Morning Gooners,

Well what a day yesterday, there was a couple of us starting to think that the Cazorla link was going to end up like another Mata, and you know how that went, then out of the blue what we all wanted to hear came real, Santi Cazorla is expected in London for a medical after both Arsenal and Malaga agreed a fee for the Spaniard. Some suggest that medical will be today and the deal is expected to be announced later.

The BBC report that a loan deal forΒ Nuri Sahin is nearly agreed too but AVB is sniffing around too so that one has a way to go in my own opinion and you do have to wonder if we really need him?

Personally I’d rather see us sign a defensive midfielder, not that I’m not complaining about us signing attack minded players but will they prevent us conceding 49 goals this coming season?

Talking of signings – Nicholas Yennaris signed a new long-term contract yesterday which is good news. The 19 year old right back/midfielder has a great future ahead of him. What with him and SergeΒ Gnabry both extending their stay, it looks like the club are sorting out the reserve players contracts, certainly those who really do have a future with us.

For a few months now (well more like seasons) we have all moaned andΒ groanedΒ about how just one of two tweaks here and there would really change the shape of our current squad. We needed another striker – well now we have two. We needed a creative player, well, we could be getting two, certainly one unless he fails a medical and that seems unlikely.

We needed a defensive midfielder – we still do and if Arsene Wenger does sign that kind of player surely we’d all be pretty pleased wouldn’t we?

Ideally we would add another right back, left back and another goal keeper but I strongly suspect Wenger think the same.

My point?

What we have been asking for is starting to become real and come the start of the season we really will be stronger, a lot stronger than we were this time last year, even with the last-minute signings. We saw during the tour to the Far East that 2/3 of the younger players have matured and are on the verge of breaking into the squad and of course we have one or two like Lansbury and Ryo who are coming back from a season long loan.

All we have to do now is make sure we fix the big leak at the back…

Martin Keown thinks we are getting closer to winning something.

To win the title you need a coming together of lots of things.

There has to be a desire and a focus for you to win it and as players you need to be peaking at the right time. It is about your squad and the strength of it. We were always very lucky that we had outstanding players and the people that filled in were more than capable, so that would demonstrate the full strength of your squad and whether or not you could go the full distance.

There has to be belief and that has to be grown over a number of years. And I do think that is growing now. I would like to see the experienced players in the squad like Mikel Arteta – who I thought was a very big loss at the end of last season – together with Jack Wilshere coming back into the fold as soon as they can. He [Arteta] is a truly outstanding player.

It will be difficult for Arsenal to win something but Arsène Wenger is a very competitive man and he will be desperate to do just that. I do think they are getting closer.

It was a poor start to last season, but once they got back on track there was a period after Christmas where they were in outstanding form. So this time we really need to hit the ground running.

Finally, the reserves suffered a defeat last night at the hands of Dartford.Β Despite having all the possession and plenty of chances, they lost 2-1.

Some things don’t change do they. πŸ˜‰

That’s it for another day, could be good one…