Morning all..

Arsene Wenger wouldn’t be drawn on transfer targets yesterday. Luis Suarez ate a bit of humble pie in front of his team-mates so all is rosy there and then, the question put to Wenger about Wayne Rooney was glossed over by our manager in his pre-match interview so of course, all the newspapers think we are back in for the England man…..

Arsene Wenger did say that he’s still going to be busy and wants to bring in players of top top quality!

Stop talking Arsene, start doing!!

Talking of signings, here’s your chance:

Fellow house-mate tombstoned has very kindly set up a Highbury House Fantasy Football League.

The HH league is set up on the official Premier League website.

Just in case you are all as hopeless as me, here is an idiots guide should you wish to join in.

1 – Click the link HERE.

2 – Sign up for an account and select your team.

3 – Click onto Leagues or if you get lost, follow the link HERE.

4 – Select Highbury House and enter our league code which is: 2047837-437358

So there you go all you budding football managers/coaches, fill your boots.

I am quite confident that my team will finish the season at the bottom of the league  🙂

Where will this man’s side finish I wonder, without serious reinforcements, it could be the worst finish since he became manager in 1996!

Arsene Wenger's last season??

Arsene Wenger’s last season??

I’m sure there are many fans who believe that this should be our managers last season at our club. At the same time, there are probably many who think he should have already been history.

Equally, there will be many who believe that all this once great manager has done for our club should be enough to carry him through many seasons ahead.

There is still time for those fans to change their opinion and of course, I hope, as I would hope most would, that somehow, Arsene Wenger surprises everyone and makes 4/5 signings which make us go ‘wow’……

That of course remains to be seen but today it’s about Arsenal the club, Arsenal the players and boy do they need our support.

The stuff going on behind the scenes needs to be forgotten at 3pm today, that’s for after the final whistle blows…..

The players we wanted gone have in the main been sold or loaned. Only Bendtner and Park remain, but I suspect they will be gone before 2nd September.

We are left with the players we wanted to stay, well mostly, so let’s get behind them, let’s support them from now until the end of May 2014…

Match Facts courtesy of the BBC:

Head-to-head

  • Arsenal have lost only two of their last 29 league meetings with Aston Villa (W18, D9, L2).
  • Villa have only won twice on their last 27 league trips to Arsenal, although both of those were at the Emirates Stadium. Villa have taken eight points from seven visits to the stadium, including a 1-1 draw in the first competitive fixture there on the opening day of the 2006-07 season.

Arsenal

  • The Gunners lost only one of their last 16 Premier League games in 2012-13 (W12, D3, L1), clinching Champions League qualification for the 16th consecutive season.
  • Arsenal are unbeaten on the opening day in 12 seasons since a 1-0 defeat at Sunderland in 2000 (W8, D4). Arsene Wenger’s side have drawn their first game in each of the last three seasons.
  • It is 20 years since they lost at home on the opening weekend – a 3-0 defeat by Coventry.
  • Arsenal took 32 points from the teams who finished in the bottom six last season; only Manchester United (36) fared better.
  • They only conceded in the final 15 minutes of one Premier League match in 2012-13 (two goals v Swansea).
  • Theo Walcott scored with one in four of his attempts on goal last season, compared to one in six for the average forward.

Aston Villa

Well there is only one piece of info I couldn’t let go by:

  • Christian Benteke scored or created 49% of the club’s Premier League goals last season – a higher proportion than any other top-flight player. He scored seven goals in five pre-season matches this summer.

Arteta, Monreal and Vermaelen are all out injured as we know and new boy Sanogo should be included in the squad.

Now is the time to stop the bore draws on the opening day of the season, let’s kick this one off with three big points and start as we mean to go on.

Who knows, maybe by the time our next league fixture is upon us, we’ll have fresh faces on board and a much stronger, deeper squad.

Until then, COYR’s……