Some good news though, Samir Nasri has recovered quicker than expected and will be in the Bolton squad. I suspect a place on the bench is more likely than a start and all things point to a full return against Braga next week. Hopefully he is fully healed and will last for a decent length of time and can continue his early season form.

With Vermaelen missing out it means Sebastian Squillaci will get his full Arsenal debut tomorrow, hopefully it will be uneventful for him unlike the debut of Koscielny a few weeks back. With Squillaci to start it does point to, as I mentioned when he signed, Djourou being the current fourth choice in central defence. But that is still something that can change over the course of the season with 4 players fighting for 2 spots on the team sheet, can only mean good things and good performances we hope.

Bolton under Owen Coyle are a slightly different animal, but they still have a thug or two, but their more willingness to play the game will open things up for us and should allow our attacking play to give us an early hold on the game. Goals wont be a problem tomorrow, perhaps 3-1 to the home side. This should be a 3 point home banker, and I don’t see why it wont be. The players were back a day earlier than usual, those who are fit should have no excuses why they don’t give their all tomorrow and see us running out winners. Enjoy the game wherever you are watching.

The goalkeepers were an area that we needed strengthening, Arsene pretty much confirmed it with comments like “the number 1 is up in the air” and the resfusal to rule out Schwarzer. Perhaps it was all left too late, yes I think Arsene has to field much of the criticism for this but when Hughes joined Fulham I pretty much knew he wouldn’t sell to us – he hates Arsene. Couple that with the injury to Fulham’s second choice keeper and Schwarzer was going nowhere. So we are left with Almunia as number one, his confidence must be shot to pieces knowing that Arsene was looking to replace him right until the window closed. Fabianski has shown himself to be a very weak backup keeper as well. It is a massive worry for us this position, and might cost us silverware, but only one person will carry the can for this. Verdict – no change from last season

We had issues in defence last term, the reality of only having two centrebacks hurt us at times. Sylvestre was not Premier League quality and not Arsenal quality. Sol Campbell was a great signing for the second half of the season, which timed well with the routine Gallas injury so again we were back down to two centrebacks. But all three of those players have left the club. Two replacements have arrived, Sebastian Squillaci and Laurent Koscielny the former brings experience but has yet to feature so no further comment can be given and the latter looks promising but needs to adapt to the league. Johan Djourou also returns from long term injury, but there are concerns he will stay fit for the season so he will be fourth choice I feel. But we now start the season with what appears four decent central defenders, that gives more confidence than last year did. No change in the left/right back positions but I don’t think we had issues there and the return to fitness of Gibbs will provide some competition for the at times lacklustre Clichy. Verdict – stronger than last season

In midfield we have not added, however the emergence of Wilshere is a bonus. A year older and with half a season of loan experience with Bolton seems to have made him more of a player. The early season form of Rosicky is promising too. But in reality we were pretty strong in midfield anyway, and there have been no major changes so, Verdict – no change from last season

Our forward line was going strong, banging goals in until van Persie got injured. But no issues like that this seaso…oh hang on. Bendtner can cover, ahh but he is injured too. At least we have Chamakh, he looks promising and has a high work rate. A player who offers something different to what we saw from the dwindling Eduardo last season. Provided we can keep van Persie fit for most of the season and have Bendtner back at some point we will have competition for the front position. Walcott looks transformed too, he could even be given a shot in the middle if we fancied it. Goals were not a problem last season, and I doubt they will be this. Verdict – stronger than last season

So overall I think we have a stronger squad than last year, not more depth but certainly more quality in the depth we have. The 25 man squad rule wont hurt us too much either as we have a long list of under 21s we can add at any point in the season. As I said before goals being scored wont be an issue for us, it’s the conceding goals that will be the problem – just like it was las season. While Arsene has strengthened in the central defensive positions I do still worry about the keepers. Schwarzer would not have offered an improvement compared to Almunia, but he would have been a far more confident player and that is something that I think many gooners are worried about.

In what was expected to be a tough encounter, physically rather than footballistically, there was much trepidation amongst gooners. Would the players be able to stand up to Blackburn this time? In May the side was lacklustre but many key players were not present that day. Today we started with probably our strongest 11, the returns of Cesc and van Persie were good to see, and the higher quality of our side should have seen off a team of Blackburn’s like.

