Greetings. I have a crammed, quote-tastic, kit-alicious offering to bring to you today, as Arsene Wenger has been speaking at a press conference ahead of our first game in the Asia Trophy tomorrow, and the club have unveiled our new away strip at an official launch event in Singapore this afternoon.

But first the boss and he’s expressed his hope that the squad can ride the crest of the confidence wave our FA Cup win in May created, whilst also highlighting the importance of concentrating on our own improvement as a team and avoiding any preoccupation with the relative strengths of our opponents.

He said:

We moved forward in the second part of the season but as well the cup means something to the team because on the day, whether it’s the semi-final or the final, you have to win. The trophy improves the confidence of the team. I believe in England, we are always worried about each other because we have so many teams with the potential to win the league that everyone looks around and thinks, ‘What are they doing? How strong are they?’ What we want to do is focus on ourselves, focus on our strengths and see if we can develop on what we did last year. That is the most important thing, not to waste too much energy on looking around us.

Which is true to an extent, because clearly nobody should waste time worrying that Liverpool have signed Danny Ings to partner Rickie Lambert, or that they’ve bought Adam Bogdan to battle it out with Simon Mignolet.

But if Man City add Kevin de Bruyne and Paul Pogba to their purchase of Raheem Sterling or Man United land Edinson Cavani and Nicolas Otamendi or Chelsea snare an upgrade on Gary Cahill and Oscar, I’d say we’d be silly not to afford their new line-ups at least a glancing appraisal. You can’t take a pen to a sword fight, or something.

But of course Arsene knows that full well and followed up those sentiments with his now very familiar line about being ready to buy if the right player becomes available. He said:

I don’t close the door (on more signings). If we can find any player who can strengthen the squad then we will.

As many have pointed out, it’s all about incremental improvement for Arsenal now. The squad is at a stage where barring a like-for-like, quality deputy/competitor for Francis Coquelin, we don’t need a lot to mount a realistic challenge for honours at home and abroad.

My hunch is that we’ll still spend, and spend big, on one or two players even if they have limited resale value or come in at the expense of an established squad member. Mainly because we can now. And also because on pitch success is vital for the continuing growth of our commercial income, the maximisation of which goes full circle to helping us improve the team – the commercialcircle©®™ of footballing success, if you will.

Arsene also spoke about the importance of pre-season for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in particular, after the England international’s injury-plagued second-half of last season, saying:

Alex played the first 20 games last season and was after that injured, so he is of course one of the regular players in our team. He is not directly always in competition with Alexis because he plays more on the right side than the left, but it is a good opportunity for him because he is not injured. Pre-season will be very important for him.

And he then outlined the likely time-scale for Alexis Sanchez’s return following his Copa America exploits for Chile this summer, praised his performances in winning the competition for his country, and hinted at the Chilean’s superhuman recovery powers. He said:

He will be back on August 3 and it usually takes three weeks to be competitive. He will miss certainly the first game of the season but with Alexis, it takes a little bit less. When he had to turn up in the final [of the Copa America], he was there. He was the one who was dangerous, he was the one who was always provoking opponents, and he was the one who had the guts to take the final penalty to win the cup. He contributed to his country’s achievement and it’s something special that they’ve done. He was a big part of it.

Elsewhere, club captain Mikel Arteta has become the latest Arsenal player to praise new signing Petr Cech and the ‘keepers difficult but ambitious decision to cross London. He told Arsenal Player:

Even though he has won everything in England and probably in Europe, he is still ambitious. Those types of signings give the team a lift. The decision he made to come here after being a legend at Chelsea is not easy. I don’t think many of them would do it at his age, and he is still hungry, he wants to prove himself at the top level and I think it is a really good decision for us. He could have gone to another league and thought, ‘My name is in England forever with Chelsea and it’s only going to be with Chelsea’. He knows he’s going to get some criticism coming here and that the pressure is going to be on him a lot but he just wants to take it. He says, ‘Okay I’ve got another chapter, and challenge and a chance to make Arsenal champions’. I have no doubt [he will cope well with the criticism. He is very cool, he’s been training really well and that’s what he’s here for. He’s not here just to sit on his back, he wants to compete and he wants to keep winning.

Finally for today, our new away kit is confirmed and available for purchase and I have to say I like it a lot. It’s 2002-ish and we all know what happened that year.

At the launch event, two teams of Arsenal players were formed on stage – one wearing the home kit and one the other the away strip – and in a freestyle skill-off, Santi Cazorla outdid Hector Bellerin to win it for the away team.

