Way back in the 1990s any Arsenal fan who wanted to express his own views on the club and what it was doing, would have had no choice but to start a fanzine.

And if you were a supporter who wanted more news and thoughts on the club than could be found in the newspapers, you would have had the choice of quite a few different publications – each with its own angle. Popular titles included Highbury High, One nil down two one up, Up the Arse, Gunflash, Arsenal Echo Echo, An Imperfect Match, the Gooner and indeed many more.

But as we entered the 21st century the number of fanzines declined, and today we are down to just one or two.

Instead we have the blogs.

The rise of the blogs has been inexorable and it seems like it is not going to end.

No one quite knows how many Arsenal blogs there are operating on the internet, but the best guess is that it is probably between 100,000 and 150,000 at any one time. A phenomenal number when compared with the half dozen or so when publications were printed rather than on the internet.

The question of why there are so many is a puzzling one for several reasons. All professional clubs have blogs, but virtually no other football club in the UK has this level of attention focussed on it by its fans.

So what are all these blogs doing?

Well, if you have a look at the rolling news service of GoonerNews.com, you’ll realise at once that transfer rumours make up the bulk of the articles that appear.

But if you are not interested in reading the latest transfer stories, don’t pause at this point, because although the transfer rumour is the bread and butter of Arsenal blogs, there is much more available for you if you start to look.

The first thing you’ll notice if you start looking through the lists is that a fair number of Arsenal blogs are very critical of the club and particularly of its manager. The notion is that the manager has some simple faults which anyone with any sense can see, and really the only thing the club can do is to move the manager on.

In this regard the blogs take their lead from the national press. Although journalists allow themselves to be positive occasionally, mostly they criticise.

But what you will also see is that some of the blogs and news sources have got their own agendas – and this is where you can really find some hidden gems – if you are willing to go looking.

For here, among all the transfer stories you will also find web sites that focus totally on Arsenal’s academy, sites that take the view that there is nothing wrong with the management at all, blogs that focus on Arsenal’s tactics, sites that do nothing but chart Arsenal’s illustrious history, some that look at finances and even sites that focus on the way referees treat Arsenal.

And there are even sites for Arsenal fans in different parts of the world.

So who runs all these blogs? Well, mostly but not totally they are run by individuals who primarily do it for fun as opposed to doing it for financial gain.

But does this huge number of blogs mean that the world of blogging is full? Not at all, for there are new blogs starting up all the time. In fact in the next article I’ll have a look at just how you can start up your own blog – and indeed how you can get yourself an audience.

However for the moment you should recognise that whatever you particular interest in Arsenal there will be blogs out there giving you exactly the information you want.

All you have to do is scroll down the list on Goonernews and search out likely looking articles.

In the meanwhile if you are thinking of going to an Arsenal match at the Emirates Stadium you might care to have a look at the articles on how to get tickets for matches to watch Arsenal, and how to get to the Emirates stadium (including where to park your car).

Written by Tony Attwood (aka Jacko Jones), publisher of the excellent Untold Arsenal.