"the sight of Kanu emerging for his miserly nine minutes of action at the end seemed to speak tellingly enough. No pupil will dictate to the headmaster. The catcalls from the fans towards Kanu represented a chorus of support for Wenger."

Let's be clear about this. Every time the Nigerian wizard runs onto the pitch for Arsenal, he is greeted by the calling of his name. His name ends in a sound which to the ininitiated might sound like booing. It is not.

Was Mr Chadband at the game last night? Did he not hear the same noise shortly after Kanu came on, when his first contribution to the game was a classic bit of Kanu control followed by a goal-bound shot deflected for a corner? Did he not wonder why a bit of skill (and positive play) like that was greeted by more "catcalls" from Kanu's own fans?

Mr Chadband is, presumably, not completely new to English football. Like us, he will have heard the West Ham fans calling Abu's name in similar fashion (before Arsenal signed Kanu). Perhaps, like me, the first time Mr Chadband heard that sound he mistook it for booing. But like the rest of us, he will have quickly learned his mistake.

So why the bare-faced misrepresentation?

Perhaps there's a clue in his next sentence:

"They [Arsenal fans] clearly don't take kindly to those perceived to be rocking Highbury's 'all for one, one for all' boat."

There's nothing the football press like better than trying to rock Arsenal's boat, and currently they're latching onto Arsenal's "problem" up front (that's the "problem" of having 4 world class strikers) and switching from one to the other trying to stir things up and cause problems for us.

In the last few weeks they've been flitting from one to the other. Bergkamp's unhappy at being left on the bench. Then Wiltord's unhappy. Now Kanu. Well of course they are, they want to play. But they're not stupid. Kanu understands that his return from injury coincided with Bergkamp hitting a run of form. Earlier in the season it was Kanu who was ahead in the pecking order. Swings and roundabouts, innit? The idea that either of those 2 supremely gifted players has such disrespect for the other that they feel they can demand an automatic place ahead of him is absurd, as is the idea that Kanu thinks he could get more regular first team football by moving to a club like Real Madrid. It don't work like that. To play every week you move to a smaller club.

The players' frustration is continually being dressed up as mutiny by the pathetic tabloid press, and they like to imagine that the fans believe every word, that the fans will boo one of their heroes just because the press say they want to leave. We don't. Sorry guys but your influence is not what you'd like to think it is.

We've said it before and we'll say it again. This is a public warning to all Arsenal players. Arsenal fans do not automatically believe what the English press say about your state of mind, and you must not believe what they say about ours. We must not allow these parasites to manipulate us in that way. Want to know what the fans think? Ask us.

What I think is: we've got 3 of the most talented strikers I've ever seen playing for us at the moment (no disrespect to Wiltord, whose time will come). Sometimes I have to pinch myself. Boo any of them? You're having a laugh.

So what do we think of Ian Chadband, everybody? All together now...

Chadboooooooooooooo

(ok, rant over. normal relaxed attitude will be restored asap)

Incidentally, many thanks to the folks at the Grimster website for drawing our attention to a new, unbiased news service called ToshTalk. We'll be sourcing all out news from there from now on, so as to be sure it's fair and balanced.