We started the game a little nervously, despite an early chance for us Blackburn pressed early on and had a chance headed off the line by Cesc. My nerves were very present. Blackburn lumped many a ball into our box, Almunia surrounded at times and I thought “here we go”, but our first choice keeper came and collected the ball on a number of occasions. How odd, how novel. If only he had done this on a number of occasions in the last year perhaps there wouldn’t be a hunt for a new keeper currently taking place.

Another bundle in the box produced a foul on Almunia, Sky originally called a corner (Almunia took the ball out of play in his hands) but even I could tell that the ref was signalling for a free-kick. A quick ball was taken by Almunia and we galloped up the field, Arshavin stretching passed across to van Persie who played a ball out to the advancing Walcott on the right. A few steps and the non-footballing brained Theo rifled a shot past Robinson (49 conceded by him against us) which ripped the net. 1-0 and you could relax for a bit.

Just a quick point on the commentary today. Andy Gray was either on the sauce or is going senile, he called Blackburn Bolton – easy mistake to make I suppose, but confused a number of players on either side whilst adding his “insights”. Not what top notch broadcasting is meant to provide us with.

Blackburn continued to press though, our defence for the most part dealt with the test. But at times the ball fell in the box and that panic’d look was upon our back four again. At times clearances weren’t clinical and the passing in the middle third was wayward. We didn’t look totally in control and the one goal lead simply wasn’t going to be enough. The Blackburn goal came when El Hadj Diouf out paced and out muscled Koscielny and got a cross in, it makes me worry what he will be like up against a Drogba or a Rooney – he is still settling in to the English game, so far far to early to write him off just yet. We went in at 1-1 at half time which was a fair reflection for the nervy first half we played.

The bad point of the first half was seeing van Persie coming off injured, an ankle twist by the reports after the game. It came when two feet collided going for a ball, so no malice whatsoever, but it is annoying. However hopefully he will be fit come the end of the international break. Chamakh replaced him.

In the second half we looked a bit brighter, we seemed to click more with the passing and possession and Blackburn started to tire. As pass after pass was threaded together the away fans started the “ole” chant, all very well when we are 4 up but not at 1-1, I recall West Ham last season when we were two up and the “oles” started.

Cesc had a shot which cannoned off Theo, but Arshavin was on hand to fire it home and the lead was again ours. That’s now 50 goals we have scored against Robinson, can we play him every week? We kept attacking and didn’t look like taking the foot off the gas, that was also good to see, the players knew we hadn’t killed this one off yet. A few Blackburn shots occured, but nothing to seriously worry us. Jack Wilshere had a late chance but his foot slipped and the ball went wide. The three added minutes were nervy, but when the final whistle went it was 3 points in the bag at a ground we have previously found a little tough to get a result. For a few hours we sat top of the league, nice to see that again.

Cesc looked quite good, perhaps not 100% fit but his eye for a pass and his ability to make that pass was all still there. He lasted 67 minutes and perhaps some game time with Spain in the coming week will see him fully fit when the Premier League resumes in a few weeks.

I thought Blackburn played ok, not as rough as they have been in the past and they seemed to thread the odd pass together – is something misplaced in the football universe?

Picture from arsenal.com

A few bits of news from the last few days, arsenal.com finally announed the signing of Sebastian Squillaci from Sevilla. Fee is said to be around £3-4 million and he is on a 3 year deal. A good experienced defender to add to the squad who will provide competition for Koscielny and Djourou, but I think the Swiss is now fourth choice at centreback. It is good to have some depth in that area again though.

We have drawn Spurs in the third round of the Carling Cup. It’s no real shame as it means the youngsters can get a taste of a NLD and have nothing to lose against a team defeated by highflyers Wigan this afternoon.

The transfer window closes on Tuesday, Arsene said after the game “we are finished in the transfer window, the way things are” you can take that as we are not getting anyone else, or as I am taking it that unless one of the clubs changes their stance towards a bid we have made we are finished in the market. However reports from the game say that Almunia threw his shirt and captains armband into the crowd and waved goodbye (I thought he was waving goodbye to the home support at the mrats last Saturday as well) but time will tell. And Sky Sports News will have a countdown clock, in HD, all day Tuesday no doubt.

