How many other sides will be saying that today? Probably none!

Vermaelen, Gervinho, Song, Jenkinson, Wilshere, Santos, Diaby, Squillaci and maybe Rosicky will all be out for today’s fixture, that’s a whole lot of absentees but the good news is that after today, five of them will be back for the PL fixtures ahead. Park Chu-Young is yet to be granted his Visa so he too will be missing for todays game.

Wilshere, Vermaelen and Diaby are all long term injuries so we won’t see them for at least another month.

Swansea have their own problems, defenders Darnel Situ and Rafik Halliche, who were signed in the summer have yet to be granted permission to play due to not obtaining international clearance. They are also without defender Alan Tate who recently broke his leg in a freak accident in a golf buggy, their captain Gary Monk and striker Craig Beattie are recovering from injuries..

Apart from that I don’t really know much about them, other than they have played three fixtures, one of which was a 4-0 defeat to Manchester City and the other two were scoreless draws so they clearly have a problem with finding the back of the net.

Let’s not be the side they break that duck against.

Head-to-head

We have played Swansea just four times in the league and results stand at two wins each, the last fixture was way back in 1983 when we won 2-1 at Highbury.

We are looking for our first win of this campaign, the last time we failed to win one of our three opening matches was in the 2006/07 season but we managed to recover well and still retain a top four place, something which we need to do again this season.

Like Swansea, we have also struggled to find the back of the net in the PL, the only two goals scored came in our last fixture and I’m not going there, it’s gone and now it needs to be forgotten by everyone, especially the players.

Today is about a new beginning, a day we see a few new signings make their debut; it’s a day to get our first goal, our first win and our first three points on the board.

Mertesacker, Benayoun and Arteta could all be in with a chance to start and Chamberlain must be full of confidence following his solid performance for England under 21’s and Ryo must be chomping at the bit to play in front of the home fans.

There can’t be a place for all of them though, not from the off but whoever is on the bench will have a part to play, it’s a squad game and they need to be ready.

I strongly suspect they will be….

Three points would be a nice birthday present for Laurent Koscielny who is 26 years old today, it wouldn’t be a bad gift for all Gooners either would it…..

Premier League Football is back, Arsenal are back and at 3pm today the REAL Arsenal need to show up and get this season well and truly on the road…

Have a good day all, we could actually leapfrog Swansea today if we get three points. 😉