I’M STILL abroad and with TV unable to do the trick, I hoped the internet might come up trumps with watching last night’s game.

Alas, but for ten seconds of first half action, the minutes 49-55 and 79 til 90, I did not see anything.

I couldn’t help thinking that whoever was going to so much effort to stop me from seeing the match might be better employed developing a fairly priced, entirely legitimate, high quality and reliable official stream of the game. For a modest sum (which in my mind is the equivalent of what it would cost for a drink in either half if I’d watched it in a pub), I’d have gladly forked out.

But it wasn’t to be.

So what did I think? Ignore what some match reports said: there was nothing lucky whatsoever about the opener. A decent corner and a poacher supreme pressuring the defender a yard out. What did they expect to happen?

The second DID look lucky. It’s hard to know where Eduardo’s chip was going but it certainly seemed to only help us. I loved Ramsey bawling out his more senior colleague after he failed to deliver the one-two. Good to see really.

The third was lovely, the fourth Arshavinesque, which was apt given the scorer.

I did see their goal live and called it correctly as the corner came in. Mildly irritating.

So, our phenomenal goalscoring run continues. Also bizarrely it is also apparently the case that we are yet to score in the first 15 minutes all season.

How odd.

So what did you make of the game I missed?

Leave it out

Who do you trust?

But I did catch all of it, save for a couple of minutes when screaming erupted upstairs meant I was called upon.

The long and short of it is that we were as you were. We’re a joy to watch going forward. Seventeen years ago the fact we managed 92 goals in a season (with four more league games) prompted the end of season video to be titled in honour of that feat (92 for 92 it was called.

At the current rate (51 in 18) we’ll shatter that record sometime around the new year. At home it’s played ten, won 10, scored 33, conceded 7.

Last night the attacking carousel was in full swing again. Off stepped Bendtner, on stepped Samir Nasri. He added a beautiful second before the break. But before that Cesc had broken the deadlock with a shot that made up for what it lacked in power with accuracy. Still the keeper might have done better.

That Nasri goal followed a wonderfully precise slide rule pass from Arshavin, a quick footed turn from the Frenchman and a very decent low finish.

The third after the break came from another Arshavin pass and Cesc went as if he was going to sweep the ball across the keeper, before sending it high into the near post. Lovely.

The carousel did it’s thing again. Eduardo and Tomas Rosicky both climbed aboard. I’m not going to lie, the return of Rosicky, who I think has been moonlighting in a Beatles tribute band, was something of a relief. I hadn’t wanted to say anything but the vagueness of his injury situation had left me fearing the worst. I don’t think I was the only one.

But it was Eduardo whose brilliance set up the fourth with a backheel that travelled straighter and more accurately into the path of Arshavin than many a player’s pass would have done. He set up Diaby who converted.

A word on the tiny Russian: give him a break. Yes, in an excellent team performance against Spurs, his player rating was at the lower rather than higher end. But can we stop over analysing everything? The guy’s a genius and when he needs to step up, he does.

As if to offer a truly accurate picture of where we are at the moment, there was the obligatory goal conceded too. And in keeping with recent trends it wasn’t particularly the fault of the back four – can you see where I’m going here.

In fairness to Manuel Almunia the toe-poked finish from 18 yards that beat him was unorthodox and unexpected, but nonetheless he’d left an absolute chasm at his near post.

All in all mind, it’s looking decent right now and I just love watching us attack.

GREETINGS from North London.

It’s pouring down outside, my head is hurting, but nonetheless, what a beautiful day it is.

Just when you thought we had squeezed every last little bit of joy from the north London derby fixture, along came yesterday.

This was magnificent to behold: Spurs (from whom there had been a bit too much chat in the week) humbled as Arsene notched up an incredible perfect decade without defeat to our nearest rivals.

On the premise that losing these games is a painful experience (which trust me it is) then I think everyone should raise a glass to Arsene for sparing us such pain for so long. To put it into some context, United have lost five times in the league to City in that same period.

Last night on Twitter I called for a statue in recognition of Arsene’s achievement half way between our ground and theirs. According to Google Maps, the turning into Berkeley Road on the Seven Sisters Road is exactly the half way point and so there I propose it should go.

