Hands up who stayed up till well past midnight hoping to hear the news of a new signing arriving in N5? I know I did. Hands up who checked the internet when they woke, bleary eyed, this morning hoping against hope that we would have a new midfielder in the ranks ala Denilson in 2006? Yeah, me too.

 So I type this feeling absolutely shattered and wishing that I had taken Arsene's "we are ready to stay up till midnight" claim with the pinch of salt it so richly deserved. But I didn't and reading around the various blogs and forums this morning, the feeling is one of disbelief.

Arsene spoke last week of waiting till late to make a move as the prices drop nearer to deadline, but does this not work the other way? You want to sign a player, you have little time to do it, aren't the sellers going to try and get as much as they can out of you? A general consensus appears to hold that perhaps this what did for Arsenal's late bid for Xabi Alonso. I don't claim to know the truth of that, or even if the bid existed. Anyhow, aside from the fact Alonso has Premiership experience, and isn't Abou Diaby, Alex Song, or Denilson, would he have been the right signing for us in any case?  (I appreciate that this question could well read like the famous "What have the Romans ever done for us?")

Alonso is 26, with a varied range of passing, but not much in the way of dynamism, the dynamism that saw Mathieu Flamini become such an effective foil for the cerebral assassin playing just ahead of him. In a way, and not to belittle Alonso's talents because I've admired him for a while, it wouldn't have been buying a partner for Fabregas, it would have been buying a less mobile, inferior and older version of him. In my opinion, at least.

For me, the fact that Arsene has chosen to stick with Diaby, Denilson and Song in the middle is surely based in his faith in those 3 guys and not in any financial consideration- apart from a potential value for money issue. But then, what is value for money? Berbatov, though hugely overpriced, will be seen to be value for money if he helps United to retain even one of their two crowns. Robinho, at his transfer fee, will have his work cut out to prove his worth in the Manchester City side. I digress.

Abou Diaby is a frustrating player, I feel he has immense technical ability, he has the dynamism, he could be a perfect partner for Cesc. At least, until you consider the fact that for the amount of times he will slalom through a midfield as if he was really brazilian, he will almost always fail to do anything positive at the end of his run, whether he misplaces a pass, or forgets he is in the centre of of a battle and so is dispossessed. Has playing wide ironed out any of his concentration issues? Not from where I'm sitting. Denilson? He bossed a game at Tottenham with Cesc around 18 months ago, but has done little of note since. That said, he has recently shown an ability to create goals, whether scoring them or assisting even when not playing particularly well. To me, he has perhaps got a better chance of making it here than Diaby, but he needs to improve. Fast.

And then we come to Alex Song, given a run at centre back at the back end of last season he impressed, he has also impressed in small cameo appearances as this season has kicked off. He is stronger than the other two candidates and seems to have more purpose and crispness in his passing. I need to see more of him to judge, but at the moment, he would appear the more obvious choice to partner Cesc, bringing with him a physicality that the other two just don't have.

Either way, when you consider that Flamini has left without being replaced (Aaron Ramsay doesn't count, yet), Lassana Diarra and Gilberto were allowed to leave without being directly replaced, you can only surmise that Arsene believes the boys who are still at the club can do the job for him. Has he lost the plot? It's not impossible that this is the case, but then he signed Samir Nasri and that in itself is surely proof that the old grey matter is still working in his old, in no way Grecian 2000ed, grey hair. He sees these guys in training; he has said, the board has said, there is money to spend, so why not spend it? Go hog wild and blow £20m on a midfielder, go on Arsene, anyone you like... No? All in all it adds up to a huge vote of confidence in the qualities of these three that they will be able to carry all before them.

 Unless that isn't his intention in the first place. Another theory for another blog, I reckon...

On Saturday afternoon, well evening to be precise, the Arsenal destroyed Newcastle United with a display of passing and movement so scintillating it must had had Kevin Keegan's head spinning. That can be the only excuse for his comments post match. It has been said before that managers should be given a cool off period before speaking to the media to prevent the kind of outburst made famous by Keegan himself. Ok and Arsene Wenger on occasion. The only thing, is that whilst the sensible managers would probably appreciate this- see Arsene's retraction of comments made regarding poor Martin "tiny" Taylor (how's life in the Championship mate?) after his attempt at a tackle on Eduardo- you get the feeling certain managers, yes I'm looking at you Kevin, would stick resolutely to their guns in the face of all the evidence available to them. It must have been hard for Keegan; his side were widely held to be unlucky to come away with old Trafford with a solitary point, and on the back of an away day disaster for the Gunners, the media vultures were circling over N5.

 It didn't turn out as Keegan, and presumably the media, would have hoped. More to the point, it never looked like happening. Instead, we got the first signs of an Arsenal side coming to terms with the fact that they threw the title away last season. Coming to terms with it and looking to go again. What's more they were backed to the hilt by an atypically raucous Arsenal crowd. I was watching from Block 6, so it was always going to be noisy in there, but, for once, the rest of the ground got involved too. Maybe 5.30pm kick offs are the future for us, more prematch beer time can only help! Anyway, the rather pointless booing of Adebayor that had persisted in some sections on Wednesday night had disappeared, Ade responding with his best performance of the season, sharp lively, team orientated. This is the Adebayor we need to see this season; he was unlucky not to score with a left foot shot in the second half. Gael Clichy is surely the best left back in the country now, if not Europe. Quick, strong in the tackle, slippery and relentless. He even got a shot on target on Saturday. Robin van Persie, finally, got off the mark with a well taken penalty and then a hammering finish from an Eboue backheel.  Eboue's part in van Persie's goal earnt him a standing ovation as he was substituted in the second half. How low are our expectations of this guy? Carlos Vela replaced van Persie who got injured attempting to replicate a wonder goal scored against Blackburn in our last season at Highbury, and put in a very lively, not to say encouraging half hour.

And then, as the game faded out towards its end, Denilson having ensured the points for Arsenal, a new boy who has been so impressive in the early weeks of the season guaranteed himself legend status. Not just in N5 but around the country, it seems. The game had been played in such a relaxed atmosphere that when the booing began, I couldn't work out what was happening. The shouts of "Scum! Scum! Scum!" rising up around me soon clued me in. Ah, Joey Barton must be coming on, I thought.

I can only assume Kevin Keegan believed Joey's reappearance on a football pitch would pass unnoticed by the departing and/or narcoleptic Gooners. He was wrong, very, very wrong. We let him have it with both barrels. Especially when he crashed into our new hero, Samir Nasri. Not to worry though, Samir appears to be made of sterner stuff than players like Jose Reyes, so when Joey Barton ran past him, Nasri produced a little tap on his ankles to send him flying. A yellow card, but worth it. It reminded me of when some fat spurs idiot got in Manuel Almunia's face last year and was sent flying by Bacary Sagna about 20 seconds later.  You could only smile, well couldn't you? Apparently not. If you've got a player who has fractured a teammate's cheekbone, stubbed a cigar out in a youth colleague's eye and then been jailed for assaulting some poor unfortunate outside a McDonalds at an ungodly hour of the morning, wouldn't you think twice before exploding out of all proportion at his "treatment"? According to Kevin Keegan, Samir Nasri should have been sent off. Well, Mr Keegan, according to me, Joey Barton should still be in jail. So put that in your pipe and smoke it. Better yet, get Joey to do it for you. But make sure he doesn't miss.