Three pre-season games played resulting in two wins and a draw.

With all the substitutions made during the games, we can’t really say too much about the team only that they are not losing and that suits me fine.

Not all good news though as Conor Henderson picked up a knee injury to kick off our usual injury run which is a shame as the lad was looking good. Hopefully this injury is not a bad one dispite Arsene Wenger saying it didn’t look good.

Gervinho scored two goals on his debut and he looks like he could be a very good signing, theΒ  fox in the box we have needed for so long, certainly since Eduardo left.

But…… and I don’t like to keep harping on about them but our defending has been shambolic pre-season.

I know we’ve had new guys playing on the flanks but why have we had our left back attacking and being caught out of position?

It’s time to make our defenders concentrate on defending, and forget the forward runs, leave that to the people we have bought to do that.

I said last season that we have a team to win the league and I still believe these players have got what it takes and with a little more concentration, defenders doing their job and not believing they are strikers, we may have achieved this last year.

Right now we are unsure about the future of a couple of mainstay players, we know that they are not happy and they want to move on to new clubs. I think they’ll both go and as far as I am concerned the sooner the better.

I wish them well for the future as long as they are not against us but where we have in the past built our team around Cesc, we will have to find a new ways of play but for me that is no problem, in fact I think it’s a blessing in disguise. We relied on Cesc too much, so much so when he didn’t play it seemed the team didn’t play – well our game should not be all about one player, the team should be able to play well, regardless of who plays and who is missing.

We know that our back line needs revamping but I don’t think it is as bad as it may seem, in fact just a good experienced centre back with organising skills and a dominating presence will probably transform the whole of the defence.

Fans are calling for so many replacements but in all honesty and if we look at it logically, we maybe need one or two more and if I had my way Cahill and Parker would suit me down to the ground. Also, if I am honest Wenger would have done more than I ever thought he would do if he gets those players.

Wenger infuriates most Gooners, he will always do his own thing and will not be pushed into anything he has not fully worked out.

Some may think he is unsure but he knows exactly what he’s about to do, he will work out the right time to put his offer in and what that means is, he buys players at the best price, just like some of you when you go shopping you sort through the produce on the shelves and find the bargain of the day. I’m some often look at the sell by date and if it is nearing that date, the price goes down.

Wengers sell by date tends to be towards the end of the window and he usually leaves it to the last-minute untill the price is in his range, not one of the best ways to buy players but that seems to work for him.

Painful for supporters but it’s clever business if it comes off.

Supporters at the moment are frustrated, Wenger has that effect on us but Wenger has always been frugal and he won’t change now.

When he does buy,Β  he’ll have a plan as to how things will work out, in fact I liken him to a Chess master.

He plans so many moves ahead, he’ll buy a young kid out of the blue like he did this year when all fans are expecting an experienced defender. We think to ourselves. what’s he bought him for, but yet again it’s one of his moves ahead. I don’t fully understand this as I am more a fix the problem straight away man but I am not a Premier League Manager and while Wenger gets us in the top four-year after year what can I say.

Most supporters believe it is our given right to win the League, the Carling Cup, Champions League and FA Cup but it’s not, we are up against teams that have unlimited funds, teams that can buy any player that they want. Even even if it’s a player that we are bidding for, they can outbid us any day of the week.

There is absolutely nothing Arsenal can do about that either!

So, don’t think we are going to clean up all that is on offer to win, we are not as we are not in their spending league, so we need the Chess Master to do what he does best. The Manchester sides and others with wealthy owners are always going to have the advantage, don’t be naive enough to think any differently but with a chess master like Wenger we stand a chance to nick something.

I’m sorry but that’s the way things are, stand in a restaurant with a millionaire who is spending bundles on posh nosh and expensive booze beside you and try and get served!

That is the situation with the Premier League now and we need to get used to it because it’s not going away, at the moment we are the poor relation but when our debts are paid off, others will be saying the same about us.

It won’t be long either….

Written by Steve Palmer.