Yesterday we heard about Debuchy’s on-off deal with Nice, eventually off because Lyon are letting their right back leave for the French club, followed by noises of a Calum Chambers departure for £16million and a Szczesny to Juve deal for between £8-£10million depending on who you believe in.

Let’s start with the latter of those deals, which to my mind also represents the most irritating, because within two years Cech will probably be on the wane and an Arsenal-supporting Polish lad will be at arguably the biggest Italian football team as their number one. 

I get that Arsène might have had enough and doesn’t fancy Wojciech any more. I understand that he only has a year left on his contract. But offloading a ‘keeper in his prime who is an international stopper and has visibly improved since he left us, for that kind of money, is insane. It’s criminal. Szczesny could have fought off Cech this season and became our number one. Yet we’re shipping him out. And not only that, we’re doing it on the cheap, which seems to have been our MO since the mid nineties.

Henry, van Persie and Fabregas were all stars who were undersold. The last time we sold a player for at least his value was Adebayor to City. Before that? Well, you’d probably have to go as far as Petit and Overmars, or Anelka. It’s scandalous and a blot on the club that we can lose a player like Woj for so little.

Which brings me to Calum Chambers, who is supposedly attracting Palace’s interest for £16million. 

I’m sorry, what? The same value we paid for him a few years ago? Before the market went bonkers and valued Kyle Walker at £50million? 

No, no, no, no no.

Chambers is a £25million footballer at least in this inflated time zone we live in. But ignore that, he’s a player we should be holding on to for the upcoming season, because with our inevitable injury problems we will lose defenders and he will be needed. I understand what some people have said about how he and Holding are too similar and we don’t need another one, but I believe Holding and Chambers can play either side of a pacey central defender who wins the ball higher up the pitch, or even acts as the man to sweep up behind. 

Chambers has proven himself to be a very good centre half and if he’s given a run of games he will prove once again he can cut the mustard at Arsenal. I’ve always said that and I’ll stick by that statement. I just really hope we aren’t about to do something stupid.

Kieran Gibbs, on the other hand, seems like a logical move for all. He will excel at a mid table club. He’s a decent left back who’s good going forward. If the rumoured interest from West Brom is validated, then for £10million we should be moving him on and looking at where we can reinvest that ten mil (*cough* Lemar *cough*, *cough* *cough* new partner for Xhaka *cough* *cough*). Gibbs has been a great servant for the club and if he goes will get a round of applause when he returns. That’s how it should be.

Can’t say the same for poor old Debuchy though, who is the forgotten man of Arsenal, somewhat unfairly I would say. He’s been injury prone, out of the team, unable to string together any games and the effect has been a player who so many Arsenal fans deride. But even now, if we had an injury crisis and he was the only one available, I bet you’d all be a bit surprised at how good he could be with a run of games. But he’s never had that and is now the wrong side of thirty. He’s on the Arsenal scrap heap and when he does eventually leave, I can’t imagine he’d have too many positive things to say about the club, sadly.

I shan’t be deriding or abusing him though, because I just feel for him, as his Arsenal career never had the chance to get going because of injury. Such a shame. 

Anyway, that’s it for now, and the top line message for today is this: 

We ain’t too good at selling these days. It’s a good job player sales don’t have to fund any more building projects.

Laters.

First of all, let’s congratulate a player who you’d have to say deserves the praise and cheer that many of us are giving, now that he’s signed a new agreement. He’s been brilliant for about 18 months and it’s his reward for his performances that he gets a long term deal at 29. Arsène was expectedly full of praise too. He seems like the perfect professional for somebody like Le Boss because he doesn’t seek out the limelight, he just gets on with his football, he also seems a really nice and modest guy. It’s lovely to see.

Two years ago he was a clear back up full back, with Gibbs at first choice, but through his own endeavour he has wrestled the first choice place from the England international and barring injury you’d expect him to keep it until the end of the season.

It’s strange that he isn’t being recognised by Spain at the moment. I’m pretty sure he’s one of – if not the –best left back in the Premier League, so why does the Spanish national team boss not consider him? 

