Someone Tell Mr. Wenger It’s a 90 Minute Game!

Well second day in a row that we’ve blown a lead and I’m sure there are many worried Gunner fans out there despite it being a preseason game.  It’s quite laughable that the Emirates Cup was won by an MLS team but oh well, there’s always next year!  Arsene Wenger should know what he needs to do now to make this team successful and it all depends on whether he’ll do that or not.

Our first half looked decent with Gervinho once again impressing with his movement and skills, as well as Van Persie putting on a good display.  Ramsey did okay but missed a few key opportunities in the game and the opening came from a Tomas Rosicky free kick off the head of Robin Van Persie.

One worry is Jack Wilshere who had a knock to the ankle so we are hoping it’s not too serious.  He was able to jog off the pitch on his own and ran down the tunnel.  Benik Afobe replaced him and showed flashes of talent.  He looked good although having to play from the wing which is not his favorite position.  If he stays at Arsenal and plays in our Cup games then he is our replacement for Bendnter…assuming anybody actually wants Bendtner.

Our second half lacked a lot of creativity but I think many fans were happy to see Kyle Bartley replace Laurent Koscielny late in the game.  I don’t think many are too happy about it anymore though as he put the ball into his own net.  Now I can’t really blame Bartley for the own goal because there wasn’t much he could do, and if he doesn’t make contact the Red Bull right behind him would have.  What I do blame Bartley for EVERYTHING before that happened.  The ball came in on a corner and bounced right in front of Bartley, he just watched on lazily and did absolutely nothing to clear the ball.  He may not be the only one that’s guilty but he was right in front of it and didn’t even try to out muscle the guy in front of him.

I’m not upset that we tied because it’s preseason and its the Emirates Cup and I’m confident we’ll see 1 or 2 signings this coming week.  What I am concerned about though is Arsene Wenger being content with us playing well for 60 minutes.  Yes the players have heavy legs and were training all week in Germany.  What happens though next March, April, May when we’ve had a long season and are still competing for trophies?  We’ll have heavy legs then and 60 minutes won’t be enough for us to win trophies!

I do believe we’ll strengthen the team this week, but we could see Fabregas leave, we may even see Bendtner, Almunia, and Eboue jet off so it could be a crazy week.  We have members day on Thursday and Benfica on Saturday so we should have a full week of rumors and gossip and all that good stuff!  I’ll be a happy man though if we bring in our two reported interests in Mata and Centerback.

I don’t think we have anything to worry about yet though as Arsenal always start off the season quickly and with a good amount of goals, which is good that we have Liverpool and Manchester United up quickly.  We also have to start thinking about Champions League qualifier as well with no Van Persie and no Nasri  to start as they are suspended.

Lastly it was nice to see Nasri spend the entire game on the bench hopefully he’s ready to get used to that seat!

A Second Look at Arsenal Vs. Boca Juniors.

After taking my night of work and thinking about the game I was able to come to some opinionated conclusions that I think many will agree with me on.  I was able to think about the game and come up with a couple of positives about the game and a couple of major negatives that I think need to be addressed for Arsenal to be successful this year.

There were some great performances today by Frimpong, Wilshere, Gervinho and a few others.  The combination play between Van Persie and Gervinho was quite brilliant and it seems they are very much in sync!  The team had some good fitness and we were even able to see some the places we need to improve on as a team.

Many are saying that we need to buy a center back pronto to deal with our set pieces.  There are 15-16 guys in the box, maybe 1 will help but it won’t fix the problem.  Bringing Samba will cause more problems than fix as well with him not really fitting into the Arsenal style center back it will hurt us more than help us in the run of play.  Our problem is our team defense and the guys not giving everything they have to put their head on the ball.  It’s like at the other end when we get a cross in, who is willing to sacrifice everything to get that ball in the net…usually nobody which is why we’re always going for the perfect goal!  Our guys can’t hand that responsibility off to someone else and its weird to say but on defensive corners, Adebayor was always a beast!

