Absolutely Fabregas

So, our season officially kicked off last night with a solid 3-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb with a brace from Cesc and a solitary goal for my boy Robin. Considering that Zagreb were one of the toughest sides that we could have drawn and given our traditionally iffy form in away legs to Eastern European sides, as well as having an injury hit side (and absent players looking for transfers), it was a great result.

By my count we were arguably missing five players who should have started (Lehmann, Lauren, Senderos, Cole/Clichy and Henry, others such as Ljungberg and Reyes are debatable) and those that played in their stead aquitted themselves admirably. Rosicky, making his competitive Arsenal debut, performed well. He looked neat, tidy and very good on the ball. He had a few stray passes and wayward strikes on goal, but considering his lack of action since the World Cup a little rustiness is to be expected.

In general we looked a yard short across the pitch, but we still had more than enough to win the game. Hleb had a great first half, running at players, beating men and playing good balls. Djourou also looked good and Hoyte only got beaten a couple of times which is encouraging, as he may be filling in at left back for a while.

Fabregas really came into his own in the second half and grabbed the game by the scruff of its neck. Man of the match.

The biggest pre-game news was that Reyes had been dropped in place of Tomas Rosicky, despite Arsene saying that after only featuring for 30 minutes of preseason Rosicky would be starting the game from the bench. It is almost impossible not to see this as a direct response to Real Madrid finally registering an official interest in Jose, and Arsene not wanting to cup tie him indicates that he’s willing to let him go. This would add more credence to the rumours currently flying about regarding our interest in Franck “Scarface” Ribery.

In other "players who want to leave" news, Jose Moaninho has demanded a resolution to the Ashley Cole situation by the end of this week. Which is pretty superfluous considering that Cole is our player and Arsene has already said that he wants this business sorted by the end of this week.

Thierry has "apparently" demanded that we buy some more players. Whilst I don't like this sort of thing coming out in the press, it's hard not to agree with him. I just hope Double D and Arsene are on the case.

So all in all a good solid performance, and we take a three goal lead into the inaugural European tie at the Emirates.