Two stories to talk about today, the first has to be the biggest load of poppycock I have ever read – and that is Joey ‘Thug’ Barton reckons he was in with a chance of signing for us and he’d been in talks with Arsene Wenger in August. He goes on to suggest that the incident with Gervinho put a halt to any chance of a move to us……

All I will say is that he is not speaking with forked tongue, then big thanks have to go out to Gervinho.. 😉

Onto the second:

Old boy Tony Woodcock has come out of the woodwork and seems to have jumped on the ‘Let’s talk about Arsenal’ bandwagon…

We’ve seen over the years that clubs can go down that are not expected to, It’s early days, only a few games. This togetherness, this determination, if you haven’t got it to pick a trophy up then how’s it going to be to get away from the relegation zone?

I hope I’m not right, but I don’t want to be sitting here in three or four weeks and they’ve let some more goals in and they haven’t picked up any points. We’ve gone six years without winning anything and are now in this tricky situation.

I’m hoping it’s going to be a bit of a kick up the backside for everyone.
But Woodcock was quick to point out there are currently plenty of positives surrounding the North Londoners as well.

The club are very stable, have got a fantastic stadium, have a fantastic training ground, are making a profit. Although we’re not very happy with where Arsenal are at the moment, there are lots of pluses and positives that have been happening at the club.

It’s not all doom and gloom. There’s a bigger picture there as well.

Tony Woodcock was born and bred in Nottingham, so why does he say ‘We’ – he played for us for four seasons between 1982 -1986 so he is hardly Mr Arsenal is he?

Maybe a few things he says hold a little bit of truth but where was he when we were winning under Wenger, did he speak out then?

No, I doubt it, I guess he’s just another in a long list of ex players who need to earn a bob or two…..

Talking about being relegated so early in the season is just daft, relegation form yes but things can change quickly in football. We haven’t become a bad side over night, we are just down on confidence and if Wenger can sort out the defensive problems, we can soon start to build that confidence back up again.

Little bit of bad news, Yossi Benayoun said on Twitter on Wednesday evening that he is: “Very disappointed as I have a strain and will be out for a week or so.”

Hopefully he won’t be out for long, we need every bit of experience we have in this squad right now.

Benik Afobe has also out with a groin strain, he’s likely to miss the next four months according to Young Guns. What is it with injuries to our young players, just as they get their chance for the first team, injury hits…..

That’s about it for today, have a good one all….