Robin van Persie, Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud. Between them the three strikers scored 81 goals and assisted 35 others in a combined 122 games last season. The signing of Lukas Podolski was, even in the eyes of the most pessimistic Arsenal supporters, never truly seen as a replacement for Robin van Persie. Reassurance came in the form of his performances for Germany in which he is deployed on the wing and his admission that he didn’t always expect to be number one.

But what about Olivier Giroud? The news announced yesterday from a variety of sources seemed to indicate that every man and their dog had spoken to an insider source, either at Arsenal or Montpellier, who had confided in them the most secret of secrets – that Giroud had agreed a contract with Arsenal. With the £12m deal to be announced after Euro 2012, just what does it mean for Arsenal and van Persie?

It didn’t take long for a whole host of self-appointed-experts to formulate definite and partisan opinions on the consequences of this, seemingly certain, signing.

For some he is the poor man’s replacement for our outward bound captain, for others he is the target man van Persie has been waiting for as a partner and for those truly cynical fans Giroud is the reincarnation of one Marouane Chamakh. But with less gel, obviously.

So, which is it – the captain’s usurper or Marouane mark II? Well, let’s look at the facts. First of all, it’s not hard to dispel the myth and show that Giroud is comfortably a better player than Arsenal’s desperately underwhelming Moroccan forward. Olivier Giroud has scored over twenty league goals in two of the last three seasons and is a natural goal scorer. Chamakh has never managed to score more than thirteen league goals in a season and was always more of a link up striker.

Moreover, Giroud, at Montpellier, is used to playing the same system that he would presumably be asked to play at Arsenal – flanked by two wingers with a playmaker in just behind. Finally, at six foot three and weighing just under fourteen stone Giroud is easily better built for the physicality of the Premier League.

As simple as it is to highlight the disparity Giroud and Arsenal’s lesser strikers it is easy to highlight the same situation between van Persie and Giroud. The Dutchman is a proven, world-class striker at the peak of his career who, last year, was the top scorer as well as the PFA Player of the Year for arguably the best, and toughest, league in the world. Olivier Giroud may have been joint top scorer for Ligue 1 last year but the fact remains he has spent most of his career playing in the lower echelons of French football.

I’m not saying that means he’s necessarily not up to scratch, the same was true of Laurent Koscielny and he had a superb second season for Arsenal, but it does indicate that he will struggle to ever fully replace a player like van Persie. But maybe we’re missing the point. Perhaps neither Podolski nor Giroud are replacements for van Persie on their own, perhaps the Arsenal hierarchy view their combined purchase as a solid replacement for Robin – Giroud and Podolski scored a combined total of 42 goals last season, van Persie scored 37.

It would be understandable if Gazidis and Wenger, resigned to losing their captain, had gone out and bought two players to replace him. The problem is, however, that it is not a progressive step by Arsenal. Who knows, maybe these two strikers together could replace him, but Arsenal only just scraped third this season, do they really want risk having a similar season again? They don’t need to swap and replace players; they need to improve the squad by adding to it.

Clearly there are two sides to every coin; the other being that Arsenal could get over £20m for van Persie this summer and he is unlikely to be the same player next year. The van Persie situation is remarkably similar to that of Thierry Henry in the summer of 2006. What happened there? Henry signed a new deal with a huge sign on bonus and effectively cost Arsenal around £10m to keep him for a year, a year in which he spent most of his time on the treatment table. The same could easily be possible for Robin. Last year was a gruelling physical challenge for van Persie and his resting period will be minimal because of his involvement in Euro 2012 (just as it was for Thierry at the 2006 World Cup). If the Dutchman does stay Arsenal risk either losing him for nothing if he refuses to sign a new deal or they risk wasting vast sums of money on a player who is far from guaranteed to be fit all season.

This would be a worrying thought for Arsenal fans, were it not for the other aspects that van Persie brings to the club.

Forget the money, forget the worry of whether all these strikers can play together. Robin van Persie is Arsenal’s captain, he holds this team together. To sell him might not only take Arsenal back to the gloomy days of William Gallas’ reign, devoid of morale with a distinct sense of disunity, but it also sends the message that every summer Arsenal will sell their best players. It is an issue that needs to be dealt with and there is no time like the present.

