Yesterday I brought you the news that Arsene Wenger was after someone “special” if he was going to continue to add to his squad. A lot of people took this to mean he was going to use that as an excuse not to buy anyone, but in yet another shock this transfer window, it seems he was actually serious.

Arsene’s search for someone special

According to the most reliable of Arsenal tweeters, Arsene is looking for a “top, top class” midfielder, and is willing to pay around 20M for one he considers worthy. He’s also not interested in an “average or unproven” player, which is even more exciting. Arsene might have signed a fair few duds in his time, but when he’s looking for quality players he tends to know what he’s looking for.

What’s also interesting is that he apparently was planning to have spent by now, but seems to have been alerted to the availability of a player he didn’t think he’d be able to sign. That’s even more exciting.

Thinking about what player this could be, either Marouane Fellaini and Javi Martinez spring to mind, both players that Arsenal have been interested in but largely priced out. Both players would offer near world-class quality in defence and in a more attacking area if called upon, and would certainly represent a financial statement from Wenger.

We’ll see. There’s definitely smoke here. Let’s wait for the fire.

Tiote Smokescreen

A player that has been linked with Arsenal quite a lot, and increasingly so with the news Wenger is looking for a defensive midfielder, is Newcastle’s Cheick Tiote. He’s a good player, but probably not the “top, top class” midfielder Arsenal are looking for, for a couple of reasons.

Number one, he gives possession away a LOT. This is not in keeping with Arsenal’s keep-ball style, and while he’s quite the prowler as far as defensive work goes, that’s not the kind of player Arsenal will want, having sold Song, who has similar issues. Number two: Arsenal don’t give away transfer targets that easily. It’ll be someone bigger, if you ask me.

Arsenal’s trip to Mordor

Sadly, Arsenal have to play Stoke City today. It’s not the game they need to get their season up and running, and they’ve got an appalling record at the Britannia, with one win in 4. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Olivier Giroud make his first start in what will be a very physical game, though slightly more open than usual, as Stoke have had to widen their pitch to meet regulations. However, thanks to one of those lovely one-two punches of goalkeeping injuries, Vito Mannone will start in goal. Now, I’ve got a lot of words to describe Vito’s goalkeeping, but they’re all illegal, so I’ll just point out that he had a storming game against Fulham three years ago. And then pray in the corner.

A failure to win today won’t represent a failure for Arsenal, in all honesty. Better teams than recent Arsenal sides have slipped up at Stoke, and while a win would be nice, a point is what we should probably expect. We’ll see.

Anyway, that’s all for now. We’ll certainly see some movement in both directions at Arsenal soon. Fear not.

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