Three points to start - Sunday round-up

So the season starts with a win, three points and a reasonable performance given the understrength nature of the side, particularly in midfield.

There's nothing like an early goal to settle the nerves and that's exactly what we got. It was a lovely goal too. Bendtner played it wide to Clichy, who fed it to Denilson whose run into the box was excellent, he cut it back for new boy Samir Nasri to sidefoot home and to make it 1-0. A debut goal for Nasri will do him the world of good and I liked what I saw of him yesterday. Good on the ball, isn't afraid of having a shot and he works hard. Of course you can't make any judgements based on one performance but it's a positive start for him.

In midfield we had Theo on the right and Emmanuel Eboue in central midfield alongside Denilson. Theo was very quiet in a game where you really wanted him to shine and Eboue, shock horror, had a very decent game in the middle. Obviously he's not the solution to that problem, not by a long way, but credit where it's due. The 1-0 scoreline might have had people a bit more nervous than they would have liked but I think if Cesc had had the chances Eboue had yesterday we'd have won the game by at least three goals.

There were a couple of scary moments, Almunia made a good save after the otherwise impressive Djourou wrongly tried to play offside and the young Swiss made up for it by clearing the rebound off the line. We huffed and puffed a bit up front. Adebayor was trying too hard, if you know what I mean, and he missed a couple of half-decent chances. One moment late in the second half saw him try a Kanu style trick when he should have just played a simple pass to Nasri who was wide open and when the trick didn't come off there was the extraordinary sound of him being booed.

I can't really remember that happening to a player before but it's most certainly a hangover from the summer. I don't think booing players is a good idea but I can understand why some fans, still vexed from his behaviour during the close season, chose to express their distaste. It didn't happen just because he messed up that chance. Still, he worked hard despite not much coming off for him and he made a chance for van Persie who poked it wide with the outside of his left foot. He also crossed for van Persie to head straight at Carson. He put one just wide himself when he really should have scored but hopefully he'll get his head together and his shooting boots on for the next game.

In the end though we didn't really look like adding to the one goal nor did West Brom look like they were going to score. Kolo Toure came on in place of Theo and the fact we had Eboue in central mid and Toure as a right winger shows you how the squad stands at the moment.

The main thing though was the result. Three points on the opening day is not to be sniffed at, no matter who you're playing, we kept another clean sheet and we will get better than this. Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:

I am pleased with the fact that we didn't concede a goal. We scored two on Wednesday, one today, so it's better than the reverse. Overall it was a good week for us. A winning start, a win in the Champions League, so yes a good week.

And given how nervous fans were heading into these two games I think you can call it a good week. There are many positives to take from it and also things that must have become clear to the manager in terms of how the squad needs to be bolstered, but we shall wait and see what happens there.

In other news Justin Hoyte has left Arsenal to join Middlesboro. I think every Arsenal wishes him well up there (apart from twice a year) and I hope his career kicks on. The fee is around £3m which, when you add to the £12m for Hleb, the £1m for Gilberto and the money received from the sell-on of Rat Faced Chav to Sp*rs from Blackburn puts us in the black for our summer dealings. Let's just hope there's too much money under Arsene's mattress for him to have a good night's sleep. He may just have to spend some.

Could some of it go on Liverpool's Xabi Alonso? The News of the World reports Alonso is fed up with Benitez after he tried to sell him all summer and bring in Gareth Barry. I think he'd be an excellent signing and while he is cup-tied in Europe it's only for the group stages of the Champions League, I think. He would be eligible for the knock-out rounds as he's only played in the qualifying round. That said if I were Liverpool I wouldn't possibly sell him to us. It'd make no sense whatsoever to obviously strengthen one of your rivals. Still, stranger things have happened.

Update: I'm wrong. He'd be cup-tied for the whole CL season. 

Reports from Spain this morning say that Arsenal will allow Fran Merida to go on loan for the season to Real Sociedad. He spent the last part of last season on loan at the Basque club and a full campaign is seen as good for his development. Good luck to him there.

And that's really about it. There's a strange week ahead for the squad with many of them on international duty. These early season friendlies really are a pain in the hole and we can only hope that the lads come through unscathed. It may just give Arsene time to count up all the pennies in his jar and go shopping though. Fingers crossed.

Ok, enjoy your Sunday, Arsebandits. More tomorrow.