Morning all.

Sure as heck they do not but there’s a few people who are trying to make out he is….

This is what our Spanish midfield maestro has had to say:

Last year maybe we didn’t quite have enough strength in depth to win the league.

We had to deal with injuries to important players, including Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Mikel Arteta and Lukas Podolski, and I had niggling ankle problems.

That meant that when push came to shove, we were unable to keep pace with Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool.

I have high hopes [for the forthcoming season]. The signing of Alexis Sanchez and Mathieu Debuchy shows that the club is building a team to challenge. Hopefully we can lift at least another trophy this campaign.

Winning the FA Cup altered the type of pressure we’ll be under this season.Β It unshackled us in a manner of speaking. After so many trophyless years, the tension was getting to the team.

If SantiΒ really wanted to leave, would he be talking about the coming season and what he expects of it? Would he be quite so positive about the new signings?

I don’t think so, in fact I think he’d have little to say, keep his head down and hope his agent can force a move away.

Let’s not let the media idiots lead us to believe anything other than he’s staying put!

Talking of new signings, for a moment yesterday, doubt was cast over the much expected arrival of new goalkeeper David Ospina when news broke that another keeper at Nice had suffered an injury and will miss many months of this coming season but those doubts were removed when the head coach of Nice, Claude Puel spoke about the deal:

It’s confirmed, yes. It’s a good affair for Arsenal because he’s a very good player.

There is no denying Ospina had a pretty good World Cup and we aren’t getting a guy who is about to settle for a place on the bench which is great for Arsenal. Not quite so good for Szczesny though and I’m pleased, he seems to be the kind of player who needs another keeper breathing down his neck, one who will really push him for the number one spot. Fabianski didn’t really do that and not even his heroic displays during our run to the FA Cup final were deemed good enough by Arsene Wenger, well not good enough to displace Szczesny.

Arsene Wenger has said that Szczesny will start the season in goal but he’ll need to be at the top of his game, otherwise the new man will soon be taking his place.

My bet is it won’t be too long before Ospina gets his chance….

Then it’ll be down to him to take it….

Gossip:

The Metro are running a story suggesting we have made a Β£15.8 million offer for Douglas Costa. Well I doubt there’s much truth in that one and it’s all come about because of the problems in Ukraine and certain players not wanting to stay in the country.

Apparently, we tried to sign him in 2011……

Finally, Jack Wilshere has promised not to smoke ever again because he doesn’t want his children to grow up thinking he’s a smoker..

Good boy!

New York, well I didn’t watch it so no comments from me on our 1-0 defeat….

That’s it for another day, have a good one….