Arsenal – Everton Preview

so, no one arrived, lotsa people on loan, we sell Barazite (not that he would change anything, but its still players leaving), and Flaps could be out for the rest of the season...?
Arsene, Arsene, its still 4 competitions my dear professor, mathematically we would 2 subs for every spot to make it, at least 2 and a half, are we there, Arsene? Arsene?

There I blew the steam, now that has happened what always happened let us go back to hope for a victory today!

Come on Gigi, who actually has a squad of to fill every position at least twice and then some, all of the same quality. Besides, it causes to many problems. We've probably got the best quality squad in England. As for numbers, we've had to loan out players who ordinarily would be good squad players if we weren't already over loaded.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't feel that Eboue has, as you say, been 'not half bad' in recent games. From what I remember of seeing him lately, he's given me the right old heeby-jeebies on a few occasions where he tried to play it out of defence from a tight, deep position (stop sniggering at the back, you know what I mean) instead of putting his boot through it and clearing his lines efficiently - clearly the safer course of action in the situations I've seen him in. Watching him do this a few times reminds me of when you try exactly the same thing on Pro Evo because you fancy yourself as a bit tricky on the ball and, like him, lose it or complete a pass by the epidermis on the smallest part of the skin of your teeth; I've got no problem with the second situation obviously, but when you're almost penned back near the area...

Anyway, like I say I'm not speaking from a position of great authority or exhaustive research. I'm not a blogger, just a committed fan so if anyone has any insights on Emmanuel's recent performances I'd be interested to hear them (stats would be fine but I don't have a head for figures - general impressions welcome!).

Dribbling is his greatest strength. His belief in his dribbling is one of his greatest weaknesses. Even if he doesn't directly lose possession which more often actually comes from his passing, he's invariable so far up field due to his running with the ball. I do like the guy though and clearly has varying patches of form.

Wenger made a very telling comment yesterday, he said "We don't have to start prioritising games yet"

That means that at some point, he is going to play a very weak team in an 'important' match just to rest players for another match he see's as more important. There's a fair chance that the match he plays a 'weaker' team in will be the Carling Cup final because it's in between the Barca games and two important league matches at home. I am amazed people still think the cup is ours because it's Birmingham. I think it will be a very very close final and if we lose it, along with losing to Barca (because that is 100% guaranteed), then a losing streak will quite likely follow as history has proven that time and again with Arsenal.

So rather than making a statement about having to prioritise games Wenger, you could have signed the players necessary to let us push on in all 4 competitions but no, the dictator says we'll do it his way - the proven way.....of losing that is. You senile old muppet Wenger.

Nothing is 100% guaranteed, sorry.
Arsenal are in 4 competitions, and judging by the stupid amount of money spent for a decent half season for Carroll.... I really am not that bothered Wenger didn't buy. It's not like anyone really expected him to.
Why do people like you act like transfer windows closing is the end of the season? 2nd in the league, 5th Round in the FA cup against an opponenet we should theoricticaly have no problems with, Carling Cup final, and a dream tie vs Barca. Sure, we will likely lose vs Barca, but playing the best squads in the world is what the Champions League is all about. There is no shame in losing to them.
Get some perspective

But Darren arent these competitions about winning rather than "loosing" to big teams? Why do we arsenal supporters always settle for 2nd best so easily? Why not aim at winning? Not buying a CB is going to hurt us for sure. How on Earth are we going to win PL and CL with Kos as our 1st choice CB? I would love to eat my words (I pray that happens) here but we are not going to win anything other than a Carling Cup this year (which is also not 100%)

I fail to see where we are settling for 2nd best, and where we are not aiming to win. Last year you could make the argument Arsenal did that in the Carling Cup. Not this year. Wenger puts out a squad he believes can get the job done. There is something like 17 international players on the squad, and have an impact for their national squads.
Do I wish Arsenal got a CB in January? I have been wanting another one since August, but it's not like I expected it. And really... who were we going to buy? Name a plausible name for Arsenal.
Samba? Tall and slow. Average. Better than Squillaci for Arsenal? Doubtful
Mertsaker? Tall and slow and error prone. Not gonna work with the Arsenal high-line
Cahill? Tall, decent on the ball, but English. Look how much Luiz went for yesterday, look at how much Carroll went for yesterday. The asking price for Cahill was highly likely obsene.
By the way, Kos has been getting better with each game, and I probably rag on him more than most ppl at this site. Him and Djourou have been very good together.
And how can you possibly be so sure we will only win the CC? Sure that could happen, but alot of other things can happen as well. Luck plays a massive part in it all.

