A swift look...

It's back up to Anfield for the third time this season where Liverpool will be looking for revenge for the defeats in the Carling and FA Cups.

Adebayor returns for the Gunners after his four-match ban for his part in the Great Handbags Brawl of Cardiff.

Clichy and Eboue also return to the squad after injury. New additions to the injury list are Gilberto -with a dodgy hip- and Aliadiere - with a foot injury.

John Arne Riise is set to make his 200th league appearance for Liverpool just a day after he was bizarrely declared bankrupt!

Mr.Wenger will select a team from this League of Extraordinary Gentlemen:

Arsenal (from): Lehmann, Eboue, Gallas, Toure,
Clichy, Ljungberg, Fabregas, Rosicky, Baptista, Adebayor,
Almunia, Senderos, Hoyte, Diaby, Hleb, Denilson

I think the starting-eleven will look a little like this:

GK Lehmann
RB Hoyte
LB Clichy
CD Gallas
CD Toure
RM Ljungberg
LM Rosicky
CM Fabregas
CM Diaby
CF Baptista
CF Adebayor

Subs: Almunia; Eboue; Senderos; Denilson; Hleb.

Let's hope the strikers don't pick up any injuries or we might have to get on the phone to somebody like Les Ferdinand or Lee Chapman to plead with them to come out of retirement...

Or hang on.... what's Dennis up to these days???

P.S. Today is the sixth anniversary of the death of David 'Rocky' Rocastle. Head on over to Arseblog to watch a video of the great man in action.

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Cows, Finance, Bullets, Fines; and Jermaine Pennant

Ok, a very swift one today as I have to travel to Ballyhaunis to buy a heifer at a mart... well no, not really... what I have to do is far less interesting.

Today, I shall be using the Lazy Blogger's best friend: Bullet Points!

• Arsenal were fined £100,000 for their part in the Great Handbags Brawl of Cardiff.

• Ex-Gunner Jermaine Pennant will be answering some questions on the Liverpool website. Let's hope he borrows Ashley Cole's car to make that appointment.

• Arseblogger has being doing some snooping on more Arsenal shares transactions.

And that's it really. I suppose you're dying to know where I'm really going. Well, I will be attending the Ireland v Slovakia match in Croke Park.

Yes... it is far less interesting than buying a heifer at some local mart...

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Arsenal for sale?

Just a quick one today as I...eh... have to get a haircut!

The Arsenal for sale rumours rumble on, prompting the The Arsenal Supporters' Trust to make a rare public pronouncements that, while not against a buyout per se, they opposed a 'Malcolm Glazer-style' takeover of their team whose "principle objective is taking profits out of the club".

Whilst a few days ago I thought this was all paper talk, I was concerned to read that apparently, David Dein didn't know about Fiszman's sale of 1% of his shares until two days after the transaction. That 1% might sound small but the sale took Fiszman under the 25% threshold needed to maintain a veto on any changes to the club's statutes. I would have thought that Fiszman would have had the courtesy of informing Dein of such a move - unless he was up to something.

Meanwhile, Arseblogger has this to say:

"I’m told from two well placed sources that ITV have been in discussions with this group regarding the 9.9% of the club they own."

Several bloggers, such as Gunnerblog were calmed by this statement from Kroenke Sports Enterprise (KSE)- who were rumoured to be prospective buyers and already have a link up with Arsenal via their Colorado Rapids 'sawker' club:

"There is no interest from KSE in buying any shares of Arsenal or any Premier League club."

Unfortunately, it doesn't put my mind completely at ease:
A) They could be trying to cool the share price. They don't have to announce their intentions until they have purchased 30% and would want to calm the speculation which is causing the share price to rise: It's unlikely that they would make such a definite statement, however.

B) The statement was made by the KSE organisation ; not by any individual in the family or even any companies that KSE have an interest in. What's to stop them investing?

C) There's plenty of other prospective buyers out there.

What is it about Arsenal? Every summer, there's something that impedes our pre-season planning. Vieira's future; Anelka's future; Reyes' Future; Newsnight did their best to drag the club into controversy over Beveren (but failed). I have a feeling that the club's ownership is going to be the hindrence for next pre-season

Arsenal Ladies & Garforth Town
It's nice to see one Arsenal team doing well: the ladies team trashed their Leeds counterparts 8-1 to remain on top of the Women's Premier League.

Here's an interesting fact, trivia fans: The match was played at Garforth Town AFC, which is the last club the great Socrates played for. The club's owner, Simon Clifford, has a vision of getting Garforth Town into the top flight using modern training methods based on traditional Brazilian skills. You may remember that Clifford was Clive Woodward's assistant when the Rugby World Cup winning coach was the Director of Football at Southampton.

That's all for today. I'll be a much better blogger when I get my hair cut.

Adebayor axed by Togo; Fallout continues from Gallas comments

International football makes for a very poor Arsenal blog, but I'll give it a go.

The major news is that Adebayor has been axed from the Togo national squad along with two of his team mates following a row over bonus payments.

