Hi all!

Thrilled to be starting the daily blog today, just in time for the Premier League season kick off on Saturday against managerless Crystal Palace. Most of the analysis of this game has happened so I’ll keep it brief on my end. Great seats in the North Bank, great to be back at the Emirates and in truth, we stumbled to a 2-1 victory didn’t we. However let’s compare this to the last few seasons when we’ve drawn 0-0 (Sunderland) and lost 1-3 to Villa at home. Kicking on from the Charity Shield, we needed 3 points and we battled till the end to get them. Job done.



Positives for me were the assured performances from 19 year old Callum Chambers and also Debuchy at right back. The latter looks more athletic than Sagna. He’s strong in the tackle and is really good offensively. I think he’s going to have an amazing season. Chambers slotted in beautifully. To have two fairly comfortable matches against City and Palace at 19 bodes well for the season, but we must let him settle further I think. Plenty more tests to come. Incredible for the lad though, signing from Southampton and quite possibly making his Champions League debut against Besiktas tomorrow. I really liked Sanchez’s work rate on Saturday too. He’ll get used to his teammates and flourish I think, benefiting from the returning Ozil to feed his precarious runs towards goal. The midfield didn’t have their best game but I’ll put it down to rust on the 1st day more than anything. Lots of Arteta talk being banded around lately too ..

I think Arteta will do just fine against the lesser opposition. You’ll tend to think that against quicker teams, we do really need a mobile Defensive Midfielder if we want those top accolades this season. I hope Mr Wenger spends and drafts one in.

Rumours are also circulating that we are interested in making a huge signing dependent on Champions League qualification. I’m interested to see how that pans out! What a statement of intent that would be if all our budget was spent. Mr Wenger is hungry. The FA Cup win has really inspired him.

All gravy then. 2 games, 2 wins. I think tomorrow will be a tough one out in Turkey, but let’s see how we do. See you tomorrow!

Horse

x