So, yesterday. Arsene plumped for Bendtner on the right wing. I thought it the wrong call at the time but actually until he went off he was our best player.

The atmosphere, I should say, was very decent indeed, despite the 12.45 kick-off.

I’ll make no bones about it: with Spurs swamping the midfield, we were somewhat turgid for 42 minutes. Indeed, I’d even go so far as to say Tottenham looked in some senses, the better side.

For our part Diaby was having one of those days. The fans who got on his back were hardly helping matters. Equally, he was very frustrating: not for me so much when he lost the ball, but more the way he seemed to spend most of the first half ambling passively while Spurs passed around us.

This is what Harry Redknapp thought of that first half:

“On 42 minutes I felt the crowd were getting onto them, they weren’t creating anything worth talking about, and I felt very comfortable. I’m looking up at the clock with three minutes to half time and thinking we’ve done our job. I could see us certainly getting a big result.”

The half way spot where the statue should go

Spurs had put together a few decent passes but by and large their only tactic seemed to be to hoof it in Crouch’s direction and play off his knock-downs. Yes, they were missing their pace in Lennon and Defoe, but we were missing Walcott and really I thought they’d have a bit more ambition.

They did have one 40 yard Bentley volley. Sitting at the side of the pitch, I can’t tell you the sense of relief I felt when the first fans behind the goal cheered because they realised it was drifting harmlessly wide.

And then Harry’s fatal mistake was exposed: sitting at the Emirates feeling very comfortable. How can you sit there feeling comfortable playing a side who have knocked an average of four goals a game at home this season?

We’re chock full of players who can score from nothing and sure enough, we did.

Harry can bemoan slack marking at the throw in that allowed the excellent Sagna to swing in a cross and he can ask whether Gomes might have saved it, but there can be no doubting the way RVP got ahead of the deified Ledley King to turn it viciously towards goal with his right chocolate leg.

Great stuff and seconds later the Emirates was going absolutely crazy as Cesc exploited a sloppy ball from kick-off, slalomed his way through and finished magnificently for one of the great derby day goals.

Classic Arsenal.

After the break, I really thought we were excellent. Not least because at 2-0 you actually looked at it and thought in one sense for the next 25 minutes or so we needed a goal more than they did because come the 70 mark they’d probably settle for 2-0 and we’d feel a tad twitchy given recent events and last year’s game.

But we played it perfectly: rock solid in defence and midfield but still creating chances for Diaby and Eduardo. Almunia saved from a Bentley free-kick and then it was three. It was great refereeing from Clattenburg to allow play to carry on and when Sagna crossed, they screwed it up and RVP tapped home.

Clattenburg really was very good I thought. Yes, Bentley was lucky early on, but by and large the ref read the game perfectly and realised that getting card happy would probably only make a clean game dirtier.

It’s funny because even after 88 minutes of last year’s game I said to the people I was with that I wasn’t at all comfortable. Yesterday, was a completely different story. The back four were rock, rock solid. Sure, Crouch was winning headers, but our positioning was excellent and helped by the excellent Song and Cesc and even Diaby, Spurs really didn’t get a sniff.

With a birthday to mark too, the celebrations went on long and late and got to the stage of drunkenly trying to recall every Spurs v Arsenal result since 1988. By and large we did.

Arsene Wenger, I thank you. My head is hurting less now.

Like most dreams it was quite surreal and none of it actually took place today. Instead, it started on next Monday and consisted of a front page Daily Mail article that screamed “Pressure builds on Wenger”, written jointly by Lee Dixon and Martin Keown, obviously.

At the same time a small highlights package on the TV showed the second and third Spurs goals, scored up the Clock End at Highbury, obviously. Kolo was playing, Cesc was there but looked about 17 and the guy doing the voiceover said something about Freddie Ljungberg runs coming to nothing.

Why have I told you that? Well I think it neatly sums up the kind of nervousness you get ahead of one of these derbies. Particularly when you’ve dominated the fixture for so long, fear of losing becomes that much bigger and without trying to be petty, I imagine few Spurs fans enduring the kind of nightmare I’ve just had because frankly, over the years, it’s become a fact of life for them.

