As David McSavage’s president of Ireland would say: Gidd Weevening!

The nights are drawing in, Transformers is almost out on DVD  and I saw a selection box in Tescos earlier – the summer is well and truly over. But Champions League football is back.

Tonight, we’re right into it: Arsenal are in Dortmund, Chelsea also face German opposition in Bayer Leverkusen and in the pick of the bunch, Ac Milan are in Barcelona.

Get in touch in the usual ways throughout the night.

I’ll try to keep an eye on all the games throughout the evening – I’ve set up a command centre not unlike that in which Obama and Hillary watched Navy Seals were choppering into Bin Laden’s pad.

TV3 are showing Arsenal in Dortmund however so that might be our main focus.

It’ll be interesting to see Mannschaft centre half Per Mertesacker back in his homeland on only his second outing for the Gunners. “He’s a big lad,” is Martin Keown’s assessment – and one who’ll bring much-needed leadership to Arsene Wenger’s defence tonight.

Feeling optimistic Arsenal fans?

Pep Guardiola’s just handed me his team-sheet. I read the Milan one on the BBC website.

Barcelona: Valdes, Dani Alves, Mascherano, Busquets, Abidal, Keita, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Pedro, Villa.

Subs: Pinto, Fabregas, Puyol, Thiago, Maxwell, Afellay, Adriano.

AC Milan: Abbiati, Abate, Nesta, Thiago Silva, Zambrotta, Van Bommel, Nocerino, Seedorf, Boateng, Alexandre Pato, Cassano.

Subs: Amelia, Aquilani, Ambrosini, Bonera, Emanuelson, Yepes, Antonini.

Masch and Busquets at the centre of defence is interesting enough.

Meanwhile, the wonderful OptaJoe tweets:

5 – Arsenal have already used more outfield players than they did in the whole of the 2010-11 Premier League season (23). Shuffle.

Here’s the teams in Dortmund: 

Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller, Piszczek, Subotic, Hummels, Schmelzer, Bender, Kehl, Gotze, Kagawa, Grosskreutz, Lewandowski.

Subs: Langerak, Da Silva, Zidan, Blaszczykowski, Gundogan, Felipe Santana, Perisic.

Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Song, Arteta, Walcott, Benayoun, Gervinho, van Persie.

Subs: Fabianski, Park, Andre Santos, Djourou, Arshavin, Frimpong, Chamakh. 

First a teaser: who can guess who this man is? He was at a training session in Manchester today. Leave the answer in the comments and I’ll fire a Ronnie Whelan autobiography out to the first correct.

The KPMG man is smiling and quietly observing the competition is conducted fairly over my shoulder.

GOAL! Barca 0 Milan 1 Deary me, Pato scores after a minute or so for Milan at the Nou Camp. Hate to say I kinda told you so about that centre half partnership.

Teamtalk tweet: “DISALLOWED GOAL! Chelsea 0 Leverkusen 0. Rolfes heads the ball in for Bayer but the goal is ruled out for a push.”

In the meantime, both Arsenal and Dortmund squander chances in what has been a really open start to proceedings.

Parish notices: I promised the good people at Heineken we’d mention their new game - Star Player, that you play while you’re watching games. It kicks off this evening. They’re giving away a Champions League trip every week and a runners-up prize of a fusball table for players that play here.

Arsenal are getting carved open in the meantime. Sagna’s taken it off the line there after he was dozing. This could be a long night for you Gooners.

Just look at all the hugging and kissing that was going on in the tunnel before the Barcelona-Milan game. Bleurgh!

Pato’s goal is the fastest in Champions League history – 25 seconds –  according to stopwatch enthusiast Jacob Steinberg.

But I reckon it’s this one.

If my sister’s reading this, Mayfield are 0-7 to 0-4 points up on Dillon’s after 15 minutes. To the rest of you: as you were.

Dortmund have another corner. Arsenal look ropey at the back and though this won’t be 8-2, there is that feeling of inevitably. Arteta in the  midfield hasn’t had the opportunity to prove what he can do yet either in the Gunners’s line-up.

Arsene Wenger looks pensive, high in the stands. They’re very steep stands by the way, he’d want to be careful.  I saw Brazil v Ukraine, I think, at the World Cup in 2006.  Very steep.

Here’s that Pato goal for Milan. Not too shabby.

In Barcelona, Milan are under serious pressure and it seems a matter of time until they equalise. Messi’s already hit the woodwork with a free and should have added a couple of more.

Van Persie has squandered a chance to put Arsenal one-up against the run of play meanwhile. I missed it to be honest, checking elsewhere. Typical.

Here’s that free-kick from Leo:

GOAL And, right on cue. Barcelona score. Messi’s run, Pedro’s finish. Abate seemed scared to put a tackle in on the Argentina No 10.

GOAL! Van Persie rifles one in, after the Dortmund skipper Kehl again plays a slack pass.

The Dutchman hasn’t looked sharp this evening but he made no mistake there on his right foot.

HALF-TIME Van Persie puts the Gunners one-up after some real pressure throughout the first period. Pat Rice will be pleased – he might smile.

We’re about to get going across Europe in each of the Champions League games. Here’s that Barcelona goal.

Such a piece of work is man.

GOAL! Barcelona 2 Milan 1 Ooof. David Villa with a cracking free-kick.

This is the game to watch, boys and girls.

I haven’t had the opportunity to watch too much of the Chelsea game, but by all accounts Andres Villas Boas is again engaging in some sideline yoga.

I often run home form the office to save time and bus money. Makes sense, AVB.

GOAL! David Luiz can play a bit for a big centre half. He puts the blues one-up after 67 minutes, bending it around Leno.

So there’s 15 minutes to go. Arsenal look a lot more comfortable at the back but don’t seem to offer anything – like the Irish economy – going forward.

Arsen… I mean, Pat Rice has sent on the impressive, young Emmanuel Frimpong to close up shop. As Jamie Redknapp is saying somewhere: top, top decision.

GOAL! Arsenal concede with two minutes on the clock. Mertesacker clears a free kick but it’s wellied back into the top corner (via a slight deflection in my opinon) by the Croatian Ivan Perisic.

A point’s no disaster for Arsenal. Though there’s still a few minutes to lose that, admittedly.

Chelsea are comfortable in the end with the very impressive Juan Mata adding a second – and the final whistle then going.

GOAL You won’t believe what’s happened in Barcelona. Having scored within a minute, then conceeding two to a rampant Barca, Milan have equalised.

Thiago Silva scores from a corner in added time. Pep will not be pleased.

So that’s Barca’s second 2-2 draw in a matter of days. They may be the best team to ever walk in Predators. But are they getting a little bit too cocky?

In the main competition of the night meanwhile, reader Trevor is the first (only) one to identify the elderly, Mediterranean-looking gentleman as Roberto Mancin’s papa Aldo.

So that’s your lot. I’m off for a recovery session of my own. Keep the comments coming and thank you all for your company throughout – even you Lawro.