Oh and Oliver Giroud mouthed ‘f*ck off’ at a team-mate who was clearly baiting the Frenchman for his perceived, over-zealous penchant for self grooming. Brilliant bantz by all accounts.

Right, I can cram no more.

See you tomorrow.

Welcome back Blogees. Quite a lot has happened in the transfer market since yesterday’s post and it all involves moves to Manchester.

Morgan Schneiderlin was forced to settle for his second choice destination after Arsene Wenger witheringly told him ‘non merci, vous Coquelin du pauvre’, and has reluctantly signed for Manchester United, where he’ll be joined by Bayern Munich’s Bastian Schweinsteiger.

But in what will be the biggest move of the market so far, a fee has been agreed between Liverpool and Manchester City for the transfer of Raheem Sterling. I must say I didn’t see that coming, Sterling always seemed so enamoured by life in Liverpool. I was under the impression he adored working with Brendan Rodgers, longed to captain the club and had agreed to sign a new 14-year contract. Truly a turn of events as confusing as his reported price-tag.

I mean, how are players’ prices evaluated? If a 20 year old Raheem Sterling, with 18 goals in 113 appearances for Liverpool, and with a shot as tame as a baby’s bitch-slap, is valued at £49 million, then surely it’d take the GDP of Germany to buy a ready-made, bona fide, world star of Alexis Sanchez’s ilk? Evidently not, as we paid approximately £35million for the Chilean just a year ago and not just because Wenger’s a wily old wheeler and dealer.

As widely acknowledged, the reality for so long now is that English footballers come with a premium. You could argue a major reason is that any transfers involving English players are almost always inter-league – due perhaps to an inherent aversion to trying new countries and cultures – but which means prices are raised due to rivalry. Yet this phenomenon isn’t really reflected abroad.

Maybe then, it’s just as simple as supply and demand and the supposed lack of English talent drives prices higher in an era of home-grown quotas. And of course a player’s marketing potential, his ability to shift shirts etc, all contribute in the concoction of a figure. But even with all that considered, £49 million doesn’t tally talent-wise, with the reported £20 million Chelsea were willing to pay for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain this summer.

Because the Ox for me, is a better player than Sterling and just a year older. Which leads me to conclude, there’s no point trying to rationalise it. That would be an endeavour as pointless as Jose Mourinho’s ‘offer’ for the Ox. So next summer, I’m tipping Ross Barkley for a £97 million switch to Chelsea, which will also be trendily nonsensical, because he’s not better than Gareth Bale, has less potential than Neymar and can’t sell replica kits like Cristiano Ronaldo. It’s just that £97m seems about right I reckon.

Moving on and the boss has dismissed the ridiculous recent rumours of a move to Juventus for our record signing Mesut Ozil. Speaking from Singapore, he said:

Ozil is our player, he will remain our player and he wants to remain our player. During this period the newspapers are creative, and have to be creative, but many times the stories come from agents.

Which is about as emphatic as he can be without telling the Old Lady to get back on her mobility scooter and ride off a cliff. The boss then went on to highlight Ozil’s importance to our team and his development at the club, saying:

It is a big season for him because he had a difficult start last year and in the second part of the season he was very important. There are many offensive players who have an important season in front of them but I’m confident because I think they have the quality. Ozil understands the rhythms of English football and he has improved his defensive attitude. He works hard and offensively he is a top class player.

Elsewhere, Yaya Sanogo is reportedly wanted on a loan deal by Ajax, which would give him the opportunity to develop under the tutelage of a certain Dennis Bergkamp. If Dennis could just teach him how to strike a football towards a goal that’d be brilliant. Sorry, that’s more than a little harsh but the former Auxerre man is as raw right now as any first team player I’ve ever seen Arsene buy.

Yet he does have a certain street-fighter something about him, has shown he can be a real handful for defences with his physicality and can easily still improve his range of skills. He was also a prolific goalscorer in his early teenage years in France if that means anything, before serious injury hampered his progress. Good luck to him and I hope he finds his feet in Holland before returning to Arsenal a player ready and able to stake his claim.

And one man who will do just that (not find his feet in Holland, return to Arsenal) appears to be Carl Jenkinson after he reportedly signed a new five year contract with the club before securing a second, successive, season-long loan spell at West Ham. Carl really impressed at Upton Park last year by all accounts and another similarly successful showing this time around may be enough to see him revive his first team hopes at Arsenal. We shall see.

Till Tuesday peeps.

