Arsene All

Arsene Wenger celebrates his tenth anniversary as Arsenal manager at the Valley on Saturday, so it's an appropriate time to pay homage to the man who has perhaps done the most to improve the Premiership as a spectacle, let alone transformed Arsenal into one of the best teams in Europe.

Ok, I accept he's a bit of a pain in the backside and hasn't so much been brushed with an ugly stick, but beaten with it to within an inch of his life (is this what happened to Dowie then? - Ed.) However, when he took over at Arsenal, the club had finished 5th, 12th, 4th and 10th respectively before embarking on nine consecutive top three finishes, including three titles of course and records galore.

I've always had a soft spot for Arsenal, simply due to the fact that I was brought up in North London and they were the 'big club who weren't Spurs.' Since Wenger arrived, it's been hard not to admire the style of football they have played; at one point he even managed to make Ray Parlour a core part of it. So in short, if I was at the Valley I would be giving him a standing ovation even if no-one joined in with me.

However I won't be at the Valley, I'll be in an Irish pub watching it live and thus keeping up my 100% TV viewing record for our games this season. Most level-headed fans have agreed that we will only be able to properly judge Dowie when the fixtures level out and the injured players returned, so the case of 'Charlton Fans vs Dowie' will begin in earnest starting with the Fulham game.

If Dowie drops another H-Bomb (playing both Holland and Hughes) we have no chance; I can't recall such near-total consensus about the negative virtues of two players. It's not a personal thing, I'm confident both would be pleasant company over a beer or two, but they quite simply would not get into any other Premiership team. In his book The Wisdom of Crowds, the author James Surowiecki attacks the conventional wisdom, particularly prevalent in finance, that it is always best to be contrarian rather than just 'go with the flow.' Whilst I tend to disagree with him, in the case of Holland and Hughes, I am comfortable with the idea that the crowd are infact extremely 'wise' and Dowie (and Curbs before him) are just plain wrong.

Legendary soothsayer Derek Hales (KillerWatch©: -£225) is predicting more than 2.5 goals, and I suspect he will be right for once. NY Addick predicts: Charlton 0, Arsenal 3 (Henry, Van Persie, Rosicky)