18 Years And Counting For Wenger.

Arsene Wenger has been in charge of Arsenal for 18 years this week, 18 years!!  It seems like only yesterday when he rocked up at Highbury looking like an eccentric professor with his funny looking hair and big round glasses.  Obviously it doesn't feel like yesterday as I am no longer 24 years old and more to the point Breakfast at Tiffany's by Deep Blue Something isn't still at number one.

It was a mixed week for Arsene and his Arsenal boys though last week they started with a 2-1 defeat in the League Cup to Southampton, then at the weekend they drew with their North London rivals Spurs at home and last night in their second champions league game they defeated Galatasaray 4-1 with new signing Danny Welbeck scoring a hat trick.  It was the former Man United strikers first career hat trick and his 6th goal in four games for club and country, he is certainly starting to look a decent acquisition for the Gunners.

In other Champions league matches Liverpool continued their bumbling start with a a defeat to Basel, add that to their less than convincing win over Ludogorets a couple of weeks ago and their return to the the big European stage may not be a very long one.  Liverpool also played in a local Derby at the weekend and they had victory snatched away from them when a last minute Phil Jagielka thunder blaster stole a point for Everton.  Man City drew with Roma and Chelsea beat Sporting Lisbon 1-0 away.

Wayne Rooney made the headlines again this week for all the wrong reasons, he had put Man Utd 1-0 up against West Ham at Old Trafford only to be later sent off for a reckless kick out at Stewart Downing.  It was only at the start of the season when the player himself and his managers for both club and country who incidentally both named him captain had all commented on his coming of age and new found maturity.   Rooney is a great player but at the end of the day he will always have that red mist moment when he will do something so ridiculous it will leave you scratching your head.  He will always be an angry young man, and when he grows up he will be an angry old man.

Alan Pardew's grip on his managerial role at Newcastle seems to get looser and looser as the weeks go on.  Another league defeat on Monday night against a Stoke side who it has to be said are no great shakes themselves has left Pardew with a lot of work on to save himself.  The Potters came away with a 1-0 win courtesy of a Peter Crouch header in  a poor game played out by two poor teams.  The Toon hardly had a chance in the game and when they eventually did create a goal scoring opportunity Jack Colbaek somehow managed to hit the woodwork when it seemed easier to leave the old onion bag bulging.  Will the game away to Swansea be the final nail in the already much pitted Pardew coffin.

Not looking good for Pardew.

If  Newcastle are having a poor start to the season then in contrast Southampton are having an absolute stonking start.  After what seemed to be a mass exodus of players leaving St Mary's this close season and the departure of their manager Mauricio Pochettino to Spurs many would have had The Saints as one of the favourites to go down, but instead new boss Ronald Koeman has got the South Coast club playing some nice attractive stuff and more importantly they are picking up results and sit proudly and deservedly in second place in the league   I always remember Southampton as a team which always brought youngsters through their academy and I have memories of the team they had during the early to mid eighties.  I used to look forward to seeing them on Match of the Day, maybe it was their Rank Xerox kit or it might just have been the players, it would have been about the time when Kevin Keegan joined them and they had the likes of Steve Moran, Steve Williams and David Armstrong in their ranks.  I remember King Kevin scoring an overhead kick once from just inside the box, only for it to be disallowed due to David Armstrong being offside, great memories.  Good luck to them and I hope they can keep up this good and entertaining style of football.

This would have been given today!!

In the Championship Norwich stay top with Forest just behind them, Derby are in 4th place after a 2-0 away win at struggling Bolton.  The Rams are starting to hit form and with the way Steve Maclaren's team play this should be an ominous sight as they close to within a point of the Canaries at the top of the league.

League 1 and Bristol City still lead the way Peterborough are in second still but are now 5 points off the leaders despite a 1-0 win over Fleetwood, whilst Scunthorpe and Crewe continue to struggle at the wrong end of the table.

Burton returned to the top of league 2 leapfrogging Bury who somewhat surprisingly lost to Exeter, John Still's Luton won again this time at home to Oxford and rise to 10th, meanwhile defeat for Morecambe sees them drop to 6th and despite winning at the weekend against Tranmere Carlisle stay in 24th place.

Goal of the week:
 Most people would say that Jagielka's goal against Liverpool but my choice would be Graziano Pelle's overhead kick for Southampton against QPR.  He tees himself up nicely before performing an unstoppable acrobatic volley.

Great goal from Pelle.

Save of the Week:
Liam Connells point blank stop from Spennymoors Liam Henderson for Dunston UTS in the FA cup.
Former Watford youngster Henderson is played through with just the keeper to beat it looks like a forgone conclusion but the Dunston stopper saves bravely at point blank range.