Cesc Fabregas Back for Arsenal Against Blackpool, but Will He Play?

It's Friday already and the weekend is almost upon us. This weekend sees Arsenal play their first home match of the new season against Blackpool and it's a game that we will be huge favourites to win despite Blackpool's fantastic 4-0 win away to Wigan in their first Premier League game ever.

When Blackpool won that game last week, I got a text from my father celebrating their position at the top of the league although it was short-lived as Chelsea beat West Brom 6-0 in the later game. This Saturday afternoon, I will expect my phone to be hopping if Blackpool score at any stage as he hasn't had much to celebrate since he chose them as his favourite team after spending his honeymoon there in 1964.

Ahead of that game, we got the good news that Cesc, Song, Djourou, and Denilson will all be fit and ready to at least sit on the bench. The boss doesn't want to rush anyone back just yet and from what he is saying he seems to think Cesc and RVP need a little more training before they can start a game.

According to him, it's to make sure that they have the fitness levels required to have a good season and it looks like we will have a fairly similar team to last Sunday.

Obviously, a couple of changes will have to be made as Koscielny is suspended and Nasri is injured. Our choices at centre back to play alongside Vermaelen are Djourou, who is coming back from a hamstring injury, and Song, who has just recovered from a calf injury. Neither of those players will be at that level of fitness that the boss wants but needs must and one of them will have to play. 

We had the news on Wednesday that Nasri needed a small operation on his knee after the Liverpool game and will be out for a month, and yesterday we learned that Frimpong had done his cruciate ligament in training and will be out for six to nine months. The boss said a few weeks ago that the reason he decided not to sign another midfielder was due to the form of Wilshere and Frimpong in preseason.

I wonder will he reconsider that decision now as Frimpong is realistically out for the rest of the season. I know he is only a reserve, but the suggestion was that he would see some action instead of Song occasionally, and we don't really have anyone else to fill that role. I thought we needed a defensive midfielder before Frimpong's injury and I'm even more sure that we need one now.

Jay Simpson has joined Hull City after 12 years of being an Arsenal player, since the age of nine. He did very well on loan at QPR last season and he's more than capable of scoring plenty of goals in the Championship.

I hope things go well for him despite the fact that he's joining Hull and I suppose the only consolation for him is that Phil Brown is no longer their manager. I know he went on gardening leave last season, but I can't remember if was actually sacked.

Speaking of transfers, the latest on the Squillaci situation is that Sevilla have apparently refused our offer as they feel we haven't offered enough for his services. If we really want him I'm sure we'll be back with another offer before too long as deadline day draws closer. I still don't know enough about him to know if he's the centre back we need or not but I do know that we need a centre back very soon.

We were also reported to have made a second offer to Fulham for Mark Schwarzer yesterday, but they are again said to have refused to sell him to us. I don't know if they want more money or they simply don't want to sell the player but it's being going on for far too long now in my opinion.

There was a rumour on Twitter yesterday that Fulham wanted Vela and cash for Schwarzer but I'm sure that won't be happening unless it's a season-long loan deal for Vela, which I suppose is a possibility.

There's still no decisive word on whether Traore will be leaving us or not and whether it will be a loan move or a transfer. It would seem that Benfica are the most likely club for him to join, but there are supposedly other clubs interested as well. I'm not too fond of his defensive abilities but I suppose he could well be signed as an attacking player as he has a lot to offer going forward.

It would seem that our ex captain William Gallas is on the brink of joining the Spuds and as it stands he isn't exactly held in high esteem by Arsenal fans. If he were to join the Spuds I'm absolutely certain that his standing among Arsenal fans would sink even lower.

He still has something to offer the game and he's a very good player, but he causes friction in the dressing room and his enormous wage demands ensured that he didn't remain at Arsenal when his contract expired.

The reserves played their first match in their triangular tournament in Dublin last night and they beat "Manure's" reserves 2-1 with JET and Wellington getting the goals. They play Shamrock Rovers on Sunday and I'd love to be going to the game to meet a few Arsenal fans that I know through Twitter, but unfortunately I have prior arrangements that can't be changed.

I'll be previewing all the Premier League games in week two of the fixtures tonight and hopefully I can do a little better than I did last week. I got one correct score, three correct outcomes and six wrong outcomes which is pretty poor but hopefully it will get better as the weeks go by.

If you want to follow my new facebook page for Cesc Is God just click on the link. I only set it up yesterday and I've added a few photos of Cesc, Arsenal and me at the Emirates. My blog can be read there daily and I would appreciate any feedback whether it's good or bad.

Here's a look at how Rosicky played on Sunday against Liverpool.

See You Tomorrow.