Morning all.

So the shirt snipping saga rolls on after Mathieu Flamini decided he wouldn’t follow the ‘dress of the day’ on Tuesday night. Captain Mertesacker chose to wear long sleeved shirts on the night and I’m not surprised, it’s winter, it’s chilly and it’s damp! Regardless, the French midfielder took it upon himself to chop the sleeves off as he prefers short sleeves when he’s playing.

Arsene Wenger wasn’t happy:

I do not like that and he will not do it again. I was surprised, and we don’t want that.

Why the heck he couldn’t just roll his sleeves up or push them up like most do I don’t know and it’s not the first time he’s had his wrists slapped for behaving in such a way.

Remembrance Sunday was another time – hacking away at a club shirt is bad enough but to do that to a shirt which is specially made to mark such a moment in time is a disgrace.

However, something good appears to coming out of all of this.

No doubt everyone knows that the Remembrance Day shirts are auctioned Β off in order to raise money for the Royal British Legion and bids for Flamini’s shirt are soaring. To date, the bidding on his shirt stands at Β£2,000,Β which is more than Wilshere, Giroud and Cazorla’s shirts, but not high enough to eclipse the value of Ramseys shirt which is currently at a price of Β£10,100.

Some people probably believe that wanting to wear different shirts it’s no big deal but we are Arsenal, a club steeped in tradition and this is one of them. Flamini needs to get a grip and conform….

Two-goal hero from Tuesday has been talking about why he believes he’s finding form in front of goal:

You grow up a little bit and you relax in front of goal. There’s something that clicks when you grow and learn.

As you’ve seen with Aaron this year, you grow up a little bit and you relax in front of goal. There’s something that clicks when you grow and learn.

When you’re 19 and you’re just getting into the team you want to do well and you’re too busy trying to impress, to keep the ball, [to make sure you] don’t lose the ball and trying to fit in the team.

Once you get older and [more] comfortable, players around you trust you. You get a little bit fitter as well, you can get forward a bit more and when you’re in front of goal you’ve watched players in the past and you’ve learnt from your past mistakes. You relax and that’s the only way you’re going to do well.

It’s hard to believe having watched the way Jack despatched both goals against Marseille with such confidence, that he’d only scored six goals prior to the start of this current campaign. Hopefully, this is the start of many goals from our number 10.

He also had a word to say about those who supplied the assists for his goals:

Bac’s been doing it all season. He had another one with Theo at the end when he put him in as well. We could have scored a few goals from his crosses in Manchester, so hopefully he can keep that going for the rest of the season.

For the second goal it was really unselfish from Mesut. Sometimes after a [missed] penalty you feel like you have to score. But the player he is, he’s been in that situation before and he’s unselfishly passed it across the goal and it was an easy tap-in for me.

How true is that eh. Many times we see footballers miss a penalty or another sitter in front of goal and they are so desperate to make up for an error that they become blind to those around them in a better position when the next chance to score comes along. Sometimes they take their chance, sometimes that chance goes begging as they are still filled with fury after missing the previous opportunity so credit to Mesut Ozil.

And of course to Bacary Sagna who does keep supplying the crosses week in week out, all we need to do is start putting a few more into the back of the net….

Finally, reports have come out overnight stating that Pat Rice has been admitted to hospital with Cancer.

Be strong big man, be strong.....

Be strong big man, be strong…..

This evil b*****d disease spares no thought to who it attacks, otherwise why would it pick on such a good guy and have already taken the lives of so so many good, honest and wonderful people.

On behalf of Highbury House, I want want to pass on my very best wishes to Pat Rice and pray he has the fight and strength in him to beat this evil disease.

Be strong big man, be strong, you may have a fight ahead of you, but it’s one you can win…..

My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family…..

That’s it from me for another day….