Arsenal made me tense, the fake, fake Ronaldo. You know the guy, Quaresma. He hit the woodwork at least once, perhaps twice and I had my head in my hands. A draw would have seen us advance to the next round but we were fully under the cosh. I was a wreck but Rob didn't behave in the way that I was. He was doing things such as going to the toilet in the middle of an attack or pop off to get a drink in the middle of a goalmouth scramble. I thought it was a little unusual at the time but I refrained from asking any questions at full

The final point worth raising pertains to Chelsea and Man Utd. “Local” Gooners marginally dislike Chelsea more, perhaps due to the London rivalry. Yet “foreign” fans detest Man Utd more. Given that the game has gone global in the past 20 years since the advent of the Premier League and therefore become more accessible to countries around the world, those abroad have grown up in an era of Man Utd dominance. And not just on the pitch either. Success leads to gloating fans, and last week’s blog comments included many (especially from Asia) who stated that coming into contact with such gloryhunters had been a decisive factor in their dislike of the Mancunian reds.

Put yourself in his shoes. I'm sure most of us want to be successful in whatever it is that we do, so why should RVP be slated for wanting the same? If you were RVP, when you looked back at your career, would you want to see yourself happy that you scraped through a CL spot or would you want to see yourself winning titles? This should be a chance for the fans to stand up to the board and the club's transfer policy. Over the years we have lost Henry, Flamini, Hleb, Toure, Adebayor, Fabregas, Nasri, and Clichy (don't really care about him). Henry moved on to win titles too! Why put on a pedestal? Wasn't he in the exact same

Once you've thought about it, its a shrewd move. RVP is 29 next month meaning he's approaching the twilight of his career. Come 30, his body will start to be tested physically and we know how solid he is physically! Theres also the FFP consideration, even the likes of City dont want to pay over the odds blecause they are currently looking to stay in line with their laws hence it would be difficult to gain a large transfer fee of him anyway. Finally, with RVP, arsenal have a deadly front 5. Assuming Theo Walcott signs on (which i think he will, but thats another story), Giroud, Podolski, RVP & Gervinho (who is expected to have the second

To “foreign” fans, the game largely exists via the media. Livestreaming matches, interacting with fellow and rival fans on Twitter and Facebook, reading blogs and communities. The online aspect of fandom outweighs the physical aspect of it, simply because you don’t come across as many fellow football fans in reality as you do on the Web. So someone living abroad may be more susceptible to

Then I moved to a new continent, and I learned a new language and started watching a new football team. A team that actually won trophies and even beat Arsenal on their way to winning one of those trophies (Argentine Arsenal that is) and even though I fell in love with this new team, particularly their

If signing a striker to combine with Robin and share his goalscoring burden isn’t enough to show ambition to the captain, then not much will. And if Giroud does end up as a replacement, at least we avoid a repeat of last summer’s Cesc/Mata situation. Huge credit to the Club for acting quickly and decisively. And that’s without mentioning Podolski, another player I am hugely excited about. I’ve watched his performances in the group stages very and reckon he’ll fit like a dream into our current

Yes, he showed encouraging signs of being able to step up in matches for Arsenal – most notably the North London derby where a shocking first-half was transformed into a sparkling second – but I can’t see him replicating this for the national team just as yet. Simply because his international colleagues don’t believe in him as much as his club ones do and the rigid 4-4-2 formation doesn’t exploit his

It's somewhat crept up on us but if we keep van Persie then we have four top strikers if you include Podolski, Giroud and Walcott. Yes, Walcott. Podolski and van Persie are our complete strikers, the ones that are as effective playing deep as they are on the shoulder of defence. Everyone had Robin down as the next Bergkamp but it turns out he is a bit of an Henry as well. These two will contribute most of the goals and probably be the most played throughout the season. Giroud of course will be the target man that we need. 'Chamakh with feet' if you will. He will be vital against those sides hell

Dude came in highly recommended, and having just put on quite a show for Russia at the Euros, even paid his own bus ticket to reach London just in time to sign for us... the January 2009 transfer window slammed shut seconds later, almost maiming his right hand in the process! Some still insist he actually signed through the ventilators, thnx to some high power called David Dein. That half season, the fans adored him, courtesy of that four goal salvo at Liverpool- the only time ive known