Sunday salutations. For those with a belief in supernatural causality, Petr Cech has a treat for you. He’s chosen to wear the number 33 he says, because he’s 33 years of age, has made 333 Premier League appearances and because a human spine has 33 vertebrae and he’s now, you know, an integral bit of Arsenal’s backbone. I’m with Petr personally – If that alignment of arithmetic isn’t a sign, I don’t know what is.

Other reasons he’s rumoured to have plumped for 33, but didn’t disclose, include:

• According to the Newton scale, it’s the temperature at which water boils (useful for when he lets David Ospina have first dibs in the changing room jacuzzi),
• it’s the jersey number of Tom Cruise’s character in the 1983 film All The Right Moves (his favourite film),
• +33 is the code for international direct-dial phone calls to France (for ringing old Rennes colleagues),
• it’s the jersey number retired by the Chicago Bulls, in honour of the Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen (he loves the NBA),
• and by the New York Knicks for another HOFer, Patrick Ewing (see above),
• It’s the number once worn by Cech’s goalkeeping idol and Gunners’ great, Graham Stack (the Barnet player-coach taught him everything he knows),
• it’s the atomic number of arsenic (for Jose Mourinho, plus it’s just 2 letters from ‘Arsenal’).

They did say he was a well cultured, knowledgeable, thinking man’s footballer, and here is the unequivocal proof.

And as you may have guessed, it’s a slow news day. Not so slow though, that I can’t bring you Arsene Wenger’s admission that signing Cech was far from an easy decision, but one he feels will benefit the squad in many ways.

He told Arsenal.com:

It was a very, very tough decision [to buy Cech] because I have two great goalkeepers. I think Cech can make them better as well. He has huge experience and the fact that he has won more big trophies can strengthen the belief of the team. That can help them to develop and that’s what I expect from him. You always want to improve the experience level of your squad and I thought he could help us gain something on that front. I still think he has a huge hunger. When I saw him with Chelsea last year he was always convincing and I’m happy that we could do it. His kind of knowledge and experience can help us.

Elsewhere, West Brom are reportedly eyeing a loan deal for Serge Gnabry, which makes a lot of sense, given his need for games as he returns from such a lengthy injury spell. It would also be a chance for him to prove that his breakthrough with the Arsenal first team during the 2013-14 season was no flash in the pan, and that he can kick on and really challenge Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and co. for a wide attacking berth at the club.

And there are some other bits and bobs doing the rounds including Morgan Schneiderlin being on the verge of choosing Arsenal or Man United, Alexandre Lacazette’s potential arrival, the Napoli owner’s desire to sell Gonzalo Higuain so he can buy eight new players and my favourite, Arsenal’s imminent bid for Johnny Evans.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Good one. We’ll be following up his purchase with a concerted effort to secure the services of Scott Dann.

It’s not silly season, it’s the wind-up window.

Back Monday.

Evening all. As a reminder of how quickly things can turn on a sixpence in football transfer land, Fabian Delph has today announced he is not imminently having a medical at Manchester City after all, and instead is looking forward to starting the new season with current club Aston Villa.

His statement comes mere hours after Sky Sports News HQ had revealed a fee of £8 million had been agreed between the two clubs, which would see the England international join City, before inevitably being sold to Sunderland after a couple of seasons warming the bench.

I wonder what went down? Have City made a breakthrough in negotiations with a preferred target? Did Delph get cold feet? Did Manuel Pellegrini pull the plug because he’s perturbed by the shape of Delph’s head? Who knows, but as I said, it highlights the delicacy of deals before they are complete and also the fact that more often than not, only a select few involved in any transfer really know what’s going on.

All that said though, it can still be pretty fun letting your imagination run wild on all the permutations of team selection based purely on the most tenuous of transfer links. Like for instance, when an allegedly well respected football agent recently teased the Arsenal fanbase on Twitter, with a message saying the Gunners will be making ‘the signing of the summer’ and that the deal was ‘almost complete’ and that he’ll ‘have more for us in the coming days’.

As hard as I try not to, because you know, it’s probably bullshit, my mind instinctively starts evaluating possible purchases. ‘Signing of the summer you say? Hmmm…’ :

• Paul Pogba? Nah, too expensive, probably off to Barca and we really don’t need another central midfielder unless it’s a Coquelin-type.
• Kevin De Bruyne? Always rated him and he’s reportedly been superb in the Bundesliga but we have the Ox and others of a similar type.
• Arturo Vidal. Maybe, it’s not impossible that Wenger could keep him on a leash, getting him guarding the back four and repressing his attacking instincts. He is getting on though, and isn’t he off to Real?
• Zlatan! Alright, he’s 33 but as a Davor Suker-esque short-term deal? Then again, his wages would be a problem and he doesn’t run a lot anymore.
• What about his team-mate Cavani? Or Napoli’s Higuain? Would they really represent the standout deal of the window?

