Morning all.

Louis van Gaal has been asked why he sold Danny Welbeck to Arsenal:

Welbeck played for three years at Manchester United after his Sunderland loan but he doesn’t have a Robin van Persie or Wayne Rooney record. He didn’t have the standard.

So that’s why he sold him!

As for the question about why is he deemed good enough for us, well Arsene Wenger answered that yesterday:

Β He can make himself a better player [here] because I can help him. He’s a young boy, he’s not 24 yet and let’s not forget that some players who arrived here at the age of 23 made huge careers here so I hope we can contribute and help him.

I personally think that LvG has been a bit quick to write Danny Welbeck as doΒ so many people associated with Manchester Utd who have declared their disappointment over this transfer. People who know Welbeck a lot better than LvG.

Just who will end up being right remains to be seen but I have a sneaky feeling that our new man will hit the ground running and will totally enjoy his next few years ahead and with it, prove LvG very wrong. I also think that making such a public statement about a player not being Β up to standard is quite cruel, inconsiderate and totally unnecessary. Especially when it’s the opinion of just one man who has probably barely seen Welbeck play.

One thing is for sure and that’s this transfer has caused a big stir everywhere and for once, it’s good that we are not the club being criticised. On the contrary in fact, we have got a young and very talented English International striker for just Β£16 million.

Wonder what Alexis and Ramsey are thinking...

Wonder what Alexis and Ramsey are thinking…

Aaron Ramsey and Alexis Sanchez are either both grumpy or they just have been told the joke which Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck have been told. Or maybe they are just thinking about the lunchtime kick-off tomorrow. We don’t like those do we?

Arsene Wenger disagrees:

I think the coincidence was that we played against very strong teams away from home at 12.45.

I think it was more the quality of our opponents and the lack of quality in our performance that produced a result, not the kick-off time.

At home we’ve played well at 12.45. In the FA Cup we had great games at 12.45. It’s not the kick-off time, it’s your performance. It’s how you turn up. At 12.45 or three o’clock – for me that’s just talk. It’s the quality of the performance that counts.

Would you rather kick off at 3 o’clock or 12.45? It’s two hours and 15 minutes. That does not produce a miracle in your physical recovery. Sometimes maybe, on our side, we go a bit too much overboard on that. I think 12.45 is a good kick-off time. I like it.

Well I hope they all turn up in the right frame of mind tomorrow as anything less and we’ll get beaten. The players are clearly in good spirits and enjoyed their photo shoot yesterday as there was a lot of larking around. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain appeared to be at the heart of most things.

Finally, the Under 21’s beat Aston Villa last night in a game which saw Abou Diaby play for 90 minutes and that’s welcome news for the squad. Hopefully soon he’ll be knocking on the first team’s door. Whether or not it will open remains to be seen but if he can play at the level he did against Liverpool twenty years ago, he’ll no doubt get a few games this season.

Chuba Akpom scored both goals and I bet he thinks his chance could come soon too, after all, he’s scoring goals, unlike someone else I coud mention…..

On that note, have a good Friday….