Adebayor revealed on Friday that Togolese internationals, who threatened to boycott last year's World Cup over a bonus row, are still waiting to receive their payments for reaching the finals in Germany.

"The bonus problem is still there. We were given promises but still nothing has been done," said Adebayor.

"We're still waiting to see the management and it's in their interest to meet with us as soon as possible.

"Whatever happens, we're not going to let this go. If they don't pay up, I don't know what will happen."

The players are still waiting to be paid roughly a third of the US$162,000 they were promised for reaching the World Cup finals.

I can only hope that Adebayor is taking this stance on behalf of lesser paid players in the Togo National squad. I may be old-fashioned but I always believe that pros, especially at the level of Adebayor, should not expect to be paid to play for their national team.

Obviously, you don't want the money lining the pockets of administrators but the profits from international football should go back into the national game or to a charitable cause. Perhaps the players could have a say in the matter.

But for players to be concerned about lining their already their already bulging pockets when representing their country leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I must reiterate that I don't know all the circumstances of this dispute; maybe these players were fighting on behalf of players with much lower earnings. Perhaps somebody could fill me in?

William Gallas
Gunnerblog and Arseblog have equally interesting but completely contrasting opinions on Willam Gallas' recent comments to the French Media. If he actually said what he is reported to have said, I'm with Arseblogger on this one. In previous blogs, I stated my concerns about how Gallas' dislike for playing in the left-back role may have effected Wenger's defensive selection for the Everton game.

Roy Keane's constant moaning about his fellow employees and employers -especially in the latter years of his career- caused a bad vibe at club and international level. I just don't think you should air those grievances in public.

We need experienced players in the camp, not moaners, so sort it out Billy!

Share Speculation Continues
And finally, the media are hopping on the bandwagon of the 'Arsenal for Sale' story. Expect this one to run for a few weeks.

Tune in tomorrow for a more inspired blog.

Reminiscent of a 1994 Graham team; Did Arsene forget about Theo's injury?; Don't blame Aliadiere

I'm really not in mood to write too much today. I'm still sickened by our dire performance yesterday. It was like a performance from a George Graham team in 1994.

Wenger said this of the performance : "We are jaded physically and, although we created plenty of opportunities, the final ball was not good enough. This month has been mentally very hard because we lost against Blackburn in the FA Cup in the last minute, we lost against Eindhoven in the Champions League in the last minute and we have lost here in the last minute."

Indeed, the final ball was horrendous. It also doesn't help when in reality your full backs are playing like extra centre-halfs, your wingers are playing as full-backs, and as a consequence your strikers are playing in midfield. In effect, your strikers are looking to play a ball to... well, nobody really!

The Irish Independent reports that Walcott is out for the season:"You can see that now. He was on for only 10 minutes and his shoulder popped out, you cannot play football like that."

Two things bother me about that report. Firstly, we all knew Theo's shoulder liked to pop out: So why is this news? Secondly: Why was he playing? Didn't Arsene know?

In yesterday's blog, I ranted about the defensive selection.

Goodplaya, on the other hand, gives an accurate assessment of the midfield and forward selection:

"Wenger’s front six at Goodison had three goals from 69 Premiership starts."

That would be a shocking statistic even for a team content with 17th place.

And before the rest of us hop on the already crowded 'Blame Aliadiere' bandwagon , we should perhaps reflect on Goodplaya's assessment of the much-maligned striker's performance.

Aliadiere: Missed one good chance, which contrary to what Andy Gray claimed, did appear to skip up. In a struggling side, Aliadiere has hardly set the world on fire when given his chance. But equally, his general play has not been so bad. 6

I normally dread an upcoming international-break as it usually interrupts the purr of a smoothly running Arsenal engine. On this occasion, I'm hoping Arsene remembers how to start the damn thing... or buys some petrol or something. Whatever it is mechanics do on those occasions

Ah, that's a bloody awful analogy. I'm off to Paris for a few days. See you all this weekend.

Wenger's dodgy defensive selection costs Arsenal at Goodison Park

As loath as I am to doing this, I feel as if I can do nothing but rant against Wenger's very odd team selection in the 1-0 defeat to Everton at Goodison Park today.

All of Arsenal's problems stemmed from the back-four that Arsene chose today. It's very hard to escape the fact that three of the four defenders were playing out of position. Hoyte, a right back, was playing at left back. Touré, a centre-half, was playing at right-back. Gilberto, a centre midfielder, was playing centre half.

I always think that you should keep the amount of players playing out of position down to the bare minimum to prevent confusion. I think Arsene decided against this today - and it showed.

Gallas is first and foremost a centre-half; but he is also a very competent left-back. Why not start the French man on the left and allow Hoyte to play at his natural right-back where he is far more comfortable? Touré would then be allowed play as a centre-half, where his performances are always of the highest standard.