Ah bollocks I give up. Only Arsene knows…

And speaking of the main man himself, he’s been reminding everyone that reinforcement isn’t always achieved via the window – we had several top players missing great chunks of last season through injury and having them all fit and available for the majority of the new campaign may be more than enough to see us conquer the world etc.

He told Arsenal.com:

The best way to strengthen other areas of the team is to get the players who did not play a lot last year and keep them fit. Walcott basically did not play until the end of the season, Wilshere has not played many games. Those two were very convincing at the end of the season so I hope that this season we can benefit from their participation and competitiveness. We lost Ozil and Giroud for long periods last year and they contributed a lot in the second part of the season. Let’s hope all these players will be fit and available. After, if we can still add some quality, we will do it.

Standard stuff from the boss there, and as usual, his words make perfect sense. But it’s obvious to most that a competitor/deputy for Coquelin, plus if we can find one available, a top, top, top striker – and in that order in my opinion – are the two positions we should look at. For what it’s worth, my two picks would be William Carvalho and Julian Draxler – who I’d love to see Arsene convert into a lone front-man.

I also think Steven N’Zonzi would have been a good, value-for-money buy for the defensive shield role but he’s off to Sevilla, which thinking about it, might mean Grzegorz Krychowiak‘s on the move. Or it might not. Morgan Schneiderlin is of course often linked but I prefer Carvalho mainly because I think he’d be less inclined to demand a start every week, and at 23, will still improve a great deal. Feel free to completely disagree in the comments! Let me know who you’d buy and why…

See you on Sunday.

So, Friday already. How is that even possible? It was Monday like, half an hour ago. The Earth must be rotating quicker, that has to be it. Didn’t we have a whole extra second added to our day recently too? Or it could just be that my sense of time is as skewed as an Emmanuel Eboue strike from distance. Wayward.

But whatever. What I do know, is that this is the last Arsenal-less weekend for a while and that is very welcome indeed. I structure my life around the club’s fixtures you see (living the dream alright) – as each game ends, it’s a countdown to the next, a chance to build momentum or get back on track, do what wounded animals do (not die) –  so the end of every season leaves me in a kind of listless limbo which is only ended by the red and white shoots of a budding new club campaign.

Whether the season will blossom and bear fruit or wither away in disappointment really is secondary at this stage. And it doesn’t matter to me that we’ll be playing opposition as unheralded as a Singapore Select XI on Wednesday either – we could be facing a mish-mash of Moldova under 19s and The Dog & Duck women’s team, I’m just happy to watch The Arsenal in action. Not long now …

And to help keep us occupied until then, the official site has been speaking with Alex Oxlade Chamberlain about the pain and gain of pre-season preparations.

Hunched over and gasping for air, with one hand on his knee, the other showering his head using a water bottle, and with Santi Cazorla visible in the background, lying flat on his back, arms and legs out-stretched, completely unresponsive, Alex said:

It is horrible! The first week is hell. We’re on day two now and it’s hard work. It’s a lot of running, crying, sore muscles, painful massages – it’s horrible but this is my sixth pre-season including Southampton now and you get used to it. You know what you’re in for and I think that’s why you enjoy your holiday whilst you have the chance because once you come back here it’s not too much fun for the first three weeks until you get back into the season. You have to push yourself hard to get back to Premier League standards and level of fitness. Playing Premier League teams like Everton or Stoke, whoever it may be, is obviously a good test for us and will get us back to where we need to be.

There is obviously a lot to be envious of in a professional footballer’s career but they can keep all that pre-season running and stretching nonsense, I’ll just take the wags, wonga and adulation thanks.

The Ox also expressed his sadness at Abou Diaby’s departure from the club, saying:

Abou’s a massive talent. He’s one of the best midfielders I’ve seen or even played with and, for a man of his stature and to be able to do some of the things he did with the ball, it was amazing to see at times.Unfortunately he had a really tough time with injuries and you’ve got to feel for him because he worked so hard. I’m sure a lot of players would have given up a long time before he has. He still hasn’t and he’s still working hard to get fit. A lot of players wouldn’t have been able to cope with the mental side and the disappointment of the injuries, so it just shows you what a professional he is and how much of a tough mentality he has. He’s a big character in our dressing room. Everyone respected him and his footballing ability that much that he was always part of the team at all times. It’s sad to see him go but I had a chat with him yesterday and the reasons why he wanted to leave and get himself right made complete sense to me. You’ve got to wish him all the the luck with that and I hope that he can get back to his best and push on with whatever he does. He is one of the best players I’ve played with, you’ve just got to hope that he can stay fit.

