As the Mets' season stutters to an end, the Arsenal season has gotten off to a solid and impressive start

Heading in to the 2012 season all realistic Mets fans knew that our team would stink. However, the Mets went out and played some inspired baseball over the first three months of the season and made us cynical fans start to believe that maybe they really weren't that bad after all.

Crowd control at Citi Field

Then the All-Star Break came along and just like in Cinderella the clock struck midnight and the Mets magic evaporated. Like a punch to the gut, us Mets fans have endured an inept and embarrassing display of how not to win at baseball. The second half of the season has been pathetic. Here are just some of the ugly numbers the Mets had put up heading in to this weekend:

Home Record                                            4-24  (Doesn't inspire fans to head to the ballpark)
Away Record                                          16-19
Number of games where Mets' offense
has scored 3 runs or less                        41 of 63 for 65% (Futile to ridiculous)

RA Dickey earns win number 19

With just one week left remaining in yet another dreadful Mets season, there is one amazing story that Mets fans have been following all year. RA Dickey is just one win shy of a 20 game season and will have the chance to become just the second Major League pitcher to reach that number this year when he takes the mound later this week. He would be the first to do so for the Mets since Frank Viola in 1990. Dickey is also in the National League Cy Young discussion with a league leading 2.66 ERA.

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Talk of the demise of Arsenal after the defection of Robin "Judas" van Persie is fading away as Arsenal have gotten off to an impressive start and look to be a stronger and more complete squad than last season.

New signings Santi Cazorla and Lukas Podolski have been impressive with Cazorla dominating the midfield and Podolski delivering a couple of stunning goals.

Cazorla and Podolski are making their mark

Defensively, it's apparent that Steve Bould is having a major impact. The once shaky back four have looked solid and confident. Carl Jenkinson and Per Mertesacker often looked like fish out of water last season. So far they both look confident and have been at the top of their game. When Laurent Koscielny is being left on the bench for Mertesacker, you know things have turned around.

Then there's Gervinho. Today versus the mercenaries his finishing was definitely questionable, but his work rate and speed have been on display and he's almost scored more goals in one month than he did all of last season. Maybe the departure of the mighty ego has allowed others to step up and seize their opportunity.

Hey RVP, there's no I in TEAM.

Arsenal still need to get better at defending set pieces and they definitely need to work on their finishing and taking more shots from distance. Overall though, all is well. Compared to last year at this time, Arsenal are looking good.

Meanwhile, the Mercenaries, Manure and Chel$ki have not looked unbeatable and a feeling of new optimism is in the air. It's a long season and anything can happen along the way, but so far the signs are all positive.

Take that you mercenaries....oh and where's Na$ri?

Odds and ends:

The traitor has apparently been elected to be Manure's penalty taker and since the "league rules" mandate that ManU be given a phantom penalty in every match, last year's Golden Boot winner has the chance to run up his goal tally without earning it. So here are the new RVP song, lyrics courtesy of @SaabriinaaDee:

Sung to the tune of last year's "He scores when he wants" it goes, He scores from the spot, he scores from the spot, Robin van Persie only scores from the spot.

Here is previously unseen footage from a recent press conference featuring RVP and Fergie:



There have been a few rumblings of discontent over at White Hart Lane as AVB seeks to destroy whatever Harry built up. When he was at Chelsea one of my favorite sites to visit to stay up to date on AVB's status was: Has Andre Villas-Boas Been Sacked Yet?. Well, the genius who put that countdown clock together is back again:

Check out Has Andre Villa-Boas Been Sacked by Sp*rs Yet?. It's great for following along at home and good for betting with your friends. It's also inspired a new drinking game....whenever the British press uses the word "Crisis" about Tottenham, everyone drinks.

Lastly it's never too early to prepare for St. Totteringham's Day. To keep the party going all season long, here's a new Pinterest board "Countdown To St. Totteringham's Day 2013"..