I almost threw my computer out the window after the second Chelsea goal. I don't believe that either team deserved to win that match. It was Arsenal's worst performance this year, and Chelsea caught a massive break when Cech forced Giroud wide enough to somehow miss his shot at the end. The first Chelsea goal I think shouldn't have counted, namely cause I saw Torres yanking on Koscielny's shirt keeping him from fully turning around, Kos should have defended that better though. The second goal came off a free kick after a foul that seemed a bit soft.

Giroud's already getting unfairly criticized for his one legitimate chance. Gervinho looked much better this week and has already equaled his goal tally from last season. Podolski looked a bit exhausted just before he was brought off. I really don't know if Mertesacker would have made a real significant difference if he had played. And now it looks as if Wilshere's return to EPL action is gonna be sooner than later after Diaby's injury.

I think Giroud's criticism needs to lay less at what he did with his one chance and more at why it was only one chance? Terry looked lost all afternoon, and yet Giroud rarely made him turn his head.

Still, as a non part watching the game, I saw Arsenal play quite well. I disagree on Torres goal, both parties were guilty of grabbing and clutching, as is everyone in those scrums. Noone gained an advantage over it. Torres was quite tricky with his feet there, all credit to him.

Gervinho really just slows Arsenal down. He stands over the ball too much, rarely moves off of it once he finally does decide to pass, and asaide from a finish here and there slows his Arsenal down. Gunners should also feel let down by Podolski, who rarely found the match. But still, with all that, they deserved a point. The second Chelsea goaal was class Gate, thats a solid hit by Hazard right through the attacking channel. Have seen alot of those slide in, nic a post or slide just wide this season.

Like I said Podolski looked gassed on Saturday, that may have played a part in his lack of involvment.

I wouldn't say Chelsea's second goal was class, but I will say it found the perfect spot to sneak past Koscielny's sliding challenge and Mannone's somewhat poor save attempt. I hope the Gunners don't let this loss get to them too much, because this was a bit of a buzzkill loss.

I'm not too down about the loss as I said at the beginning of September, Arsenal needed to get at least 7 or 8 points to make it a successful month (since the only simple game was Southampton) and they managed to get 7, though I expected the loss to be against City. It would have been nice to get the win and I'm frustrated that Arsenal could not get a point against Chelsea, I have to say it's mostly to do with a good performance by Cech.

An okay 1st half by Arsenal, if not for some good positioning by the Hammers, Arsenal could have scored at least 3 times before they finally broke through. And as luck would have it, Giroud is the one who scores off of a great low cross by Podolski. Diamme has the goal for West Ham, which came off a completely unexpected shot and massively against the run of play.

3-1 Arsenal picking up the win. Great performance off the defeat to Chelsea, West Ham's strategy backfired as they constantly kept trying to get the ball to Carroll. Walcott and Cazorla(with an epic strike) finished off the scoring. Actually before Walcott's goal, West Ham looked like the more likely to score and it was the first time West Ham left any space for Arsenal to really attack the goal. After that West Ham's defense just didn't look as good as before and Cazorla finished them off with a wicked curving strike that Jaaskelainen had no chance to stop it.

Elsewhere, City finally got a clean sheet but everyone will be talking about Balotelli and Mancini... again, Chelsea bullied Norwich, Mark Hughes tenure at QPR is on life support, and Swansea and Everton managed 2-2 draws each.

One more loss and 'Arry will be licking his chops at the prospect of being able to rekindle his favourite motto: "When I came 'ere they 'ad 2 points from 8 games."

Hughes has to be one of the most uninspiring, uncharasmatic managers in the business. I like QPR as a club though. Good ground in an interesting location. I've only been to see rugby league there but I'd imagine it'd be a good place to watch football. Pretty good fans too. I hope they stay up.

Arsenal's board has apparently revealed that Wenger will have 35 million pounds to spend in the January Transfer window to "reinforce" the squad. I highly doubt if anything, that they'll spend all 35 million, and moreso all of it for one player as that article has caused some rumors of Arsenal going for Falcao.

Is it weird that at this point last year a lot of us were thinking it was the end of Wenger? Hell there were calls for him to be sacked actually. Last year at this point Arsenal had 7 points and 4 losses and were 15th, this year Arsenal has 12 points, 1 loss, and is 7th in the league, add to that they've given up more than 5 goals(they had five conceeded by the 30th minue of the Nightmare at Old Trafford). What a difference a year makes huh?

I'm pretty sure that Wenger would need significantly more than £35 million for Falcao. Atletico paid almost exactly that for him only about a season ago. I don't even know if they'd need to sell him.
Llorente or Villa would seem more likely options to me.

