Slightly bemused

So England again failed to look anything near the sum of their parts, gaining a rather fortunate 2-2 draw against a distinctly average Czech side at Wembley. It could have been predicted from the team line up, how on earth Capello selected Beckham on the right and no proper left midfielder on the left was beyond me. This resulted in a starting side with no genuine pace or width in midfield, why on earth a David Bentley, Joe Cole or Ashley Young did not start was beyond me. Then again I don't really mind what happens to the national side, I just feel rather complete apathy when it comes to this bunch of underachieving primadonnas.

So as expected Mikael Silvestre has signed for Arsenal, many people (including myself) have been very surprised by this move, and some have been rather underwhelmed to say the least. My mind has yet to be made up, it will largely depend on Silvestre's fitness and how Arsene plans to use him. If he is to be used as cover for our centre backs and Gael Clichy then I think it's a shrewd move, he'll add an old head to the squad as well as his versatility. However if he is to be used as a first choice centre back, and Toure is to be moved into midfield then I will be more than a little disappointed. In reality I don't think really knows what Arsene has planned, we are just listening to idle speculation at the moment.

Some clues will come this weekend in the form of the line up for the Fulham game, Alex Song has returned after some promising work at the Olympics, while Traore has gone out on loan to Pompey for the season; Silvestre's arrival gives Traore a great chance to go out and get some experience in order to push on. There are so many ifs and buts at this stage that it's hard to get a solid feeling for the season ahead. 'If' the likes of Diaby can get fit and stay fit, while if our longer term injured such as Rosicky and Eduardo can do the same; we have a very strong squad indeed. However if they cannot get fit, and Cesc suffers a run of niggling injuries and our new man becomes a regular on the treatment table, then we are not looking particularly clever. Whatever happens, at least I won't have to watch England every weekend.