A strange Sunday; International weeks have the excuse that other matches are taking place but you can prepare for that as you have known it is coming but this is the middle of the league season. A Monday night kick-off? Should be consigned to the extinction bin, right next to the Dodo.

The papers have also used their bile quota for the match a day or so early which means that we are left with rehashes of old stuff for the most part. Manuel Almunia kicks it off by telling the News of the World that ‘I don’t listen to Lehmann‘ because ‘I am in the team and nothing can be allowed to distract me‘. Except for journalists trying to stir it all up again, of course. About the sanest part of this supposed conflict comes when Almunia says,

I want to avoid these stupid battles but I don’t look at anything he says about me – or anything else that comes from outside the team. I am enjoying my moment and I don’t want to get into trouble with other stuff

The same paper reckons that we are after Tresor Mputu, a £4m rated Congo international. Apparently his club, TP Mazembe, have received an invitation for him to have a ten day trial. Their director, Odi Kalonda, said

We ruled out a number of clubs before choosing Arsenal

To top off the papers content today, Andy Dunn has just earned himself a ban from Old Trafford by calling out Ferguson with a big headline of ‘Hyprocrite‘ and an article that exposes the fallacies behind Darth Fergie’s comments about homegrown talent and quotas.

In the Sunday Times, there is a big spread on young Fabregas who shows how to diffuse a potential row with Ferguson by responding to the latter’s comment that he cannot yet be considered great because he has not won any medals – well, aside from the 2005 Cup Final, eh Alex,

Yeah, he’s right. I 100% agree with him. I can’t say I’m a great player. And I always say at Arsenal we’re a very, very good side but not a great side. When we win something together as a group we can say we’re great but, right now, we’re just a good side

He talks about what has changed as far as his style of play is concerned,

I’m playing exactly the same

Short answer to the question then, eh? Something has changed though,

It’s true I feel more free to go forward and that’s down to [Mathieu] Flamini. He doesn’t stop running, chasing the opponent. He has amazing energy. We had a bet, Tomas Rosicky, Alex Hleb, Mathieu and me about who’d score most this season, and Matt tells me, ‘Hey, if you always go forward I cannot score’. So I must give him two goals, maybe

The rest of the article can be found here.

And that is where we will leave it today. ’til Tomorrow.