I’ve shifted One Nil To Us to http://www.oneniltous.com so please direct your browser over that-a-way for a welcome to Sebastien Squillaci, a smiling look at our Champions League group and a preview of the Blackburn game.

If you link to us, please change your links to the new URL!

Cheers, ONTU

Gallas bemuses himself with latest drivel to escape his mouth

Ah, William Gallas. You never were the brightest crayon in the pack were you? Despite you single-handedly costing us the title with your sit-in-the-centre-circle antics against Birmingham, I was glad we had you. In a way it showed a desire to win that I wish was shared amongst some of the more apathetic Gooners. But it was misplaced. Just as your words were after completing your actually not that controversial move to Shite Hart Lane. You see Bill, Spurs aren’t good enough to win the league. If you wanted a title, you should have stayed here. And we’d have been glad if you stayed. But you didn’t think of us did you, when you opened your trap, because you never loved this club. Never wrote your name into it’s history – never got what we were trying to achieve. So long.

In other transfer news, there’s no smiling faces posing with Arsenal scarves yet – but I’m sure there will be soon. Heading the queue to grace the new marble halls is Sebastien Squillaci. There talk amongst the Gooner blogs is that he’s the new Steve Bould. High praise indeed – if he’s fit to shine Bouldy’s head I’d be happy. The keeper saga is still rolling on, and I think it is probably the ‘plus one’ Wenger was describing post-Blackpool. I think the done deal is Squillaci, and that’s fine. We do need a keeper though, and I’m sure Wenger knows it and is working hard to secure a signing.

If those two deals come off, I think you can look back at our summer as being OK transfer wise. Chamakh looks the real deal, and Koscielny was decent against Liverpool without being spectacular. Probably what you want from a centre back. And we will challenge for the title. We saw this weekend just how frail The Shit are, Spuds can’t score for toffee, Citeh are still getting to know each other’s names and Liverpool looked pants against them. Our big challenge will be free-scoring Chelsea, when we meet it could be a goal-fest. If we get those two signings in, we stand a much better chance of keeping the score low, and thus increasing our chances.

Theo celebrates his first hat-trick for the Arsenal

ONTU Prediction: 20th, Relegation Fodder

Match Prediction: 3-0

Score: 6-0; Walcott 12, 39, 58, Arshavin 32 (p), Diaby 49, Chamakh 83.

In a weekend awash with goals, the Gunners took the opportunity to temporarily leap to the top of the league with a 6-0 thumping of newly promoted Blackpool. The Arsenal line-up had an understably more attacking feel to it than the game against Liverpool. Walcott and Rosicky regained starting births, perhaps following their form as second half substitutes at Anfield. Song replaced Koscielny in the heart of defence, Eboue dropped to the bench. That meant no starting places for Fabregas or Van Persie, Wenger perhaps keeping his two biggest stars fresh for bigger challenges to come.

Blackpool started in a positive way, and not an entirely defensive formation – brave tactics indeed for a club who we hadn’t faced in top flight competition for nigh-on forty years. And it would be their undoing. We cut through them at will; our sparkling midfield and industrious frontman, Chamakh, pulling the Tangerine defence about as if on strings. At the heart of this, was undeniably Tomas Rosicky. Improving on his cameo last week, the man was the fulcrum that almost every Arsenal move came through. Short, intelligent passes sending Walcott, Arshavin and Chamakh away time and time again – and it was only a matter of time before the breakthrough came. A sweeping move across the park, played through Rosicky, ended with Theo; unmarked inside the Blackpool box – sweetly dispatched into the bottom corner. The move had all the trademark Arsenal moves about it; pace, precision and skill – plus a new one, a sure finish from Walcott.

It’s Theo’s name that made all the back pages come Sunday, and not without good reason – he was excellent for us, probably his best game in Arsenal colours. His running was purposeful, his touch assured, his finishing clinical. In his post-match interview, he made all the right claims about it being time to push on, make good on the promise he has shown in all-too-small purple patches thus far. Surely, it is too much to claim that the boy has come good off the back of one stellar performance against middling opposition; but the signs were there that some of the biggest criticisms had been addressed. His running, whilst retaining its electric pace, also had direction – bursting through the defence for his third a prime example. His decision making too showed much improvement; only a rare time in this game did he shoot when the pass was on, or float the cross when a pull-back would do. I’ve always believed that Theo needed confidence in order to play at his best week in, week out. If this performance doesn’t give him that, well – I don’t like to think about it.

