By Boris Mellor
July 11 2009

I have long given up buying the Official Arsenal Magazine, mainly because I have tired of reading interviews with players pledging their loyalty to the cause two weeks before they clear off abroad for a big pay day. Also its sunny optimism is a bit like Soviet Weekly in the 1960's, "all those combine harvesters and ballet in the evening" to misquote Fred Kite.

However it is end of the season and the magazine does one thing very well and that is sum up all the assists, goals, and appearances. So there I was skimming the stats by my bedside lamp, hoping they would send me to sleep. If you haven't got the magazine I  find counting Tottenham fans is a good cure for insomnia, but I digress.

Suddenly one stat hit me between the eyes like a thunderbolt, it was in the "Official Arsenal Magazine Man of Match Tally", and yes it's really called that.  Robin van Persie came top he had won it ten times in total, seven of them in the league, nothing controversial there. Walcott, Fabregas, Nasri and Arshavin all hovered around 5 or 6, and Almunia had four well deserved entries.

Vela and Wilshire had one each in Carling Cup, fine no problem, and Bendtner and Ade had one each, which seemed to sum up their season accurately. Then the aforementioned thunderbolt Mikael Silvestre one!!! Must be the Carling Cup I thought, but no it was in the Premier League.

The Tally only gives numbers and competitions, not the actual game, but for the life of me I can't remember which game it was. Football is very ephemeral, how many goals do you remember each season? Perhaps it's an age thing, I can recall Charlie George's goal in the FA Cup Final, or Sammels' goal in the Inter Cities Fairs Final more easily than most goals over last ten years. Yes I can remember Bergkamp at Newcastle, RvP at Charlton, Kanu at Boro, Henry against Man U and Spuds, but most are forgotten.

However if Silvestre had a brilliant game last season I am sure I would have noticed it and remembered it. If not the actual game at least that he did play one. Perhaps like Soviet Weekly they felt the need to fiddle the production figures to make it look like the 5 year plan was on track.

Of course if they had a tally of stinkers that players had I am sure Silvestre would have been further up the list, and I am sure I would have remembered.