So yesterday marked a true turning point for English football. It’s fair to say it was a day and an event that a generation or two of supporters thought we might never see happen. Years of the same old thing with apparently ever shortening chances of winning the major prizes maybe turned on their head with one glorious sight. I am talking, of course, about the first Arsenal training session under the charge of Unai Emery. Surely you didn’t think I’d be referring to those Tottenham cretins playing for England? I have to admit it felt very weird seeing photos of Arsenal in training with someone ..read more

Jack Wilshere of Arsenal Football Club I was totally gutted by Jack Wilshere's announcement last night that he is leaving Arsenal. Wilshere is the one player left in the squad who genuinely seems to understand what it means to play for The Arsenal. I first saw Jack play when Arsenal briefly had their own TV channel on Sky. He was this 15 year-old genius playing in the youth and reserve teams. From the beginning it was clear that he was a level or three above everyone else on the pitch. When he made his first-team debut at Blackburn (where I was in the away end) there was no real surprise th ..read more

I’ve decided that I’ll forget the rest of the squad review for this season as it’s so long ago now I can’t really say I’m that bothered. Arsenal were poor for most of the season and that’s pretty much the story for almost every player. A few youngsters got their chance and Maitland-Niles took his, now rewarded with a new contract and a squad number of 15 from Unai Emery. Let’s move on. I wrote the first piece on this blog on the eve of the World Cup in South Africa back in 2010. It was the day Philippe Senderos left Arsenal and I was lamenting a woeful England squad but looking forward to the ..read more

Already looking Arsenal classy It's been a momentous few days for Arsenal Football Club. For the first time in 22 years we have a new leader of the team. It's been quite surreal and almost disturbing, a genuine step in to the unknown for the newest generation of Arsenal supporters. For those of us who are old enough to remember what it was like before Wenger it has still been very odd indeed. One of the absolute highlights of the week has been the skewering of every slimy journalist and all the "in the knows" on the internet by Ivan Gazidis using his man Ornstein on the BBC the other night ..read more

Arsene with his most won silverware I've been one of many people labelled as a bit of a hypocrite in recent weeks for choosing to remember fondly the good times under Arsene Wenger after years of calling for him to leave as it had all gone wrong. Personally I don't feel there's anything wrong with being able to appreciate what he did for Arsenal, and for the English game as a whole, even though you realised long ago he just couldn't get us there anymore. I've had a while to think about this piece and unexpected circumstances have given me the time today to sit down and write about Wenger's r ..read more

I had really hoped to be writing this morning that we were looking forward to a trip to Lyon in a fortnight. Instead I’m writing about the way Arsene Wenger’s final Arsenal dream died. He can only have himself to blame. The game in Madrid last night was a 90 minute microcosm of the last 7 or 8 years for Arsene’s Arsenal teams. It is a sad truth that since the sales of Fabregas and Van Persie for peanuts the football Arsenal have played has been woeful. It’s been not so much tiki-taka as catenaccio without the defending, so uninspiring it has become to watch. The slow, sideways build-up was in ..read more

When he was King This post has been a few days in the making as I was away on holiday when Arsene Wenger announced he would be leaving Arsenal last Friday. I suppose you could say it's been a number of years in the making really. I wrote my first "Wenger Out" piece on the Online Gooner website long before I'd even considered having my own blog. For me the worm turned when he made William Gallas the Arsenal Captain ahead of Gilberto Silva or Kolo Toure. It's been a long 11 years since that. If you will forgive I will save a proper "tribute" piece to Arsene until the end of the season. I have ..read more

Today is 31st March and, as ever on this date, this blog takes the time to remember David Rocastle. This time 17 years ago Arsenal were in the process of beating Tottenham. It was the day when Robert Pires’ Arsenal career began to take off with a sublime solo effort to put us ahead in front of the North Bank. However the day is more remembered for the fact that David Rocastle had died earlier that morning. The Arsenal XI contained a number of Rocky’s ex-teammates. The Tottenham fans had helped to observe a perfect minutes silence before the game in memory of a true Arsenal great. I wasn’t ..read more

The Brighton game saw me reach my lowest point as an Arsenal supporter in my nearly 39 years - I’m not quite old enough to genuinely remember what it was like at the end of the Terry Neill era - and I really couldn’t see how we’d get out of the rut. The performance in the first-half at the San Siro, therefore, was as welcome as it was unexpected. The players came out with a different mentality and actually played to score goals. Mkhitaryan, Ozil, Ramsey, Welbeck and co were superb on the night - special mention to Granit Xhaka - and a 2-0 away win against a traditional European giant, in very ..read more

There used to be a football club over there... Let me start by confessing I didn't see the Brighton game. I was working and had to make do with the commentary on Radio 5. What I was hearing gave me no cause for surprise as we've seen it all before, time and time again. Arsenal seemed to have made a promising start in the first few minutes, dominating the ball, but I didn't hear commentary on a single shot at goal. I heard a lot of Kolasinac, Mustafi, Koscielny, Xhaka, and a lot of Ozil "lays the ball off short" type stuff. I didn't hear Aubameyang's name even once in that period. Within sec ..read more