It's a busy morning so let's get straight into it.

Arsenal appointed a new CEO yesterday. Ivan Gazidis will take up his new role in January after spending 14 years with the MLS. I'm not sure too many of us know a great deal about him. Chairman PHW gave the standard welcome while Gazidis himself said:

I relish the prospect of working with the key stakeholders to further propel the Club forward. It is nearly 16 years since I left the UK but I’m very much looking forward to returning in January.

I like that. 'Propel' is a good word. We could use some propulsion at the moment, no doubt about it, and it's about time we filled this role at the club. On tomorrow's Arsecast I'll be speaking to somebody who knows a bit more about Gazidis so tune in for that one.

Cesc Fabregas has been talking about his new role at the club and he'll be checking with Arsenal captains of the past to help him do the job as well as he can. He says:

I still speak on the phone to Thierry and I will ask him about it. I’d love to talk with Patrick about the job as well because he has so much experience.

He also talks about being inspired by Tony Adams, which is no bad thing when it comes to captaining a football team. On a more general level though he has set out the objectives for the season, saying:

I want to lift a trophy. It’s true that we are 10 points behind, so our immediate target is to win at Chelsea. Sunday is a good opportunity to get some points back and a couple of weeks after we have Liverpool at home. It is not over yet and it is up to us to finish where we will finish. We will see, at the moment nothing is done and we will fight until the end.

And that's the kind of spirit you want from your captain, that's exactly the attitude we need. Sunday is huge, no question, but there's plenty of time to talk about that. In the meantime something Cesc is going to have to deal with as captain is William Gallas and the continued fallout from his rant last week. The usually mild mannered Gael Clichy has accused the former captain of 'shattering' morale within the team. Gael says:

It has shattered something within the squad. It is something that should have remained between him and the boss even though there may be some truth in what William said. It is now down to the players and staff to glue the fragments back together and move on.

What William said was difficult, not only because he was the captain but because he is an experienced player.

It really is hard to see how Gallas has a long term future at the club, to be honest. At the moment the manager is being very pragmatic. He needs Gallas as a player because of injuries but if someone like Gael Clichy, who is usually a very positive person, has that to say about him then you can't help thinking there are others in the squad for whom the resentment burns much brighter. Whatever way you look at it that's not good and it's a problem you have to solve as a manager.

Maybe it's something that will repair itself with time but I suspect we'll move him on in January if we can identify a decent replacement. There's talk of Milan being interested, talk which Milan deny, but we know Italian clubs can tell a lie out of both sides of their mouth at the same time, especially when it comes to transfers. We'll see what happens though.

Nicklas Bendtner, who rather tongue in cheek (I hope) claimed to have always dreamt of wearing pink boots, is being linked with a £5m move to Spartak Moscow. There's a Danish connection there with Michael Laudrup the Spartak boss, but I'd be very surprised if it happened. Unless, of course, they give him that pair of diamond encrusted boots he so desires. Maybe we should get him a pair of ruby slippers and call him Dorothy.

Chairman PHW has given his backing to Arsene Wenger but this is not the usual dreaded 'vote of confidence'. He says:

Of course he has my backing. What he has done for the club over the last 12 years has been fantastic. You do not lose faith in a man like him after three or four bad results. It is a ridiculous suggestion really.

That seems very reasonable when it's put like that but there are still questions for the manager to answer. They may not be coming from board room level but the fans are asking them. I know there's an increasing amount of frustration with some fans about the way things are going but I can only speak for myself when I say I'd love nothing more than to see AW turn it around and start winning trophies again for Arsenal.

Right, that's about that. We should get some early team news today ahead of the trip to Stamford Bridge on Sunday so more on that tomorrow and in the Arsecast. In the meantime, have a good day.

Sometimes it's nice to see an old friend after a long absence and last night's 1-0 was just that. It's our first 1-0 since the opening day of the Premier League season and it will provide welcome relief to everyone this morning.

