The truth is..

Wenger has finally explained to us the problem that has kept him occupied lately. Apparently he's working extra hard to sign Sho Ito, an 18 years old Japanese starlet with exceptional talent. How such a talent is without club at the moment is beyond me.

"I like him, I want to sign him and we are applying for a working visa for him on the basis of exceptional talent," Wenger said.

"Last season we had an exceptional talent visa for a Cameroon international, Alex Song, and this player looks another exciting prospect."

Hey, Song actually qualified for an exceptional talent visa. Wonderful..

Don't get me wrong. I do find it exciting to have an Asian to play for Arsenal. I was excited when I found out that Inamoto signed for us. But it's helplessly depressing when you see how other teams are busily addressing their weaknesses with established players and yet your manager is happily pursuing an unknown 18 years old Japanese who, if signed, I doubt will feature this season anyway. Another Carlos Vela, another Fran Merida.

Regarding the one year loan at WHU for Tevez and Mascherano, many are saying that Roman is involved in the whole issue and when Roman is involved, I guess I can forgive Wenger for missing out on the players.

I will talk about Baptista the moment it's official that he is playing for us.

Here we go....

Someone please tell me that this website is fake:

http://www.carlitostevez.com.ar/por/index.php

Or please tell me that the West Ham banner there isn't indicating that Tevez has signed for West Ham.

I can't read Spanish but there seemed to be something about Javier Mascherano there and don't tell me both have moved to WHU, while Wenger is sitting happily in his office admiring the collection of his hugely talented youngsters.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

I don't need anyone to tell me that we have enough forwards, quantity-wise. But Tevez is a top, top quality and when such player is available, WELL... never mind. I am not the manager anyway. Even if Wenger decides to play Cygan all season, what can I do? Even if Wenger decides that Almunia will be our no.1 next season, what can I say?

He decides whether to spend or not. He decides how the team play.

Sigh..

Final Days

It gonna be hectic, it gonna be full of surprise moves and ops.. suddenly the transfer window ends and we've got no new signing to be excited about. Typical Arsenal's summer? I have said that I wouldn't waste my time in speculating and I am glad that I didn't because it was proven that we have bought no one apart from Rosicky and neither did we sell anyone up to this point. So much for the Cole and Reyes saga. Both may well end up as Arsenal players.

Cole played in the Reserves' 4-0 win against Charlton and I think that signal the end of the saga, for this season at least. Restoring his position in the first eleven is as good as telling other players that they can always mess with the club, attempt to engineer a move and should it fail, they will still be forgiven by Wenger as long as they are good enough. Bad example. I am afraid we will see more of Cole and Reyes' case happening in future.

But I think we have to accept that Wenger's hands are tied. We know teams have singled out Hoyte as our weakest link and even if Flamini were to play, he too is not as good as Cole. Wenger will not spend 15-20 millions for a LB unless he has received the money from Cole's transfer and therefore, we are unlikely to get Cole's replacement as long as he is not sold.

Now that Cole has decided to stay with us, the only logical option for Wenger is to play him. He needs Cole to win matches.

As for Reyes, this guy has gone as far as telling us that he won't be playing in England anymore. These words came from a guy who has just signed a contract that will keep him for the next... 5 years? I am open to the suggestions that he may not be a popular member in the dressing room, that he has been suffering from Henry's humiliating stare, that he just isn't happy at the moment. But why did he sign such a long extended contract then? Surely he was not forced to sign?

For all this excellent techniques, he really has problem with his brain department. No wonder he tends to make the wrong decision on the pitch. Between him and Walcott, I believe Walcott will grow into a bigger player.

With regards to the incoming players, the names are encouraging really. Tevez and Mascherano are the most exciting ones. Myles talked about the possibility of Buffon coming to us but I doubt that really. There is this young Scot forward on trial with us for two days. He won the young player of the year award so he will be very interesting too.

As far as forward/striker is concerned, Tevez and Torres are the only two I really wish to see Wenger buying. But what we really need at the moment is Javier Mascherano. A tough tackling midfielder with good reading of the game, pace and skill, he is a perfect holding midfielder we are missing on.

