Arsenal 1-0 WBA

The sun was out, there were a couple of chilled beers sitting in my stomach and I must confess, it was glorious to be back watching football at the Grove.

It’s funny though, because every Arsenal fan I spoke to or overheard before the game was cautious in the extreme. “We might be able to compete…if we add to the squad” was the general gist of things. I wouldn’t have said the fans were disgruntled, but they were far from being gruntled, (apologies to PG Wodehouse). There was a bit of frustration as the game wore on, and a bit of booing for Adebayor - a combination of his summer misdemeanours and a wasteful afternoon in front of goal - but surely we should be preaching patience at this stage of the season? We can’t win 5-0 every game and besides, West Brom deserve credit for defending well.

Besides, our midfield - no need to go into why - was rejigged, with Eboue trying out the third team position of his Arsenal career in the middle and Nasri making his debut on the left. Walcott had a few good runs in the first half but didn’t impose himself enough, while Denilson and Eboue did pretty well for the most part.

Denilson had an assist to his name, but was sort of invisible otherwise. I mean that mostly positively - he was invisible in the Steve Williams, Paul Davis mould - he just got on with things. He’s no Fabregas and nor is he a Vieira, but he did pretty well without being spectacular.

The real positive of the afternoon was Nasri - he was superb. Nimble, with a good pass and a good shot, he already looks like he has more tools in his box than Hleb and his contribution was excellent. I can’t wait to see him dovetail with Fabregas - that’s two very creative options and overall Nasri was my man of the match.

Bendtner missed his one decent chance and Adebayor missed his chances too - but both battled hard, as did van Persie when he came on.

Not the finest performance, true - not enough chances created and a midfield that is far from first choice - but it’s the beginning of the season and three points were earned.

It’s just too early to talk up our chances or write us off, and surely far too early to start getting frustrated by not scoring hatfuls of goals. In fact, we were shooting loads - Gallas (who was very good) went close, Eboue bashed a few goalwards and Nasri likes to take a pop too. It just didn’t quite click.

The weaknesses are there for all to see but Wenger will absolutely address that - possibly next week.

Finally, it’s goodbye to Justin Hoyte. I championed him because I really wanted him to succeed, but Sagna’s signing showed us all that Justin Hoyte was unlikely to ever be first-choice at Arsenal. He was at times torn apart by the top opposition wingers, and while he’s bound to improve (he’s still in his early twenties), his chances were limited at Arsenal. All the best to him - there’s always his brother Gavin to keep the Hoyte Arsenal link intact…

Right, I’m off.

Let the excitement begin! For a few hours this afternoon we can go top of the league, and should we manage that, with only 37 league games remaining only the biggest bah-humbug would write our title chances off.

Ah, the joys and ludicrous expectancy of the opening day of the season. Are we in good shape? We’re a bit patched up and there have been acres of newsprint written about our search for a new midfielder, but missing midfielder notwithstanding, we’ve replaced the outgoing Alex Hleb with Samir Nasri so, from a first XI perspective, we are on a par to last season. Even better prepared, I would argue, given the extra experience of the younger members of our squad like Walcott, Clichy, Bendtner, et al.

Where the jury is out is over our strength in depth. We’ve lost four very experienced players and either not replaced them or not replaced them with experience; despite his relative footballing experience, let’s not forget that Samir Nasri was born several months after Charlie Nicholas’s Wembley double won George Graham his first piece of silver. He’s a young lad, the same age as Fabregas. Ramsey is even younger - it’s not fair to be placing huge expectancy on his shoulders.

At least today, we see the return of Toure and Nasri, and that can only help. Nasri, we all hope, will get the goals that Alex Hleb was pathologically incapable of scoring, though again, he needs a bit of slack to find his Premier League feet.

