I’VE finally moved the site to a new server with much bigger capacity, hopefully meaning an end to the site constantly going down.

So for the Newcaslte report and all further updates head on over to www.goodplaya.com and update your bookmarks accordingly.

JUST seconds after Arsene headed down the tunnel on Tuesday night the Setanta commentators condemned him for not shaking Phil Brown’s hand.

It was as if this was some kind of norm prescribed in the UN agreements on human rights instead of a gesture afforded to a respected opponent.

I’ve played two 6 aside seasons over the past couple of years and must have shaken the hands of over 100 players. I’ve happily shaken the hands of players who have kicked me, players who have cheated and players who have tried to get team-mates sent-off, happy to forgive and forget minor skirmishes after the final whistle.

But there was one guy who spent all game trying to start a fight with our team. It seemed utterly needless. When he offered his hand at the end my instinctive reaction was to say “yeah, whatever” and walk off. I had no respect for his behaviour.

Reports say Wenger and Brown had clashed in the tunnel at half-time. Reports claim animosity between the benches during the game.

Reality shows things had ratcheted up so far that Brown was prepared to come out and twice tell outright lies about Wenger’s conduct, a man he had spoken with great fondness for just six months ago.

Why am I still going on about this now? Because somehow Wenger and Arsenal seem to have come out of this as the bad guys. Had it been the case that he had not shaken hands after the league games, then one would rightly ask why, given they had been largely uncontroversial affairs.

But he did. And Hull were afforded great respect by Arsenal collectively for their win earlier this season. And the point is it is far more tempting not to shake hands after a defeat than it is a victory. If anything, Tuesday’s reaction was a moral stance. We had won after all…

The glaring untruths repeated about the boss mean that in a court of law anything Phil Brown had to say on the spitting would probably be thrown-out as unreliable evidence.

The Sun also quoted Horton as saying they were studying the Bayern incident. For a start Bayern’s press chief has said the following:

“It definitely never happened. If anything of that kind happened I would have been the first to be informed and the first to do something about it.”

Secondly in the UK it is specifically forbidden (in all but the most exceptional circumstances) for previous offences to even be considered/for the jury to know about when deciding guilt. Why on earth Hull would even need to look at the Bayern video if they were so sure of their case, I don’t know.

A couple more brief points:

I do think the captain of Arsenal could and should be better dressed when watching a home game.

I’m not saying suit and tie, but club tracksuit would be more to my liking. I’m sure many of you will disagree but that’s just what I happen to think. Not that it has anything to do with either Phil Brown or what may or may not have happened.

And almost finally on the furore, I don’t believe it is part of some kind of great conspiracy against Arsenal. Journalists do actually greatly admire Arsene on the whole for his continual willingness to be interviewed and to elaborate on the game. I just think sometimes a few liberties are taken in the way a child might with an overindulgent grandparent who refuses to smack them down however cheeky they get.

Nowhere is this more so on the “I did not see it” stuff. It’s got to the stage where he is expected to see through dressing room walls into the tunnel and also to have 20-20 vision of a split second incident that nobody else saw before a slow motion replay picked it up. And if he does see it, the piss is taken too.

Anyway, enough of that. We have a crucial Premiership encounter tomorrow and the Champions League draw this morning. Bring it on.

(Am currently moving the site to a new server, so apologies for the whole host of problems…)

A FEW very, very quick thoughts as I’m writing this at 11.30pm and I have to be up at 5.

Let’s address the controversy first: For a start Hull WERE blatantly time wasting. The miracle was Riley took so long to address it. But even if they weren’t (and they were) it is the prerogative of every fan inside the stadium and also the home team manager to claim they are and to pressurise the referee into speeding up the game.

It’s what the northerners call creating an intimidating atmosphere, cranking up the pressure, being the 12th man. Phil Brown, he of the team talk on the pitch, seems incapable of accepting a southern side doing such a thing.

If Nasri’s free-kick only touched an Arsenal player when everyone jumped for it, then yes, it was clearly offside. If, as Arsene argues, it came second off the keeper then according to the rules (which I personally think are wrong) Gallas would probably be no more offside than a player intercepting a stray backside.

Either way, let’s make no bones about it: the fact your keeper had been booked (correctly) for time wasting had sod all to do with the goal. Your lot were also, by any standards, on the ropes. So it was one bad decision that had nothing to do with us appealing to referees or anything. We’ve had it many times before.

As for Wenger deliberately not shaking your hand, that’s highly unlikely. Had we lost, I could vaguely countenance it. But when we’ve won? Pur-lease.

