Blackburn Rovers vs Arsenal - Ewood Park, Blackburn - Saturday 25th February 2006

The last time Arsenal got a result as good as the one in Madrid, everybody showed up for the following game ready for a huge celebration and another rout. The game in question then completely disappointed everybody, finished as a dull 0-0 draw, and left everybody scratching their head as to whether it was the same team that had just won so well. Just five days after the 5-1 San Siro victory, came a dull 0-0 home draw against Fulham. So, I was not getting too carried away about our prospects for Blackburn away, especially given our sketchy away form in England this season.

When you go to Ewood Park, there is a schoolyard which is the best place to park, if you fancy a quick escape back to the motorway. On the wall of the school yard, I found this sign. Both teams in the game today heeded the message. Arsenal seemed utterly disinterested in playing any football for at least the first hour; and for some players (including Thierry Henry) for the whole game.

For their part, Blackburn also shunned playing football for a game designed to just stifle and press Arsenal, mixed with punting long balls up the pitch for their own attacks. I have seen this exact same game several times before this season, a real sense of deja vu - so it really was a case of "same crap performance, different Northern venue". Blackburn joins the list including Middlesbrough, Wigan, Bolton (twice), Liverpool, Everton, and Newcastle; and with the joy of 2 trips to Manchester still to come this season. Looking at Arsenal's remaining away fixtures, I fancy a point or three against Sunderland, other than that we can't be too confident on past experience.

Negative tactics are to be expected away from home (teams aren't exactly going to just let us steamroller them), so we really should have made some more progress on a way to deal with these tactics. Instead, it was the same old same old disinterested, sloppy, half-hearted performance away from home. Our game plan that worked so well a few years ago (most of the time) has been well and truly found out. Work is now urgently needed on a rethink as to how we deal with committed opposition away from home.

Blackburn fans were ecstatic at the final whistle - they must have been mistaking their opponents for the Invincibles that they played a few years ago. Don't they realise that everybody is beating Arsenal at home this season??!? If West Brom can do it, you'd have to be very disappointed not to be taking maximum points against us this season.

Real Madrid vs Arsenal - Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain - Tuesday 21st February 2006

So, after over 2 months of waiting, the game against Real Madrid finally arrives. After years of regular Champions League and other European football, the one big name that Arsenal have never played can be ticked off the list. Milan, Inter, Juventus, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Ajax, and just about every other big club in Europe have all been visited before, but never (until now) Real Madrid. For a team to finally get to play, they don't get a lot bigger than that. Even more so given Arsenal's recent League form, this is one of our biggest games I can remember.

The game started for me with a 7am check in at Stansted, for the Arsenal Travel Club flight to Madrid. The trouble with not doing these things independently is that everything moves at the pace of the slowest person, which with the Arsenal Travel Club, can be extremely slow. To do something simple like a coach transfer, you have to wait for everybody to sort themselves out, which meant that Tuesday morning was a series of frustrating queues.

In Madrid and on the loose by mid afternoon, a tour of some local bars was undertaken, ending up in an Irish bar close to the stadium, which looked extremely impressive from the outside. Eventually getting in around an hour before kick off, the stadium itself is one of the best I've been to, anywhere. Fully state of the art in terms of facilities, and the view when you get into the seats was incredible - truly incredible. The Arsenal section was full with 3,500 Gooners, most without the highest of hopes. Missing players including Campbell, Bergkamp, Van Persie, Cole, Lauren, Clichy, Adebayor, and Cygan (OK, so maybe not a huge loss there), my hopes were to score, and to limit Madrid as far as possible - but a 2-1 defeat wouldn't have been a bad result in my eyes. Others seemed to feel the same way - a score draw is a good result away from home in any case in Europe; but with our missing players and dodgy form, and the form and reputation of the opposition, a draw would feel like a win.

Instead, we became the first English team ever to win in the Bernabeu. Every player played fantastically well, Henry getting the headlines for scoring, but Reyes and Fabregas in particular were outstanding. No player had even anything as bad as an average game in my view. Every time there was a ball to intercept, an Arsenal player intercepted it. Madrid weren't at their best, but a large part of that was because of the way Arsenal played - controlling the game pretty much from start to finish, and not really allowing Madrid to play. Arsenal could have scored more, probably should have, and may live to regret that later. Arsenal did to Madrid precisely what Premiership teams have been doing to us away from home all season.

