Arsene Wenger makes another signing! Arsenal heading into the record books again, and so soon after signing Lacazette..

Morning all.

Good old Sky Sports and BT Sport eh! A Friday evening fixture opens the new season for us which isn’t good news for the Leicester fans planning to head for The Emirates. This has never been done before and not only is a Friday night fixture alien to the English game but usually, it’s the current League Champions who kick things off. But no not this time. Sky Sports are showing this match which kicks off at 7.45PM.

For the first time in a while, I’m looking forward to the new campaign. Not only because we’ve made two cracking signings, certainly on paper, but it looks like they’ll finally be a bit of a clear out, especially if Arsene Wenger plans on bringing in more new faces and my hunch is that he will.

Now it’s important to keep Alexis as the manager goes all out to win the league in what could be his final season at Arsenal. He may see out his second season, certainly if things go well over the next ten months but who knows, getting his hands on one more Premier League trophy might just see him retire on a massive high. But there’s a long long way to go before he or we can even think about that as he’s still got a lot of work to do. He has to ensure he rests and rotates throughout the coming campaign in order to avoid injuries and play a team which has been primed to beat the opposition on the day. Not the one we beat the week before, or the week before that, the one we face in the next game and that imo, is his biggest challenge. And if he thinks beating them will be a feat too far, then simply make sure we don’t lose. After all, how many draws did the Invincibles play out?

If we hit a slump, which for once I hope we don’t, he has to get us out of it and fast. Last season it took too long to do something about our dreadful form. Yes, he got there in the end but it was too little and certainly too late.

Perhaps that’s why he’s hired a few new recruits. A mad German who we all loved during his time at Arsenal, Bobby Pires, although he appeared last season and he’s also added a goal keeping coach to his team. His name is Sal Bibbo, once a coach at my local club Reading and he’s already been spotted working with Petr Cech. Why on earth the club continues to employ Gerry Peyton I don’t know as the 61 year old is just one in a long list of people of the clubs books who are robbing a wage for what they do. He can’t be very good because many of our keepers over the last few seasons have looked anything but reassuring between the sticks and rumour has it, Cech looked elsewhere last season for some help rather than turn to Peyton.

In other stories doing the rounds, and there’s plenty that’s for sure, Olivier Giroud could be heading back to France with Marseille. The French club reckon a £25M offer will get their man. That’s a lot of money for a guy who turns 31 years old later in the year and to be honest, I’d probably have to think long and hard about that offer if I was Arsene Wenger. While Ollie does a good job coming from the bench or being our ‘plan b’ striker, it must be tempting for the manager to look elsewhere for someone a bit younger and certainly a bit quicker. I don’t think he’ll start too many matches this coming season which is going to be a concern for the player, certainly as the World Cup looms large.

That’s something which could be on the minds of a few other Arsenal players too as we have quite a number who’ll be hoping for a call up by their country. Theo Walcott is certainly one who since the arrival of Gareth Southgate, hasn’t been selected for England. For that reason alone, I think he’ll be happy to move on this summer, especially if the club are looking at Lemar/Mahrez. In fact I’d much rather we keep Lucas Perez than Theo but sadly it looks like he’s going to be one of the overseas players to move on as the club make room for recruits.

Finally, a word from our latest signing, she types as if there’s been loads. He’s been talking about Francis Coquelin, their friendship and his powers of persuasion..:

What happened was that we had won the European U-19 Championship in France the previous day, so we only arrived at the hotel an hour before we had to set off for the Emirates!

Francis and I kept in touch after that. We’ve had a lot of contact over the last few years and even more over the last few weeks, of course, since it became increasingly likely that I would come to Arsenal.

He has said only good things about Arsenal, which is not surprising because he wanted me to join the club. Even without that I still really wanted to come here.

Well done to Francis, I always knew he had his uses. lol

But it’s good to hear Lacazette say he really wanted to come to Arsenal. Whether that would have been the case had Atletico Madrid not received a transfer ban I don’t know, but considering Lacazette would only have had to wait a few months before he could have joined the Spanish club, I think it would.

The Premier League is the best league in the world imo, not because it produces the best, or most entertaining football there is but because on any day, against any opposition, any team can be beaten.

It’s the most competitive league in the world I think which is why so many top players choose to join it.

What?? What do you mean it’s not for the football? Money? No, it’s not for the money, footballs don’t think about the money….

That’s enough drivel from me, have a great Friday guys…