I'll get to Gallas in just a second. 

What can be said after today's performance?  Really how do you sum up today, nevermind the last few weeks?  1-0 can be excused.  2-0 could be seen as a poor result.  3-0?  3-0 is an asswhuppin'.  3-0 is taking your lunch money.  3-0 is kicking sand in your face at the beach and leaving with your girlfriend.

There are no positives to 3-0.

The team was played off the City of Manchester Stadium by a City team that is still finding itself.  Injuries, suspensions and a lack of self-belief seem to have caught up with this team. 

We are relying on a team full of players who have yet to prove themselves in the Premier League at all -- nevermind against the cream of the crop.  Unlike Fabregas and Van Persie, who were slowly phased in and had serious vets around them to pick up their slack, there isn't anyone available to pick things up when Song, Denilson, Bendtner and Diaby fail to raise their game.  

That's not their fault, to be sure.  They have talent, but aren't anywhere near the polished products that we've been losing the last few years. 

What makes it worse is that all the other 3 "big" teams didn't win.  So this was the perfect opportunity to regain some of the lost ground.  Instead, now I really have to start worrying about next year's Champions League spot.  The #4 spot on the table isn't certain anymore.  And Dynamo Kiev comes to the Grove on Tuesday.  Nut-check time.

Now onto capi....

The big news pre and post match was the stripping of the captain's armband from William Gallas.   That the decision follows his interview with the AP indicates that Arsene Wenger finally had enough of his bullshit and dropped him. 

Now I can only ask...How dumb can you be?

Maybe Gallas thought he'd be smart and get ahead of the criticisms.  Maybe he thought he'd motivate his teammates.  Or maybe he thought of grilled cheese and fruit before lunch and after the interview.

But in blasting his teammates all he did was lose the support of the one man who was behind him and could keep him playing.  The one vote that mattered.

The question now is: does he go in January or does the team release him outright before that and lose any chance at a transfer fee?

After two weeks of silence, guess it's time to come back into the fold. 

There was much written after the victory over Manchester United and the Carling Cup beat-down that the kids administered to Wigan in mid-week.  And much of that was true.  But so much of it was hyperbole -- knee-jerk reaction to the moment.  I needed to give myself another week to find out how the team would respond to such victories after the string of poor results from the weeks before.

And now I have.

The facts are this:  Arsenal are a talented, but inconsistent team and that inconsistency is undermining their talent.  And they have been doing so for the past 3 years.  

Win at Manchester United.  Lose to Stoke.  Beat Liverpool.  Drop points at Fulham.  Hang with Chelsea.  Let West Ham win at home.  That's been the team's M.O. the last few years.  Good enough, but just not good enough.

Now don't misunderstand me.  There is no divine right by ANY team to win every time it steps onto the pitch.  Every club still has to go out and deliver the goods on gametime.  Thinking you're too big to face a real challenge from a small club is how Cardiff City can end up in the FA Cup Final or Hull ends up Top 7 in the league.

But to win the Premier League you need more than just talent and support and leadership and fitness and luck.  You need consistency.  You need to be able to take the fight to clubs who are fishing for a point with a 10-men behind the ball tactic AND challenge those that challenge you to a proper game of football.  You need to have quality defending and goalkeeping at the back AND the diversity in attack to break both fast and strong defenses.  

And you need to be able to do it every week...every game...every chance.

There's still plenty of silverware to be won.  Plenty of opportunities for glory for this Arsenal team.

But until the team manages to deliver back-to-back-to-back with consistency, we might as well get comfortable in the 3rd-4th place spots.  

There's always a fear of overreacting after each individual game.  Win and it's an example of the undeniable quality that'll lead to multiple trophies.  Draw and it's a clear sign of the other team's lack of tactics or of the referee's bias.  Lose and all hell breaks loose.