Talking of our midfield quest, the strange goings-on at Anfield regarding the Barry transfer reveal that Arsenal did have talks about securing Xabi Alonso. Benitez yesterday, when talking about the summer-long Barry quest, said “I was not involved in the talks about Barry, I was not involved in the talks about Xabi Alonso and Arsenal.” So why those talks came to naught - if indeed they did - who knows. It’s something that could still be on Wenger’s radar.

Excited? Naturellement. I love the start of the season, and nothing would be better than three points to kick things off. I’m setting off in about an hour and I’m almost stupidly looking forward to it.

Wenger is “too busy” to sign someone at present, it seems - well I’m too busy to be fooled by that. We all know a player will come in and we all know it will be soon - so let’s not spiral into a trough of gloom about it. He’s giving out mixed messages about it because he doesn’t want it to detract from our big night on Wednesday.

He’s right, if you ask me, to concentrate first on Wednesday’s tie in Holland. Let’s face it, we can’t afford to lose the £10m the Champions League group stage gives us, nor indeed can we afford to be without the kudos of being in the competition, not if we want this squad to stay together in the medium and long term.

Yes, Diaby’s injury has put the requirement for a new midfielder into sharper focus but it can all wait until Thursday, frankly. Whether it’s a clever tactic to drive prices down or whether there are tangles that need unravelling before his main target joins us, is not worth worrying about. Besides, does anyone really think that Wenger flapping about signing a midfielder right before Denilson’s big chance would do anything other than upset Denilson’s confidence? Put yourself in Denilson’s shoes.

Denilson will partner Fabregas on Wednesday and I for one am not tearing my hair out about that. He’s looked good in pre-season, he deserves his chance and the last thing we need to tell him at this stage, directly or indirectly, is that we’re desperate to sign someone to come in ahead of him (even if that is true).

Realpolitik - No, not the way Madrid go about their business but the diplomatic concept of reality winning over ideology - is what sees Adebayor sign a one-year contract extension, doubling his wages in the process.

In an ideal world Arsenal would have sold Adebayor, or told him to shove his demands, coming as they did only a year or so after his recent contract extension, and in the light of a summer of mixed messages from him that did Arsenal no favours.

But football more than most things is about reality, and the simple fact is Adebayor is a player worth keeping. Yes, he missed a lot of chances last season, but he still scored 30 times. Since when did a player ever score all the chances that came his way? Is it realistic to have expected him to score 50, or 60 goals?

He’s signed on for one more year, which does nothing more than guarantee a good price if and when he, or Arsenal, decide it’s time. So Arsenal are being wise here.

In addition, the player now gets paid a commensurate wage for his ability and status - £70k a week, like it or loathe it, is about right. All the big strikers at the big clubs get that or more. He was never going to get £120k a week - either from us or from Barcelona or Milan - and if he didn’t know it then he knows it now.

Of course, it’s been messy and ugly and my estimation of Adebayor has gone right down. But to me, if we are going to mount a title challenge this season, then we need proven Premier League goalscorers like him, not someone who will take 6 months to settle in. Whether he stays for one season or five is of no real consequence. Put simply, we are stronger with him than we are without him.

That’s the reality.

That crept up. It’s the Champions League draw this morning in Switzerland, starting at 11am. There’ll be at least an hour’s preamble made up largely of middle-aged men congratulating one another before we find out who Arsenal have drawn. Here’s who we could get and crossed fingers it’s not Atletico Madrid or Galatasaray. Wenger is wary, saying “We’d like to avoid a few teams but will take what we get.” As if we can turn down the teams we don’t want. “Atletico Madrid you say? No thanks - put the ball back in the bag and do it again old boy”.

The Champions League effectively ensure our season starts three or four days early, and there’s not long to go now at all. There have been some sparkling pre-season performances, most notably from Nicklas Bendtner, Carlos Vela and Jack Wilshere, and guessing our Champions League line-up is not as easy as you might think. Bendtner, I have always thought, is one to watch this season and the very fact that Wenger was prepared to sanction Ade the Agitator’s move says a lot about his potential. With Bendtner, van Persie, Vela, Walcott, Eduardo and of course Adebayor, we have a lot of options up top.