And as you've alluded to, Wenger has never felt the need to pay superstar prices before, it's not the way he tends to work.

I found an interesting "What If" question on Facebook. The question went:

If your club shut down tomorrow/didn't exist anymore, which club would you support?

Now I assume the question was referring to teams in the same league as it went on to mention that if anyone said their direct rivals then for that person to fuck off.

For me I'd probably have to say Newcastle cause they're really the only other EPL team I'm ever compelled into watching besides Arsenal.

Probably QPR, as far as the premier league goes. Good ground, location and fans. They hate Chelsea with a passion so I wouldn't have much to learn to fit in.

I also have a soft spot for Brentford as one of my best mates goes there quite often. I've been a couple of times and it's been fun. If I didn't have Spurs to spend my money on I'd go to a lot more games here in Bristol, although I'm not sure if that'd be City or Rovers.

Most likely Spurs.

Borini now out 3 months after foot surgery. Either the youngsters step up, or Stewart Downing has to become a goal factory. One of these is likely.

Arsenal appear set to get a massive boost as it's reported that Jack Wilshere has been named to the squad that will travel to Carrow Road tomorrow. If anything Wilshere will definitely be back to the starting 11 for the October 30th Capital One Cup match between The Gunners and Reading.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... rwich.html

Honestly, I highly doubt Borini will be back in 3 months. I just can't see a broken foot healing that fast. I'd say he'll be back in 4 months at the earliest.

Hard luck, Gatehawk.

Impressed by City today. Must be nice to have a striker of Dzeko's quality to bring on late in a game and nick two goals.

Glad Liverpool got the win. Loving the youth movement going on at Liverpool right now. Sterling is an absolute gem.

SAF is a hypocritial old git and I hate him. Ferdinand has every right to not wear that t-shirt after the farsical nature of how the FA 'dealt with' Terry. Load of old shite. No t-shirt will ever stop racism, and the FA isn't likely to stamp it out either.

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Dzeko is really good. I wonder how much playing time Balotelli will get this season if the other strikers stay healthy. Liverpool are looking good. As well as Sterling, Suso looks the goods too.

I agree about Ferguson and the t-shirt nonsense. It seems that practically the only people not overly concerned about eliminating racism from football are the (Sweet) FA, UEFA and FIFA. And a whole bunch of numbnuts in Eastern Europe.

I've just got back from the Lane today, and am absolutely gutted that we missed out on Moutinho, not to mention Oscar. We really, really missed Dembele today. It was kind of hard to tell if Oscar, Hazard and Mata are the 2nd best midfield in football or if they exploited a poor showing from their Spurs counterparts. I suspect it was a little of both. I was absolutely gutted to find out that Bale and Dembele weren't playing. We really missed them. Huddlestone had a piss poor game. Sigurdsson looked out of his league in the first half but decent in the second. Gallas, despite his goal, had a tough game, and Friedel didn't have a great game by any means. Vertonghen is class, but should move back to the centre of defence as his lack of pace means he gets caught out in counter attacks. I think Nuaghton needs a game or two at right back to give Walker both a kick up the backside and a chance to get his head straight.

Defoe and Lennon are both playing their best football in years. I've never seen either of them put in half as much effort around the park as they have so far this season.

Despite the disappointment today I'm still pretty confident that this squad will be at least as good as last year's before the season is out.

It was an inexcusable performance by Arsenal on Saturday, I won't deny that. However I did see some reasons that may have played into the result. Chief among them is that Arsenal's players, at least to me, looked as if they were running through 6 feet of mud while wearing a lead vest, it didn't help that Arsenal had a substitution wasted when Oxlade left with an injury after coming on. Norwich looked more prepared and more energetic than Arsenal and they played better for the majority of the match. I can't really say Arsenal deserved to lose, but that's only because they did so little, they had the ball for around I think 3/4's of the game but had only 2 moments where they were remotely close to a clear chance to draw level because of the suffocating defense that the Canaries played with. What they did do certainly didn't warrant 3 points if they were going to get any points at all. They can not do this again if they want to challenge for the title. I will refuse to say it's over for them in that EPL title challenge, namely cause they were in a similar position last year, replace 1st place and Chelsea with 3rd place and Spurs, before the North London Derby, the main difference is more time to overcome the deficit and they've looked better this year than last, barring Saturday's facepalm performance.

Chelsea just look unbeatable this season. Arsenal's squad is decent, but can be exposed as we saw on Saturday afternoon. Arsenal will finish 3rd/4th, same as always.

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In the EPL at the very least, cause in Ukraine right now, they're looking like they're running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Yeah, their European from is not so good. Nobody from the premier league seems to be doing much threatening in the CL this year.

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Good.