BY Football365.com

Much of the media seem to perpetually tell us that Owen is past it, he peaked in 98 and has steadily got worse and these critics often point at Owen's loss of pace as proof. And then when he comes back from an injury and looks out of form they tell us how without his pace he can't play.

These critics often have short memories, Owen does this all the time, he'll get injured, come back, look rubbish and then go on a scoring spree to defy critics. Let's remember that Owen's goalscoring record through his career is excellent, both in club and international football and contrary to critics' belief, his game isn't about pace, and hasn't been about pace for quite a few years now. His role that he plays at Newcastle shows there's much more to his game than past pace glories and that even though football has changed in the last 10 years, he can change with it. Credit where it's due please.

Sean Dylan (armchair Palace fan in exile in Manchester)

We All Want To Be Avram Grant...

I am tired with all this criticism of Avram Grant. I think the reason why everyone is so annoyed with him is because they are all just jealous. Isn't Grant living a soccer fan's biggest dream. I mean, think about it, he is playing Football Manager but with actual players. Like his reaction when Wigan scored in the last min...no-one could understand his reaction because those kind of things don't happen in Football Manager. I am sure he knows that no-one on his team listens to him - the reason why the team is still functioning is because the players are professional and hungry for success. We all know he is going to be found out sooner rather than later but till he is the manager let him enjoy himself he gives all of us hope that maybe one day any of us might make a friend with a rich dude who will give us a football club to manage. So I call on football fans who have dreamt of managing their club to cut some slack to Mr Grant after all he is just living his dream.

Suren Lalwani

Grant Or Rafa Will Go Before Arsene

As an Arsenal fan as long as the team are competing for the main prizes then Wenger should stay. We've been competitive nearly all season as far as I can tell. We were top of the league for most of it and only stopped being contenders for the Premiership and Champions League come April, a vast improvement on last season and showing the club is moving in the right direction. Do people actually forget Wenger didn't win anything in 1999, 2000 and 2001? No one was calling for his head then if I remember and that's when we were Manchester United's only real competition in the Premiership. Look at the Arsenal team that followed in the next three seasons.

It's a lot tougher now with Chelsea and Liverpool also being contenders. Perhaps a barren spell like this is not acceptable for the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United or Liverpool. The ludicrous amounts of money they spend on players it's imperative that they have some success every season. Just a reminder then that potentially two of these teams (Chelsea and Liverpool) can still end the season empty handed. This really is a step back for them and why I reckon we'll see Grant or Rafa go long before Wenger.
Eliot Coxon, London

Gunners Reasons To Be Cheerful

Despite the meltdown Arsenal suffered in the last few weeks, there are a few reasons that should keep us happy until next year:

-Walcott has been AMAZING for the past months, and is sending Eboue out the back door.
-We only have to endure Gilberto, Eboue and senderos for three more games.
-Rosicky won't be playing at the Euro, meaning get injured for 'a few days'
-Belarus didnt qualify for the Euro, so Hleb will also not suffer a freak injury.
-Henry will eliminate Manchester Utd (he loves scoring against them) so the cocky b***ards will shut up.
-Again, When Henry picks up his usual summer injury, it won't affect us.
-We are indifferent, meaning we dont have to watch, the dreadful tie Chelsea-Liverpool.
-Our next game against Derby will give our players a big boost and promises an avalanche of goals.
-We wont be subjected to the 'will he go will he stay' saga about Henry.

so come on cheer up guys, there is always next year...

Guillaume (predicting Henry will score a hat-trick on Manyoo, you heard it here first) I

In Praise Of RVP

An all-round entertaining display by Arsenal on Saturday, but one thing that really stuck out for me was the quality of their corner-kicks. Almost all of them were absolutely lethal. I loved when Van Persie dummied a cross, took it around the defender and then laid it off to Fabregas who put in a wonderful cross which Song should have scored from. Obviously the defender wised up a bit so he stopped doing a big jump for the next few. But then in the second half he must have forgotten what had happened in the first, because he did the big jump again and Van Persie just did the exact same trick, making the defender look like a complete tool. Great stuff.

I really hope Van Persie can go injury-free for a long stretch, because in Saturday's game (and in many of the others he's played in) he's showed almost Bergkamp-like quality, which is one of the highest compliments you can give a player. If he can keep himself fit, then next season he can certainly provide the creative alternative to Cesc Fabregas which Arsenal so desperately needed in the latter half of this one.

Trying To Debunk The Young Gunners Myth

"We have a very young team with a great future."

For sake, I'm getting so sick and tired of hearing this old tune being played. And the media still bang on about it too.

A 'Young' team? Sorry what? This team has been young for so f***ing long it's as if they play in Neverland with Peter Pan and not the Premiership. Do they not grow old or something? Is there this amazing ability that the goon players simply don't age? Because granted they were young three years ago, but now surely the team must have aged somewhat??

A young team that got knocked out the Champs League, yet the team that was out against Liverpool had an average age of around 25...so is that now considered young? In that case Teddy Sheringham could be considered at the peak of his career.

Can someone please clarify this for me? Coz I'm sick and tired of hearing the same excuses from those south London supporters for the past few seasons. You threw it away yet again, your team are no longer young, you do have some great players, you can blame injuries but it happens to every club, it's football, get over it. Stop playin the same excuses when you throw it all away next season.

Dip 'Strange How The GoonScum can't fill their stadium soon as their seasons over - great real fans' Sethi

So Where's The Rooney-Bashing?

Are all the puritan utd fans queuing up to slate Gerrard last week going to similarly condemn Wayne 'most odious man in football' Rooney.

It's no wonder Fergie piles pressure on refs, it seems to allow utd players to play by a different set of rules.

The Count of Monte Christo

Good to see F365 has pilloried Rooney as much as they did Gerrard for his diving at the weekend. I hope all the Mancs writing in slating Gerrard are suitably embarassed after this weekend. Rooneys dive was horrendous, much worse than anything Gerrard has ever conjured, as Rooney's dives tend to be when he does go down.

I just think it's a pity that the same consistancy wasn't shown to Rooney from the ref (I realise it wasn't the same ref but I thought they were clamping down on this?), after he unleashed reams of abuse that made Mascherano look like a timid little creature by comparison. Further evidence that Mascherano was punished for Ashley Cole's actions and that you can do anything you want if Alex Ferguson is your manager. And he compounded his error by lettling fly with a horrific waist-high scissors challenge that he should have walked for alone, as it showed no intent to get the ball, just to hurt a player because things weren't going his way.

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