As a game it wasn't a feast of football by any means. We were pretty poor overall but with so many players out injured, confidence and form in the shitter, pressure on from all quarters and playing against a well organised defence who don't concede too often I'll take a 1-0 every single time. The goal came when Cesc fired a beautiful ball over the top for Nicklas Bendtner who controlled it well, looked for a moment to have taken it too wide but he slammed it home with his left foot to score the winner.

His pink boots might be ridiculous but it was an excellent finish and I was glad for him that he scored. He's been subject to quite a bit of stick in the recent poor run so hopefully the goal will do him some good. And hopefully it will do the team some good too. The objective last night was to qualify for the knock-out stages of the Champions League and we did that. We kept a clean sheet too and credit has to go to Manuel Almunia for keeping us in the game with an excellent save late in the second half, before we had scored.

There was a little bit of history made too with Jack Wilshere becoming our youngest ever player in European competition at 16 years and 329 days. He turns 17 on New Year's day. Well done to him.

Amy Lawrence quotes Arsene Wenger on the Arsecast every now and again where he says confidence is the easiest thing to lose in football and the hardest thing to get back. Yesterday was a baby step in getting some of our mojo back. The manager said afterwards:

Winning is a first step for us because the team needs a bit of reassurance and at least the win will give us that. I felt that it was a more steady than spectacular performance and for us it was important to come back to win the game.

New captain Cesc said:

The most important thing was the result. It was a difficult game because every team who comes here comes to defend and try to play on the counter attack. But we were patient and continued to play our football and in the end we scored the goal that we deserved.

And he also had praise for teammates Gallas:

It was difficult but you could that every time he [Gallas] touched the ball it was cheering him up and he was fantastic. He is a big professional and nobody doubts his commitment and he has shown that tonight again.

And Almunia:

Almunia has kept us in games four or five times now. He is growing in every game and is vital for us. Everyone respects him in the dressing room and he is gaining confidence so he is fantastic for us.

So a good start as captain for Cesc and his work at uniting the squad and getting everyone pulling together in the same direction has begun. And let's not forget how important his football is to us. There's nobody else in this team who could have played that pass to Bendtner for the goal last night, so to kick off his career as captain by talking the talk and walking the walk, so to speak, is good stuff.

Now, we're not necessarily shouting from the rooftops yet but it's good to get a win under our belts. It had been exactly two weeks since our last win (Wigan in the Carling Cup) and it now gives us a bit of a platform to work from ahead of Sunday's game against Chelsea. More on that in the days to come. Who will finally top our Champions League group comes down to the game against Porto on December 10th.

Elsewhere, while William Gallas's agent was saying the player had no plans to leave Arsenal, Kolo Toure was being somewhat cagey about his Arsenal future. Responding to speculation about a possible move to Manchester City in January, he said:

I am injured and need to get back to fitness. I have nothing to say about the transfer link, time will tell.

It could be just a throw-away comment but I would have preferred to hear him say something like 'I have nothing to say about the transfer link. I am just focussing on working hard to get back into the Arsenal team'.

Maybe we expect too much from players but you'd never have Kolo down as a quitter. I'm sure he's not enjoying things at the moment but he's not been the same player since he came back from the ACN last season. Still, the last thing we need to do is sell any of our players, especially the more experienced ones.

With January and the transfer window looming ever closer I think most of us are expecting, if not praying solidly for hours at a time, that the manager spends some money to improve the squad. When you hear him talking about how some clubs are 'living in dreamland' and making his second reference of recent times to the current world economic climate you do start to worry. I'm choosing to look at this in a positive way this morning though, no doom and gloom at all, it's obviously all part of his bargaining strategy. He's making other clubs think there's no money around so when he comes along and offers three bob and sixpence for a player they'll feel like they have to take it. Yes, that's what it is. That's what it is.

Right so, not much else happening so let us spend the day basking in the warm glow of a win, at last. Till tomorrow.

Lots of stuff still bubbling over from the Carling Cup game the other night.

Carlos Vela, hat-trick hero, shows he's got a good head on his shoulders by acknowledging that young players, despite being given their chance by Arsene Wenger, have to work hard if they want to make it at Arsenal. He also talks about the unity in the team, saying:

We are very close as a group of players. We have a strong friendship - it's almost like we are a family. You can see that from the way in which the team is playing.