As I said earlier, we may well end up with nobody so don't take the rumours too seriously. It's exciting though.

Once in a blue moon

Bad ref? Yes. Unlucky? Yes. Dirty City? Yes.
But, here comes the question. Do we play like a title contender? NO!

Do we want to keep on blaming the lack of preparation? The lack of fitness? We might be lacking on fitness but I really think that this is not the reason why we lost.

I could really go through all the problems. But I don't feel like reiterating what have been said for hundreds of time. Nothing new. We know what's wrong with this team, even Pearce knows what is wrong with Arsenal. And he rightly exploited our weaknesses.

Let me try to end this post with a positive thought...

Our Brazilian was impressive tonight. Thank you and good night.

Arsenal 1-1 Villa

Myles Palmer was confident that we will be able to repeat that 5-0 scoreline against Villa, and to be honest I never thought of losing points in this game. But a new manager often has that luck of getting some result in his first few games. Credit to Villa for their effort in defending against us. They were certainly outplayed in every aspect of the game but they did not give up.

We lost two points but I was upbeat because the performance was a very good one. It was encouraging to see this young team played in such a dominating way despite losing some key players over the last two seasons.

Few things that caught my attention.

Djorou looked very composed though he still need playing time with Kolo in order to understand each other better. I do like Senderos but somehow I still feel that two quick centrebacks suit our games better considering we defend high up the pitch. There were situations in the game where we were saved by Djorou's pace. Senderos might be superior positioning wise, but similar to Hypia, he is always in trouble the moment the opponent manage to get past him.

Cesc looked stronger, much stronger. He held off challenges and he joined the attack more. He was very much involved and of course, his stepping on Poll is always appreciated. Gilberto, Ljungberg, and Hleb was okay. I guess they will be much sharper next week.

Theo Walcott- I guess I have nothing to add other than what have been said. I would only like to point out how he had done what our other players failed to do for the first 80 minutes. A decent cross into the box. His cross was nowhere as good as Giggs' cross that was converted by Saha against Fulham. Yet that was good enough to catch Villa offguard. A direct run, a cross. Simple. Much simpler than all those one touch passes we made right through the heart of Villa defense.

We had wider pitch but we didn't make use of it. We insisted on passing the ball short and through the centre. I agree that the quick interchange was beautiful and breathtaking to watch. But there are times when you have to vary your approach. Man Utd may not play as beautifully but to me, there is more dimension to their play and they were certainly more effective in stretching the opponent's defense. They were more lethal.

That said, we are still adapting to the new pitch and it's never easy. I believe our players will learn to make use of the pitch size the more they play and we will see a much improved performance the moment they start to feel at home. May that begin with the Man City game next week.

I don't forget that we still have a CL qualification game midweek but certainly we are not going to lose 4-1, are we?

On Community Shield

Oh just realised that I made mistake with regards to Cole's contract. He still has 2 years it seems. But his value will be reduced significantly come next year so yeah.. It's still better to sell him now. I will give him my honest appreciation when he is finally sold.

I know this is my Arsenal blog but I believe it's good to look at other teams now and then, especially now that the new season is about to start.

The Community Shield was nothing more than a try-out for both managers with Benitez once again proved that he is a Cup specialist. Riise's goal was terrific, typical Riise's run, typical Riise's long shot. Chelsea were stunned. Sheva's goal was a reminder to his ability. One good chance, one goal. He almost scored the second later on from corner. This guy could be that 30 goals a season player for Chelsea.

Benitez added Bellamy, Mark Gonzalez, and Pennant into the squad and the three of them have one similarity: Pace. Mark Gonzalez is especially quick, very quick. We will have to be careful with him. Bellamy could be a success now that he finally plays for a quality team. These three players will inject pace into their attacking force.

Their defense remained solid. Apart from the Sheva's goal, Chelsea were practically unable to break through. Sissoko was amazingly tenacious, Vieira-like. He was everywhere! Agger formed a solid partnership with Carragher, probably signing the end of Hypia.