And Arsene Wenger echoed those sentiments when he spoke to Arsenal.com about his fellow Frenchman’s exit, saying he hopes that Diaby can carve out some semblance of a career before retirement.

He said:

It’s one of the saddest moments for us at Arsenal not to have had the opportunity to get the best out of Abou Diaby because of injury. I’m very sad because this boy is a massive and a huge talent. It’s sad as well because he didn’t deserve what he got. It’s sad as well because he’s a very serious player. He was always at home every night, prepared well every day and was not rewarded. I hope he will be rewarded somewhere else in the final years of his career. He was the closest to Patrick Vieira we have seen here, with even a good offensive potential. In France, he’s regarded highly because every time he played in the French national team he made a difference. It is very sad.

Before I burst into tears and go and find a compilation clip of Diaby at his best, I think I’ll leave it there for the day.

Back in a couple of minutes. I mean, on Saturday.

Afternoon all. There is just under a week to go until Arsenal are in pre-season action and Arsene Wenger has named his squad to travel to Singapore to take part in this year’s installment of the Asia Trophy.

It’s a strong travelling group, with expected absentees such as Alexis Sanchez and David Ospina not selected due to their summer exertions at the Copa America. Serge Gnabry is also left behind after playing for Germany at the Under 21 European Championships and both Tomas Rosicky and Danny Welbeck will also stay in London due to injury concerns.

There is a place on the plane however, for a number of the club’s brightest prospects. Summer recruit Jeff Reine-Adelaide is joined by Chris Willock, Alex Iwobi, Gedion Zelalem, Dan Crowley and Chuba Akpom, giving the youngsters what is now an annual opportunity to force their way into the manager’s first-team thinking.

The one glaring omission from my perspective, is the Braziliian Wellington Silva. So where is Welly? Well, he’s either carrying a knock, has been judged better served by staying at home and working on his fitness, is about to be sold/loaned, or has simply misplaced his newly acquired Spanish passport.

It’s a real let-down, not least because for the last few years, I have been telling anyone who would listen just how highly I rate the former Fluminense man. “Just you wait and see” was the gist, and now after five separate loan spells – the last of which was a real breakthrough (31 appearances for Almeria in La Liga) – it seemed nailed on that the now 22-year-old would finally be seen in an Arsenal shirt. I’m not losing hope though, far from it. I stayed steadfast in my belief that Abou Diaby would eventually blossom to boss our midfield for over a decade, until his release last month, so Silva’s got years before I give up on him. Emirates Cup it is.

The squad in full:

Chuba Akpom, Mikel Arteta, Hector Bellerin, Santi Cazorla, Petr Cech, Calum Chambers, Francis Coquelin, Dan Crowley, Mathieu Debuchy, Mathieu Flamini, Gabriel, Kieran Gibbs, Olivier Giroud, Alex Iwobi, Laurent Koscielny, Emiliano Martinez, Per Mertesacker, Nacho Monreal, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Wojciech Szczesny, Theo Walcott, Chris Willock, Jack Wilshere, Gedion Zelalem.

And in a wide-ranging chat with Chris Harris on Arsenal Player, the boss has been discussing the trip to Singapore, Reine-Adelaide’s attributes, the now departed Lukas Podolski and Mikel Arteta’s new contract. Go take a peak.

Elsewhere, Mathieu Debuchy, who was so unfortunate with injury in his debut season at the club, has been discussing the importance of pre-season, his excitement at a first visit to Singapore and the benefits of playing Premier League opposition at this stage of the summer.

He told Arsenal Player:

It was a hard year last year and I need to do some hard training to be fit for the first game. I’m so excited to go to Singapore and work hard with the team. I’ve never been before, it’s my first time. I need to have a good pre-season. It was a hard year last year and I need to do some hard training to be fit for the first game. It’s also important for us to play Premier League teams like Stoke City and Everton because in one month we will play in the Premier League and we need to be ready.

The 29 year old France international also touched on the signing of Petr Cech and the club’s title chances, saying:

Petr is a very good keeper with massive experience. He has a lot of quality and is a complete goalkeeper. I think [Arsenal can challenge for the Premier League] and I hope so too. We have all the chance to win the Premier League.