For the second match in succession, our opposition were the victims of a sending off. This time, I think the ref had no choice but to send Evett off – but first contact was outside the box, no penalty for me. Arshavin dispatched a bullet for 2-0. I disagree with Ian Holloway in that the red card changed the game – it didn’t. Arsenal were always looking likely to rip Blackpool limb-from-limb, prior to the penalty Chamakh and Walcott had fired us close – this was always destined to be a one sided affair. The Gunners did exactly as I’d called for in the preview, burst out of the blocks and stamped their authority over the game from the get-go. Chance after chance created and no let up at 3, 4 or even 5 to the good. Theo’s second and our third came before half time – another crisp move culminating in a turn-and-shoot, the finish again finding the bottom corner.

That goal, and many of our chances were borne out of a desire in our own half to be first to the ball. The centrebacks, Wilshere and Diaby, had a good game – breaking up play, putting tackles in and propelling us forwards at pace. It looks like the lads who started the game had a superb level of fitness, perhaps another reason why they edged out Van Persie and Fabregas from the starting lineup. Sagna gave further evidence to this, beating the dreadful Blackpool full back and delivering a wonderfully weighted ball that Diaby powerfully caressed in for the fourth goal. Diaby was much improved all round from his performance against Liverpool, and I’m looking forward to a good season from him. Theo’s hat-trick goal was the pick of the bunch though. Diaby and Sagna were involved again, the former picking out another superb piece of running from Walcott – who collected the pass, beat two Blackpool defenders and threaded a fine finish to beat the despairing Gilks.

The final sign-off belonged to new boy Chamakh, who in his two games has shown exactly why he’s been worth waiting for. In the Liverpool game he held the line admirably on his own, and caused Reina to make the mistake gifting us a point. This time out he was much more involved, a definite end-point for moves flowing around him. His link-up play was excellent, and should have scored at 1-0 when Walcott played him through – the shot screwed wide. He got his first competitive goal from a corner – rising unmarked and heading downwards, a final flourish. I haven’t even mentioned the fact that Fabregas and Van Persie came on – well they did, fitted into the play instantly and got a resounding reception from a clearly adoring crowd.

It’d be easy to overstate how good we were on Saturday. Blackpool defended terribly, and gave our players time and space to do more or less what they wanted. However the signs were there that we’ve improved on last season. We’ve hopefully got our killer instinct back – there were virtually no signs of letting Blackpool back into this, and that’s heartening, especially given our record against Premier League new boys. Our midfield is firing, and looks the best in the league at the moment, and that’s without Fabregas! The only storm cloud I see on the horizon is that this will undoubtedly give other clubs an idea of how to play against us, particularly at the Emirates – come and shut up shop. Attempt to play football or attack and you’ll get mullered – we’ll have to get better at breaking down teams that won’t give us the time and space Blackpool did, and that has been a problem. However – we should enjoy this result, regardless of opposition because this was a vintage Arsenal performance – and here’s to more to come.

How did you rate our performance? Let me know in the comments box!

Will Blackpool leave the Gunners feeling tangoed?

As the club prepares for our first home game of this new season, we take on the Championship play-off winners Blackpool. The club clad in tangerine produced the surprise result of the Premier League’s opening weekend, thrashing an abysmal Wigan 4-0, away from home. They continue their travels this weekend, whilst their ground has upgrades completed. Are Blackpool capable of extending their good start at the expense of the Gunners?

In short, no. Blackpool faced a side last weekend who I predicted to finish one place above them in the league, both propping up the league at the foot of the table. Arsenal will present a completely different proposition. We play with pace, guile and with players who are on a different level. We’ve had problems with the Premier League’s ‘smaller’ clubs over the last few seasons, even at home – and I’m thinking the only thing that can beat us this afternoon is ourselves.

