Sweet September

What a week it has been so far. It started off very badly with an 8-2 thumping at Old Trafford. I was shocked, stunned, speechless and simmering when I found out (no, I didn’t stay up to watch as I was working the next day. And a good thing too!). The result led me to question: with that kind of result, how could we ever lure anyone to come and play for The Arsenal? How could we have screwed up this summer so badly? First off: you don’t let someone of Cesc’s calibre (our captain and one of the world’s best midfielder) go and not replace him. You don’t let a French international who had some good spells go and not replace him. You don’t let go of a left-back and not replace him, preferring to place faith on a young player who has a bad medical record. You need to hold on to your best players and play them with the best – this way they won’t feel as if they were carrying the burden of the team.

As much as I hate to admit it, ManUre did a lot of things right. They became champions and went out early to secure their new signings. We, on the other hand, let go of players but didn’t do much apart from signing new young players who are inexperienced in the Premier League. I’m not saying they are not good but it’s not fair to throw them into a match against ManUre of all team and expect them to swim or sink. It’s unfair on them and they need time to settle down and learn what a PL match involves anyway. We were so stretched that we had players playing out of their natural position. And let’s not forget the spirit of the ManUre players... I hate to say this but they have the right spirit (and possibly that is one of the reasons why I hate them so much).

I think our scouters (scouts) had done a bad job this summer (and for that matter, so has our marketing people. Seriously, we could do so much better at advertising and marketing than we currently are). We must have been linked to practically everyone from Gary Cahill to Chris Samba and even Titus Bramble.

Then Eid came and I had to face my first Eid without Mummy. Suffice to say I was feeling very fragile indeed. So much so I couldn’t even summon any energy to wish you readers a Happy Eid.

Abah and I travelled to my brother’s place in a small town in Batu Pahat on the first day of Eid and came back yesterday. I found myself awake very early yesterday (after-effects of getting up for pre-dawn meal in Ramadan) and immediately checked twitter-ville to see the comings and goings. And I must say I was very pleased indeed that we managed to get Benayoun (31) on loan and Arteta (29) has agreed to come at a pay cut. They joined Park Chu Young (26), André Santos (28) and Per Mertesacker (26). Personally, I have wanted us to sign Mertesacker since last summer. And now we’ve got him! It will still take time for me though to get used to someone else donning the jersey number 4...

And now we have the Belgian captain, Welsh captain, South Korean captain, Czech captain, Russian captain and Israeli captain in our midst (Herr Mertesacker was captain of Werder Bremen). We wanted quality, we wanted experience, we wanted more leaders and we got them all.

Suffice to say I am a happy Gooner again. Oh I’m not happy that we took this long to finalise the deals (I must say I do feel for Everton because Arteta left late and they had no time to find his replacement. Why did Arsenal wait until deadline to make their move on him?) and the risks associated (what if Arteta didn’t force his move through? Benayoun doesn’t have a good medical history) with this last-minute signings but I’m glad that we have managed to get people in who could help us. Oh sure, we want Eden Hazard and Yann M’Vila but they are not available so we had to seek the next best alternatives. Which isn’t to say that Arteta or Benayoun are second best.

Anyway, all is done now. Goodbye August, goodbye to the heartache that Cesc’s departure brought me (I still miss him but hey, we have to move on. He still has a special spot in my heart) and hello Sweet September. Let’s hope we kick-start our season next weekend.

And hope it’s not too late to wish everyone a blessed Eid Mubarak.

P.S. And please, just because we fast for one month, it doesn’t mean we have to celebrate for a whole month. I think we’ve all got the concept wrong – I grew up with all these saying that that is so which is wrong. It doesn’t help when the media and some Eid songs encourage Malaysian Muslims to think that for one month of fasting, there must be one month of celebrating. Only in Malaysia do Muslims celebrate Eid as long as we do. What a shame. What we should do instead is increase our ibadah in Ramadan and embrace it fully.