Stan Kroenke and the club have generated some adverse publicity in the press recently.

There are a few things in football that are certainties. I don’t mean the kind in which a particular team is certain to win the league; this often turns out to be wrong. Neither do I mean the kind in which the club with the largest wage bill like Manchester City fields a team that is certain to beat a lesser light such as Stoke City.

No, the kind of certainties I am talking about are the smaller ones, the kind Arsenal encounter against teams like Leicester: you could have bet your mortgage that they were going to park the proverbial bus and try and hit us on the break and unsurprising to everyone, or at least it should have been, that is exactly what they did and they did it well.

As predictable as it was Wenger fielded a team designed to be able to find a way round such a stubborn defense. The team selection made complete sense to me: with the defensively able Flamini sitting in front of the back four whose principal jobs were to be alert when the breaks inevitably came. The rest needed to possess super close control, precision passing and all be capable of scoring; in other words, there was no need for Wilshere. Or so I thought.

It also made sense to give Sanogo a start; it was only Leicester, the team who had been embarrassingly knocked out of the Capital One cup in the week by a team from a division I had never heard of.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, the answer to that question is our game plan in which we were supposed to stroll home with all three points, that’s what went wrong.

It was a very frustrating afternoon in which a collection of some of the best midfielders in the League managed to play as disjointed as a chicken after Sunday lunch.

If that is the best team we can field for the next four months and let’s be clear here — it is, then we have got a lot more problems than any of us dared imagine.

Things, of course, didn’t start off this gloomy, the team took to the field with their game plan in tact, followed the script by laying siege to the Leicester goal and got the break through. It wasn’t pretty but we were ahead and I thought that this is one more game in which the players could use to iron out the rough edges on their quest for the Holy Grail of Wenger Ball.

But the one step forward made by Sanchez scoring his first league goal was reversed with the two steps back caused by Koscielny’s injury. Should he have stayed on, shouldn’t he have stayed on, I don’t know, the fact that he did stay played a huge part, in my opinion, of Leicester getting an equalizer.

Can someone remind me how it is that we thought, and I am as guilty if not more, of thinking that the arrival of Ozil and his play last season was something akin to the second coming. Genuine question, I am seriously struggling to remember what it was. Perhaps the first assist when he squared the ball to the on rushing Giroud, this could turn into the “Life of Brian” sketch of “What have the Roman’s ever done for us”. It is interesting to note that he was playing on the left wing that day, just saying.

You all saw the game, we huffed and we puffed but it is just as well that it came to an end after 90 minutes rather than the next goal wins or they could still be playing now.

I want to give special mention to Szczesny whose fine save towards the end of the second half kept us in the game. I also thought Sanchez did very well down the left. I am going to keep a little something back before Sanogo gets both barrels as I want to see what happens when he scores; so much changed for Sanchez when he got his goal against Besiktas in the week that I want to see if the similar uplifting feeling has the same effect on the young Frenchman – but I am not holding my breath.

Not the easy win that some of us foolishly expected and still miles away from the idyllic flowing football envisaged by many, the good news is that Stan is in town, and you know what that means?

New Toys……….Yippee.

Written by LB

We were lucky enough to have two posts for today, here are kelsey’s thoughts.

Are Arsenal just wobbling or is it worse than that ?

Every man and his dog can see the deficiencies in our squad and it wasn’t pleasant viewing yesterday as it was obvious that the whole balance of the side was wrong and I feel that Wenger is still experimenting with his best formation.

Let’s be absolutely honest Leicester deserved to win the game and bar a couple of fine saves by Szczesny we would have lost.

We only know one way of playing and that is Wengerball and it just doesn’t work anymore.

For all the flack Giroud gets he does a good job against the majority of teams, but when you look at how close we came last season, the opening games are showing me that we have regressed.

We have more money than for many a season and the buying of Sanchez showed that we can buy quality players but one can’t honestly say that Sanogo or Campbell are at this moment of time the type of player to fill the void and score vital goals when we are playing against a resolute defence.

