A brief summary from Sunday, Can we now ditch Nike, please?

Time to get back to this sort of quality

It's been two days since the tour of Asia came to an end for Arsenal. I didn't get around to posting about the game against FC Kitchee Hong Kong as I went out to work almost as soon as it finished. Suffice to say that the players came close to a very embarrassing defeat. The way Arsenal defended in the first-half wouldn't have looked out of place in a Sunday League game in the local park. There was no midfield protection (Coquelin has looked way off the pace on this tour) and Djourou, Miquel, Gibbs and Eastmond were often out of position (Gibbs was always in the wrong place). The second-half wasn't much better with Andre Santos looking as far removed from a quality full-back as it is possible to be. I like Santos, but however good he may be on the ball I sort of prefer my defenders to know their own role first and foremost. The quality of the opposition can be summed up by the fact that Theo Walcott was head and shoulders above every other player on the pitch. I don't know how successful the tour was commercially, but from a football perspective there are a lot of question marks over the Arsenal squad. Arsene Wenger has now said that some of his defenders are not up to Premier League quality. You don't say, Arsene. However, I still only see us linked with lightweight Spanish midfielders, rather than quality defenders. No surprises there.

For the second year in a row Arsenal have been forced to announce that part of the new kit will not be ready for sale in time for the official launch date. As with last year the Club is laying the blame on their manufacturer. Here is the main part of the official statement:

Arsenal regrets to inform supporters that all adult and junior 2012/13 black away shorts will not be available in time for the official away kit launch date of August 9.

This is due to unforeseen problems with the Club’s manufacturers which we are working hard to rectify. The black away shorts are likely to be delivered at the end of September.

The end of September?! This is about as bad as things have become with Nike. Not only are we saddled with all the colours of the rainbow for our away kits (when most fans simply want a yellow and blue design) we are not even able to get hold of it until way in to the season. Regular readers will know that I am not buying the new away shirt as it is the most hideous thing I've ever seen from Arsenal. However, that is not to say that many other people are doing the same thing.
As many will know, Nike were able to get themselves a very long contract, for not a lot of money, when Arsenal had to get cash in quickly to deal with the stadium loans. I find it hard to believe that their failure to deliver over the past two years doesn't put them in breech of that contract. If it doesn't then it was very poorly written and negotiated (another black mark against Keith Edelman and his staff).
There were rumours a couple of weeks back that Arsenal were set to sign a deal with Adidas. Given this latest cock-up by Nike I would hope that Mr Gazidis is telling them where they can stick their sponsorship and getting things moving with the German sportswear brand. Adidas always did produce the best Arsenal shirts, and now is the time to bring them back (and they NEVER gave us an away shirt that wasn't yellow and blue!)

I'll try and get back to some normality on the site over the next week or so. I'm now on leave from work for a fortnight, and spending some time at the Olympics, so I can't promise anything in that regard. This afternoon I'm off to Wembley for South Korea v Gabon, and a chance to see Ju Young Park in action. Yesterday I was at Olympic Park for some hockey, and it was a truly memorable day. I have a couple more events to attend, including athletics and boxing - the whole thing really is very exciting. All we need now is for Great Britain to win a couple of gold medals - maybe today is the day.

Milestone reached, City too good, Olympic excitement

Chuks Aneke - staking a claim

Before I get down to being miserable about our defeat to Manchester City this afternoon I would like to recognise a milestone for this site. When I published the last post on Wednesday night I knew that there had been 499, 000+ hits, so I was aware that we would definitely go through the half-million mark. That, in itself, is very heartening. The site has been around for just over two years, and over the past three weeks there has been a large increase in daily hits. I don't really know why, and I'm certain it has nothing to do with the quality of the writing. The thing that has amazed me this week, however, is that Wednesday's post attracted over 23,000 hits, making it the most read article I have produced on It's MY Arsenal Opinion. This figure made the site the second most popular on Arsenal's NewsNow feed over the 24 hour period following its publication. It was certainly a grand way in which to smash through the 500,000 mark. Thanks.

