Christmas round and general rambling

I am back, I won't go into the details of exactly where the pus was that kept me tied to a hospital bed for almost a week, but needless to say it was not a pleasant week. I still managed to catch the highlights of the Hull game on the morally vulgar patient pay-TV and that did fill me with a bit of winter cheer. It's almost nice to have enemies sometimes, the likes of Phil Brown and his Hull mob are now our pantomime villains, almost comical in their vitriolic jealousy of our greater level of class.

I would have been at the Hull game but unfortunately circumstances put paid to that, having settled down with my online Arsenal-TV account I hope to digest our recent games in spectacularly boring detail. The Nasri incident was certain a classical example of how the English media react with no brain at all. At worst Nasri stood on Garcia's foot, a yellow would have been harsh, Garcia knows that he and Hull are shit, he went down to try to get Nasri sent off as that was probably the only hope that he and his pathetic excuse for a football club had of gaining a result that was better than a defeat. Here is my Daily Mail translation guide for working out what players have actually done based on who they play for, it also works nicely for media outlets such as the BBC and Skysports:

Actual event - Reported for Arsenal player by Mail - Reported for non-Arsenal player

push in face - 'Punched him ruthlessly in the gob' - 'jostled'
two footed tackle - 'Two footed gross bodily harm' - 'a good honest English tackle'
elbow in face - 'reckless attempt to blind the lad' - 'just protecting his family'
stamp - 'violent grinding of the studs to bone' - 'clipped'
dived - 'blatant attempt to con the ref' - 'tried honestly to stay on his feet despite..'
dissent - 'unloaded some despicable french filth' - 'politely remarked in passing'

Barmby then shoved Nasri in the face, something that it always a 'red card' offence when done by an Arsenal player, but frequently ignored if done by anyone else. Bennett actually got it spot on with a couple of yellows, strange that Garcia hasn't been labelled a despicable cheat by the media, something he clearly is. A great free kick by Denilson, an outrageous penalty award from Bennett, then two goals crafted by Diaby saw the game made ours. A great day's work in anyone's book. Overall seven points from trips to Anfield, Turf Moor and the visit of Hull is not a bad return.

Elsewhere it seems that Owen Coyle is keen to take Jack Wilshere on loan for the rest of the season, that would seem like a good move for both clubs and the lad. Arsene has admitted he has his eye on the market this January, obviously he will not rush to bring just any old muppet in for the sake of it, maybe Eduardo's goal can see him reborn while Bendtner's return from injury may see us slightly less stretched for resources in this regard. Maybe I'm a bit optimistic at the moment but I see many more positives from this season so far than negatives. The fight has returned to our play, we are not rolling over as we did last season, we have had our problems and a lot of these have been down to terribly bad luck, there is a unity and togetherness about the lads this year that we never had last season. I think the sales of Toure and Adebayor may turn out to be masterstrokes of the highest order. My high of 2009 was the spanking of 'Arry's Tottenham at the Emirates, while my low was the tactically naive and negative capitulation at Old Trafford in the semi of the champions league.

Finally I'd like to say a bit thanks to all our contributors and readers, the blog has been going for almost two years now, we've had over 1/4 of a million hits and had quite a bit of fun in doing it which is the main thing. My hopes for the new year? Well football wise I'd like to see the young players like Diaby, Denilson, Song, Nasri, Walcott, Gibbs, Wilshere, Bendtner, Ramsey continue to develop. I'd like to see the continued patience from supporters and some nice football, I'd also like to see video technology brought in, Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini exiled to Mars, RVP get fit and stay fit. After all is said and done, it is not the winning that actually matters, it is about enjoying the process and doing things the right way, some of you will just think me mad but maybe one day you'll see. In the end it's the likes of David Rocastle that will go down as legends. Happy Christmas one and all.