People talk how much we miss the speed of Walcott especially down the flanks but at this moment of time no one knows for sure when he will be ready and fully fit to play and at a guess that could be several weeks or months judging by our track record.

We have had all Summer to address the problem and Debuchy is a more than adequate replacement for Sagna and Chambers impresses a lot but was he meant to be playing so regularly at this early stage of the season.

Just look at all our games so far, have we been convincing ?

Winning ugly doesn’t apply as for all our possession, in the majority of games, we have failed to take our chances time and time again. But more alarmingly, every single team has sliced through our defence on the counter attack and IMO we have been fortunate not to concede more.

When I hear our manager speak it’s all double dutch to me or the same old excuses like fatigue from the World Cup or a player needs time as he is still recovering from an injury, or negotiations are extremely difficult when trying to secure a player, but the latter applies to all clubs.

We were predictable to an extent last season but there were times when there was far more fluency to the team.

Why does Wenger keep playing players like Ozil out of position? He adds absolutely nothing out on the wing.

Podolski, regardless of what we think of him has been out of favour and invariably has been a sub, but now our manager states he is an option at Centre Forward. A week ago it looked likely that he was being sold or at least offered in part exchange.

Many of you will say that we are only three games in but just look at our forthcoming fixtures which on paper will provide a much bigger test.

We are into the last day of the transfer window so let’s see what happens, if anything at all, and even if we buy,we will get “the player needs a bedding in period”.

I really think whoever we play in midfield the balance is wrong and there isn’t enough physical presence and again the system we play leads us to be alarmingly cut open by every team we have played so far this season.

Dreaded injuries reared their ugly head yet again and at this moment of time it is not clear how serious they are to Kos, Ozil and Oxlade- Chamberlain.

Silent Stan was in attendance yesterday though I don’t suddenly see him changing his track and even expressing an opinion.

I have to say after careful consideration and allowing for the fact that one accepts that Wenger has total control on absolutely everything, there are too many issues on the field that he should have addressed earlier.

I would like to be proved wrong but my gut instinct tells me we are in for a a very difficult season.

kelsey

Last Friday:

Actual news, as opposed to all the speculation of the last month, we finally sign a player. The confirmation of the six month loan deal for

Kim Kallstrom took us all by surprise but that surely is, and always has been, the Wenger way.

Other transfer news; Frimpong’s sojourn at Arsenal is over, he’s been sold to Barnsley for an undisclosed fee, he immediately took to twitter to complain “how am I going to pull girls now?” Well as we say in Norfolk “hold yew hard bor, there’s some gret old mawthers up North, yew jus might find it’s yew agetin pulled”.

Saturday:

Hard on the underwhelming news of the signing of Kim Kallstrom, comes the report that our newest recruit injured his back in his first training session and will be out for weeks rather than days. Fanbloodytastic!!! Is there any point in keeping him? Should the loan be cancelled? Answers on a postcard please.

Sunday:

Kallstrom latest; According to the Sun on Sunday Arsenal are trying to cancel the loan arrangement and return our deadline day signing to Spartak Moscow.

Van Persie to rejoin The Gunners in the summer? That’s a move that could be on the cards as the little Dutch Boy is unhappy that Old Rednose and coach Muelensteen have left and his missus doesn’t like living in Cheshire. All together now! Aaaah bless! Would you want him back? Would the fans?

Monday:

Arsene revealed the truth behind the Kallstrom deal, the player was injured before joining Arsenal, not as the Red Tops would have it in his first training session, the extent of the injury was not determined until 5pm on deadline day after two scans revealed a “micro fracture” in his back. The prognosis is he will be out for between four and six weeks, during this time his wages will be paid by Spartak Moscow and no loan fee has been paid. According to Wenger it was too late to find an alternative, so It was a case of this deal or no deal.

Tony Pulis talking after the game…. “We seemed pretty comfortable and we had a great chance ourselves and that would have changed the game”. Not sure I like Mr. Pulis’s idea of comfort, more like a bed of nails I would have thought.

Mikel Arteta got a kick during the game and will be receiving treatment, hopefully he’ll be fit to play the Bin-Dippers.