On with business and the boys were beaten 2-0 in Beijing by Manchester City earlier this afternoon. I'll start by saying that City are quite a bit further on with their pre-season than Arsenal, having completed a training camp in Austria before leaving for the far-east. However, they just looked like they were toying with Arsenal at times. I'm not going to dissect the game too much but I do want to comment on some individuals and Arsenal's complete lack of tactics.
Let's start with those tactics, as it should get most of the negative stuff out of the way. Arsenal started the game apparently believing they could emulate Spain by playing without a centre-forward. Gervinho was ostensibly the lone striker but, sadly, the Ivorian is to centre-forward play what I am to rhythmic gymnastics. There are times when you think Gervinho looks superb as he darts forward with the ball. Unfortunately he has to either pass or shoot eventually, and this is where there has seemingly been no improvement in his game whatsoever. It was a bizarre way to set up with Chamakh and Afobe sitting on the bench, while Santos played on the wing again. Theo Walcott also played out wide, despite the opportunity to try him in his favoured position through the centre. On the subject of Walcott I thought he played pretty well in his time on the pitch, and looked dangerous. All of this was in spite of Stewart Robson wanting to crucify him on the ESPN commentary every time he touched the ball. I don't know what Robson's problem is, but I want him sacked from his part-time role with Arsenal's official website.
The other "tactic" of note was the new Arsenal offside trap. As experiments go this one looks dead early on. When Thomas Vermaelen tries to play offside it becomes less of a trap and more of an invitation to go one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Maybe it is Wenger's gift to Steve Bould that he is allowing him to try and drill the boys in the art of raising the arm, but there is a hell of a lot of work to be done before it starts to be anywhere near convincing.
The positives from the game, aside from Walcott, were another forty-five minutes for Abou Diaby and excellent cameos from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ignasi Miquel and Chuks Aneke. Chamberlain was incredibly unlucky not to get us back in the game with a rasping shot that hit the inside of both posts, and City's powerful midfield could not handle him. Why he was then moved to the left-wing I don't know. However, when The Ox did move out wide he was replaced by Chuks Aneke in the central role. I've been a keen fan of Aneke since seeing him on Arsenal TV with the youths and reserves. He is big and strong and powerful, and he isn't afraid to pass, shoot or take people on. I wrote the other day of how Benik Afobe had failed to take his opportunity against Malaysia (and he did again today) but Aneke has certainly done himself no harm. At the back Miquel came on and was too quick and too strong for Aguero and Tevez on more than one occasion. I can't quite understand how the young Spaniard appears to be behind Kyle Bartley in the pecking order. He was outstanding when he came on today.
Overall it's always disappointing to lose, and I felt City deliberately let Arsenal come on to them after half-time, perhaps practising their tactics for an assault on the Champions League this season. I've no doubt Arsene Wenger will have seen it as a useful workout, and the absence of a number of Arsenal first-teamers will temper any disappointment in the result (though City were also far from full-strength). Before I wrap up on the City game there is one more thing that does not sit well with me, and that is seeing Marouane Chamakh get beaten in the air by Kolo Toure - after all, we all know that Toure hasn't got off the ground since early 2005. Olivier Giroud will have no problem in usurping the Moroccan.

Today sees London start its hosting of the Olympic Games. I can't tell you how excited I am about it. I have tickets for some of the events, though not as many as I would like. A lot of things have been wrong in the build-up to this Olympics, from it's hijacking by arty types who designed the hideous official logo, to the disgusting Great Britain kit (Stella "I'd be successful without my father" McCartney's "modern take on the Union Flag" - what modern take?) and the ticketing fiasco which has left thousands of British fans without the opportunity to see the Games in the flesh. Seb Coe's insistence that everything has gone well is frankly outrageous, and indicative of the arrogance of the man. However, you can't deny the organisation that has made this the smoothest run-up to an Olympic event in the last forty years (only Sydney 2000 can boast of coming close). There has been no dithering and very much a "can do" attitude.
I have no doubt that I will once again be made proud to be British by London 2012. I hope that the British athletes can be as successful as they were in Beijing four years ago. The feel-good factor will sweep the country if Mark Cavendish and co can get us off to a gold-medal start tomorrow. I will be paying some attention to the football as I have tickets for a couple of games at Wembley, but it won't be my personal focus for the Games - football shouldn't be an Olympic sport in my view, particularly not for professional players. I also have a ticket to see some hockey and some boxing, and I am looking forward to that far more than the football. Let's hope we have a fortnight of great excitement, and magnificent sport, hopefully under largely sunny London skies.

