Arsenal vs Newcastle United - Emirates Stadium, London - Saturday 30th August 2008

It seems like, at least for Arsenal right now, that a week can be an incredibly long time - especially when you play 3 games in that week. At around 7pm last Saturday, an utterly awful performance at Fulham was capped when Denilson was guilty of an extremely lazy and careless foul throw. At the same time this week, Denilson was busy putting the final touch on the third goal in an emphatic victory, and it was one of the best worked goals you'll see anywhere in Europe this week. How times change.

This was a totally different performance to the shambles last week against Fulham. Arsenal dominated the game, played some fantastic passing football, created a hatful of great chances, scored 3 goals, and could have had many more than that. Admittedly Newcastle (much like FC Twente a few days before) made it easier than it should have been, preferring to stand and watch Arsenal pass the ball around them, rather than trying to do much about it. There will be harder games, for sure, but Arsenal's performance here was very impressive indeed.

The first goal came from a penalty awarded when a Newcastle defender had a cross hit his arm in the area. There was some nervousness when Van Persie stepped up to take it, but we needn't have worried, as he absolutely hammered the ball into the bottom corner. If that goal was somewhat routine, the other 2 goals were excellently worked from open play. The second came from a great move, which culminated in a very clever backheel in the area from Eboue (who had a really good, a really surprisingly good game), to leave Robin Van Persie in a position where he couldn't really miss. The third was a similarly good move, great work from Adebayor (who worked really hard all game) to put Denilson in for his first Premiership goal. The Observer report says that Arsene Wenger applauded like a proud father at this point - I didn't see this, but can well believe it.

Other than the goals, Arsenal put together a number of excellent passing moves. Shay Given needed to make a number of saves from Arsenal attacks, and from a few dangerous direct free kicks. In general, the play from the home side was excellent, with some moves having the one touch fluency and flow that Arsenal's play has when they are playing at their best. I'll say it quietly, but some of the play reminded me of 2004 - but helped of course by Newcastle's pedestrian attitude to trying to win the ball back. Most of the Arsenal team had a very good game - even Eboue - with Robin Van Persie, Samir Nasri, Emmanuel Adebayor and Gael Clichy impressing in particular.

Once Arsenal had scored the third goal, the game petered out a bit - as Newcastle just accepted defeat, and Arsenal eased off the gas. There was some excitement in the 88th minute, when Joey Barton came on for his first Premiership appearance since being released from jail. Of course, the scumbag got the boos he deserved, and got straight into a robust tackle with Samir Nasri. Nasri clipped Barton's heels a few second later and was rightly booked - this then triggered a stupidly hysterical reaction from Kevin Keegan, who was possibly trying to deflect attention away from his team's shortcomings. As for Nasri, after 3 Premier League games, he is looking more and more like a fantastic acquisition - good runs, great on the ball, goals, and winding up Joey Barton - just the things to make Arsenal fans warm to you. Very promising indeed on the evidence so far.

So, things well and truly back on track, and the Fulham game now looks more like a blip than a sign of disaster to come. But just as things have improved in the last week, so they can quickly deteriorate again. However much they may might deteriorate, they will probably still be better than at White Hart Lane - after watching the highlights of an excellent Arsenal win on Match Of The Day, it was most pleasing to see the League table, featuring Spurs in 20th place, the only team in the Premier League with no points. When things are bad at Arsenal, as they were for sure after the defeat to Fulham last week, it always helps to know that they could be worse - we should thank Tottenham Hotspur for providing regular reminders of that.

Arsenal vs FC Twente Enschede - Emirates Stadium, London - Wednesday 27th August 2008

After the complete disgrace of a performance and result at the weekend, it was safe to say that more was expected in this game. The mood in the pubs beforehand was pessimistic for the season, with much general wondering whether Arsene Wenger is losing the plot as regards the squad we need in order to compete. Not qualifying for the Champions League proper would of course be a total disaster, but with a 2-0 cushion, that was thankfully unlikely. Good to be back at the Emirates again, it has seemed like ages since May - which of course, it has been.