Tuesday:

According to one London paper Jack Wilshere will be fit to start against the Bin-Dippers on Saturday in the Premiership game at Anfield, while Arteta and the Ox are expected to have fully recovered from “knocks” received during the Palace game. Vermaelen may make it onto the bench.

According to another London paper, with the Russian transfer window still open, Zenit St Petersburg are preparing to offer Arsenal as much as £18 million for Thomas Vermaelen, the player has previously said he may be interested in a transfer if it guaranteed him first team action and boosted his chances of playing for Belgium in the World Cup Finals. I’d hate to see this fine player leave the club, especially has it would be impossible to sign a replacement this season.

Another piece in the same paper suggests that our new kit supplier Puma are willing to help fund the purchase of Mario Balotelli, at the end of the season. He is sponsored by Puma and they would like to unite two of their biggest brands. Balotelli is on fire at the moment, scoring 25 goals in 38 matches for AC Milan and is rated to be worth £40 million but Puma could pay as much as £15 million of that to secure the player’s signature for Arsenal. If I was presenting one of my pub quizes at the moment, I would ask “is that true or false?”. I’ll leave that answer to all you AAers.

Wednesday:

It seems The Gunners are unpopular again! Ticket allocations are the latest bone of contention. Arsenal have reduced the allocation to Liverpool, for the FA Cup tie, from the “recommended” 15% of the total (9.050) to 5,186, the same as given to Spurs for the earlier round, Coventry got 8,686. Arsenal say the decision was made on the advice of their Safety Advisory Group “due to fears over safety issues from supporters standing in the upper tiers of the stadium”. The group consist of representatives from the club, Metropolitan Police, local authority and transport. Liverpool supporter organisation Spirit of Shankly are also upset about the kick-off being switched to 4pm Sunday. Apparently this will prevent many fans from attending as they will be otherwise engaged at Sunday School.

Sagna contract talks back on. It is believed an extension is on offer but not an increase in the £70,000 per week wages. But he may get a pay rise in order to ward off interest from Manchester City. A club that is fast becoming a pre-retirement home for elderly Arsenal Players.

Schalke’s chairman Clemens Tonnies has said that Arsenal may have to wait years before signing Julian Draxler. ‘It would do Draxler good to spend another year or two with us,’ said Tonnies at the SpoBiS conference. ‘But we know we’re not going to be able to keep a super-talented player like Julian at Schalke forever.

Why can’t I play for Arsenal?

Metropolitan Police have issued photographs of three Spurs fans wanted in connection with the hurling of missiles at Theo Walcott, para-medics, ambulance men and stewards as the injured player was being stretchered off during the recent Cup Tie.

Thursday:

I couldn’t find any actual “news”, so I’ve gone with a bit of speculation…Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa, 25, Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, 27, and Bayern Munich’s Mario Mandzukic, 27, are three players very much on Arsene’s radar and one or more is the target for the summer signing season. Oh! And add to the list Porto Striker Jackson Martinez, 39 goals in 47 matcheshe grew up in Mexico and supported guess who? Yep! Arsenal and would “love” to join The Gunners in the summer.

Swansea city are looking for a new manager and one stand out name on the short list is someone who would be less a coach and more a messiah, Dennis Bergkamp. Now I wouldn’t be averse to Dennis taking the job, getting a couple of years managerial experience in the Premiership, before taking over at Arsenal when Le Boss finally retires.

Now I’m in no way criticising Tomas Rosicky or our medical staff but our Mozart was out of action for a while with a broken nose, contrast that to Jonny May who suffered a broken nose playing on the wing for England in the Six Nations match against France last Saturday. He resumed full contact training on Tuesday and is expected to start in the match against Scotland on Saturday, he will not be wearing a protective mask. Are rugby players harder than footballers? Are footballers hard enough?

And Finally; Stan Kroenke is reportedly set to use his ownership of Arsenal to create a new American sister team – called the LA Gunners. The plans are in their infancy, but reports suggest that the new team would be modelled on Arsenal.

That’s it for another week

Norfolk Gooner