supergrass

I've been collecting 7" singles for a couple of years now, the collection is goign quite well - while I know the general gist of what bands I have in it I'd have to consult the records for a full listing. Stuck to singles as generally I like to have my albums available on my mp3 player. Then I have some "family records" - including a whole bunch of T-Rex albums which I like.

Moving on and slightly away from the win against Juventus (somebody was going to have to at some point), it appears our injury list is starting to look a little better. Arsenal.com have reported that Cole and Clichy are now getting closer to full training and a return while Kerrea Gilbert, Sol and Freddie are all going to be back soon too. Something else it made me think about: it looks to me as if Pascal Cygan's Arsenal career might just be over, which is yet another bonus for me. At left back we'll have Cole and Clichy, with Flamini doing a good job there and Lauren capable if we ever needed him to be next season. At centre back I would play Toure, Sol, Senderos and Djourou before Cygan. While at right back (not that Cygan could ever play there) it's healthy with Eboue, Gilbert and Lauren next year. I can't see why or when we'd need him, surely we couldn't come across another bad injury run again? Wenger letting him go now would just solidify his position as a man who doesn't get many things wrong. Overall our squad is looking pretty good for next season. I think we could do with a goalkeeper and a good established player or two to go into midfield - maybe a winger as Pires' future is uncertain and Ljungberg has always been a little injury prone. But all in all things are looking good enough for us now.

I can't see Henry leaving to be honest, never have. It's makes sense for him to keep his options open regarding his career and you can't slight someone for wanting the best for themselves. But Henry clearly does love playing for the club, is captain, and I feel he's one of the players that does look at Wenger and Arsenal and realises that he owes what he is today to a gamble they took on him. Add in the fact his wife and child are here and settled, I don't see him leaving us - not when the kids are starting to show what a good future he could be leading us into. The game was encouraging today. We wasted a lot of good chances which we almost paid for, but when it comes down to it we outplayed Liverpool for the majority of the game and were the better side. Fair enough Liverpool are on a bit of a downer but to better them is a good sign for us. Fabregas and Henry were great, Hleb took another step forward for us and even Pires looked a little more like the player he was last year and kept the ball well. Adebayor is clearly still settling in but he sees openings in the play and knows what he wants to do, even if he can't quite do it yet. Good day overall.

I don't think you can blame Wenger for his foreign policy when you consider the ridiculous prices put on English players. With the money we spent on Walcott, a completely untested 16 year old, Wenger bought Vieira, Petit, Anelka - all of whom would go on to be world class players with change to spare. I think another common myth is that Wenger doesn't give some of the kids a chance, which you'll hear David Bentley and Jermain Pennant cry about at every chance they get. The fact is, they had enough of a run out in the team to know that they weren't going to make it. Are they good players? Yeah, they're decent enough. But are they top European footballers, the kind we want? No, and I don't think they ever will be. If Wenger has found that English players aren't always good enough, and can be very expensive (even Pardew will admit he paid way over the odds for Dean Ashton), why not turn to foreign buys. I've heard rubbish in the papers that without English players you don't have the heart in a team, which isn't true when you had the likes of Vieira, Petit or to a lesser extent Gilberto or Edu driving the midfield on. The club is British and it plays a style that fits and reflects the English Premiership regardless of how many foreigners there are. As for what it's doing to our national team set up I don't truly see the problem there either. We've got the best England squad we've had in a long time in my opinion. If you're English and you're good enough you'll get a chance to play at the top level. If you're not, you don't. Also, to those who champion the argument, where do you draw the line on foreign involvement? Should a foreigner be able to own a club, or to manage one? Should a foreign coach be in charge of England if the foreign influence is so damaging to our cause?

I think we got a pretty decent draw. We're good enough, in Europe at least, to beat Juventus over the two legs and I think we could go on to do the same in the semi final against Inter/Ajax/Villarreal should we progress to that stage. Mudda is right though, if we want to be the champions of Europe we're going to have to beat the big teams at some point. Every game is going to be difficult enough - so it doesn't matter who we play to some extent. I've always been a little skeptical of our chances in Europe since we first entered the Champions League, and still felt the same even after we beat Real. But watching the draw was the first time I've felt what a lot of other people do, in that it does feel like this year something could happen.

I think it's best we just take it a season at a time with Jens, but I wouldn't let age rule him out. He's clearly got another year in him, but at the moment he doesn't physically look like a player who's on his last legs. I know Seaman got a lot of stick for letting a few crosses go when he started to near the 40 mark, but in his prime that was never really his thing (as seen when Nayim...well, we know what happended), I thought he was could've played a season more than he did at a decent enough level. As long as he keeps playing well age won't be a factor, but we should probably start looking for a new keeper soon as when Jens' time is up we won't be given a lot of notice. Given that Wenger likes young players it could work well. If Lehmann lasts another two years we could bring in a younger 'keeper now and have him play the odd game and pick up some tips from Lehmann. And he's got to play for Germany at the World Cup, there's no way anyone can argue against that for me. Knowing how much he hates Kahn should make the deal all the sweeter for him too.

