Not a particularly strong effort on the defensive side of things, those Lazio crosses came too close too often for my comfort. Rosicky was invisible, I even forgot he was playing halfway through the match. Eduardo looks to be a steal at £8 million, he’s a complete player and with Bendtner in there, we look to have a ground and aerial threat.

Senderos was captain today but more importantly he saved Almunia’s ass after he came out and was completely beaten, Senderos’ diving tackle prevented Lazio from going up 1-0. And yes, I’d rather have Sendros as captain than Gallas.

Those third shirts are very, very hideous. Check the match report.

Nicklas Bendtner 1-0 - Tough angle shot.

Goran Pandev 1-1 - Piss poor attempt at a clearance. Almunia should’ve still done better.

Eduardo da Silva 2-1 - Good strong downward header. His first goal at Arsenal.

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Lukas Fabianski’s a confident little fucker, he says he’s expecting competition for the starting job. No shit, eh? Apparently training with Lehmann is pretty intense - I can well imagine, the man is a psycho - but he’s enjoying the competition. Lukas hopes to have the starting job but knows Lehmann’s going to get it:

“We will see what the near future will bring. I know that it won’t be easy to become a first-choice keeper but it never was easy and I expect some tough competition. I know that Lehmann is in a better position than me but it doesn’t worry me at all.”

Something tells me we shouldn’t be discounting Almunia who has looked sharp so far albeit in preseason. Take comfort in knowing that William Gallas would love to be Arsenal captain given the chance. The man who has shown the knack of opening his mouth at the most inopportune of time says:

“I am 30 years old and I want to have more responsibilities both for my club and for the national team. I am attracted to the idea of giving advice to the youngsters, to leading a group.

That’s great to hear from a veteran player but I don’t think anybody wants to see Gallas as captain no matter how much faith he’s showing in the team. I’d much rather have Toure or Gilberto wearing the armband since they’ll have more poise and character if things start to go south. Anybody can be captain when things are going great, it’s when you lose at home to West Ham and get kicked out of the Champions League that the true value of a captain is seen. Giving the captaincy to Gallas would be like letting the grumpy male steward fly the plane just because the pilot feels sorry for him.

More confident talk coming from Robin van Persie yesterday, same old “we can win the league” stuff. Nice to hear but nothing exciting. He’s saying there’s no pressure to fill the goal scoring void left by Henry and that he just needs to “play good football”. I like humble people who know the value of team but I’d much rather him come out and say, “I want to be top scorer and will do so within the context of the team because I am that good”. That would make everybody feel a lot better, don’t you agree? I mean we all know he has to play good football and let the chips fall where they may, but having the desire of being top scorer can’t be that bad.

Kerrea Gilbert is off to Southend on a six month loan deal after being on loan to Cardiff last year. At least he’s going to get consistent playing time. The Gunnerblog’s got some lessons learned from the Emirates Cup while Arsenole is really happy Reyes is gone. We’re playing Lazio on Thursday, if my P2P doesn’t crap out, I hope to post highlights. So check back and get the feed, it’s harmless.

I just had to make a mini-post about this. We talk about Arsene Wenger signing “young” players, Man Utd just signed a 9 year old tot named Rhain Davis after his grandfather saw the chance to exploit his little grandson at the earliest of ages. Take a look at the YouTube and you can see what Ferguson saw in the kid. He’s obviously way above anyone else’s skill level.

Imagine running around in Grade 4 and telling all the girls you play for Manchester United. This kid’s getting laid as we speak.

David Beckham is not playing against Toronto FC. This is pretty shitty for anybody who paid $350 for a single ticket to watch Becks fire a few freekicks. Beckham didn’t even travel with the team to Dallas so if that happens again there goes any chance of seeing Posh in the stands here in Toronto. I’m just glad my bid to get tickets was unsuccessful.