Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

What more could we have hoped for, really? Victory against Man City, Tottenham lose at home and Chelsea draw at Fulham. Plus they’ve both played a game more now.

Now we have to press home our advantage against Wolves and Wigan, the two bottom clubs in the league. Mind you, it’s the clubs at the bottom that can find that extra motivation to beat you. We need to be thinking QPR rather than Man City for both games.

What now for Chelsea? Sixth and still grappling with FA Cup, League and Champions League. Of course, we shouldn’t get too snide, we would love to be in three competitions too. But it’s going to be quite a challenge: Spurs, Barca, Arsenal, Barca!

Spurs deserved to lose today. They were poor against an enthusiastic Norwich. They could easily have lost by more as Norwich had a couple of decent penalty shouts. I say decent shouts, I mean absolute bolt on penalties. Harry says he got the tactics wrong by dropping Parker to go 4-4-2. Is this the stuff of international management?

Now they share 59 points with Newcastle. They were OK today. But Ben Arfa was exceptional. Newcastle’s season had been amazing. Alan Pardew gambled on players that others passed up on and all of them have paid out for him.

So, Arsenal 61 from 32, Spurs and Newcastle 59 from 33, Chelsea 57 from 33. Game on!

A year ago I blogged a joke piece about Fabregas’ family claiming he’d been kidnapped. Far-fetched exaggeration I thought. But no, just a year too early!

Has there ever been a transfer saga like this one? Is there another club other than Barcelona and its hangers on that behaves this way or are they uniquely arrogant?

What do they think gives them the right to behave this way time after time, screwing up another club’s transfer window planning. Because that is exactly what it does.

Meanwhile, various media pundits continue to link Arsenal to various forwards or attacking midfielders. Not to mention teenagers. I’m not saying we should have an eye on the future but I won’t be the only Gooner going into the new season nervously if Carl Jenkinson is our only defensive recruit.

Even the media seem to have got bored with the Samba/Cahill story now. One story that does seem to have legs still is Enrique’s desire to replace Clichy. Most of the quotes are attributed to a frustrated Alan Pardew who would like Enrique to make his mind up between a new contract or departure.

I’m quite attracted to the idea of him coming to Arsenal. I mean, can Armand Traore really have improved that much in his time out on loan?

Anyway, a bit more football today which I will have to try and keep tabs on via the old iPhone. Didn’t work out the other day but I’ll give it a go.

Have a good weekend folks, wonder what imaginative stories the Sundays will come up with?