Scouring the news reports this morning it appears as though Tomas Rosicky's knee operation has been a success and the Czech international will be fit to start the new season. According to the player, "the true cause of my problems has been found." and assistant surgeon Vladislav Hospodar agrees, maintaining that "after rehabilitaion, the problems should be gone."

However, if you look at the statistics, there isn't a great deal of room for optimism. In the last 10 years, Rosicky has amassed 234 league appearances whilst at Sparta Prague, Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal - that's an average of 23 per season, worse than the original sicknote himself, Tottenham's Darren Anderton. Make of that what you will.

Meanwhile, in other news, Barcelona's Ya Ya Toure, brother of Kolo, says, "I can't say anything for the moment, but it's true that it would be great to play for a big club with my brother. That would be fantastic." Ya Ya joined Barcelona for €10m (£8m) last summer, and it's believed a bid of £10m could capture his signature now. I have watched the big man on numerous occasions for Barcelona and I'm not sure he's the lynch pin that pundits make him out to be, still, for once it's good to see a player from Barcelona claiming he wants to play for Arsenal rather than the other way around.

Finally, Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood has done a complete u-turn in respect of his assessment of American sports tycoon and Arsenal shareholder (he owns 12% of the club), Stan Kroenke. Last year it was, "we don't want his sort.", all of a sudden it's, "I now believe he may have a vital contribution to make to the future of this football club."