BRIEF thoughts now the transfer window has closed:

- We have a great array of attacking talent.

- All in all, we appear fairly well covered in midfield.

- There is no knowing how well the two new central defenders will adapt to the English game. But there can be no argument with Arsene’s transfer business in this regard: he has three central defenders, all of whom should have realistic hope of making the spot next to Thomas Vermaelen their own.

- In goal, it is frustrating that we have failed to bring anyone in. After all, it was not the case that we were simply looking to upgrade from very decent to world class. It was that manager, fans and one presumes the defence were of the feeling that someone with a clean slate was needed.

That was presumably why the manager went after and the fans were accepting of Schwarzer. Not world class, but very decent and a fresh start. But because we were not after that one world class player, the pool should have been a lot wider and really it is hard to believe that we have failed to learn from previous mistakes the danger of leaving it til the last minute and hoping things would fall into place. They so often fail to.

I do think one has to be balanced about this: continuing with Manuel Almunia will likely do us few favours, but equally it would hardly rank as football’s biggest shock were he to rediscover his form of two years ago. Were he too, it still wouldn’t be perfect, but it may just see us through til January.

This was a close game…
That could have gone either way. Two excellent finishes made the diffference in the end. Both were very missable but both were converted at important times. Walcott and Arshavin are two very different players, which makes our wings very nicely balanced.

Generally speaking…
I thought we deserved it. Yes, we struggled early on with the long balls (and boy were they long), but every team would to an extent. I thought we were conceding throw-ins in particular too readily against opposition who can really punish you from one.

Our opening goal…
Was a reminder of the subtlety Robin Van Persie can bring. His ball to Theo Walcott was inch perfect and really there was not a lot Blackburn could do.

Their equaliser…
Was not such a fine reflection on RVP. His half hearted attempt to track a man meant he ended up getting in the way of his teammates. Then when it came wide, Sagna was out of position and Koscielny learnt a harsh lesson. I don’t think Gael Clichy was to blame when it came into the box, though there were other occasions when he looked shaky and I really don’t think Gibbs is all that far away at all right now.

The winner…
Came courtesy of some fine attacking running from Sagna and a very decent pull back.

As for Blackburn…
I am no fan of Sam Allardyce but you have to admit his sides are always very well drilled and even when they resist the dark arts, (such as on Saturday) they’re still very hard to play against.

Another thought…
Who the hell do Stoke think they are putting in an official complaint over Wenger accusing them of rugby tactics? Whatever happened to free speech? If they don’t agree with his comments, fine, say so. But I don’t understand how it can be an issue for the authorities.

On vaguely the same note…
I am going to defend Alan Hansen over the stick he has taken over his criticism of Theo Walcott. Frankly, I don’t think he’s said anything a great many of us haven’t said previously. Watching him last season, the truth is it often looked as if football didn’t come naturally to him. We should embrace pundits who have an opinion.

Player ratings…
Almunia (7.5) did well, Sagna (8) looked really sharp, Clichy (6.5) less so. Koscielny (6.5) struggled for the goal while Vermaelen (7) looked sharp but had his own nightmare moment in the second half. Diaby (6.5) was the usual mixed bag, Song (7) was Song and Cesc (6.5) looked rusty again. Arshavin (7.5) looked livelier than against Blackpool, Theo (8) very dangerous and RVP (7) provided that pivotal pass. Sub Chamakh (7) offers more than RVP when we’re under the kosh. Rosicky (6.5) was fine and Wilshere (6.5) fluffed his lines for the second times in as many games when in front of goal but was otherwise fine.

THIS is one of those weekends where you might learn a fair bit about our season.

Whereas reading too much into Liverpool (somewhere no team can go and expect to win) and Blackpool (a game where victory was essential) would have been unwise, Ewood Park could prove to be a true bellwether game.

Surrender, like we did in the same fixture a few months back during the “can’t be f***ed” phase and you worry that lessons haven’t been learned. Come through it with three points and it has been a very good start to the season.

It is, of course, simplistic to subscribe to the view that we are universally woeful away when the going gets tough: victory at Stoke last season was hardly an isolated event. But any added belief we can give ourselves will be no bad thing, not least for our captain, whose programme notes last week conspicuously did not devote a single word to what he thought our chances were this season.

When I look at the signing of Squillaci I really do wonder what exactly there is to argue about. Imagine we had signed Matthew Upson. I think we’d be reasonably happy. Well this guy is also third or fourth choice centre back for his national side but he is a year younger than Upson and has Champions League experience. I really am quite pleasantly pleased.

It means we have a genuine whiff of competition at the back. We have three guys who will all realistically think they should be filling one place and Vermaelen will know that while his place is secure, he certainly can’t become complacent.

On the keeper front, I’d dearly love to see someone arrive. Arsene protesting all of a sudden that he has four great keepers and all this talk is unfair on them seems a little rich!

But overall I’m impressed by his signings. For the first time in quite a few summers it does not feel as though the squad has been weakened.

Of course, the two new signings at the back are just that and we will have to see how they do. But it is great to have a proper complement of centre-backs. Four is enough frankly: a senior player who is happy as fifth choice at the back is rarely going to be much good anyway. Barring a season long injury, what should now happen is that the four centre-backs will exclusively fill the position, with the exception of maybe one or two games over the season where injuries and suspensions will coincide and Song will be asked to drop back. That’s no biggy.

And that is just about your lot.

More after the game tomorrow.

