Lest we forget to be proud, Cesc has achieved something that neither Xavi nor Messi could. Unlike Xavi he supplied the assist for Iniesta to score, and unlike Messi, he now has a World Cup winners medal. Now I think that's quite impressive.

It was a constant source of bemusement to me throughout the World Cup that Da Boss, or whatever his name is, consistently refused to play the one mid-fielder who knew which way was forward. Yes, as an Gooner I am all too aware of the irony of that comment, but it doesn't make it untrue. It's not being overly myopic to suggest that had Cesc not been brought on, we would probably had the penalty thing. Actually as a mostly neutral, I quite hoped we might, but you can't argue with a psychic octopus.

During what was laughably considered to be a 'summing up' of the pundits after the match, I was struck by the hypocrisy in exactly the same way as Arseblogger. Having read his blog the next day I realised this and wasn't sure whether being that much in agreement with him was worrisome. After all some of his posts have been a tad existential. But in the end I decided it was a marker of great insight and intelligence, though not quite sure how. Anyway, the pundits were pants.

It was inevitable that being with a bunch of classless Barca types for so long, the Cesc to Barca thing was going to come to a head one way or another. What is surprising is that there is a fair chance that when everyone in Madrid has sobered up, they might decide that actually hijacking the national celebration to make a point for Barca, is a bit insulting to Real Madrid. Talk about your own back yard! Either way the shirt stunt was nothing but that. To quote from Forest Gump "Stupid is as stupid does". I think we have our proof gentlemen.

Still Barca have now very generously given us a time extension so we can realise that s** off is Catalan for 'we're ready to deal'. Amazing, what are the odds we should have such a specific misunderstanding in translation?

So we read that Cesc is playing us to get a move, he hasn't come out and said anything to suggest he doesn't want to go to Barca, and on and on and on. It's a great shame so many have come to such certain conclusions based on such little actual information. When I say actual information, I don't mean reading NewsNow and picking the blogs that most agree with your already formed conclusions. The facts are that there are precious few facts, and all of them point to Cesc still being an Arsenal player for the coming season. Everything else is speculation and regurgitation.

Everybody filters what they read according to what they already believe, so we have to assume that some have rather more specific filters than others. Or maybe are operating under some unstated agenda. I couldn't possibly comment. One thing I will say, all that Barca have been doing is specifically drive a wedge between Cesc and Arsenal. The team, the board, the manager and the supporters. Be careful how you choose to interpret what you see and hear, and please don't do Barca's job for them.

On a bright note, I realised that the new home shirt for this season is almost exactly the same as the very first Arsenal shirt I had when my dad bought me a full kit as a kid. Not sure why, but that's got to be a good omen surely?