We really should have bought William Carvalho

[In Arsene we rust]

He would have been the best signing of all this summer. I was worried about Arteta and Flamini's lack of pace before the start of the season and the pair of them have been dreadful so far. AW needs to fix this January, god only knows why he gave Arteta the captaincy :-(

[Classic Jorge]

Personally I would've been happy with De Jong or even another backup CB so Chambers could play in front of the defence when called upon.

[In Arsene we rust]

...in todays game then you're f*cked basically. Arteta and Flamini cannot keep up with the pace of opposing teams, their main contribution is nothing more than the odd foul here and there. Neither defend that area in front of the centre backs at all, all you see is a big void for the opposition to run into.

[Mo Britain less Europe]

Gilberto left, well ok Song had one good season, and it's not longer a question of money. So what the f**k is it?

[Rich]

We will not be held to ransom by clubs over players and rightly so.

[Classic Jorge]

[Ben.]

but a lack of pace is one of the main things I hear labelled against Carvalho, have you seen Javi Martinez or Busquets run btw they're both slow (espcially Martinez).
As j said it's about taking up the inital position, besides I think our ridiculous gung ho full backs are just as big an issue in the big games.

Also he is owned by a third party and represented by Mendes meaning any deal is going to be complicated, we may have been better just going elsewhere and making sure we get it done.

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

One being that on occasions last season he stepped in and captained the side, another being his relative seniority and experience within the team/squad, another being his position in the side which is central both literally but also to the success of how the side plays.

Having decided to not replace him int he starting 11 he was the very obvious choice.

Another could have been the absence of other real options. I know some chaps have suggested Mertesacker.

[In Arsene we rust]

[In Arsene we rust]

The real downside to this is that AW will continue to play him because he is captain, not because he's worthy of being in the team.

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Or an experiment with Wilshere though Wenger in his praise for Jack on saturday did as much as he could to rule that out.

The obvious issue is the refusal to upgrade in the summer, however with the personnel we have until January at the earliest then Arteta is the best option. His captaincy doesn't add or take away from this.

I would not however expect anything to happen in January.

[barrybueno]

[Classic Jorge]

[redgunamo]

[barrybueno]

[In Arsene we rust]

I'm not asking us to sign an Olympic sprinter, but what we currently have in Arteta is a carthorse.
I also made the point of signing someone with pace or energy or both because of the way we play. You've only got to look at Dortmund's second goal to see how badly exposed we are once we give the ball away. If we were a more compact team this wouldn't be such an issue, unfortunately we have a bad habit of leaving ourselves stretched at times.
Nothing personal mate, just my opinion :-)

[redgunamo]

Like when we had Petit or Gilberto?

[Classic Jorge]

[redgunamo]

Considering they battered us, I mean.

[CrossGun]

[redgunamo]

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

One unfortunately not being either Arteta or Flamini.

[redgunamo]

It's not their fault our goalscorers haven't been up to sample.