After a rather frustrating day of work, I get home, race to the computer, and find out that my damn team fucked up yet again.. This is not our season. For once, I'm going to give in to the urge to rant in public about the state of North London football and play pundit: we should have sold Vieira, who hasn't done anything for us this season, taken all that cash and invested it in some decent defendes who don't get injured every time they have an outing. Why on earth we needed Flamini, I don't know. Arsene's lost his touch. It's insulting to the world-class players we do have, like Henry, to put them in a squad with dunces like Cygan and the goalies. No wonder Reyes wants to leave. We draw or lose to teams we should waltz over.

Our players need a good Fergie-like kicking, not some kind of French philosophizing. I love the elegance of Arsenal playing at their best, but sometimes they just need to get physical, irritate the hell out of the opposition and get the damn job done. Stealing someone's wallet by sleight-of -hand is great when it works, but when it doesn't you shouldn't keep trying until he calls the cops, just knock the guy down, take it, and run. [I am not of course advocating pushing people in the face but simply imposing a bit of what the commentators call 'physical presence'. Just so it's clear.]

Excuse the rant. It's just that no-one in Alabama has the faintest idea what I'm suffering.