News from England is that The Professor is keen to sell Freddie Ljungberg, Jeremie Aliadiere & Phillipe Senderos to clear the decks for new blood. Hate to see Ljungberg go. When he is healthy, he brings unbridled kinetic energy to the offense.

Aliadiere and Senderos...well, I wish them luck, but Arsenal is not the home for those boys. When given the chance, Aliadiere rarely created any goal threats. Senderos, a sweeper, created way too many. Drogba will be sad to see the Swiss defender go, I am sure.
Also on the blocks, still on-loan male model and sometimes football player JAR, Matthieu Flamini, and Alex Song. I agree with the boss. There's deadwood to be pruned.

Ever the politician, perhaps, Alexander Hleb, decides its an opportune time to liken his boss to God, saying the gaffer has "divine powers" to identify talent.

While it doesn't take divine powers to identify the talent of Emanuel Eboue, Arsene Wenger signed the Ivorian to a new long-term contract.

Great UEFA Cup final last night between Espanyol and Sevilla. I watched a bit of the OT and the PKs on replay and will have to watch the whole game later this week. Great goalkeeping by the Sevilla keeper during the PKs.

Former England Striker Andy Brooking says that not only has mega-signing Michael Ballack not lived up to promise for Chelsea, he has degraded Frank Lampard's performance as well.

Agreed. I think Ballack has been awful for Chelsea this year. I'd go so far as to say that the signings of Ballack and  Andriy Shevchenko were what lost the EPL championship. If it weren't for Didier Drogba and Michael Essien, Chelsea would have fallen out of the top four.   On Shevchenko, Brookings says:

"A lot of overseas players find the pace of the game tough in England, even with all the skills they have.

"Shevchenko doesn't quite seem to have that yard of pace to get away from opposition defenders," he said.