Finally for today, you can get some more from me over at www.arsenalzone.com by following this link to an article about Carlos Vela's Arsenal career.

Diaby and Chamberlain a class above, Squad number farce

No number for our star signing

It's been another three long days at work for me. The heat in this part of the country has been a bonus and makes working outside all Winter worthwhile - while most people are stuck in stuffy offices, I get to enjoy the sunshine on days like this.

Thanks to Skyplus I was able to see the whole of yesterdays game without knowing the result beforehand. Of course it was largely about players getting some time running around a football field while playing against someone other than a colleague in training. That doesn't mean you don't want to win, however. That is particularly important when you're up against a side that wouldn't compete in the third division in England. It's fair to say that the Malaysian XI gave Arsenal a serious going over for large parts of the game. If it hadn't been for Vito Mannone we could have been utterly humiliated yesterday.
Defensively we were all over the place as usual. I will ignore the second-half back-four as only one of them was playing in his normal position (though credit to Craig Eastmond who I felt had a fine game at centre-back). The first-half was a real concern, however. I really don't know what Thomas Vermaelen was doing for most of it. People will talk about rustiness and all that nonsense, but stepping out to play a forward offside, and getting it wrong by about three yards, is nothing to do with rustiness. I have to say that I believe Vermaelen avoids a lot of stick for his defensive deficiencies due to his excellence going forward.
There were two players who stood out for me yesterday. For the first twenty-five minutes I thought Abou Diaby was the best player on the pitch by a mile. I wasn't surprised that he ran out of steam that quickly having not played properly for so long. I suppose we will find out on Friday whether his quieter final twenty minutes was due to fatigue or due to pain from yet another injury. In the second-half it was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain that took up the challenge. What a player he is. The pace and strength of The Ox is frightening, and it was notable that he played in the middle of midfield. I hope he stays there.
The major disappointment was Theo Walcott who was awful. It was actually a blessing when he was taken off before we had equalised. Of the youngsters Nico Yennaris was probably the most impressive performer, and the way he set up the equaliser (following a great pass from Alex Song) was outstanding. Benik Afobe missed his chance to make a genuine impression - Kevin Campbell and Cesc Fabregas have both staked their claim successfully in pre-season in the past, and I reckon Afobe will be kicking himself.
The pre-season bandwagon has now moved on to Beijing and is set to come to a juddering halt in the Birds Nest Stadium against Manchester City on Friday. If the performance does not improve from yesterday then I dread to think what City might do to us. And don't give me any crap about it only being pre-season.

The Club has once again embarrassed itself this afternoon with the announcement of the "new" squad numbers. It is quite incredible that our big signing of the Summer has not been given a number. We all know that Lukas Podolski is going to be given the number ten shirt. By a similar token we all know that Robin Van Persie won't be around this season. So why the hell have they not just given the shirt to Podolski? It's yet another own-goal from the Club.
We also have the nonsense of our new centre-forward being given the number 12 shirt, while Ju Young Park (who?) continues to masquerade as a number 9. Henri Lansbury, meanwhile, has not been allocated a first-team place. I think we can assume that Lansbury's Arsenal career is over (this follows hot on the heels of Wenger failing to mention him among his available midfielders the other day). Francis Coquelin has been given a proper number, while we already knew that Kyle Bartley had been promoted. Apart from all of that we still have Andre Santos pretending to be Anders Limpar or Marc Overmars. Embarrassing.
Cue the abuse for worrying about things that aren't important.

