I think I owe Steven Gerrard an apology! It seems my Judas comment was out of order as he is missing tomorrows game vs Fulham due to injury, so he wasn't putting club before country and must have been genuinly injured for the game vs Germany. Sorry Stevie!

Maybe it's all part of a plan? You never can tell with Gerrard.

Fairly big news here: William Gallas has been stripped of his captaincy by Arsene Wenger and has NOT travelled with the squad to face Man City.

Reason? :unsure:Now he'll return to own-goal-talks..

He publicly criticised individuals this week - without naming them - and then said the team doesn't have enough character. This really isn't what a captain should be doing. John Terry cme out this week and said the German goal was all his fault, took the blame upon himself, while Gallas is hurting the teams morale by causing confrontation, I know which one I'd want to be my captain. I don't rate him very highly anyways, so I think this is good news for Arsenal in the long run.

What the hell is happening to this club?
It seems total anarchy has broken free at The Emirates, and now we have not only lost a CB but we've lost our f@cking captain as well. The way I see it the candidates for the captaincy are:

Almunia: Which will mean we won't EVER win a big game again, ever.
Toure: Probably the best choice, too bad he's in the worst form of his life at the moment.
Silvestre: If this happens I'll seeth with pure rage.
Fabregas: At the moment, a thoroughly inane choice. It would be a bit too much like when we gave the captaincy to Henry to make him stay; a pure bribe.


I've said this before, but GODS do I miss Adams. Hell, at the moment I'd be overjoyed for Vieira.

walcott on a serious note i think that arsenal should make cesc the captain

Clichy? Van Persie?

Don't know about Van Persie, as he's young and has trouble keeping his temper in check.

That's the problem with a lack of experience in the team, no-one can really take on the role. Look on the brightside, it can't be worse than Citeh making Robinho captain, now that was just pathetic. Robinho? Captain?

I'd give it to Fabregas, he's got a bit of experience considering how young he is.

Fabregas. If you can't find a suitable leader, give it to the best player.

Even with Almunia as captain and Bendtner sporting bright pink boots, it doesn't seem to be helping. Man City 1-0 Arsenal, Steven Ireland.

What a dull first half! Lost interest in the match completely...

Arsenal is in big trouble...

It's worse than big trouble, it's 2-0.

oh robinho third almost

3-0

Aston Villa 0-0 Man U so all big 4 drop points i would have loved villa to win the game overall it was a gr8 game edwin made one really gud save from young

Great heart from the team today, but I think it was a fair result. They were the better team over the 90 minutes, but I feel we were incredibly unlucky not to have a penalty. Last 2 games were against Arsenal and United, we took 4 points and didn't conceed, that's credit to how much we've improved under the messiah!

Dare I say we may even give ourself some breathing space between us and Arsenal next week? We're 1 point above them and we play home to Fulham, while they visit Stamford Bridge..

What in the holy Hell is wrong with Arsenal? And Liverpool still at second.

yep i enjoyed the game, i promised my united firend i'd wear all villa gear tonight for our pickup game if they got a result which they did the only way vidic was going to stop agbonlahor was by grapping on to him, probably should have been a penalty., and young made a great last ditch tackle on park.

Pretty much evrything.

I am seeing the results .. But

Villa beats Arsenal then United back-to-back .. I think your team is showing a lot of maturity

Hoping for a CL push, eh

Unfortunately, Villa did NOT beat Man U today, it ended 0-0.

Then lol I must have mixed up City -Arsenal .. hehe sorry bro, better luck next time

Well, it's been unraveling for 2-3 years. At first only the Arsenal management could see it. But now it's got to a point that it's visible to fans and general public. Pity, but it was bound to happen. And here I was thinking Milan gives me heartaches. I can only imagine, Lock, how difficult it'd be for you a fan of both Milan and Arsenal through these phases. Anyhoo, if you go at the current pace through the season, which I hope you don't, I find it very difficult to see you chaps finish fourth.

Which is a far, far cry from the club that reached the CL final a couple of years back.

It felt like a win for us though! When you've lost to a team 14 straight times, then you have to play them as reigning Premier League and European Champions,, a draw is a special result!

We'd be joint top had we not lost stupid games to Stoke, Boro and Newcastle, 9 points unnecessarily dropped. Ah well, if we keep this up, dare I say it, we could very well make the top 4.

Well it's been coming for a while.
I think the downfall of this club started was when Vieira left and Henry became captain. The team led by Vieira, love him or hate him, went out on the pitch expecting to win, and most of the time they did. The great strength of that team was that when our passing game failed, we had other options. We don't have that now.

Anyway, I'll give Wenger until February to save his Arsenal carreer. If he don't sign any reinforcements in January then it's time for a change.

I can't see Wenger getting the ax anytime soon for Arsenal's misfortunes. It's kind of like the Carlo syndrome over here.

I can only hope that if the current trend continous then Wenger will have the decency to resign.

A coach has a shelf life of 4 years. 5 years, if you push it. This is more so true if one's talking about a big club. More than that, he can continue, yes, but things start to stale after this. Opponents figure out the tactics, players lax out if they stay too long with a particular coach, and create trouble. Even the fans demand new approach and style at the top.