I’ve also been impressed with him going forward. When he first arrived, I think he looked like the more cautious full back, a player who is more comfortable defending than operating as an auxiliary winger. With the pace of the Premier League and the quick movement of teams from front to back, you need full backs who can be part of attacking plays, which I thought might be one of his weaknesses. But this season – and large parts of last season to be fair – Monreal has shown that he is a very good overlapping full back. His distribution in the box isn’t bad either. Think about all of the times Sagna couldn’t put a good ball into the box having worked a good position. Nacho is miles better than Sagna was going forward.

It must be hard for Gibbs. He is a very good full back too, something touched on in Nacho’s interview, but whilst he must be frustrated at not playing he can use Monreal’s story as one of motivation. After all, Monreal was viewed by many as a busted flush, particularly after the 6-3 drubbing against City. Yet he had to hide his time and take his chance when it came to him. Monreal is not going to remain injury-free for the next two years, which means Gibbs will get his chance and when he does, he has to take it. 

In the mean time, Gibbs needs to get his head down, doing exactly the opposite of what Debuchy has done by speaking to Lequipe about wanting to leave Arsenal. I have sympathy for Debuchy and his injuries, as well as his frustration because he doesn’t want to miss out on the summers Euros, but as the Arseblogger said in his Monday Podcast, it seems like the Euro’s are more important to him, than Arsenal’s attempt at a title surge. The contrast between Monreal and Debuchy could not be more vast.

But back to my slight gripe in relation to Monreal that I mentioned above, and it lies with some Arsenal fans, I’m afraid. Nacho is a perfect case study for what you get when a player is given a run of games. He has shown that he is a very good left back with consecutive matches under his belt. There have been too many players who have been dismissed as ‘useless’ on the basis of a few performances, Debuchy this season being one, actually. He hasn’t been great when asked to come in to the team, but he’s been given sporadic run outs in the team, so what do people expect? I suspect, had Bellerin been given a Coquelin-style injury that kept him out for three months in the season, after a few games as a regular starter he’d have been more like the Debuchy we saw when he signed.

It’s not just Debuchy though. In this age of every player needing to be brilliant at all times, we’ve seen other recent cases. Jenkinson has shown how good he is at full back on loan at West Ham, whilst Özil has had some very obvious detractors until the last six months or so, which seems crazy when you look at his outputs this season. Part of it is fuelled by the media and their need to click bait “nicking a living” headlines, but I do feel as though as a fanbase we too have to take some responsibility, of which I am just as culpable. I’ve dismissed Joel Campbell a few times this season already, yet he is showing that he is a potential star in the making for us, if he can continue his upward trajectory. 

I guess the moral of this story is that patience with players really is a virtue. They’re not robots. Unlike Football Manager you won’t sign them and get them playing seven out of 10 each week and from the first moment they set foot on the clubs training ground. When we see Elneny for the first time, we will all need to remember that, which I include myself in as well by the way.

So that’s that for today. Nacho is tied down, we’re halfway through the week and the Chelski game looks on the horizon, so I’ll see you in the morrow.

Yes, time is a good healer. If only it could work better wonders on our ailing squad. I did find it somewhat amusing and ironic that we call the tactical match review ‘The Breakdown’. Perhaps never more so has this been more aptly named with our current injury plight. We’ve got a whole team out at the moment, with more surely to be announced this week, with tomorrow supposedly the day we find out about Alexis. Rumours are already filtering through that he’ll be missing against Olympiacos, which means he’ll miss this Saturday’s game against Sunderland, as I think most of us have expected now. The hope is that his adamantium-infused body will recover quicker than the average human, but in a weird way, I’m kind of hoping that he’s forced in to at least a week’s rest with no return. If what he says is true – that he received a kick against the back of his leg – we might be lucky and he just misses a week or so. Regardless of the fact we have an ‘all or nothing’ game in a week’s time against Olympiacos, we could do with him over the Christmas and January tough period, in as good shape as possible. At the moment it just seems he’s ticking over and his form has been patchy of late. No Gooner I speak to blames him in the slightest; his dedication and ability to get this far in to the season without any rest period is phenomenal. But it was always going to happen and if he misses Sunderland at home, Olympiacos away and then Aston Villa at home, but if back for the Monday night game against Moneychester City before Christmas, I’d take that right now.

