Seasons Greetings

The football season that is! After almost 3 months of boredom it's a relief to have proper football back. Ok, truth be told, the World cup made close season a little more bearable. But beyond that I am not sure. For me the World cup seems dull compared to the intensity of club football. For Arsenal, the season pretty much began yesterday with the Champions league qualifier win against Dinamo Zagreb, which brings me to the topic of Cesc Fabregas.

Amidst all the gloom of transfer window inactivity from Arsenal and the news of the imminent departures of Cole (or not!) and Reyes, Cescy Cesc is definitely a ray of sunshine. Is there a more mature young player than Cesc in world football today? Read his views on Reyes and Cole after the game yesterday.

If Cesc takes off where he started yesterday and contributes ten goals or more for the season we could have a very exciting season on our hands. I think Cesc chipping in with goals is going to be vital since for the first time in several seasons our flanks, from where we normally get a lot of our goals, will be full of fresh faces. With Pires gone and Reyes & Cole on the verge, it will pretty much be a new left wing. Hopefully Rosicky will continue the excellent service hitherto provided by them. On the right, it will probably be Helb and Eboue who are relatively new though last seasons champions league experience will be priceless for them. Lauren is due back only in a few months and I guess Ljungberg will never again be as fit and devastating as he was in 2002.

With Cesc chipping in, Henry staying and Van Persie better off because of his world cup experience hopefully the goals will start flowing. If Adebayor has improved his touch he could get a handful too. Most importantly the experience of last years champions league will have toughened our young guns. Throw in a sparkling new 60,000 seat stadium and it makes for an exciting season to look forward to. We probably need players in a few positions definitely but I will not go into details of where we need people and where we don't. You can read about all that and more from more informed gooners here and here. And I guess more than any gooner, Arsene Wenger is the best judge of whether we need more players. I remember last year I was sceptical of our kids (like lots of gooners were) and Arsene took us to the final of the Champions league. After all, Arsene Knows.