Barnet 0-4 Arsenal: Fun In The Sun As Arsenal Stroll To Victory

Good morning!

Yesterday's game turned out to be a pleasant enough trip down to Barnet for Arsenal, who came away with a comfortable 4-0 win. I think it's fair to say the first half is where the action was, with the second being the dullest 45 minutes of football I can remember seeing for a long, long time.

It didn't take long for the scoring to be opened, as Andrey Arshavin wandered through the Barnet defence and made their goalkeeper look a bit silly after only a minute or so of play.

Arsenal were a bit better and a bit sharper than they usually are in this fixture in the first half, and their efforts were rewarded with two further goals, both coming from Jay Simpson.

Both new signings, Laurent Koscielny and Marouane Chamakh played in the game. Not too much to read into their performances as they both looked rather like players playing their first game after a couple of months holiday, but they did well enough.

Arsene Wenger was pleased with what he saw from both of them, and he has reason to be pleased with more of the squad as well. Jack Wilshere was an excellent creative influence, and to see Kieran Gibbs back on the field after his long absence was a relief.

The only goal of the otherwise stagnant second half came through Samir Nasri, who was in the right place to take advantage of a terrible defensive mistake. So, 4-0 and a pleasant day out in the sun for Arsenal and their fans.

After the game, Arsene Wenger was inevitably asked about Cesc Fabregas, and the boss had a strong message to send. He said:

"There was a lot of unneeded talk, it is not pleasant to read this every day. Now, the story has to stop. Cesc is our captain, he is so important to us and we want to keep him, that is why we were not listening to any offers. It was not a problem of money, just the desire to keep him at the club. We can only influence our own behaviour, and I believe things have now gone straight again with Sandro Rosell. We always had a consistent attitude and were always reluctant to talk about Cesc's departure."

He finished: "It is very important we give the impression that because somebody wants a player from us, we don't just give in."

The manager and the club have, I think, dealt with Barcelona's behaviour quite well. They haven't been drawn into a public dispute, they've simply held their ground and focused on what's important for Arsenal, which is keeping Cesc Fabregas at the club.

Whether Barcelona now go away, having recognised that Fabregas may not be available to them this summer, I somehow doubt. But the important thing is no matter what they come out with, Arsenal have been very clear that the matter is closed for now.

The manager also addressed the centre-half situation, more or less confirming the departures of  William Gallas and Mikael Silvestre , but saying that Sol Campbell is still in "No man's land". He also dismissed speculation over his own future, reiterating his commitment to the club.

In other transfer related news  The Mirror reports that Arsenal have made a £14 million bid for Everton centre-half Phil Jagielka, which has been rejected.

The Mirror suggests we may even go back with an improved offer. £14 million seems an awful lot of money for Jagielka, a player I think is reasonably good but not good enough to command that sort of fee. I'm not inclined to believe this story at the moment but I guess time will tell.

The News Of The World are reporting that Liverpool have put forward the best financial package to offer Joe Cole. A decision will have to be forthcoming from him soon as to where he wants to play his football next season as most clubs are now back in training ahead of the new season. Hopefully we'll get his decision one way or another soon.

Ipswich's 17-year-old striker Connor Wickham is apparently the subject of interest from Spurs and Arsenal. Ipswich want the impressive fee of £10 million for the youngster, and I would suggest for £10 million they can keep their promising youngster and Arsenal can find a more established player to spend their money on. Promising youngsters we have plenty of already.

That about rounds it off for today. The Arsenal squad should be heading off to Austria fairly imminently for the usual training camp. Their next friendly is on Wednesday against Sturm Graz. I'll be back tomorrow with whatever news materialises between now and and then, until then, enjoy your Sunday.