As for the rest of the injury worries, it seems like everyone’s going to get a shot at playing where they want to. Cazorla will no doubt be out for a while if it’s a knee problem, so Ramsey will get the chance in the centre, whilst Joel will be happy just to get back in to the first team. He applies himself, of that we can be sure, but to me he still doesn’t quite look good enough and I bet even he’ll be surprised that he’s been able to play in such a run of games this season.

The only fully fit person during this injury crisis who will really be cursing his luck at the moment is Debuchy. The guy must be thinking that everyone’s getting their chance in the team except him, with even Flamini now down to probably hit double figures on league appearances at this rate, so I do feel for him. He’s unfortunate that he’s up against a guy in form, faster, ten years younger and therefore much less injury prone. That’s football for you, I guess. At this rate he’ll not even get his January move he’s craving I’d imagine; Arsène would be mad to let anybody fit enough to leave. Heck, Debuchy could be filling in at right wing as it stands at the moment!

Never has the need to keep players fresh been more important. But also, never has the need been more important to ignore players who say “yeah, I’m fine boss”, with the only retort for that optimism being “let’s let the medical team decide that one, eh? Now get on that table and let them jab you with things”. We need bodies to return and return quick. A Thursday announcement of Theo to return against the Mackems would be a good start, but if here could also be some sort of horse placenta-infused miracle cure for a Wilshere or a Welbeck, that too, would be nice.

Of course we all know what’s going to happen: all of our players will return at the same time and we’ll have some quality players who don’t even make the matchday squad. It’ll all be January too, when it then seems foolish to buy new players with a fully fit squad. I wonder if Arsenal could apply for a flexible transfer window, to be opened in case of emergency, when we run out of bodies in November or March of each season? They must have a case for it. They’ve got enough data over the last ten years or so I’d imagine!

A pipe dream. A mere pipe dream. Ah well. I’m going to finish off this here monologue and try not to think much for the remainder of my tube journey. You have a good’un.

And after Hannover was evacuated yesterday, there’s no doubt that Europe is a little scared of something happening in the aftermath of Paris, so precautions are of more importance than taking potential risks with people’s lives.

As for Arsenal involvement we saw Gibbs, Koscienly and Giroud all play, although thankfully the latter was just a second half substitute. Just as well really, because we all know that Walcott’s recovery is bound to hit a ‘little bit setback’ any day now.

I thought Koscienly did OK and was a little unfortunate that his goal set up the England hysteria over Deli Alli. Listen, I know the guy has looked promising and I know that he’s young and has every right to be pleased that he’s scored so early in to his England career, but given he’s a Spud it’s almost impossible to feel happy for him. It’s also going to be unbearable when we read the papers and hear the Spuds crowing about how he’s better than Gasgoigne, Giggs, Messi, Ronaldo, Pele and Maradonna all combined. The last guy the media hyped up from that lot after he scored a goal so early in his England career? Andros Townsend. Now he can’t even get in to the Spuds squad because of his off field transgressions. So perhaps everyone in England should calm the eff down.

Who am I kidding? This kid’ll be proclaimed the new messiah within six months and everyone will expect him to win the Euros single-handedly. Hopefully he’ll follow Andros’ lead though.

Anyway, let’s get away from anything non-Arsenal, because it just leaves an unsavoury taste in my mouth. I thought Gibbs also had a good game. He’s a good left back and it’s almost a shame that Monreal is playing so well, because the Spaniard really has made himself undroppable at the moment, which must be hard for Gibbs. He’s in a different position to Debuchy. Firstly, he should go to the Euros regardless of how much he plays, with games like last night showing that even when he’s not a regular he’s still a good player. Debuchy doesn’t have the same security from an international level and Deschamps rightly can’t pick him unless he’s playing.

