Reflecting on the start of the season, the culmination of the Summer supermarket, and more! 

As I hope you are all aware the season is now two weeks old, after fixtures at the home of football against Sunderland, and away at Stoke City, the season is therefore in full swing! This is great! The madness has commenced once again! Marvellous! Where will the season take The Arsenal? Only time will tell, however what we do know is how we have looked and shaped up in the first two instalments of our countries' fantastic league! With these games in mind and the summer’s ins and outs so far most people seem to know what Arsenal need to add in the next 24 hours or so, what do I think? Well, hold your horses, you're about to find out.........

But first let me talk about the first two games of Arsenal's Premier League Campaign 2012/2013. After the acquisitions of, in my opinion, some quality players (Cazorla, Podolski and Giroud) I was very much optimistic ahead of our first fixture against Sunderland, and most of what I thought actually came to fruition, however this was not reflected in the result one bit. Did we dominate the game? Yes. Did we have lots of possession? Yes. Was Cazorla the hub of the team's attacking threat? Yes. These were all things that I expected prior to kick off, which were evident post the full time whistle. The team played well, and we looked very good going forward, and arguably what was more surprisingly following the trials and tribulations of recent years was how, in both games, solid we were as a team defensively. This use of the phrase "solid we were as a team" I believe is key, because as many of you who either followed me on twitter or read my blogs throughout last season, or people that have ever sat next to me at matches for that matter, will know I always bang on about defending from the front and "pressing" the opposition. It is all very well saying that a team has to be solid at the back, but I believe that it is more important to defend as a team. You only have to look at Pep Guardiola's Barcelona (from the last 4 years or so) to realise how effective defending from the front to the back can be. Regardless, in the games against Sunderland and Stoke, especially Vs Stoke, this was something that we did very very well indeed. Particularly in the 1st half whenever Stoke won the ball, our midfield and wingers seemed so keen to swarm around the man on the ball and hustle him to win back the ball, and this at times was very effective.

This of course needs more work to become very effective indeed, but I found it very encouraging to see. What was also very pleasing, again especially when you consider past difficulties, was how well we defended against Stoke's usual tactics, the methods that have caused us a lot of bother in recent seasons. We are very smart when defending near our own goal line not to give away needless corners, which they can hurt you from, and we were also very effective at defending their "trademark" long throws and free kick routines. This was naturally very pleasing indeed because, as we all know, since Stoke City's introduction into the Premier League we have struggled to counter their physical threat and unusual tactics, in particular when playing away at the Britannia Stadium.

The fact that we have not scored a goal yet this season, in the two games that we've played, is of course disappointing, however I have been encouraged by the quality of our play going forward, albeit not actually finishing them off, and how solid we have been as a team. Overall I am not buying into all the "doom and gloom" and other nonsense that both the media and some of my fellow fans seem to be banging on about. The facts are these, we have a few new players coming in who have integrated well, but who need more time to fully integrate into the team and to our style of play. This will come, and in the case of Giroud and Podolski in particular, they WILL bang in the goals, I am very confident of that. I believe that quality shines through, and these players are of a high quality. Cazorla has integrated seamlessly really, and is already, as I said earlier, the "hub" of the team. He is so composed on the ball, can pass in all manner of ways and is a very intelligent player. I am confident that these 3 players, plus one or two more that I hope will arrive today or tomorrow, will proove to be great success stories at The Arsenal.

So what can we expect from the next day or so in terms of transfer dealings in football's supermarket? Well, as it is football, not a lot! It is always un-predictable; I think we all know that by now. However the question of what we actually need or require to do, is certainly a much more answerable one. Well, much has been made of our midfield options people saying that we need to get a new "defensive midfield" player, I am not so sure. I have actually quite liked the shape we have had with two "non - specialist" defensive midfield players, I feel that it gives quite a nice balance. So far one player has sat deep whilst the other goes forward, and this is very interchangeable which I believe fits our style of player like a glove. This allows us plenty of freedom. Besides, Mikel Arteta is a very capable player in this role as he has proved last season as he actually covered for Song in that role a lot last season, when Songo was rampaging forward. Furthermore Coquilin is super talented and will play, and of course Jack Wilshere is, well we all know, brilliant and will be coming back in due course. This is without even mentioning Ramsey, Diaby, Rosicky, Frimpong e.t.c. So I actually feel we don't need a "specialist" DM, however that does not mean that I would not like us to sign a central midfielder as I do feel that we need another experienced player in there of technical quality (maybe Cabaye), but this is not a priority! What however IS a priority is a CF. Of course Robin Van Traitor has left, whilst the talented Giroud and the experienced campaigner Podolski have arrived. Despite this two strikers is NOT enough, we MUST acquire another. Chamakh could go, Bendtner will go and is not good enough anyway, and we can ignore Park. So all in all, if someone gets injured out of Giroud and Pod, we are basically screwed; we MUST do something about this, no doubt!!! I hope we will sort this before tomorrow evening 11pm.

Anyway, all in all, do not believe all the doom and gloom rubbish that is being bandied around all day every day in the media about us, Arsenal has always coped with players leaving, and will continue to do so for a long time yet! I am confident about the season ahead, not saying we will win the league, but we will win something, and for a club that hasn't won anything for seven years (and counting) that is the main thing for us this year, to end that ridiculous drought! We have to develop a culture of winning things at this club that will sort out the problems of players leaving all the bleedin time (but we won't go into that).