When we got into the ground, Arsenal fans got the news they wanted - Cesc Fabregas was back in the team. Having all your hopes resting with one 21 year old is very worrying indeed, and having him as the only player that can give Arsenal fans any hope at all about a game is not where we should be. But given that we are in this situation, having Cesc back was very good news indeed. The Twente side again contained nobody of much note, but they gave us problems in the away leg, so people weren't taking much for granted, despite the comfortable aggregate lead.

As it turned out, the game was something of a stroll - and there is nothing like a 4-0 home victory to settle the nerves and restore people's faith. The game was a pretty open passing game, with some decent play from Arsenal, and plenty of chances created. However, I suspect that much of this was due to the poor performance from Twente - aside from a couple of sniffs at goal in the first half, they didn't really seem very interested. The first goal came from Nasri in the first half, a goal which reminded me just a little bit of Robert Pires, and in doing so got me excited - if Nasri turns out to be anything like Pires, we are in for a treat.

After half time, the cruise got even easier. Gallas added a home goal to his goal in the away leg shortly after half time, and Theo Walcott scored a fantastically taken third later on. Finally, Nicky Bendtner added the fourth right at the end, when the stadium was half empty. An emphatic win in the end, which looked relatively easy throughout the night. In fact, despite coming under some pressure at 0-0 in the away leg, the tie was effectively over the minute we went ahead in that game - there was no way back for Twente.

So, into the Champions League proper draw, which turned up a difficult group for us - not necessarily in terms of the quality of the opponents, but certainly in terms of the trips we must make to the away legs. Given the prospect of trips to Turkey and Ukraine, then possibly followed by a meaningless game in Portugal, I may be staying in the UK for football this autumn.

Fulham vs Arsenal - Craven Cottage, London - Saturday 23rd August 2008

It has to be said that, however you look at it, Fulham are extremely fortunate to be playing this fixture. Looking absolutely useless for most of last season, they finally woke up and got their act together in the nick of time. Reading had the opposite - OK until the end, when they dropped like a stone - and are now in the Championship. Even with two new promoted teams to provide cannon fodder this season, there has to be a decent amount of money on Fulham to go down this time around - even given their spending to improve their squad in the summer.

Despite spending a bit of money themselves, Arsenal find themselves starting the season with a weaker squad than at the end of last. Flamini, Gilberto, Lehmann and Hleb gone (which particularly tears a hole in the midfield part of the squad), and Nasri, Ramsey and Vela (and Mikael Silvestre - what the hell is that about?!) coming in. Walcott and others will obviously be a year better as they get older, but you do wonder how the squad will bear up this time, and whether those £1,000 season ticket renewals couldn't have been spent on at least one established midfielder. Maybe (hopefully) they still will be.

After this display, the money really desperately needs to be spent. Arsenal put in one of the most inept, not to mention disinterested performances I think I've ever seen. The main problem was in midfield, where the acute lack of depth and experience was painfully obvious to all (except, possibly, Arsene Wenger). We were over-run from start to finish, and this was only against Fulham - Denilson and Eboue in the middle just couldn't really cope. This struggle meant that we were on the back foot all game, and as a result didn't manage to create much at all. Fulham didn't play fantastically well, but we were worse. A big worry.

The winning goal was a bad goal to lose, Gallas allowing the scorer to steal in to the 6 yard line, and connect with the ball without really being challenged. But he wasn't the only player to have a shitty game, by a long way. Denilson was the major criminal, seemingly completely incapable of keeping the ball or getting it to another football player in a red shirt. The utter low point of the game came at 7:06pm, when Denilson committed a foul throw. A good summary of what a wretched game both he and Arsenal had - and the worst thing is that Arsenal's squad is so thin, he will be playing the next game after such a poor display, because there is no real alternative.