It's all well and good to realize there is a weakness and cover is needed. But it's not like this is FIFA 11 or Football Manager for your computer. Things don't just happen like that in real life, especially when you have billionaires using football as their play-things, skewing reality and limiting what clubs with limitations can do.

Well yeah the 1st goal of the game that is on now has shown how "strong" our faboulous CB partnership is. If an Everton offence can play us like that, imagine the fun strikers of Barca, Man Utd and the likes would have playing against us.
Arsenal are sitting on a pile of money (money that has been taken from the pockets of us, you and me, thru ticket sales, shirt sales and yeah apartment sales in highbury square) and yet Wenger decides to sit on that pile (some say its 60mil pounds). Martin has, in one of his posts below, pointed out how players are taking football as business. Why don't we fan also take it as business for a bit. We invest our time, money, emotions and name one more thing that we have got other than a bucket load of memorable goals since 2006. I love each and every one of those goals but I want to see us winning some serious trophies. That's not asking for the moon or stars is it? You say all the choices that we had were useless; I agree. But then spend big bicks and get a quality one. Why, why on earth can't we buy a puyol or ramos or pique or ivanovich or carvalho? And dont give me the argument that they are "not for sale", we learnt yestrday from the sales of Torres and Carroll that there is no such thing as "not for sale".
I know that this is not Football Manager, in fact you are damn right this is not FIFA 11, we have emotions of millions of fans involved here. You can only go so far with a mediocre defence and my friend this is a mediocre defence lets face it.

Damn right!

The sky is falling.

After much thought I'm siding with Wenger on this one folks. Just because it's black Friday or boxing day does it mean that you gotta go out and bust your wallet?
If he gets some one that is truly quality in this over priced environment he will get ripped off, and if he buys a player that is just a bandaid solution,then will have problems unloading him later. Therefore he sits tight and prays to the footy Gods that we can safely go through this year, until he finds another TV5.
Martin the bars up here in Canada subscribe to Fox USA so we will be watching live as well.

Arshavin will have to prove he's a talented player. He hasn't played well for months. Though I wished we had traded him for a quality player like Hazard. And how can you call yourself a professional player at the highest level when you can't cope playing an entire match which a major inconvenient as you need to be replaced. And not to mention the fact that he doesn't run and defend much so there are no excuses...

Its not that we would be "trading" Arshavin for Hazard in that situation. You have to remember that Arshavin is a back up now. Would Hazard really want to come in and sit on the bench? Hazard might be a replacement for Csec if we lose him in the summer, but he is not an Arshavin replacement, because any replacement for Arshavin is going to be on a slightly lower level than what Hazard is.

I don't really know much about Hazard, but I don't see why he'd have anything to complain about if he came in to the team and replaced Arshavin's role. AA plays in nearly half the games. Hazard is only 20, and hasn't played for a really big team yet. I'm not sure how he'd go to another really big club and step right in to the first 11.

I just cannot wait till tomorrow so we can start talking real football again.
Can't wait to take my head out of the sand

The latest stuff is that Miyaichi has joined Feyenoord on loan for the season. That bodes well -- the issue had been whether Feyenoord would want to keep him for their first-team, or whether they would decide that he wasn't quite good enough to play at that level yet and send him to a lower-division side. But they apparently like him and think he can contribute at the Eredivisie level.

In other news, Newcastle supposedly (although this sounds like wild speculation to me) had a 17 million bid for Bendtner turned down by the club. And rightfully so -- if Carroll is worth 35 million, Bendtner is worth way, way more than that.

Have been reading the Young Guns transfer deadline liveblog and it is top-notch stuff. Pretty much every single rumor of the last 3 months linking us to a new CB is pure crap, Fabianski might be out for the season with an injury, and we're most likely not going to sign Alex Oxlade-Chamberprep, either now or in the summer. Some kid named Hazard, however, might just join us though..

Poor Fabianski. He did a lot to redeem himself this season and has been pretty solid for us. Really unlucky.

Yes, according to the Young Guns guys surgery will probably will be needed to fix his shoulder, and a decision will be made on Wednesday. Really bad luck for the best underdog story of the season (so far).

