Everything seems to be progressing well in Goonerland, especially judging by the positive nature of the recent articles posted on the site. Indeed there is room for much optimism, with the North London derby looming (a game I shall be attending so watch out for a bonus article this weekend) Arsenal FC could be top before the 3pm fixtures on Saturday.

Last week's win at Everton showed in many ways we may have what it takes to mount a sustained challenge in the Premier League this season, in short, just like the Wolves game, we didn't play well yet still won. Three points were gained with strong wills and mental fortitude rather than flair imagination and individual skill, however it may take many more performances such as these, coupled with "Playstation Football" to win silverware this season.

Without doubt Tottenham are a stronger prospect than they were 4 or 5 seasons ago. However player for player I cannot think of many Spurs players who would get into the Arsenal line up

Gomes - prone to howlers, poor on crosses. I would take Fabianski who has made up for his howler against Newcastle. 
Essou Ekoto - no better than Clichy, lacks Clichy's pace to make up for errors 
Gallas - Truly Arsenal are better off without him at the E******s. Would love it if he had an absolute howler on Saturday. Squillaci is a superior replacement who does a better job with less fuss - much less fuss

Kaboul - Djourou is emerging as a rock at the back. Kaboul can be inconsistent at the best of times 
Hutton - Sagna is currently in a rich vein of form as England will attest to... 
Bale - Would you swap him for Arshavin? A few good runs against Inter does not make him a world beater. Arshavin is just as capable of pulling a rabbit out of the hat. Bale could make the Arsenal bench at best.

Modric - Ok player, not a patch on Cesc though. 
Jenas - excuse me while I get back up my seat from laughing so much. To think we were linked to Jenas when Vieira left many moons ago. Maybe Wenger would have made a player of him, anyway we have Song who is now a key member of the team.

Van Der Vaart - Taken a lot of plaudits this season, rightly so, as did Arshavin when he first arrived in England. VDV will eventually hit the wall and opposition teams will find ways to play against him. Nasri meanwhile has developed into a very good player, maybe as important as Cesc. They can have VDV for all I care, we have Samir....

Crouch - If AFC were to open up a zoo or if Gundnersaurus retires, Crouch would be an ideal addition/replacement, anyway I won't waste my time comparing the merits of Chamakh to a Crouch. Chamakh should be down for player of the season so far such has been his impact.

Defoe - good finisher but does the square root of nothing else. Our options and depth in this department underline the squad strength at the moment in which we could add Walcott, Bendtner or RVP (now he his back to fitness!), all of which are the envy of Spurs fans (who will secretly admit it once you buy them enough beer).

So perhaps Bale (only due to current form) would have a chance of getting into the AFC squad. Our only Achilles heel is our current home form, however both of these losses can be fully attributed to goalkeeping errors, otherwise I would like to see a repeat of the 3-0 win last season. Oh the memories! We had only just finished celebrating the first goal only for Cesc to score under ours (and the Spurs players') noses!

Other fond memories? Well how about Henry's run from the halfway line at Highbury in 2002 past the entire Spurs team en route to a 3-1 win? Or Tony Adams in the FA Cup semi final in 1993 to make up for the painful defeat via Gazza in 1991? Going to the Lane in 2004 and securing the title? These are just a few to name... We have been truly spoilt in the last few years, to such an extent that the 2-1 victory for Spuds at the Lane last season (fluky goal by Danny "never heard of him again" Rose, and a man of the match performance by Gomes) was greeted with the euphoria that an Arsenal fan would react to if we had won the Champions League!

Come 2.30pm on Saturday I have a nice feeling that the away end at the Emirates will be nicely deserted due to the Spud "faithful" taking an early exit via an annual thumping by their more illustrious neighbours. They are so sick of us they want to move to East London! This is fine by me as there was only ever one team in North London in the first place! Ardiles, Chaz and Dave, Hoddle, Waddle, Danny Baker, Richard Littlejohn to name a few, be pre-warned, come Saturday your boys will take one hell of a beating! I will send you a DVD in the post...