I want to talk more about Arsenal related stuff and I of course will do that today, but before that let’s take a moment to recognise the incompetence of the refereeing in last night’s game at Old Trafford. Quite how Simon Hooper and his VAR officials didn’t come to a conclusion that Wolves should have had a penalty at the end of the game last night is quite baffling. Onana cleaning out a player in the box, the referee goes over to the sideline, but not to look at the monitor and instead books Gary O’Neill. Who was rightly incensed at the decision. Everyone watching that incident last night knew it was a penalty, except the guys responsible for upholding the law. Apparently John Moss even apologised to Gary O’Neil after the game as well.

Oh, that’s alright then, all forgiven and forgotten. Looking forward to seeing your incompetent guys in a couple of weeks time then after you’ve been granted a week off for not doing your job properly.

Rip. It. Up. And. Start. AGAIN.

Howard Webb has had the opportunity to get to work on the disastrous regime that was Mike Riley and his Old Boys Network, yet he’s completely ignored all of that. And don’t get me started on Ten Haag. People used to take the piss out of Wenger and his “I didn’t see it” nonsense, but I hope that we can start to do the same with Ten Haag, because he spouts a lot of waffle two and has done for a while. Remember when we battered them at The Emirates last season? They got a couple of goals against the run of play and we deservedly scored late. I seem to recall him talking about how they played better than us when the reality was anyuthing but that. The man is a loon and much like last night, he doesn’t care about being up front and honest.

Anyway, enough of that lot, because we’ve got a couple of Arsenal bits that we have to get through, starting with poor Jurrien Timber. Isn’t it just the most Arsenal luck ever that he was the stand out guy in pre season, he looked absolutely mustard and was probably the one player that many of us thought might have the best season of all of the new signings. His versatility was lauded and his all-round game was something that could have a massive impact on our season from a squad depth this season. He’s also a guy who’s never missed more than a few weeks prior to joining us.

There was hope in the stands that because he didn’t need a stretcher to come off, it wouldn’t be as bad as first feared, but last night the club released a statement confirming the injury to his right knee. That needs to be further assessed and the statement doesn’t give away too much, but it does say that there will be further tests to confirm the timeframe. And of course we all went in to amateur doctor mode last night speculating that his season is over, or that he will be out for most of it, etc, etc. We don’t know yet of course, but I’d be surprised if it is anything that will see him back any time soon. If he is back by Christmas I think that will be fortunate, but knowing our luck when it comes to these kinds of injuries, he’ll probably not be part of our plans for a big chunk of this season.

It means we lose a versatile right back, a centre back, as well as a guy who has played in midfield and we’d just started to play as a left back. It puts a little more pressure on us again but the hope is that we are equipped to cover. For example, with Partey adopting the inverted right back role last weekend, could it mean that we can play him there, because we have Rice who can play in the six and Havertz in the left eight, like we did at the weekend?

We also have Tomiyasu back, although his own injury record is a concern, because in the two season’s we’ve had him there’s always been a point in which he breaks down. It is the same with Zinchenko too, although now we have Kiwior bedded in you’d probably say we should be better stocked at the back.

I do think that means that we should be thinking hard about the remaining defenders situation. KT wasn’t in the squad at the weekend and I suspect that means we’re working on an exit for him, which will come as no surprise to any of us, but the noises that were emerging yesterday about Gabriel Magalhaes and a possible move to a Saudi club seems a little strange. This is a guy who, up until last weekend, had been named in every one of Arteta’s starting XI’s. There’s talk that we need to fund an exit or two to make up for the cash we’ve already spent this summer, but I would be surprised if that’s Big Gabby. Unless this Saudi club are looking at giving us £100million for him and if that is the case then you probably have to think twice about it. But he’s been such an integral part of our team, he and Saliba have built up  such an important partnership, plus he only recently signed a new deal. The only way I see this really becoming a ‘thing’ is if the money laid down is so eye watering that no team in the world would think about rejecting it. £100million would probably be that sort of figure. I’ve seen some suggest around £60million would do it, but for a guy in prime age who is an important part of the team and who has a long deal in front of him, that seems a little low to me.

So we have to wait and see if this has some more smoke to the fire, but it would seem weird to sanction this move just as our season is kicking off.

I’m going to leave it there for today I think. You have yourselves a good one and I’ll catch you all in the morrow.