At last, good riddance Emmanuel

The fact that I am absolutely delighted that Emmanuel Adebayor has left the club speaks as loud as any words about the Togoan striker's departure, whatever the real reasons for the protracted nature of the transfer, whether it was down to Adebayor trying to move to a decent club or trying to extort yet more money from the club in the form of 'loyalty' payments, I couldn't care less, we simply do not need players who aren't 100% committed to the club. Arsene has commented on the news, obviously he would never criticise Adebayor in public after his move; personally I suspect Arsene is saying one thing but thinking another, just remember that this is the manager who dropped Adebayor at the end of last season and who publicly refused to rule out selling him to a Premiership club. Arseblogger's take on events is spot on, Adeabayor dug his own grave because he became too big for his own boots and too greedy. Cunning work Arsene, we have got rid of a lazy waste of space and replaced him with a large cash sum. I'm just looking forward to the egos interacting at City, how on earth can Hughes keep Robinho, Bellamy, Santa Cruz, Tevez and Adebayor happy without playing a suicidal Ossie Ardiles formation? I wonder.

The pre season campaign started with a 2-2 draw at Barnet, we should obviously be careful not to read too much into these early games as the main thing is getting match fit and not getting results. It was great to see Tomas Rosicky back in action, if he can stay fit then his presence in the squad will definitely be like a new signing, the same obviously goes for Eduardo.
The game saw two very different sides in each half, Vermaelen played the full ninety on his debut and as expected quite a few of our youth cup winning side got a run out. Luke Ayling looked solid at centre back in the second half while Sanchez Watt looked sharp up front in the first half from the highlights, the match report can be read on the Arsenal site here. The boss was pleased with Thomas Vermaelen's performance and he did show some glimpses of his defensive ability as well as his neat left foot passing.

Arsene's interview after the game was particularly revealing, he spoke Adebeyor being a great player without laughing, so his poker face was in action yet again. When asked how close he was to bringing anybody else in, he started off with one answer saying 'we are not very close to bringing anybody else in......' but then he paused and smiled, he then spoke with a grin on his face 'if you mean.....oh.....we are not on the verge of signing anybody'. I would be very surprised if Arsene doesn't bring in at least one more new face, he is wise not to admit this in public, as with plenty of money in the kitty he would be foolish to give anything away. It really frustrates me when people read isolated quotes from Arsene and completely misinterpret them, the big grin on his face said far more than the words on their own.