[boundngag]

How long has it been since that happened last? Unbelievable! There are reasons to be optimistic; it looks like being a close season as there's not much between the teams, Giroud, Ramsey, Mertesacker and Jenkinson, have improved a lot, Vermaelen is still to come back, Sagna is a surprisingly good centre back and of course, Ozil is a world class player.

Having said that, I still think that Arsenal needed a centre back and a striker more than an attacking midfielder. They've needed another centre back for so long now, I find Wenger's refusal to address this somewhat baffling. However, that brings me to another positive - none of the other teams appear to be outstanding defensively, so this is not as big a problem as it was a few seasons ago.