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.

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.

All I can say is FOR FUCKS SAKE!

We head into the new season that starts this weekend with much trepidation, despite assurances from Arsene that our defensive issues would be solved we are weaker in defence than we were this time last season. We only have three recognised centrebacks in Vermaelen, Djourou and Koscielny, an injury to Vermaelen and we are fucked. It’s not harsh on the other two but I don’t see them coping with Drgoba, Rooney etc. There is still time for a signing but looking at what we have there is real worry.

In midfield we are strong, even with the question marks that surround Cesc, we have Nasri showing some excellent pre-season form and Jack Wilshere looks like he could hit it big this season. Walcott, Rosicky and Arshavin need to impress this year compared to last season, I know they all had injuries but they just didn’t do it in the games they played last season.

Equally in attack we look good, the addition of Chamakh will add something we have perhaps missed since the departure of Adebayor. Goals this season, much like last in the main, won’t be an issue. The problem is will they outweigh the ones we conceed?

But goalkeeping is a major issue, we might have bid for a number of keepers (the Schwarzer rumours picked up again late last night) but nothing concrete has happened. Couple that with a pre-season selection policy and poor form means I don’t think even Arsene is confident who he will pick as number one. Personally it has to be Almunia, he is the best of a weak bunch. A club like Arsenal need a strong keeper if we are to challenge for trophies and currently that is one of our weak links.

We again will have squad depth problems, sheer numbers is not the issue, it’s having some quality rather than untested youth to step in during the inevitable injuries and dips in form. That is probably what worries me most.

Is a trophy possible? Yes, but it will take some big doses of luck to get one. I would like more attention paid to the FA Cup this season, but I’m not totally convinced that will happen. Maybe come May I will have to eat all these words when we are crowned Premier League or European champions, that hope isn’t totally missing. Come on you gunners!

Whilst it was a chance for players to prove themselves to Arsene, and also for him to try out various partnerships not too much can be read into things. However there were a few noteable performances; Samir Nasri played excellent in a central role topping this off with a sublime strike for our first and a excellently hit free kick later in the first half, Havard Nordtveit played the whole game and impressed at right-back looking confident on the ball and positionally he played well, Chamakh also had a good performance with his workrate impressing me, finally a mention for Jack Wilshere he is still the player he was prior to his Bolton loan and I think that experience has done him well.

On the negative side we were caught out a few times defensively, same old same old. But we can hope that is just pre-season rustiness and that won’t be present come the start of the Premier League in a few weeks time.

One thing I will say thought, I watched the match on Arsenal TV Online, it was terrible. I have previously seen streams of games and put the poor quality down to the less than legitimate broadcast, however for a club provided feed it was poor. Very blocky and pixelating (to be fair to my crap broadband it did only buffer once in the game) and when the camera was showing the whole pitch you couldn’t make out who was who. For something that I pay for (admittedly I only really subscribe for Arsene’s interviews) it was a poor product. If clubs think that broadcasting on the internet is the way forward then the quality has to be increased, waiting for match of the day would be preferable to watching such a poor quality broadcast.

Our pre-season kicked off on Saturday with the trip to Barnet. We ran away 4-0 winners with Arshavin, Jay Simpson (2) and Nasri on the score sheet. The game also saw debuts for Chamakh and Koscielny, for the former Arsene said “Chamakh was very good at bringing players in. With our creative midfielders, that will be suited to our game” and he added “Koscielny adjusted slowly to the required challenges in the air”. Only 45 minutes each but at least they are starting to get involved in things. Hopefully they will both progress well in the early season.

Cesc is still being talked about by Barca, but Arsene has asked for this all to stop. I’m not convinced that they will listen, but we can all hope. I’m still not sure this saga is over, even if he does remain at the club I worry what reaction the fans and players will have to the want away captain. Time will tell, and no doubt there will be more on that in the coming weeks as well.

One final bit of intrigue was on the keeper situation; Almunia was “unwell” for Barnet, so Fabianski, Mannone and Szczesny all played a part. After the game Arsene said this;

“At the moment, in pre-season, there is no No 1 – you have to give a chance to everyone to show how good he is. You cannot decide that today.”

Interesting, surely our best keeper would be number one. I doubt Casillas or  Stekelenburg will be fighting for their number one spots when they return to their clubs. I would hope a transfer move takes place for this position. On the subject of which rumours are that Eduardo is off, to Shaktar Donetsk, more on that as it comes.

Also there will be a competition on here over the next few days, more to come soon. Thanks for reading.

Team news wise; it’s Sol and Sylvestre at centre back. Denilson is a doubt and Song is still out. Another makeshift midfield or perhaps Nasri – Diaby – Rosicky as the middle 3. Van Persie might start, I would say yes given what he displayed on Wednesday – a few goals and bring him off on the hour if he can’t complete the game. We need this put to bed earlier rather than later today. The collective gooner nerves can’t take much more I don’t think.

It should be 3 points for us today, a decent performance will ensure that. Lets hope that happens.

Picture from Arsenal.com

No two ways about it. Bollocks, fuck fuck bollocks. We lost to the shite from the lane. Following last night’s victory Spurs will now play in the world cup and get a bye to the final of the Champions League next season.