Talking of Adebayor, Jens thinks he should stay and Wenger says he is.

Adebayor has been made to look more than a little foolish this summer, losing all the kudos he earned last season and being shown up as the archetypal greedy modern footballer. There are ways to go about things to improve your lot that don’t involve airing your grievances in public, and Adebayor would do well to learn that.

If he stays, will he get a bad reception? Perhaps initially, but so long as he knuckles down then I hope it won’t be for long. Not because I tacitly approve of his stance, because clearly I don’t. More because, if we want to win something this season, a motivated Adebayor is a big plus and we’d be shooting ourselves in the foot. The red and white is more important. I say as much, and a bit more, in my last-minute contribution for today’s Arsecast.

Enjoy the weekend.

So now the team is back and training, we’ve got all the chatter that goes with it, and it’s all positive stuff. Gallas, the captain, has staked his claim for remaining captain with an admission he could have done things differently last season (less crying and hoarding assaults would be a start). With all the other nonsense that has gone on this close season, and the departure of experienced players, I just can’t see Wenger rocking the boat here.

Then there’s Diaby and Denilson, both of whom spot their chance. In fact, Diaby is ‘applying for the job’ of central midfielder, we are told.

Interviewing for a new role within the team - now I like this idea. Wouldn’t it be great to have seen Eboue’s job application for moving from right back to right midfield. “I feel I have done all I can here…need a new challenge…been doing the same old boring thing for too long…don’t get on with the person I sit next to”.

What else? Well we slotted ten past the mighty Burgenland XI - 4 for Bendtner, 3 for Vela, 2 for Wilshere and a partridge in a pear tree for Walcott. Not much to read into this I suspect, but on Wednesday we face Stuttgart and that should see the return of some of the big boys and give us a better idea of Wenger’s plans for the 16th August.

Until then I will be passing the time pressing F5 in my browser. It’s a summer sport and keeps the digits fit.

This summer has been notable for some of our established players moving on; at the latest count it’s four, the future of a fifth is shrouded in uncertainty and I’d need to be a man with fourteen hands to tot up the ‘rumours’ that have been circulating about the rest of the squad departing. It’s been pretty grating but quite funny too at times - my favourite being the story linking Gael Clichy to Roma, only for him to sign a contract extension later that day. Sadly, there are many in the media for whom four departures equals an Arsenal crisis, even if each sale can be rather easily explained. Lehmann was too old, Flamini held all the aces as he (understandably) hadn’t been given a new contract the season before when he hadn’t been playing, Arsenal were ‘comfortable’ about Hleb and Gilberto was a fading light. Adebayor - well it’s all gone to his head a bit, hasn’t it? Who knows what will happen there but one thing is certain: Arsenal fans will not don sackcloth, tear their hair out and wail uncontrollably down Drayton Park if he goes. He comes across as a greedy, tactless maverick and Wenger is absolutely right not to pander to him.

Anyway, what interests me more than those leaving is who might make the grade this season from those within our ranks. All those who criticise Arsenal as a bastion of foreigners would do well to look at the team sheet from last night’s game against the marvellously named Szombathelyi Haladas. There were eight British players. Now I know, this is nothing more than a warm-up and most of the big guns are otherwise engaged, but it’s still a good indicator of the progress being made at that level.

With seven first-team subs on the bench from this season, some of these young players will become better known to us. Ramsey, Wilshere, Lansbury, Randall, Simpson, Hoytes G&J and of course Walcott - whilst we all love big signings, we also all love young local talent to emerge.

Justin Hoyte and Theo Walcott apart - both of whom are largely established, even if there’s plenty of work to be done on both counts - I wonder which of the remaining six we’ll be talking about most at the end of the season?

So it’s goodbye to Alexander Hleb, the player who during his three years at the club baffled the predictive text function on a succession of mobile phones. Somehow, he was ‘Ikea’ for a while, and on my most recent phone, just ‘Glen’. Not a reason to sell him I concur, but there you go.

