Why not?

Yeah, I hear you, where is the post on the fitness centre? Where’s the inside gossip on Rosicky’s hammy’s? Where is that post?

You’ll have to tweet James. He’s holding the content hostage.

Me? I’m wondering if I can get in touch with the Arsenal fitness team and ask them if it’s possible to self-diagnose that your broken wrist is better after 3.5 weeks because it doesn’t hurt and it has good rotation? Can you heal quicker than 4 weeks? Am I… super human? How do you test it if you don’t have an x-ray? What did the people of olden times do?

Who knows, but I’m clocking mad word count this week.

In Arsenal transfer deadline day news, there wasn’t any. Kike Marin said we’d dropped a last gasp £100m Dembele bid, David Ornstein slashed his news down with a vicious tweet. I mean, as sexy as the rumour was, it certainly didn’t make sense that Arsenal would drop a speculative record transfer bid on the final day… despite us doing that for Ozil and Lemar last summer.

So, we are where we are.

My takeaway from the window is it’s been pretty fucking solid.

There are a lot of people complaining it was shite, but seriously, let’s all take a second to remember how banterful our summers have been for 15 years and absorb what has happened.

The Brief: Get the club back into the top 4

The Strategy: Hire in very experienced players to make it happen, peppered with a few very exciting prospects

The execution: It’s been a touch bland, but largely spot on

Lichtsteiner and Sokratis are winners and leaders. They know how to defend on paper, the big question is whether they can deliver it in the pace of the Premier League. Add Bernd Leno into the mixer, a keeper with cat-like reflexes, a more tactical approach to distribution, and an all-around more contemporary vibe and you have the beginnings of a group of players who can work in a much more rigid defensive system.

We have a lot of defenders this year. Mavrapanos, Bellerin and Holding all have a lot to prove. Kolasniac, Jenks and Mustafi are lucky to still be about. Monreal is obvs a baller, and I’m glad he didn’t get sold. Overall, that’s an iffy mix of names. I hope the lack of reinforcement doesn’t cause us problems.

That’s the key to our backline this year. Accountability, smarts to operate as a unit, with enough experience to see us through a fall season. The system is more important than the individual talent.

Midfield is looking legitimately solid and exciting. Torreira and Guendouzi look a level up from what we’ve been playing with. Both have a turn of pace, the desire to marshall the back four and a delightful range of passing to release our attack to do their thing. Can I just reiterate the above point… we now have 2 deep-lying midfielders who actually want to play in that position. We also have the very exciting AMN to look forward to… he was Wenger’s last ever sub, will that be a parting gift or a curse?

We didn’t lose Ramsey either. Think what you like about that, for the time being, let’s be positive and assume he’s staying because surely the club wouldn’t take a chance on keeping a distracting storyline on the books. ESPECIALLY AFTER LAST SEASON. If Ramsey is focused, he’ll be an asset this season, IF he can keep fit. Ornstein says the talks are positive, but the parties are a long way off… you’ll know it’s over when Arsenal leak he was asking for £350k a week and a parking space on the pitch. Fingers crossed this isn’t delaying tactics from his agent who can now smell a mega payday next year.

Moving forward, we have an abundance of talent, even if our attack does look a touch narrow. Mikki and Ozil are very creative if they find form, Auba and Lacazette are worth 50 goals at a minimum. Iwobi, Reiss, Rowe, Eddie, JOEL CAMPBELL and Danny W. There’s something there with a bit of coaching and a big bag of HOPE.

ANYWAY. Rome wasn’t built in a summer people (Roma was).

Remember all those people telling you for years how complicated football was? Well, the backroom team rebuilt the entire club in 6 months. This season, we’ve laid the groundwork. If we make the CL next summer, we’ll have more than £70m to spend, and I’d imagine we’ll be able to attract a higher calibre of player.

The big hope now is that the players gel, the manager’s ideas sink in, the players stay fresh and uninjured this season and we have a lot of luck.

I’m positive, because why wouldn’t you be? We’ve spent 10 years being miserable, it’s boring. Plenty of time to cry when things actually go wrong.

Also, how hilarious was Spurs summer? My whining spud mates reckon Poch was promised a pot of gold to spend… and he was given NOTHING. HILARIOUS. I know Spurs have a good squad, but bringing in new blood after a failed season is essential… unless you think finishing potless is a success, which to be fair, is kind of a Spurs attitude.

Let’s hope we can have a good run and put them out of the CL at an important time in their rebuild.

Right, see you in the comments! x