Wake Up, We're Trying To Goad You

Fancy having a poke at the Old Enemy? Willing to give and take? Probably most of you.

Sad git with a PC? Certainly most of you, or you wouldn't be reading this.

Really sad git with a Facebook profile? Well then, you'll no doubt want to sign up to the Cult Of The Honey Badger group which is a friendly place to discuss footy with fans of that lot from the Lane. You even get a "rank": how cool is that?

Arrrgh, it all aches...

Ah, well here we are again. I crawl out of the woodshed, creaking more than somewhat, to find summer's been and gone and that we've got a new all-singing, all-dancing PM. Having taken a look I'm tempted to venture back to the woodshed but I know there's work to be done and that I have to be strong.

A new season is only days away and it's a season forward to which I think we really should be looking. Let's get ready, people, it'll be a good 'un.

Stock up the fridge dudes...

Sanity later, right now another beer...

Gosh, That Was Quick

And here we are at Tuesday already. Time flies when you're drinking beer. Liverpool vs Chelski this evening and like all right-thinking people I'm crossing everything for a 'Pool win, though I'm really none too optimistic that it'll come about.

Elections on Thursday - don't forget to check you're registered to vote...

RIP Alan Ball

Sadly, and as you no doubt already know, Alan Ball has died at the age of only 61. He'd suffered a heart attack. A very sad day, not just for Arsenal fans but for fans of football everywhere: it was rather touching to see the many, many tributes already placed at Everton's ground for example.

I'm certainly not the only one who has loads of great memories of Bally in an Arsenal shirt, though I'm sure he'll be best remembered by most for his role in another red shirt - that of England in the 1966 World Cup Final.

He'll be a big miss, that's for sure.

Out Of The Woodshed, Now Stuck In The Bathroom

Urggghhh. I feel dreadful, another of the wonderful selection of work bugs I guess, so you'll have to wait for the weekend wedding update.

On a more positive note, The Sun reports: "The Queen has revealed she supports Arsenal, following in the footsteps of the Queen Mother who was, according to a senior royal source, "a self-confessed Gooner, due largely to her admiration of former player Denis Compton"." Rather cool, I think you'll agree.

Message From The Woodshed

I've been a little tied up of late, but things should be back to normal pretty soon. Have fun!

Welcome Back Sir

Liverpool. Cracking result. Great game, too, at least from where I was standing. TH14 has looked truly up for it in the couple of games he's been back, the break's clearly done him good. Excellent. The whole team's looking the biz now, having no TH14 to rely on has done them good, I think, and now we can look forward to firing on all cylinders for a while. Sorry, I'm gibbering, but then it is Sunday and the vet has fucked up my prescription yet again.

More anon. Have a good 'un.

FFS

Reported in the Daily Mail: "Police have refused to release photographs of two escaped murderers, claiming it might breach their human rights, it was revealed today." Give me strength...

It's Your Brush Tony, Tar Yourself And Not Us

The Government's response to the killing of Saddam Hussein shames us all. That the man died with dignity despite the circumstances is a huge credit to a man who Mr Bush and President Blair have described repeatedly as a coward. How such a death is supposed to help the situation in Iraq is beyond me. Another commentator has noted the similarity between Blair's guitar strumming whilst Saddam swung and Nero's fiddling whilst Rome burned. He's surely not far off the point.

I'm opposed on principle to the death penalty, as most of you who know me probably know, but even so I can understand why the sentence might be appropriate in the case of a man responsible for so many deaths and such a regime. Having seen the footage of his hanging I have to say, though, that he appears to have been the only one to emerge from the business with his honour intact. Tony Blair is personally opposed to the the death penalty, as (more importantly) is our nation. Where was President Blair's personal appeal for clemancy? Where was our Government's appeal?

Tony Blair, you are a disgrace. Please leave, the door is open.

Well Here We Are In 2007

I hope you all had a fine Christmas and a good New Year's celebrations. It remains to be seen whether the new year will be a good one, of course.

It's been a while since I was last in a fit state to operate a computer, so the blog's missed loads of stuff. Some of it is still worthy of comment, however.

On the ArseFront I think we've not had too bad a couple of weeks at all. Despite the injuries and so on we've done pretty well - the Blades game excepted - and the team is now looking, frankly, bloody good with TH14 back. I suspect the Liverpool FA Cup game may be coming a bit too soon, but let's see.

Christmas was splendid as far as I'm concerned - the presence of kids made all the difference, that time of year really is for them. We followed it up with the BossMother's 70th, which really was a cracking event. Glad you enjoyed it Pat, you deserve it.

New Year's Eve saw another insane but thorougly wonderful night at the Queen's Head. Not sure how you'll keep this up chaps, but I really hope you do.

The Sun Is Having The Day Off

Gosh it's dark - it's pitch black outside, not even the slightest hint of dawn despite that fact it was practically daylight this time yesterday. I had to double-check the clock to make sure I hadn't inadvertently got up a couple of hours early (sadly I hadn't). Still, it's Saturday tomorrow and a good old-fashioned lie-in is on the cards. Excellent.