Wenger has learned nothing, Tour squad is ridiculous, Time to worry about Wilshere

Same old nonsense for the fans to bear

It's been a long week at work. You might have noticed that I must have been busy from the lack of action here. Given that transfer gossip is ignored on this site it hasn't been a bad week to be out of things. It's fair to say that not a lot of note has happened at Arsenal. Most of the "news" involving the Club has been space-filling untruths and conjecture from the less well educated journalists of this World. At last, today, we've had our first tasty news of the Summer. Sadly, it does not sit well with me. Not well at all.

As the press had already worked out, Robin Van Persie is not going to Malaysia and China with the squad. However, he remains Captain of Arsenal Football Club at this time. Until such time as Wenger grows some balls he will remain so. Before the end of last season Arsene assured us that lessons had been learned from the debacle of this time last year. Do you remember last year? You know, when our Captain announced he wanted out and we spent the rest of the Summer pratting about waiting for the inevitable, while the jumped up little scrote remained the skipper? Forgive me for feeling that we are now in the exact same position. We all know that Arsenal are going to sell Van Persie, despite the claims to the contrary. I have little problem with that. But I do have a problem with the complete lack of authority from the Manager. Can you honestly see Ferguson failing to discipline a player for doing what Van Persie did? They certainly would have been publicly stripped of the captaincy.
Elsewhere we have had the annual rubbish about needing to sell before we buy. This just a couple of days after Wenger told a Hong Kong magazine that we spend our available money. Forgive me, Arsene, but how are we so far in profit on transfers over the last four years if that is honestly the case? We have reached the last week in July and we are in the same position as we were a year ago. The Captain wants to leave, the Manager won't deal with the situation in the best interests of the Club, and the dead wood players are still hanging around like a bad smell. Oh, and we won't be buying anyone else until it's too late. That just about covers it, I think. Wenger has not learned anything from last year, and the supporters are suffering in the same depressing cycle.

The squad for the far-east tour is a joke. Mertesacker, Podolski and Giroud are staying behind in London in order to "work on their fitness". Sorry, but I thought that was what pre-season was for. Are the players going to China not working on their fitness? And if the work these players are doing on their fitness is so crucial then why are the two Germans being sent to Nigeria next week for some corporate glad-handing? Only Arsenal could consider going on a promotional tour and leaving behind the two star-signings. As a result of their omission, the new players will have (as it stands) just one friendly at Cologne to get used to playing for Arsenal. Let's not hear any more nonsense about the importance of a pre-season, shall we?
Abou Diaby, meanwhile, is "...fit, raring to go..." according to Wenger. I won't hold my breath. I'd love to see Diaby genuinely fit as he is a top player when he is able to be. I guess we'll find out in the next fortnight if that is even remotely possible.
There are three goalkeepers on the tour. Why are Fabianski and Mannone going? I can't understand why Damian Martinez had to play at Boreham Wood today instead of getting on the plane. The two clowns who I've mentioned there have no future at Arsenal. We don't want them, and they don't want to be here. Both men want to play. They are not going to do it at Arsenal. Meanwhile, according to Wenger's quotes about needing to get rid before buying, their presence is barring the recruitment of a capable goalkeeper to challenge Szczesny (you notice I said "challenge", and not "cover" - the young Pole needs a kick up the backside and a genuine threat to his place would provide it).
One other person who is on the tour is Craig Eastmond. This lad will not be an Arsenal first-team player as long as he keeps a hole in his arse. Conor Henderson, now recovered from the injury he suffered on last years trip to China, has been left out. What kind of muddled thinking is that? Why bother taking a lad on this trip who you have no intention of ever putting in to the first-team on a regular basis?
The positives from the younger players are the presence of Chuks Aneke, Benik Afobe and Nico Yennaris. Ignasi Miquel is also there. I expect all four to go on loan this season, for at least part of it, but Afobe could force his face in with a shout if given a genuine chance to impress over the next ten days.

Arsene has given injury updates on a number of players. Tomas Rosicky, Bacary Sagna and Emmanuel Frimpong are all mentioned. They also all have a return time pencilled in. Then there is Jack Wilshere. Wenger contends that he is not worried as there have been no setbacks. But there is also no return date. Arsene says:

"It difficult to say ‘it will be this week in September or October’ when he is back in training. He has been out for a year and I don’t want to put any pressure on him.”