Brown went on to say Fabregas spitting at his feet “shows what this club is all about”. We will deal with the spitting in a second, but I’d point out to Brown this is the club who almost to a man praised your side for their excellent performance at the Emirates earlier in the season and whose fans stayed behind to applaud your players off the pitch. Short memories eh?

Onto Fabregas. For a start, if he did it he shouldn’t have, though quite why he would out of the blue, without provocation, following an Arsenal win, spit at one of your guys, I don’t know.

Secondly, even if he did spit, I for one am not getting drawn into the pathetic, peculiar English obsession over spitting. I write this as an Englishman, but few things in football have infuriated me more than the pathetic obsession over Vieira spitting at Ruddock.

Respected websites were last night leading on the spitting incident. The funny thing is had Cesc just a put a guy out of action for six months with a high tackle, it would have garnered far less interest.

So, go in two footed on a guy’s knee by all means. Break his jaw with an elbow? That’s cool. But spit at him? In this warped, twisted logic it is somehow THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD EVER, particularly when a foreigner does it and the Englishman receives.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not pretty. But get over it and yourself. The logic of the Vieira incident, as it happens, is so warped that Ruddock was still painted as the victim despite his racist “garlic breath” comments following it.

Fabregas, it should be said, has completely denied the allegation. Brown, as it happens, was gesticulating at the Emirates crowd and clearly wound up long before we had even equalised.

Onto the football and Hull were excellent in the first half and deserved their lead, despite it being a very, very jammy goal. We were frankly woeful. They could have been two up with a couple of nearish misses. I haven’t seen the one that was given offside and chalked out but watching it in the ground it seemed Alex Song was being blatantly blocked off by a Hull player when he went to close it down on the edge of the box.

Second half was a different story.

We absolutely dominated and it was a near miracle Hull were still leading when we finally scored. Diaby had somehow headed wide, RVP had hit the bar, Arshavin had had one blocked, someone had one cleared off the line and Song was inches wide with the follow-up. You get my drift.

Bendtner did brilliantly for the goal, persevering when others (including Bedntner of a few months ago) would have given up. Then when it came to Arshavin, he could have shot but in fact the pull back was the correct option because firstly he did it first time and secondly he executed it properly.

I immediately thought our winner was miles offside but as I say, it was one bad decision. Nothing whatsoever to do with any agenda on the part of the officials. Were Arsene to suggest such a conspiracy he’d (rightly) face ridicule.

It was a stirring fightback and special mention goes to Bendtner for his work for the equaliser and Arshavin too. Not only is he very short, but he’s also actually smaller than the corner flag. Even Nasri is taller.

At one point we were ridiculously attacking: two forwards (Bendtner and RVP), two wingers who are basically forwards (Walcott and Arshavin) and in midfield another attacker (Nasri) and Diaby, who as well as sometimes playing as a second striker, went ridiculously attacking at times too. Classic Wenger and whatever the luck of the winner, it was enough to create an equaliser and a host of chances.

To Hull, I was one of those who clapped you off at the Emirates in September. Now I hope your manager takes you down.

SO I miss my first league game of the season following a run of three 0-0s on a spin at the Grove and the following happens:

-Andrei Arshavin scores a goal which from my seat (a few rows up from the corner in the singing section, I would have, for once, had the perfect view of.

-After so many years, we finally dish out the tonking to Sam Allardyce that he so richly deserves.

-Arsenal becomes a Songunist state. Where as previously what few members of the Songunist Party gathered in secret, they now feel happy uttering their views publicly such has been the astonishing improvement in Alex Song against Burnley and Blackburn.

-Comrade Eboue scores three in a week, all at my end. One of them a penalty.

What, I ask, is going on?

My picture of the Blackburn match was spluttery so I’ll shy away from a lengthy match report and playa ratings. But I’ll add the following to what I said above:

-Theo Walcott’s pace is crucial to us. Nobody else can frighten defenders in anything like the same way and it’s a vital asset.

-I’d far rather see Bendtner perform as he did against Blackburn than some of the shifts he put in earlier this season. Every striker has nightmare games in front of goal - Bendtner’s sin was to find himself in the position to have soooo many chances.

Overall, his workrate appeared very good and but for the finishing, to me he played very well. And the finishing is something that can be worked on on the training ground.

-If I’m perhaps a bit too blunt, the best thing about Song’s performance was that he finally seems to have woken from his permanent coma. There was so much more energy about him. For example Theo’s hooked volley that Robinson saved came after Song had jumped for, won and knocked down a loose high ball in their box.

The Song and Denilson link-up for Arshavin’s goal was so unlike them I almost had to double take.

