Morning all.

Well I know nothing about tonight’s opposition, other than Demba Ba plays for them, as does one of our old youngsters,Β Oguzhan Ozyakup.

Arsene Wenger has spoken about the 21 year old:

I’m happy that he came here. He was educated by us and we saw that he had top quality and technically he is very good. Physically he can run all day, he has very good stamina and a good final pass.

I always thought he could make a career but at our club he had big competition in front of him and that is why we let him go.

It is good to see he has made it to the top level and is now an important player in Turkey.

That good eh Arsene, well why didn’t he get a chance?

Both Kieran Gibbs and Yaya Sanogo have hamstring injuries and miss out. As do the three World Cup winners.

Laurent Koscielny has recovered from his injury problem and he will partner Calum Chambers in the centre of defence.

Arsene Wenger also had this to say in his press conference last night:

The play-off is not not affecting too much my transfer policy. Financially it is a big game but it’s not that that’s the most important thing. We want to compete at the top level, we want to fight against the best in Europe and that’s the real target of the competition tomorrow.

To be honest, his transfer policy seems to have died an early death after the flurry of quick signings were announced so either this match and the away leg is holding things up or we really have done all we are going to do this summer. Somehow though I doubt it’s the latter as the manager would have to daft to believe we have a squad anywhere deep enough or strong enough to compete this season.

Right now the best thing Arsenal can do is get a handsome victory tonight, one which will almost guarantee our place in the group stages and if there are a few big names waiting for us to qualify before signing on the dotted line, they may just be snapped up a bit earlier.

One can only assume that Besiktas, being the home side, will be all out to score goals tonight in attempt to take a lead to The Emirates.

That might just play into our hands, unlike Palace whose defence was tighter than Arsene Wenger!

Gossip:

Kostas Manolas is soon set to to sign for us as according to many reports, he’s agreed personal terms and had his medical. So where is he I wonder?

The Sami Khedira stories rumble on too and bearing in mind his agents were supposed to be in London yesterday to sort out his future, perhaps he’ll be an Arsenal player soon too..

The Star continue to report that Podolski could soon be a Gonner.

Come on Arsenal, get the victory tonight and then get the final pieces of the jigsaw signed and sealed…

COYRRG’s….

Have a good day all…