Keown and Seaman, both of whom had decent games, were the only Arsenal players I recognised.

Except that I recognised the reckless Ashley Cole challenge on 10 minutes which saw him sent off, and Engonga scoring the penalty. It was the same sort of tackle which should have conceded a penalty for England last week, trying to wrap his foot around from behind, something he really has to cut out of his game. Hopefully it'll come along with better positional awareness.

Henry was booked for diving for what looked like a certain penalty and Jeffers missed a couple of chances (one excellent one in the dying seconds from a great Parlour cross).

But really it was a miracle we kept the score down to 1. In the last few minutes after Jeffers Kanu and Parlour had come on we created a few half-chances for an equaliser, but it would have been less than Mallorca deserved, and we only got 1 shot on target in the whole game (while Seaman was kept pretty busy).

See reports page for full, agonising report, and list of links to reports on other sites.

Things can only get better. And I've always felt uneasy when we're favourites for something.... Nope, it's no use. This was just awful.

Ok, I just heard: Schalke lost 2-0 at home to Panathinaikos. Things could be worse. But we face Schalke next week with both sides already desperate for a win.

This league format for the opening stages... not such a bad idea after all, is it?