So there are six (count ‘em!) clubs in the group stages of this season’s Champions League: the big four in England, plus Celtic and Rangers. The English clubs can’t meet each other, because they are all amongst the top eight seeds, but there’s a very strong chance that we’ll see another so-called ‘Battle of Britain’, [...]

Arsenal would probably do better to shove Flea in goal right now, given Mad Jens’s shocking start to the season – Manuel Almunia played in goal for Arsenal against Sparta Prague last night, with Jens sulking at home in Germany, supposedly injured.

Photo Getty Images Smiles all round at the Emirates, as Arsenal breezed past a distinctly average Praha side. Eduardo da Silva (seen here being shown position one of the Kama Sutra by team-mate Emmanuel Adebayor) scored for the first time this season, to add to earlier goals by Tomas Rosicky and Cesc Fabregas, and looked [...]

Our latest Shit Lookalike comes courtesy of Pies reader Daniel Budden. He quite rightly pointed out that Arsenal’s man from Minsk, Alexander Hleb, is a dead ringer for a young Kevin Bacon, which is a coincidence because he also saved Arsene Wenger’s bacon against Fulham a couple of weeks back.

At last someone has posted the hilarious footage of Jens Lehmann’s pre-match warm-up against England last week. Here is Mad Jens showing the Wembley turf his best moves (for anyone who missed it, this went out live on primetime BBC One!).

[Via Bundesliga Offside]

Arsenal 1-0 Manchester City
Cesc Fabregas finally found a breakthrough, despite an excellent performance from Manchester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. The young Dane made a string of saves, including Robin van Persie’s 65th minute penalty.

‘Mad Jens’ Lehman literally handed Blackburn the equaliser at Ewood Park on Sunday with his second goalkeeping gaffe in as many games.

The big kick-off is nigh and we don’t have a thing to wear. Well, we do now. This is part one of a bumper Kit Parade Special from Pies.
Arsenal
This looks a little familiar… wait a cotton picking minute! Yes, Arsenal have retained last season’s home kit for a further season. It makes my job a bit harder because you have all seen it before, but I’d be delighted if I was a Gooner. Comiserations to the parents of young Arsenal fans who will have to think a bit harder about birthday presents this year! Click here to buy it from Kitbag.

Chelsea’s squad for last weekend’s Community Shield match was so bare that they played without a recognised striker for most of the match. And it looks like they’ll have to make up the numbers when their Premier League kicks off on Sunday.

More rants and opinions from the fans about the upcoming Premier League season. This time, we speak to Arseblogger, who unsurprisingly supports a certain North London team who have just lost their talismanic striker.
Hello there. Introduce yourself to the class…
Arseblogger – Arsenal – Arseblog.com
How do you think you’ll do next season?…

In a nutshell: Arsenal v Sparta Prague, Liverpool v Toulouse, Celtic v Spartak Moscow and Rangers or FK Zeta v Crvena Zvezda or Levadia Tallinn.
The BBC is lamenting a tough draw for the British clubs, but you would expect at least three of the four to progress. They may not be easy games (there are no easy games at this level, Clive) but to call it a tough draw might be taking things a bit too far. Sparta Prague are a team Arsenal generally beat comfortably in the group stages. And if Liverpool can’t make it past Toulouse then they don’t deserve to be in the competition anyway. Celtic have man-for-man the toughest draw, but even a below-par Rangers should have what it takes to defeat their potential opponents.

‘I never think about yesterday,’ says Thierry. That will please Arsenal fans no end.

[Via The Beautiful Game]

Jose Antonio Reyes is on his way to Bolton. Well, not just yet but Reyes seems to be following the Nicolas Anelka Sulk Route out of Arsenal and we all know where that ends. Reyes – on his way to becoming a journeyman himself – has completed a £6 million switch to Atletico Madrid.

Now that Henry’s off enjoying the siestas at Barcelona, it’s up to Robin van Persie to step up and be the main goal threat at Arsenal, right? Wrong. According to the Dutchman, goals aren’t all that important, a bit over-rated really: “It’s not my aim to be the top scorer. My aim is to play good football with this team. I think we showed that against Inter. A lot of players are saying ‘oh, I have to be the top scorer’. But for me the first thing is to play football. Of course there are lots of responsibilities because you are playing in front of 60,000 people.”
After all who cares about a goal when you can

Well, instead of playing knock down ginger we’ve put together a list of the top ten ginger footballers who have ignored the taunts and become role models for red heads everywhere:

As the Sun might say, what a pair of egg-headed Swedes! Interesting that Ljungberg was snapped with the chairman at his unveiling, rather than the manager – is this a signing that Alan Curbishley didn’t sanction or want, perhaps? (Ie. one of those Abramovich/Shevchenko things).

The business end of the Premiership has been dominated in recent years by the Big Four, namely Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. Few teams have even come close to challenging that dominance, but Chelski boss Jose Mourinho believes that Spurs are now strong enough to challenge that group this coming season, and thus create a ‘Big Five’.

This ones going out to all Arsenal fans. Look at Thierry prance gaily with his new best friend. Look, he’s happy! How quickly he’s forgotten the little North London club that he used to call home.

Well I didn’t see this one coming… I thought Freddie was supposed to go to Fiorentina, but the Hammers have reportedly secured his services and will announce him as a West Ham player at a press conference later today.

With Fergie refusing Liverpool’s £6.8m bid for Gabriel Heinze and claiming United would ‘never’ sell to their bitterest rivals, we take a look at a few transfers that have taken place between clubs with a history of hatred.

Arsenal’s new third kit, a stripey affair (in ‘redcurrant and obsidian’, or, for plain-speaking folk, ‘dark red and blue-black’), that puts me in mind of the classic Barcelona kit, is launched on August 9th, although you can pre-order it now from Arsenal’s online shop.

Angel Di Maria of Argentina celebrates scoring the first goal against Chile during their semi-final game at the Fifa U-20 World Cup, held at the National Soccer Stadium in Toronto, Canada. It was a very ill-tempered game that ended with ugly scenes after the final whistle; Chile also had two men sent off. What is it with these crazy South Americans and Latin types? They’re such bad losers. Anyhoo, watch video highlights of the match after the click…
[Photo: Nick Laham/Getty Images]

The fourth offical at Arsenal’s friendly with Genclerbirligi must be pleased he was relieved from electronic board duty for this mammoth, seven-man substitution. In fact, he wore himself out just walking down the queue to check the studs!

Some new light has been shone on Thierry Henry’s exit from Arsenal and his even-more miserable-than-usual manner for most of last season. It has emerged that the new Barcelona man has split from his English model wife, Claire. The Sun claimed Henry said: “I didn’t really want to leave Arsenal — they’re my favourite club and I loved playing for them. But lots of things have changed recently and I had to get away from everything English, including my wife unfortunately.”

There are bound to be a few more twists to this year’s transfer season, especially if someone remembers where they put Carlos Tevez’s ownership papers, but new TV money and the arrival of more glory hunting billionaires means there’s been plenty of action.
Here’s what we think are the ten best deals done so far: