Matthew Wade

Gareth Southgate’s team tinkering may have some long-term pluses for Arsenal.

After the on-pitch ecstasy of Chelsea and Basel, Sunday’s Lancashire struggle reminded us that the last 20 years have yielded plenty of frustration with joy.

The weekend’s walk-over of the West London gazzilionaires has helped restore the faith, and the logic of recent decisions is now clear, but is this just another false dawn?

Arsenal’s Saturday stroll in Hull showed some hints of method to what has appeared tactical madness.

Saturday’s frustration-fest ended well, but will opposition with more ambition be better or worse for Arsenal?

Going to Paris on your own or with just a couple of you? Don’t fancy getting bevvied up with the away fans? Having just been to Paris a month or so ago, I thought of some things to check out that might not make it to a tour guide or on a fan’s itinerary.

So I’ve been off the grid for two weeks, swallowed by acting work, and have emerged to a rather different Goonersphere.

The very first man to have the number 7 on the back of a red Arsenal shirt (in both 1928 and 1933) was flying winger Joe Hulme. Learn all about him, including hearing from the man himself, in our latest pod

I am by nature a patient person; one who prefers to give people the benefit of the doubt but there are limits.

Ok. So it’s a dramatic title. But it’s a dramatic situation.

Yes. I am one of those weirdo’s that stayed up to watch a 3-1 win in a meaningless pre-season friendly that didn’t finish until 4am UK time. And it was worth it.

As Stephen Bradley already wrote this morning, we shouldn’t read too much into what was partly an exhibition game for the MLS and partly an exercise in developing match fitness for Arsenal.

With Arsenal’s first pre-season fixture out of the way, the need for reinforcements for final third is as clear as ever. With all now quiet on the striker front, column inches pile up about Riyad Mahrez with a bewildering array of entirely contradictory theories emerging daily.

For many Arsenal fans, the summer transfer window is like an establishing shot from a Clint Eastwood western.

So; the summer’s international tournament has concluded, with Portugal playing Greece to France’s Portugal. Some reputations have been enhanced and others, particularly managers, have been…

Well, here we are again. Not much to report since last week. Unless you count the England football team giving a perfect illustration of the…

‘Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose?’ Having last week written that no-one knew anything about the Vardy situation, and about the media speculation…

So another week of multi-continental international football loveliness has been and gone, with bugger all real news on the Arsenal front.

Inevitably, in the absence of the potential Vardy transfer meeting deadlines guessed at by journalists, the vacuum of news has been gleefully filled by anyone with a desire to sell stories. Regardless of whether or not there is a story to sell.

In the absence of any actual news about Vardy or Henrikh Mkhitaryan it seems a good time to follow on from last week, where I covered the youth set-ups striking options in detail. This time I’m going to talk about attacking midfielders and wingers.