Allow me to start by giving the thumbs up to Hull City for their gutsy performance. History tells you that when you are promoted, in the first year, you have to fight to stay there. They want more and they have shown that today by playing the perfect match and scoring a perfect goal.

Having said that, one can’t deny the fact that we needed a strong central defender this summer and Wenger decided not to get him, whoever he was going to be. Many would say that instead, he sold Senderos, but I never considered Philippe up to his standard, so I’m with Arsene on that one. But, this is what he said after tonight’s match on the “corner problem”:

It is a weakness in our team but that’s aswell linked with the level of concentration. You can work for hours on the training ground but if you don’t attack the ball on the day of the game it will cost you. We were caught already the corner before when the guy got infront of Adebayor. I believe that’s more down to how much you want the ball.

Now I’m sorry, but if he knows about the weakness, what is being done to solve the problem? And after all, what is the problem? The defenders we have? The way they are working on this in the training ground? Gallas is 31 for God’s sake, with an International career behind him. I would never expect such a man to lose his marker and dance in the penalty area the way he did today.

Must-win matches ... already!

I’ve been talking about the backline for weeks, even after that emphatic 1-4 win away at Blackburn. And this is a problem with no near-future solution, since the transfer market will only be back in January. Wenger keeps on hiding this problem, covering it with the good wins we have but it’s like trying to hide a bottle in the ocean; sooner or later it will pop-up once more, as it did this afternoon.

Had we signed a central defender, we would be in a position to, I don’t know, start with him and Gallas and move Toure in the Denilson position. Think about the damage Kolo can do to opponents if he plays in a much more advanced position. As it is, he just goes forward, Gallas goes forward, and there’s no way to cover them when opponents counter attack!

And also, why on earth didn’t he start with Vela? Only a fool keeps a striker who scored such an incredible hat-trick 4 days before on the bench. Even in those 10-15 minutes in which he played, you could see he was “on” and not shy to hit it. And when he used him, it was the 76th minute. Another thing I can’t stand about our coach is that he’s not gutsy enough to make 2-3 changes at half time if things are not working.

It’s funny, now, how the match against Porto and the one away at Sunderland become so crucial with the season still so fresh.

I would for one replace Denilson once and for all with Song. The Brazilian is good for League Cup stuff when there is little or no pressure but is too casual in the big ones. Song, on the other hand, is not shy when it matters. I would then – third time I’m saying this – try Adebayor-Vela. We can’t go out there with two non-pure strikers, we need an Eduardo and Vela can be the one. And finally, I would ask questions on the fitness level of Rosicky and Nasri. The first one is football’s biggest injury mystery and the second one is slowly slowly taking that path.

PS: If you read this, whether you agree or not, share your thoughts – the blog can’t grow without comments. Thank you.