arsenal team took apart a fairly strong sunderland line up infront of a crowd of almost 50,000, it wasn't just the intensity of the floodlights that shone in the Stadium of Light.

Quincy was on form, causing Sunderland all sorts of problems with his pace, tearing spaces in their defence.

Eboue thundered in an effort from thirty yards to gain the lead 15 minutes into the second half of what had been a fairly tight game until then.

Then as McCarthy said: "They got the goal and it zapped our legs. For the last half hour they were better"

But the best and one of the most mature performances of the game came from Van Persie, who not only extremely confidently rifled a penalty into the top right corner, but killed the game off with his second three minutes before full time.

He looked strong and confident on the ball and seemed a clear level above the rest of the youngsters who in turn seemed a level above McCarthy's team.

It was a performance that screamed 'I'm ready Arsene!' Even though this has been clear for while given that he's been one of the stars of the Dutch national team for their past few games.

All he needs is a run in the first team to prove that he can be just as influential for Arsenal.

Hoyte also did well, and seems to have settled into his role at Sunderland, becoming one of their most consistent players.

But then, so did Moritz Volz when he went to fulham and he never came back!

Overall it was a good performace and an injury free 90 minutes under Sol's belt before saturdays game.

I think that this young side can at least make it to the semi's of this competition this year. It's probably the best chance that the likes of Quincy and Song have to stake their claim for more first team action.

Next up, some small local team or something...

Jose 'funny clown' Mourinho was getting the jokes in recently when he declared....

"You know why they took the penalty like that?

They have so many penalties in a season, they had to do something different."

Wow! Eddie Murphy must be quaking in his boots eh Jose!?

Yes... I can see it now

Shrek 3 starring Jose 'funny clown' Mourinho as the voice of Donkey!

Shrek: Hey Donkey, why are you so boring these days?
Donkey: You should treat me with a little more respect. I am a special donkey. People say that I am boring, but they know nothing about being a donkey.

But seriously....

This is just a feeble attempt at trying to reduce the amount of penalties that Arsenal are awarded.

Jose thinks he's a master of mind games, but most of the time he just ends up getting in trouble with the FA. Like how he did after making his oh so erroneous comments about Arsenal having an unfair advantage in the fixture lists because David Dein is some sort of cheat or something.

Hey Jose, I've got a funny joke for you!

What do Ashley Cole, Steven Gerrard and Frank Arnesen have in common?

Doesn't need answering that one does it?

Football....

What a game eh?

Sometimes it just leaves you speechless

Without a single word to describe the events as they unfold before your eyes.

Cantona's kung-fu kick

Higuita's scorpion save

Pires' pointless penalty

WHAT WAS THAT!?!?

I knew Pires was going through a bit of dip in form, but to completely miss a stationary ball is just beyond words.

Well he didn't completely miss it

He managed to scrape it with his studs, thus giving away an indirect free kick to Manchester City.

My attitude towards Bobby has a bit of a unique history.

When he first joined Arsenal he was reported to have come out with some statement about having preferred to have signed for Real Madrid, who were also in for him, but that he only signed for Arsenal in order to develop his career.

.....you what!?

He had a pretty bad first season, and I really didn't like him or see much point in him being in the team.

Then he really started to play well, get his head down and do his job. Since then its easy to see that he's realised that this club isn't just a stepping stone.

He isn't playing well at all right now, but in my opinion he just needs a bit of patience from the club and the supporters.

Anyway, a bit of a disjointed game ended in another home win. Three desperately needed points chalked up and the bonus of a clean sheet.

Next up, the Makems

Roman Abramovic says in a new book that he wants to:

"build the most successful football club in the world"

"Everything we have done so far is geared to this,"

"I hope to carry this forward in the true blue tradition of Chelsea but also build even stronger foundations to last us the next 100 years."

I wonder if he actually wrote that?

I mean, he must be a pretty busy guy. Does he really have time to write a book? He certainly doesn't appear to need the cash.

Maybe its just one of these 'written by a guy who had a 25 minute conversation with the "author" 3 months ago who's lawyers don't diagree with much of the content' books.

That seems more likely

There are only a few teams that I actually hate so much that I enjoy watching them lose.

Spurs

Leeds Utd

Real Madrid

I've really developed a strong hatred towards chelsea in recent years, but they dont fall into the 'Most Hated' list just yet.

They're not far off though.

I hate spurs... Do I really need to explain why??

