‘Serious’ transfer talks underway. Wanyama & Kondogbia linked. Ospina talks form..

Morning all.

When things are going a bit wayward, which to be fair has been all too often, we soon hear from a few of the players on the official website. They talk about how they’ll learn from defeats or individual errors and how they’ll move forward and make things better. Then comes another defeat or draw coupled with another error or bad performance….. Nothing learned…

The Monaco trouncing at The Emirates was one of those occasions, Anderlecht earlier in the season was another.

Perhaps the worst in the league was being 3-0 down so early on at Stoke and surrendering a lead to lose at WHL. Those six points alone would have made so much difference going into this weekends fixture, let alone all the silly draws at The Emirates when really, we should have won.

I bet if we could play those fixtures again today with the players we now have back fit, healthy and much improved, the results would be very different. But we can’t.

Those silly errors, individual muck ups seem to have left us and even when the players are not at the top of their game, the team are digging out better results than perhaps they would have even just a few months ago.

We haven’t lost a game since that awful night against Monaco, more importantly, we haven’t lost in the league since that trip across North London and David Opsina, who I think has calmed the defence, has been talking to Afc.com:

I think that we have created our own way of playing.

We have excellent players at our disposal but now we have to keep on track. We have a brilliant manager in charge who has been able to put us on course for where we want to go.

The defence I play with is full of experienced players who have played many games in strong national teams. It has helped for sure. We take pride in doing things well and I’m sure we can achieve a lot.

I think he’s right. This group of players who have been doing so well of late can achieve a lot. This season they can secure Champions League football without having to worry about having to play a qualifying round and of course the FA Cup is down to one final match.

With just a couple of additions in the summer, I think Arsenal will be right up there next season I really do.

Transfer gossip:

Southampton midfielder Victor Wanyama claims Arsenal want to sign him. Wanyama said: “Wenger has been talking about me. And he has let it be known he would like to sign me this summer.” (The Sun)

Wasn’t that the summer when he was still at Celtic?

Arsenal are reportedly still plotting a move for long term transfer target Geoffrey Kondogbia. (L’Equipe)

Hang on, we are said to have entered ‘serious’ discussions with Borussia Dortmund for midfielder Ilkay Gundogan. That’s according to German publication SportBild (via Bild reporter Heiko Ostendorp).

There you go, three central midfielders all being linked to Arsenal. Which one to choose eh…

Kondogbia can play in defence and left back apparently….

Finally, an independent view of the game ahead.

That’s it for today, have a good one all…