I’m not going to slate the fella just because he wanted to leave. In fact, I’m going to pay him a bit of credit; his ball control was second to none, he created space and he had an unnatural ability to escape the attentions of opposition players even in a tight spot. The saga of his sale and some of the lame excuses for his wanting to leave were not his finest hour, but by and large he was a good servant of the club and an excellent player. We might get up to £13.5m for him, which is a very decent return, and it gives Wenger more money for his warchest, so it benefits Hleb who clearly wanted to go, and it benefits Arsenal too.

Wenger is totally cool as ever, declaring himself “comfortable” with Glen’s departure - but then he would say that. He’s hardly going to say “Ah, cock - we’re stuffed”.

But I’m with him on this one: Glen was an excellent player, one I always rated despite his goalshy boots, but not irreplaceable by any stretch. Besides, even if he was, these days there’s just no way of keeping a player who has his heart set on a move. It’s one of the perils of the modern game, and a peril of signing a nomadic Belarussian - that’s life.

There’s work to be done of course. At the end of August last year I dusted down my calculator and tried to work out how 6 fitted into 2 - we had six central midfielders (Fabregas, Gilberto, Diaby, Diarra, Flamini and Denilson), but only two berths. Now of course, two of those players have left and a third, Gilberto, might leave today. We’ve got Nasri in and we can expect more of Diaby and Denilson this year, but we could do with one more - one with more experience. Having spent just £4m net this summer, there’s certainly some cash to spend.

In the meantime, we have some real football on Saturday, at Barnet. It’s a sign of the times that the game will be broadcast live for those with a Setanta subscription.

And talking of real football, it’s now just 30 days until the season kicks off. Let the build up commence…

Bert

If Gilberto slips off to Greece, it won’t be much of a surprise, let’s be honest. His light dimmed significantly last season and though he remained professional and gracious about things (other footballers, take note), a leap back into the reckoning after such a fall from it always seemed unlikely.

And if he does leave, we’re not just losing a good midfielder and a decent sort, but another link to that wonderful, heady Invincibles season. With Mad Jens and Gilberto gone, the only first choice Invincible remaining is Kolo Toure – another man who did not have his most imperious of seasons. Of course, Gael Clichy got a medal that year, and Justin Hoyte, Phil Senderos and Cesc Fabregas were all at the club, but it’s still pretty amazing that in four seasons, the whole edifice has been dismantled. 26 wins, 12 draws and no defeats – 90 points.

Remarkably, that’s just seven points more than we got last season – which just shows that although we didn’t win anything, with just three defeats we weren’t very far away at all.

Shirt

I like both this season’s new shirts as it happens, notwithstanding the peculiar lack of white sleeve on the home model. The away one in particular is not half bad and takes me back all those twenty years. Where those twenty years went I have no idea, but it was a seminal – if not the most seminal moment in Arsenal’s modern history. I know the League Cup final win in ’87 kick-started things, but winning the title in ’89 was the real achievement and we’ve been incredibly successful, and incredibly lucky as fans, since then. Including and since ’89 we’ve won a dozen trophies and come close in a handful of finals.

I digress slightly: shirts. Do you remember the days when it was an unwritten rule that clubs only released a new home and away shirt every other year? So why have we ditched our white away shirt after just one season? Well, it’s been relegated to the mystical ‘Third Kit’, which is a glorious way of circumnavigating any such niceties as unwritten rules. What of our other new shirt from last season, the ‘European’ kit? It’s not in the Arsenal online store, but if we do still have it, then it means we have four shirts. If we don’t, then it only lasted one season.

“If you don’t want one, don’t buy one”, I hear you say. Quite, but still – do we need three shirts at all?

With a nice new yellow away shirt, how many times will the white kit actually be worn?

Right. That’s me done. I’ve managed a whole blog entry without mentioning the transfer twins, it’s most satisfying.