A fantastic result, made all the more remarkable by the youth of some of the players - Eboue, Flamini, Senderos, Toure, Fabregas, Hleb, Reyes, and 2 of the subs are under 25 years old. Also remarkable because of our bad domestic form away from home - but then again, teams in Spain don't kick lumps out of you like teams in England - if we moved to play in the Spanish league, we'd possibly be better off than we are in the English league at the moment. Towards the end, the home fans obviously started to get frustated, and started leaving before the final whistle, to amused shouts of "Adios, Adios, Adios" from the Gooners. A very large session in the pub followed this game, and a significant hangover the following day. Seeing the game again on TV the following day, it was excellent to see how the Arsenal-hating ITV presenters were eating their words - it looked like they only covered the game so that they could show Beckham and his mates turn on the style. How very disappointing for them!!

It is easy to compare this to the magnificent 5-1 win in Milan a couple of years ago. It was as much a priviledge to have been in the Bernabeu as it was to have been in the San Siro in 2003, and for me, this trip was a better one overall - just because we really needed a display and result like this to show that we can still cut it with the very best.

The Strokes, Adam Green, 747s - Hammersmith Apollo, London - Saturday 18th February 2006

The last UK date on The Strokes tour, and a trip to Hammersmith Apollo.

I had forgotten how annoying this venue can be, with a foyer/bar that is far too small to accomodate even a fraction of the venue's capacity - which means horrendous queues at the bar, people unable to move anywhere, and general annoyance. The venue was designed to be a proper theatre, with civilised people sitting down - not for a gig with thousands of people standing up and drinking.

The first band on were the 747s, who were not very good at all. Sometimes you see a band in a support slot, and really wonder how they got the gig. Apparently, the Strokes themselves often pick their support bands. To imagine them listening to the 747s, and thinking "this lot are good, let's have them support us on tour" is, well frankly impossible to imagine. One for the "avoid in future" list, for definite.

The 747s were followed by Adam Green, somebody that I'd never seen solo before, despite owning various songs, and having seen his previous band The Moldy Peaches on several occasions a few years ago. He showed up on stage wearing a suit and pork pie hat, and so looked very unfortunately like a New York version of Pete Doherty - not something to aspire to. His set was one large in-joke - if you were familiar with his music, you'd possibly have enjoyed it (although even that was a 50-50 shout). If you weren't in on the joke, you would have most probably hated every minute of his set. It was unlikely to have won him any fans that he didn't have already.

After Adam Green, and whilst waiting for The Strokes, I found myself standing next to Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie, who looked suitably intoxicated. I did a double take at first, wondering if it was him - then reaslised that nobody else in the world looks quite like that.

The Strokes came on and played the third different opening song of my 3 visits to see them on this tour. They seemed to be really enjoying the gig, and immediately proclaimed the venue their favourite venue in London (they obviously hadn't tried to buy a beer there). They were full of praise for UK crowds, and really seemed to be loving every minute of this one. That makes a huge difference to how enjoyable a gig is, if its obvious that the band are loving it as well. As with Arctic Monkeys the previous night, we were treated to a band on top form and having fun.

Amazingly, for only the second time ever, they even played a cover. I was there the last time they did this, at Alexandra Palace in 2003, after Joe Strummer's death, where they covered The Clash's Clampdown, and it sounded amazing. They did say then that it was the only cover they'd ever play, but I'll forgive them the lie!! Tonight, they introduced the cover as being of another New York band, The Ramones. They ploughed into Life's A Gas, and those of us that love The Ramones went wild. It again sounded incredible as The Strokes lent their big guitar sound to an already great song.

The other surprise of the evening was that they played even more tracks from the debut album, adding Alone Together to the 9 that have been aired on previous dates. So, only one track from their first album wasn't played, and as the gig went on, it was relying more and more on the old classics.

A version of Ask Me Anything with Nick Valensi on keyboards was the final treat of the gig - so there were 3 things that you don't often see at a Strokes gig. A special gig all round, a great live band at the top of their form, and clearly enjoying the ride. This show eclipsed the Brighton show for sound, energy and pure novelty value, I'm already looking forward to their return to the UK in the summer. There aren't too many bands that you can see 3 times in a month, not get at all bored, and see 3 substantially different setlists as well. Oasis take note!!

