Deadline day gives Gunners new ammo

WHEN the camera zooms in on a couple of pretty gals enthusiastically bouncing up and down during the break of a Brazil game, I usually assume that some letch behind the lens has spent the first-half seeking them out.

But on Sunday I saw with my own eyes that Brazil is not only just about the beautiful game’s biggest draw, but that they also seem to attract huge numbers of female footie fans, including masses of fair maidens, as opposed to the more buxom ‘geezer birds’ who’re perhaps more common on British terraces.

Naturally, I normally only have eyes for my own missus. Róna can confirm that I’m more like one of the two doddery old boys in that ancient joke about them watching the young fillies parade past on the seafront, as he ponders to his pal “I know I’m supposed to look, but I can’t remember why.”

There were few lulls in the fabulous balls skills on display in Sunday’s game between Brazil and Argentina at our new gaff, yet we certainly didn’t want for head-turning distractions during the occasional break in the marvellous entertainment.

Despite the fact that it might actually benefit the Arsenal in this instance, I still despise this break for the international double-headers. Especially as the authorities seem to have shoehorned it into the schedule as a regular occurrence. With a whole fortnight’s interruption so soon after the season has kicked-off, our two opening matches feel like a false start. Hopefully our transfer deadline-day business will boost the mood of the squad and ensure we go about our game with somewhat more aplomb second time around, as our season begins again against ’Boro (albeit with an eight-point handicap).

In hindsight, our uninspiring start was, perhaps, not so surprising. As our competitors tried to snuff out any complacency by shuffling their packs and playing their new cards, our first XI virtually picked itself. Our solitary fresh face wasn’t fit for the first game and although we might have saved a few quid by signing Rosicky prior to his couple of World Cup goals, any buzz resulting from his arrival had long since evaporated.

Still, it could be a lot worse as we’ve merely drawn one and lost one, whereas at White Hart Lane, Martin Jol has whacked up his total summer spending to £30 million, after losing two out of three. The way Jol’s been spending, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were the next chunk of our footballing culture to fall into the hands of an iffy East European oligarch (after West Ham!).

Following on from his indomitable efforts last season, everyone expected Flamini to continue filling in at left-back. Or, after he’d impressed in pre-season, perhaps the teenager, Traore. So it was puzzling that Wenger played the right-footed Hoyte. He hasn’t looked comfortable and is rapidly becoming the boo-boys’ latest victim. Initially I assumed Wenger might’ve felt obliged to include Hoyte after his return from Sunderland.

It’s a sign of the times that an all-foreign XI is no longer newsworthy, but it’s only just dawned on me that with Wenger’s cautious introduction of Theo Walcott for only brief cameo appearances, Hoyte is the only English player in the starting line-up. In fact, amongst the 33 players listed in the first team squad, there are only two other English kids, Connolly and Gilbert, with Gilbert loaned to Cardiff for the season. Our Irish starlet Anthony Stokes has joined Falkirk until January.

So, until such time as Walcott wins a starting place, or unless 16-year-old Mark Randall forces his way into the frame, it looks like the Arsenal will be playing for much of this season with a multi-national starting line-up, including players from every corner of the globe except this one.

Slightly gobsmacked, along with the rest of the footballing world, by the Hammers’ deadline-day coup, I was half-hoping the Argies’ arrival at Upton Park might be a prelude to us pinching Reo-Coker. But this would’ve been totally out of character for Wenger. The absence of British players in the squad is a reflection of Le Prof’s reluctance to spend his limited budget on the hugely inflated fees for inexperienced homegrown kids, when he can pick up proven foreigners for a fraction of the cost.

Ashley Cole? All that mattered to me was that our squad appeared substantially stronger than it had the day before and the thought that Blues fans might be feeling like they’d found a shilling and lost a pound was the icing on the cake.

The Reyes/Baptista arrangement was a no-lose swap in my opinion, as we’ve shifted the sulky Spaniard and in the Beast, we’ve got a player with all the physical attributes missing from our midfield. However, Baptista wasn’t exactly bulling to join the Gunners last summer and I only hope we haven’t got shot of a homesick José for an unhappy Julio. Who knows, perhaps the Brazilian teenager, Denilson, will turn out to be the bargain of the summer.

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