However, I think that we have no fear of overreacting after this latest fiasco.  To wit, let us acknowledge what has happened:

- We've dropped 11 points in the first 11 games.
- We've lost to 2 of the 3 promoted clubs.
- We've lost to two of the clubs sitting at the bottom of the table.
- Outside of Hull City, none of the clubs to whom we've lost points to are near the top of the standings.  

And let's be honest here:  the performances in those losses (to Fulham, Hull and now Stoke City) have been nothing if not dispirited.  Whether hubris or disinterest, the squads taking the field for Arsenal in those games have played with zero urgency, little fire and almost none of the flair or quality that has marked the teams under Wenger.

What makes it worse is that even the wins become suspect when looked upon this light.  That 2-0 win over West Ham that required an own goal to open up a stingy defense and a 3-1 Everton victory that didn't look to be the case at halftime.  Attach them to the Hull loss and Sunderland draw and you gotta go back to the first week of Setptember and that Blackburn thrashing to see the kind of game that this team can and should be doing.  

The usual suspects have been hashed and rehashed by everyone around the forums, blogs, message boards and so on.  The lack of width.  The poor defending.  The apparent going-through-the-motions.  The absent leadership.  So I won't.  I'll just add that this is an opportunity for Arsene and the team to assess their master plan.  Just looking to ship players out and buying new players in January cannot be the only answer -- as much as us fans may think that'd solve everything.  Benching players cannot be the only answer -- as much as many of the big name players have been acting as if their spot on the team is sacrosanct.  Taking the armband from Gallas cannot be the only answer -- even if he seems incapable of motivating a bowl of oatmeal to just sit there.

Some fans have already begun to start thinking that the league is beyond reach this season and that we have to pull a Liverpool (focus exclusively in the Champions League and FA Cup).  I wouldn't quite go that far yet.  There's still tons of football left to be played.  And it all starts again this week with two "must-win" clashes against Fenerbahce in the CL and Manchester United on Saturday.

It's clear that this Arsenal squad isn't gelling like you'd expect from a team that's been growing together for the past 4 years.  And more games like this will have everyone -- fans, coaches, players -- looking for the emergency exits.

88 minutes : Arsenal 4 - That S****y Team From North London 2.

89 minutes: Goal TSTFRNL, 4-3.

90 minute:   Goal TSTFRNL, 4-4.  

 End result: 4-4.

How the hell?!  How?!  HOW?!!  HOW?!! HOW?!!!!!

I promised I'd have a game review up and here ya go.  Don't act all surprised! 

Trips to Upton Park are always tricky.  Arsenal are 1-3-1 in the previous last 5 visits there.  And until Hull City this season, the Hammers were the only side to have ever won at Emirates.  And West Ham's hoodoo tends to extend to the other Big 4 clubs.  

So it should be no surprise that today's game was just as hardfought and just as tight and just as pain-in-the-arse as so many other games against the Hammers have been in recent years.  You'd be hardpressed to picture West Ham struggling in mid-table mediocrity from their display today.  Their gameplan -- a basic variant of the "8 defend and 2 sit at midfield waiting for a counter-attack chance" -- worked greatly to stifle the attacking prowess of the Gunners.  Mixed in was the usual "tough guy" tackling that had me fearing for Robin Van Persie on more than one occassion.  The ref did well to keep things from devolving into League Two violence.  

Not that we didn't help.  Theo Walcott hit the crossbar early in the first half.  Van Persie had a beautiful shot go off the far post in the second half.   And Nicklas Bendtner wasted so many chances, I just hope he's not the same way around the ladies.  Or he's gonna go blind quickly.

But the story of the game lied between the two men in between the posts -- West Ham's Robert Green and our own Manuel Almunia, who has recently obtained his British passport.  That opens up the intriguing possibility of Almunia getting called up by Fabio Capello.  Tough to see, I know, but stranger things have happened.  Green, for his part, tends to have the worst luck right around call-up times -- either poor form or injury.