Our quality in depth is not much better than last year.  Many of the players that are leaving aren’t being replaced and it will hurt us in the long run.  Frimpong as a back up is fabulous and will give Song some much needed rest during the year, and will have a big role to play when the African Cup of Nations comes up.  We will also have Coquelin to help out there as well.  Our mids, we have Wilshere, Nasri (maybe) Ramsey, Rosicky, Fabregas (maybe), Diaby if he’s ever healthy, and Lansbury if he gets his chance.  We already need to strengthen there as Rosicky hasn’t been able to get back to his best, Diaby is always hurt and we still have question marks over Nasri and Fabregas.  Wenger says he likes Mata but he really needs to buy before someone comes in and takes him away…Spurs don’t have a chance but other teams may.

Our forwards we have Arshavin, Gervinho, Van Persie, Chamakh, Vela, Walcott, possibly Miyaichi, and Afobe is in the squad for now.  There’s a need to buy with Arshavin not always at his best, Gervinho will be at AFN Vela and Chamakh aren’t top quality and Miyaichi may not get a permit.  If we do buy Mata he may come in and play winger more than attacking midfielder but our depth isn’t great especially when Walcott is hurt now, we don’t know how long Van Persie will make it and if we lose those two we could be in trouble.

Finally the back line…well we saw today what our starting Center backs will be at the beginning of the season.  Kos and Verm look great together and Kos now has a year under his belt to work with.  I’m hoping Wenger will start tomorrow with Vermaelen and Bartley but not counting on it.  So with Squillaci and Djourou we have two average defenders when we need above average to great defenders.  Bartley needs to be given a chance as Squillaci has failed time and time again.  If Vermaelen gets hurt again we cannot go another year with those three running things.  Squillaci is a liability as he not only plays bad, but also makes his partner look worse than they are as well.  Not sure why we’re going for Jagielka though…

Finally, two things I was very disappointed about at the game today was:

1. Giving Samir Nasri the armband:  You said it yourself after the game Arsene, you need to make sure both Fabregas and Nasri is committed to the cause.  If you can’t tell that Nasri isn’t committed I don’t really understand, because we can all tell he isn’t and you even get to speak with him, we just watch!  He looks like a completely new and lackluster player.  He doesn’t fight for the ball, he doesn’t have that spark any more.  I felt like it was more of an attempt to get him to be committed or sign a new contract by handing him the armband.  Sell him and bring in someone who cares!

2. The substitutions Wenger made were poor and maybe they were because of tomorrow but two I’m quite unhappy about are Squillaci and Eboue.  Last year at the end of the year I saw Wenger pull of Squillaci two games in a row half way through the game.  Wenger only subs his center backs in EPL when they are hurt but he obviously lost his faith in him…what restored it.  You know what your going to get with Squillaci so why not give the Young Gun a chance to prove himself.  He’s already played in the Europa League against tough competition, he can handle it.

Second was Eboue…why? he was completely invisible the entire time he was on for one thing and secondly…you’ve told him he can leave!  Why are you playing him?!  Afobe is a player for the future but yet your not going to let him play, or give him the opportunity to play in a situation like this!?  Bothers the crap out of me that you sub in a player you’ve given permission to leave.

Either way, we’ll look to see a better outing tomorrow against the New York Red Bulls and Thierry Henry!  Here’s my hopeful lineup for tomorrow!

Szcesney

Sagna Bartley Verm Gibbs

Song  Wilshere

Rosicky

Gervinho RvP Juan Mata (jk) Lansbury!

Poor Second Half Defending Leads To Disappointing Draw

While it’s only the Emirates Cup it was a bit of a disappointment and if that wasn’t an indication that Squillaci needs to be sold I don’t know what will.  Terrible giveaway that leads to the first goal and poor positioning by both center backs and a mistake by Djourou that leads to the second goal.  I continue to wonder what Wenger sees in him and question his substitutions!  It is the Emirates Cup where you can play some younger guys and see what they got, while you already know what you’ll get from Squillaci…CRAP.  Bartley and Afobe left on the bench wondering if maybe they could have had an impact on the game.  Vela began the second half with a great run and bit of skill to set up Ramsey for the second goal, but after that the only thing we saw from Vela was giving the ball away.

