As the season opener at home to Aston Villa drew nearer, many Arsenal fans were clearly frustrated at the lack of transfer activity this summer.
But as an optimist, sometimes too much for my own good, I was quietly confident that we could beat Villa and I truly believed it was a very winnable game.
After just five minutes Giroud opened the scoring with a well-taken goal to continue his impressive form from pre-season. Giroud looked decent on the ball and was one of the few positives from the game, although he didn't really get enough service!
Villa got back into the game with a penalty, after some stupid decision making from the eccentric Wojciech Szczesny. We were still looking okay and, with the scores 1-1 at half-time, I still thought we'd end up winning the game.
The turning point came just after the hour mark when Laurent Koscielny was harshly booked and Christian Benteke scored from the resulting penalty. I honestly believe Koscielny got the ball, he should never have been booked and the penalty should never have been given. The wrong decision by the referee totally changed the game as Koscielny was sent off for a second yellow sooner after.
We can't just hide behind the referee. If the penalty hadn't been given, I think we would have gone on to win the game, but it was and we really should've responded better rather than completely falling apart.
We wasted some good chances and Brad Guzan made some decent saves. To their credit Villa did play well and deserved their 3-1 but, no offence to them, that was really a game we should have been winning!
We need to put it down to a bad day at the office, dust ourselves down, and not let the season slip away as early as week one. A confident win at Fulham and a big win against rivals Spurs could give us a new lease of life and mean this season could be a good one after all...but who knows.
One thing is for sure, we definitely need some new signings. Whilst I've always backed Wenger and argued his case when some fans have said "Wenger out", we definitely need to buy some new players and I think we will do just that before the transfer window closes.
The starting XI is decent when we have everybody fit and available but the lack of depth was highlighted again today, especially at the back when players went down, leaving our hearts racing as we know we don't have many replacements in that area.
We need a top class striker to ease the pressure on Podolski and Giroud, although I genuinely believe Giroud will have a good season.
We definitely need to buy there is no denying that but, even after today, I still think Arsene Wenger is the right man for the job. Yes, the trophy drought is very frustrating! Yes, the lack of transfer activity is frustrating...especially with the media over hyping all the supposed targets. But why have we failed to get the targets? Is Wenger incapable? No, I don't think that is the case. We don't really know what is going on behind the scenes, there could be various reasons why the likes of Luis Suarez, Wayne Rooney and Luiz Gustavo are not at our club. I don't think Wenger is the reason, but something definitely needs to be done.
We need more depth to cover for injuries and we need one or two more top class players to really lift the mood in the camp because all the negativity that is written about the club seems to affect the players.
Wenger is under pressure to turn things around and all the fans need to stick behind him and the players through this tough time. The next few weeks, yes it could be this early, could really make or break our season. We need to ignore the media and fans of other clubs who always write us off in all competitions before season start! Let's just focus on our own game!
I think all of the top six clubs from last season will have tougher seasons this time, and even the two Manchester clubs and Chelsea could lose a few more games than normal in what is likely to be a very competitive season.
I have no idea how the season will pan out for us although I remain confident we will finish in the top four! Fourth still isn't really good enough, we need to aim higher, but things are not as bad as some people are making out.
Let's hope I can still be optimistic at full-time of the next match at Fulham! COME ON YOU GUNNERS!