All of that said, the two men put on a display of goalkeeping prowess.  Almunia saved a gilded chance from Craig Bellamy.  Green answered by taking in every bit of the Arsenal pressure in the first half.  The second half provided more work for both men and they rose to every challenge.  Arsenal attacked and attacked and Green had an answer for them.  Almunia saw more and more counter-challenges coming his way and found ways to make sure they came to nothing.  

In the end, it took the luckiest of bounces to break the deadlock.  A pretty harmless shot was put in by West Ham's Julien Faubert.  While you gotta feel for him for that, he didn't follow that with any class as his frustration and anger spoiled over into lousy tackling and shite-talking.  Forced to go for a goal, it was only a matter of time for an opening to appear.  Bendtner's one great move on this day was a long pass that found an open and streaking Adebayor, who got past an on-rushing Green and calmly slotted the ball into the far corner of the net.  2-0 may have been a bit flattering given the poor outcome of so many chances from earlier in the day, but you won't hear me complaining.

So 3 points and firmly esconced in the 4th spot given today's outcomes across the Premier League.  We now got a date against Spurds and the new man in charge, Harry Redknapp.  Here's to 3 points, 5 goals and a nice welcome to the North London derby for Uncle 'Arry!

I first got to apologize for being absent for so long.  The fact is life, work and no play make for a very dull time, but that dull time pays the bills (including the cable bill that keeps bringing the Arsenal to my TV and the Internet bill that lets me rant here).  It's not like much has happened.  Arsenal have won.  Arsenal have struggled.  Arsenal continue onward.

(BTW, slight TV break to laugh at the continuing crapage -- crap and garbage -- going on at Shite Hard Lane.  Juande the Magician along with Poyet the Translator and the whole lot were thrown out on the street today BEFORE they could lose to Bolton.  In comes none other than Harry Redknapp.  I'd watch those transfer dealings though).

So allow me instead of talking about any specific game to go on for a few about our captain, dear old William "Capi" Gallas.

The last few weeks have beena awash in anguish and anger (alliterations galore) over comments and actions of Captain Gallas of the Starship Arsenal.  First there was his interview with France Football magazine which gave us his secret locker room gang name ("Capi").  Then there was the photo of him leaving a club smoking (*GASP*).  And in the middle have been a number of performances that can kindly be thought of as up-and-down combined with the odd injury.

It's clear that a majority of fans aren't behind Gallas as captain as they would have been if that role had been given to Gilberto Silva (the expected choice) or Kolo Toure or Cesc Fabregas (the heirs to that role).  That decision by Arsene ranked a lot of the supporters and nothing Gallas has done in his 1 year + of captaincy has made them rethink their position.  

So two questions arise:  Is there anything Gallas can do to win fans over?  And if not how can Arsene take back the armband without losing a very talented, but mercurial player.  

OK, one more: should Arsene even try to retain Gallas, who has crossed the 30-year old threshhold and is too similar a player to Kolo?

One way or another, I don't know if "Capi" will be around next year as captain.  Something will give.

Game review tomorrow.  Promise.

You'll have to forgive me for not commenting on today's game.  Unfortunately, I'm out of town and that means I was unable to catch the game.  Not that I missed much from all reports.  Losing sucks.  Losing at home sucks.  Losing at home TO Hull Freakin' City sucks big time.  But losing at home to Hull Freakin' City WITHOUT SCORING A SINGLE GOAL is...well, I got no description for it.

So rather than put myself through the aneurysm-inducing replay, I'll rather comment on the big story of this week:  Michel Platini picking a fight with Arsene Wenger.  

Short version, Platini does an interview with French press in which he blasts Arsene as a "businessman" (i.e. someone interested in the business end of football more than the sporting end) and implied that all Arsene cares about is the big clubs.  What made it kind of weird is that the interview wasn't about Wenger, but Platini found a way to bring it back to him.

By Friday, Platini had backed down and apologized for some of his vitriol; partly because his dad (a mentor to both men) sort of tore him a new hole.

