Francis Coquelin, Emmanuel Frimpong, Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Aaron Ramsey, Ryo Miyachi and Ignasi Miquel are not gum chewing, half season wonders who will stroll through at the end when the team need them most, and this my friends is why I am more than confident as to why we can close the gap dramatically next season, especially now that it

Hello there,

Hope you are doing just swell today and I am sure many of you are after watching the two Manchester clubs being dumped out on their backsides. I wonder what the betting would have been like at Bet Victor for those two to have been knocked out together. At least Samir Nasri has taken a step closer to getting his hands on the ballon d’or, the important personal awards that he said he had to move away from Arsenal for. Yep, unlike the Murphys I am bloody bitter.

What last night did tell me though is that Manchester United are not top of the league due to their unrivaled talent, they are not top of the league due to their superior technical qualities but they are there due to their superb attitude and fighting spirit. Plenty of credit must go to their manager for installing that into many of his teams but at the end of the day put them up against superior technique and they lose. In two legs Bilbao made Manchester United look second rate. Against Barcelona in last season’s Champions League final, Barcelona made Manchester United look like Aston Villa.

In my opinion Manchester United have been ahead of us, by some distance in some cases in recent years due to their attitude and maturity. They didn’t have a gum chewing striker warming up on the sidelines not wanting to play out wide, they did not have a new defender that found it difficult to adjust to the league. Ronaldo apart they have been able to hold onto the players they wanted and have built on their squads.

In 2012, I do not think we are very far away from being where we want to be. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a collective rolling of eyes at that statement, it has been said before. Young players in the past were supposed to develop into the future of this club and in many cases that just hasn’t worked out.

The three quarters finished sculpture that was left on the middle of the table at the end of last season was bagged and binned and replaced by a block at the start of this season, a block that had produced many an Arsenal in crisis story.

In the middle of march that block has been sculpted once more but this time into a stronger, sharper and more accomplished piece of art.

This squad has bottle, has fight and has character. The team of last season threw in the towel and was captained by a boy. A very, very talented boy granted but we can all see the huge amount of difference that van Persie has made along with Mikel Arteta and Per Mertesacker before his injury.

To continue with the random metaphors, we used to have a very impressive looking building but our foundations were weak. It has been knocked down and replaced by some hardcore titanium steel mofos, and Arsene is still putting the finishing touches on his latest creation.

The phrase ‘killing a player’ is often mocked by us supporters but I feel it is widely misunderstood. The perception is that Arsene Wenger does not want to buy a replacement for a player because he feels loyal to that player and does not want to hurt that player or is protecting that player.

I see Arsene as a team builder, a patient manager who will sieve through the transfer list until he finds what he wants, even if that takes a few years to do so. Other managers like perhaps Harry Redknapp will spend what he has on whatever he can afford. So whether that be Robbie Keane or Louis Saha, it doesn’t matter they are available and he has the cash.

Arsene Wenger will wait for a particular player in the transfer window or indeed in his youth system. Which brings me back to killing players. Arsene Wenger is one of the best in the business at getting the best out of players and developing them.

He knew what Cesc would become and knew that he needed to play, mature and develop. He knew what Alex Song would become with games and experience. Wilshere, Szczesny, van Persie and hopefully many others. We have seen what consistency of games can do to players and I will now call this the Rosicky effect.

While there is certainly merit in having squad players good enough to push players and rotate with but at the end of the day a player can only really truly develop to his best if he is playing most weeks.

It doesn’t always work and it is rather churlish to deride a manager for not getting 100% of his decisions correct. Denilson started off as an exciting 17 year old, standing out against Tottenham at White Hart Lane. Somewhere along the line he has derailed off course and I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say that had Denilson continued an upwards trajectory then an experienced Denilson could have been a similar player to the one who occupies the number 8 shirt at present.

It would be unrealistic to assume that all young prospects will make the grade, some as we know will fall by the wayside but I look at many of this group and see a hunger and fight that may have been missing in the past.

Francis Coquelin, Emmanuel Frimpong, Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Aaron Ramsey, Ryo Miyachi and Ignasi Miquel are not gum chewing, half season wonders who will stroll through at the end when the team need them most, and this my friends is why I am more than confident as to why we can close the gap dramatically next season, especially now that it looks pretty certain that we have added an extra goal threat from both wide and central positions.

In other news Martin Keown believes that the Arsenal defence is as good as any in the land and rightly so. Keown spoke of the absence of key members of the defence. Sagna breaking his leg, Santos being ruled out for so long, Gibbs not being able to stay fit and Jenkinson suffering from a back fracture. Even our stand in players Coquelin, Djourou and others suffered injuries so it was absolutely no surprise that we dropped points during that period.

We became weaker defensively and offensively and were left with a middle of the pitch team that was handcuffed to injuries. I do not quite get the whole Jan Vertoghenn to Arsenal stuff. While he may well be a very good defender, to be honest I have never seen him play live but we already have three established central defenders and two more who can come in, two left backs and three more defensive minded central midfielders.

Central defenders are not strikers, you do not rotate your defenders to give them games. They need continuity and understanding. So it is even more unlikely that we will see him at Arsenal. But above all else, will a new international come in to the club to sit in as fourth choice? Whatever your view, Koscielny and Vermaelen are first choice and Mertesacker has had a full season under his belt so will be third choice. If you think about it logically then it just isn’t possible, especially as he would ‘kill’ Miquel.

Red rag to a bull I know. A load of Wenger quotes have just come through the news feeds but I have run out of precious time so thoughts on those, whatever they are will be in tomorrow’s blog.

’til then