This is the result of a long process of consultation and many hard-fought focus groups.

What our media experts told us was that our old logo was too "fussy", and that a more straightforward design using fewer colours is just what ArseWeb needs if we're to embrace the year 2002 and beyond.

There were particularly emotional discussions over the choice of the second background colour (the right hand side). To start with, the team felt very strongly that to introduce a colour which they felt to be, frankly, purple would be a big mistake. What connection does it have with Arsenal, they said? You might as well make it blue!

But in the end we were persuaded that purple is the colour to be seen in this year, and that this colour alone would bring millions more visitors flocking to the pages of Arseweb (and a hearty welcome to you all!).

And anyway it's quite a red kind of purple.

In the confusion, they then managed to slip some blue in under our noses too.

Why bring out a new logo at all? Well, apparently you have to keep rebranding yourself in this game to stay where you are, never mind progress. ArseWeb currently seats about 50,000 (regular users) which is great, but if we seriously want to compete with the big boys (Yahoo, MSN, Google, XXXXlookatmypants, etc) then we need to raise that figure by quite a lot. And the only way to do that is apparently not to maintain a high standard of content and up-to-datedness but to bring out a new logo now and then.

Suggestions that Arseweb will be bringing out a range of clothing to cash in on this trendy new image are purely speculation at this stage. But to show that we have the concerns of our users at heart, we do promise not to bring out more than 2 new logos in any one season (except for special occasions).

PS. for those who've forgotten already, the old logo looked like this. Completely different, and rather dated.