-Eboue’s improvement is both real and very welcome. When he scored, he had already just failed to get on the end of one chance, which Brian Little on my commentary said Eboue had not wanted to connect with. I’ve been no Eboueist (you noticed?), but really that was an absurd suggestion from Little.

-I do wonder, if Eboue’s form and that of one or two others is to do with there finally being a bit of competition in the squad. I think a couple of things have happened: firstly, our slightly unfortunate injury list has shortened. Secondly, some of the young players Arsene trumpeted for so long are now beginning to mature. There is obviously Arhsavin too.

Without wanting to introduce a negative tone, those first two points do not prove him right after all. The reality is failure to sign sufficient cover in certain areas and the over reliance on young players being asked too much too soon has basically cost us a league season. Ignoring their game in hand, we are 13 points behind United who are on 65 points, which is exactly how many points we had at this stage last season.

But irrespective of that, and perhaps it is best left for the end of the season, the point is that at left-back we now have Gibbs to challenge Clichy, in central defence Djourou’s presence means neither Kolo or Gallas are sure of their places and in central midfield Denilson, Song and Diaby are at last providing competition for each other.

I think it’s helping.

-Final point: video replays, retrospective punishment, sin bins whatever. But something has to be done about tackles such as Diouf’s. Not saying we’re angels, but the current disciplinary system is a farce.

CONSIDER these few facts:

-This season our lowest moments have typically followed our highest moments.
-We have not scored a league goal at the Emirates for a looong, looong time.
-Sam Allardyce, dislike him or dislike him, has a pretty good record at taking points from us and will undoubtedly have his charges up for this one.

So you can be virtually certain it’s going to be very tough. Allardyce, coming off a decent 2-1 win at Fulham, is the last man we needed this weekend.

But there is a plus. And that is that the squad suddenly seems that little bit bigger. In attack, the arrival of Arshavin means that even without Adebayor, Rosicky and now Eduardo and even if Nasri and RVP are given a break, we can still field Vela left, Walcott right and Arshavin and Bendtner up front.

In midfield, bringing in Alex Song no longer appears such a catastrophe and in defence Djourou is now a realistic replacement for Kolo or Gallas, Gibbs for Clichy and, dare I say it, the improving Eboue able to step in for Sagna if needs be.

So there are options. But still, it’s going to be damn tough.

Victory is essential. If we fail to go ahead of Villa today (for 24 hours at least) we may never do so this season.

A COUPLE of weeks back around 1,000 Goodplaya.com readers responded to a wide ranging survey full of Arsenal related questions. You can check out the first of the results in the postings below.

Today, we’ll examine a few issues. When reading the results, remember around two thirds of responses came after the first Roma game and the other third following the goalless draw with Fulham a few days later.

Firstly, I asked supporters to consider Alex Ferguson’s claim that Arsene focuses too much on signing attackers and not enough on signing defenders. Here is what you said:

Fergie is right about us not buying enough defenders:

Agree strongly: 221 (22%)
Tend to agree: 371 (38%)
Neither agree or disagree: 150 (15%)
Tend to disagree: 188 (19%)
Disagree strongly: 56 (6%)

So, much as I suspect many of us said it through gritted teeth, some support for Fergie.

Next, I made two statements about how Arsene treats his players. I asked whether he indulges them too much and whether he should be more critical of them in public.

Here is what you said:

Wenger indulges the players too much:

Agree strongly: 290 (29%)
Tend to agree: 426 (43%)
Neither agree or disagree: 162 (16%)
Tend to disagree: 84 (9%)
Disagree strongly 23 (2%)

So, a fairly clear consensus that they get away with too much.

So should he be more critical of them publicly? No, was the resounding verdict:

Arsene should stop protecting his players so much and criticise them more in public:

Agree strongly: 72 (7%)
Tend to agree: 209 (21%)
Neither agree or disagree: 123 (12%)
Tend to disagree: 307 (31%)
Disagree strongly: 277 (28%)

The message seems to be stop spoiling them but don’t air the dirty linen in public.

I also asked whether he was right to bemoan negative opponents.

Arsene is right to complain about negative opponents:

Agree strongly: 75 (8%)
Tend to agree: 241 (24%)
Neither agree or disagree: 140 (14%)
Tend to disagree: 327 (33%)
Disagree strongly: 203 (21%)

And finally, I put forward the statement:

Some fans are far too quick to criticise players:

Strongly agree: 431 (44%)
Tend to agree: 388 (40%)
Neither agree or disagree: 90 (9%)
Tend to disagree: 56 (6%)
Disagree strongly: 17 (2%)

More results soon.