What frustrates me even more is Arsene Wenger letting Samir Nasri be Captain for the second half.  It seems he’s trying to bribe Nasri into signing a new contract when he clearly doesn’t deserve it.  Nasri was invisible basically the entire first half while Wilshere ran things, and the second half just didn’t look creative or…well he doesn’t impress me.

It’s clear to me now that Vermaelen and Kos will be our starting center backs but it’s very important we buy at least 1 and get rid of Squillaci because if we have an injury, we have a problem on our hands with our quality in depth not being very good.  We are always talking about Cahill, Jagielka, Samba but I really think we should look to players like Alex, and Vertonghen to come in.  Our problem isn’t having a bigger body in the box, our problem is our TEAM defending in set pieces.  Getting a big player like Samba isn’t going to just fix the problem in a box full of 16 players!  If anything it will add a problem because he won’t be able to cope with the run of play and high offside line of Arsenal.

Besides all the gloom and doom, Arsenal had a decent first half with some good teamwork between Gervinho and Van Persie.  The two lit up the first half along with Wilshere to take the score to 1-0 at half time.  Things were looking very up for Arsenal especially after 43 seconds in the second half with Ramsey’s goal.  Tomorrow should have a much different look to it with Vermaelen back, Our number 1 Goalkeeper back, Gibbs, Song and Rosicky coming into the side.  I am hoping Bartley will partner Vermaelen in the defense and make a stake for being our number 3!

All in all, this game has shown us that we do need to hit the transfer market next week.  Our depth attacking is weak so we need to get Mata quickly and have him integrated into the side.  Even another attacker would be nice with talk of Benzema being offered so Madrid can fun their offer for Tevez, and also Dzagoev being talked up by Arshavin would be a nice grab.  Our depth in defense is weak as well so we have a need to buy a good defender and get Squillaci out!

Two players that stood out for me today: Frimpong owned the midfield with his tough tackling and good passing.  He did well and it seems Arsenal don’t need to splash out for a defensive midfielder with Frimpong being a suitable replacement.  The other was Traore with a good display at left back.

Lastly I just need to take this time and say that Robbie Savage is the worst pundit EVER and he even made the claim that Arsenal wouldn’t make the top 4 with the comeback of Liverpool!  While most of you are thinking, with displays like today we won’t! Lets just remember that while we tied this game, Liverpool lost to Hull City 3-0 and Galatasary 3-0.  We had a few bad moments in defense but we need to be patient and wait for this week where we’ll be sure to see a few new faces walk through the door!

 

Emirates Cup and Signings Welcome!

I’m buzzing with excitement to get another look at our fantastic signing Gervinho as well as then entire team really!  Not sure I’ll be sleeping tonight!  Our first game against Boca Juniors should be very competitive and I’m even a bit disappointed we don’t get to play PSG so we can really test our team and see how we fair against some good competition.  After seeing how the other MLS teams have fared against European competition I don’t think New York will be much of a game personally.  I am quite excited to see Henry back in London though!

I’m interested to see what team we come out with because our other preseason games had 2 teams who played together most of the time.  We do know that we won’t be seeing Ryo who’s applied for his work permit but won’t know the outcome until the middle of August and we won’t see Walcott who is out injured.  Fabregas also won’t be involved and will continue to be unavailable until he figures out this Barcelona Arsenal saga.

Arsene Wenger has also said that he’ll be doing his business “sooner rather than later” which is good news considering we’re after Juan Mata.  I do think the fans are getting a little ahead of themselves and while we are interested in Juan Mata I don’t think we’ve tied up a deal for him.  The Guardian is reporting that Tottenham are interested in Mata and are going to pay more than Arsenal.  Mata won’t leave Valencia for a team that won’t play Champions League though so basically this is our transfer!  Now make it happen Arsene!