The Carroll and Torres (apparent) moves are powerful reminders that we should take everything players say about their clubs with a huge grain of salt. Carroll has said that his childhood dream was to wear Newcastle's #9, and then turns in a transfer request at the first hint of a bigger club being seriously interested. Torres talks about how much he loves the city and the fans and how he wants to stay for years and help the team win trophies while his kids learn to speak Scouse, etc., but bails on the team for greener pastures when they hit adversity.

And I'm not saying it's unique to those players and those teams. I'm saying that we Arsenal fans should learn a lesson from this, too. Cesc kisses the badge and tries to force a transfer 5-6 months later. Nasri kisses the badge and talks about how much he loves the club . . . but not enough to sign a contract renewal. And so on and so on -- it's so easy to believe them because we love the club, we want to believe that they're like us. But they're not, and this is a business to them. So let's try to keep our guard up a little bit when any of the players starts waxing poetic about how much they love Arsenal and how long they're going to stay here, because as soon as we hit a rough patch and bigger clubs start sniffing around, odds are that those players aren't going to think twice about leaving the club.

I think you're taking the Nasri contract thing way too seriously.

I certainly hope so. But I think it's pretty rare for a player to just abruptly cut off contract negotiations like he did. And his agent was heavily implying that Nasri was definitely willing to consider moving on and playing somewhere else.

I'm not saying he will leave. But I'm saying he will leave if we don't pay him as much as he could get elsewhere. Which was kind of my point. He can kiss the badge all he wants, but in the end Nasri is going to do what is best for Nasri, whether it's at Arsenal or elsewhere.

Let me put it this way. If I asked MLSF to marry me, and she said "well, um . . . I don't know, give me 5 months to test the waters and think about it." She might still come back in 5 months and say "yes." But it wouldn't be because she was completely wildly in love with me, it would be because she did some calculus and figured she probably couldn't get a better offer elsewhere.

let's not get too moralizing here, martin. does anyone really, i mean truly, believe that players play for some altruistic good of their badge or club. it's still their job; this is something you harp on all the time (rightly or wrongly) when players get hurt in international friendlies (i.e., these guys get paid to play for clubs not for country).

The truth is, he probably won’t leave, he’s fishing for a huge contract because Arsenal is probably low-balling him despite the fact that he is the franchise’s future. Arsenal are shrewd businessmen, so shrewd, that we’re short on a couple of essential roles and often alienate players looking to play hardball themselves (sorry, I would still rather have Ca$hley over Clichy right now). I hope Wenger and co. take Nasri’s business very seriously. It’s essential to success (short and long term) for the club.

And for the record, your MLSF analog doesn’t work that well. If you were just an arsenal offside blogger (and not an midtown attorney by day), she might have dragged her feet on the proposal, no? Women, like players, want security, support and ambition. If MLSF is a world-class girl, she’d be an idiot to “just be in love” and settle or be pushed around or into something that couldn’t make her happy.

I just figure a player wouldn't want to deal with contract stuff in the middle of a season, it can be distracting. It's not like his contract is up in the summer or anything. And agents talk a lot so I don't usually pay too much attention unless I get hints from the player too.

Anyway, if he does decide to leave, we should cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now, it seems like worrying over nothing.

People say that (mainly players and agents), but I don't know, is negotiating over a contract during the season that big of a deal? It's not like the player does what I do every day and drafts actual contractual provisions -- that's the agent's job. All the player has to do is say "How much? That sounds good/That isn't enough." It doesn't sound all that time-consuming or distracting to me, but maybe there's something I'm missing.

And as for we'll cross that bridge when we come to it . . . well, isn't that true of any player move? It hasn't stopped us from talking about Cesc, it didn't stop us from talking about Chamakh or Koscielny last summer, and it certainly didn't stop us from talking about a potential center back signing this window. Just seems if we take the "whatever will happen will happen, let's not talk or worry about anything" approach, you and I would be out of business with the blog...

But it's not urgent right? So negotiations can wait. As for talking about other players, I think they were much more heavily linked with a move than Nasri is. Has anyone bid for Nasri in this transfer window? If they have then you can talk about that. Doesn't really seem like much of a story I guess *shrug* Maybe I'm wrong, but I guess we'll see in the summer

It's not urgent, and I see your point.