If we play with confidence, and race out of the blocks we should be out of sight before Blackpool will have a chance to realise where they are. Allow Blackpool into the game, even for a few minutes and their resolve will stiffen and they will become another of those teams that successfully park the bus, and then the danger of them sneaking something from a set piece could arise. I’d expect Arsene to field an attacking side, possibly a 4-4-2 looking something like this:

——————– Almunia ——————–

Sagna — Djourou —- Vermaelen — Clichy

———————- Song ———————-

Walcott ———- Rosicky ———- Arshavin

——– Van Persie ——— Chamakh ——–

I think it’s vital to play a front two, we’re bound to get plenty of chances, and we need people to finish them. If we won’t play with a two guys permanently up front against the Premier League’s newest club, then I doubt we ever will. I’d like to hope that Rosicky gets the reward for his excellent second half against Liverpool, likewise Walcott ahead of Eboue. Wenger hints that Fabregas won’t start whereas he does for Song and/or Djourou – making me think that Song will come in for Diaby and our young Swiss will cover the suspended Koscielny.

A clean sheet would be a welcome morale boost for Almunia, who I expect to continue in goal, and as much as I hate to hold the same opinion as Mark Lawrenson, a score of 3-0 would represent a decent afternoon’s work for the Gunners – and I’d like to see both Chamakh and Van Persie on the scoresheet.

The clock returns!

The Emirates will see a welcome return to the named stands of Highbury for the first time this game, including the naming and installation of the revered Clock End. I wish I was going to be at the Emirates for this – most of the games I saw at Highbury were in that end, and I always felt that just calling the bits of the ground quadrants didn’t cut it. I know it’s only semantics, but we’re a club with wonderful history and we should be proud to have it emblazoned across our stadium, much like the scenes from our past that now adorn the walls. It’ll all help build the Emirates into a true Fortress Arsenal, just as Highbury once was.

I’ll finish up today with a little gripe regarding our transfer policy. It is being reported that in our bid to land both Mark Schwarzer and Sebastien Squillaci we’re under-valuing and under-bidding. In both cases I believe the figure is around £2 million. For a club as financially strong as we are, I find this galling – and a little hypocritical. We held onto captain Cesc this summer, some believe, as Barca wouldn’t meet our valuation – which is exactly what Fulham and Sevilla are doing, and for a lot smaller gap in moolah. I think it’s a good thing that Wenger has been financially prudent over the years, securing incredible deals for most of our players. However, he and most of us have identified immediate gaps in our squad’s quality – a keeper and a centre back. Arsene has identified players to fill those gaps, now stump up and land them!

]]> http://oneniltous.wordpress.com/2010/08/21/arsenal-vs-blackpool-preview/feed/ 0 wagert http://oneniltous.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/squillaci-on-the-brink-of-becoming-a-gooner/ http://oneniltous.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/squillaci-on-the-brink-of-becoming-a-gooner/#comments Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:36:41 +0000 wagert http://oneniltous.wordpress.com/?p=105 Continue reading →]]>

Getting stuck into Barca - may as well be a Gooner already

So, as we approach the game with Blackpool it seems likely that we’ll be new signing-less by then. There’s yet more names being thrown into the frame, particularly (and somewhat unsurprisingly) from the French contingent. Prime amongst them is Sebastien Squillaci, a French central defender plying his trade at Sevilla. There’s some blogs out there describing him as an unknown, which I think is somewhat unfair – he’s a regular in the Sevilla side that finished 4th in last season’s La Liga, and has been capped by Les Bleus 20 times. Yes, he’s 30 – but isn’t our defence crying out for experience? And let’s remain dwelling in the real world for now, doesn’t the rest of our first choice back line communicate in French? It’s all well and good pining after a Cahill or Jagielka but what tongue do Clichy, Sagna and Vermaelen all converse in? He’d be an excellent capture – I’m much more excited about his signature than I would be about Mertesacker, Hangeland or most of the other foreign legion being bandied about. And – interestingly Squillaci has disappeared from Sevilla’s Wikipedia page, a sure sign? He was also left out of their last game, and the club are confirming that Arsenal are making bids for the player – but they’re insufficient. Sound familiar?

The other interesting name is the wonderful Marseille talent Hatem Ben Arfa, the winger who rose to fame playing alongside Karim Benzema in the Lyon side a few years back. I’m not particularly sure there’s much mileage in this rumour, after all our midfield is a congested as it is, and I’m not sure he’d fit into the current system we have. The same argument to not purchase could have been applied to both Joe Cole and Mesut Ozil, and look where they’ve both ended up; not in Arsenal colours. There’s always that argument to acquire players of the class of Ben Arfa, Ozil and Cole and adjust the system to make it work, but that’s not really the Arsenal way. All I’d see Ben Arfa doing is stunting the progress of Walcott further, as it’d be more than likely his place in the squad that got used. Can’t see that happening.