Some interesting news out of Madrid and our transfer target Karim Benzema.  It turns out that Real Madrid want Carlos Tevez from Manchester City after losing out on Sergio Aguero.  Madrid need to raise a bit of money as well so The Punch is saying that they will offer Arsenal Benzema for 25 million.  My first question is how credible is this site but I did look around the web and found other sites reporting that same rumor.

If Arsenal’s summer consisted of buying Gervinho, Juan Mata, and Benzema it would be a dream come true!  The way I see it Benzema would cost 25 million, and Nasri could be sold for 20 to 25 million.  We’d be getting Mata as a replacement and a great signing like Benzema it would definitely be our year!  Just wishful thinking though…very wishful…more like praying, and begging God!

I’ll have more tomorrow night on the game and maybe some great news, who knows!

Peter Hill-Wood Says What The Fans Have Been Thinking!

Bit of BIG news today coming from the world of Arsenal!  I was thinking we’d be signing someone this week and hey what do you know, Joel Campbell has agreed to join Arsenal after the U-20 World Cup with Costa Rica.  The Saprissa striker has had a successful summer playing in the Copa America as well as the upcoming U-20 World Cup.  It was first reported a couple of weeks ago that Arsenal had agreed a fee with Saprissa for the striker but complications took place and it appeared we wouldn’t be landing the striker.

Gunnerblog has reported today that the striker has told coaches he will be joining Arsenal after the U-20 world cup and has signed a contract with the club!  Whether he will get a work permit is to be seen though with this being his first season playing in the National Team.  If he is denied a work permit then he will most likely go on loan to Spain for the year until he meets all of the qualifications for the work permit.

The bit of news that most fans are excited about is Juan Mata.  The Sun reports that Mata has told friends that he is joining Arsenal and will be joining for 19 million pounds.  It is a bit more than being reported but still completely worth it in my opinion.  The winger will be a great addition to the team but some will see it as a sign that either Fabregas or Nasri are leaving.  If he is a replacement for Nasri then it is a really good bit of business on our part and I will be quite pleased.

News coming from Legendaire (who has his news from another source so check his article out) is that Mata will be a special guest at the Emirates on Saturday and Sunday before signing for the club next week!  It was reported earlier that his reps were in London to negotiate things so things are going quite quickly…which is odd for Arsenal.  If all of this comes to be then it will be quite a massive signing for the club!

Lastly I wanted to spend a few moments talking about the comments made by Peter Hill-Wood today regarding the negotiations with Barcelona.  PHW managed to really say what all the fans have been saying for quite some time and I almost started cheering as I read his comments.  Here they are:

“They have been messing about for a year and a half now and they have got to make up their minds, The ball is in their court. They have made one bid of around £26m and another rather tentative one.  If they want to buy the player they are going to have to pay the right price – and when you look at what is being paid elsewhere I don’t think what we are asking is at all unreasonable”

Summary: Barcelona pay up, pay the right price, in this market 40 million is cheap for Cesc.  It’s quite an easy ultimatum and he continued to say that the door will be shut sooner rather than later.  We all know that if Cesc isn’t signed he will play for the club and do his best to win a trophy for the club so if Barcelona miss out…no biggie!

Also asked on their buying stance PHW said they were working on it but “it doesn’t happen overnight.”  Especially with Arsenal it doesn’t, but we are starting to see some more activity in the club and as I said about a month ago…once Arsene Wenger has had a more realistic look at his squad for this year he would enter further into the transfer market.  It does look like we are after Jagielka too saying that our bid was rejected and most think we’re offering more.  Personally not my first choice, but better than Squillaci!

Only a day until the Emirates cup and the return of Thierry Henry, looking forward to seeing Juan Mata there as well!

Juan Mata Soon To Be a Gunner?

Not much coming out for transfers today but we have other worries on our hands with Theo injured and back in London we will be praying that he’s okay and will be able to make it for our first game against Newcastle.  This year though looks the year that we have depth in quality so that when we do lose someone like Theo to injury, we have a player like Gervinho, Ryo, Arshavin or possibly even (knock on wood) Juan Mata to come in and we don’t lose much quality.