But when he and his agent break off contract talks until the summer, and his agent says that they want to "see what direction Samir wants to take with his career," I do find that concerning. And if he doesn't sign a new deal in the summer, he would be out of a contract at the end of 2012 and we would get no compensation for him. And if that's the case, if he refuses to sign a new deal this summer we would essentially be forced to sell him then to recoup the investment rather than getting nothing for him.

So is it urgent in the sense that it effects anything right now? Definitely not. But is it urgent in the sense that it could be a huge headache, possibly forcing us to reshuffle our team dramatically in 6 months? I think it could be.

Now, again, I've said this before, I hope, and if I had to predict, expect that this is just Negotiation 101 -- anyone who's bought a car knows the one thing you have to be able to do at all times is walk away and leave the lot. If his agent says he's willing to go somewhere else, and put the club in a position where they have to pay over the moon for Nasri, well . . . you can hate the agent all he wants, but the agent's duty isn't to the club, to the fans, or to the good of the game -- it's to the player. Specifically, to get the player as much money as he can. And if his agent holds the club ransom over the summer and gets a sweetheart deal to stay at Arsenal (assuming that's what Nasri wants), fans can talk about scum agents all they want, that's just doing a good job for his client. And I do think that's what's happening. But everyone thought Flamini was staying, and Gallas, and others, too, but then it got down to crunch time, they got close enough to being a free agent to see the dollar signs out there, and Arsenal got left high and dry.

I guess I just don't get the mindset of "it's not a big deal at all" when one of our best player rejects a lucrative contract offer, breaks off contract negotiations (albeit supposedly temporarily), and his agent is openly talking about exploring other options. That's a big "uh oh" to me, and I think it's something worth discussing.

Meh. I dunno, I'm just not bothered I guess. I hate rumours and speculations, which I admit is not good as a blogger. Then again, that's why you're here! :D Anyhoo, if anyone wants to jump in to discuss more about this feel free!

I love how you compare getting married to some kind of business decision.
Regarding the player loyalty issue, should we be surprised by any of this? We live in a modern day and age where the modus operandi is wages and add-ons first, kicking the ball second. The rise of the viper-like agents and the massive corporatization of the game by FIFA have not helped matters. Once in a while a Totti, Raul or Maldini comes up and gives us all a reason to smile about, but notice how these players are all retired or veterans? In the EPL the only truly loyal players I can think about, who seem to shed blood for their club are Gerrard, Lampard/Terry, and Giggs/Neville. That's it.
The way football as a business is conducted, we as fans should be more on the lookout for douchebag, dickish types like Adebayor and not hope for a loyal local kid who will cry for the club (although Wilshere does keep me hopin'..)
Guys like Toure, Vieria, and Jens came and were very successful with us. But eventually they left, either for money or for a new challenge. This despite their affection for the club and statements of their part of their feelings for the club. Despite this, we still remember them fondly and think of them as legends.

You forgot to mention the douchebag Thiery Henry

I don't know, maybe my point was made inartfully, but I kind of thought that was the whole point -- marriage is about love, and these players are about business. I thought that's what I was saying in my first comment when I said "And so on and so on -- it's so easy to believe them because we love the club, we want to believe that they're like us. But they're not, and this is a business to them."

And we shouldn't be surprised, but fans love to self-delude (not criticizing, because I'm as bad about this as anyone). Because we love the club so much, it's hard for us to imagine the players themselves don't love it just as much if not more. But it's usually the exact opposite -- it's a job, and they treat it as such. Even of the players you mentioned, Gerrard tried to engineer a transfer to Chelsea in 2006, and Terry either wanted to go to Manchester City or at least used Manchester City as leverage to get a boatload of money for himself to stay at Chelsea.

I agree with your main points -- it is a business, and we shouldn't be surprised. That's what I was trying to say, that we should be cautious when players talk about how much they love the club, because Torres and Carroll are both great examples of guys who said all the right things for a long time until a better opportunity came along.

It is unfair to criticize players for a lack of loyalty, as the idea of loyalty works both ways. Torres left for Chelsea, Carroll left for Liverpool and, yes, Cesc and/or Nasri may leave Arsenal all for the same reasons: to earn more money at clubs with greater potential to win higher honours. The situation really is not much different than a club replacing an accomplished player for a younger, fitter or flashier version. See Pires and Ljunberg. Or Raul.

The loyalty between club and player lasts for as long as it is good business. Top players with a very short window to earn more millions and collect bigger trophies should not be criticized for doing what's best for their careers any more than management should be faulted for dropping a player past his prime. Nothing personal; just business.