I won't go into all of Platini's faults as they are many.  (After all, isn't it ironic that on the same week he proclaims he's a football man, that UEFA announces they're expanding the Euros field to 24 teams? Because clearly that will increase the chances San Marino, Luxembourg and Faroe Islands make it, right?)  But I'll just explain why he's wrong.

1. Arsenal have no Daddy Warbucks benefactor. 

In fact, Arsenal have rejected various opportunities to be taken over by billionairies with deep pockets.  Both Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov have found their advances and promises rejected by the club's board and the fans.  Yes, the club is among the richest in the world, but this is without a Roman Abramovich or Middle Eastern sheik to prop the books up. 

2. Arsenal aren't breaking the transfer fee records.

Unlike the mega-clubs from Spain or Italy (with whom Platini seems to have no issue), Arsenal don't blow 30 million euros on one player.  Just this offseason, Barcelona spent 24 million pounds on RB Daniel Alves and Inter Milan spent 17 million pounds on winger Ricardo Quaresma.  The most Arsene has spent on a player?  13 million pounds on Sylvain Wiltord.  The most expensive purchase starting in today's roster?  Theo Walcott, who could cost up to 12 million pounds once everything's said and done.  But he was bought as a 16-year old long-term project, albeit one that's developed strongly. Compare that to the 30 million pounds (a record at the time) Manchester United paid to purchase 17-year old Wayne Rooney.

And unlike those other clubs, Arsenal brings talent that is still growing and maximizes its abilities.  There's no buying of a finished product like Real or Milan or Chelsea do.  It's why so many of our players are targetted and tapped up by other clubs.  

3. Arsenal aren't the ones jacking the price for talent.

Players at Chelsea demand wages of over 100,000 pounds per week and no one bats an eyeball.  Players and agents looking to increase their wages simply have to sound the alarm that they're being followed by scouts from the biggest clubs around and can get it.  Well, except at Arsenal.  The club has a wage structure and it holds to it.  Ironically enough, that wage structure is seen as a detriment to the club's title aspirations as, conventional wisdom holds, players will eventually choose to leave for richer pastures.   

4. Arsene Wenger's track record.

Honestly, does Platini not know of what he speaks?  Wenger began his career at AS Nancy, moved to AS Monaco, where he had success.  He actually turned down moves to Bayern Munich and to take over the French national team out of loyalty to Monaco, only to be fired after a slow start.  How different might things have turned out if Wenger had done what Jose Mourinho did and bolt for the first big job he was offered?  And would a manager interested only in business be so willing to head to Japan to continue his career?  

The only major argument that critics can levy against Arsene and the way he does business is his purchasing of young players out of academies before they're old enough to sign a professional contract.  But even then, it's not as if Wenger and his coaches are using and disposing of youngsters and leaving them with nothing.  Just look around the top leagues and notice the number of players who began their careers in the Arsenal set-up only to move elsewhere to continue their careers.  Guys like Steve Sidwell, David Bentley, Fabrice Muamba, Arturo Lupoli, Justin Hoyte, Seb Larsson are all plying their trade elsewhere in football thanks to the training they received at the club.

Football has always been big business and it continues to be so now.  Platini, however, is talking out of his arse by targetting Arsenal as examples of the modern trend of money being the only thing that matters.

Alliteration.  Ha ha.

Anyways, by now you've seen the scoreline.  6-0 over poor Sheffield United (well, not so poor now thanks to the ruling over the whole Tevez ordeal).  And if you're like me, you've only seen the scoreline as this game was easier to find on the Moon than on TV.

A Nicklas Bendtner brace kicked things off before Carlos Vela took over by scoring right before and right after halftime.  Jack Wilshere followed with another goal.  Then Vela finished the night by bagging his first hat trick for Arsenal.

A good result for the "kids" and the question is not "when will we see them play for Arsenal in the league" but "how soon will they force Arsene's hand".

And maybe one day these games will be available to all.

In the big table of victories, winning at the Reebok falls just behind winning at Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge or Shite Hart Lane in terms of pleasurable for me.  Maybe it's just all those memories of Sam Allardyce's brawling, kicking, no imagination sides.  Maybe it is because Bolton thinks that kicking and brawling and putting everyone but a team of grandmothers behind the ball is the way to stop Arsenal.