Cesc Fabregas is due back from injury soon, but even he is not the solution to the problem that we lack muscle and bite in midfield. When Fabregas and Diaby are injured (which Diaby is all the time), we are left with players like Denilson, Eboue, Walcott, Ramsey, Song and Wilshere to play in centre midfield - and they are simply not strong enough. When we are struggling to tread water in midfield, it does make creativity very difficult up front. The fact that 9 months ago we had Diarra, Flamini and Gilberto in this area of the pitch, and they have not been adequately replaced, means that it is glaringly obvious what the problem is. Worryingly, Arsene Wenger seems to be playing down just how desperately short we are in this area. One can only hope that this is to throw people off the scent of the imminent signing of reinforcements - if not, we could be in for a long and difficult season.

England vs South Africa (1st ODI) - Headingley, Leeds - Friday 22nd August 2008

After Kevin Pietersen's first test match as England captain, came his first One Day International as England captain - this being the first ODI of a short series against South Africa. A train up to Leeds and the previous night spent at Akbar's amazing curry house, and we were ready for the full beery excitement of a day-nighter at Headingley - although probably expecting to get stuffed by the South Africans.

When we first got inside the ground, it seemed like a normal kind of cricket ground, with various stands around the field. Headingley, though, also has a rugby stadium sharing the main stand - so if you want to walk around the ground, you have to pick your way along the rugby grandstand - a strange thing to walk through a rugby league stadium on the way to a cricket match.

England won the toss and decided to bat - Bell and Prior built a decent total without losing a wicket - even if they weren't scoring tremendously fast. When Bell went and Shah came in, England looked to be struggling to score at a decent rate. At 113-3, we looked to be struggling. But then came the partnership that won the game - between Pietersen and Flintoff. It was what everybody wanted to see, and all the more surprising because those 2 don't often tend to put big scores on when batting together - but this partnership of over 150 did the job very nicely indeed. Chasing 276 to win, South Africa were undone by England's bowling - once the third wicket had fallen at 142, they kept on coming at pretty regular intervals after that. Harmison, Flintoff and Pietersen all chipped in, and South Africa were all out in the final over, still 20 runs short of the England total. A slightly unexpected, but obviously most welcome win - the batting partnership between Pietersen and Flintoff, plus the bowling display winning England the game.

The new captain had great things to say about Andrew Flintoff, but he deserved a huge dollop of praise as well - scored 90, took 2 wickets, and presided over a successful run out. On the (admittedly limited, so far) evidence of his 2 games as captain so far, KP seems to be thriving - the sense of responsibility seems to be powering him to better and better performances - which can only be a hugely promising thing for the England team. Facing Pietersen the cricketer is scary enough for most players and teams - hopefully Pietersen the captain will be even more fearsome for our opponents, including the Aussies next summer.

This was my first trip to Headingley, and it was a real eye opener - sitting on the West Stand (where most of the action is), surrounded by people in fancy dress, getting very pissed indeed. The atmosphere there was fantastic - better than I can ever remember for an England game (with the possible exception of the Oval test in the last Ashes series here) - and of course it got better as England closed in on victory, and people got more drunk.

The only negative was the ridiculous and overzealous stewarding, from "Green Team" - the scourge of fun loving cricket watchers everywhere. Their obsession with preventing people stacking beer glasses is ridiculous, and some of the other things they threw people out for were even more petty. There were more police there than any other cricket day I can remember - and most of them seemed to be there only to defuse the confrontations that stupid stewarding was causing. Headingley was much more "lively" than watching cricket elsewhere, and had a great atmosphere - shame the stewards seemed hell bent on dampening the fun. They didn't properly succeed - I will definitely be trying to come back for a day against Australia next summer.

The Belgrave Scandal - Buffalo Bar, London - Wednesday 20th August 2008

First Belgrave Scandal gig for a while, this one coming as part of the Goonite club night at the Buffalo Bar. Given the number of bands that have played this venue and gone on to be big, it is probably a very useful place for them to be playing. The venue's doors didn't open until about 8:25, about 5 minutes before the band were due on stage - so thankfully their set was delayed to allow a few people to get into the place. The band members themselves were dressed in all black - a departure from the suits that they have been wearing at gigs for the last 18 months or so. Somebody must like Johnny Cash.

