By Myles Palmer

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IT'S LUNCH in the Test - England are 127-5 - and time for a few words on football.

This is a developmental season and Arsene Wenger is a developmental manager.

In summer of 2006 he will sign some big names on big contracts so he can be strong in the Emirates Stadium.

Saturday was not his finest hour or his finest team selection.

In hindslight, there were few partnerships there.

Flamini and Gilberto don't play well together, neither do Toure and Cygan.

Toure is still in shock from his Ivory Coast trauma, losing 3-2 at home in the World Cup qualifying game.

ALL THE PLAYERS know that Everton will be a battle on Monday night, a war against a side who are tough but struggling and coming off a 1-0 home defeat by Portsmouth.

But Sol Campbell should be back for that game and Arsene may play him with Senderos.

Most fans think Arsenal can't compete for the title with this squad.

A few weeks ago I was talking to my best friend Doug.

"If he can finish second with this squad, he knows something we dont," I said.

"He definitely knows something you don't," said Doug, "And he knows something 18 other Premiership managers don't as well."

Another friend,a journalist, said,"He admitted last March that he should have bought in the January window."

Arsenal have been unloading high earners for a while now, trimming costs substantially, and Arsene says he doesn't want to kill what he did last year by bringing in names ahead of the youngsters who did so well for him last term.

That makes sense, but with Thierry now out for the next three weeks with a groin inflammation, the youngsters are under pressure to deliver at a time when Bergkamp is not looking as effective without Henry.

BIG MITCH thinks Dennis is the best player he has ever seen at Arsenal but even he now thinks Dennis shouldn't start if Thierry's not playing.

Having thought about that this morning, I agree.

THEREFORE IT IS TIME to get Reyes playing with Van Persie, who has very clever feet and can nudge and flick balls into space for him, as he did for the late goal at the Riverside.

REYES is a fast, gutsy player who can beat people and score goals and if his shot that hit the post had gone in after four minutes, Arsenal would have thumped Middlesbrough 3-0.

Reyes needs his mate Fabregas - those two will be vital against Thun, a game Arsenal will win handsomely.

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I LIKE the Berliner, the small Guardian that came out today.

We are a Guardian family, so it's a big thing for us.

I had two conversations with Caroline about it last Thursday, and Jan, Caroline and I talked about it on Friday, and then we had a row about it on Saturday.

Caroline is a student who last year bought the paper on campus for 20p.

"I buy the Guardian because I like the layout! I'm not happy ! I've just got a breakfast bar so I can spread out the paper and read it, and it's shrunk to this little thing!I'm gonna send them a short email."

So I've suffered four days of moaning about the Berliner and I'm dreading her Monday morning reaction as I'm sitting watching the cricket as she gets up and sits on the sofa in T-shirt and pajama bottoms, reading the hated new Guardian for the first time.

"I don't know where anything is....Are they gonna keep all the same sections? ....The photographs are amazing.Every photographer in the world will want to work for the Guardian ..."

MYSELF, I like it.And next week I will love it. Maybe.

But it's very, very, very weird to think that the old Guardian is a paper I will never see again.

If you read a typeface in a paper for 25 years, you read the words, not the typeface.You don't see the typeface, so you never think about it because it's as familiar as the hand on the end of your arm.

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WHAT A TEST SERIES !

Watching Warne v Pietersen is a technical battle, a human battle, so compelling.

Flintoff comes on, a schoolboy colossus, a 27-year old man-boy who makes it looks easy and needs to be six foot five because the ball is rearing up at him so fiercely and steeply...but he gets out !

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SCORECARD

Trescothick lbw Warne 33

Strauss c Katich b Warne 1

Vaughan c Gilchrist b McGrath 45

Bell c Warne b McGrath 0

Pietersen not out 34

Flintoff c & b Warne 8

Collingwood not out

TOTAL : 127- 5

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So England are 127- 5 at lunch with 93 scored this morning for the loss of four wickets and they are 133 runs ahead with 73 overs left to play on a lovely sunny day.

Pietersen has been dropped twice and hit in the ribs twice and he got a glove on one Brett Lee bouncer that would have taken his head off but went for four.

Did I once say that football is the only sport that matters?

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September 12th 2005

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