And finally, I’ll chuck my 2p into the bottomless bucket on the goalkeeper debate. If Given is available, he’d be my choice. He’s got a few more years on him than Schwarzer, and in my opinion an all round better keeper. However, if he’s only available on loan does that change things? Probably not for me, who knows where we’ll be in 12 months time. Schwarzer will do, at least he’ll be coming from a position of relative confidence, but there’s no way I’d be wanting to swap Vela for him, as some news channels are purporting.

Which of the rumours do you think carry the most weight? Let me know in the comments!

Liverpool have their parade Reina-ed on

Oppostion: Liverpool
ONTU Prediction: 5th, Europa League Challengers
Score: 1-1, Ngog 46 / Reina OG 90+1

Welcome to the first match report of the new Premier League season, and probably it’s regular time spot. Unlike a lot of the other Gooner blogs out there, I’m not sure any of you readers need a blow-by-blow account of what happened – we all saw it did we not! – and you’ve stopped by for some opinion. Well, I certainly hope to provide that and hence the delay – I need a bit of time to formulate my opinion in order to give it balance and stop it being quite so reactionary. Anyway, preamble over – let’s get down to business.

Before the game I’d have settled for a point. Liverpool, despite a poor season last term, are not an awful team and would have come into the game tails up – home game, new signings, new manager – renewed hope. We were roughly in the same state; fresh from a largely successful, but defensively shaky pre-season; Fabregas and Wenger staying with the club and two exciting new signings in Koscielny and Chamakh. The stage was set for a great game between two old rivals, but not in my opinion particularly looking like a guaranteed Arsenal win.

We lined up a now-familiar 4-5-1 with Chamakh leading the line supported by Eboue and Arshavin with Wilshere, Diaby and Nasri completeing the five man midfield. At the back we have what is likely to be our regular back four this season of Clichy, Vermaelen, Koscielny and Sagna. Between the sticks started the maligned Almunia, also captaining the team. And that raised my first hackles. Why name a keeper who you’ve demonstrated nothing but perfunctory confidence in as your captain? It rings as a transparent attempt to belatedly instill belief in the man who in all likelihood will be firmly number 2 before the end of August. I’d be naming Vermaelen as captain now, in readiness for Cesc’s eventual departure. The guy is a natural leader – as he quickly demonstrated smashing a low free kick for our first attempt on goal.

Sticking with our defence, I think we did OK. The understanding will come between them as we progress through the season and our next few games should give them that opportunity as we face somewhat weaker opposition. However, the aerial bombardment did still cause problems and it’s fair to say that Koscielny has better ability on the deck than in the air. Worrying, that. He was deservedly shown the first yellow, poor challenge for sure, and you can’t stick your hands anywhere near the ball so he probably had to go – sad, but at least he’ll only miss the game against Blackpool (probably). Clichy and Sagna were solid at the back, and under-used going forward. For the goal, the team needs to take some of the blame – we can’t afford to go back to dicking about on the edge of the box when a straightforward ball out will suffice.

Ngog - not a Hanson song - beats Almunia

However, the majority of blame must lie on Almunia’s already weighted-down shoulders. When in the world do great keepers get beaten at their near post, no matter how stinging the shot might be? Never. Having spent Saturday afternoon agog at Joe Hart’s string of superb stops it becomes even more imperative that Wenger goes out and gets a good goalie. Whether that be Schwarzer or Given (nice pun on MOTD2, did anyone else notice that?) it needs to happen, and sharpish. That Fulham decided to play an untested stopper in preference to Schwarzer must be a good sign for us.

Going forward we were much better. I thought our midfield was a little inbalanced by playing Diaby, Wilshere and Nasri in the middle – too attacking focussed. Wilshere was rewarded with a start following an excellent pre-season and a first senior national cap but generally looked a little off the pace. As too, somewhat unsurprisingly given his relative lack of fitness, was Andrei Arshavin. With Song amongst the subs on a strong Arsenal bench, I would have perhaps dropped Eboue in favour of Song – pushing Nasri further forward – one can only guess that Alex was short of fitness. Eboue was pretty ineffectual, plenty of running but also plenty of the theatrics that don’t impress me at all. Nasri showed some delightful play, although a little narrow, and was probably my man of the match.