Sunderland had little money to bring in players whist Wigan and Weest Ham did. Seriously, when Sunderland's biggest signing was I think Jon Stead for 1.8m they were always going to struggle but to this degree? I didn't expect this.

I think the feature CM/FM introduced to tell you how long you'd been playing was one of the worst things for me. Doesn't stop me playing it any less, but it does makes me feel more guilty when I see how much time I'm racking up on those games. I probably got hit worse with the 97 CM, I hate to think how much time I spent on that, I'm glad I don't know.

Considering this season is over it would make sense to let the younger or newer players play some games and get experience. Although not much about Arsenal seems to make sense at the moment. Players like Diaby, Hleb, Adebayor, Eboue, Gilbert (when fit) and Flamini (although him to a lesser extent) might as well play the majority of the games left - the established players haven't done much and a few more defeats along the way won't make much of a change if that's what happens. If we turn out another good performance against Real Madrid, and I think we will, then Wenger needs to realise that there's a motivation problem. I for one would have the squad watching the cup final that's on now so that they can see the opportunity they threw away. A good few in our squad have never won anything, even more have only had the FA Cup last year. If they had a bit more fight and will to win it would be different and they might be playing at a big stadium, against Man United, winning medals.

I don't think it's all to do with tactics. The players were clearly far more up for the game with Madrid than they have been for weeks in the Premiership. It's Wenger's job to get the team motivated, there's been times, particularly away from home when some players don't look interested. Adebayor is tall and could maybe play as more of a target man, I still think we could with someone who plays like an Ian Wright or an Alan Shearer. Then while Henry drifts off to the sides you have someone in the box to attack balls. We haven't had anyone like that since Wright and I think we could do with it as an extra option. If we don't win the Champions League, and it's such a long, long shot, we aren't playing Champions League football next season. I think it's become as simple as that.

Until recently that would have meant Casillas would be getting in an argument with a player, physically assaulting them, getting sent off and then making wild accusations about how the FA cheated him. It's good to have Jens back on form...in a football sense.

On top of that I don't personally buy into the whole "it's only half time" way of thinking either, it's really nothing like that at all, these two legs are two very separate games. Yes there are another 90 minutes to play, but they're two games with different venues, perhaps different line-ups and should be viewed as such. To keep attacking in Madrid to any great extent, while holding a goal lead, would have been a bad move for us considering our bad defensive record of late. Something I meant to mention before was that the match was probably the first time we've made that 4-5-1 formation work (we played it, and badly, against Chelsea and some other big teams). I'm not sure whether it's because it was a European game or we finally had the players fit to make it work, but I would consider using the same formation in the next leg at Highbury. Having the midfield packed definitely made it harder for the likes of Zidane to have time on the ball. Plus it lets Gilberto do what he does best and hold in midfield making the odd challenge, on the ball he's not great. If Ljungberg can keep playing like the Ljungberg of a few seasons ago and make those runs along with Reyes and Helb then we've got a decent attack going too.

Their only efforts at wasting time seemed to come during injury time though, Henry took the ball into the corner to run out the last few seconds which is more than understandable. Maybe with 10-15 minutes it's worth pushing on but in the last couple of minutes of injury time it's time to accept that although 90 minutes remain this is a game in itself and 1-0 is still more than anyone thought we could get. I think long balls out of the box at the end were more the team trying to ease the pressure of Real's attack and give tired legs a chance to clear themselves out of the Arsenal box. I was actually pleased that we kept pressing Real to some extent, even at 1-0 decent chances still came to Pires (had he put his foot through the ball) and Diaby. Had we played a totally defensive game from the moment we scored (which I was worried we might), then I think it would've been a wasted opportunity and Real might've equalised.

In an ideal world we would have wanted to have avoid losing, keep a clean sheet and score - to do all of those is a great achievement for us. I think the big difference was that every single player wanted this tonight and they played as though their season was depending it. They have to do the same thing away to Blackburn as well. I'd put it up with Inter Milan in terms of effort, not quite as good a result. Still, the job's only half done. I will say I wasn't impressed with Real at all. Zidane looks like he's lost his spark, Ronaldo is clearly disillusioned and the defence may be the only one in Europe worse than ours without Woodgate (shame he didn't get to feature tonight). Everyone played their part tonight, perfect first leg.