Really, it is only supporters' loyalty that matters. And as long as that loyalty is shown by spending top dollar on tickets, cable packages and kits, the business will always matter more than the love.

Agreed on our subconscious, little nagging noises as football fans. I guess the point I was trying to make is to enjoy the players and their (supposed) good form as much as you can, because as you said, their words are very fickle.
Also, how crazy has this transfer window been? More on par with a summer transfer window than a winter one. True, it's mostly been only those two clubs making the headlines, but Aston Villa have been very busy (Makoun, Bent, and Bradley in... watch out), Inter have been busy as well, Barca and RM getting their token signing. It seems that the only top clubs who ddin't sign anyone of note this window were Man U and us... sigh.
And Chelsea getting Torres and David Luis could possibly be the best news for us this window. We've already played them and they have to play City once and Man U twice. Sweet.

Yeah I saw some stat -- I think there was over 3x as much money splashed out in the Premiership this January than last. And compared with "major" purchases from the other major leagues, there was no comparison. England lost its collective mind today. A journalist I really respect (Matt Law) tweeted today, "this just goes to show you that there are two managers who really know what they are doing. One at Old Trafford and one at the Emirates." I completely agree. I think both those guys looked around and kicked the tires a bit, realized how crazy prices and the market were, and said no thanks, I can wait until summer.

The rumor is that this might have something to do with Rangers defender Madjid Bougherra coming back the other way. Bougherra would be interesting -- he's a seasoned international who can play center back and holding midfield, he's big and strong, but he's 28 and has never really played at the top level before (many years in the Championship and several years in Scotland). Would seem to be very un-Wenger-like in many ways.

Am I correct in saying I vaguely remeber Wenger talking up Bougherra last summer? Anyways, having watched Bougherra throughout the world cup and several times at Rangers, I would think this to be an excellent signing, be it loan or permanent for us. While I know he's never really hit it big, a lot of that comes down to being given the chance. He is a beast physically, and has a fair amount of pace also for his strength. I would be very happy if there was any truth to this. I don't see how it could possibly hurt us, I'm sure the fee would be minimal and we would be gaining a solid defensive player.

I don't remember Wenger talking Bougherra up (Wenger rarely does that, but it's certainly possible), but I do remember we were linked with him. He wouldn't cost much at all, and it does seem to make sense on a lot of levels. But for what it's worth, all the Scottish football press seems to think that the Bartley loan is a standalone deal completely unconnected with anyone coming back to Arsenal from Rangers.

Kyle Bartley apparently headed to Rangers on loan for the rest of the season. Somewhat surprising since he was on a season-long loan to Sheffield United.

From Martin's tweet:

Torres = £50m
Carroll = £35m
Szczesny-Clichy-Djourou-Vermaelen-Sagna-Nasri-Walcott-Fabregas-Song-Wilshere-RVP = £44m

And this:

We play Newcastle without Carroll. Blackpool without Adam. And Liverpool without Torres.

Add to that: and hopefully Everton without Cahill.

Yep.

Just to clarify, though, I did retweet that from someone else who put that together. I'm not smart enough to think of that, and too lazy to do all that research and adding. Still, for everybody bashing Wenger for not spending enough money, look at that and tell me the way he runs the team isn't at least a little bit brilliant.

Everton are a really good side, and the position doesnt reflect the quality of their players imo. Yes football is about scoring and thats how you win or lose, but we cant be fooled by their position, IMO they are an extremely quality side.
We cant play as if it was already in the pocket, and they can ruin the party, as you say, as in previous years.

So we are a really good side to and it does not reflect our position since we should be in first place

well, that does not apply to every team, it isnt a rule its their specific situation this year.
If you ask me, I d say we deserve our 2nd spot, it hurts, but we did lose to West Brom and Spurs, we should have won that. But still we play better than our 2nd spot.

What I am saying is that even though Everton mathematically deserves their spot, it does not reflect the playing.

Good Article. I like your logical style of thinking

Ha. I'm going to print this out and show it to my fiancee -- "See? See?"

So you're saying your fiancee (a woman), has accused you (a man), of not having a logical style of thinking? I think that's a first.
I hope the Ax doesn't jump all over that one... just a joke.

The real joke is how true it is -- MLSF is 10x more rational than I am, it's kind of ridiculous.