Cole, bemused as he's used to blue not red.

On the subject of theatrics… let’s address that Cole on Koscielny challenge. Arch-Scouse Gerrard seemed to claim after the game that our new signing over-reacted to Cole’s challenge and that he was surprised to see him second half. Whilst I’m not sure I agree with him on that, I would go along with the two manager’s opinions that Cole was harshly dismissed. It’s an overly-enthusiastic challenge, not a leg breaker (if you want to see one that almost was look at Craddock-Jones incident in the Wolves/Stoke game) – but it looked rash and the ref probably had little choice. All I keep coming back to is had that been say, Nasri on Johnson and he’d been dismissed I’d have been incensed.

That changed the outlook on the game and from then on we should have pressed for a win. Then we go a goal down, already discussed that. Our reaction though was excellent. Qucik and decisive substitutions from Arsene, and boy did Rosicky and Walcott make a difference. The piece of interplay that put Rosicky through the Liverpool defence was a thing of beauty, and if we can keep Tomas in that form he’ll finally fulfil his promise in an Arsenal shirt. Theo also got in on the action with a fierce free kick that drew another excellent stop from Reina.

And then our reward. With Chamakh ploughing a lonely furrow upfront, deprived of genuine quality final delivery (Theo guilty again, I’m afraid – but certainly not alone) he receives a ball in the air in injury time, gets up and knocks the ball against the post which Reina spills. A certain poetic justice after his daft stunt putting a Barca shirt over Cesc? Maybe, but also proof that a lot of money doesn’t buy you a faultless keeper. The difference is that this will probably the worst of Reina’s season. I’m sure Almunia’s is still to come.

Satisfied with a point, satisfied with the performance. Some of the gremlins remain, but there’s enough evidence to show that we’ll be there or there abouts for some time yet. After all, we started without Fabregas, Van Persie, Bendtner, Song, Denilson – our best is definitely still to come.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the game in the comments below.

9. Birmingham
Last Season: 9th
Manager: Alex McLeish

Birmingham were incredibly consistent last season, and a great run of form put them easily into the top half of the table. A fair deal of that was down to excellent performances from the defence, particularly Hart in goal. With England’s new #1 replaced by Ben Foster, you might think they’d leak a few more this season – I’m as yet unconvinced by him. The beanpole of Zigic up front should bring a few goals, and I think with the stability and nous that McLeish brings they’ll be safely midtable again.

8. Aston Villa
Last Season: 6th
Manager: ?

Way to hit the self-destruct button Villa. O’Neill certainly had his faults, not least controlling the club’s spiralling wages – but for him to leave just days before the start of the season will damage the club’s chances significantly. Couple that to the fact that about to lose James Milner, one of Villa’s (and England’s) most consistent performers over the last 12 months and I see them slipping down the table and missing out on a Europa League spot. When Milner’s millions hit the bank account the new manager will have to act fast to cover what is already a fairly small squad. And who will that manager be? I’d like to see Alan Curbishley have another crack but I have a feeling Lerner might go patriotic and appoint Bob Bradley.

7. Everton
Last Season: 8th
Manager: David Moyes

Moving up a spot from last year, and into the Europa League placings are Everton. There’s been little change in their squad for 2010/2011 and that’s not through our lack of trying! Moyes is an astute man, and his squad has real quality in most areas of the pitch. Jermaine Beckford adds cover to a frontline that sometimes goes missing, but with Cahill, Pienaar, Arteta and Fellaini behind them all contributing they’ll get some strong results this year.

6. Spurs
Last Season: 4th
Manager: Harry ‘Got A Twitch’ Redknapp

Ah. Our greatest rivals. I’m predicting them to go down two notches, and saying to the Spuds – enjoy your Champions League football – it may be the last you see of it for a while. Most of the rumours around transfers have been for ex-Gooners (Gallas, Hleb etc) and they’ve just been outspent by clubs all around them this summer. They’ve still got a strong side, and on their day they can, and probably will, get amongst the bigger teams and get some good results. Probably against us. Bastards.

