In the 15 excruciatingly long years between 1991 and 2006, Manchester City registered not a single victory over Arsenal. To say the Gunners had become a bogey team was to underestimate the state of affairs quite radically.

Driving towards Cork Airport to catch a flight, “I feel a bit odd,” my husband says.

The Europa League is a Cinderella competition, usually neglected and often ignored, but tomorrow night in Stockholm, Cinderella might have a ball.

Arsene Wenger was first officially introduced as Arsenal manager at a Highbury press conference on September 22, 1996.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is Manchester United’s new Roy Keane, not Paul Pogba, argues Graeme Souness.

Gary Brennan seldom gets the chance to showcase his outstanding football talents for a national audience. But the Clare captain has won an army of admirers, including International Rules boss Joe Kernan, as the Banner’s footballers begin to rise again.

Everton 1 Manchester United 2

Emmanuel Petit thinks it’s time for a change at the top at Arsenal — though, out of admiration for his former manager, he stops short of saying that Arsene Wenger’s time at the club is finally up.

Mesut Ozil has become so synonymous with providing assists that Twitter followers suggested last night — after he provided two more in a potentially pivotal victory over Manchester City — that his surname should be included in the Oxford English Dictionary as a verb, as in: can I Ozil you in any way?

Man City 2 Swansea 1: Swansea City will step up their search for a new boss this week and the hotseat will look an attractive proposition despite a defeat at title favourites Manchester City.

Arsenal 3 Sunderland 1

It’s a safe bet none of the 22 players who start tomorrow’s Community Shield spent their formative years dreaming of winning this ‘prize’.

Nigel Winterburn’s simplistic approach to cone-running. Pat Rice gets mad. David Seaman is fussy.

If Poland coach Adam Nawalka thought beating world champions Germany in October and sitting in top spot after four games in Group D might grant him an easy ride in the build-up to tomorrow’s European qualifier against Ireland, he was wrong.

Cristiano Ronaldo got an early birthday present yesterday as the former Manchester United star was voted the greatest player to have graced the Premier League.

Stoke City striker Perter Crouch seemed a bit upset to have been overlooked for the FIFA Ballon d’Or award.

That one of Kerry’s greats, Declan O’Sullivan, won’t be around to set the standard in the dressing room for the All-Ireland champions in 2015 is a sobering prospect for Eamonn Fitzmaurice, writes Tony Leen.

Corner-back Eamon McGee may have a fear of flying but that’s not the reason Donegal will be taking the bus to Croke Park this weekend.

Louis van Gaal has vowed to win the Premier League next season, and then lift the Champions League as part of an ambitious three-year plan at Manchester United.

As Premier League transfer activity intensifies, armies of sports lawyers are poised for an orgy of t-crossing and i-dotting on complicated contracts.

THE BANNER held up in the Argentine end depicted Pope Francis with his disciples on either side.

Argentina 0 Netherlands 0. (AET) (Argentina win 4-2 on penalties)

World Cup Semi-Final

Ex-keeper still looking for answers 20 years after Ireland’s USA ’94 hopes ended in the furnace of the Citrus Bowl.

Former Arsenal footballer Ian Wright has revealed his MBE was among treasured memorabilia stolen by masked raiders who held a knife to his wife's throat and threatened to cut her and their two daughters' fingers off.

West Brom 3 Tottenham 3

Arsenal 4 Sunderland 1

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is in no doubt Mesut Ozil’s class will eventually tell — and one day perhaps even see him immortalised with a statue outside the Emirates Stadium like Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry.

You can observe a lot just by watching,” the quote machine that is Yoggi Berra offered and reading a book on and with Dennis Bergkamp in recent days, we’re guessing the Dutchman would agree.

It’s almost three years to the day that ESPN’s fabulous 30 for 30 series came into this column’s life.

Ajax have such a memorable past, as a football institution as well as serial winners, that it is easy to forget they have had their ups and downs.

With each passing week that we remain unbeaten, it’s becoming ever more of a struggle to keep our feet on the ground. I’m constantly repeating the mantra ‘let’s see where we are in a month or two’, before daring to predict any impending relief from eight barren seasons of this silverware-starved era.

Scenes of Arsenal fans celebrating outside their stadium were broadcast late into the night on September 1 and their team had not even kicked a ball.

This is a world which demands instant gratification; one in which you can play guitar on a games consul rather than practise the real thing until your fingers bleed; one in which football chairmen cannot wait months let alone years for success — and one in which high-profile transfer deadline-day signings are expected to be heroes before they have unpacked their suitcases.

Martin Keown believes Arsenal’s pursuit of Luis Suarez has made the Gunners feel better about themselves – now he wants them to sign someone.

IT WAS one of those rare perfect moments.

Andre Villas-Boas thinks a meeting that he held with Gareth Bale earlier this season may have been the spark that ignited the Tottenham forward’s devastating campaign.

If Arsenal really are pulling the Muhammad Ali rope-a-dope trick, then they are doing a damn fine job of lulling the opposition into a false sense of security.

Arsenal’s long drought of Irish first team players will continue after Conor Henderson confirmed he will quit the Emirates in May.

IN recent seasons it’s become commonplace to hear statistics based on the top five leagues, meaning the top divisions of England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.