I should tell you the weather has turned somewhat in north London overnight. Last night it was warm and enough and dry enough to spend hours standing very comfortably outside enjoying a Halloween barbecue (and no, alcohol was not numbing the cold). This morning it’s grey and damp outside.

So what of the game itself? Well I think our situation at goalkeeper is a worry because neither Almunia nor Mannone appear fully trusted by their manager right now. Elsewhere, I imagine Spurs will try and exploit the lack of protection our full-backs sometimes get in this new system because the men directly ahead of them play so far forward.

For that reason I’d pick Nasri in the position Rosicky had been playing to at least offer us some more defensive nouse. Diaby looks a lot happier centrally so I wouldn’t move him wide, while Eboue going right wing is quite feasible. Playing one of Eduardo or Bendtner with Arshavin on the other wing seems too attacking to me.

Anyway, on we go. Three and a half hours to kick-off at the time of writing.

Carling crowd

Sort it FIFA

IN A nutshell, this was great fun for a tenner.

It could have gone either way, but we got the second goal and despite a few Liverpool chances I never really feared they would equalise (and believe me, I’m a pessimist on these things) and we got a well fought for win.

The team was not too disimilar from the one I predicted on Twitter a few days ago, with Arsene allowing Nasri, Eduardo and Bendtner’s returns to proper first team football to coincide with a Carling Cup tie where in his heart he would have been wary of sending out just kids. The memory of 0-5 to Chelsea a few years ago comes to mind.

Equally, he could still claim to have stuck true to his principles of using youths, reserves and those in need of a game. Unlike Benitez, who cheatde when he brought on proper players as late subs.

The first chance went their way but was dragged wide after a neat backheel. Senderos, who can’t be too heartened to be behind Silvestre right now, had followed the ball rather than his man.

Bendtner had a bit of a Bendtner moment just in front of goal but in fairness the build up play with Eduardo had been excellent.

And then two minutes later Fran Merida hit a debut goal that I’d liken to a cross between Dennis Bergkamp’s second goal for the club against Southampton and Jose Reyes’ first. Talking of that Reyes goal against Chelsea in January 2004, someone who spent years living on Highbury Hill told me the other day the loudest noise she ever heard come from the ground was for that goal. So there you have it.

But back to the Merida one. Either Eastmond or Gilbert tackled well, found the Spaniard and in one motion he turned and smacked a first time left footed shot that flew like a rocket that flew like Reyes and smacked off the near post before flying in a la Bergkamp’s.

The poor fella was put onto a pedestal by a) having someone compila a YouTube video of him aged seven or something, b) being Spanish, like Fabregas and therefore expected to defeat the world age 17 and c) even sharing the same first name as said Fabregas.

They were soon level and though there was probably nothing Bendtner could do to stop Insua getting there, he could perhaps have looked a little more bothered. As it was, the left-back strode on and hit a corker that Fabianski had no chance with.

Ramsey, who had some very good moments and some where he dwelled on it for too long, hit a beautiful ball for Merida whose clipped shot over the keeper was cleared. A lovely move, even if Liverpool had looked the stronger side going into the break.

And so at half time we agreed that Bendtner had been so bad that he was bound to score. He hadn’t actually been that bad. It was just that he’d had a Bendtner of a first half. You know what I mean.

I should probably tell you about the midfield. Nasri was playing the Diaby role and was quietly effective if definitely unspectacular. Ramsey was in the middle of it all and Eastmond doing the Song thing and doing it very well in fairness.

I’m always intruiged to see how a young player deals with the ball when he is under pressure as I suspect Arsene holds a fair bit of store by that himself. And Eastmond was coolness personified. He also tackled well and used it impressively too. Admittedly things passed him by for a few minutes on occasion but that’s only to be expected.

Our second arrived from such ball from Eastmond to Merida whose slid it across the edge of the box, inviting attacker and defender alike to go for it. Around two of each did before Bendtner held off his man and slammed into the roof of the net. Nicely done.

At that stage I thought there no chance in hell of us holding on to 2-1 and was happy to see us commit forward.

We had chances and so, if we’re honest did Liverpool. There was a handball shout up the other end against Senderos and it was one of those where so many of their lot appealed, you suspected there was something in it.

There was another chance missed and a terrible Ramsey ball that basically put them in on goal.