And speaking of Cech, the former Chelsea shot-stopper says he can’t wait to get his first game for the club under his belt and reveals how he’s been blown away by the welcome he’s received from Arsenal fans all over the world.

He told Arsenal Player:

The first game is very important for me so [I want to] get that under my belt as soon as possible. To get that feeling of how it is to be part of the team [is important] and it’s my first chance to get to know everybody. I have had such a fantastic welcome from every Arsenal fan all over the world. I don’t know what to expect but I’m really looking forward to it.

A little abrupt, but that’s all for today folks. I’ll be back on Friday with news of Silva’s imminent move to Stevenage.

Till then.

Welcome to Wednesday on TremendArse. In terms of Arsenal chat, it’s as scarce out there as a top-four finish by Tottenham. Quieter than a Chelsea trophy parade. Slower than Steven Gerrard chasing after Demba Ba. As desperate as United’s hopes of keeping David de Gea. As bereft as…you get the picture.

Thank god then, for Lukas Podolski and his reasons for leaving Arsenal and heading off to Turkey to join Galatasaray. The 30 year old has been speaking with German publication Bild about his pre-move conversation with Arsene Wenger and Germany manager Joachim Low’s demand that he play regular first-team football to aid his chances of selection with die Mannschaft.

He said:

After talking openly to Arsene Wenger, I came to the conclusion that it would be best for me to make a move. I would ask for the same if I was in his (Low’s) position. Every player that wants to play at Euro 2016 needs to play. We would surely not be world champions if we had started the tournament with 20 players that don’t get to play regularly at their club.

Poldi then touched on the timing of his transfer and the quality of the Turkish league in general, saying:

I honestly thought that I would start team training at Arsenal on July 10 but within a few days things started to move very quickly. It was no disadvantage that I was on holiday in Turkey anyway so I could be at Istanbul to sign the contract within 45 minutes. The Turkish league is not on the same level as the Premier League or Bundesliga, but Galatasaray are Champions League regulars and have stars with a worldwide reputation like Wesley Sneijder in the squad. Istanbul is a metropolis and Galatasaray has a very good name in world football.

Which is swell, but it would be far more refreshing if players just admitted they’ve turned their backs on stronger leagues because they’ll pay less tax in Turkey. We wouldn’t judge them because most of us would do the same. Great city, decent standard of football, loads more dosh = easy decision towards the end of what are very short careers by the standards of wider society. Next week: Exclusive: Robin van Persie – The little boy inside me was freaking out for me to join Fenerbache etc

Elsewhere, Hector Bellerin has followed Olivier Giroud’s lead in bigging up the club’s foreign fanbase and expressing his eagerness to head to the Far East on tour next week.

Speaking to Arsenal Player, he beamed:

We’re all really excited about it. I’ve never been to Singapore so to go to a new place and meet new fans that we probably wouldn’t have the chance to see is great. We’re all really looking forward to it. Sometimes you get tweets from different languages that you’d never expect. There are fans from all around the world and it’s nice to go to their country to meet them so that they don’t have to come here. It’s going to be a great experience for us and for them as well.

And it’s the raucous receptions Arsenal receive whenever they head on tour which remind us just how popular the club has become all over the world. The Arsenal family is truly world wide these days and whilst Tottenham would struggle to fill a phone box in Singapore, the demand for the Gunners grows greater by the year.

Jumpa kamu esok you global Gooners.

Afternoon all, I want to start today with a few thoughts on Mikel Arteta, following widespread reports that the midfielder has penned a new one-year contract extension with the club.

Arteta is 33 now and will soon begin pre-season having endured the worst campaign, injury wise, of his Arsenal career. And for the first time since signing from Everton in 2011, he finds himself going into a new season absolutely not a first-choice selection.

That said, his experience and positive presence in and around the set-up can’t be underestimated and together with the likes of new signing Petr Cech, Tomas Rosicky and Per Mertesacker, he forms a core of older pros who are vital to any squad with ambitions of winning the biggest prizes.

But my issue is with those who suggest we may not buy an understudy or competitor for Francis Coquelin and instead entrust that task to Arteta, with Mathieu Flamini possibly on his way and in my view not a good enough option anyway. The trouble with that plan though, is that Arteta’s previous role in our engine room has been filled, and improved on, by Santi Cazorla – not Coquelin.

The Frenchman was so noticeably outstanding, in large part, because no-one was actually playing his position in the team, a position we’d been crying out to introduce as a team – the out-and-out defensive midfielder. So can Arteta now do what Coquelin has been doing since January? Not for me. He’s not mobile, tenacious or fit enough to replicate Coquelin’s contribution.

