´óÏó´«Ã½

Arsenal players surround referee Phil Dowd at the final whistle after last season's enthralling 4-4 encounter against Newcastle at St James's Park. PHOTO:GETTY

Ìý

I went to watch Fulham play a Europa League tie in July and watched Brighton’s Carling Cup tie on Tuesday. I recorded the Community Shield last Sunday and will watch that over the next few days.

The end of the close season is the time when I start to update all my statistics. I have a wealth of information stored on my laptop, which is one of the most valuable possessions that I own. Contained in it is a commentary sheet for each team that I am likely to cover.

Hopefully that sheet will have every piece of information that I would ever need to know about every player in the squad. I might have a stat on a player that remains unused for 200 games but then on the 201st it might prove to be extremely useful.

I could not swear that all the stats I have are absolutely correct and mistake-free but put it this way, I would not trust anyone else to update them! I am very meticulous about them and have built them up and updated them over many years.

This weekend I am covering Arsenal at Newcastle on Saturday and West Brom against Manchester United on Sunday. Before then I will sit down at my laptop for a lengthy spell of updating stats from the last time I saw each side play, as well as inserting all the summer signings and taking out players who have left the club. Each club’s crib-sheet also contains information about attendances, backroom staff and lots of other details.

Before I cover a team for the first time in a new season I might also try to watch them at their training ground, call the manager or view a DVD of some new signings in action.

An ideal situation is to have one or two reliable contacts at a club who can put you in the picture about events over the summer and perhaps give you a steer on team news ahead of a specific match. Sometimes a manager will happily reveal his line-up the day before a game. On other occasions he will not answer his phone.

Hopefully this will mean that I am fully up to date on Saturday, when I hope to see a repeat of what was one of the best games of last season ; Newcastle’s jaw-dropping comeback from 4 – 0 down to draw with Arsenal.

With the benefit of hindsight it was probably the game which signalled that Arsenal were just not equipped to win the title. Their blistering first half was arguably the best 45 minutes from any team last season, it was almost beyond description.Ìý Their abject collapse once Abou Diaby had been sent off was almost beyond belief.

Looking at Arsenal’s squad six months later and any improvements have been more than offset by the imminent loss of captain Cesc Fabregas. It’s a bitter blow, not only because of his ability as a player, but because of the awful signal it sends out to his team-mates and the club’s increasingly frustrated fans. Arsene Wenger must now go against his nature and spend on at least one big-money, big name before the end of the month.Ìý

In comparison to the doltish Carlos Tevez, Fabregas’ own behaviour has been pretty dignified, but Barcelona put Arsenal in a terrible dilemma by publicly courting a player who obviously wants to join them without offering a sensible transfer fee. As a result the saga dragged on far too long. Arsenal simply could not allow the issue to impact still further on the start of their season.Ìý I cannot see anyone challenging Manchester United, Chelsea or Manchester City for a top four place, but Arsenal will be the target Spurs and Liverpool are aiming for.Ìý

However unhappy Arsenal fans might be, they should spare a thought for their Geordie counterparts.

I see that Alan Pardew is one of the favourites to be the first top-flight manager sacked, and I can see why. Not because Pardew won’t do a decent job diligently, but because he might just be starting to get under Mike Ashley’s skin.

The last thing the owner seems to want is a manager with ambition to do much more than stay in the league. Whilst Ashley keeps a low profile, Pardew keeps having to explain why the Andy Carroll millions remain largely unspent and why the club accepted an offer from a Championship side for last season’s top scorer Kevin Nolan.Ìý

Pardew’s recent and honest assessment that the club are not in the market for top players is unlikely to have been welcomed by the man in charge. If Pardew does go, what’s the betting that Newcastle’s next boss comes from the list of theÌý medium-term unemployed for whom managing bound and gagged is better than not managing at all?

And if that does happen, you can rest assured that I will have some stats about the new boss somewhere on my laptop.

Ìý