I hate leeds because they're one of the dirtiest, most dispicable teams I've ever seen

I hate madrid not because they try to steal Arsenal players almost every summer, but because of the club ethos. They are set up to win by buying trophies. I've always found something incredibly unfair about that. They throw money at clubs and players until they get what they want, living off a history of winning the Champions Cup 6 times in a row during the 40s or something.

Of course other clubs have adopted the similar approaches, but madrid are the worst as far as I'm concerned, because this unfairness, this cheating has brought them massive footballing success.

Until Abramovic took over chelsea, I used to dislike them a lot, but I didn't really care what they did as long as they didn't beat Arsenal.

Now they're even worse than Real Madrid as far as buying trophies is concerned!

The only thing that stops them from getting on the 'Most Hated' list is the absence of the 'it's all about ME' arrogance

Joe Cole had it for a short while, but not any more

Mourinho tries to stop them from developing it because he's got enough for everyone.

I don't see it in the players when they're on the pitch, so it makes it easier to take when they do keep on winning. They're winning with hard work, not with arrogance.

So now Abramovic thinks that he's setting things up for chelsea to go on winning for the next 100 years.

So who's going to cover the £70m a year losses when you've gone eh Roman?

Who's going to be able to afford to keep paying the ridiculous wages for squad players that you do?

Sooner or later, when the money goes....

Its going to be a spectacular collapse!

Arsene says he was in for not one, not two, but THREE englishmen in the past few years.

Jermaine Defoe, Paul Robinson and Michael Carrick.

not bad choices there Arsene!

They're all there or thereabouts when it comes to the england squad and by no means do they appear to be heading towards the end of their careers.

Strangely enough they all ended up in the wrong part of north London, but at least this shows that Arsene is always on the lookout for fresh English talent!

So who did he end up buying instead? I will attempt to analyse his thinking. Perhaps by looking at his past choices, it will help us to gain a better understanding of Arsene's long term plan.

1:
Instead of paying £7m for Arsenal fan Defoe, Wenger splashed out a possible £17m on Jose Antonio Reyes. Reyes had a good start to his Arsenal career, but his first full season went a bit pear shaped. there was that phone hoax, and he just seemed to want to be anywhere but England at one point. This season, apart from his lack of goals, he's shown signs of exactly why Arsene rated him so highly.
Arsenal Grouch says:
Good decision Arsene. Reyes could turn out to be twice the player Defoe could be, but he needs time.

2:
Now probably England keeper for the next 5+ years, Robinson left leeds for a measly by todays standards £1.5m. The much highlighted keeper problems at highbury meant that Arsene was clearly in the market for a new one, but he opted for spaniard Manuel Almunia instead. With shot stopping his greatest asset, his lack of confidence and hesitancy meant that he lost out in his battle with Jens, and now seems destined to swap places with Mart Poom for the all important job of keeping one of the substitute seats warm on matchdays.
Arsenal Grouch says:
I don't think I'll ever see the logic behined this one.

3:
After Rio ferdinand, Frank lampard, Jermaine Defoe and Joe cole, it seemed as though it was only a matter of time before relegated West Ham were forced to sell Michael Carrick in order to try and balance the books. He was about to sign on the dotted line for Portsmouth when wenger declared his interest, but in the end nothing came of it and he ended up at spurs. Since then, the only central midfiled player to come in has been Alex Song, an 18 year old on a season long loan from french club Bastia.
Arsenal Grouch says:
This is a tricky one, since given his age and ability, Carrick is would more than likely have been competing with Flamini in a squad rotation place. Its quite clear now that perhaps an inexperienced 18 year old was not what was needed, but it's easy to see wengers thinking behind turning Carrick down at the time he did.

So what does this tell us?

That like Wenger keeps saying, he's not interested in the nationality of the players he picks. He has a system and he goes for players who can fit into it or bring something new into it, rather than buying players and trying to change the system to fit around them.

It also tells us that he's not the best when it comes to choosing goalkeepers.

Thierry Henry's name was written into the Arsenal record books as top scorer with two typical finishes against Sparta Prague last night.

But then I suppose any Henry goal is typical.

He gets them from all over the pitch.

I think I remember all 186 of them. The 20 yard curler at southampton... the turn and flick over Barthez.. the hat-trick against Roma...

Strangely though, so far the moment that stands out for me wasnt a goal.

It was a moment during a 6-1 win over southampton at highbury (I think). I was watching the game and my dad phoned me. He was watching the game at his house and called me just so we could talk about how quality the football Arsenal were playing that day was.