The alternative then, without external reinforcement or overlooked internal solutions (Krystian Bielik?), is to disregard what is probably the single biggest factor in our new-found balance between defence and attack, the standout reason for our upturn in fortunes in the second half of the season. I think it would be similar to when we started last season without another centre back and we shouldn’t be taking the same kind of risk again.

But we don’t necessarily need to sign a household name, as Coquelin’s emergence made abundantly clear. We need someone with the same strengths as the 24 year old: a ball-winner, someone who barely crosses half-way and reads the danger, wins it back and plays it short and sharp, chases back with pace and determination to cover spaces and teammates and holds up or halts opposition attacks. That is Coqulein’s raison d’être and we need another player as close to him as we can find. Mikel is not that man.

Now bare with me, but somebody like Rafael Da Silva, the right back reportedly surplus to requirements at Man United, is more suited skillset-wise in my opinion, to deputising for Coquelin than Arteta. I’m not suggesting we should buy and re-position the Brazilian, merely pointing out that there are potentially more creative solutions out there, aside from the obvious, perma-linked names like Morgan Schneiderlin and William Carvalho. Footballers’ ‘positions’ are never set in stone and we as Arsenal fans should recognise that better than most. All I’m saying.

Moving on and there are some snaps on Arsenal.com of the first wave of players who have returned to London Colney for pre-season preparations and the group consists of a number of our most promising youngsters as well as first-team regulars. If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m a big fan of Wellington Silva’s potential and will be keeping a keen eye on his progress over the next month or so. It would be brilliant to see him finally pull on an Arsenal shirt and show us what he’s got in the Asian tour and Emirates Cup this month – It’s been a long time coming.

Speaking of our international commitments, Olivier Giroud has been talking to Arsenal Player about his admiration for the club’s overseas support, ahead of our trip to Asia in a week or two’s time.

He said:

It’s always a pleasure and a really good experience because you can see the fans are crazy all over the world. They support the team until they die and they are fantastic. A proper fan has to learn all the Arsenal songs so it’s nice to hear them singing our songs and the way they are singing is even more surprising because they sing with their heart. I remember when we landed in Vietnam very early in the morning but there were 2,000 people who were waiting for us and cheering us on. It was a great feeling and it makes you want to produce even better performances when you get onto the pitch.

And finally for today, the club have reportedly recruited a new strength and conditioning coach, so I’m fully expecting Hector Bellerin to be built like Roberto Carlos when the new season commences.

See you tomorrow.

Welcome to Monday on TremendArse. Please stay a while. Have a read of some of my earlier posts and feel free to share this blog with as many people as you like. Honestly, be my guest. I won’t mind. My server can cope.

As promised, I have more today from Jens Lehmann who has been speaking to The Sun recently. The 45 year old expressed his disbelief at Arsenal’s 11 year Premier League title drought, suggesting the lack of experience in our squads since 2004 is the major contributory factor for our famine.

He said:

I cannot believe it has been eleven years now since the club won the Premier League. We had another two chances to win it when I was still playing there but they then got rid of all the older guys along with that dressing-room experience and winning mentality.

But he feels that oversight – or financially-forced necessity, depending on your reading of that period – can now be corrected:

With someone in there like Petr, with Per Mertesacker now as captain, they can re-establish this winning attitude and mentality.

Jens also had a word or two of advice for Wojciech Szczesny, saying:

It’s disappointing when you lose your place. With Wojciech, if you want to become number one again, you have to work really hard. You have to know that nothing else counts apart from performing hard on the training pitch and in games.

And finally, he praised his compatriot Mesut Ozil whilst challenging him to stamp his authority on the ‘big’ games. He said:

Everyone knows he can be a fantastic player. But you need to be a fantastic player in the big games. You don’t need to be a fantastic player in the small games and mediocre player for the big games. He can definitely do that but now he must prove it. You need to know how to think and how to programme yourself. Of course he can improve. You can’t get better on the day that you retire from football, but you can every day before that.

I have to say I think that is a little harsh on Ozil. I don’t think anyone could ever call Mesut ‘mediocre’, and although he may have been guilty at times in his debut season of being under-prepared for the more physical side of Premier League football, he worked on that weakness during a lengthy injury spell in his second season. He came back in January 2015 noticeably more muscular, with a new-found steel to add to his silk.

