Let’s not be too disturbed by those con-games. Now is the time to support our team. Let’s cheer them to victory at every match.

It makes me wonder what kind of crap they’ll come out with next. Can’t wait for sunday. It’s still 46hours+ to go. I hope this is the season where he’ll unleash the wilshere.

Height matters particularly in defence and when defending – so while its true arsenal are not a short team, Im not so sure about the defensive height…?

Agree fully regarding denilson though.

Lampard, Gerrard, Carrick are players who were, a year ago, at the top of their game, and I am not sure that they will be improving this season.

I would fully admit that if Gerrard actually were to improve this year he would be awesome indeed, but I doubt that is the case.

The general impression I get from reading commentaries on the game is that great players improve until they are 27, and then stay at that level for one or two years, and then decline. In common parlance, “the legs begin to go”.

What the very good players then do is use their football experience to compensate for the lack of stamina and speed – although most of them get more time out with injury. (An injury that might take four weeks to repair age 20 can take eight weeks at 30 – that’s a rough guide, but for most people it is approximately true).

But the battle is an uneven one, and gradually the skills go because of the physical demands, and most players at the top retire around 34 or 35.

Gerrard I think will be 29 this year, so still at the top of his game, but certainly not getting better, and if anything declining just a little.

Next year a little more, then year after he will miss some more games, and so it goes. By the time Denilson is at the top of his game aged 27 Gerrard will be a fading memory.

That’s the basis of my thoughts – sorry it was not clear.

The misery that is the away game at Stoke is still vivid in my mind (besides the fact that we were kicked out of the game and RvP pulled one of his classic madness): whenever that chap Delap got the ball in his hands over the touchline, you could see the whole Arsenal team were in disarray. It was almost a amateur game. Our defense couldn’t get close to the throw-ins, and the ball kept falling on Stoke’s backs and shoulders (which is to say they couldn’t head it either)!

I said when you were away that the attack we fielded against Rangers were, except for Song, Cesc’s height or shorter; and we had no problems dealing with long balls or set pieces. I said at the time the message for the players was if they persistently harry defenders off the ball as quickly as possible after losing it, they won’t have to worry about the hoofs. Now thinking more about it, I think psychology matters just as much. As a smaller player, even though you know hoofs are by nature hail mary’s, you have to be determined in your fight everytime to ensure that the freak event – the improbable hoof turning out to be a great pass – must not happen. I think this determination is what we lacked last season.