AFC Wimbledon vs Windsor & Eton - The Fans Stadium, London - Saturday 18th February 2006

With a trip the Bernabeu to see Arsenal play Real Madrid only 3 days away, this is about as close as you can get to an appropriate warm-up!! This game was heavily hyped by Soccer AM, as some of their celebrity mates are part-time footballers for the 2 teams involved - MC Harvey for AFC Wimbledon, and Ralf Little for Windsor & Eton. An Arsenal-free weekend because of our cup exit, plus a couple of friends that live a bus ride away from the ground, and a mere £9 to get into the terraces, all helped persuade me.

But as well as all that, the fact that AFC Wimbledon are a fans club, dead against the seedier commercial side of football, means that it is an absolute pleasure to support them with my £9. Fans influence here means that you can go for a pint in the excellent bar next to the ground, get some good matchday food (because even non-League fans don't want to eat the crap that most Premiership grounds force their fans to pay through the nose for), and pick up programmes and fanzines that are the fans voice against MK Dons in particular, and all that is wrong with football in general. Standing on the main terrace behind the goal, it is striking how small the ground is - and parts of it have recently been expanded. But, the club are going one step at a time, and it can't be too long before they climb back up the leagues again - certainly the support they have makes that quite possible.

The first half of the game was little short of terrible - no decent football on show, in fact, no football at all really, as both sides couldn't keep the ball for more than 30 seconds. There was plenty of singing from the terrace, and a great atmosphere all round - some of it of course directed at Tim Lovejoy in the main stand. The second half was immeasurably better, with some decent chances for both sides. AFC Wimbledon took the lead about 20 minutes into the second half, with a great finish inside the area. Helen Chamberlain jumped up and revealed her AFC shirt. No sooner had the celebrations stopped, than Windsor and Eton were level. And that was the way it stayed.

You could tell that this was non-League football by the refereeing, which was awful!! At one point, a Windsor player caught the ball in the area - he was on the floor and had both hands on the ball - which the ref saw fit to do nothing about! It all reminded me of Mike Riley!

Going to AFC Wimbledon reminded me of what football used to be like - terraces, affordable prices, a poorer standard of football than we enjoy today in the Premiership, but that doesn't matter so much, because the experience is so much better. That, plus a group of fans that are so much closer to the overall well-being of the club, and can influence it so much more directly, creates a sense of belonging that bigger clubs have helped to destroy for their fans recently. If that ever comes back to bite clubs like Arsenal, they'd better hope there are enough people like those at AFC Wimbledon to resurrect them. This club are a beacon of what can happen if enough people want it to - I will be giving them £9 again some time soon.

On to the Bernabeu, I'm sure I'll barely notice the difference!!

Maximo Park, Arctic Monkeys, We Are Scientists, Mystery Jets - Brixton Academy, London - Friday 17th February 2006

Back to Brixton for the second night in a row, this time for the real thing - the NME Awards Tour, which has been running across the UK for the last 3 weeks, finishes up tonight in London.

The Arctic Monkeys mere presence on this tour has ensured incessant interest in it throughout, and the fact that they are not headlining has raised eyebrows in the popular media. But, instead of generating interest in Maximo Park (who surely must be good if they are above everybody's favourite band on the bill?), it has just provoked wailing about how stupid/unfair it all is. Reports from previous gigs have suggested that many people end up leaving just after the Arctic Monkeys' set, which suits me just fine, as it means fewer idiots there for Maximo Park.

The story of the evening was that everybody seemed to be playing everybody else's songs for them, except for Maximo Park, who played all their own songs and nobody else's. First up were Mystery Jets, playing their biggest ever gig by some distance. To a decent sized audience, they carried their set off very well, and probably won a good number of new fans in the process. We Are Scientists joined them on vocals for one of their songs, which was the beginning of the many cameo appearances during the evening.

A good set of songs from Mystery Jets, and this tour will probably see them set for good things, as much because of the exposure as anything else. But, they do at least deserve the attention, judging by tonight's performance.

Next up were We Are Scientists themselves, a bunch of mad Americans with some excellent rock songs. Having heard their album before, it didn't sound all that spectacular, but live they were a different proposition entirely. Full of energy, with guitars that sounded incredible, they were an unexpected highlight of the evening. In the night's second cameo, Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys joined them on guitar for one song, which many of the crowd seemed to completely fail to notice - never mind. Overall, an excellent set, and I think that album is definitely worth another listen having seen them live.