There are exceptions yes, but not everyone's born Alex Ferguson. Time for Arsène Wenger to decide.

Been my tip to get into the top 4 from the off, wish I put something on it now!

I do like Villa though, it's nice to see another team doing well that has their main structure conformed of young English players.

It is nice to have the types of players we do, not only lots of English players, but quite a few local boys who supported Villa growing up!

Regular English starters: Luke Young (29), Nicky Shorey (27), Curtis Davies (23), Steve Sidwell (25), Gareth Barry (27), Ashley Young (23), James Milner (22), Nigel Reo-Coker (24), Gabby Agbonlahor (22); (Average age of 24)

Other English players: Stuart Taylor (27), Zat Knight (29), Craig Gardner (21), Isaiah Osbourne (21), Marlon Harewood (29), Nathan Delfouneso (17); (15 total English players)

Nathan Delfouneso has yet to make a league appearance for us, but he scored a hat-trick on his England Under 17s debut, with a record of 6 goals in 5 games, he then was promoted to the Under 19s, where he scored on his only appearance so far. He's also broke all of Gabbys goal scoring records in the Villa youth ranks. We're very excited about this one.

But apparently you can't do well with English players.. Martin O'Neill can do it with anyone.

I'll give Wenger more credit for introducing the Arsenal-product to you and all Arsenal fans out there. Before him, Arsenal would have remained the random team in the EPL, but today it is ranked as one of the top clubs.

But what I thought was even more admirable, is his economical approach in managing his players and the club structure (as it was in a debt).

Even if Arsenal finish in 5th place, it is very likely that he will remain

Still, it's not as if we were a bad team before Wenger came. We won lots of trophies during the early 90ies, especially the Cup Winners Cup.

No, of course Arsenal had several honors, but then again so did Leeds and Newcastle and many others ... I was talking about the Arsenal-product, the type of football that his team(s) play. That is what got people around the world talking about Arsenal, not the history

Pre Wenger, Arsenal were the 3rd biggest team in English football. They are currently, in my opinion, the 4th biggest team in English football. He's not improved them as much as some think.

Pre-Wenger I always thought, Arsenal were among a host of other clubs who could challenge Man U and Liverpool. But he really cut down the gap.

In fact his mistake was in not building from the Invincibles. He let too many people go, and perhaps he was fooled by Fabregas and RvP into thinking anybody he brought up could be that good.

I understand these youngsters getting experience, but they're getting the wrong type of experience by running the race only to fail at the last hurdle.

You need the kind of experience of Seedorf or a Villa. Great talent, plus knowing what it takes to win.

Liverpool weren't that good in the early/mid 90s, it was basically just United. Anywhere from 2nd to 10th was just completely open.

Well I don't consider 3 league trophies and 4 FA Cups as a "cut"...

Yes, but what about the appeal that Arsenal have today, compared to pre-Wenger era ... Wenger did a lot more than deliver trophies, he is probably the #1 man in Arsenal .. Fans of Arsenal in England think very highly of him. Maybe I just see this side of things and draw my conclusions, but fact is fact and there was no appeal for Arsenal from international fans before Wenger. Just like Chelsea with Mourinho, how the team just bombarded on the EPL.

Yet Wenger built a really competitive team and the reason why his Arsenal are suffering is because the team lost so much 1st team players, experienced players. That in my book is the only reason why Arsenal are not up to par with top flight football in England or Europe, sure they are one of the best EPL teams and they beat Milan last year, but what have they got to show for it ? They have the speed, the creativity, the possession game BUT they lack the experience to go for the big prize.

I for one hoped that Arsenal would have a great season from the start, but as things stand it wont be easy. I think the EPL is for a lost cause, but if Wenger brings in the big ears .. That would probably drive shock waves up your spine

Conclusions, I believe Wenger to be the reason why Arsenal are at the stature that they are in now

The big ears?

Yeah .. We've got 7 of them, its about time your team got one

Aah...the only trophy missing from the trophy cabinet...the one we came within 15 minutes of winning in 2006...that one...

I think Wenger has made many mistakes in the last few years but I'm totally with him in that he wants Arsenal to be a healthy organization rather than one with more than a billion in debt...

that was a disappointing game, very intense... i dint like barca much back then and i was happy to see arsenal eliminate real and juve so i was rooting for you. if it wasnt for that red i think you would have won, seeing as barca wasnt impressive.

+1. This storm will pass, just like all other do.

If I ever see Lehmann, I'll punch him for you. That defeat is on him, in my opinion.

Sheffield United have won their case to be compensated by West Ham for the whole Tevez affair, it's believed West Ham, who're already in financial trouble, around £40m.

I think it's nowhere near enough. West Ham have been in the EPL 2 years longer than they should have now, which amounts to around £80 tv money, not to mention the extra ticket sales they'd have lost out on if they were in the Championship. So they've probably made near £100m out of it and have to pay £40m back? Not seeing the maths in this one.

Well, i'd actually blame Henry.
He totally bottled that game, wasting a 1-on-1 when we were 1-0 up. If that had been 2-0, then I think Arsenal would have been Champions of europe in 2006.

Yeah, that was a real bad miss. Still, Lehmann getting sent off that early was so stupid, he was never going to get to that ball.