4 Quick Lessons: Granit Xhaka, Theo Walcott, Craig Eastmond's Sad parable and Other Insights as Arsenal Rolls Over Sutton FC Into Emirates FA Cup Quarter Finals

Arsenal’s visit to Sutton FC for the FA cup fifth round tie had been billed as another opportunity to showcase the magic of the world oldest cup competition with an upset on the cards as the gunners were expected to still be wobbling under post Bayern Munich stress syndrome. In the end, Arsenal’s comfortable 2-0 win was reminiscent of those evenings at the rugby ground of my public high school facing the more illustrious across private school from across the road that always beat us: Enough to be proud of the lads on the pitch, sickening for dreams deferred, not exactly an embarrassment but good outing nonetheless.

Wenger Not So Stingy After-all, Arsene Overpaid Chelsea 11.4 Million Euros For Petr Cech

"Welcome back" by Mase would do for this occasion. 

I looked at the last date that we posted here and it was simply embarrassing. As embarrassing as this summer's transfer season ala the unending Benzema fiasco. As embarrassed as Arsene Wenger should be over that '3 month' Welbeck lay off, so much so that he couldn't do it himself, Hodgson had to. Other than that, Arsenal news review is pretty much a desperate affair consisting of hype over Theo Walcott for scoring two past part time footballers to finding out how long Ozil lasted in Germany's win over Scotland tonight.

It is in these Arsenal news drought times that guys like those crunching the numbers over at CIES Football Observatory make the headlines. In their weekly post, the nerds hang it all to dry painting a football version of some suburban neighborhood desperate housewives out on a shopping spree. According to their estimates, this summer's window was 23% inflated compared to 2009-2014. 

We paid 11.4 million Euros over for Cech (Estimated value of 3.6 million vs reported fee of 15 million). No surprise really for Manchester United's Antony Martial fee where Monaco skimmed a free 27.9 million of the 50 million fee but they recovered part of that (15.3 million) from PSG for Di Maria. Liverpool lost 32.1 million Euros on Raheem Sterling as CIES reckons that the nine goal? winger is worth at least 95 million pounds. Tiny totts actually made a 7 million Euro super profit on Roberto Soldado! Shock.

At the very least this report by CIES lends credence to Arsene Wenger's assertion that there was too much money chasing after too few players. 

Arsenal vs. Olympiacos A test of Depth

Olympiacos. Whenever I come across that, am reminded of Gilberto Silva’s move to the Greek champions. The Brazilians’ sale has to be the least trumpeted departure of The Departures of recent past. Just a few murmurs at Arsenal’s neck of the hood in blogosphere; on how Wenger should have let the World Cup winner with Brazil hang about the dressing room and pass on words of defensive wisdom to the likes of Song and Flamini or maybe even just help mould the young minds, Fabregas et. al, on how to better The Invincibles.

Welcoming Olympiacos tomorrow to the Emirates, thought is centered on the best thing since sliced bread Gilberto: Arteta. Afflicted by an ankle injury probably picked up at training, the Spaniard awaits to be cleared by pregame tests. This probably means he didn’t train that much with the rest of the team but being not only so pivotal, but so a seasoned hand in his trade a Diaby kind of gamble may just be at hand.

Upfront: Arsenal vs. Chelsea The Mind Games

Upfront seems to be the keyword; that is  62 pounds at MINIMUM it will cost you; and who will play (that word) for Arsenal ii against Chelski come Saturday’s early kick off London derby at the Emirates; financially and football-speaking  respectively.

On the back of the news of freshly minted cash- 36million pound net profit made by Arsenal PLC the past financial year as per the released end year returns, all that bloody dough made in the midst of a hostile investment climate globally, most certainly Europe, as rightly pointed out by Wenger; understandable it is why tagging entry to London’s hottest sporting event since the XXXX Olympiad at such a premium finally makes its way as trending sports news in mainstream media.

This ‘revelation’ unmasked way after the deed had been done when the big dogs at Arsenal decided on the abridged ticket prices structure.