He’s no longer bullied out of possession as he was in 2013-14 and even his stamina seems to have gone up a notch or two. Arsene Wenger said he wouldn’t bet against Ozil being voted the Premier League Player of the Year before last season began, but his inevitable post World Cup hangover combined with injury put paid to that suggestion very early on. Next season however, if Ozil can stay fit for the duration, the boss may not be so far wide of the mark.

Particularly if the team as a whole are getting the right results – something Hector Bellerin is very confident of. Speaking to Arsenal Player, the right-back said:

I’m really, really excited for the new season. The way we finished this season, the team have really come together and we’ve had some great performances, especially since the New Year. The team really feel like we can beat any team in the world with the performances we’ve had, so we’re all really, really excited to hopefully start the season with the right mindset and with the right results. Hopefully by the end of next season we can win some more trophies. We need to start with the confidence that we finished this season with. That’s going to important for us, to keep pushing and start where we left off at the end of last season.

And that has to be the hope and the aim – to start the new season in the same manner we ended the last, outclassing Aston Villa in the FA Cup Final. Even without Alexis Sanchez, who will miss the opening weeks of the campaign, we have the players to make that happen.

And that’s all for another day.

Till Tuesday.

Feliz Domingo Gooners. Arsenal’s pre-season preparations officially start tomorrow but one man who definitely won’t be participating is Alexis Sanchez, after he ended his marathon 2014-15 campaign in style, scoring the winning penalty for hosts Chile in last night’s Copa America final penalty shootout.

After a goalless 120 minutes, Argentina missed two of their first three penalties, with first Gonzalo Higuain and then Ever Banega bottling it, allowing Sanchez the chance to win the first major title in his nation’s history. And oh my did he take that chance with aplomb. The former Barcelona man stepped up and produced a sort of mini panenka – like a panenka, but with less lift – before wheeling away to start his country’s wild celebrations. Brave, beautiful stuff.

A well deserved beach break now surely awaits our magical number seventeen, although given his insatiable hunger for the game, it will take the very best of Arsene Wenger’s managerial man-management, to keep the 26 year old from returning early, ready to run his socks off for another club campaign. You rest up Alexis. Mesut and Santi have got Chelsea at Wembley covered.

One final point on the Copa America is that it takes place again next summer due to it being the competition’s centenary year. That means Sanchez will have played in international tournaments for three consecutive summers leading up to the start of the 2016-2017 season with Arsenal.

What is a worry over burn-out right now, will be a certainty by then if he is not afforded the proper rest. Perhaps Wellington Silva can step up and inject some silky south American skills to the Arsenal attack in Sanchez’s absence. It’s not as silly as it sounds – Silva’s got mad ‘bilities on the ball. And as his recent loan spell at Almeria proved, he now has a work-rate to match his natural talent.

Moving on and two-time Gunner Jens Lehmann has been speaking to The Sun about new Arsenal ‘keeper Petr Cech, suggesting the former Chelsea man must banish his Blues past from his memory and mentally acclimatise to being an Arsenal player. Although it shouldn’t be that heart-rending really, like trying to forget Katie Hopkins so you can fully commit to Olivia Wilde.

Anyway, Invincible Jens said:

It’s not easy to suddenly go from Chelsea, where he has spent almost his whole career winning many trophies, to the other side of the capital with a rival. Before you can have it in your heart to win titles again, you have to get rid of of the love you had before. At Chelsea, for Petr, it was his passion and he showed great commitment. But, as a professional, he must get over it and needs to know Arsenal want him to win things again with them. Yet, let me tell you, that is not an easy thing to get over psychologically. It can take a few weeks, even a few months.

As much as I love Jens, I think he’s over-estimating the pull of Chelsea here. Even if Cech was born in the Stamford Bridge changing room, delivered by the Chelsea club doctor, to a Chelsea season ticket wielding mother and father, he’d soon disown the lot of them when Arsenal came calling.

Our original BFG (Stefan Malz wasn’t that big), then went on to praise Cech’s qualities and his likely longevity, saying:

Petr has maybe five fantastic years still ahead of him so this is the best deal Arsenal could possibly have done. I don’t think it’ll take him time to get used to playing with a new set of defenders. Petr had one big advantage over Thibaut Courtois, who replaced him at Chelsea. Although he, too, is a fantastic ‘ keeper, he does not interact much with his teammates whereas Petr does. Also, he has a faster brain than most people.

Jens also touched on Arsenal’s maturing mentality, Wojciech Szczesny’s future and what he thinks Mesut Ozil must do better. But I’m saving those quotes for tomorrow so you’ll have to wait. Don’t blame me, rationing’s a requisite at this time of year.

Till then.