admin

Perhaps Arsene is forced to manage the squad physically because of injuries to players he could rotate in and out of the squad. We've done without a key component in our game for weeks now. A wide player who can get close to Giroud, who can get beyond Giroud and score goals. Walcott, Podolski and Chamberlain are all different types but all players who can function in wide areas and get close to our main striker. So it is with great interest that I look ahead to a run of difficult fixtures we have on the horizon. I don't need to go into what teams we will be playing, I am sure you've already seen the teams. Here is the thing, I look at our squad and think wow, we can beat these teams. Nobody has a better midfield than Arsenal, especially creatively. Not many have a striker playing with the belief of Giroud, we do have a couple of guys heading our way

Arsene will make a couple of changes to the line up. Santi Cazorla injected the team with real quality when he came on against Dortmund so he will surely start on the left and keep his place from now on in a bid to get him match sharp. Flamini will also come back into the side but the question is whether Arsene decides to give Ramsey a breather or if he will replace Arteta instead. There are two ways to look at those options should they be on Arsene's mind. Firstly Arteta was one of our better players against the Germans. But Arteta and Flamini

The referee had a big call to make when Lewandowski picked up a yellow card for catching Laurent Koscielny with his elbow. The question I have, is what was the booking for? I thought the rules were that if a player intentionally caught an opponent with an elbow then he should be dismissed. Is there

Arsenal haven't faced a pressing machine like Dortmund this season, arguably the best pressers in Europe at present. They will only be encouraged to imprint their game plan on us without Theo Walcott making them hesitate at the other end. I wonder if Mikel Arteta will be targeted for special attention just as he had been not so long ago when the opposition realised how important he was to the build up of the Arsenal attack.

Tomorrow's match against Borussia Dortmund should give us a real treat of quality football, certainly our biggest test of the season so far. The Arsenal team of yesteryear may have struggled against Dortmund's impressive counter attacking game, that could still yet happen but this Arsenal team are far more savvy than a couple of season's back so it will be intriguing to see how both managers approach the game. Judging by Arsene Wenger's comments, it appears that Mathieu Flamini is fit to play tomorrow but won't be risked due to the nature of his injury. That will be a blow to Arsene as I am sure he would have wanted to set up his side just as he did against Napoli. Arteta and Flamini were partnered for the first time to deal with the counter attacking qualities of the Italians and boy did it work a treat. Arteta

Giroud had flicked a fraction behind Jack but instinctively Wilshere flicked out his heal and continued his run but the best part of the goal for me (I guess we all have our own favourite part) is Giroud's final assist. There is plenty of talk about Dennis Bergkamp doing the rounds at the moment due to his book and his, well Bergkampishness. Look at Giroud's body position, his understanding of where Jack is running to and the weight of his flick. Tell me that is not Dennis Bergkamp conjuring something up for a Freddie Ljungberg diagonal run? I don't say that lightly but if Bergkamp had produced

Wenger's Arsenal " Every year they are in the top four. They are paying down their debts. They have a stadium. If you are looking for a model, that is the one you look at". Smith highlights the sense of kinship between the two by writing "Both men, after all are pioneers. Just as Wenger's arrival in North London heralded a sea -change in English football's attitudes to nutrition, preparation, tactics and scouting, so Beane's devotion to analytics turned baseball on its head. "

Santi played pretty much the entire campaign last season in his first year. Then he played for Spain over the summer when he should have been resting so his foot injury was no surprise and his rest was very much needed, hopefully we will get a rejuvenated Santi and that can only be a good thing, a very good thing. An even better thing when you slot him into the same attacking third as one Mesut Özil, a combination that I'm sure you are well aware haven't yet played together as yet. You'd like to think that this will take place this afternoon hopefully from the start but if not then at least at some point. Wouldn't it be typical if Arsene replaced Özil for Cazorla. I don't think this will happen though, Cazorla needs to sharpen up before the big games come our way and he can only do

Anyway, most of today's talk has been about the AGM but if I am truly honest with you, the only part of the AGM that I enjoy these days is listening to Arsene Wenger speak. Probably because it is the only part that is 100% about the football. The rest of it feels like the same old thing, Ivan Gazidis saying pretty much what we've already heard but just in a slightly different way. That is no slight on Ivan, who I personally feel gets far too much criticism for just doing his job but how many times can a man say basically that we pride ourselves on being run the right way and that due to our increased commercial deals we are heading in

Mesut Özil had to leave the pitch with half an hour to spare yesterday due to some sort of knee problem, it had Arsenal fans fretting whilst fans of other clubs on Twitter were celebrating, especially those lot from down the road. Luckily it appears as if the German playmaker supreme was taken off as a precaution. Mr Engine Aaron Ramsey powered through yet another 90 minutes for Wales, his engine didn't seem like slowing down anytime soon as he ran a full 60 yards to get on the end of Craig Bellamy's pass to score the equaliser. Giroud and Koscielny also came through their game for France unscathed. Wojciech Szczesny had a very good game for Poland against England and it is great to see his form continue. Hopefully this is growth and not just form because since the