So there is no idea when Jack will even be able to consider starting to train. That's train, never mind play. Wilshere is still a kid. He is still growing and developing physically. He has now been out of action for a year, and the end is not in sight. I am genuinely fearful for Jack's career. It would be typical of Arsenal's luck to have unearthed a talent like Wilshere, only for it to be snatched from us by such cruel luck. The time has certainly come for Arsenal and its supporters to be worried about Jack Wilshere.

I'm sorry to be so downbeat after not having posted since last week. Sadly, I fear I've captured the mood of most of the regulars at Arsenal.

Arsenal land a trophy!

Who says we win nothing?

I didn't go to Southampton after all yesterday. Setting off from Dover we were hit by the most spectacular storm which led to flooded roads - you may have seen some of the pictures from this area on Sky News. I wasn't prepared to drive all the way to Southampton with the potential for running in to more, so decided against doing so. As a result I wasn't there in person to see the boys performing pretty damn well in winning the Markus Liebherr Memorial Cup.
Not being there in person had me relying on Arsenal's promised "live" text commentary via Twitter. What a joke that was. During the first game against Anderlecht I think we got four updates through the whole match. I actually got better information from the useless sap covering the game for Sky Sports News. As well as that Sky showed Henri Lansbury's goal within ten seconds of it being scored.
It was an incredibly young Arsenal side that took on the Belgian Champions. I was delighted to see that an Arsenal youth product was given the responsibility of skippering the lads, in the shape of Kieran Gibbs. Henri Lansbury has a decent record when it comes to pre-season. He was there to provide the near-post finish following a decent piece of work from Carl Jenkinson. Marouane Chamakh had earlier seen a decent chance well saved. The only other moment of note in the 45 minute game was Anderlecht having a goal ruled out for offside.
In the second game there were one or two more senior players in the side, with Andre Santos, Francis Coquelin, Gervinho and Johan Djourou (who was Captain). Unsurprisingly Southampton went for it in front of their supporters. Vito Mannone didn't exactly put himself in the shop window as Kyle Bartley bailed him out of trouble. It was no surprise when Saints did go ahead. However, Gervinho wiped out the lead with a superb solo effort. It really was fine play from the Ivorian. After that there came the spectacle of the most farcical penalty shootout in history. Arsenal already had the trophy won, but the rules said a draw must be decided by penalties. As it turned out Arsenal missed their final penalty through Kyle Ebecilio, but it really didn't matter. I have to say that I was annoyed at a youngster being put in that position. With Gervinho and Djourou knocking about there was no way a kid should have had to take a penalty. I know it was only a pre-season knockabout, but senior players must take responsibility.
There were notable absentees last night. There was no Alex Song, Abou Diaby (almost certainly not capable to play), Mikel Arteta or Thomas Vermaelen. The obvious question is where the hell were they? If it had been the traditional Barnet fixture they would have been involved. Would not a 45 minute run-out have done them some good? I don't begin to understand it.
All in all it was a useful exercise, I suppose. I'm not sure what was learned from Andre Santos playing at centre-forward for the Southampton game, but it probably underlined the fact that we are still a bit short up front (regardless of certain players still being on holiday). I'm sure some of the youngsters involved will have really benefited. It will be interesting to see if any of them board the plane for Malaysia this week.