Overall I think Benitez has done well this summer apart from the persisting need of another quality striker. I can see him buying though. He stated that his priority is to buy players who deserve to wear the Liverpool's shirt. Exactly the reason why he brought Folwer back.

It's not only about quality. It's about their attitude. He is trying to look for players who would be genuinely proud to play for the club. Of course you could argue that Bellamy and Pennant are not exactly the kind of players with the right attitude. I agree that he was taking a bit of gamble there.

Apart from these two new players however, you can see that Liverpool has done well to keep the players with the right attitude. No Cole or Reyes there. They have filtered out those with problems: Cisse, Morientes, etc. Alonso was direct with his rejection towards Real's approach. It's good to see that there is quality Spanish player who can resist the temptation of playing for Barca or Real.

I believe Wenger could do the same by letting go players whose mind is not in the right place. It's important that we avoid buying players who have clearly stated their preference is elsewhere. I am glad that Rosicky was one who has stated that his preference was Arsenal from the start.

Coming back to the Community Shield, Chelsea were not convincing last night but they are still experimenting with their new players I believe. Kalou was not that impressive to me and the same goes to Ballack. Essien was as irritating as ever with his style of play. I like Mourinho's hairstyle though =D

Although it was just a trivial game for both teams last night, the result underlined the importance of midfield. The battle was intense and Chelsea lost the game there. What about us?

Back from Hibernation

I have distanced myself from the transfer speculation. I have learned throughout the years that it's best to leave the media to do their work and ignore anything the players would say during the transfer window period. Especially, it's important to ignore what Arsene Wenger has to say because the only thing about him you should believe is his utmost determination and desire to deliver the beautiful football to us Arsenal fans.

The only thing I would like to say with regards to Cole's situation is this: He only has one year left in his contract. Either we get him to extend his contract or we sell him. We can afford to live without him but we can't afford to let him go for free next year. We need the money to strenghten the squad. And if an outsider like me understands this, surely David Dein too understands this.

The same thing goes to other players. I hope Wenger has learned from the Edu situation that whenever an important player reach the final year of his contract, we should make sure he sign a new contract before the summer transfer window ends. If the agreement can't be reached, we have to sell him and get his replacement.

Cole's situation will have a conclusion very soon. I guess most of us can only think of one possible outcome but let's just wait and see. I will talk about Reyes when it becomes clear where he will play this season.

I am more concerned with the fact that almost everyone has accepted that Chelsea will be the champions again. We have not even played a single game and everyone has given up the title. Similarly, everyone in the French league has accepted that Lyon will be the champions again, for the sixth time!

I am not an optimistic person but I still believe that we could challenge Chelsea for the title. If I were supporting Aston Villa or Wigan then yes.. I would be crazy to say that. But I have seen this young team played and prevailed against the best sides in Europe. We have a thin squad, yes. We have less glamorous players, yes. But playing football as a team, our best eleven is not inferior to their best eleven. In fact we are not inferior to any other team's best eleven.

Therefore, we have a chance.

We lost to the big teams last season (Chelsea, Man Utd) because they outplayed us tactically. We couldn't cope with long balls and physical forwards. That can be sorted out. Solid centrebacks partnership is the key.

We lost to the bully teams last season (Blackburn, Bolton) because our young players were still adapting to their rough approach. Towards the end of the season, I saw the sign that we have adapted and could cope with such teams. Adebayor and Diaby (when he returns) will be very important for this type of games.

Three senior players singled out for their inability to perform last season: Pires, Ljungberg, Campbell.

Pires has gone and Rosicky has come in. Rosicky is tenacious and thus, will solve the problem that came with Pires. I don't count Reyes in because his future is unclear at the moment.

Ljungberg was unable to score but towards the end of the season, he has found another dimension to his play. He was proven to be highly effective in 4-5-1 formation, taking the centre midfielder role.

Enough has been said of Campbell. He is gone.

The remaining seniors : Lehmann, Kolo, Lauren, Gilberto, Ljungberg, and Henry; they are all commited players who would help the youngsters to improve. More importantly, they are all professional and loyal to the club (at least for now).

More on the squad later.