Young Guns is reporting that we have everything lined up to submit our bid for Ryo Miyaichi’s work permit.  With the young Japanese player staring for Feyenoord last year and coming into the first team for preseason Arsene Wenger is ready to put him right into the action.  Although his lack of playing time for the National team could hinder his permit chances he may be able to acquire his special talent visa due to him being a starter all year last year and making an impact on our preseason.  We’re all praying that Ryo gets his permit so he can get some good experience with the Arsenal team as well as make an impact.  I see him being an impact sub and rotational player for much of the year so when we do lose players to injury, seeing that it always happens, then we’ll have a great backup!

I came across an article by Legendaire today talking about Cesc and Nasri and its something I agree with as well as being a very interesting read.  Much of the main point other than Cesc and Nasri will both be sold is, how are we going to attract world class players if we come out and say we’re selling them both!?  There’s a chance that Nasri could already have agreed a deal with Manchester City and they’re just waiting to announce it until we find a suitable replacement.  Don’t quote me on that…just saying, its possible.  Another thing written in this article is something I’ve been talking up for a while, which is the partnership between Ramsey and Wilshere.  Watch the preseason games again or watch on Saturday and Sunday and you will see, they have great chemistry together.

Lastly is this whole story on Juan Mata that has gathered some pace today.  Yesterday the Daily Star predicted Mata would be an Arsenal player in the next 24 hours and while I don’t believe that I do believe that our interest is real and that this transfer really could happen.  The last two months the president of the club has always said they won’t sell Mata at any price while the coach has said, well if a good offer comes in we can’t stop him from leaving.

Every single site reporting this has given a different fee for how much we would pay, some have said 13 mil others 17 mil was his buyout clause and I’d be willing to pay the 17 for him because he’s a very good player.  The mirror are reporting that Mata’s parents and reps have flown in for talks with Arsenal.  Sometimes when they report that I wish they would actually prove it to me, show me a picture in the airport or something…because I’m still skeptical!

What makes me laugh the most about this whole thing is that when its all done and Mata is a Gunner it just makes Liverpool look more of a joke than ever!  Gervinho 12 million…better than all three of their signings.  Mata 13-17 million…better than all three of their signings…Liverpool paying more than double the price!  The only thing they have going for them this year is Luis Suarez.

Well I said I was going to get to an article I didn’t get to typing today, maybe tomorrow!  Hopefully I’ll be able to tell you more good news regarding Juan Mata!

 

Transfers: Lucas Biglia linked and Joel Campbell a done deal?

An early round up of some of the news of the  day with firstly saying good luck to the JET as he transfers to Ipswich.  Great talented player but hopefully he can pick up the work ethic and really show the world the player he is.  We may also be seeing the exit of Emmanuel Eboue soon to Galatasary for about 4 million pounds.  We’re hoping Nik and Almunia will be clearing out some space as well soon so we can get a few guys in as well.

The latest to be linked to Arsenal is defensive midfielder Luca Biglia.  It’s pretty crazy how much he looks like Fernando Torres, but Biglia is a hard tackling defensive midfielder from Argentina who has just broken into the National Team recently.  He’s been playing in Belgium since 2006 and has made 152 appearances for the club.  He’s 5’10” and is a very skillful dribbler and has the experience to come into this Arsenal team and make a difference if Arsenal stump up the 6 million pounds which is a relatively small fee.  See the full story here

Personally I think he’d be a welcome addition and for a pretty cheap price.  The defensive midfield position is a spot we could use experience when we need a back up for Alex Song.  Frimpong and Coquelin are great talents but neeore experience.  Many fans also believe that we need to buy a defensive midfielder and this would not be hard to fit into our wage or transfer budget.  I only know from watching a few Youtube videos but he seems to have very good skills and isn’t afraid of going into a tackle.