You know, you guys could throw a little mention of who West Brom is playing. I know that's asking for a bit much, but I'm just going to put those two cents on the table and if you take it, I wouldn't mind. Anyways, I really wish for Arshavin to get back to his spectacular best, he needs to stop doubting himself.

I miss his first few months.

West Brom will be playing Wigan :)

I predict a hattrick for the left foot bomber, but that's just being modest.

he might not even start

What has happened to the It's Up for Grabs Now Podcast? It has been, by far, my favorite Arsenal podcast and it's been replaced by something else on iTunes. Does anyone know anything about this?

Yeah, I think they had a lot of disagreements with Playback Media, who had been hosting it, so they stopped doing it for a month. It's now called The Tuesday club, and you can find it online (or follow them on Twitter = @yellowbootson), although I still haven't been able to find it on iTunes.

Thanks. Tuesdays at work will now go back to tolerable levels.

Really? Try this http://thetuesdayclub.libsyn.c...

Liverpool have agreed a 35 million fee with Newcastle for Andy Carroll. I would just remind you what a very wise, prescient man said back in November:

"But it was well-taken by Carroll (who looked extremely impressive — he seems destined for big things, and it’ll be interesting to see whether he stays at Newcastle or moves on. But I’ll say that if I were John Henry/Roy Hodgson and looking to make a splash at Liverpool, I’d be VERY interested, because I think he could form a pretty great big/little striker combo with Nando.)"

http://arsenal.theoffside.com/...

I haven't commented lately due to a pretty bad illness that's kicking my butt. Anyway, some thoughts about the transfers... How upset are Newcastle's fans going to be for selling their top scorer on the last day of the window? So in other words, with no time to re-invest the money (as Wolfsburg has done).
And comparing Carroll with Torres, of course Torres is the much bigger name. But I could see a team rather having a guy (Carroll) who is 4 years younger, healthier, and scoring at a better rate this year for a lesser team. If Liverpool sells Torres today for a gigantic fee, it seems to me they've done a good piece of business. And frankly, I don't see how they DON'T sell him, after making two big-money signings at that position.

Hope you feel better soon Homey!

too much. I dont wanna sound Wengerish, but even though Carroll is good, he is not that good and, really has not prove things still, I mean thats what Barza offered for Cesc right?

Sorry one more note. I think the fact that Arsenal did not sign a single defensive player is also the other extreme. Honestly, Wenger needed to step up on this transfer and get us some respectable cover. It leaves me a bit agitated to say the least, to see what we have 0 transfers coming in.

Dont worry when we win silver this season all that agitation would turn to joy

Yep, it is frustrating, I havent yelled my usual yet (mainly because I like the team this year, wheras in previous years I tought we lacked something) but will at some point, because this year we simply lack depth: we ve seen that with 2 or more injured the squad seems short, real short. And we cant fight on 4 fronts like that.

Last sentence is not technically true. Wellington and Miyaichi deals both formally happened in the January window.

Your main point stands, though, but it's Wenger -- he's done the exact same thing for how many years now? We can't exactly say we're surprised at this point.

I think I'm more surprised due to: 1.) Wenger's own admission that not having Verm available makes his options thin + knowing Verm is out for extended time. 2.) Wenger taking the trophy challenges this season more seriously than I've seen in quite some time.

Given all that, I think we've got a good shot with at least one trophy this season regardless of the cover, but if we want a 1st class trophy, this makes it all the more harder to attain. I'm just ranting more than anything after looking at the transfer list to date of all clubs and seeing Arsenal with "IN: " and just a big blank.

True, I meant more of a 1st team player, or at least some solid cover in case of further player injury.

I agree with your assessment on Carroll, but 35 mill? Christ, what is happening in the EPL. That is more $$ than Barca paid for Villa. You'd think Liverpool would take that 50 mill and spend on 3 good signings, but they've basically gone and dumped it away. Wenger & Arsenal look so much better than these clubs ever will.

To be fair, they needed a striker, and people knew they needed one.

Under those circumstances, even Bent (Marcus) would have cost 15 mil+.

Twitter is going mental.

No Arse news though, but I'll let you know if there is (probably won't be anything)

Twitter is a waste of time today

Great preview Martin! I'm interested to see how big of a difference it makes when we swap out Nasri since Theo van Nasregas has been so effective for us. We should be ok though (I hope) especially with Jack-Song doing so well together.

Come on Arsenal!!

is it the Wilshong you're referring to?