Thanks for reading.

We got both. A 6-0 victory over newly promoted Blackpool might not completely impress the pundits, but the team needed this. Plenty of goals and the time to bed in to fast passing and free attacking football was the perfect tonic to allow the players to re-accquaint themselves with our style of play.

Theo, however, was fantastic. His first hat-trick for Arsenal, 3 fantastic goals. He looks a very different player to the one we saw last season. A summer of rest and no injuries have done him wonders. He looked much stronger yesterday, he made a few turns with defenders at his back which I expected him to go down or be muscled off the ball, but not yesterday, he rode each challenge out and kept running, kept making those passes and taking those shots. A brilliant performance and he deserved the match ball. I hope this is the first of many goals this season. Arshavin should be worried if both players form continues to be immeasurably different.

But Theo was not the only highlight of the day; Tomas Rosicky completed 90 minutes (which is very rare since his injury) but not only that, he also was outstanding too, his play was like the pre-injury Rosicky and was a welcome sight on the pitch again. I hope he too can continue in this form. Chamakh also looked good, he needed and wanted a goal so badly that we thought it wasn’t going to come off, but his headed goal was well taken and I suspect we will see many more of those as the season progresses, also his workrate was good to see.

Arshavin also played better, he put more effort in and took his penalty well. He looked fitter than last week, and looked to care more about the game. Song played at centre back, he did quite well but his best position is further up the park in the defensive midfield role – despite what some were calling for for him to be installed as a permanent centre back. Diaby also played a decent game, his goal a highlight, but again he was invisible for long periods of play.

Blackpool were unlucky to have the penalty awarded against them, the foul was outside the box, but it WAS a red card. Last man means red. To say it killed the game is unfair on Arsenal. Yes it meant Blackpool were less adventurous but we could still play. But you have to credit Ian Holloway for setting his team up to play football, not just sit back and defend, he must take credit for that but I worry that the way the league is he will have to change his tactics to a more negative style if they want to survive their first term in the Premier League. Their fans also deserve a mention, plenty of noise before during and after the game, even if their song of choice was the same the Phil Brown picks for karaoke.

A good result, some nice goals, a confidence boost. Cesc got a good reception when he came on, as did van Persie. But neither really looked completely sharp during their late cameo. Almunia did give a wave to the North Bank before he left the pitch, was that a goodbye? Next week we face Blackburn, a different prospect, but one we will no doubt clear with relative ease provided we ignore their neanderthal looks and tactics.

I can’t wait.

Cesc, Alex Song and Johan Djourou will all be in the squad; I expect Song is probably a definite starter in that list. I am not sure on the other two. Van Persie could step up from the bench and feature from the off, but with the opposition we face I wouldn’t be too upset to see him enter the fray later on. But it will be interesting to see how he links up with Chamakh.

Some disappointing news yesterday, Emmanuel Frimpong suffered a cruciate ligament injury in training and will be out for up to 9 months. A shame to see, but I don’t really think he was going to play a major role this season.

Jay Simpson has also left the club, joining Hull City. He never really had a chance in the first team, perhaps he didn’t fit with Arsene’s plans. But you have to wish him the best of luck with his new club.

Samir Nasri is of course injured and Laurent Koscielny is banned following his sending off last week at Anfield.

Tomorrow should be a 3 point banker, but then again I remember thinking that when Hull first visited the mrats and we all remember what happened there…… I think Blackpool will be buoyed by their opening day win away at Wigan, and we will have to be careful not to take the 3 points for granted. But we should run out winners in this one, perhaps a 3-1 victory as I don’t think we have yet found our free scoring ways of the like we saw at the beginning of last term. I hope Cesc gets a decent reception from the fans as well.

The club has asked fans to get in early tomorrow, 2.40pm to be exact as there will be an unveiling of the clock and the “new” stand names. It will be good to sing “we’re the north bank Highbury”. Enjoy the game wherever you are watching.

Oh, and I pity the fool who signs for Sp*rs.

