Week Roundup

There isn't much happening at the moment. Oh apart from Nasri having fractured his Fibula. Initial thoughts were bad, then it was only going to be 3 months, now according to Wenger it could be as little as 6 weeks. If it is that little, then that's fantastic news, as he wouldn't miss any competetive matches. Some people have been calling for Wenger to dip into the transfer market to sign a replacement. That's unnecessary. We already have Rosicky, Walcott, Arshavin, Traore, Barazite and Merida who can play there. Diaby is also occasionally played on the wing on desperate occasions. Let's hope we're not that desperate.

Cesc is back at pre-season training in Austria, pictures of which can be found at the dot com. It looks like he's been given an intensive workout by himself before being allowed to join the rest of the team. Elsewhere, Wenger says Senderos' future is 'open' (what we already knew), and Arshavin says we must put the excuse of youth behind us, and fight in all competitions to win.

Arsenal played SC Columbia on Tuesday and won pretty emphatically 7-1. It started badly for Arsenal, as they failed to break down their opponents in the first half an hour. Then Silvestre passed back to Almunia (admittedly not the best back-pass but manageable nonetheless), Almunia took a first touch instead of hoofing it, and his first touch went about 5 metres in front of him. This allowed a Columbia forward to slide tackle Almunia, and the ball spewed into the goal. This was the incentive Arsenal needed. In fact, one could see it as a tactical masterstroke by Almunia. It's like Arsenal thought 'hang on, we're not losing against a fourth division Austrian team', and they promptly went up the other end and scored. I was mightly impressed with Bendtner, whose second goal was the epitome of cool. Ramsey also had a very impressive match. For his first goal, any other Arsenal player would have played a reverse ball into Nik B, but he shot instead. That kind of urgency and directness is what most other Arsenal players are lacking, and it's good to see (as long as it doesn't happen too much).

Arshavin still looked a bit overweight and he was huffing and puffing since the word go. Senderos played the second half in defensive mid, and he spent the whole half looking like a lost little lamb. He played there before, in a match of similar stature last pre-season, and I thought exactly the same thing then. Wenger looks to be continuing the burning-out of Denilson philosophy he started last year, by playing him every minute of every game. It's a shame Barazite wasn't taken to Austria with the first team, and instead stayed with the Reserves. That's a bit of a waste. And that's it.

'Til there is something noteworthy Gooners.