By my reckoning that would be only one player out of position - Gilberto. Having said that, why couldn't Senderos start in centre half? Has he been dropped? Is he injured? I agree that he has put in some dodgy performances of late, but I'd rather see four players playing in their natural positions.

Gallas has made it clear that he prefers playing at centre-half; but he is a damn good left back. I can only hope that this stated preference did not affect Arsene's selection today.

The consequence of that defensive selection was that we were lacking any sort of attacking option from the full-backs. With Toure a natural centre half and Hoyte on the wrong side, it looked like we were playing with four central defenders.

I think that both our wingers ended up getting sucked back into more defensive positions. This meant that both Aliadiere and Baptista looked more like wingers/midfielders as they constantly dropped back to receive the ball. They were involved in the build up of every Arsenal attack. Ideally you would hope that your strikers are at the end of an attacking move.

Aliadiere really should have done better with a great chance in the second half; but he knocked it over the bar.

Arsene then made a crazy substitution by replacing Aliadiere with a winger whose shoulder, we were told days before, regularly pops out in training. Sure enough, moments later, Walcott was clutching his shoulder in agony.

My firm belief is that if you are chasing a victory, you leave as many strikers as possible on the pitch, Having said that, Aliadiere looked like he was playing as a midfielder due to defensive problems mentioned earlier. No doubt the French striker will take the blame for today's defeat.

Sorry Arsene, but for maybe the third time in ten years, I think you got it seriously wrong today. Having said that, I was too lazy to get out of bed to write a preview. So who am I to talk?

Hangovers; Wenger invited for tea with FA; Hangovers; Platini Talks; More Hangovers

Hi all,

Only a short post today as I'm suffering from a hangover. Having said that, I only had four pints last night so I must be losing my drinking powers!

One bit of good news for tomorrow's game against Everton is that Kolo Toure returns from his one match suspension. Eboue and Adebayor are still banned for their Carling Cup handbags fight with Chelsea.

Hleb returns from his injury (i.e. solitary confinement punishment from Wenger for some crap performanaces of late). Thomas Rosicky didn't start for the match against Villa but is pushing for a start tomorrow.

Manwhile, any hopes of Van Persie making any real contribution at the tail-end of this season are fading fast, with Wenger saying: "I hope we will see him again this season but it could be very short."

I think Arsene may be taking a similar approach to RVP's fitness as he is taking with Thierry Henry. It's important that Arsenal finish as high up the table as possible but, more importantly, lets get every player back to their top physical and mental levels for a title push next season.

Charges
The FA love having Arsene around for a cup of tea so they've invited him around for more disciplinary procedures and scones.

Wenger has been asked by the governing body to explain his comments after the Carling Cup final that “the whole system is not honest”, referring to the disciplinary procedures of the FA.

The Arsenal manager also suggested the assistant whom referee Howard Webb consulted before sending off striker Emmanuel Adebayor in the Carling Cup Final was a “liar”.

The FA have released a statement which read: “Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been charged with improper conduct and/or bringing the game into disrepute.

“The charge relates to his media comments about one of the assistant referees in the Carling Cup final.

Wenger will be expected to bring around one of Pat Rice's lovely sponge cakes when he makes yet another appearance at the FA over a charge of improper conduct after a confrontation with referee Steve Bennett during the Portsmouth match at the Emirates Stadium in December while the Frenchman .

On a particularly cranky day, Wenger reflected sarcastically on his relationship with the FA: "I am not subtle enough maybe to master it completely, but when the truth does not come out you call it as you want. A mistake, a lie, I do not know.

"It is not the truth. The FA have one responsibility, it is to respect football.

"If you tomorrow are manager of Arsenal and you can prove Adebayor intended not to punch [Frank] Lampard would you say 'yes he intended that, thank you very much, the FA are so big, three games, no six? Okay'.

"I can say what I think. They can put me up on the wall and shoot me down, but it still does not make that decision right.

"If they do not like my words, then they do not like it. I will never change.

"Would you like to see me with a dictionary after the game and think 'oh no, that is a little bit too strong, what is the synonym of that word because I could be punished by the FA?"

Maybe Arsene won't bring that sponge cake after all? A shame really, Pat Rice was looking forward to using those oven gloves that Mart Poom bought him for Christmas.

N.B. As Mart Poom never plays, he has a dual role of goalkeeper/canteen chef.

Platini speaks
Michel Platini has waded into the Wenger/ Domenech dispute by sticking up for Mr Domenech.

"I don't understand how Thierry Henry was injured in March due to a match he played in Bosnia in August,"said Platini, in reference to Wenger's accusations of Domenech being a major cause of the striker's recent injury problems..

"I am not a physiotherapist, but I can't understand how he can be injured because of a match six months ago."

Yes, you're right, Platini: Playing an utterly exhausted man for 90 minutes in meaningless friendlies won't have a cumulative effect on the state of his body at all. Is that why you're working in administration instead of football management now?

Well that's all for today. If you're looking for something else to read, pop over to Arsenal Land for a decent article on Wenger's potential midfield selection problems.

Tally-ho!