Arsenal 6 Blackpool 0
From Goodplaya at the Emirates

It was great to be back…
Watching proper competitive football at the Emirates for the first time in 19 long weeks since Arsenal beat Wolves 1-0 back in early April thanks to Nicklas Bendtner’s late, late header. Sure, I’d seen Man City and Fulham and Celtic in the meantime but frankly they really may as well not have existed. You need to be fearing dropping points and it was great to wake up yesterday with that concern hanging over me.

Pre-game…
We got the return of the North Bank, Clock End and west and east stands. It’s a welcome move – though getting the “we’re the North Bank” and “we’re the Clock End” songs going in a stadium where the two are significantly further away from each other than they previously were may not be easy.

This Arsenal side…
Going forward this Arsenal side had a very good balance of creativity (Rosicky, Arshavin), pace (Theo) and height (Chamakh). We always look at our most balanced when all those three attributes are present and it was when either pace or height were lacking last season that we sometimes looked one dimensional.

The good thing about Chamakh…
Is that unlike one or two recent Arsenal strikers, he has clearly never been under the illusion that he is technically the world’s most gifted player. The upshot is that he has no qualms lowering himself to such meanial tasks as say, closing the ball down and running the line. He did that well. Yes, he missed a couple of chances, but he was in the right places. And he nodded one in at the end, despite the oil slick on his head.

The amazing this about Blackpool was…
Their complete lack of physicality. While we should be celebrating a team not trying to kick Arsenal off the pitch, two fouls from the visitors in 90 minutes does speak of a job not properly done frankly. By contrast, we committed a far more healthy nine. And it wasn’t just their approach to us: there were times too where they would stop expecting a foul to be given their way when really there was little hope of that happening.

Theo…
Was undoubtedly given the time and space that he thrives in. But equally Theo has often been given that time and space and delivered a lot less than yesterday. All three of his finishes were excellent and by and large his crossing was much improved too. The great thing about having Chamakh in the team is that there can be no excuse for poor crossing and Theo, Sagna and even Clichy all upped their game in that regard.

One defensive wall of ours…
Featured Theo, Wilshere and Arshavin. Which is all very well when Samir Nasri is taking the free-kick in training but perhaps a little short otherwise.

Talking of Wilshere…
It struck me that in getting played in central midfield by both Bolton last season and us now, he is perhaps getting the bit of a footballing education that Joe Cole missed out on at West Ham. By that I mean by being played so deep he is learning a lot about when you release the ball, when you hold it, when you do something flash and when you don’t. I really hope he keeps his place in the side and with no slight intended at Denilson, it would be a great shame if the Brazilian slotted in straight ahead of Wilshere once fit.

Look at the boots on the sending off incident…
and you will see it was definitely Chamakh who got the touch on the ball. I also think that the part of the foul that took Chamakh down was probably just inside the box. So a penalty was the right call and obviously a red had to follow under the rules. My feelings on this are quite clear: if the ref thinks a defender has in any way deliberately tried to foul the attacker then send him off by all means, but in incidences such as these (where I think the challenge was genuine), surely a penalty suffices?

And why not, if the ref judges an incident to be a clear goalscoring chance, let him give a penalty irrespective of whether the incident was in the box? Then the cards can properly be used to judge intent. The retort is always: “you will get different refs making very different calls on whether a foul outside the box should be a penalty and so it wouldn’t work”. But the point is that they already make such a call when determining whether the same incidents warrant a red card or not.

On which note…
Without the red card I think it would have ended up around 5-1 rather than 6-0.

The emphatic nature of this victory…
Must not cloud the fact that we still need more players at the back and a new goalkeeper. I’m not saying for a second that if we get them we will be shoe-ins for the title, but the point is I just can’t see us doing it without them. More defenders simply because you need four proper central defenders at least and a new keeper because over 38 games I think Almunia and Fabianski will lose us points we can’t afford to lose.

On which note…
The Gallas transfer is only annoying because we seem so adept at losing defenders and so inept at signing them. That a guy we signed from Chelsea has gone to Spurs matters little to me. I realised over the summer that despite being one of his bigger defenders during his spell at the Emirates, he really meant very little to me emotionally.

Player ratings…
Almunia (6.5) had very little to do, Sagna (7.5) attacked well and was full of running, Clichy (7) equally so, Vermaelen (7) very comfortable and Song (6.5) fine but obviously less at home at the back and occasionally positionally suspect.

Diaby (7) got one or two groans mainly because this being Arsenal someone has to. But overall he was fine and took his goal well, Wilshere (7) was very efficient on the ball and saved the fancy stuff for the right parts of the pitch. Rosicky (7.5) was very bright before the break and will be pleased to get 90 minutes, Andrei (7) set-up the first, scored the second and generally had the look of a brow beaten minimum wage worker.

Theo (9) fails to get top marks only because of the level of opposition, while Chamakh (7) looks an ideal fit for what we need. A year ago I thought his arrival unnecessary. In hindsight I was wrong: with Bendtner and RVP missing for key games, his presence would have avoided the sorry sight of Eduardo or Arshavin toiling away on their own up front and may just have got us a few vital points.

RVP (6) and Cesc (6.5) were feeling their way back into action and Carlos Vela (6.5) came on for a kick about and was destined to score a fantastic goal until he had to use his right foot.

Final thought…
Blackburn away next week is our first real test: losing at Liverpool would have been no disaster, winning yesterday was obligitary and expected. But Ewood Park is the first of what I’d term our “swing” fixtures.