But equally there were long periods in the last 10 minutes where they were struggling to do anything at all. Nasri’s ability to retain the ball at all costs came in handy in injury time.

It really was great entertainment. End to end stuff at times, some delightful football from us and even some nice football from them and a bit of a backs against the wall effort to get the win.

A techinical hitch caused by my laptop being in hospital means I can’t put Eastmond in the player ratings section, but he gets an 8 after the very impressive performance described above

LESSON very clearly not learnt.

A goal up and cruising in Holland in midweek, we failed to make the game safe and drew.

Two up for equally long periods at Upton Park yesterday and the players seemed to think they had avoided falling into the same trap.

They hadn’t, because as we all know, once West Ham get one back under the Boleyn lights in front of the Bobby Moore stand, they will probably get another.

The warning signs were there. Carlton Cole led the charge and along with their two subs our back four was given a real workout.

It’s not so much that defensively we were poor as a unit, more that the attack seemed to think their work done.

We were two up in quite unlike us fashion. Two good crosses (one from Sagna!) and two slightly scrappy goals for RVP and Gallas. At that stage none of us cared.

But we started to do that thing where we look for the perfect goal. Opportunities to put teammates in were wasted but nobody seemed too bothered. It was more a collective lethargy than anything awful from any one individual.

And then a bizarre piece of Mannone goalkeeping saw him turn a free-kick that natural momentum should have seen him parry away from goal straight back to the lurking Carlton Cole who nodded in.

I’ve nothing personally against Mannone but I’ve been astonished by how many readers have actually thought him ready for top flight football. Put it this way: there is a reason why he was third choice three months ago.

Some people will say it shouldn’t have been a free-kick, but whatever frankly because you have to deal with dozens of those situations over a season and some you get and some you don’t.

Equally, Carlton Cole made the most of Alex Song’s very gentle ankle tap, but contact there was and you could have seen us getting that kind of decision at the Emirates.

Maybe Scott Parker had to go but it did seem a little odd to see a referee who hadn’t shown a single yellow for 70 minutes show five in the following 15.

We threw on the subs and had our chance when Robert Green saved RVP’s downwards header. We apaprently went for Green on deadline day. The irony won’t be lost on Arsene.

But equally to think these were two points dropped because of goalkeeping error would be to ignore our failure to finish West Ham off.

The manager too may wish to consider whether he was reactive rather than proactive in his substitutions. While West Ham went for broke, we kept the status quo going even when we were clearly fading.

Eduardo and or Bendtner earlier might have freshened us up. So too Ramsey.

Ps. If this appears unduly negative it’s a reflection of my disapointment given how well things have been going. All in all it’s been a good start to the season and the players and manager deserve credit for that.

Not so sick…

Non iphone people look away now

LET us hope we look back on last night as a blip rather than the moment things started to slip.

All in all it was a frustrating night – from the minute their lot turned up in what looked like Arsenal Subutteo kits. For ten minutes my girlfriend thought I’d gone mad.

It was frustrating too to see Arsenal concede so much possession. Not that it wasn’t understandable. For long, long periods AZ looked blunt and had that late, late equaliser not come I’d probably be telling you how other than a two or three minute spell around 75 minutes, we’d always looked in control.

Team wise I think we missed Rosicky. That’s no criticism of Eboue (who notionally replaced him) and had a very decent game. I just don’t think we hold the ball as well without Rosicky. Nasri, who returned for the reserves last night, can hopefully do a similar job.

Our goal was very nicely worked. Arshavin, who twinkled and frustrated in equal measure last night, picked up a loose ball, bamboozled the home defence, gave it to RVP and just as he went to pull the trigger, across he rolled it to Cesc, who promptly joined the players who had set him up on five goals for the season.

I thought in possession we were sloppy at times. I’ve already made reference to the absence of Rosicky and more generally we just seemed to give it away too easily. Defensively, we really did most things right and you couldn’t have too many complaints.

Their goal was annoying. Diaby’s attempt at an aerial challenge won’t win any gongs. But as my brother (who defends Diaby and Song like the sons he hasn’t yet had), remarked, you could blame Arshavin for being needlessly offside and conceding the free-kick that was after all, only going to go to one place.

Still, if something like that had to happen. Last night was the night for it.