And that's a big factor in a team's success. I know we've spoken before about how you don't have to be friends with somebody in order to play football with them, but if you are mates I think it makes a difference. You're willing to put in that bit extra.

Nicklas Bendter says the display of the youngsters has justified the boss's decision not to sign anybody before the end of the transfer window. The big Dane says:

There is talk about the strength of the squad and every year the boss says we have the players. They have showed they have the quality to do what is required. We are strong and capable enough. We are top of the table and are doing well.

There's a long way to go yet though. Bendtner has had a decent start to the season and his game looks to have become much more rounded. He's got a good eye for a pass and the technique to carry it out, he certainly knows where the goal is and more importantly he seems to be much better integrated into the first team this season. Keep it up, Nick.

And to complete the Carling Cup fun we have young Jack Wilshere being compared to Liam Brady by none other than Arsene Wenger. Well, by none other than other people whose comments Arsene Wenger has referenced, but I'd imagine those people are people know knew or played with Chippy down the years. Anyway, it's about time we had a new Liam Brady. We've had a new Vieira on more than one occasion, a new Tony Adams from time to time and Theo is, of course, the new Thierry Henry, but a new Liam Brady is something else. The manager is aware of the fact you can't put too much pressure on Wilshere but it's clear he's a very special talent. How far he goes is entirely down to him but he looks fantastic and he has a cheeky little scamp face. 

And while I don't want to go too overboard with the Carling Cup win as there's still a lot of football to be played this season, some of the results we've seen this week should put it in some kind of perspective. Fulham, Man City, West Ham and Villa all out to lower league opposition. Other Premier League clubs have merely scraped through so it's a good sign that we can do what we did on Tuesday night. 

The League Manager's Association has come to the defence of Arsene Wenger after the comments this week from UEFA President Michel Platini. It's been interesting to see how people have sided with Wenger on this one, even fans of teams who you wouldn't expect to back the Arsenal boss in any way. I suppose it goes to prove how misguided Platini's comments are. And for more on why he said what he did and his reasons make sure you tune in to tomorrow's Arsecast where I'll have an in-depth interview with France Football's Philippe Auclair to talk about Platini and our Carling Cup kids.

You might have seen that Chelsea have signed that bloke Mineiro that we had on trial with us. I suppose it illustrates brilliantly the difference between the two teams. Chelsea, short of a player in midfield, will not even consider giving a young player a chance, choosing instead to sign a guy who is basically at the tail end of his career. We had him on trial, didn't think he was good enough and now he's signed for Chelsea. How disheartening it must be to be a young player at Chelsea knowing you are never going to get near the first team. Not that I give a shit about them, nits make lice and all that.

Right, that's about that. Have a fun Thursday, if that's possible, and I'll talk to you on tomorrow's blog. 

Well, yesterday was certainly an interesting day with a match, a look at new boy Nasri and a new signing which sparked plenty of debate.

Let's start with the football and a 3-1 win over Stuttgart continued our pre-season preparations (Arsenalist has the goals and highlights). The first half was pretty dull but it gave a run out to Adebayor and van Persie up front and those 45 minutes will have done them some good. The Dutchman looked far sharper than his erstwhile colleague. Gallas started at the back alongside Djourou, Denilson in midfield with Eboue of all people, while Nasri and Walcott started on the flanks.

From what we saw of Nasri he looks quick, moves well, likes to have a shot (which is an obvious improvement on Hleb) and he can take a decent corner. I can remember Jens having to make a couple of good saves in the first half. The goals came in the second half though. Bendtner had come on and you could see what the previous couple of games had done for him. He looked quick, sharp and strong and he made the difference.

After we had gone behind it was he who ran and played a lovely ball through to Carlos Vela who took it wide and finished from a tight angle. The same two combined again for the second. Bendtner playing it into Vela, taking the return with his head and tucking it away smartly. I know he's had his critics but I think with regular playing time he could score a lot of goals in the season ahead.