Not much news at all so far today - looks like everyone else is still convinced it's night-time - so maybe an update later if anything happens...

Shivering At The Gates Of Dawn

Still no snow, but plenty of cold air. I used to love winter when I was younger, now I suspect it's best confined to Christmas cards. Perhaps I just need a new coat or to move somewhere else in the office so I've got a view of something other than a stick-like leafless and lifeless tree shrouded in fog.

Yet another muscle injury affects the team for Saturday's match up in Sheffield - this time it's a thigh strain which will keep EA25 out of the match. You have to wonder quite why we're picking up so many of this sort of injury ATM - perhaps it's the Emirates pitch? I'm hoping we'll see The Beast get a start at the weekend, he sounds like he's champing at the bit and he's looking far leaner and meaner now than he did when he joined us.

The Wrong Kind Of Cold

Plenty of cold air, no fluffy white stuff :( Oh, well, never mind, I daresay we'll get some before too long. Fine Christmas all round, particularly a couple of pleasing football results for the Gunners and a nice Christmas surprise served up by Reading and Chelski.

Things are looking a little less rosy for Liverpool fans ATM, with news that the proposed takeover is nothing more than an attempt to make a short-term financial killing. Whether the news will make the Liverpool board have a rethink remains to be seen.

More later, my hands are too cold to type right now.

Happy Christmas!

A happy Christmas to all of you, whatever your religious/political views on life. And may you see the New Year as a chance to move on. All the best.

CL News

We've got PSV in the first knockout round. Could have been worse, I reckon. Chelski get Porto, which could be fun, ManUSA face Lille and Celtic have got a winable tie against AC Milan. Liverpool have got Barcelona, which has just drawn a hearty groan from my Liverpool-supporting colleague.

The fixtures start in late February.

Good Enough, I Reckon

So we've picked up 3 points tonight thanks to a superb pass from FF4 and a cool finish from the increasingly excellent EA25. Add that to Sunday's well deserved point down the Fulham Road and I feel we're doing pretty well at the moment, thank you very much. The weekend could be interesting, but again no predictions...

On another tack, why do people think murdering prostitutes is somehow not as serious as murdering anyone else? We had the same argument over Sutcliffe, of course, but then if we ever learned the lessons of history we'd have nothing exciting like arms industries, wars and politicians. Good luck to the fellow leading the chase to catch whoever's responsible, he (the policeman, not the perpetrator) seems like a decent guy. Hell of a job, I know I couldn't hack it.

RIP James Kim

The story of James Kim's tragic death attempting to save his family (who thankfully survived) has touched a lot of people's hearts. Mine too. May he rest in peace.

Elsewhere, we're through to the knockout stages of the CL following last night's pretty dire draw against Porto. I'm not sure, but I think both teams may have come close to breaking the existing record for most consecutive passes during the last quarter of an hour. Still, points make prizes as Brucie is wont to say, we only needed the one and we got it. What's to moan about?

PM-in-waiting Gordon "The Moron" Brown has yet again shown his contempt for those of us who dare to live in rural areas by whacking up petrol costs again. Quite how this is a "green" policy when we have no choice but just to pay the additional costs (there being no alternative after years of New Labour transport "policy") and he's seen no need to put any extra burden on those who *choose* to drive quite unnecessary gas-guzzlers is beyond me. But then most of the things he does make fuck-all sense to me.

Blair Insane, Weather Unchanged Too

I used to wonder if Tony Blair could actually get any more detached from reality, I don't any more and haven't for a while. Just let him play in his PC little garden with his safe PC fluffy toys 'til he hands over to the power-crazed Scot who's never had a job. Let's just hope we still have a country left come the next election...

Have a fine evening my friends.

It's Grim Out West

What a crap week. I've been running around like the proverbial blue-arsed fly (why do only blue-arsed flies rush about, I wonder?) and seem to have achieved absolutely naff all. The fact that it's Friday isn't even cheering me up any. Mind you, the weather's hardly helping, it's dank and dark down here and is showing no sign of improving. That's Somerset for you, it'll be like this til next May. Oh joy.

The scum tomorrow. No predictions from me (see comments in the last post). TH14 looks likely to miss the game. Let's just hope the rest of the team turns up.

Hang On, You're Going Too Fast

I'm having trouble keeping up with this week, it's rocketing by and leaving me trailing in its wake. Still, there you go, something to do with getting old I suspect.

The weekend followed a fairly predictable path with us getting mugged by Bolton as usual and the Mangled Wurzels providing a superb night's entertainment at the Charlton. Sunday was, predictably, approached with a slightly less than clear head and so it was that I dozed through most of the Clash of the Titans. Can't say I minded missing it too much and the result is the best we could really have hoped for as we've only dropped a point against the pair of them: that's recoverable.

Fulham tonight. Now we *need* a result. Come on you Gunners!

UPDATE: Bollocks. We'll be back and I'm going to stop doing the "we need a win" thing as I'm coming to the conclusion I'm jinxing us.