» The Gooner World

If someone drew a productivity chart out of Sol Campbell's footballing career, the laws of Economics, more precisely, the law of diminishing marginal utility would be perfectly understood: Spurs defender -> the lowest ebb in the foodchain for a self-respecting footballer -> Arsenal defender - playing along side then defending giants of the English game - An Epl medal winner -> A Champions league losers medal -> An FA cup winner -> A league two player with no self dignity what so ever.

If the scales had been stopped then, Sol Campbell would have been a household name in all Economics textbooks as a perfect example for the above-mentioned law. However, Sol Campell refused to accept Morecambe to be his final resting place.

After quitting Notts County with no iota of dignity whatsoever, upending Notts County in the process, everyone must have been ready with a footballing obituary for Sol Campbell, even this writer read some.

But no one said this to Arsenal, more importantly to Arsene Wenger. He re-signed Sol Campbell, Arsenal's first ever player to come back during Wenger's reign.

Campbell's first match back, a romantic FA cup encounter against Stoke, was more about him testing out the elasticity of the legs, the thought process of his brain and the passion to be back, rather than keep a clean sheet to help Arsenal ease into the next round. He got a few headers of Sidibe and Fuller, lost some battles which had pace written all over it, but more than anything, the passion and the steely resolve was back - or did even disappear.

Then in that match where Ramsey was injured, while everyone were on tears or were consoling fellow players, Campbell wore a disinterested almost bone-chilling look: the message was clear, these things happen in football, let's get on with it.

After Vermaelen tapped in the third goal of the night, Campbell, with one foot on the hoardings, was fist-pumping while his much younger colleagues were gasping for breath.

For a 35-yr-old, let alone the physical tortures of playing at centre-half for a side like Arsenal, the body will already be crumbling under the weight of 20 years of intense physical training. But, for Campbell, even though the pain will not allow him to play more than 90 minutes a week, the eustress will guarantee him the physical and the mental satisfaction which will offset the physical pain.

Talk of playing for the Blighty at the World Cup would be a very myopic assessment, but with Ferdinand's injury troubles and John Terry's infidelity causing problems in the English camp, Campbell might yet don the three Lions jersey at the World Cup - on a more deserved basis than former Galaxy David Beckham.

For now though, Sol Campbell is discovering new boundaries of the term swan song, while Arsenal are breathing new life into a lost cause.

As the clock struck 5 PM on a rather cold British summers day, people-footballers and agents-would have felt an involuntary, intangible window closing on them for the next for the next four months. Like a waft of thick air, circling over their heads and vulturing down on them to complete the misery.

As Aaron Ramsey stroked in Arsenal’s fourth, in a sun-swathed Emirates stadium, Wenger might just begin to feel more and more vindicated by his stubbornness in not willing to invest to replace the outgoing players.

It was the Arsenal of old which turned up at Emirates; the blitzkrieg counter-attacking, the silk and delightful passing, the jaw-dropping one-two’s, this was the Arsenal which loved to play football.

Arsenal did take time to find their stride, but once they did, Pompey were always chasing shadows for the length of the pitch. They were resistant for quite sometime, but the once the wall was broken down, it was always going to be a rout.

Eduardo, who started his first EPL game since that fateful day at St. Andrews, showed some mesmerising down the left hand side and then squared the ball quite brilliantly for Abou Diaby who lifted the nall into the top corner of the net from 18 yards. The next goal came in the next minutes.

From a deep-lying Arsenal area, Fabregas released Eboue with microscopic precision and Ivory Coast man, starting his first EPL game of the season, put it on a plate for Diaby’s second from the edge of the six-yard box.

The bell-ringing visitors had hope around the corner. From a Krancjar corner, the ball found Belhadj, who put in a teasing cross into the six-yard box. Younes Kaboul escaped the attentions of his marker and Almunia went backwards to cope with the rising ball, but the young Frenchman took advantage of the situation to make ir 2-1 before half-time.

Second half saw Fabregas removed in place of Ramey, with the Spaniard suspected to have complained about a tight hamstring. Pompey had the better of the early exchanges in the second-half and could have had a possible last-man offence against them. But the referee ruled in favour of William Gallas the the gunners. When you are down at the bottom, things never go your way.

Gallas and Vermaelen combined to make it three on the day for the gunners, the Frenchman enjoying a great scoring start to the campaign. David James was substituted, while Arsenal called upon Merida and the impressive Bendtner.

Robin Van Persie cut a frustrated figure as he could not score from numerous opportunities but he will be satisfied with the pass which found Ramsey. This goal was the Welshman’s first in the EPL.

Manchester United played superbly to put aside any doubts on the frying pan with five unanswered second-half goals.

The stage is now set for the Arsenal and Man United, undoubtedly the doyens of the English game, to do battle next weekend and chalk up a victory in the psychological department.

Whenever the Champions league music is played, there is that uncontrollable feeling of emotion. With the music plus a chorus of Scottish fanatics crying “You Will Not Walk Alone,” one might have wondered whether this Arsenal side had the bottle to cope with the situation and come out trumps. They did have the bottle and dismantled Scotland’s best, Celtic, two-nil in a warm evening at Parkhead.

Before the match three Arsenal players had fitness tests, one of them being Fabregas, the others being Denilson and Sagna. All three of them cleared the tests. Celtic also had injury problems going into the game but Loovens did manage to make the final cut.

The match started a bit sombrely with both teams testing each other out. Arsenal’s counter-attacking system was deployed more than once as the half wore on, but it was Celtic who had the first clear opportunity. From an Arsenal corner, the ball broke kindly to the Men in Hoops, and if not for Thopmas Vermaelen, who put in a last ditch clearence, the story could well have been different.

Arsenal, then began playing with their usual style and substance and the gulf in class was pretty evident. The first goal did come pretty soon but in the most unlikeliest of fashions. From a Fabregas free-kick, 25 yards out, the captain took his shot. The ball was deflected to the other side of the goal by William Gallas, completely wrong-footing Artur Boruc, the Celtic keeper. A lucky break for Arsenal before the whistle.

Celtic were the dominating of the two parties in the early exchanges of the second half, but they could not do anything with the possession they had. Arsenal flicked the switch with incoming Diaby replacing the Russian, Arshavin. It immediately paid dividends. Diaby showed some brilliant skill down the left hand side before passing it to Clichy and from his cross, Gary Caldwell put in to his own net.

Arsenal were well on thier way to the group stage proper. Marc-Antoine Fortune and Scott McDonald both came in for the Hoops but the Arsenal back-four stood the test of time and the atmosphere to return home with a famous result.

The return leg is fixed for next Wednesday and Arsenal might well ring-in the changes as they have two daunting trips to Manchester, first to the red-half and then to the blue-half, all in the space of a week.

With classiness and sumptuous football, Arsenal dismantled Everton 6-1, in a humiliation at Goodison park. By the time the final whistle was heard, boos rang around the stadium as thr Blues faithful were voicing their disgust at the Everton team and its manager, David Moyes.

Get the drums out of the lockers, get the fireworks and the pyrotechnics to work in tandem, get your bottle of beer and a packet of chips, get the posters hanging from the walls, besiege your cable guys and forget about the outside world; The greatest football league in the world, after in-absentia for three months, is ready to show its face once again in a new avatar.

With more than a month to go for the start of the next BPL campaign, this post is way too early. But my excitement has reached fever pitch and here goes my first blog about Arsenal for the 2009-2010 campaign. What I want to do in this blog is to give a quick run through on all the players who are expected to play a major hand in the season and the reasons why we should keep them (and why should not keep them).