Let me take you back to the end of last season (2006-2007):

Struggled in the league, never mounting any sort of serious title challenge, finishing fourth and with TH on his way out of the club. The general opinion at the time was that we were soft centred, physically weak, too young.

At that time, like many other Arsenal fans, I thought that there were two players in particular that weren't good enough for Arsenal - Flamini and Hleb. Flamini was ok filling in at full back but otherwise was pretty poor. Hleb at times looked great but had no end product and tended to lose the ball more often than not, very frustrating to watch.

Forward on a year and also like most of those same Arsenal fans I came to change my opinion of those two players. Flamini really stepped up and put in some great performances. He worked hard all season and deserved the accolades he was getting in the press. Hleb for the first half of the season was a revelation. Suddenly it was all clicking for him, no more wasteful passes or deadend runs. Instead we were seeing a new Hleb who was making the difference and even occasionally finding the net!

So now the season is over and with Flamini already out the door and with Hleb due to follow am I crying in my sleep over lost talent?

The answer is a resounding no and here's why:

I'd like to talk about 'worldclass' players. Here, I don't mean you need to be the finished article. I only mean that you could see the player one day being one of the top players in the world at what he does. For example, I would call Theo worldclass since he has that level of talent but I could never see Flamini being at that level.

I think it is important that Arsenal continue to build a truely 'worldclass' team full of players that could compare with the likes of Pires/Bergkamp/Overmars/TH/Adams etc. and not fall into the Liverpool trap of being happy with 'really quite good' or 'does a job' players.

Although I really like Flamini and he has undoubtedly had a great season, for me he is still not a 'worldclass' player. I believe that he lacks a little technique and physical presence to be at that level. I only have to think of the likes of Vieira or Gilberto at their peak to find Flamini lacks that last extra bit to be called 'worldclass'. If Arsenal are to be one of the top club teams in the world then in my opinion they need to have worldclass central midfielders. Fabregas is truely worldclass but unfortunately in my opinion Flamini is merely very good. So i'm sad to see Flamini go and wish him luck but ultimately I believe we will be stronger for it as hopefully we can try to find a truely worldclass player to replace him.

Up until the Milan game I was happy with Hleb. Here I thought we might have finally found a player that might in time be compared favourably with the likes of Pires or Overmars. Ok, so he wasn't scoring that level of goals but I was hopeful he might bring that more into his game and in any case he was contributing so much to the team. Everything from after the 'ice-cream' incident proved just how wrong I could be. Every part of his game dropped and his 'true' colours came through. Here was a player that was obviously looking out of the club and couldn't be bothered to put in top performances anymore. Suddenly almost overnight it was back to the Hleb of last season with misguided runs and misplaced passes. Also given that he spent so much of the season as a second striker his goal tally was proving to be pretty embarrassing. Given that sort of attitude i'm personally glad to see Hleb leave and perhaps Nasri can come in and show us a true Pires replacement!

So looking back I find that i'm actually kind of optimistic since the two players I most wanted out at the start of the season are now leaving the club.

I guess since I now really want Eboue to leave the club that he will go on to have a great season next year before leaving in the summer!

Welcome to the first ever post of Arsefactor.

I've never wrote a blog before but I won't let that stop me. All comments welcome even if you just want to tell me how crap it is. Until I get the hang of it I expect that things might be a bit ropey but constructive criticism is always appreciated!

So my first topic I want to discuss is something that has been getting on my nerves for the last several months - Eboue.

Can someone explain to me why Eboue keeps getting picked for the first team??? Wenger persists with playing him on the right wing even though it is plainly obvious to everyone - even the thickest spurs fan that he is no more use there than a fork in an old peoples home! I mean seriously my granny who is dead now would be more likely to go past a player than Eboue! One of the worst things is the occasional painful stepovers that he does when there are no players within 5 yards. I've lost count of the number of times i've screamed at the TV when a promising move breaks down when the ball goes to Eboue.

Don't get me wrong, as a right back I thought Eboue was fine. Nothing special and certainly not as good as Sagna has proved to be but at least at right back he looked like a professional footballer. In fact at right back he was somehow more successful in attacking and going past players but as soon as he plays right wing he becomes some sort of glorified statue. I'll admit that initially I was looking forward to seeing him play right wing and I really thought it was worth experimenting with but I think it is now proved beyond doubt that it doesn't work!

So i've come to the conclusion that Eboue has somehow managed to blackmail Wenger into letting him play. Its the only possible explanation, he has him by the balls and is squeezing hard! Why else would Wenger play Eboue and in fact go to extraordinary lengths to play him there, just look at the games when Sagna got injured. The obvious choice would have been to move Eboue to right back and put Walcott on the right wing but instead Wenger persisted with playing Eboue on the right wing (out of position) and instead moved Toure to right back (out of position) and then even played Walcott on the left wing (out of position), Madness!

I really hope we don't see more of this again next season. Surely whatever machiavellian hold Eboue has over Wenger will be broken by either new signings or the continued emergence of the young players like Walcott.

Right well now that i've got that off my chest I feel a bit better!

Next time on Arsefactor - the Flamini departure.