This was a very short but fast paced set, played to an audience that definitely seemed to get more receptive as it went on. They started with Same Old Same Old, Brighton Away and Soho Shuffle, the first of which in particular had been substantially rearranged, and largely for the better. After those 3 songs came Black Pages, which really seemed to step things up a gear, and get the audience on their side. A great song which sounds fantastic live - and it was followed immediately by a very promising new song - so new that it doesn't even have a name yet. Quite fast paced, and not like any other Belgrave Scandal song, it will be interesting to see how they develop that one further.

The set ended with Take That Train and House Of Cards, the first of which has massively improved vocals, mainly achieved by shortening some of the vocal notes. At the end of the song, the drumming reminiscent of I Am The Resurrection got the crowd excited, and House Of Cards finished the set off really well. They have a few more gigs coming up over the next few weeks, so I'll be looking to catch them again soon.

Kent vs Essex - Friends Provident Trophy Final, Lords, London - Saturday 16th August 2008

Having only recently seen Kent play Essex in a major game, we did it all over again, this time in the Friends Provident trophy final at Lords. I never really like going to Lords, and having lost the last 6 finals we had played there, I suspect that most Kent players and fans agree. I always find that the place is full of old duffers, and they they use their position as "home of cricket" to really give a poor service for an over inflated price - but more of that later.

Kent batted first in this game, with the much hyped Denly and Key opening up. They just seemed to be settling in when Key was given out, harshly it seemed on the TV replays, and the innings was shaken right up by that. Although it doesn't excuse what happened next, that decision started things off pretty badly. What did happen next was a succession of Kent batsmen seeming to give their wickets away very cheaply - at least 4 or 5 of them got themselves out - only Martin Van Jaarsveld and Ryan Maclaren did themselves justice, scoring a half century each. But the total of 214 was always likely to be too small - Kent needed at least another 30 or so to have a decent chance.

Half time came, and the congestion and general hassle around the ground was ridiculous. Near my staircase, there was a time where (literally) nobody moved for 20 minutes - an absolute joke. The queues at the bar were insane, made worse by the fact that they were not pre-pouring beer, and were selling everything from the same counter. So, ordering a few pints entailed attracting somebody's attention, then waiting for ages as beer dribbled out of the taps into cups. Presumably they make more money by running things that way - and Lords management just don't seem to care much in any case - they expect you to put up with it whilst on your special day at the home of cricket. Not really good enough, and a reminder of why I generally avoid Lords.

Essex made heavier weather of the run chase that I was expecting, but got there in the end with balls to spare. Kent did manage to scare them with a few early wickets, but once Grant Flower dug in, the remaining wickets never looked like coming. Robbie Joseph did a great job at slowing their scoring right down, and took a couple of wickets into the bargain - but it was the low Kent total that had done the damage. Essex fans went home happy, Kent only had themselves to blame - hopefully the next crack at winning a trophy won't be too long into the future. The match report is here.

Kings Of Leon, Glasvegas - Brixton Academy, London - Thursday 14th August 2008

Last time I saw Kings Of Leon, I said that it might be the last time to see them in a comparatively small place. Headline slots at Glastonbury and T In The Park already under their belts this year, plus V Festival and a date at the O2 coming up, probably proves the point that they are deservedly now playing massive dates. All the better then to get a chance to see them in the comparatively intimate surroundings of Brixton Academy - and there aren't many bands you can describe Brixton as "intimate" for. This was a warmup gig for the V Festival, and as well as playing their fantastic live set for us, they were good enough to bring Glasvegas along to support them as well.

