I think song’s emergence this year is the best example to date of wenger’s brilliance. Who but wenger saw anything in alex song until about a year ago? he was universally derided by arsenal fans who assumed he must have some incriminating pictures of arsene to explain his continued presence in the team.

Vermaelen’s addition and toure’s departure has also been hugely important. after kolo had his malaria a couple of years ago he was never the same – not only was he physically diminished but he seemed to lose all composure – with hindsight he was the one drivin gallas to the verge of lunacy, just like he did to sol campbell. now toure is sowing chaos in the man c defence.

And our attitude is much better than last year – we’ve shed the bad apple adebayor, bendtner and van persie have grown up a bit, song becomes more like essien every day (still some way off of course, and even some of our powder puffs have bulked up a bit and like to mix it a bit – ramsey and diaby for example – and of course cesc, nasri and rosicky all like a tackle despite their size and the fact that they are injured for month ervery other time they make one.

And the new formation suits us, and we’ve got arshavin, and last season was pretty much a write off four our best player, cesc.

But it would be great for wenger to take out the insurance of buying another defensive midfielder and forward in the window, and i think we could be top of the pile this season. come on you gooners!

yes, that was a sick goal. that’s the thing about this team, though. with so much off-the-ball-movement and switching positions, there’s no need to have a traditional center-forward. for example, remember when gallas and vermaelen were scoring all the goals early this season, and some people were criticizing the likes of RVP? every outfield player for arsenal has the technique to score goals.

Can Song play centre-forward?

I’m only half-joking, his header against Pompey was pure Ruud Gullit. Fantastic technique.

Man….embarassment of riches I call this squad.

I have been trying to think of what MU is doing to be so successful throughout Fergie’s reign especially the past three seasons. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it…But, with this article you have jogged my memory by posting successes vs. last year. Could it be that Fergie encourages his team to not draw at all costs? I mean to say if you look at the damage draws do for teams vs. actual losses it is compelling. Look at MC they have only 2 losses this season but 8 draws…If Fergie were coaching what we he say to the MC players? Just a thought. I’ve been thinking about MU lately and I am trying to figure Ferguson out? Maybe someone could write about them in the post because I am stuck on why so good under his reign so long?

I think we can all agree that we look very good compared to last season.

I do agree with your remarks upon buying someone. I wouldn’t mind if Wenger bought another player but if he decides not to buy anyone I wouldn’t be that upset. If we would lose another big player before the end of January I think AW will certainly buy a player.
But like you said: Song will be back next month at the most (hope Cameroon gets out really quick – Sorry Alex for this…. ).

Good analysis here Walter. Further improvement in the 2nd half of the season will bring us very close I feel. If the players can maintain their determination & confidence then I am sure the ability is there. We will need to avoid any more serious injuries to key players though.

Good point Paul C about bringing players in. It is a balancing act that AW has to get right. He will be facing some very difficult decisions over the next few years with so many talented youngsters coming to maturity.

Hartwick89 & others, I am sorry if I come across as a bit patronising at times, it is certainly not the intention. I suppose I always take a bit of a cautious view, knowing that football has a habit of knocking you down at times (but less so under AW).

“Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson says it would be crazy to buy a new centre-half this month.

Despite their current injury problems, Ferguson insists it’s unrealistic to bring in a top quality defensive signing.

He laughed: “If someone could give me the name of a really good centre-half who would accept a three-month contract then I would jump at the chance. But where do you find a player like that?

“A decent player would be looking for a three-year contract and I don’t need that kind of addition.

“It is difficult enough leaving good players out of the team without adding another to the mix, so I won’t be looking for a senior player to ease our defensive crisis.”

When people say “buy to replace RvP” they dont seem to consider what happens when RvP and Bendtner are fit. When people say “buy a midfielder for when Song is gone” they dont seem to consider what happens when Song returns. And when people say “buy a top class defender to back up Gallas and Vermaelen” they dont seem to consider how many “top-class” players would actually want to sign with a team just to be a back-up. On another blog today I actually saw a comment saying “AW should sign Melo to cover for Song while he is away”. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT COMMENT?!?!?!? Hilarious. I actually spent time on Le Grove reading comments on that blog today. My goodness, thank the heavens that lot have no influence on our football club. We’d have a squad of 60 players, ego battles everywhere, no money, no space for youngsters to progress, and a team headed for relegation. But hey, we’d be buying lots of players so that’s allright.

you must put a considerable amount of time and effort in writing these posts,and in a foreign language. I know you will say it is a love affair with the greatest football team that we all share,but nevertheless I am sure Tony and the other readers really enjoy your input.Thank you very much.

Its a good indicator I think ^^