Debuchy is also at the peak of his career, age-wise, where as Bellerin is on a very rapid upward trajectory. It’s clear that Hector will have the right back spot jailed for a number of years at this rate and so the long-term future for Debuchy is not great. Conversely, Gibbs is up against a Monreal a few years older than he is and who will not be at his physical peak forever, so he might feel he has more chance of de-throning Nacho. Gibbs can also play in front of Nacho and that has happened a few times already, where as we’re yet to see a Debuchy/Bellerin right hand side.

It’s all pointing towards an eventual exit for the Frenchman, but I can see Gibbs getting his chance on the left, or at least I hope he does.

Up top Giroud was never really in the game in the short bursts of watching the match and having dinner that I saw. There was one moment just after he came on when Cahill trod on his ankle and whilst Giroud winced but got up, I couldn’t help but think that it was probably an instruction from Mourinho that led to a sly little foul that could lead to injury. Chelski aren’t even our rivals any more at this moment in time, but Jose would do anything to cause other people problems in football, legally or illegally. 

I’m not sure about any of the other players who have played in games, but I had a quick check on the Chile game and despite the coach telling the press that Alexis was touch and go for the game, he played the full 90 minutes. My only hope is that because Uruguay had two men sent off and Chile dominated possession, Alexis wasn’t needing to do as much running around. But I suspect that he will have been his usual self and will have run himself in to the ground. We’ll know more as the week unfolds I guess.

Right, that’s me done for another day, I’m going to get another day in the grey smoke done and dusted so I can be one step closer to the weekend. Laters.

He really has come so far over the last year. I seem to recall plenty of people saying that he was £8million not well spent and was a bit of a liability after performances like the one against Moneychester City when we lost 6-3 away from home, but as with a lot of things in life, it was more down to the fact that he hadn’t been able to build any momentum rather than his actual ability that had hampered his own development. He’s now well and truly established as the first choice left back and Kieran Gibbs is left biding his time and hoping for an injury to take his chance. And let’s not forget that Gibbs is a top quality left back. But if something does happen to Nacho, it will be interesting to see the fan response if Gibbs makes a mistake or two after a game or two. It is inevitable as he finds his rhythm, so as fans we always need to be a little bit more patient.

Nacho is in the Spain squad and so is his compatriot Hector Bellerin, who also seems to have taken the right back position as his own, much to the annoyance of Debuchy. Matthieu has been chin-wagging to the French press and as usual when a footballer comes out on international duty, he invariably says something that doesn’t sound too positive. Debuchy is absolutely right to be unhappy about not playing regularly since returning from injury, but to say that he’d contemplated leaving after one game in the season seems a bit rich to me. Especially as he has spent so many weeks and months out injured last season. He surely knows what life is like at a big club, that competition is strong and you need to bide your time. Arsene will not freeze Debuchy out, but you shouldn’t expect to just return to the first team, especially if you can see that the guy in your position is playing so well.

Hopefully when he comes back from international duty he just applies himself and doesn’t go all Lassana Diarra on us. In a team in which we’ve all heard about harmony, we could do without somebody kicking up a stink, so hopefully he’ll just dispel any potential unrest when he’s back in England and doesn’t have the French press in his ear.

So we’re in the midst of this transfer break and having to deal with talk about England in Blighty, so Rooney is dominating the headlines, which makes it all rather unpalatable if I’m honest, because none of it is interesting. England play San Marino in a pointless qualifier that they just have to turn up to win and we Arsenal fans have to switch on to get any dose of football if we’re feeling parched for our obsession. Not for me. I doubt they’ll be many Arsenal players on show – perhaps The Ox and that’s it – and all I’m really interested in is that they don’t come back in pieces. Ozil seems to have got through his international game unscathed, as well as Cech, Rambo and Koscienly, so hopefully they’ll be fine for the next round of matches and we can look forward to Stoke.

