we signed Luiz Gustavo from Bayern Munich right? Well he signed for Wolfsburg instead. I don’t for one moment believe that if all was equal he would choose Wolfsburg over Arsenal so if I was to guess the reason for his decision then it would be based on assurances of playing time from the Germans. Arsene may have said that he would be competing with Arteta, Ramsey and Wilshere for a place in the team while Wolfsburg said he would be an automatic starter. Given that he has spent the last season playing second fiddle, you can understand the decision. But that does not help us. In truth, I don’t understand the thinking of throwing out Coquelin on loan without bringing

A football match tomorrow interrupts our transfer rumour season, or at least that is how it feels given the constant debate of who is or is not coming into the club. Vitally important to our prospects no doubt but I tell you what, I cannot wait to have actual football to watch once more. I enjoyed the Manchester City victory immensely and I could do with a bit more of that.

Our life has been made more difficult with the news that vice captain Mikel Arteta will be out for 4-6 weeks. He will miss the Champions League qualifiers and that is more than a little worrying. Arteta did not start against Napoli in the Emirates cup a few weeks back, Arsene instead opting to play Wilshere and Ramsey in the middle of the pitch without either playing as a dedicated sitting player and we were exposed on the break because of it. Ramsey had a spell in Arteta’s role last season and performed admirably, I suspect that Ramsey will be given that responsibility once more which is almost a shame given that his running and presence further forward has been a shining light this pre season. *sudden wave of deja vu*

This may not have been an issue had we signed Luiz Gustavo from Bayern Munich right? Well he signed for Wolfsburg instead. I don’t for one moment believe that if all was equal he would choose Wolfsburg over Arsenal so if I was to guess the reason for his decision then it would be based on assurances of playing time from the Germans. Arsene may have said that he would be competing with Arteta, Ramsey and Wilshere for a place in the team while Wolfsburg said he would be an automatic starter. Given that he has spent the last season playing second fiddle, you can understand the decision. But that does not help us. In truth, I don’t understand the thinking of throwing out Coquelin on loan without bringing in his replacement first especially given that we are pretty low in numbers in that specialised position.

I guess it isn’t quite as simple as that given that Coquelin was practically frozen out at the end of the season so my guess is that even if he was on board, he wouldn’t have started above Ramsey in that role anyway.

The great news is that both Ramsey and Walcott have been passed fit to play tomorrow, both players very important to us right now. Two of the form players of the pre season I’d say along with Giroud and perhaps Koscielny. While the squad is obviously light in numbers, I think we have a very good group of professionals who are made of the right stuff. Not a great deal of weak links in our squad now.

I don’t know why transfers haven’t happened yet, I wish they would have. I wish we have bought in early July, had the players training with their team mates and adapting to the Arsenal way of playing the game. That would have been ideal but for whatever reason, that has not happened. But here is the thing, if we do not lose a host of first team players and we pick up where we left off last season by stringing wins together and come the end of the window we have brought in the players we want then I couldn’t give a monkeys that we have not added to the squad yet.

The season does not start and end with the game tomorrow or before September 2nd. In my humble opinion, I feel that too many people are going a little overboard with the fact that we have not made the signings we need. Surely this only becomes an issue if a) we are starting a team that has never had the chance to play together, b) too young or c) the worst of all lose regular games putting a massive dent in our season. Why are we reaching the worst case scenario so quickly? It is almost like going into half time level or even a goal down then spending the whole of the break screaming that we will never win the game because we did not take advantage of our first half chances. How about waiting until full time before doing that? Who knows, we might get a stoppage time winner. In fact surely we are more than likely to get a stoppage time winner than not. Whatever happens, we will know come the final whistle.

Our last pre season game is as close as we are going to get to a competitive match right? Did we have a great deal to worry about on the day? If we did, I failed to see it on the pitch.

Manchester City were convincingly dispatched. A team that have done things the ‘right way’ off the pitch, spent big (above the odds in most cases) and early (the two are linked) on top of a squad full of talent yet our light squad stood up to the task.

This is not to say that I am not bricking myself over the lack of transfers thus far, I want to make that clear. Arteta’s position is obviously lacking in numbers, I would love a top class striker who can win games on his own and run off the shoulder of the last man. Only Theo does that and I fear that it is not enough for the squad. I hear that we could bring in a right back from Germany and continue to use Sagna as 4th choice centre back. Over the course of the season these new players are essential if we are to progress, without them it will be a wasted summer.

As I said above though, this needs to be done by the close of the window and not before the Villa game. The trouble is, I get the feeling that Arsenal fans are just itching for a chance to vent at the team, we saw it at the Napoli game at half time (in a friendly) and should the teams go in at half time at 0-0 against Villa I can just imagine a section of Gooners desperate to boo. It is a topic that divides opinion quite clearly so I won’t get into the right to boo vs incredibly self defeating argument.

I just hope we can be winning the game at half time and full time for the sake of the players we have.

So a quick point about transfers. Clearly we need players, we are short in some areas and as I have said I am not going to kill myself because players are not in yet but what I worry about is the amount of targets on Arsene’s list. How many targets have moved on? How many does he have left in the various positions? What I am worried about is Arsene not being able to acquire the players he wants and then screws up his list, tossing it into the bin, shrugging his shoulders and then going with what he has. Should that happen then I will be pulling out my hair and cursing until the cows come home.

Given our need for additions, I believe we will make signings it is just a case of what level of player and which positions. I hope something happens soon mainly for the good of Arsenal fans health.