NEXT Friday UEFA bigwigs will gather in Monaco to draw not just the Champions League quarter-finals but the semis too and by default, the final.

It is when the Champions League gets really interesting. Gone are the coefficients, the seedings, the inter-country separations and all the other crap that epitomises the earlier rounds.

Michel Platini will no doubt view the presence of four English sides as vindication of his fears the Premier League is becoming overbearingly dominant. To him I say if in ten years we have had a decade of basically only English sides appearing in the semis, I’ll take your point.

But in the meantime, to me it’s just one of those cyclical things that happens. Give it a few years and no doubt we’ll all be talking about where it all went wrong for the Premier League.

But back to the draw. And what a salivating prospect it is. The least attractive tie would probably be Portuguese league leaders Porto, who we met in the group stages. Then there is Bayern Munich, who we owe for dumping us out in the second round four years ago.

They are one of four sides in the draw who are among the last five to knock us out of Europe. Barcelona did it famously in 2006. Imagine them and Thierry Henry at the Emirates. Like when Paddy Vieira returned for Juve in 2005, the pregame ovation would be one not to be missed. Same goes for Robert Pires and his Villareal side, who we squeezed past in the semis in 2005.

And then there is Chelsea, victors over us at this stage four years ago and home to another former Gooner, albeit no longer such a crowd favourite.

If you thought we had lady luck on our side last night, it was nothing compared to what Liverpool enjoyed in last year’s quarters against us. There was the Hleb penalty, Bendtner blocking one on the line and that late decision in front of the Kop. We owe them. Big time.

And finally there is a side who I’m not aware we have ever met in Europe, meaning there will be none of the history, old antagonisms, rivalries etc. Oh hang on, it’s Man United.

Nice, isn’t it?

CONTRARY to what I posted earlier, I actually managed to watch the game.

Perhaps it was because I was watching it on a very grainy stream that frequently cut out (the official $10 UEFA one no less), but the game seemed fairly dreadful frankly. Not that any of that matters now. We’re through to the last eight and on the balance of our first leg performance probably just about deservedly so.

We struggled to create much other than a Kolo header that he should have scored just before the end of the 90 and an RVP shot that flew over in extra time. Roma were OK, but no better.

Eventually it went to penalties and after Eduardo missed the opener, Almunia saved their second one. Penalty after penalty was then scored, with the Roma keeper taking the erratic approach of just jumping straight out off his line in an attempt to save it. Our players seemed to settle for passing it (just about) either side of him.

My viewing of it frequently consisted of my stream freezing for ten seconds just as the ball left the foot of the taker. Agonising.

Eventually, it was a Roma one that flew high over the bar that settled it, meaning we had no hero.

It wasn’t a great game and it wasn’t a great performance. But these things happen and the important thing is to come through it.

The players, in fairness, deserve credit for dispatching their spot-kicks at the end of a very long night. None committed the cardinal sin of not even getting it on target.

Credit too to Arsene for ensuring the players who should have been taking the first five spot-kicks were the ones who did. RVP, Eduardo, Nasri and Walcott are all to some extent paid to be cool in front of goal, so it was right we top loaded them.

Ultimately now the performance, or lack of it, matters for nothing. We’re in that draw and that’s all that matters.

CHAMPIONS League second round second legs have given us a couple of incredible highs over the years and a couple of lows too.

In 2005 a very sharp Thierry Henry strike beat Bayern 1-0 at Highbury, but we’d lost 3-1 in Germany in the first leg. I wrote:

“It was not only Bayern that played well. Arsenal put in a very good performance, but the damage had already been done in the first leg, by conceding three goals.”

Remember 2006?

“What an incredible night. I’m starting to write this just minutes after getting home from Highbury and I’m absolutely shattered.

“The action was simply breathtaking. The game was ridiculously end to end at times for such a precariously balanced tie. And the performance from our playas was just awesome.

“People are still talking about Real Madrid being the perfect opponents for Arsenal. What a ridiculous attempt to belittle our achievement.”

But two years ago against PSV things were not so good:

“Massive disappointments like this happen to every team (look at Barca last night) and despite what the critics will say, it’s not the end of the world and there is much to be positive about.

“But after a decent performance, not making them take the free-kick from the right place was a bloody stupid way to go out.”

And then there was last year:

“Want to know how good a performance this was? Look no further than the sustained applause offered by the Milanese at the final whistle.

“For 174 minutes we dominated Milan while treading an elimination tight-rope - an incredible ask. One slip and we were screwed. And then just when you thought it was all destined to end in glorious failure, we struck with the immaculate timing usually so typical of Italian sides.”