Half the team didn’t turn up, in fact only 3 players did. Sol was immense, despite the constant abuse he got he just played on, and played really well. I think Arsene should keep him on next season. Whilst he might start to lack the fitness required what he brings in experience and desire cannot be easily sourced elsewhere. Desire seemed lacking from most of our players on the pitch, Spurs clearly wanted it more. Samir Nasri tried really hard, he wanted to drive the team on but didn’t have the players around him to help.

Being 2 goals down I thought the best we could get was a draw. Two attacking subs would help, Theo came on but had no impact really. He simply couldn’t beat their left back(s). His only highlight was the cross that set up Bendtner’s goal.

Our other attacking substitute was Robin van Persie. Out of the game for 5 months, but it looked like he had never left. He has a particular running style – I can’t describe it but you just know it’s him by the way he moves. His chest-down and left foot volley was fantastic, great save Gomes, Robin doesn’t need time to regain his touch. A free kick that dipped for the top left corner was another gem, again great save Gomes. I was left wondering what might have been. If he had been fit all year, who knows. But my philosophy in life is what has happened has happened, you can’t look back thinking what if this, what if that. You just get on with it and our lot is 3rd place most likely. Yes we might sneak second, but I doubt it.

But is 3rd that bad? I don’t think so, as I alluded to after Birmingham we have done pretty well this season. Add our injuries, of which Vermaelen is now another attendee at Arsenal Injuries Anonymous and will be out for 2-3 weeks but I think that’s his season following a calf inury, and how well we have done in the league is fantastic. Take some of the top players from any other team away and see them mount a title challenge for this long into the season.

However it is not all rosy; Arsene said if we didn’t win anything this year he would need to change his buying style – will he do that? Time will only tell over the summer, but I suspect he is less than impressed by some of the performances in not only last night’s big game but some others this season where you have to wonder if some of the players really want to be Arsenal, or are happy just being footballers.

Thanks for reading

We were given hope early on when Diaby won the ball well in the centre circle, made the pass to Theo and he made a run forward, Bendtner was with him but the pass he was given was terrible and it bobbled at his feet. He got a shot off but Valdes saved it. However Bendtner did very well to pounce on the rebound and toe-poke home a ball that was probably not the easiest thing he has done in football.

We were 1-0 up, at the Nou Camp. Perhaps, just perhaps it might happen. But then the brilliance of Messi shone through, a hat trick in just over 20 minutes pretty much put the tie to bed. In the first leg I didn’t see anything special from Messi to warrant “the best player in the world” label he has, but last night he showed that he is the best and best by a long way. His late goal I think was one too many for Arsenal hearts, 3-1 would have been a more comfortable loss.

In the midfield we battled better, Denilson and Nasri pressing more than happened in the first leg but we still stood off too much. Clichy was back at his best, it was good to see, but he did get exposed when no-one covered his forward runs and the left side was left open. Rosicky however was poor, if he wasn’t fully fit he should not have played. Eduardo should have started in his place I think, but it doesn’t matter now.

After the game Nic and Arsene did interviews and both said we were beaten by a better side. No question about that from me. It’s the simple reality. We now have to pick ourselves up for our next league game in a weeks time. Hopefully our walking wounded will have recovered and we might have a few more players to pick from, more on our injuries in the coming week but I looked last night (thanks to those who helped on twitter) and I am not sure we have any of our first team outfield players who has not been injured at least once this season. It has really hurt our push for trophies. Something needs to be done to fix our injury problems.

Then Sagna lifted the ball in from the right, Bendtner rose to head it.

The back of the net bulged.

The Grove went wild.

A great goal. One we deserved given how one sided the game had been despite the solid defending from Wolves. Another nail biter is not doing good for the fans’ hearts. But it keeps us in with a shout. Yes it is a very slim chance in reality, but we will keep on fighting. It isn’t over until we have no chance. We are keeping going till the end of games, the team has massive desire and it might, might just take us over the line.

The game itself was not the greatest footballing spectacle, with Nasri and Bendtner rested and Cesc out injured some of our attacking fluidity was missing. Arsene clearly had an eye on Tuesday night. Eduardo, who I am becoming increasingly worried for, had chances but lacked that killer instinct for goal. He looks lost at times, I know he hasn’t played much but I think the injury is playing on his mind – Ramsey’s similar fate cannot have helped matters.

Wolves were down to 10 men following a rash challenge by their captain, I have yet to watch MOTD but at full speed he looked to go in from behind studs up. Prick McCarthy covered himself in about as much glory as Phil Brown covers himself in fake tan when he applauded the player off the pitch then goaded Arsenal fans after the final whistle. Cock. Once they were numerically inferior they just sat back. We broke them down many times but Hahnemann kept them in the game with a number of fine saves akin to Almunia against Barca in the first half. But we broke the deadlock very late on. Those who stayed beyond 90, which seemed more than usual, were treated to a massive amount of elation. Will we be able to celebrate like this come the end of the season? I think we are still in with a shout. Come on you reds!