And so to Arctic Monkeys. In Brighton the previous night, apparently they had not been up for it, just standing there, rattling through their set as quickly as possible so they could leave. Tonight, no such apathy - they were on absolutely blistering form throughout. Playing every song slightly faster than the recorded version always helps to inject some added energy, and make a gig go mental, and it worked a treat tonight.

Alex Turner even engaged with the crowd, inviting a sing along to the opening bars of When The Sun Goes Down - something I never thought I'd see. Maybe he is getting used to the idea that people like them now. A mad 45 minutes, covering most of the album, plus a new song, and with the amusing omission of Mardy Bum, much to the annoyance of many recent converts. And, a member of We Are Scientists to play lead guitar on Fake Tales of San Francisco, to allow Alex to go properly mad with the mike in his hand. But overall, it really was a set absolutely packed with highlights, they deserve all of the hype.

I can now almost understand why people have been leaving after the Arctic Monkeys set, because it really felt like a headline show, and it felt like it would be very difficult for anybody to follow that show. If you hadn't really heard of Maximo Park, I can see where the temptation to leave early might creep in. So, off they all went, leaving an easy route to the front for Maximo Park - cheers!!
The headliners duly appeared, and launched straight into an ear-splittingly loud version of Graffiti, which sent the remaining people in the place wild. In a set which covered the vast majority of their album, plus a new song, they didn't put a foot wrong all night. Incredibly loud, incredible energy, one of the best frontmen around at the moment, it was an awesome set which did justify their position as headliners for this tour. And that is a high accolade, given all the Monkey attention that has followed the tour around.
Finishing up with electric versions of Apply Some Pressure and Going Missing, refusing to do an encore, and shunning the final bow by all the bands that happened on last year's tour, Maximo Park truly left Brixton wanting more - and more of them, not just more Arctic Monkeys.

Magic Numbers, The Concretes, Shout Out Louds, Morning Runner - Brixton Academy, London - Thursday 16th February 2006

This week is a crazy one in London, with the Brits last night, the NME Awards next week, London Fashion Week next week too, and the BAFTA Film Awards at the weekend. Alone amongst all these events, the NME Awards at least have the decency to come accompanied by a series of top notch gigs, of which this was one.

The Magic Numbers headline, after failing to win the Brit Award that they were nominated for last night - for Best British Newcomer. Never mind. They were joined by more support bands than you can shake a stick at, truly the mark of a gig put together by somebody like NME or XFM, rather than just a normal tour.
Morning Runner were the first band on, having seen them last month and been impressed, I arrived early to catch them. Less impressive second time round, although the large and almost completely empty venue probably didn't help much. What also didn't help was that they didn't play what I think is their best song, Be All You Want Me To Be. They seemed a bit out of synch with the other bands on the bill, and the fact that so few people showed up early to see them probably reflects that. A shame, but I'd give them another chance - I don't think this showing was them at their best.

The Shout Out Louds were up next, and were a different story entirely. They were OK when I saw them from the third floor of Shepherds Bush a few weeks ago, but they were really rather good tonight. They tore through their set with the minimum of pause, fuss, or delay, and their gave an excellent account of their clearly strong material. One complaint was that the sound wasn't the best, so the band sounded quite muffled - but that wasn't enough to take away from how good they were. Second best band of the night, after the headliners, by some way.

After the Shout Out Louds came The Concretes. I can tell why they were supporting the Magic Numbers, because the one word to describe their sound is "nice", much like the headliners. Another phrase would be "boring and utterly forgettable". There were 8 people on stage throughout their set, when surely no self-respecting rock band needs more than 6 people under any circumstances. They all dressed in white, looking like a poor man's Polyphonic Spree. And their songs were mostly very dreary and boring, with just a few moments of happy, poppyness mixed in. There was very little energy at all throughout, and how they got above the Shout Out Louds on this bill I'll never know. Anyway, lets put that one down to experience.

Having not seen a decent band for over an hour by this stage, the Magic Numbers were very hotly anticipated. And with good reason - I saw them so many times last year that it was all getting quite boring. This time, I remembered why I started going to see them in the first place. They seem to have stopped playing gigs in the role of loveable underdogs, and are on stage now as the real deal, a significant band with significant commercial success behind them. And they don't look out of place in that world at all. Playing all the highlights from the debut album, plus 2 new songs, a cover of Beyonce's Crazy In Love, and the now classic set closer known as The Beard, this was possibly the best I've seen from the Magic Numbers since the early buzz and novelty of their songs back in the Spring of last year. A return to form, and good to see that they are living up to the slowly growing expectations of them.