Glasvegas played what seemed like quite a short set, but looking at a watch, it did in fact last for half an hour. Most of the songs they were playing at Glastonbury were played again, in pretty much the same order, and with the same incredible guitar noise. Sadly, they were playing to a pretty empty venue, and many of those that were there either seemed not to care, or to be more curious than anything else. I guess that given the hype surrounding them recently (and the lack of London gigs from them), that was to be expected. Still, the noise was again fantastic, even if the novelty of that is starting to wear off on me now - Glasvegas are a "must see" live, but I'm not sure I'd want to do it every day.

Kings Of Leon's set started with new song Crawl, which was unfamiliar to many - so when it gave way to Black Thumbnail, that was when the gig really kicked off in earnest. The full setlist is in the NME Review of the gig, but it was striking during the show how thick and fast the brilliant songs kept coming. One after another, from their 3 previous albums and from their new album (I think that new single Sex On Fire could well be their best song ever, and it was a real highlight of the set for me), the top tunes kept on coming. When you thought they might be about to run out, along came songs like California Waiting and The Bucket - incredible stuff. And of course, for the whole set of almost 2 hours, the band looked as cool as can be on stage, said little to the crowd, and seemed at many points to be playing a blinding festival headlining set inside a relatively small concert hall. Truly fantastic.

I have written before that Kings Of Leon are a quite amazing live band - probably the coolest band in the world when you are standing and watching them play their songs. The guitars sound loud and dirty, they don't talk to the crowd, and it all just sounds utterly incredible (and goes far too quickly) whilst they are on stage. This was more of the same - a great show by a band that just defy words when they are playing live and on top of their game. The new album promises to make them even bigger, and they deserve every bit of it.

Work trip to The Hague, Netherlands - 11th to 12th August 2008

After a long trip to Asia, with lots of long flights on the way, a quick visit to the Netherlands seemed like a minor commute. I landed at Schiphol late on a Monday evening, and fought my way through hundreds of Dutch tourists, queueing up for their midnight flights to Spain, Greece and Turkey - it reminded me of being at Gatwick, but without too many chavs. Eventually I managed to get to my hotel, and crashed - still jetlagged a bit.

The next morning I got up and went to The Hague for a meeting - getting the train from Schiphol. On the journey, I experienced a true novelty - a delayed Dutch train. I don't think I've ever seen such a thing before, and even though the delay was all of 10 minutes, everybody seemed to be very apologetic. On the way out of Den Haag Centraal station, I saw several hundred bicycles, arranged in pretty much every direction you could see - a few of which are in the picture here. Very Dutch.

After the meeting, it was straight back to the station, then to the airport for the flight home. Whilst waiting for my train, I partook of a Dutch peculiarity, the snack bar. Unlike normal snack bars, a Dutch snack bar involves a wall of mini ovens, each containing a piece of unhealthy food (a cheese croquette, a "chicken stick", a hamburger, etc). Put some money in the slot, and the door unlocks for you to remove your fix of dirty, cheap food. A chicken stick for 1 Euro seemed too good to resist, so I did not resist. Mmmm.

England vs South Africa (Day 2, 4th Test) - The Oval, London - Friday 8th August 2008

So, about 28 hours after leaving my office in Seoul, and after going via Hong Kong and home, I was at The Oval for the second day of the final test against South Africa. Before I went to Asia, this looked like it might be a dead day in a dead game, South Africa having already won the series, and England looking merely to avoid a near whitewash. But then Michael Vaughan resigned and Kevin Pietersen was appointed England captain, so this was his first test in charge.

After the first day, that first test was going pretty well, South Africa having been bowled out for under 200, and England at 49-1. Rain delayed the start of play, although it was barely spitting, so everybody was slightly impatient when play eventually started at 11:30. The 50 came up very quickly, followed almost as quickly by an England wicket, which saw Pietersen himself come into bat. The next few hours (and by far the biggest talking point of the day) featured a masterful 100 from KP, where he took charge of the innings, scored significantly faster than his partners, and fully deserved the standing ovation he got when he reached his century. 2 balls later, he was out, but the point had been proved that he could captain and bat at the same time, so nobody seemed to care.

