Vela warning, a new contract and Wenger on the defence

Young Guns has today reported that young keeper Wojciech Szczęsny has signed a new deal at the club, the 18 year old is thought of highly by Arsene Wenger but he has a fight on his hands to overhaul Fabianski and Mannone for the number 1 jersey. However, he is optimistic;

“My plan for the next seven years is to become Arsenal’s number one goalkeeper. Therefore, at this point in time, it doesn’t bother me if I am number 3 or number 4 choice. For me, this contract means that the Club believes in me, and that they do not want me to go anywhere.”

You never know he might prove to be a real gem, good luck to him!

Now onto Carlos Vela, a kid that lit up the Emirates this week with his stunning hat-rick. How he scored his second i will never know, it was out of this world.

Anyway, he has warned the other youngsters at Arsenal to take nothing for granted as there are no guarantees at Arsenal;

"All of the players looked as though they have a great future here, but none of us can be certain of that.

"Some will make it with Arsenal but we all know that others won't."

That is dead right. I'm afraid not all the players that featured the other night will make but but i think they will nevertheless all have very good footballing careers as they have the talent. They have just got to be sensible now and look after themselves and keep wanting to learn.

Vela also said his loan spells really helped him in Spain;

"It was good to go out on loan because I know I'm still young.

"It helped develop and improve my football. I believe I am ready and Arsene Wenger brought me back because he believes I am ready.

"But I just need to be calm and consistent and get into the first team."

On Tuesday night Wenger showed why he persisted with Vela, he is amazingly talented and the spell in Spain kept him out the spotlight too.

Now, did you know that Arsenal have not conceded a goal from open play this season? If you think back, the Fulham goal was a corner, as was the Bolton goal. The Kiev goal was from a penalty kick. Quite some run isn't it?

In total we have gone 810 minutes of football without conceding from open play. Wenger thinks this is a key part in the team spirit;

“We have defended very well, It has not been noticed yet but we’ve only conceded those two goals from two corners. In open play we are quite solid. That, for me, is a good response and a good explanation for the team attitude in the squad.”

And despite conceding goals was our downfall last season, Wenger will not budge from his attacking stance;

“What makes me happy at the moment is that we have a good combination of defensive balance and offensive efficiency, Sometimes when you work on defending better you lose a number of goals.

“But at the moment we are combining the two and it means when everyone puts the effort in we still can be very dangerous going forward.”

I am a believer that if you score more than the other team you will win, no matter what. I think attacking is the way to play football. Defending is not as important as attacking, but it is still a big bonus to have a defence that will shut teams out like ours has.

We are trying to land another young Spaniard from Barcelona according to this story, if he is another Fabregas I'm not complaining!

Otherwise there is not much else floating around today. Hopefully i will be back tomorrow. If not, back Saturday!

Take care Arse's