Where we have been weak defensively in recent years, big Steve Bouldy seems to have been working hard on, which already seems to be working, and with the new signings integrating I actually feel we have a lot to look forward to!! 

Hope you understand my thoughts and opinions!! Let's hope we remove the dust in our trophy cabinet and add something of worth to it!

UP THE ARSENAL!!!!!!!! 

A shift in transfer policy at Arsenal or just the coming together of long term plans? Reflections of the transfer window so far, and a look forward to the big "kick - off"! 

For a number of years now, "Gooners" have been un-happy with the transfer policy of the club and have claimed that we only ever signed young and un-proven players from abroad, who have a lot to give to the club in a medium to long - term perspective. This at times has not gone down well, but over the last year or so, this has began to change, and the club has actually brought in some established players in European football to really push the team on! This is great news for the club, as it gives us a good chance of actually challenging the likes of Untied and City, in the premier league, and perhaps the likes of the Spanish giants: Barcelona and Real, in the champions league, if we keep building! Our "policy" seemed to shift somewhat last summer when we brought the likes of Mikel Arteta, an established player in the peek of his career. I think many people were shocked by this, because the boss has in recent years, preferred to "develop" players as opposed to just buying established Premier League players. But what are the reasons for this change? Why did we not do this before?

Well, I believe there are a number of reasons for this, the first being financial restrictions. As we all know, the club has invested an astronomical amount of money in the last decade on facilities including the training ground, medical centre, property developments and of course the greatest stadium in the world, The Home of Football, has been constructed as well, all at great cost to the club! This has meant that the club has not been able to spend huge numbers of money on playing staff, because they have had to "service" the loans e.t.c that were taken in order to fund the fantastic infrastructure that we now have. These improvements in infrastructure, are absolutely imperative to the development of the club, especially in the long term as it gives as a platform to grow financially and on the pitch. In addition to this the club has always said that they want to live "within their means" and grow "organically" if you like, and therefore were not prepared to rack up big debts buy buying expensive top players, like the likes of Manchester City. These things have meant that we were not prepared to spend big money on players, which of course is extremely frustrating as a fan, however we HAVE to accept this, and realise that we will benefit massively from this very very soon! This is something which I believe, we should be very very excited about! However, in order to preserve the financial strength of the club we have not spent big on established stars, up till now!

So why have we now seen established players like Podolski and Cazorla come in? Well firstly I believe a key factor in this is the changing face of football, since the likes of Manchester City have to come to the forefront of things. What do I mean by this? Well it is clear that Arsenal can no longer afford to grow players otherwise we will just get left further and further and further behind City, this is why I say that City have changed the face of football, because teams have to change in order to acquire players and at least try to compete with them in the league. I believe that Arsene Wenger acknowledges this and absolutely knows that he has to bring in players of established quality, otherwise he is going to completely left behind and isolated, and eventually that could lead to him loosing his job! I therefore believe that he has been partly forced into buying more established players in their peak, to help bring success to the club NOW!! He is certainly under a GREAT deal of pressure from the outside to deliver success for the club, and to end our drought, but I do not believe that the drought has forced him to make these big signings, as of course he always wants to win trophies, but I believe that he acknowledges that the team needs top experienced, and prooven players at the club to actually take us to that next step, and let's hope together, that we can achieve that this season! The strength of young players means that with this sprinkling of quality from outside such as Podolksi, Giroud and Cazorla we can challenge for honours and I believe that the experience that these guys bring, coupled with the experience of the likes of Van Persie (if he stays) Arteta, Vermalean and Sagna can really help us to push on further!

All in all I have been extremely encouraged by this summers' dealings to date, and I hope that this continues! The squad appears to be in great great shape going into the first game of the season, barring a few injuries e.g Bacary, and I believe that this season will be a successful one for us. The players that we brought in last summer: Arteta, Gervinho and Mertesacker especially I believe added something, but the players we have brought in this year are of the quality needed to push us to win things this season. I am excited to see how the team bonds together, and how the new boys settle in, but I am very confident that they will do so well. I do think that before August the 31st we could do with another defender, maybe a fall back, but I do believe that we are in great shape as it stands!

So BRING ON Sunderland in just over a weeks time.  I absolutely can't wait, I am delighted that we have at last brought in some top quality players from Europe, all of whom are experienced campaigners in different leagues, and in the cases of Podolski (100+ caps for Germany_ and Cazorla (double Euro winner and World Cup winning team member) especially with their national teams, and I believe that this season will be a successful one, but as we ALL know the Barclays Premier League is one in which NOTHING can be taken for granted, nothing can be banked upon and we MUST hit the ground running early and get some good points on the board in the first few weeks of the season! If we do this we will do great. There is so much competition in the premier league these days and it is bound to be tight, but if we just get on with our business, ignore the rubbish the media spout out, we can be up there fighting for the championship and if we challenge there to the wire and pick up a cup or 2 along the way it will be a great season for us! LET'S DO THIS GOONERS!!!

COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!! THIS CAN BE OUR YEAR!

UP THE ARSENAL

(twitter @Mr_arsenal_blog - tweet me your thoughts)