5. Liverpool
Last Season: 7th
Manager: Roy Hodgson

Can Liverpool be any worse than last season? An abject term has seen the club definitely lose it’s ‘Big 4′ status, although to whom is another matter. With Benitez gone the amiable Roy Hodgson has come in, bringing with him Christian Poulsen to replace the Milan-bound Mascherano, and also Joe Cole who I’d have dearly loved to see grace the hallowed shirt of Arsenal instead. Two bigger coups for Hodgson are the re-commitment of Torres and Gerrard and with those two fit and on form, Liverpool will climb back up the table a bit, and probably hand out some hidings to teams who embarrassed them last time. Not quite enough for Champions League football though.

4. The Shit
Last Season: 2nd
Manager: Alex Ferguson

As you can see, I can’t type or say the name of this club. My youth was spent surrounded by shit fans, the club dominating English football at the time has left an indelible hatred. However, trying to look at their chances objectively I think they’ll go backwards this year. Although Hernandez looks a useful signing, they’ve not done enough to bolster that ageing midfield, and with Ferdinand out their defence is threadbare too. Upfront they obviously have the mercurial Rooney but at times last season he just didn’t get the support. Nani and Valencia are good, but not great,and don’t contribute enough goals. What’ll hurt shit fans the most though is to see the next team above them.

3. Manchester Citeh
Last Season: 5th
Manager: Roberto Mancini

The nouveau riche are coming! Manchester Citeh have spent this summer like money is going out of fashion. The players they have bought are very good; Yaya Toure, David Silva and new in today Mario Balotelli in particular grab your attention. With all these players inevitably comes problems – how do you make them gel, play together like a cohesive unit and stop them routinely chucking their toys out of the pram? I don’t think Mancini will be able to do it in time to make the team genuine title contenders this season, but with them taking more points of the big clubs with their big game players – it’ll make the top much closer. Comfortable Champions League qualification this season, with hopefully two gubbings of the Shit… who knows next season.

2. Arsenal
Last Season: 3rd
Manager: Arsene Wenger

So here we are. One step up the podium, yet just shy of the top prize. Why? I think we all know the reasons – we need a new keeper and some more bodies in the centre of our defence. Reasons to be cheerful – we look incredible going forward, goals will not be a problem yet again, Chamakh looks excellent and we’ve got Cesc Fabregas. Reasons we won’t hit the heights – same as always, we can’t defend set pieces, our players are physically a bit slight and prone to injuries, do we have the bottle for Bolton away on a wet February night? For me we’re better than last season – the players have one year more experience, Arshavin, Nasri and Van Persie are verging on world class and we’ve got some of the most exciting English youngsters out there. We have a real chance to do something special this year, and no-one’s really looking our way. Rise to the challenge Gooners – prove me wrong, make it the top step.

1. Chelsea
Last Season: 1st
Manager: Carlo Ancelotti

Still the team to beat. The one worrying aspect of the summer for Chelski fans was allowing Carvalho to leave, which leaves them short of some technique at the back. Cech isn’t the same keeper he was, Terry’s a little short of pace. However you look a bit further forward and that’s where Chelsea’s real damage lies. A superb midfield, bolstered by the return of Essien will again provide plenty of ammunition for the League’s best striker (and yes, that includes Rooney) in Drogba. If we can beat them at home and take points of them away, that could decide it. However, the last few seasons haven’t gone that way. The chinks are starting to show though, the team were cack in pre-season and were well beaten by the Shit in the Charity Shield. It’s going to be intense.

So there we have it. My predictions for the league this year. Agree? Want to shout at me for putting the Gooners second? Then fire away – the comments section is below.

Yes! Yes! Yes! I am staying - how many more times!

Good news fellow fans – Arsene is close to sorting his shit out with the board and will remain manager of the greatest football club in the world shortly. The BBC are currently running with the story as their top news item, as it should be.

“I have to show how much I believe in this team by showing my commitment,” said Wenger. “My situation will be sorted out very soon.“

He continued:

“I believe my commitment to the club has nothing do with the speculation of how the season would go, because that would be unfair. If I do not do well, and one day the club is not happy with me I can completely understand that I do not stay here any more. But I believe we will do well.“

Arsene has many detractors amongst the fanbase, but his work for the club has been incredible – from the very smallest detail to the whopping palace of football at Ashburton Grove. Him staying is an indicator to all at the club that he still believes in the methods he has stood by for all his time here, and in the players he has here. You’ve gotta think that this might have been different had Cesc gone.

What a boost for the team before Sunday – and a great moment for the club. Let’s share Arsene’s belief! Onwards Arsenal!