Great moments. Sadly the closest I stand to get to tonight’s action is possibly watching the first half online and then phone updates after that.

I miss very few Arsenal games. Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to have a mother who willingly scheduled dinner for half-time and now a girlfriend who pencils Arsenal games into her diary months in advance.

But every now and then events conspire in such a way that you have to miss an important game.

My excuse is, I think, a reasonable if fairly unique one: I’ve been offered a free ring-side seat to watch NASA fire the Space Shuttle Discovery high into the sky. Bizarre I know, but I kid you not. I’m currently in Florida for a wedding and yesterday we visited the Kennedy space centre, got talking to a NASA employee hosting a load of Japanese space VIPs and he said we could fill a few spaces he had.

Obviously it’s not technically ringside because I’d be burned to smithereens but it’s pretty much the best view in the house apparently.

It all culminated in a bizarre phone call last tonight where the person on the other end of the phone introduced himself as “Nasa”, which is not one I’ve heard of before.

So what of Roma? I’ve an uncomfortable feeling about the night. On the one hand, if we play as we have been, we should go through, because we’re not conceding and at long last we have genuine attacking options.

Equally,this does not feel like a team on the cusp of scooping the greatest trophy in club football. Next year maybe, with Arshavin involved and the top quality midfielders Arsene will undoubtedly sign this summer bedded in. But this year? I’m not quite sure.

But then we hardly looked like world beaters at this stage in 2006. One thing that has, however, always stood us in good stead in these games is an incredibly high work rate noticeably above our Premiership norm.

If we get that tonight, like we did in the first leg and against Madrid and then Milan, we have a chance.

THIS was the story of our unbelievable abundance of wingers and forwards: Eduardo, Vela, Arshavin, Eboue, RVP and Walcott all played a part. Meanwhile the quartet of Adebayor, Bendtner, Nasri and Rosicky (who would make a very decent front four on their own) were nowhere to be seen.

It is a line-up that probably won’t make it into next season completely intact. At least someone (Adebayor?) will likely leave, but such is our attacking wealth the blow would likely not be fatal. The ten of them complement each other fantastically, each offering something unique, none an obvious replica of what we already have.

I’m in America for a wedding until next Sunday, meaning this report comes courtesy of my viewing from afar and my brother, who was at the ground.

We may as well go straight into the trio of outstanding goals.

I’d argue Vela’s was best, Eduardo’s second and Eboue’s third. Not that I’m having a go at Eboue.

This was as positive a contribution as he’s made for ages and the goal was both very well taken and merited.

The crowd gave a hearty rendition of “Come to see Eboue” and as my brother points out, the line between being plain crap and being a cult hero is a thin one, as Ray Parlour and Gilles Grimandi attest. Equally though, while both Grimandi and Parlour thrived despite their lack of natural ability, Eboue has no such issues in that area. His is a problem of delivering anything like what he is capable of.

Yesterday, on top of the Roma performance, was a positive start. May it continue.

So, back to the goals. And I’d rate that Vela one top because there were so many things he had to do right for it to come off. First there was the nutmeg, then the powerful run, then the staying on his feet while being tugged all over the place (behave) and finally the toe-poked chip. It was such a good finish because had he opened his foot up the defender probably would have stole in. Footballistically it was tremendous to watch and arguably only Theo is the only other player in the squad who you could imagine scoring it.

Visually, Eduardo’s was probably more stunning. A delightfully dinked ball from Song (who we’ll touch on in a minute) and a ridiculous volley from Eduardo that literally flew off his once shattered ankle. In one sense it was a ridiculous thing to try given we were only one up and he had the time to finish far less spectacularly.

But Eduardo is not a player for pointless indulgence.

That he chose to take it like that suggests it was probably the most efficient way to take it.

So, Song. For months it’s felt as if my brother has been the President, Vice-President, Honary life President, Treasurer and Secretary of the Songological Society of North London, so lonely has his furrow been. I sense he may finally have recruited some fellow followers.

I’m not endorsing him as the one (because I still maintain he isn’t), but this was an admirable performance that culminated with a most unSongesque backheel for Eboue to slam in the third.

Before I go I just want to say how astonished I was by how many people headed for the exits before half-time. It began on 35 minutes and by the time the whistle went parts of the lower tier looked virtually empty.

Going to the games, you obviously see people leave. But on TV the gaps looked so much worse. The exodus was so extraordinary that I actually felt sorry for the team. What are they to think when they are playing well and leading and yet everyone still scarpers?