So what else is there going on? Well there’s plenty of people starting to predict their Premier League tables, including our former star-turned-pundit Paul Merson, who has predicted his Premier League table. Merson was particularly scathing about Arsenal when the window slammed shut and with some of his choice words coming out about how the fans have been cheated. Yet despite this, he’s still predicted us to finish third. This train of thought seems to be the same amongst a lot of pundits I see. They’re quick to lay in to Arsenal, but they still say we’re one of the best teams in the division, something you wouldn’t have thought of if you’d have listen to what they say about the club.

Merse also has Crystal Palace in at fifth, so I suppose his comments should be taken with a pinch of salt. He’s a guy who seems to be very dependent on the here and now rather than look at the bigger picture. Palace have had a good start to the season and who knows, they might become this season’s Southampton, but even Southampton fell away to seventh, so if Palace have a good season I’d still be surprised to see them near the top four. The league will have a familiar shape to it as it usually does and that’s because the teams are all generally in the position that is relevant for how good their squad is. Ours is better than last season because players have played together for longer and we have improved in-goal. So perhaps we can surprise a few people and do a few places better? Is it really outside the realm of possibility?

Anyway, I’m rambling, so I’ll say my goodbyes and hope you survive this intolerable weekend of football boredom.

Plus the league have deemed it acceptable for us to finally have a game on a weekend instead of a Monday night, so that gives me something right at the end to look forward to, Arsenal-wise. Or dread, depending on how full your glass is.

If it’s half-empty, then you won’t have been too encouraged with the news that The Ox, Debuchy and Arteta are all out for the weekend, whilst Rambo and Welbeck are uncertainties. It’s a shame if neither of the latter pull through and it undoubtedly weakens us somewhat, but if you’ve got a half-full glass, you’ll be happy that we have the depth in the team to make these absences appear minimal. Bellerin for Debuchy, Coquelin for Arteta are familiar swaps, so it’s just the Ox that I think we’re really missing out on.

Not least because I’m convinced it would give the manager a serious decision to make with Ramsey. The Ox is a more naturally suited player out wide right and I think he’d definitely be playing if he was fit, but this ongoing injury which seems to have no return date appears to continue to linger, so much so that I’m starting the think we won’t see him again this season.

Who knows? Arsène’s squad selection decisions may be so numerous that he’s decided a normal six week injury layoff gets an additional two ‘just to be safe’ but also to avoid a difficult decision and cheering a player off. That’s probably what I’d do if I was in Le Boss’ position. So maybe we will see if the same happens with Ramsey and his knock from the Swansea game, or Welbeck too.

The only difference with Welbeck is that he appears to be Arsène’s only real preferred choice to Giroud up top, which I’m sure is why we’ve seen a slight tailing off of Giroud’s form in the last couple of weeks, as his competition in the squad is reduced. It’s not the sole factor; as has already been pointed out the shunting out wide of Ramsey probably has had an impact as he has one less wide man to get in behind defenders and put the ball in for him, or the fact that he’s a confidence player and when ex-stars like Thierry Henry say you can’t with the league with him in the side who knows how he will react? He’s a confidence player and if that gets knocked you can see the impact.

I think it might have a small effect, but competition from Welbeck and the position of Ramsey have had more of an impact than anything else.

So I wonder if Welbeck is rushed back to the first team ahead of the other players, especially if he is given the extra incentive of another opportunity to prove Louis van Gaal wrong by playing well against his old club. 

All of this and there’s not even the slightest mention of Walcott who, I have to admit, I find it staggering that his stock has fallen so much in 18 months. He’s gone in the summer, almost certainly, but I hope that he keeps his Arsenal legacy by moving abroad. I’m sure it won’t happen and he’ll be bound for an English side, but it does feel like a sad way for a player who was once a lynchpin of the team, discarded like an old Cornetto wrapper.

That’s football I suppose. Eventually it will happen to every player. Just ask Rosicky how he’s feeling at the moment.

Laters.