After KP departed, the rest of the day petered out somewhat - England lost the rest of their wickets for a lead of about 90, and South Africa batted again at the end of the day. There was a bit of a lack of atmosphere in the ground, probably not helped by the game being fairly irrelevant. Even the weather was dull - not sunny, but not raining either, which in retrospect helped to avoid one of those days where one sits at cricket, sweating profusely. This was a decent day's cricket - not hugely significant in terms of the result achieved, but as Pietersen's first game as captain, and with him scoring a century, it was certainly a memorable day to have been at. 3 days later, we won the test - giving KP a 100% record so far.

Work trip to Seoul, South Korea - 5th to 7th August 2008

The final stop on the Asia tour was Seoul in South Korea, a city and country that I'd never been to before. The visit got off to a bad start when it transpired that George W Bush would be in town at the same time - and that the Koreans were expecting full protests, road closures and riot police on the streets. As it turned out, it didn't affect me too much, although apparently there were 20,000 people protesting somewhere in Seoul on one day, and the police had their water cannon out to deal with things. Always great to have Mr Bush in town when you are seeing a place for the first time!

I landed at Incheon airport fairly late in the evening, and was not very impressed by the airport that claims to have won the "world's best" award on more than one occasion. It took ages and ages to wait for a train to the main terminal (an annoying feature at an increasing number of new airports, and an utter waste of time), and that put me right at the back of the immigration queue. Once through that, customs seemed to be highly officious, reminding me of Australia and New Zealand. They made you walk on mats soaked with disinfectant, were on high alert for anything made of wood, and forced everybody to x-ray their bags on the way out of the airport. Very paranoid.

By the time I got into town and to my hotel, it was late. But, we did go past the 1988 Olympic Stadium on the way, which was fully lit up - presumably because Olympics are at the forefront of people's minds around here at the moment. There were also lots of neon crucifixes visible on the tops of churches - a reminder that Korea has a huge Christian population. After the journey, it was a relief when I got to my hotel - the Park Hyatt, which is apparently one of the 2 or 3 best in Seoul. A huge floor to ceiling window, a massive walk in wet room, and some fantastic design and decor in the room made it a memorably good one.

Korea struck me as a strange cross between Japan and China in many ways - which I guess shouldn't be too big a surprise, given its location between Japan and China. The economy is very technologically advanced, and normal people use lots of technology in their everyday lives. My Blackberry also failed to work on the super advanced mobile phone networks there, and it was pretty impenetrable in a number of ways - especially in the fact that you don't see much English around (or many foreigners), and the average person you encounter does not speak much English at all. So far, so much like Japan.

But the Chinese influence is there too - lots of spitting and shouting and shoving suggest that the Koreans take their manners more from the Chinese than Japanese! As a foreigner, I found that I was stared at quite a bit when walking along the street between the office and hotel - in fact, in some instances, people looked at me as if I was from outer space.

One great thing about the place was the food - lots of meat, even more garlic, and kimchee - pickled vegetables with chilli, which was fantastic. I was taken to one place where they lit a stove in the middle of your table, then gave you a huge plate of beef to cook on it - excellent! I certainly ate well in Korea - the combination of lots of meat, plus very spicy stuff reminded me of what I like about Mexican food.

I was in Korea for less than 48 hours, so as soon as I had got a feel for the place, it was time to leave. I enjoyed being taken out by my colleagues, but found Seoul quite strange when left on my own. Seoul (and to some extent the Korean people) also struck me as quite boring - all geared towards "work", without much room for "play". On the way back to the airport in daylight, I got the feel for how big the city was, going past the Olympic Stadium again, and back into the annoying airport (great if you want to buy Prada or Gucci, not so great when it takes 40 minutes to get from security to gate). 24 hours after leaving the office in Seoul, and after a flight via Hong Kong, I walked through my front door. A long trip, but a good one.