It was Good News Thursday in N5.

Ahead of our important third place face-off with Liverpool, the club slid some good news under the door. Good PR, gents.

Best news of all is that season ticket prices have been frozen again. Great news. With the new telly money and the increased revenues from the Grove, it would have been a travesty had they raised them. Nevertheless, the club has clearly listened to the way the wind has been blowing so fair play to them.

More good news in the shape a buyback scheme for season ticket holders. I believe other clubs are about to launch similar things, but as we’ve seen with the no-showers at the Grove it could free up over a thousand extra seats a game. And from my perspective, if any of the reprobates who usually take my seat in my absence are unable to do so, I’ll be able to get some money back from a different source.

Third bit of good news, sort of. Keith Edelman told us the board is “committed” to Arsenal, a phrase that is good enough for some but not comprehensive enough to stop the stories. Then again, in all fairness, would he have ever said “We’re definitely not selling”? I doubt it – businessmen are businessmen after all.

Final good news comes from the field. Clichy, Eboue and Adebayor return for tomorrow’s testing trip to the north-west, and not a moment too soon. With any luck we’ll have something akin to our best defensive line-up, something that has happened too few times this season and goes some way to explaining our uncanny ability to concede stupid goals at stupid times.

If you assume that our best defensive lineup is Lehmann, Clichy, Gallas, Toure and Eboue/Hoyte, then it’s telling that those partnerships have only begun two league games this season. (That said, those two games yielded one point, so hardly a ringing endorsement of my theory).

Final good news is that Adebayor returns after his scandalously long ban, and again, it’s not a moment too soon. Either Jez or Julio will make way, and possibly both.

It’s been two barren weeks, hasn’t it?