If he was ever going to step out on his own, rather than be "the other midfielder" alongside Vieira or somebody else this was the year and he hasn't. I'd say his worst apprearances actually came when he captained the side in the cup. I know we're still clinging to the hope of nicking 4th from Spurs but I'd rather see Diaby get some experience in the league than see Gilberto keep turning in below average performances, at least we'd be getting something out of this miserable year. The big game is tonight, a draw would be a good result for us, even a defeat wouldn't be the end of the world if we can get a goal to take back to Highbury. Glad to see Reyes is back, I've appreciated his contribution a lot more since he got injured, our midfield's been lifeless without him in it.

I was surprised Toure is nearly 25, I thought he was younger than that by a couple of years. There was a talk on Soccer Saturday prior to the games today and I think they hit the nail on the head. We've all grown to love the likes of Pires, Gilberto and Ljungberg, but the fact is a lot of them don't perform like they used to. Because they were big stars (and can be now and again now) I'm like most people and reluctant to see them go. But I think we should just face it that these players aren't good enough any more and buy newer, younger (ideally still established players) and better players. If we could get a decent fee for any of those kinds of players I think we should let them go. We need a balance between young and old but a few of the senior members of the squad aren't the players they used to be and don't influence others or set that good an example.

Toure is 25 next month. Tony Adams was a couple of months short of 22 when he took over the captaincy full time.

There's a reason not to give it to everybody in the squad, Lehmann can't be trusted to keep his cool, Sol has been wandering recently, Gilberto doesn't always deliver, Toure's too young. I think Wenger should've just given somebody with proper leadership qualities a chance. Vieira had a discipline problem, Tony Adams had a drink problem but you give them a chance and they come through. Playing it safe with Henry doesn't work for us, as I've said he's not a leader in the same way Vieira and Adams were. As long as Henry stays with us he'll be captain, I think it could be undermining to demote him and Wenger won't want to risk upsetting him. If it was my choice I'd consider Ashley Cole if he stays, he's probably the one person who could take it from Henry without Henry getting annoyed, being that Cole's come through the youth system and all. I would give Kolo Toure the nod in the future though, he's already a good defender and leads the back (or at least the current young back four).

I would agree with that, he's not a leader on the pitch and despite his arguments against he does have a tendency to go missing in big games, especially away from home. It's maybe not our main problem but I think it was more a way of Arsene sweatening the deal for Thierry and make him want to stay. I really don't know why Sol Campbell wasn't named captain. At that point he was a bit rocked from the FA Cup final dropping but I still think he had the characteristics for the job. Just to add, I think our problem was not replacing Vieira. It became clear he didn't have the heart for it like he used to and I think he did regret turning Real down. Regardless of that we needed a proven central midfielder to come in.

I like Pires and still think he has a place, but putting him up against Gerrard on the wing doesn't make sense. With the likes on Gerrard, Alonso and Sissoko on the pitch we're already at a physcial disadvantage. As much as I like Fabregas I think the pairing of Diaby and Gilberto gives us a bit more security, particularly at Anfield. Hleb or Fabregas need to go out to the wing and let Pires have a break. I would also stop pretending with Senderos, he's not making progress and is a liability right now. Give Djourou a chance to play some games instead. I would agree with something Andy Gray said, that team out there last night didn't look like they believed they could go to Anfield and win. That starting XI were good enough to get something, even if only a draw, but they didn't want it enough. Just to bring up Jens again (I can't help but do that considering he's the only one who put in some effort), I think he's done enough to ensure he's going to be our number 1 again next year. I wouldn't rank him up there with Seaman as one of our best goalkeepers, but he'll certainly be one of the most memorable in his relatively short time with us.

He didn't have a particularly great game tonight, although I wouldn't say any outfield player did. Adebayor was unlucky to be called offside in the first half, but in the end a draw would have been more than we deserved. No real complaints about our approach to the game, with our poor confidence, injury list and playing away from home I expected us to sit back more rather than take the game to Liverpool. When our chances (or more half-chances) broke nobody could do anything. Jens had a great game in goal, if everybody had played like him I think we might've won. When the goal went in at the end it was him I really felt for, nobody else. Ah well, at least we've got Toure back, and Eboue looks a little better for the international experience. Drop Pires for either Reyes or Hleb and get a left back ready in time and we might avoid losing at Real Madrid, which would be a good result.

Again, with all the injuries you can only try and look on the bright side. We've had a shit year and missed a lot of players. But at the same time those absences have seen Eboue and Gilbert both step forward as possible replacements for Lauren whenever he moves on. Djourou has also been quite impressive at the back and at the moment I would pick him ahead of Senderos, the chance to play has done him some good. I think the only way this year won't go down as a complete disaster is if we do look at it as a transitional year and try and take something out of it - like the development of the younger players. And just to add, I hope we don't play Alex Song at the back. I haven't liked the look of him at all yet and he worries me enough playing in midfield let alone at the back.