Arsenal's Three New Signings Fitting in Perfectly

With our great victory away from home to the Spuds still fresh in our minds it's time to move on and concentrate on the real important business of the Premier league and Saturday afternoon's home game against West Brom. It will be interesting to see how many of Tuesday night's team take the field at the Emirates in that game.

With the news that Thomas Vermaelen still hasn't recovered from his achilles injury we can be sure that Laurent Koscielny will be playing for certain and that's great news as far as I'm concerned. I have to admit that I love watching him play as I spent many years at centre back myself despite being only 5'8" tall and he shows us that the art of defending is not dead. Players from Stoke RFC and Bolton may have decided to resort to the tactics of bygone days when you deliberately set out to hurt your opponent but Koscielny is a revelation to me as he uses intelligence and anticipation to do his defending.

He seems to get better by the minute, never mind the game and although it's still early days it looks like the boss has unearthed another gem. He may have made a couple of costly mistakes against Blackburn and Bolton but he is learning how the game is played in the Premier league and I think he is at the top of his class and heading for top marks. He is ably assisted by Sebastien  Squillaci and the two of them seem to be forming a very good central defensive partnership which will make it difficult for Vermaelen to get back into the team when he does eventually recover. The best thing that could have happened both of them it seems is that injury to Vermaelen and it's great to see them take advantage of the unexpected opportunity they are getting to form that partnership.

The other signing this summer of course was Marouane Chamakh and at the moment the team isn't missing Robin Van Persie because of his contribution. He has scored three goals in five starts and two substitute appearances and he works tirelessly for the team at all times. His ability in the air is fantastic but he also has very good feet and if he just had a little more confidence when he had a one on one situation with the keeper he would be even better in my opinion. Considering that the three of them cost less than €20 million between them it seems to have been three really good pieces of business by the boss during the transfer window.

Carlos Vela:

Carlos Vela has got himself in trouble with the Mexican FA after holding a party after their recent game against Colombia and he has been given a six month ban from playing for his country. The reason given was that he broke four of their rules and I wonder exactly what those rules were.

1. Thou shalt not hold a party for the rest of the team while on international duty.

2. Thou shalt not trapse half way round the world with your country every month to the detriment of your club career.

3. Thou shalt not always get injured while on international duty.

4. Thou shalt not always arrive back so late from international and in a jet lagged state.

From an Arsenal perspective I think it has to be good news as it means we won't lose him for large chunks of the season due to international commitments and his late arrival back in London after those games added to jet lag. I find it incredible how many games Mexico play every year and although Brazil do the same at least they play a lot of their friendlies in Europe where most of their players are based. 

Spuds Reaction:

In the reaction to the victory over the Spuds Andrei Arshavin said that it was an important victory as such wins are a matter of honour and he's quite right. Whatever we might say about the Carling Cup it was a great feeling to get one over on them and I look forward to Arsenal doing it again in November.

Tomas Rosicky has said that his penalty taking days are over and I'm sure that's a relief to us fans as his attempt against Sunderland was so poor. He said that neither Samir Nasri or Chamakh particularly wanted to take the penalty and as captain he took the responsibility which is quite admirable I suppose. He also said that Nasri took his two penalties against the Spuds so well that he can't see himself having to step up again.

The manager had his say on the penalty taker and he said that Nasri didn't take the penalty on Saturday due to a silly superstition but he appears to have put an end to that practice as Nasri was taken down for the first penalty on Tuesday night and he stepped up to take it.

Injury Updates:

There's good news on the injury front at last as Cesc Fabregas says he hopes to be back for the game away to Chelsea on Sunday October 3rd and I hope he is back because we will need him in that game. There's an extra incentive for him to return in that game as the international break starts after it and if he can't play against Chelsea I would imagine he can't play for Spain either.

Also Kieran Gibbs got the results of the scan on his injured foot and there is no break but there is severe bruising which means he will only be a short term absentee. It's a shame for him that he got injured because he has to be pushing Clichy really closely for a starting berth at left back at the moment.

Unhappy Goalkeeper?

There are also stories that Wojciech Szczesny is unhappy with his current situation at the club as he doesn't feel he is getting a fair crack at the whip. From what I can understand he didn't go out on loan because he wanted to stay and fight for his place at Arsenal but he feels that the boss has gone back on his word that he would get a chance to fight for his place. It's interesting that neither Szczesny or Vitto Mannone even made the bench against the Spuds on Tuesday night as usually I would have expected one of them to play and the other to sit on the bench. I can't understand the logic of Manuel Almunia being our sub keeper in that game as the chances are he wasn't going to be needed anyway.

Ladies Latest:

Our ladies team won 3-1 away to ZFK Masinac in Sebia last night in the first round first leg of their Champions league campaign for this season. It's good to see their season starting again and hopefully the mens team can win as many trophies as the ladies do this time round.

Press Conference:

Finally for today the manager holds his press conference before the West Brom game later today which means there should be plenty to discuss tomorrow as he answers any and all questions aimed his way by the assembled media. I'll also be doing my usual Premier league predictions tomorrow night so don't forget to look out for them.

See You Tomorrow.