Now according to Goal.com we have captured Joel Campbell and he will join up with the club after the U-20 World Cup.  The report says it could be confirmed by Tuesday and while it’s Wednesday and nothing has been really confirmed, we will see what happens.  Earlier in the month we made contact with the striker and Saprissa and had a bid accepted, and while terms were being negotiated another club came in with an offer…just like with Ricardo Alvarez.  It was thought that we pulled out of the deal but it seems that it’s back on.

There have been rumors elsewhere of Milan making a move for Fabregas with Flamini coming the other way which sounds terrible!  Not my ideal transaction as I’d rather see someone more like Fabregas come in if he were to leave.  There are thoughts that Arshavin could move in behind the striker and I welcome that and think he could do much better there than out on the left.

more tomorrow and an article on Arsene Wenger’s thinking behind Niklas Bendtner and Denilson.  Should be a thought provoking article!

Where Did All The Supportive Fans Go?

So I was doing my rounds of blogs and seeing what others were saying when I saw Arsene Wenger’s comments how close we were to winning last season, and how he would try to add a new defender this year.  When I looked at the comments I saw someone say, ‘we were not even close this year, we were barely able to get 4th place last year’ and the same old whining crap from “fans” who all they do is give Arsene crap and bust his chops all day.

It’s upsetting to see people who want to throw our entire team away because there was no silverware and who will give so much crap to a team that was so close to winning this year.  So many times I sit there and read the comment and go…”do they even like Arsenal?”  You say your just whining and moaning because you love the club and want to see them win something well maybe you should support them instead of always being first to judge for a bad pass, or a missed opportunity, but shall I remind you what  we really achieved last year?

In the beginning of the season, most people across Europe thought Arsenal would not be in the top 4 at all and most thought Liverpool would get back on their feet and take their spot back from us.  Liverpool is garbage for one thing and this off season they’ve not really improved.  People think Dalglish have helped but he’s made them move average than they already were.  We kicked things off against Liverpool last year after adding Marouane Chamakh, Laurent Koscielney, and Sebastian Squillaci.  We were barely able to scrap a draw away from Liverpool as we were without our Captain and best striker.  Many thought Arsenal had no chance this season but we stayed in it the whole year.

We disposed of Tottenham 4-1 in the Carling Cup, took down Money City 3-0, thrashed Chelsea 3-1, Beat Manchester United 1-0, and our best moment beating Barcelona 2-1.  After Barcelona things became complicated as we had a mix up in the Carling Cup final that saw us lose to a team that was relegated.  The next game we were extremely unlucky that we had Massimo Busacca referring and sent Robin Van Persie off.

After this and our Newcastle fail our team just lacked the mentality to recover.  Nasri was no longer having a player of the year season, Jack and Song were extremely tired, Van Persie did his best and Cesc was barely even there.  Our season went downhill, but we were in 4 competitions longer than anyone and that would take its toll on many teams, not just ours.  Yes we didn’t win any silverware, but we had a sniff at it and everyone will be hungrier than ever.  While I can’t justify the team for not winning silverware I will say it wasn’t a failure because we are still in Champions League, we still have top players and have added a fabulous one.  We have reason to believe that we can win this year because we were so close last year and we still have our same players who led us to it.

What some “fans” want are 6 signings so we can keep up with all the big teams…who have Chelsea signed this year? two unknowns, and Liverpool? Well they’ve signed 4 average at best players and overpaid for each one!  City have signed a defender that Wenger didn’t think was good enough and Gael Clichy.  Tottenham is crap and United is the only team that has strengthened their team more than we have.  Not to mention that our signing is better than any signing in the Premier League so far.

Arsene won’t always make the best decisions like keeping Nasri but he’s trying to keep his club stabilized and the chemistry together.  We have players who have been playing together for some time now and they are ready to make their mark on England and Europe and we have reason to be really excited for this season.  We shouldn’t be looking on last season in dread but remember how far we came and how close we came, we should see that this is our year.  What upsets me more is when we win those posers that say they love the club will say they new it from the start!

Don’t agree with me? Think last season was an utter failure and we weren’t even close?  You can suck it!

