Premier League champs overtake Real Madrid…

Manchester United and Arsenal are the only English clubs to make the top 10 of a list of Europe’s 50 best supported clubs. The rankings, based on last season’s average attendance, are still dominated by German clubs - nine made the top 20.

See the full list after the jump…

Also appearing on a computer near you…

Sven stars in a Kleenex ad

Reminiscing on the Championship/Football Manager series
[Guardian]

Arsenal scouts hid in trees to get a look at Vermaelen
[Off The Post]

Football’s greatest bearded footballers
[Interestment]

Patrick Vieira (not even the best midfielder on Inter’s bench) demands to be recognised as the best midfielder in France
[Goal.com]

Arsenal weighing up an £18m punt on winger Milos Krasic
[Caught Offside]

1 in 20 British schoolkids think Adolf Hitler was a football manager
[The Sun]

van Persie, Fabregas and Arshavin > Henry, Pires and Bergkamp?

After Arsenal’s 4-1 Champions League cakewalk against the Eredivisie champions last night, Arsene Wenger was moved to compare his young team to the unbeaten Gunners squad of 03/04:

We’ve never had as many options on the creative side. We still have Nicklas Bendtner and Theo Walcott who are offensive players who are not available.

Denilson, Eduardo, Tomas Rosicky did not start - that is why I was amazed when people said, ‘Buy, buy, buy’. And Carlos Vela as well… I forgot him!

Fair assessment, or another one of Le Prof’s attempts to tack an extra psychological boost onto an impressive performance? Ljungberg, Henry, Pires and Bergkamp had racked up 16 goals and 10 assists in all competitions by this time in 03/04 season; while van Persie, Arshavin, Bendtner and Fabregas are already on 24 goals and 23 assists.

In terms of depth, Wenger has a point - as backups go, Eduardo, Rosicky and Nasri are a more desirable trio of reinforcements than Reyes, Wiltord and Kanu were. But does the overall attacking quality of the squad match up?

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An excellent study on how to use sex to sell shinpads, via [The Offside]

Rafa feels the force of Darren Byfield’s post-Jamelia-divorce venting
[Off The Post]

Adriano fronts a new drugs campaign
[Dirty Tackle]

10 things which might help Rafa Benitez keep his job
[Caught Offside]

Internal memo from Mike Ashley leaked
[Football365]

Once again, a team isn’t bothered whether Andriy Shevchenko leaves or not
[Daily Mail]

Stan Kronke is getting ready for a takeover bid
[The Sun]

Things get even harder for Rafa, Arsenal stroll to victory…

Arsenal 4/ AZ Alkmaar 1

Cesc Fabregas (angrily) opened the scoring 25 minutes into Arsenal’s televised training match against the Dutch champions; Samir Nasri doubling the Gunners’ lead with an exquisite shoulder drop. Second half strikes from Fabregas and Abou Diaby wrapped up the win, although Alkmaar bagged a late consolation in the form of a Jeremain Lens toe punt.

At the final whistle, there was only one question on the lips of a half empty Emirates… what the f**k has happened to the Dutch league?

Lyon 1/ Liverpool 1

Last minute comebacks are meant to be reserved for Liverpool, although it seems Lisandro Lopez didn’t get the memo. The Argentinean striker took advantage of some suicidal injury time defending to cancel out Ryan Babel’s impressive 83rd minute strike, signaling most Reds fans to start checking which TV channels are still showing Europa League football.

In a game of stark contrasts, Andriy Voronin plumbed new depths of unacceptable wankery, while Lyon keeper Hugo Lloris did a lot more to justify his billing as Football Manager-endorsed Keeper of the Future than Igor Akinfeev had on Tuesday.

Agent claims ‘illness’ is to blame…

Fran Merida’s laser-guided finish in the Carling Cup against Liverpool last week propelled him into public eye alongside Carlos Vela, Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey, as part of Arsenal’s jealousy-inducing line up of future stars.

However, things aren’t all good in the hood. The 19-year-old Spaniard is out of contract at the end of season and doesn’t look particularly fussed about tying up a deal any time soon. Even worse, he’s jonesing for a move to Atletico Madrid - which wouldn’t be so bad if 1) Atleti weren’t 18th in La Liga (one win from nine); and 2) he wasn’t born in Barcelona.

Not another Wenger blind spot

Steven Howard in today’s Sun no less, has piled onto the bandwagon marked ‘Arsenal goalkeeping crisis’ and let rip. Howard writes:

“They have four goalkeepers on the books - Vito Mannone, Manuel Almunia, Lukasz Fabianski and teen Wojciech Szczesny - and none, for one reason or other, look up to the job.”

before making the stunning claim

“In fact, you would be hard pushed to find a Premier League club WITHOUT a better keeper than the four at Arsenal.”

Well thespoiler has been scratching itself having a good think this morning, and we reckon maybe Chelsea and Birmingham City are the only clubs without a better keeper than Arsenal - your thoughts below please…

Today - confused Eboue