Aye, not been on myself and you're the only person I saw active somewhat recently. Yeah same here pretty much working and keeping quiet. Fell out of listening to music a lot, gonna try rebuild my collection nd get back into it. Shame this site is pretty dead nowadays.

How's the slums?

Been a miserable few months alright... as exasperated as I am with Arsene, it's saddening to see his name get dragged through the dirt by so many snide journalists and petty/braindead ex-pros...

Have averaged something like 2.5 goals a game I think. Is good but quite a few have come against substandard opposition. Am conscious that we have yet to play Chelsea, City, Liverpool, Spurs and United away.

What's good! Everything's cool my side. Been a weird fucking year though... As far as Arsenal, kind of want to reserve judgement until the United game as I think we've performed adequately so far. That's not to say there isn't room for improvement, of course. If we've already reached peak performance, then we haven't a hope of going the distance. Like our squad but we need more quality up-front. Lots of options but, aside from Alexis, not a lot of quality.

Arsenal is a tragedy at the moment. Even our best performances have been haggard. I was there at the Nou Camp two weeks ago and we actually played quite well; just hadn't a fucking clue what to do once we reached Barca's 18 yard box. That British core of ours has failed miserably. Walcott's a lazy, simpering little prick - Pool can have him this summer.

Not too bad. Doing a thesis at the moment but it's progressing... for whatever reason, my entire last.fm library (minus my very limited scrobbles) got deleted so that was irritating. Not particularly motivated to find new music anymore - just sticking with the staples, y'know?

I'm alive!

Again, I'm inclined to agree. I feel a bit sorry for Ospina though because he hasn't really done anything wrong; he's been solid. Thing is, solid (i.e., doing the basics well) is as good as it gets with him. I think initially, a lot people (including myself) were impressed with him because he had a calm head and no-nonsense approach - a tonic to Szczesny at his worst. However, as we've discovered, he's not the tallest keeper and therefore doesn't have the wingspan that others do. Couple this with some frighteningly slow reactions and you have a GK that's second rate at best. At the highest level, you need a great shot stopper and Ospina isn't that. Can't remember which match it was but remember when Ospina fumbled a fairly basic shot and parried it onto the crossbar? Think that made a lot people start doubting him... so yeah, Cech is a good move - still got a good three or so years left in him I reckon and I think we're all secretly hoping that his experience will rub off on Sir Ches!

Yeah I'd agree with all of that. I'd also add that we still need a CF upgrade - someone with real finesse and a reliable first touch. I feel that even our best front three lacks guile and skill at times. Reus would be perfect - he can perform any forward role to perfection. A pipe dream, I know. Of course, there'd only be space if we disposed of Campbell, Sanogo and Podolski. Very important that we dispose of those three as soon as possible. We'd get roughly £15 million in return if we did.

Worrying that we couldn't dispose of Leicester easily but my concerns will be somewhat allayed if we beat Middlesbrough this Sunday.

I never have a good feeling when we play Spurs away but I feel particularly odd today. We're definitely good enough to win but this game has banana skin written all over it. Would have been considerably more confident with a fit Sánchez. Will be interesting to see how Welbeck does as RW again. I hope the Coq keeps a cool head today. Been great for us so far but I can envisage a mini-melee with him heavily involved for some reason.

Things are looking up a bit now :)>

We're the best team left in the competition. We REALLY ought to win it. Three reasons why: it's our best shot at a trophy this season; it would be nice to retain it AND we will have won it more than any other team if we do! Yesterday was indeed crazy. Bradford against Chelsea was especially bonkers. I was in for a nice surprise when I googled the results!

I used to complain that Cazorla isn't consistent enough but he's really stepped his game up in Ozil's absence. He was our best player on the pitch (Coquelin being a close second) and did pretty much everything you could ask of one human being. We weren't great (or prolific) in the final third but thankfully it didn't matter; we were good enough and even if the penalty hadn't been awarded, I think we probably would have managed a goal from open play eventually.

Good win last night though! More assured and sensible defensively. But yeah, I maintain that I'd like to see Wenger go but I'm just not sure about that board of ours... Shame we had to fuck up against Anderlecht like we did. We could be in a position to contest first. Tactical and personnel issues aside, we're a better side than Dortmund imo. At the very least, we have a stronger best eleven... Can we recall Jenkinson in January? I haven't watched him much for West Ham but by all accounts he's done rather well so far...