A very good afternoon to you,

I wasn’t going to write anything today as my day is crammed to the rafters with stuff to do, including the most important of them all, the Arsenal match. However Arsene Wenger has spoken to the new Arsenal player which I can view on my phone now. Stuff like that makes me very happy. The old version wouldn’t work on my mobile browser. So now, on those long journey’s on public transport I can watch Emmanuel Frimpong sound completely different to his twitter persona.

I have drifted way off track here, I was talking about Wenger’s interview wasn’t I? well as you know he has confirmed that he is interested in bringing in another defender, although he didn’t say central defender but you have to assume that is the position he meant. I do not know what to make of the whole central defender malarkey, I suppose it depends on which defender in the pecking order Wenger wants to replace.

I am guessing that Arsene wants four defenders that he can rotate around depending on the opposition which is fine and understandable but what about the continuity issue? If there is one area of the pitch that needs a stable partnership then it is at center back. How can that be achieved if we need to bring in ‘big giant lumpy guy to stop Stoke’ and then what if they bring on a quick striker? Do we remove giant lumpy for quicker nippy guy?

It all gets pretty confusing. I think Vermaelen, Koscielny and Djourou are all good players who need to show consistency and the team need to improve on repelling set pieces. I say the team because one central defender is not going to be able to pick up six or seven players in the penalty box. He is not going to be able to track every runner, and win every header, regardless of which area of the penalty box the ball lands in.

Which is why it is somewhat simplistic to suggest that buying Gary Cahill/Chris Samba/Phil Jagi-Anelka will sort out every cross that comes into our penalty box. having said that the statistics show that Laurent Koscielny’s aerial duels were lower than Vermaelen, Samba, Cahill, and the Jagster so there is some logic in new defender, better chance of winning headers. How about if we buy four 6ft5″ defenders and spread them across our back four and stop every ball that comes in the box. I think we would possibly have the best defensive record from set pieces in the league. Ok, we may concede 43 goals from open play but who cares. Set pieces will be fixed.

It is down to Arsene to address the balance between setting up an attacking team with the recovery and mobility in open play, strong enough, organised enough and tough enough to win continuous pumped balls in our box as well as being good footballers. Tough job, glad I am not the one doing it because I am confused just watching.

In other problem areas, the Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas situations are still up in the air. Cesc is still in London nursing his painful hamstrings after a long summer’s rest, if anything can damage them then it is that while Wenger says that

[It is] not completely [sorted that Samir will stay] but I want him to stay. He knows that. Hopefully we can sort that out in the coming weeks.

I take it to mean his contract is not completely sorted rather than the player staying is not completely sorted but in this game of cat and mouse, you just never know. There was rumour that Nasri had turned down another contract offer from the club but as we all know a rumour is just that. If you didn’t know that then I suggest staying behind for 100 lines of take rumours with a pinch of salt.

Today’s gut feeling is this. I do not buy that Nasri is unhappy at Arsenal. I believe that he has played some of his best football of his career at Arsenal, I think he likes London and he is content. I reckon, with absolutely no proof or in the know contacts, that Nasri’s future depends on his position on the pitch. I believe that he wants to play in the middle of the pitch and he has been guaranteed that Manchester City. We cannot guarantee him that spot because Cesc Fabregas still remains at Arsenal. Perhaps if Cesc is sold and Arsene gives Nasri the creative role then he might commit.

Look at Nasri this pre season, every minute of the pre season that he has played has been in Cesc’s position. It would become much clearer if Ramsey and Nasri get minutes together today. Personally I do not think that we get the best out of Nasri in that position, well in fact we do not get as much from the team when he is central, and it is why Wenger usually shy’s away from playing him there even when Cesc is out injured apart from a few times last season.

I won’t go into why I don’t think he shines in that position but you can catch some good stuff about that at Arsenal Report and a great video review on the much underrated The Backwards Gooner

Like I say, this is not based on any fact but I would be surprised if someone like Nasri who loves the game so much and who has seemed so happy would up and leave due to cash alone. I suppose all will become clearer as the weeks role by.

Anyway, I am off to get myself sorted, stick my feet up and tune in to see Gervinho score his first goal for mighty Arsenal.

Back tomorrow with some post match views if I can’t get it up today. The views, I meant the views!