A trip to Anfield is not the way you would want to get things started, couple that with the worries we have defensively it could be a nightmare. There are rumours that Djourou is out “for the more than the short term” which surely must push us to signing at least one centre back, but I think two are really required. I know that Arsene has said it’s not easy, and that I don’t doubt, but there must be some players out there who can do a solid job for us.

You then turn to the keepers, Arsene says “The guy who plays on Sunday will be No 1. It is never for definite but it will be a consequence of what I have seen in pre-season.” Which in my eyes rules out Fabianski, however he hasn’t seen much of Almunia so can he draw conclusions there? My hope is for Almunia to start, he is the best of what we have and a jittery Fabianski is not something I can comprehend this afternoon. But we still have to move for a keeper; Schwarzer would be a marginal improvement but will probably give us a boost, Given would be decent but I don’t see it happening – either way both of those seem to be press made rumours following previous enquiries and not much appears to be happening in reality.

So to the result today, I suspect a draw will be in the offing. Neither club wants to start with a defeat in what is likely to be defining seasons for both managers (despite the contract extension I think serious questions will be asked if we are out of the top 4). But if we lose? I won’t be surprised, yes it will hurt and there will be disappointment but it might serve as a wake-up call that the deficiencies really need addressing and they need addressing now. But lets move away from that, a good performance, hopefully with the inclusion of Cesc and van Persie with some goals from Arshavin and Chamakh will get our season underway in the best possible manner.

Updates on twitter might be a bit sparse as I am at work this afternoon, but enjoy the game wherever you are watching. Come on Arsenal!!!!!!

In day to day life I am a well mannered young man. My parents are probably quite proud of how they raised me, I am polite, considerate and hold down a respectable job. However for certain 2 hour periods between August and May I shed this persona and become a foul mouthed angry man. I’m not sure what it is but as soon as the whistle goes to start the game something changes, perhaps Derren Brown hypnotised me to do this when a whistle blows. I shout at the ref, call him a c*nt if he does things wrong, I give abuse to the opposition, I get worked up when passes go astray or shots miss the target. I recall last season against Barcelona, one of the girls who sits behind me asking “I hope you don’t kiss your mother with that mouth of yours”, perhaps I had uttered c*nt too many times that night? After the game my legs are usually sore from the tension of standing and my shoulders hurt too. I get so worked up about Arsenal, day to day they are pretty important to me but for those 90 minutes they are the most important thing in my life – nothing else matters. It’s great to have this back!

The Emirates Cup kicks off today with us playing AC Milan; Cesc and van Persie are missing due to World Cup commitments and Diaby, Denilson, Song and Bendtner are all injured (already). I suspect the absences in the middle will allow the younger players to get more of a game than they would have expected, I would hope Jack Wilshere gets to shine again as he has done in the other pre-season games up until now. This season could be a big one for him and I hope he gets his chances. I will be watching today’s game at home with a mate, but tomorrow will be at the stadium – sat in club level for a change. I wanted to see what it’s like and there will be a smaller queue at the bars I would imagine.

In his press conference yesterday the talk of transfers unsurprisingly came up, comments like “we can win the title without any more signings” is not the sort of thing we want to hear. A centre back is a must, and Arsene knows this but I suppose it is finding the right one. I don’t want us to start the season with only 3, because that won’t work, you just know it. Our cover at CB, Alex Song, is injured so that rules that option out. It’s pretty important to strengthen here and I will be quite worried about how we will last the season so weak in such an important position. There was also stuff about Cesc, but it was pretty much a case of we will not negotiate with Barca. Good. Moving on….. Goalkeepers were discussed, but I suspect that Mark “I love Arsene, no really I do” Hughes is unlikely to sell to us even if they do sign Green as a replacement. But we still have a  month of the transfer window to go, so I’m not getting too worried yet.

Enjoy the game if you go today, I will post updates via twitter during the afternoon. Thanks for reading.

picture from Arsenal.com

All change at Arsenal? Well minor details are, the club officially announced today that Robin van Persie will wear the number 10 shirt this season. He joined when Dennis Bergkamp was our much loved number 10, in the intervening years Gallas (strangely) wore the forwards’ shirt but with his departure Robin can take the famous shirt back up the the front of the pitch. Carlos Vela will switch to the number 11 shirt, which sort of confirms he will be at the club for at least one more season, but we need to see performances worthy of the number 11 shirt.