Arsenal vs Bolton Wanderers - Highbury, London - Saturday 11th February 2006

When tickets for this game went on sale, all of my group forgot about it. When we eventually remembered, there were no seats left in our usual favourite North Bank. So, we were forced into a (thankfully occasional) visit to the West Stand, where the only noise is from people shouting "sit down" whenever the game gets exciting enough to stand up. Still, being close to the away fans is always entertaining, even if Bolton do their best to destroy any entertainment with their football.

After an excellent win last week in Birmingham, and with no game since then, the stay-at-home Arsenal fans were unusually buoyant (unusual because a home game after an away win has been very rare this season!). Also, there are only 10 days to go until Real Madrid away in the Champions League, so any return to form couldn't be at a better time.

But, as is the story of the season so far, just as things start to be looking up, along comes another unwelcome banana skin. This time, it was in the shape of a physical and well-organised Bolton side, who took maximum advantage of Arsenal's inexperienced defence, and wobbly recent form, as well as capitalising on their status as bogey team in chief at present. An utterly awful first half saw them go in at half time a goal ahead.

In the second half, Arsenal could again have scored half a dozen times, but a combination of poor finishing, lack of final ball, and inspired goalkeeping, all contrived to deny us. Bolton's incessant timewasting and playacting also threatened to deny us the chance to watch any football, making it an extremely frustrating game to be at. Finally, 2 minutes into injury time, Gilberto connected with a ball into the box to score. A relief at the end - although a point from the game doesn't help us enormously, it is a whole lot better than what we were 2 minutes away from ending up with.

Birmingham City vs Arsenal - St Andrews, Birmingham - Saturday 4th February 2006

The fourth day in a row of activity, after 2 gigs and a football match on previous days, and it all started horribly early in the morning, and with a sore head from the night before.

A trip to Birmingham away is never the nicest of jaunts, especially because of the dangers lurking on the walk between ground and station, and the particularly small-time mentality of many of the home supporters - chips on shoulders are all the rage round here, especially when big teams come to visit. Throw in a return train journey at the mercy of Virgin trains, and its a trip that you approach with some trepidation - there's just so much that can go wrong!!

Luckily today, the Virgin trains part was effectively avoided, with a bargain £15 train ticket on a slow train from Marylebone. I'm sure when train companies cotton on that their fares can be useful for travelling football fans, they'll put a quick stop to that - so we expolited the loophole whilst it lasted!!

Inside the ground before the game, expectations were low - with no defenders to speak of, on a bad run of luck, and playing a side that seem to have picked up of late, many were expecting us to get stuffed. Strange then, that when the club as a whole was probably at its lowest ebb for a number of years (with the stories about Sol Campbell dominating the press since the last game), we managed to pull an excellent result out of the blue.

Two pieces of history today, as well as the excellently fought out 2-0 win. Emmanuel Adebayor made his debut for Arsenal, scored the opening goal, and looked pretty solid throughout. Then, in the second half, Thierry Henry scored his 200th goal for the club. We were denied a third piece of history, as Theo Walcott was on the bench, but sadly stayed there. Still, 2 events isn't bad!

Birmingham played badly today, and you can see why they are in the bottom 3, but we could easily have lost this game (and have lost several like it already this season). So, a great result, much needed in more ways than one for Arsenal this week.

The Strokes - Brighton Centre, Brighton - Friday 3rd February 2006

My second visit to see The Strokes in 2 weeks, this time a trip down to the Brighton Centre. Last time I went here for a gig was in 1994, to see Oasis round off an eventful year with a gig right at the end of December. Its strange to think that political party conferences also happen here, with Tony Blair on stage bleating about Education. Alternatively, we have cool New Yorkers on stage wailing about getting wasted - altogether much better. The gig had an "over 14s" age limit, which a large proportion of the audience only just sneaked past - most disturbing.

Support were the Shout Out Louds, as at Shepherds Bush, but as I'm also due to see them again later in the month, I elected to stay in the pub for their set. They are a decent enough band, but 3 times inside a month - well, I don't like them that much!!!