Dad: "See, that's real football..."

Kevin: "Whoah!

Did you see that!?"

Thierry had just produced on of the most outrageous peices of skill I've ever seen.

I remember thinking that that piece of skill was something I'd only expect someone like Rivaldo to do in a competitive match.

This was far from the days of Dixon hoofing it up to Wrighty.

Now it seems, after all this, he may be leaving this summer or next. Whatever he decides to do, he's more than repaid the transfer fee Arsene forked out for him.

So it wasn't a brilliant match by any means, but it was a great result that almost guarantees qualification.

Next up, the blue mancs.

A new angle.

I started a thread on the Arsenal-Mania forum yesterday and asked for some feedback on this shiny new blog. The most constructive piece of advice that I got was that I needed a new angle, because its the same as every other blog.

A bit too predictable.

Well it is an Arsenal Blog is it not?

This blog is stylised to be like the team. Great to look at, but there just isn't a different angle...

No plan B.

The recent load of bad results prove that Arsene has no plan B. Neither is he interested in trying to implement one. No henry, no goals.

Wiltord used to be able to fill in for Henry well enough, but there's no point dwelling on important first teamers that are allowed to leave the club for free is there?

The targets that he went for in the summer prove that Arsene has no intention of developing a plan B. He went for a deep forward, A defensive midfielder who could play as a striker and an attacking midfielder who can play across the pitch.

Taking this into consideration and knowing the way Arsenal play, the most obvious explanation is that he went for Robinho to compete with Reyes and bring more out of Henry, He went for Baptista to play in the center of a five man midfield in the Champions League and he went for Hleb to replace Pires.

If you look closely there, you'll notice that all of those buys rely on Henry being in the team for them to be effective. No Henry, no goals. Well maybe a few, but its not reasonable to rely on your central defence as a goal source.

So its Sparta Prague tonight and Henry's on the bench. I think he'll come on for Van Persie with between 65-70 minutes played.

It should be a tight game.

Come on Arsenal!

Dutchman Jol said: "I think once you take Henry and Vieira out of their team, they are no better than us.

"It's about good players. When Thierry Henry gets to 35 and can't play any more then they will have to find similar players - but maybe we can find them first. Arsenal haven't always been better than Spurs. And we can be better than them again.

Gibberish.

I told you Martin Lipton was a spurs fan.

This quote is from the Mirror, where he is 'chief football writer'.

His name isn't on this article, but apparently he's responsible for all of the football stories in the Mirror, so I'm not surprised that the headline is "WE ALL AGREE TOTTENHAM ARE BETTER THAN ARSENAL".

Up until now, Jol had been one of my least disliked spurs managers. Mostly because he didn't initially come out with all of the complete nonsense that most of them come out with about spurs being a massive club who should be winning things.

Now this!

Let me tell you Martin me old boy, first of all, never forget that spurs go through managers like a fat bloke with diarrhea through bog roll, so don't get too proud of your team or cosy in your chair because you probably won't be around next year.

Secondly, by the time Henry is 35, Fabregas will be 24, Flamini will be 26, Van Persie will be 28, Reyes will be 28, Senderos will be 26 etc, etc, etc....

Thirdly, once you take Defoe and robinson out of the spurs team, you're no better than the MK Dons.

I remember a few seasons ago when spurs managed to be top of the league on goal difference after 2 games or something. Lineker was like a cheshire cat on MOTD and I asked the technician at work, who was a spurs season ticket holder if he thought that they could win the league....

"We've got as good a chance as anyone!"

AAAAAAAHHHHH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

It still makes me laugh, even today.

Right.

I've decided to give it until the end of the season

Then I'll quit football...

...or at least try.

I've been trying for about 3 years now. It just takes up too much of my time. It controls my moods. It clouds my judgement. I find it difficult to stop finding out the latest news.

arsenal-world.co.uk...arsenal-mania.com...arsenal-mania.com/forum...anr.uk.
com...planetfootball.com(now changed for some stupid reason! )...soccernet.com...news.bbc.co.uk/sport...newsnow newsfeeds...arsenal-mania.com/forum...

round and round in circles I go until the next fix of information.

I keep hoping its going to be 'Arsenal swoop for Torres' or 'Abramovic bankrupt' or 'Spurs docked 20 points', but they rarely ever get close to anything like that

When I was younger it used to be checking teletext every 20-30 minutes. Pelting it downstairs as soon as the newspaper came through the letterbox at 7:15 every morning. I developed a hatred of Martin Lipton when he was writing for the daily mail (not that I like him now.). I'm sure he's a spurs fan...

