Eduardo on his way, and something I missed yesterday

According to a Croatian website, Eduardo will be signing for Shakhtar Donetsk this week for €7.5m. This is good business for Arsenal, if true. I mentioned in yesterdays blog that Eddie has never recovered from his injuries at Birmingham, so a move away from the Premier League is best all round. He is/was a fantastically natural goalscorer and I am certain he would have been an all time great at Arsenal with his finishing ability. Thanks to the thuggery of Martin Taylor he will forever be remembered as the bloke whose Arsenal career was destroyed by a horrific leg-break. I feel cheated that we never got see what Eduardo could have achieved for Arsenal and I wish him every success. I'll always remember his headed, first-half goal, in his comeback game against Cardiff - it truly brought tears to my eyes, and was greeted with such warmth from the Arsenal players and fans alike. Thanks Eddie, we'll never know how good you might have been.

I was reminded by my Dad last night that there was one other absentee from yesterday at Birmingham - where was Denilson? Arseblogger has also picked up on this today. Denilson was struggling at various times last season with a back injury, which I believe was a recurrence of an old problem. I have never subscribed to the idea that Denilson is a poor player. In fact I think he is a very useful squad member, though not a first-choice man in my opinion. It is worrying to me, therefore, that he is nowhere to be seen - he hasn't been in any of the photos of the first-team in training either. If he is not in Austria come tomorrow I will suspect that he is either suffering a serious setback, or being transferred. Given the performance of Frimpong in yesterdays game, it could be that Denilson has played his final game and the young Englishman is set for a promotion. We'll wait and see.

I don't buy Arsene Wenger's explanation of Manuel Almunia's absence - he claims the goalkeeper is ill. Again. He also said there is no number one at Arsenal, and that he is not interested in Mark Schwarzer. Fine. Go and sign a TOP goalkeeper then, and stop cocking us around.

More tomorrow.