The third came after typically tenacious work from Gael Clichy down our left. His cross came to Jack Wilshere, who was impressive in his short cameo, and his left footed finish was very nice indeed. Probably not the kind of scoreline Jens was hoping for against us but there you go. It's about our pre-season and it seems to be progressing very nicely.

And while we keep stressing there's not too much to be read into these games it's good to see some of the younger players really take their chances. Vela looks very useful indeed and Bendtner I've mentioned above. Walcott too looked quick and direct and while I've been very impressed with young Jack I think we need to bear in mind he's just gone 16 and we'd do well not to raise expectations too high. Let's give him time and let's keep the pressure off him.

Afterwards, and speaking about strikers, the boss said:

We're not as short of strikers as people thought. Vela is integrating very well into the team and Bendtner was already a force at the end of last season . . . and he will confirm that this year. Overall, we are still maybe one player short. But up front we don't need anybody.

Can't argue with that although I don't think we needed a striker anyway, now that Adebayor appears to be staying anyway. It's midfield where most of us think we need the signing and yesterday's news that we had signed Amaury Bischoff was met with ...erm... not much excitement? Is that fair?

His name was linked with us a a few weeks back and on the face of it, it seems like a typical Wenger signing. Nobody's ever heard of him, he has some French heritage, nobody's ever heard of him and he's cheap. It's hard to work out why we've bought him though. His professional record amounts to one professional game for Werder Bremen, and that was 16 minutes as a substitute. He's not a kid either. He's 21 years of age, compare the amount of games Cesc or Nasri or Walcott (by the time he's 21) have played and it seems most odd indeed.

I suppose if he's a cheap gamble who is not being counted on for the first team but who might play the odd Carling Cup game then there's no real problem with his signing. What has people worried is the idea that this might be the one signing Arsene Wenger was talking about. With some time having passed and being a little less cranky and full of wine as I was yesterday, I can't see that being the case. We're short in central-midfield, no question about it. You only have to look at the fact we played Eboue in there last night. Where is Diaby this pre-season? Injured, probably, which just about sums him up.

Perhaps Bischoff will surprise us all and turn out to be another gem unearthed by the boss. Perhaps he might establish himself as a decent squad player. Perhaps though, we're looking at another Alberto Mendez or Stefan Malz. And if I had to put money on it now I think that's where it would be going. I still think we'll make a signing in midfield simply because it's obvious to everyone that we need to. There are plenty of Arsenal sites out there, many of us differ in opinion, but I think this must be something everyone agrees on. And if it's obvious to us surely, surely, it's obvious to the boss.

Speaking of midfielders it looks like we're in for quite the windfall from the sale of David Bentley. Reports this morning suggest we could make as much as £7m from the deal which really is a brilliant bit of business. And Bentley confirms his status as a proper little cunt by joining Sp*rs. He'll probably be joined by Arshavin who has always dreamed of Barcelona, would love to play for Arsenal but is settling for them because nobody else wants him. I bet it will have always been his dream to follow in Rebrov's footsteps and let's hope he does exactly that.

Cesc talks about that game at Birmingham and while he says Gallas is a 'great' captain and says he has a lot of respect for him, he also says he's ready to take over the armband. You already know what I think about that so there's no point me going on about it. To me though it's telling that he references the Birmingham game. I know that it wasn't all Gallas that day, that the players would have been affected by what happened to Eduardo and the blow of the late penalty, but my point is that someone with real leadership skills would have dragged them out of that slump much more quickly.

Manuel Almunia says he has a lot of respect for Jens Lehmann but then makes it very clear that he's enjoying life without him. When he says himself, Fabianski and Mannone are three 'very nice guys' it doesn't take much to work out what he means.

And that's about it. The squad return to London to prepare for the Emirates Cup this weekend. They'll hook up with Kolo and Cesc ahead of the games against Real Madrid and Juventus which will provide more good tests for us, bearing in mind, of course, that their pre-season preparations are a week or two behind ours.

All the same I'm looking forward to seeing the games, they are on TV right? Final thought - the new away kit looks fucking brilliant, eh?

Till tomorrow.