Perhaps Cesc's booking wasn't such a smart move.

It's international week, meaning that our players will come back broken, as always, and the process has started already, with both Flamini and Diaby picking up 'things'. Thank you Raymond Domenech for that helpful description.

Flamini has been in sparkling form this season alongside our favourite Spaniard, but with both missing changes will have to be made for the Wigan game at the weekend. Under normal circumstances, Gilberto and Diaby would be relishing chances to get some action, but with the Frenchman also injured and Gilberto probably jetlagged as he always is after these breaks, it may be left to Denilson and Diarra to form a new partnership.

Food for thought though - for all those pundits who said we didn't have any depth to the squad, it isn't bad to be able to call on a youngster who has played outstandingly well whenever he's played this season, and a Brazilian youth captain, when you have four injuries in the same position. So much for a thin squad.

In other news, England got an undeserved lifeline at the weekend, so the switch has been flipped, and now the media are talking up our chances of winning the competition. Do they never learn?

At least Arsenal and Wenger won't be blamed now, unless of course Eduardo pops up tomorrow night to score a last minute winner.

I've got more to say on the international front, but that can wait for another day.

Four days until the real football starts again.

P.S.

Regular readers will have noticed the site go up and down repeatedly again today. The final straw had already come and gone for me regarding my hosting, so rest assured that a transition is in process. The entire site is being redesigned and cloned elsewhere. When the time is right you'll see a new and improved version. Which might actually work.