RIGHT, where are we ?
Just back from holiday, still yards off the pace, I'm asking myself : Where are we?
In better shape than a year ago !
Last August the team was shell-shocked by the sale of Patrick Vieira and didn't think they could win without Pat and had a rubbish start to the season and lost 11 Premiership games, which Arsene's Arsenal had never done before.
So a year ago Arsenal were in bad shape. The directors were cheesed off with Vieira for not going to Real Madrid for £23 million in 2004, so David Dein sold him to Juventus for £13 million in 2005, and Arsene didn't replace him, which traumatised the squad even more.
In the summer of 2005, Arsene bought one player, Hleb, and in 2006 he bought one player, Rosicky. Similar players.He always signs players of the same type, skilful passers who can play in several positions.
Kolo Toure and Cesc Fabregas are spinal, so they now wear No.5 and No.4, which is great. Their shirt numbers at last reflect their status, their value, their popularity.
So that is where we are. It's Thierry Henry's Arsenal, as we know. Thierry is the star and his team has been built round him for six years.
And Thierry Henry's Arsenal have moved to a new stadium with a much bigger pitch, where they will annihilate mediocre Aston Villa on Saturday, and beat Dinamo Zagreb again next week.
THE FIRST LEG of the Champions League qualifier was a game I watched in the Algarve and I saw enough to convince me that Arsenal will start the season by winning games.
Rosicky played in the Pires position on the left and Fabregas scored two goals in a 3-0 win and reminded me of Masopust, the Czech midfield ace who used to motor round midfield prompting attacks and make it look so easy.
Masopust was one of the great players of the Sixties and Fabregas is one of the greats of the Noughties.
Two players do not want to play for Thierry Henry's Arsenal. If it was me, I'd flog them for £26 million and end all this counter-productive aggravation, this tiresome publicity.
I'd flog Cole to Chelski for £17 million today and I'd flog Reyes to Real Madrid for £9 million today.
I would then buy three players.
I wouldn't keep the money in the bank to make the accounts look good at the AGM in September.