Arsenal Transfer Dealings Not Dead Yet as Window Almost Closed

The weekend is over and it's back to work for the majority of us unless it's a Bank Holiday or, like me, you have a day off. The weekend went very well for Arsenal as they beat Blackburn 2-1 away from home and some of the teams that would hope to be pushing us for our place in the top four lost ground on us.

Premier League Review:

First of all, on Saturday we were treated to the comedy that was the Spuds losing 1-0 at home to bottom of the league Wigan. Before that game Wigan had played two home matches and lost by a combined score of 10-0 but that didn't stop them going to the Spuds ground and getting a fully deserved victory.

They had lost 9-1 in the corresponding fixture last season and it would seem that a combination of over confidence and fatigue from playing their Champions League qualifier got to the Spuds on the day.

Then, yesterday afternoon we were treated to Man City losing 1-0 at Sunderland as a penalty in injury time from Bent beat them. It's a game City would have wanted to get something from if they are to challenge in the league and they have now failed to score in their two away league games so far this season.

From my own perspective it was a little odd laughing at Tevez as he missed an open goal as he was in my fantasy team and it would have got me some much needed points. I don't mind sacrificing those points if it's in a good cause and City losing is certainly one as far as I'm concerned.

Transfer Window

With the international break now upon us, there will be very little to write about over the next few weeks, but for the moment we can concentrate on idle speculation and gossip as the transfer window is about to shut until next January.

Speaking after Saturday's game, the boss said that "it is dead," referring to any transfer deals (or Schwarzer in particular maybe) "but maybe not finished." I would say it depends on other factors which would mean Fulham signing a keeper themselves and if the rumours are to be believed that man will be Given.

I don't think we'll do any other business besides that unless of course we sell any players that are surplus to requirements. With that in mind there are rumours that Juventus are after Traore and I would have to say that it makes sense to sell him as we already have two quality left full backs ahead of him and he's at the stage where he needs to be playing to further his game.

International Break:

We had two players called up to the England squad last night as both Walcott and Gibbs got the expected nod, although I am more than a little puzzled by the inclusion of Gibbs.

He may have gotten some game time in England's last friendly but he hasn't played at all for Arsenal this season and surely England need players who are at least regulars in their club side.

I know the boss said he will get game time this season and he will only be a deputy to "Cashley" with England but it would still make sense to include a left back that plays for his club.

Wilshere Arrested

Speaking of young Arsenal players, it would seem that Wilshere got in a spot of bother on Saturday night or Sunday morning and got himself arrested. If the reports are to be believed, there was a fracas where a man and a woman got injured and Wilshere was said to have been a peacemaker and a witness to what happened but as he was in the car with the people involved he was arrested anyway.

Time will tell on this one, but I hope he had no active part in whatever fighting went on as so many of our young English players seem to go off the rails once they get a smell of first team action.

Fantasy Football

In the fantasy football stakes, there's a new leader of the league that I'm running in conjunction with 11Gunners, and luckily for me my team has started its comeback too.

The leader is Bles FC managed by Ben Sloane from England on 226 points and he is one point ahead of Leave-Ma-Arcelona managed by Gurdeep Jugpal from England as well.

My team is a long way back on 153 points but at least it moved up from 462nd place to 296th place out of 685 teams. I used my wild card this week and it obviously made a bit of difference but from here on in I'm going to need a miracle to try to claim one of my three trophies.

In my predictions league we have a more modest 28 teams taking place and I did fairly well this week to move up to fourth place within striking distance of the league leader thanks to getting the correct scorelines in both the Arsenal and Wolves games. That's it for today but I'm sure we will have plenty of transfer gossip to occupy our minds today and tomorrow.

Here's the highlights from Saturday's victory.

See You Tomorrow.