Point is I love it when the boys can go in there and get 3 points.

Now you wouldn't think that a midfield with both Eboue and Song would feature the kind of sweet, precision passing that makes Roman Abramovich drool with envy, but you'd be wrong.  For much of the first half, that perfect Arsenal game was on display.  Everyone was getting on the act and it took 2 hit posts to deny the team from a 4-1 halftime scoreline.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Bolton went ahead when the defense fell asleep during a corner and Kevin Davies (Wanker #1) found the ball with his head to beat everyone.  If there is one major area of concern, it's in set pieces.  The loss of Senderos means we have no big, physical man who can outmuscle or outjump attackers in corners and free kicks.  That set piece problem continued for the rest of the game and it's something that the team must work on.

The team, however, didn't panic and didn't try to push it -- the kind of youngster mistakes that would have felled this team in years past.  They quietly took control of the game and it was only a matter of time until Emmanuel Eboue found himself ahead of everyone to level the game.  Yes, he was a step offside, but given how the sideline judges have screwed us over in the past....well, any detractors can eat it.

And rather than taking that goal and sitting back, the team kept pressing and pressing.  Adebayor had one of many great chances and you gotta feel for him for not leaving the Reebok with a goal to his name.  Same for Alex Song.  Eboue kept shooting and shooting, a rarity for an Arsenal midfielder.  Denilson, meanwhile, had a great game.  His work found the open Nicklas Bendtner and put the team ahead for good.  He would later on score the game decider from the work of Adebayor and Walcott.  He's really come on the last few games.

Bolton came out in the second half and were in some ways unlucky to be so denied again and again.  Again, suck on it.  

Ultimately, outside of about 15 minutes in the first half and 20 minutes in the second half, I gotta say that the Gunners dominated the game.  My only major concern -- 15 corners and no goals.  Just as defending set pieces seems to be a problem, creating chances and scores from them is just as relevant.  We can't expect teams like Chelsea or Man United to give us as much control or many chances.  Champions smash their opponents before they have a chance to get back off the mat.  Arsenal have to learn to put their opponents away.

Overall, a really good performance.  That's 4 wins out of 4 games since the debacle at Craven Cottage.  And depending on the outcome of tomorrow's arseholes clash, Arsenal could be first or second in the Premier League table.   A Carling Cup match on Wednesday and a home date with the Premier League's gate crashers, Hull City, beckons.

Keep it going, you gunners!

After a long, long international break that saw the rise of Theo Walcott into the English national side, the Premier League finally returned to action.  Man City's new golden boy scored, but wasn't enough to stop Chelsea.  Man United finally fell to Liverpool.  And the Gunners traveled the long, hard road to Ewood Park to face the often-difficult Blackburn Rovers.

Or rather, the used-to-be-difficult Blackburn Rovers.  There's a clear-cut difference between the old Mark Hughes sides and the one Paul Ince rolled out on Saturday.  And that difference was between the posts as Hughes used to have Brad Friedel as his wall while Ince could only produce Paul Robinson.

Yeah, that Paul Robinson.

Walcott produced another great move and set up Robin Van Persie.  That was followed by Emmanuel Adebayor finally waking up from his long summer to nab his first hat trick.  Everyone from Denilson to Eboue had a quality game and the team left a long-running house of hoodoo with a 4-0 victory.  

So, since the loss at Fulham, Arsenal have gone 3-0, 3-0 and 4-0.  That's 12 goals scored versus none given.  Granted, the competition hasn't been on the level of a Barca or a Juve, but that's not the point.  Results matter.  Winning matters.  And these wins should fill the team with confidence as they head into Kiev next week for their first Champions League group game.  

We shouldn't expect more multiple and 0 scorelines.  But having done it will remain in the minds of the players.  And they can use that when the schedule turns difficult.