It all feels very efficient at Arsenal at the moment, doesn’t it?

I mean, it’s almost as if we’ve known our weaknesses, known where we are in the pecking order, known who will improve us, so now we’re going out and getting them.

It’s refreshing. The plan appears clear and yesterday whilst we were unable to see more of Lucas Torreira as Uruguay for anything longer than about 30 minutes as the Uruguayans knocked out the Saudi’s, we were treated to some hot rumours that Ever Banega could be on his way.

  • An experienced midfielder with a bit of steel
  • Chips in with a goal or assist or two
  • Likes taking set pieces
  • A quick response to the Wilshere departure
  • A player who the current manager knows exactly what he’s going to get
  • The kind of depth that we rued last season.

This looks like a football club with a clear plan. And that, friends, is delicious. It points to a club with a clear vision and that’s what we’ve been missing for ages.

As every day goes past in this summer, I’m becoming more pleased with the way Arsenal are going about their stuff not because they’re making signings, but it looks like they’re doing what needs to be done.

The players themselves are hardly ‘wow’ factor players but we aren’t anywhere close to being able to make comments like we used to be able to make about ‘just one or two players away’ or even that ‘we have a great team, we’ve just got to keep the quality topped up’. The players might not all work out to be good but at least we know the club will act if it needs to.

Of course the Torreira deal still needs to cross the line and of course Banega is just a rumour at the moment, but it’s the kind of profile that works and importantly it isn’t the same player as Torreira, because as an Arsenal fan you always worry when you hear things online like ‘player x is seen as a cheaper alternative’ which appeared to do the rounds a bit yesterday.

But Banega is a player who wants to dribble with the ball, wants to look forward and play passes, where as in Torreira we have more of a screening type of midfielder. So the idea of getting both adds more strength and depth and suddenly makes us feel a little solid.

If the club were to get those two done in the next week or so we’d all be in dreamland. Then it would enable Emery to get his charges together and start working with them for the new season. The concern might be a lack of width in the side but without knowing what type of formation or style Emery is going for, we have no idea if that is what he wants, or not.

There’s a few people I know who think that we’re thinking of one ‘mega deal’ to put the icing on the cake of this summer and if I had to guess it would be that kind of tricky winger who likes to run with the ball at his feet. I couldn’t tell you who that could be but somebody like Sliti at Dijon who has just played for Tunisia against England might be a shout, who I thought looked good with the ball at his feet, but I’m hardly a fountain of knowledge so can’t pretend to know too much about him.

What I do know about is Arsenal right now and as it stands there’s a lot to be positive with. Let’s hope this continues through the summer.

A quick one on Spain v Iran last night and whilst it’s good to see an underdog play well and we all want them to do well normally, seeing their tactics against Spain last night was a bit frustrating, I have to say. I don’t know if it’s because I support one of the ‘bigger’ clubs, who often get that kind of behaviour against them when a team has little intentions of going forward, but I found it left a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. Nobody wants to see that slack-jawed goober Costa happy but it was probably for the best that Iran eventually got what was coming to them.

Anyway, that’s that from me today, with some cracking fixtures coming up and I’m particularly looking forward to Argentina vs Croatia.

Especially if we get to see a bit of our potential new man Banega.

Laters people.