13. West Ham
Last Season: 17th
Manager: Avram Grant

West Ham have been through the mixer of late, with all manner of owners and off-the-field financial shenanigans. Fans will hope that the guys in charge now will bring stability, and a push on up the table. I don’t see them in a relegation scrap this time around, and with toad of toad hall back in charge I don’t particularly see them challenging the top half either. They’ll be delighted to have kept hold of Scott Parker, who was unlucky (and therefore lucky) not to travel to the World Cup. Another team that must find a bit more in front of goal – keeping Carlton Cole is essential.

12. Stoke
Last Season: 11th
Manager: Tony Pulis

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Stoke’s problem last year was bursting the onion bag. They’ve looked to solve that by splurging on the return of former loanee Kenwyne Jones. It is a myth that Stoke are a long ball clogger team, they play some good football with an inordinate amount of passion and are nigh-on untouchable at home. Mark my words, a strike force of Fuller and Jones will gub a lot of defences this year, and Tony Pulis will be hot property come the end of the season.

11. Fulham
Last Season: 12th
Manager: Mark Hughes

Hodgson has left and in his place has come Mark Hughes, who would have easily matched Mancini’s achievements given time at Citeh last year. He makes his return at Fulham where his job will be to try and better Hodgson’s sometimes patchy league form. With no European adventure to distract, expect them to be a bit more solid and travel better. However, Hughes must keep his squad together, and add to it if possible, particularly upfront. Dempsey will look forward to continuing his excellent form, and Zamora must keep notching. However I think the big improvements may come next year.

10. Sunderland
Last Season:
Manager: Steve Bruce

I’m no fan of Steve Bruce or Sunderland but they looked a decent side at times last season. Bruce will need to replace Jones, but otherwise they’re largely a settled team and that will probably be enough to squeak them into the top half. Darren Bent and Craig Gordon at opposite ends of the park will have to stay fit and perform well if Sunderland are to push on.

Agree? Disagree? Have your say in the comments section below. Europa League Contenders later today, with the Big Four announced before the season kicks off tomorrow. Have a great day Gooners.

17. Wolves
Last Season: 15th
Manager: Mick McCarthy

Both Jay-Jay and Whit in the comments yesterday plumped for Mick McCarthy’s boys to replace local rivals West Brom in the final relegation place, and I think it will be really, really close between them. There’s two positives in Wolves’ favour that I think will keep them up by a gnat’s sac and they are a year’s worth of experience and Michael Kightly. They also have solid players in Hennessey, Milijas and captain Karl Henry – and if Sylvain Ebanks-Blake can bag some goals then they’ll be OK.

16. Bolton
Last Season: 14th
Manager: Owen Coyle

I hate to say this, so any errant Bolton fans floating out there reading this, navigate away now. Bolton are a nothing club. I had a hard time remembering them for this list, stuck for ages on 19 clubs thinking ‘who’ve I missed?’. They seem to survive season on season, despite their multi-million pound flop Elmander missing almost everything. Personally, I think that if weren’t for Jaaskelainnen and Allardyce’s success in the bargain basement they’d have been dead and buried years ago. It’ll be up to Owen Coyle to restore some of that fighting spirit Allardyce installed, but don’t expect fireworks – in terms of results or style.

15. Newcastle
Last season: 1st, Championship
Manager: Chris Hughton

Back where they belong? The legions of usually half-naked Geordies would have you believe so. However, they rightly went down, and have rightly come back up – they trounced the Championship last season from the very outset. They’ve also retained a lot of players with Premier League experience, and in Andy Carroll have a striker who’s right in the goals. Add to that the captures of Sol and Dan Gosling, solid players in Nolan and Taylor, a decent stopper in Harper and you’d think they’d survive with ease. They might struggle if the fans turn, which could be an issue if the season starts shakily.

14. Blackburn
Last Season: 10th
Manager: Sam Allardyce

Love him or hate him, and I have leanings towards the latter, you can’t begrudge the progress Allardyce makes with his teams. He took Bolton to Europe, and forgetting the miserable way he got treated at Newcastle, he gave Blackburn a badly needed solid season last time round. However, he’s shown little in the transfer market so far this year and will have to make do with a perfunctory squad again. I like Pedersen, and Kalinic showed some decent form at times too – getting goals may be the problem that prevents a higher climb.