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You all chuckled and giggled at us during the early part of last season, you smirked as we failed to get our attacking game together, grinned when we dropped points against lower placed clubs like Tottenham Hotspur and chortled when we lost player after player to injury. Well I hope you enjoyed your fun because you won't get another chance to do that for a long while. We have been slowly building this squad after tearing up the Santos, Bendtner, Gervinho team. I don't know how but we have managed to slip under the radar until now. Picking up a footballing freak like Mesut Özil who has already read five steps ahead of your first thought on the pitch. We picked up a South American whirlwind in Alexis Sanchez and now we have one of the best goalkeepers in Premier League history.

For all the exciting attacking players we have at our disposal, I am actually quite excited about how we will do defensively. Petr Cech will not only bring experience but a willingness to keep clean sheets. Hector Bellerin aside, we have plenty of experienced defenders at the back. Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny have a wonderful partnership together and if those two can stay fit for 70%+ of the season then those two along with Cech behind them can provide a terrific spine for the team at the heart of the defence, not to mention the tenacious Coquelin or even further more experience in Arteta when called upon

The reality is that such simple analysis is flawed in the sense that no two seasons are ever the same and on a broader level the competitive landscape has constantly changed, and continues to do so, particularly from 2003 onwards. The two team domination of the period to 2005 has given way to at least a three team challenge and arguably as many as five. Nor does a competitive balance between two halves of a season ever remain constant. Three or four easier or tougher games in a 19 game sequence can easily result in fewer or greater number of points collected without indicating any genuine inconsistency in performance capability

The world is a better place when Chelsea lose and it's an even better time when Arsenal are the team to beat do it. Elliot (@YankeeGunner), Paul (@PoznanInMyPants) and James (@GoonerFanatic49) talk about the super day at Wembley

Like in the last two matches against Chelsea, the game would be decided by the first team that could find that bit of magic first and capitalise on it. At the Emirates last season neither team could find the breakthrough and the game at Stamford Bridge was won as soon as Hazard weaved his way through the Arsenal defence before being halted by a trailing Koscielny leg. Apparently the same player was on the pitch at Wembley, although there isn't a great deal of proof of that.

Will Arsène choose this back four against Chelsea? Will we start the season with Monreal and Bellerin on the bench? It could be purely down to the balance of the team. Arsène prefers one conservative full back with a more attacking option on the other side. The Bellerin/Monreal option gives that same balance but maybe Arsène wants to go with the more experienced Debuchy over Bellerin so selecting Gibbs seems the natural selection. It would be very harsh on Nacho Monreal who was one of our most consistent performers last season. Maybe I am imagining things I don't know, but we will see what our first choice back four is on Sunday for sure

We are all in the pre season groove as the Emirates cup performances are dissected by Elliot (@YankeeGunner), Paul (@PoznanInMyPants) and James (@GoonerFanatic49)

Do you want some more Petr Cech chat in your ears? Of course you do so here are Elliot (@YankeeGunner), Paul (@PoznanInMyPants) and James (@GoonerFanatic49) talking about the new man and what he can give the team going forward. The guys also discuss which areas of the team need additions. What are you waiting for? Get listening

Do you remember when Aaron Ramsey played against Cardiff in a cup game a long while back. He was bloody awful that day, compare that kid to the Ramsey of two seasons back. Remember the Alex Song at Fulham before he was dragged off at half time, compare him to the player that Barcelona, the best team in the world at the time came in and bought him to be part of their squad. There are too many examples of players making giant strides when they are fit, confident and happy. The last time Abou Diaby had a run of games for Arsenal was in 2010 and he was consistently good alongside Cesc Fabregas and Alex Song I think. The 2010 Diaby was still nowhere near the player he would have become had he avoided such horrific luck

It was never that straight forward and Francis Coquelin didn't come and make everything alright. Without wanting to go into it too much, I think the turning point came in November when we lost at home to Manchester United. We were trying to juggle far too much earlier in the season. A change of system from 4231 to 4141, new offensive players in Alexis and Welbeck while losing our focal point in Giroud. Players such as Mertesacker struggling after the world cup and of course constant injuries. There was a period of time back then when I remember us losing a new player at least every game. While much of the focus was on our defending mainly because we did not buy a centre back when in fact Nacho Monreal was arguably our most consistent defender at the time our offensive