Arsenal’s current captain Thierry Henry had been contemplating a move away from Arsenal over most of last season, but thankfully stayed. He’s lost both the Champions League Final and World Cup Final but will be a stronger player because of it. Arsenal’s future is bright with the new Emirates Stadium as our home and some brilliant young players coming through the ranks.

But with the latest revelations coming out of Serie A things aren’t looking so good for our old captain.

Basically Juventus, Lazio and Fiorentina have been demoted to Serie B, and Juventus will start next season with a 30-point deduction – almost certainly confining them to the second division for at least 2 seasons.

Lazio have been deducted 7 points and Fiorentina 12, so they have a slightly better chance of getting back into Serie A within one season. That’s if they don’t lose all their players!

All the teams involved in the scandal (Juventus, Fiorentina, Lazio and AC Milan) have been barred from European competition, meaning Inter, Roma, Chievo and Palermo will benefit and appear in next seasons Champions League.

And the bottom 3 teams in Serie A – Messina, Lecce and Treviso will stay up as a result.

And Juventus have been stripped of their last two Serie A titles.

Who said the grass was greener on the other side?

Yesterday saw Liverpool win the FA Cup in probably one of the best FA Cup Finals in a long, long time. It was an entertaining game and Steven Gerrard showed again what an awesome player he is and for me he is the best English player in the league – some of the stuff he does is simply outstanding.

But after the huge favour West Ham did for us last week I wanted the Hammers to win it – and they almost did.

But it was wierd watching an FA Cup Final without Arsenal being involved, especially with our excellent record in the competition over the last 10 years.

And with the Champions League Final just around the corner I got those funny feelings again.

No, it’s not because I had lasagne for lunch.

Last season Arsenal won the FA Cup on penalties. Last season Liverpool won the Champions League on penalties. This season, the FA Cup in won on penalties by Liverpool. This season, the Champions League is won on penalties by…?

You never know.

There’s been so many similarities between ourselves and Liverpool this and last season, you wonder if it’s meant to be…

Or is it just me?

My initial thoughts when Sp*rs wanted the game against West Ham delayed on Sunday was that it was an attempt to cheat the system. After all, it’s clear that if Alan Pardew has a congested fixture list then he has no problem fielding the reserves and give his big players a rest – so if the game was pushed to Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday then West Ham would play their reserves with the FA Cup Final only days away.

But then we find out the Sp*rs decide to play the game. Martin Jol tells us that after doing a quick warm up that the players WANTED to play. So the food poisoning that you and I get must be different to the illness professional footballers get – you can run around and play football. When I get food poisoning… Well, I won’t go into details!

So the game finishes and West Ham play excellently and do Arsenal a favour – Arsenal are in the Champions League next season!

And that’s the end of the story right?

When there is time to reflect on the situation, the media paint out Sp*rs to be unlucky, and somehow Arsenal are the bad guys for ‘stealing’ 4th place in the Premiership!

But then Sp*rs do us a favour and make themselves look like utter fools.

Chairman David Levy decides play with the idea that they will sue the Marriott Hotel for food poisoning. After all, it’s their fault right?

Sp*rs are hell bent on finding out the exact reason for the ‘food poisoning’ because then there will be someone to blame!

Hmmm.. There must be foul play afoot…

And in the meantime, David Levy sends an open letter to the Premier League, demanding that the fixture should be replayed – and all pretty convenient really, since West Ham would field a reserve team. Would they ask for a replayed fixture if it was Chelsea? I doubt it.

Another open letter later, Mr Levy decides to complain again, this time questioning the rules of the Premier League.

We are the victims!

Now we find out there are major doubts that it was food poisoning in the first place!

BBC News Link

Now there are rumours that The Marriott Hotel are considering suing Sp*rs for defamation! Sp*rs should have just left it alone and accepted it but now they’re looking like proper fools.

Maybe they should look at their own players before blaming everyone else!

It’s been a good week so far! 🙂

What a fantastic few days for Arsenal fans – a great send off from Highbury, beating Sp*rs to fourth place and now yesterday it turns out that Theo Walcott is not just on stand-by for England but he’s in the 23-man provisional squad!

And with Owen and Rooney both doubtful it looks pretty certain that Theo is going to make history and go to Germany.

Which is unbelievable!

Sven is generally pretty, well quite frankly boring, in his England team selection.

We know Beckham and Owen are always in the team – regardless of form or full fitness, and it was a shock to everyone that Arsenal forward Theo is in the squad, despite not having any Premiership experience!

But unlike everyone else, I’m glad Theo has been selected.

Yes, it’s a gamble – but why not?

Let’s not be naive about this – Sven hasn’t just picked a random 17 year old from the street and put him in the England squad! He’s seen him first hand, Theo trains alongside world-class players and Arsene himself has apparently recommended him.

Darren Bent in my opinion has had a chance and been picked for a few England squads in the past, and obviously is not selected in the current squad because Sven has not been impressed with what he has seen when training with him.

Yes, he’s scored 18 goals in the Premiership but does that mean your International quality? Diego Forlan was the top scorer in Spain last season for f*cks sake – but would you have him ahead of Eto, Ronaldinho or Robinho? Hell no!

Jermaine Defoe is on stand-by, not because he hasn’t played that much but because Sven doesn’t think he’s good enough to be in the first 23.

People will point to the fact that Theo hasn’t appeared, nevermind started for Arsenal but people forget that Arsene Wenger has been preparing the young lad and this season is just too short for him. By the time the World Cup and the start of next season start he will be ready.

When Arsenal first signed Thierry Henry from Juventus Wenger had to prepare the Frenchman for several months before he was good enough to have an impact on the first team.

Like Henry, Theo would be constantly be flagged offside because linesmen could not gauge their phenomenal pace. So Arsenal have been working on Theo curving and arcing his runs to perfection.

All these young talents just need that chance to make their mark. Look what happened to Michael Owen in the 1998 World Cup and Wayne Rooney in Euro 2004.

And in all honesty, it’s not really that much of a gamble – generally from the 22-man squad that goes to these tournaments, only 15 to 16 of them will see any action on the pitch.

So is it really that much of a deal?

Let’s give this lad a chance!