Another change was announced yesterday, the “quadrants” will be ditched at the stadium and the Highbury stand names will be adopted. The North Bank will be blocks 4-13 in the lower and 94-109 in the upper, the East Stand will be blocks 14-19 in the lower and 110-115 in the upper, the Clock End (with a new clock) will be 20-29 in the lower and 116-131 in the upper, with the West Stand having 30-3 in the lower and 132-93. Good to have named stands rather than coloured ones. Hopefully it will help it feel more like “our” stadium, but it’s something that should have been done from day 1 rather than a number of years down the line. But credit must go to Ivan Gazidis and his Arsenalisation program.

The club confirmed that Gallas and Sylvestre are expected to sign for other clubs for the coming season, still no news on Sol at the moment though despite numerous press rumours.

The squad left for the Austrian training camp yesterday, a full list of players is here on the main site – the most note-able absentee is Eduardo with his move likely to be confirmed in the next day or so. Cesc and Robin are of course still on holiday following their World Cup exploits.

I mentioned there will be a competition, well the prize will be two club level seats for the second day of the Emirates Cup, more details later today on how to enter. Thanks for reading.

The official site reported that a player, a defender, will be signed before the end of the World Cup. I would guess it’s Laurent Koscielny from L’Orient. But time will tell.

Not much else going on in the world of Arsenal at the moment. Let’s hope the World Cup gets a bit more interesting.

So from numerous mid-season denials and confirmation he was an Arsenal player we now have Cesc telling Arsene he wants out of the club. But when you examine all that has happened this season, and some of what might happen, his decision is far from madness.

To lose Cesc will hurt Arsenal, it will hurt Arsenal fans and it will hurt Arsene. He is by far our best player and single handedly kept us in the title race at times last season. 2009/2010 was his best season in an Arsenal shirt, he scored and created around 30 goals and was admired by the footballing world, and of course coveted by his boyhood club Barcelona.

So why might he want to leave? Here are some of my thoughts behind his reason why

- Is this current squad top class? I think, aside from Cesc, we only have 4 real top class players – van Persie, Arshavin (when he tries), Vermaelen and Song. 5 players does not make a team. Whilst we have some decent squad players, each season we have fallen short recently.

- Will investment be made to improve the team? To add to the 5 money needs spending, Arsene wants to live within the club’s means so big ticket players are unlikely. Rumours are that Cesc asked Arsene what his transfer plans were, perhaps the answer was not one that inspired confidence and that helped with the decision to leave.

- Is Arsene staying beyond next season? Coupled with the above, what if Arsene really is thinking of not staying on. I think his principles would mean he would not want to saddle a new manager with a number of his new players and not much money in the coffers.

- The Premier League is not based purely on skill, hard challenges are very much part of the game. Cesc does not hide from a challenge, but he has seen two team-mates suffer broken legs in the last 2 years and with his recently broken leg (suffered ironically against a Spanish team) perhaps a league that is less robust and more about football is more appealing.

I also think that giving him the captaincy was more about trying to keep him at the club than seeing him as a natural leader, when he was appointed Arsene said there are “lots of leaders in the dressing room” almost ceding that Cesc was not an out and out leader. If you look at Vermaelen (granted making a new player club captain is not the best move) or Sol they lead on the pitch where as Cesc is a lot quieter at times, that is no criticism of him but more of Arsene for bestowing him with the armband.

There has been a fair bit of negative reaction from some Arsenal “fans” towards Cesc, if he moves I won’t harbour any hatred against him. I will be gutted, and 5 days of mourning will be in effect, but he has given his all for this club from an early age you cannot question that. One thing I will say though, there has to be some questioning of Arsene if Cesc does leave – is this the end of that project? The team will change fundamentally and perhaps the focus on certain trophies might have to change.

Arsenal are reportedly going to fight to keep the player, but like in a relationship when one partner wants out and the other begs them to stay things are often never as good as they were. Patrick and Thierry did not play that well in that “extra” season after they asked to leave, I would far rather have the season just gone as my lasting memory of Cesc in an Arsenal shirt rather than a mediocre one.