Southampton/Anderlecht preview

St Mary's Stadium

I'm off to Southampton this afternoon for the first pre-season game of the year. It's not really a proper match as the boys (and I use that word advisedly on this occasion) take part in a triangular tournament involving two 45-minute "matches". Nevertheless, the first chance to see Arsenal after the close-season is as exciting as ever.
There will be a few senior players in the squad, including Arteta, Gervinho, Djourou and a few others. Marouane Chamakh has apparently also been put in to the group for today. Francis Coquelin will be there, while Kieran Gibbs and Andre Santos will share duties at left-back. Thomas Vermaelen will surely lead the team in at least one of the games.
Aside of the senior players there is a chance for Arsene Wenger to get a look at one or two youngsters. Martin Angha, a young Swiss centre-back, has been part of the training group this week, while Kyle Bartley has announced his promotion to the first-team having returned from Rangers. Kyle Ebecilio is rumoured to be the man most likely to be promoted from the youths and Reserves for this season. Thomas Eisfeld, the January signing from Germany has recovered from his injury problems and is set to feature. Having seen the pictures from training this week we might even get a look at the lesser spotted Abou Diaby. I've said for two years that he is surely in make or break time, but he must be now.
I fully expect Arsenal to struggle in the games they play this evening. It must be remembered that this first friendly has been against Barnet for the past ten to fifteen years. It hasn't often mattered who has been in the Arsenal team when playing against a fourth division side. Today we start against a newly promoted Premier League side and the Belgian Champions (one of the most famous names in Europe, and worthy of more than a footnote in Arsenal's own history). Having so many young players will see Arsenal at a disadvantage, I'm sure. However, the result is genuinely of little consequence (assuming we don't get thrashed by three or four goals!) I'm looking forward to it, and a win would be very nice indeed.

Training kit tells us a story, Ramsey put in a bad position by Wales

Dressed in the dark?

Arsenal put up the expected photographs from training yesterday. There are a couple of things that have struck me about the group that is there - from the look of the kit, to the players actually involved in the session.
Let's start with the aesthetics and that disgusting kit. The colours on show seem to confirm what we already knew about the soon to be unveiled away strip. It is certain now that we will be insulted by Arsenal as they thumb their nose to history and saddle us with a purple and black hooped away kit. It really does look like the sort of thing you might end up wearing after a power cut in an already darkened room. Hope may be on the horizon in a rumour that swept some sites last night, and was big on Twitter, that Arsenal have agreed a deal to return to Adidas from this time next year. I have no idea if it may be true, but I live very much in hope - the sooner we end Nike's ridiculously cheap association with the Club the better in my view.
On to the important stuff and there were, as usual, a couple of younger players joining the established squad for the first training session. Some of those lads will be involved in the early pre-season games, and will probably go on tour with the first-team next week. As the players returning from Euro 2012 begin to get fitter we will see some of these boys return to the Reserves. Until then they get an opportunity to impress Arsene Wenger.
Another thing you can tell from the kit is who is part of the "real" first-team squad and who is not. Each of the players considered as part of Wenger's squad have their number in white on the front of their shirt. Those who are currently making up the numbers have theirs printed in red. I was surprised to notice that Henri Lansbury has a red number. Barring a storming pre-season I suspect his days are now numbered as an Arsenal player (if they weren't already by his consecutive loan spells outside the Premier League). Also not really a part of things is Nico Yennaris. The likes of Craig Eastmond, who is also in the group right now, are never likely to make it and shouldn't even be involved at this stage, while Conor Henderson is battling back from a serious knee injury.
Finally I noticed that there are four goalkeepers pictured. At least three of them do not really have an Arsenal future - Fabianski, Mannone and James Shea. The other man is Emiliano Martinez who really does cut the figure of a confident and imposing presence. The Argentinian is highly rated and might find himself promoted this season. I expect his number to change to white before the season gets started.

Aaron Ramsey has been put in a very bad position by Chris Coleman. The Wales boss is trying to bring in some players via the backdoor rules that apply to international football. Among those Coleman wants to recruit is Ryan Shawcross. He has acknowledged that there are "issues" with Shawcross. I would say that's an understatement. Coleman has said that he would need to consult Aaron Ramsey before calling up Shawcross. Why? Why even consider calling him up? Aaron Ramsey is the Captain of Wales. Why does Coleman want to put the young man in such an awkward position? Basically he is about to be asked if he is willing to play alongside the man who tried to end his career, or whether he wants to become the bad guy by stopping Shawcross becoming an international footballer.
Sadly such things are what mark out a good Manager from a poor one. You would never see the top bosses getting involved in such nonsense - they would simply think what is best for the team and not put their Captain in such a no win situation. I hope Ramsey tells Coleman what he can do with his Wales team if he was to call up Shawcross. The lad has been through enough without having to pretend to be all chummy with the animal who nearly crippled him.