Worrying signs...

Well I was fortunately at a festival this weekend so missed the so called 'abysmal' performance we displayed on Saturday at Craven Cottage. From what I have read we lacked creativity, lacked drive, and our normally consistent players put in a poor show.

I am not going to try and analyse the game because I did not watch it live, and I am not sure I can force myself to watch my recorded copy of MOTD, I have read enough about the game to know it is poor viewing, for that reason I just can't bring myself to do it...

The result has struck a lot of panic amongst Gooners, it was unexpected, even with a weakened team, and it is a worrying sign considering that Hull beat Fulham the week before. Also looking at it in the sense of us only scoring one goal in total against West Brom and Fulham it would appear not to just be defensive issues. This makes me wonder whether Alonso would in fact be a great signing for us, he is a passmaster, and we cannot always rely on the fitness of Cesc, and with Alonso in the team he would be a very useful creative spark in the centre of midfield. Looking at our squad at the moment it doesn't really look like we have a creative back up to Cesc, and at the same time we don't really have a defensive rock either, we have a lot of in betweens. Having said that I was a little surprised that Wenger didn't play Song against Fulham, he is fairly good defensively, even if he has had little experience in this position at Arsenal, I just don't understand playing players like Eboue out of position when Song could have fitted in. Wenger does puzzle us at times...

We only lost 3 matches last season and we have lost 1 only 2 games in, is this concerning?... Well I think that we drew too many games last season, you got more points from a win and a loss than you do from 2 draws. We can afford more losses if we can turn more draws into victories, that is a fact. Whether or not we can do that remains to be seen, especially when we tend to concede the first goal and are normally chasing the game, this leads to far too many of our draws, and this needs sorting out.

Silvestre has come in, and our defence is still looking poor. We knew Toure and Gallas were not a great partnership, Senderos has now joined AC Milan on loan for the season, and they have an option to turn this into a permanent deal at the end of the season. Senderos never really won me over but I am a little surprised Wenger has done this. We have stuck with Senderos for a long time now so it seems a little strange that we offload him at an age he will start to iron out the creases of his game, and Senderos seemed very much like one of the plans that Wenger would not drop, he really seemed determined to stick with him.

Now Djourou and Song might be better options than Senderos at CB, but we have not seen enough of either of those 2 at CB at Arsenal. Djourou had a spell before but this was not when we were competing for the title, and we have not seen Song there on a regular basis yet, but he has looked good there. I do like the determination shown by Djourou when he plays, this may lead to a lot of cards but he is there to win the ball. Song also looks like he will be strong enough to compete as a CB in the Premier League, we just need to see if he has the awareness and positioning.
Which leads me on to Silvestre... he is out until at least September 13 now! Just what we need huh, another inury prone player! I don't like to doubt Arsene but he is making the squad smaller and smaller and he is apparently no closer to signing a CM just yet, it is somewhat worrying.

As always you have to give Wenger until the very end of the transfer market until making a judgement over his summer transfer activity because he does like the late purchase, and looking at our squad at the moment I can really seeing him bringing in 2/3 players in January. The only thing is that Wenger has known since May that we needed to bring in a CM to partner Cesc and to step straight into the first team, and according to him, he is no closer to this!!! Please make us happy Arsene!

I told you so...

Well I hate to say it... but I told you so. Silvestre has joined Arsenal, Wenger still wants one more signing, and it has opened the door for a loan spell...

So starting with the latter its some very good news, Armand Traore has joined Portsmouth on loan for the season. Harry and Tony will look after him, and he really needs some week in week out football. Hopefully he will get his chance. Traore is very competent on the ball, he has good footwork, a great cross, and some blistering pace, he really does glide down the flank. However his defensive capabilities have been exposed a few times by the likes of Aaron Lennon and Daniel Alves, so I think some regular exposure in the Premiership alongside some defensive greats in the Pompey team will do him the world of good, and hey, he might get some time on the left wing too so either way its a win win, we would get to see what he is like on the wing if he is deployed there.

On to our next summer transfer... Wenger has pretty much confirmed we will sign another player... as always he as not given any indication to whom it might be, but he has not even ruled out a bid for Barry stating that his exclusion from being able to compete in Europe for us would not prevent him from signing him. Barry is OK, but I am sure there are better at a cheaper price, and I'm sure Wenger has someone else lined up. Having been at the Swiss match last night it would not surprise me if it is Inler. I know nothing about Inler (except he was voted 2nd best foreign player in Serie A last season) but this potential signing excites me for some reason, and he isn't overly experienced either... not too sure why it excites me, but it does!

I must admit that with the smokescreen of the Silvestre signing I was almost expecting a second signing to be pulled out the bag today from no where, but so far nothing to report. Either way Wenger has clearly been taking his time over things so I'm sure he will have made every possible assessment for when we do finally make that signing.

In other news I honestly think that Arshavin has the most stupid agent ever, they have both spent the summer spouting their mouths off, and now comes a final hammer blow. According to his agent Arshavin could be an Arsenal player right now if he hadn't demanded such high wages and that Arsenal were willing to pay £15 million. Erm.... right... so was his asking price dropped or something because as far as I was aware Zenith wanted over £20 million for him and would not drop his asking price, and they turned down a £16 million bid from Barca, so I really don't know what his agent is on about?... Very strange!

More to come over the following days, hopefully our final signing!... Looking forward to Saturdays game against Fulham we have Song back in the squad, Silvestre may be included but has a slight strain or something, and Fabregas may well be back for Wednesdays match. Very good news. Apparently Diaby is going to be back sooner than expected, we should have some good news on Rosicky in the next few weeks, and Van Persie got through last nights international match and scored a peach of a goal...

Thats it for now.

Mikael Silvestre - a good signing should it happen

So reports in this mornings papers suggest that we could be on the verge on hijacking Silvestre's proposed move across Manchester to Eastlands, and reports from Myles Palmer (bit of a twat) even go as far as to confirm tat he was seen both at Highbury House this morning, and at the training ground this afternoon.

I have seen a lot of negative opinions from fellow fans about this proposed transfer, I have the following response...

If we sign Silvestre then I think its a good signing. Everyone complains about us having a thin squad, they complain about us brining in too many young players....

He would NOT be THE signing we were promised considering we have lost Hoyte from the squad, a player whom we need to replace in the squad... losing Hoyte for Silvestre is fine. We have more than ample cover for right back (Eboue and Toure), and Hoyte is not as good cover at left back or centre back as Silvestre would be. Hoyte had to fill in at CB last season so it shows no matter where Silvestre is in the pecking order he will almost definitely come into use at some point.

Imagine with our squad now if Clichy gets injured?... Silvestre will be better defensive cover than Traore, Gallas would be reluctant to play there and those are really our only left back options, Silvestre will therefore be a good addition for our squad depth...

Silvestre will not be in the squad long... one season maybe two... he is unlikely to hinder any of our youngsters development, I'm sure they could learn from him, and if anything it opens the door for a player like Djourou to go on loan and pick up regular football week in week out, so effectively improving his development at first team level.

We will still be signing a CM if this deal goes through so stop getting your knickers in a twist and use your brain for once!

I hope you agree.

EDIT: Silvestre has now signed for us on a 2 year contract for an undisclosed fee supposed to be around £750,000.00 http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/7573520.stm