Nasri started the game very brightly and looked very tidy and creative. My first thought was that he looked more Rosicky than Zidane

Like most Gooners, I searched around my Sky box trying to find the France v Ecuador match but I had no luck so I turned my attention to the Internet (modern technology ey?!) and hurray I found a stream.

It wasn’t the very best stream that I have seen but it was good enough to work out how good a player could potentially be. I paused the Apprentice and watched with excitement. I was happy and perhaps surprised to see Nasri start the match as I thought he is usually a squad player but luckily this French team was a little mixed up with fringe and younger players.

Nasri started the game very brightly and looked very tidy and creative. My first thought was that he looked more Rosicky than Zidane. He plays very upright and likes to play 1 2’s. Nasri looks very much like a third generation Arsene player if I have ever seen one. A player who can play wide and likes to come inside to pull the strings and allow the fullbacks to their wingback job when we are in possession of the ball.

Is he as good as Hleb? It is obviously very difficult to say so at this point. He has never set foot on an English premier league pitch, it will be different to what he is used to. But he is not an delicate flair player, he can mix it up as well and that will help him alot. The thing that struck me when I was watching him become to the most influential player in the first half was the fact that he is only 20! Cesc Fabregas and Sami Nasri are 20 years old. 7 years younger than Hleb. Alot of improvement can happen in 7 years, especially under a coach like Arsene Wenger and he knows that, that is why he will join Arsenal and not a big Spanish club.

I thought Ben Arfa looked more direct than Nasri but less subtle. On occasions he would try and do a little to much when the option was there to keep it simple. Ben Arfa looks more like a potential match winner than Sami Nasri but my early opinion would suggest that Nasri is the better all round player and would instantly suit our style where as Ben Arfa would have to adapt alot more.

What is Djibril Cisse doing playing for France? I remember a long time ago when it was rumoured that Arsene was linked with him. I had never seen him at that point, I read that he was faster and younger than Henry. I remember watching him for the first time, I think it may have been either in a European championships or World cup as a sub. All I needed was watching his very first touch of the ball to make my judgement of what kind of player he was. I think he ran the ball out of play and I thought never an Arsenal player.

Having said that, when I first watched Torres I thought he looked overrated, so what do I know.

Cisse’s replacement Gomis came on and earned himself a move to big European club. He looked dangerous powerful and had an eye for goal. Both goals were very well taken and it looks like we will see more of this lad over the coming months. Being a French fringe player you can be sure that Arsene knows everything there is to know about him and his name is somewhere written in the database that he has for world talent. Arsene will not be interested at this stage as he is very much in the Adebayor mould.

In other news, the Daily Telegraph have a story about Cesc taking on Darren Dein as his new representative in place of Joseba Diaz, who Cesc dismissed 7 weeks or so ago.

They seem to think that Cesc and his agent will be push for new terms. They know that Arsenal will be under massive pressure to keep the star player happy after the club lost out on Flamini and probably Hleb.

Cesc Fabregas is contracted to the club until 2014, but what is the point in a contract if agents are trying to get new deals every year or two?

Obviously this is just paper talk so I will take it with a pinch of salt until I hear anything from the player or club but I am talking about players in general these days. The amount of money in the game is madness, and players are getting more and more.

Have you heard about Mr Blatter still banging on about this 6+5 rule that he is fighting to get into the game. He has a big task in getting around the EU laws but he is looking at every possible angle. Lets hope he doesn’t find a crack that he can hammer into and find his way inside. Sky Sports were doing their best to point out the all time low figures of English players in the Premier League. And obviously they highlighted us being the team who only fielded 1 Englishman in the last match of the season (Sunderland) how they wish Theo wasn’t playing that game.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we kept hold of our English youth players even if in normal circumstances they would be let go as insurance. Could we fit in 6 Englishmen by 2012?

And that is leaving out alot of the others such as Lansbury, Gibbs etc.

Doing this 6+5 rule will be better for the English national team but the Premier League will suffer massively. There is one reason for the jump in quality since the Premier league began and that is down to the foreign players who have come in, its simple. I couldn’t give two shits (pardon my English) where Cesc, Clichy, Walcott are from. As long as they are helping the team be the best, then I couldn’t care less.

Well, I will leave it there but..

Have a good day. Drop your view in the comments.

Until tomorrow.

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