So, The Strokes. Playing many of the same songs they'd played in London, but in a much different order, they seemed to really enjoy this gig. Coming on stage to some funky music, and with their projection screen dramatically swinging into place, the ploughed straight into The Modern Age, which sent the crowd wild from the first minute.
The acoustics in the venue were fantastic, you really could hear absolutely everything very well (except for some of Julian's mumblings between songs). An hour and 20 minutes must have squeezed upwards of 20 songs from them, with one classic after another being pulled out of the bag. Again drawing heavily on the debut album, they played their favourite 8 or 9 tracks from that, especially delighting all those that were fans from the start.

When it all finished, we were released into Friday night Brighton town centre, at around 11pm. Not somewhere I'm keen to see again, as the stag parties and other assorted groups of brawlers rampaged around, with a heavier police presence down the main street than I see at a lot of Premiership football matches. You know you're in a place with problems if Friday night takes that much effort to police.

The Rakes - Astoria, London - Thursday 2nd February 2006

Back to the wonderful London Astoria to see The Rakes for the first time in a while. Last time I saw them, they were busy supporting all manner of big or soon-to-be-big bands last Spring - I saw them support Kaiser Chiefs, but they've toured with Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand and others in the meantime. After all that supporting, good to see them headlining a show for once!! And, the Astoria, alongside the other venues on this tour, represents a step up that they will hopefully be able to build on, especially after the commercial success of 22 Grand Job.

Having not heard all that many Rakes songs, and certainly not knowing more than 3 or 4 very well at all, expectations were cautious for this gig - but the band completely exceeded them. When you watch a band without knowing the songs, but they sound as good as The Rakes sounded, you know you are watching a decent band. With a very hardcore and committed band of fans at the front, going mad throughout, the atmosphere was electric throughout.The singer had all the moves of a Jarvis Cocker-a-like, and the lead guitarist, when his guitar was turned up loud, was providing some riffs that cut right through you in a very good way. An excellent set all round, to a rapturous audience. My only slight complaint is that the band were clearly preaching to the converted tonight, everybody loved them, and not knowing too many of their songs, I didn't share the full enthusiasm. I'd love to see them again as a support band, but I'm not quite hardcore enough as a Rakes fan to see them headlining too much more.

Arsenal vs West Ham United - Highbury, London - Wednesday 1st February 2006

So, after three defeats in a week (despite actually winning the second game, we still got dumped out of a semi final in the last minute, so it counts as a defeat), we need to get the show back on the road at home - not for the first time this season.

West Ham are the visitors in a cheeky midweek round of Premiership games, and of course the added attraction here is our old friend Teddy Sheringham, without a doubt the footballer most despised by Arsenal fans over the last 10 years (no matter how much good progress Wayne Rooney is making). Teddy will be 40 in 2 months time, so really should have retired ages ago, the snivelling little bastard. Excitement therefore, because it could be our last chance to see him and say goodbye!!

Unfortunately, Alan Pardew scuppered the excitement a little by leaving Sheringham on the bench throughout - teasing us but without giving us what we wanted. West Ham also dampened the excitement for Arsenal fans by scoring 3 times and winning the game. So, an easy home victory and a chance to abuse Teddy one last time, was in fact nothing of the sort.

All was made more annoying by the number of West Ham fans in the North Bank, and the complete failure of Arsenal stewards to do anything about their presence - even when they started openly celebrating goals. Increasingly the way of the world, and an effect of Arsenal's keenness to sell overpriced corporate packages - if away fans buy them, they won't throw them out having paid so much money. So as we all know, with money at Arsenal, you can buy your way anywhere, even places that you're really not supposed to be.

To be fair, despite losing this game, we created just as many chances as in the 7-0 destruction of Middlesbrough. We scored 2, and Anton Ferdinand and Shaka Hislop between them played fantastically well to ensure that the ball just wouldn't go in any more than that. Against Boro it went in (almost) every time. The real problem today was that we conceded 3, and from only 4 shots that West Ham managed to have. Campbell had a shocker, which is becoming too common, and we looked generally frail in defence.

It does seem that with Arsenal this season, if it isn't the defence going wrong, its the attack or the midfield; and we haven't really had a run all season where everything has actually been working properly! Never mind, nothing like an away trip to Birmingham, next up, to try to improve things!!