AGM / Cesc / Reading

An interesting day in the world of Arsenal yesterday, with the Arsenal Annual General Meeting taking place, for the first time at the Emirates, and the announcement that Francesc Fabregas Soler has signed a new eight-year contract with the club.

There's a transcript of Arsene's speech at the AGM over on the ANR, but I think the most telling part (apart from thanking Dennis, Sol and le Bob for their service, but not a certain Mr Tweedy), was when he talked about what he feels Arsenal Football Club stands for:

"I think Arsenal is about values, character, under difficult circumstances sometimes - David Dein always reminds me, we never do things easy at Arsenal, and that's proved to be right many times. It's the kind of character you need to be successful at the club. It's the first time we are in the new stadium and I feel in the future we must not forget that we are responsible for the kind of character that this club has been built on."

Bravo sir, bravo.

On to the boy Fab, who is tickled pink to have agreed new terms with the club. It's no secret to anyone in the reasonably football-literate world that Arsene is planning on building the next Arsenal side around him. He will be our metronome, so to speak, as he will be dictating the rhythm of our game, and will be the one player, post-TH14, to make us tick.

Sunday's tie at Reading is a tougher test than many might think. They almost beat Man Yoo, were very unlucky against Chelski (that double Fat Frank deflection) and are a good side with a number of ex-Arsenal lads who will be up for the game. Inparticular, one Steven Sidwell, who I can still remember captaining the Arsenal youth team to glory two seasons running. It was clear then that if he had to leave Arsenal for regular football that he was going to have a career at the top end of the game, and I'm chuffed he's done as well as he has. Being voted best player and second best player in the Championship in consecutive seasons shows I'm not the only one who thinks so.

It'll be interesting to see the line up Arsene puts out for Sunday's game. With our midweek game next week being the League Cup, there's no desperate need to rest players, but at the same time we need a win and some of the guys who trekked out to Moscow and back will undoutedly be a little jaded. I imagine Rosicky or Fabregas, possibly both, will be given a breather, and Adebayor will start up front. But we'll just have to wait and see.

Come on you Gunners.