I'm 99.9% sure that I havent missed what happened in a single Arsenal game since about 1993. Before that I mostly just used to check the results on Grandstand. I've either been to the game, watched it live on TV, watched a recording of the full match, listened to it live, watched the extended highlights, watched the highlights on the news the next morning, read numerous media reports or a combination of any of those. Every win, every draw, every loss, extra time, penalties, replays, 2nd replays, rematches, friendlies, the lot.

I'm also fairly up to date with la liga, serie A, full and U21 internationals and sky sports Masters football. I try watching dutch football sometimes, but the ridiculously poor defending just gets on my nerves, so I usually turn over.

I can't tell you the amount of months I've wasted playing championship/football manager or fifa. I used to play 6-a-side 2-3 times a week, but I had to cut it down, because I ended up getting into too many fights.

Thats why I've been trying to quit. If Arsenal turn into an 'also ran' team, I don't know what will happen. I might end up being in a permanently bad mood like a brumie.

Yesterday was pretty tough though. You know its a big danger sign when the roles get reversed like they did yesterday.

Until recently it's been Arsenal who could give an average performance and still come away with the points, and the likes of West Brom who were playing very well, but coming away with nothing.

What a difference a season makes. This time last season arsenal were top of the league, playing quality football with a relativley strong squad. Now Vieira, Edu, Pennant and Bently have gone for almost nothing, Bergkamp is fading fast, Pires seems to have forgotten how to pass and can only shoot the ball at his team mates, with only Hleb coming in to compensate.

I just can't get my head around this arsenal team at the moment. It just seems to be in a form that I can't describe. That reminds me of when I moved to Birmingham. I couldn't get my head around it. It took me ages to figure out that what Birmingham actually is is a small town spread over a large area. Small town poeple, small town pace, small town mentality.

I really hope that isn't what's happening to Arsenal.

Small club players playing for a big club.

I gave up following football yesterday!

Completely....

It is, however slightly ironic that the very same day that I decide to give up paying attention to football is the same day that I decided to start this blog.

Ironic indeed.

A bit like a chain smoker deciding to go cold turkey whilst at the same time taking a job in a tesco's tabacco kiosk.

Football is addictive, a bit like eastenders. The same thing happens almost every week, but for some reason you desperately need to find out what happens next. Drama, excitement, a rollercoaster ride shared by millions.

At the end of the season before last, I told myself "I've seen Arsenal do absolutely everything. Win every trophy, break almost every record. I've been there and seen it." I often wonder what it must be like to be a southampton or a blackburn fan. They never win anything and probably never will, but they still turn up week in, week out. Do they really imagine that one day they'll be champions?

Anyway I then realised that there is one trophy I havent seen an Arsenal captain lift. The Champions league! Arrgh what!?

I tried getting into rugby league when I was in my early teens. "The more sport, the better" I decided. One saturday I sat down to watch grandstand, I must've been grounded or something, but it was a challenge cup final. Wigan v's St Helens. That day Wigan played in red and white (St Helens do too, but they were in their blue and white away strip), same as arsenal, so they instantly became my rugby league team form that point on. I saw Wigan win everything too. Championship after championship, trophy after trophy. A team built on a mean defence that dominated the sport for years.

Right now, wigan are 7th in the Super League, and a shadow of the wigan of the 90s

But I dont really care too much about that to be honest

Not because I'm some sort of fairweather fan, but because I can say to myself... "I've seen wigan win everything!"

I'm not quite there with Arsenal. That's why I decided that as soon as I saw Arsenal lift the Champions league trophy I was going to quit football for good.

strange eh? what kind of fan are you Kevin?

The problem is though, sooner or later, Arsenal are going to become average.

A southampton or a blackburn.

Trophyless for decades and decades.

I've never been in that situation before, so I dont know how I'd handle it. With wigan its different, because I just picked them up one saturday afternoon. Wigan RFC to me are like fried chicken from a takeaway. Really nice, but I can do without them at the end of the day.

Arsenal are like the staple food, and I can't imagine going to stale bread and potatoes after eating gourmet every day...

Knowing that your favourite team is an 'also ran'.

Anyway, I gave up football yesterday. Obviously not because Henry just lifted the Champions league. More because I gave up all hope of seeing this current team win it.

There are big problems this season, and it all comes down to one thing

The pre season preparation was a disaster.