Ramsey, Wilshere, and Song Forming a Partnership

If you haven’t seen the article on Arsenal.com Aaron Ramsey talks about his growing relationship with midfield partners Jack Wilshere, and Alex Song.  The three have started all of their preseason games together and have looked quite dangerous throughout.  Ramsey coming off of half a season after suffering his horrific leg break will be looking to break into the first team this year.  Ramsey had this to say about his partners:

“Me, Jack and Alex are starting to build a relationship and are doing well together, We’ve shown that we are more than capable of playing together and are connecting together. It is an interesting combination and one that I hope I can be apart of.  In the middle, we did well [against Cologne] and it was a good work-out.”

With talk of Nasri not extending his contract and leaving for free this year, it really is Ramsey’s year to break into the first time.  Personally I think Nasri should rot in the reserves all year while we bring in someone to rotate with Ramsey but it will be up to him whether he can keep his spot in the midfield.

From the three preseason games, we were always far more dangerous with this combo on the field.  Ramsey has made a few mistakes but they have done a lot of running and it’s still only preseason while Wilshere has fascinated many with his great passing, mazy runs, and creativeness.  Song has had a relatively easy preseason playing with these two who work so hard playing box to box.

 

Fabregas Analysis and Transfer Rumors!

Well every Sunday evening I preview the week saying it will be a  busy one and every week I’m left a little disappointed by our lack of business.  Although it’s very hard to be disappointed with Gervinho putting in the display he did, and I’m quite pleased with some of the performances Saturday.  I’m very excited to see the Emirates Cup and I’m really hoping we see a few sagas resolved, as well as a few outgoing players and just 1 incoming player!

Arsenal has given Barcelona a deadline on signing Fabregas which seems to be this Friday and if they haven’t come up with the fee we want then we close the door on them.  It would be nice if Cesc stayed because he’s a great player and if he can have a healthy season then we’ll win silverware for sure.  I’ll outline what will make Cesc even more dangerous this year later.  Another reason I would like to see Cesc stay is because then we can offload Nasri and not lose him for anything next year.  If you read here much, I’m not a big fan of Nasri right now and don’t believe he should really ever put on the shirt again.  I hate the thought of him going to Man City but I think he’ll regret it besides the money factor.

There are a few rumors out there involving Cesc right now that we are demanding any deal for Cesc will also need to involve Barcelona midfielder Thiago.  It’s very tempting and if Arsenal could strike a deal to bring in Thiago or Afellay it would work well in our favor because Fabregas is happy, plus we can still offload Nasri and buy his replacement if need be because we already have one for Fabregas.

The other rumor involves Cesc and Ac Milan.  Apparently Ac Milan have signed a Mr. X and a few think it’s Cesc Fabregas which I’m not sure why he would go there…Read it for yourself here but not sure of the validity of it as it seems pretty impossible.

There’s also been rumors of Danielle De Rossi who is on the last year of his contract and could come on the cheap from Roma.  Thinking about the midfield lining up with De Rossi, Wilshere, Fabregas or De Rossi, Song, Wilshere just gives me goosebumps with how amazing it would be.  The Italian hard man could really do some damage in the premier league and could actually have a chance of winning a trophy.  Don’t think he’ll get that at Roma.

Fabregas Analysis

So I have good reason to believe that Cesc would be an even better player this year if he was fit and healthy and stayed with Arsenal this year.  Over the past couple of years Theo Walcott has been a dream player for Fabregas to play with.  He’s the fastest player in the league and likes to take off whenever he sees Cesc get the ball.  Unfortunately though it leaves an air of predictability in our game.  Cesc gets the ball lets watch Theo take off.  Our left side with Nasri and Arshavin being a little slower and more accustomed to moving the ball inside meant a pretty easy game plan for the defenders.

Now our three players leading the the line are all players that can play in that Center Forward position or play on the wings as natural wingers!  Gervinho and Walcott are both amazingly fast and Cesc will have another target to send down with his long balls creating more unpredictability with where he can move the ball and who will make the run!  Cesc with his blessed accuracy can surely increase his productivity quite a bit and create far more chances.  Now all that needs to happen is him to stay.