ARSENAL played pretty football at Man City and missed chances and lost their first away game 1-0.
During the second half I was thinking :The team is too young and the manager does not teach defence or buy defenders who know their jobs.
The 41st minute mistake by Justin Hoyte was pub team stuff.
A 40-yard crossfield pass by Italian striker Corradi was flying past Hoyte towards Trevor Sinclair, and Hoyte didnt know Sinclair was there.
So Hoyte turned and lunged with his foot, just inside the box, and Sinclair tumbled over his leg : clear penalty.
Joey Barton smashed in the only goal of the game from the spot.
Yes, there was a foul on Fabregas, an elbow in the chest, but it was on the halfway line, a long way from the goal.
Just before, 36 seconds before, a multi-pass move by Arsenal ended with van Persie's shot hitting the post.
By then Arsenal could have been 2-0 up.
So it was a 36-second turn-around, which you often see, and a goal against the run of play, which you often see.
George Graham once told me that in Herbert Chapman's book Chapman said, "You can attack too much in a game."
THIERRY HENRY was only 75% and missed three chances.Van Persie also missed three.
I didn't think either "penalty" was a penalty. Dunne felled Fabregas after the ball had gone and while I've seen them given, I wouldn't have blown for that.
Replays showed that Dunne shoved van Persie just after he headed a ball which was never going in the net, a ball which he could never have reached again if he had not been shoved.
However, ref Uriah Rennie had a poor game and should not have booked the Dutchman for dissent after that incident.
STUART PEARCE has decided to copy the Everton model of David Moyes. Ten players running their guts out for 90 minutes.
Pearce got it all wrong against Portsmouth in midweek by putting two midgets, Dickov and Vassell, up against Sol Campbell and Primus, two giants.
But against Arsenal he put Vassell on the left to block the runs of Eboue and had Corradi and Dickov chasing defenders.
Samaras, a striker with bottle and flair, will now become a supersub, which is a pity. Samaras would be great at Arsenal.
Fabregas and van Persie were good and Hleb was creative. Toure and Djourou were OK but fullbacks Eboue and Hoyte were clueless.
ROSICKY was not fit and didn't cover his fullback.
Will Rosicky play in the Pires position all season? Is he wasted there if he is the only player keen to shoot from 25 yards?
THE NEXT GAME is Middlesbrough at the Emirates, Saturday September 9. Boro lost 4-0 to Portsmouth on Monday night at the Riverside.
As I say, the Arsenal team is a work-in-progress.
It's under-rehearsed and it will still be under-rehearsed after this international break because they will only have one day's proper training before the Middlesbrough game on September 9 at the Emirates.
The team has no left back. If Ashley Cole had played at City, Arsenal would have won the game. And why did Flamini not play left back?
Predictably, Arsene says he will take a lot of positives from the game.
He would love to spend this week working with his team but many players are away. He'd love to spend next week working with them as well, but many will be away till Thursday September 7.
Against that, in seven days time Hoyte will not be a left back. In 14 days time he will not be a left back. He will still be a right back.
You can't play Man United at Old Trafford with Hoyte at left back. You can't play Hamburg with Hoyte at left back either.
Ashley Cole has apparently told Arsene he will give Arsenal another year. The reaction of most fans will be : F*** Off !
In the last four games, Arsenal have failed to score in the first half. Scoring first, scoring early, was one of the keys to their past successes.
If Arsenal can't score first, they can go 1-0 down. With a young team they will not have the experience to come back from 1-0 down. They don't have enough players with experience and know-how the turn a game round.
ARSENE is taking a huge risk by not replacing the experience of Campbell, Pires and Bergkamp, plus Cole if he goes.The only senior pros are Lehmann, Henry and the fading Ljungberg.
It's risky. His refusal to buy two 26-year olds is a big gamble. It's a scary gamble. It must terrify the directors. We all wonder if he will get away with it.
SOME OTHER TEAMS, like Chelsea and Real Madrid, are also works-in-progress.
The Sky Sunday game was scrappy and showed us a Chelsea who did not know what formation to use at Blackburn.
But Lampard whacked in a penalty when Terry was held by new centreback Ooijer, and sub Drogba powered past Oooijer and blasted a shot through Brad Friedel, so Chelsea won 2-0.
Can Lampard and Ballack play together?
We don't know. But Ballack's arrival will not improve Lampard. However, it won't be as damaging as Veron was for Scholes. As you know, Veron ruined Scholes, and failed. So Veron didn't make it and Scholes became useless.
FABIO CAPELLO has already turned Real Madrid's Harlem Globetrotters into a dull Italian team with two holding midfielders, Emerson and Diarra, and fullbacks who don't overlap.
In their first league game on Sunday they drew 0-0 with Villearreal in a scrappy game at the Bernabeu. One clean sheet ! Capello reckons : Let's get it right at the back. Then we can revive Cassano.
ONE OF MY FAVOURITE players scored the winner in the 88th minute for Barcelona at Celta Vigo on Monday night.
Ronaldinho was out with a thigh injury and Frank Rijkaard's body language after half an hour said : I'm worried, I don't like this.
Then Baiano scored for Celta, who led at half-time. Then Eto'o and Messi made it 2-1 and then Gustavo Lopez made it 2-2, and Eidur Gudjohnsen, a sub, came on and chested down Deco's brilliant crossfield pass. His volley was blocked by an agile defender but he smashed in a ferocious second volley for 3-2.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON I got a call from a Gooner in Essex.
"What can you tell me about Stephen Naismith?"
"Nothing," I said, "Never heard of him."
"Sky Sports News says he's joining us from Kilmarnock."
"Is he a left back?"
"No."
"Is he a centreback?"
"No, he's a striker."
"Will they take Adebayor off us in exchange ?"
Naismith, 19, will train with Arsenal for two days.
I'M REALLY, REALLY looking forward to Thursday.
I'm actually looking forward to Thursday August 31st more than I looked forward to the 17th, my birthday, same birthday as Thierry Henry, William Gallas and Robert de Niro.
Don't get me wrong, my birthday was fun. Do those three have a daughter who burned them a CD of her favourite songs ? Not to mention the CD burned by her pal Paul : fifteen whacky indie-pop tracks by groups I've never heard of. OK, I've heard of Camera Obscura and Sigur Ros, not the others.
I'm getting rather fond of The Faint, whose Worked Up So Sexual has an Elvis Costello-like line : "What's it like to have a room of guys encircling you?"
Yeah, Thursday, August 31. Transfer window closes ! I've never known it to take so long to come.
A u g u s t has been the l o n g e s t m o n t h……. and waiting for the 31st has been sheer hell.
I was sick of it in July.