Relegated to a footnote on the bottom the page, Gilberto has been ‘officially’ named as Arsenal Captain for the second time this summer, with Kolo Toure and William Gallas sharing vice-captaincy duties, whatever that entails. There won’t be many, if any, complaints about that choice. Indeed I don’t think I would be going out a limb to say that a fair few would be happy with the Anyone But Gallas element of the decision.

I say it was ‘officially’ announced, it was in The Sun Says So It Must Be True. Right after their ‘breaking news’ that Arsene is going to ‘test Chelsea’s resolve’ with a £5m bid for Lassana Diarra. This means that in the fortnight since the rumour first surfaced, his price has increased by 150% from £2m. Apparently, Chelsea ‘dare not’ refuse this or else he is going to leave next summer on a free. As if they are worried about £5m! More likely is that they will sell him to Middlesbrough, Reading or Portsmouth rather than strengthen Arsene’s hand but we shall see.

Robin van Persie has been in chatty mode for the past couple of weeks. This time he is ‘bigging up‘ Theo Walcott and his professional attitude in this Summer past, returning to training early with the Dutchman as they both recovered from injury,

When we were doing tests over the summer it was very hard…I could see it in his face he was really going for it. I like Theo has a person. He is a young man but I think he has big, big ambitions for himself to show his qualities. His ambition is one of the biggest things about him. He is just 18 but I see in him a big, big desire achieve his goals.

Just about the only thing RvP did not say was something along the lines of ‘I see a lot of myself in him‘. It is perhaps this season that we will see the real Walcott, freed from the shackles of his shoulder injury.

Like one or two others, he has been touted as being on his last chance – seriously – by some supporters. I just do not ‘get’ it. It is both a good and bad time to be a young player at the Club. Good because they know they will get a chance but also a time for caution as there are a minority who will judge the players on an exceptionally small number of appearances, forsaking those who do live up to idealistic and unreasonably applied standards. Nearly twenty years ago, David Hillier broke into the first team. God alone knows what would be made of him now by The Great And The Good. He showed some promise and was given the benefit of the doubt despite apparent limitations. He was given a chance. Too frequently now, careers are dismissed by the Sages of the Message Boards in an instant.

Walcott has been brought along in the usual cautious manner by Arsene, ensuring that he is not overplayed at this point in his development. It is hard to see what people want from him? It seems that some expect miracles, goals galore from the lad. I doubt that will happen from right or left wing. He has set his target on double figures, I hope he reaches it but I would be very happy if he chipped with five League goals from the fifteen or so starts that he is likely to get. I can see him playing when AW believes he will ‘make hay’ against a lesser defence. More likely to feature from the start at home I suspect, where Eboue’s defensive instincts will not be so readily required. It would not surprise me to see him start on Sunday against Fulham, if fit, with Eboue filling the wide right berth in Prague next week

’til Tomorrow.