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You hear people saying that Giroud, Podolski and van Persie won’t all be able to play together, that there will be problems and damaged egos. Who cares? If these players don’t like competition for places then they shouldn’t sign for big clubs. Every successful team has decent squad depth. This is Arsenal’s chance to have a good array of strikers in the prime of their lives for the first time since Kanu, Henry, Bergkamp and Wiltord were all on the books; and we know what kind of success that lead to.

If Arsenal sign Olivier Giroud they have a chance to change their fortunes. They have the chance to forget that they’re a conservatively run business and remember that you have to speculate to accumulate. Arsenal football club have to forget what they ‘know’ about how you run a business; even the most risk averse football clubs must put themselves on the line occasionally, this is Arsenal’s chance.

Follow Hamish on Twitter @H_Mackay

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The dawning of a new day has arrived folks, Liverpool have a bright young, dynamic manager at the helm in 39 year-old Brendan Rodgers and a cast-iron identifiable ‘philosophy’ to get behind. Cautious optimism has spread through the halls of Anfield these past few weeks, which means it could be the perfect time for the club to loan out some of its bright young things.

Liverpool have become somewhat well-known in recent times for failing to bring youth-team players through into the first-team set-up, which led to a radical overhaul from top-to-bottom by previous manager Rafa Benitez of the club’s failing academy. Only now is it starting to pay dividends and the club has an exciting young crop of talent coming through the ranks in the likes of Suso, Raheem Sterling and Connor Coady, but the club should really consider utilising the loan system to their benefit a lot more in the coming months.

Manchester United have benefited hugely from using the loan market the past couple of years, with both Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley going away on respective season-long loan deals to Sunderland and Wigan before coming back and staking their claim for a place in the starting eleven.

The impact that regular first-team football in the Premier League has had on them has been huge; they’ve matured, become more technically proficient, while adapting to the rigours of the top flight in the process. Nobody is for one minute suggesting that the likes of Sterling and Suso are going to walk into a Premier League club this season, that’s obviously setting your sights way too high far too soon, but a gradual progression up the leagues has to be explored.

Cleverley for example, enjoyed loan spells first at Leicester and then a breakthrough year at Watford as a hard-working and creative right midfielder before he secured his chance with Wigan – proving yourself somewhere first then taking your chance when you make the step up is what it’s all about.

Liverpool could be found guilty of not cherry-picking the right clubs with the same footballing culture for their youth-team players to go out on loan to in the past, the result being that the young players development is stunted by a lack of first-team opportunities. For instance, Ghanaian Godwin Antwi had four loan spells in two years, Craig Lindfield also had four loan moves in two years while Robbie Threlfall was shunted out to Hereford for two years running despite making just 12 appearances altogether. Clearly not enough care was taken in the past, rather a ‘well we’ve got to get them out there in the lower leagues, so they’ll do’ attitude.

It’s not that the quality isn’t there either – Tom Ince, Paul Anderson, Adam Hammill, Lee Peltier, Mikel San Jose, Zak Whitbread and Jack Hobbs have all made it elsewhere in recent times. They may not be of sufficient enough quality in some cases to have become a regular starter, but they’re of Championship quality in most cases, and are they really any worse than the likes of Phillip Degen, Antonio Nunez and Gabriel Palletta? Players brought in at far more expense from across the world to plug squad gaps.

There should be an established system whereby the club’s young talent is loaned out between the ages of 18-20 at clubs which will guarantee them first-team football, if they won’t, then what’s the point sending them there in the first place? They could gain experience of not playing back at the club, confined to reserve-team football, but at least learning from the same training methods that the new manager wants the entire club to play with.

The Liverpool academy clearly doesn’t have the same currency of status as either Manchester United’s or Arsenal’s, and the fact that the club’s youth-team players aren’t courted by the same level of lower tier clubs is worth drawing attention to, but that doesn’t mean that they should compromise the player’s footballing education by simply loaning them out for the sake of it, it has to be a move that will benefit the player and the club.

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Rodgers seems serious about cultivating a steadfast set of principles in the way that he wants his side to play, while the likes of Pep Segura and Rodolfo Borrell have been doing a very good job with the youth-team sides – now is the ideal time to see if these youngsters will sink or swim, you can’t mollycoddle and protect them forever, there are plenty of real footballing sides within the lower leagues these days, it’s not simply confined to the long-ball antics of the past, so in the right environment, there’s no reason why they wouldn’t be snapped up and allowed to flourish.  The club need to utilise the loan market in their favour, otherwise decent young players that could have been something more at Anfield, will continue to slip through the net.

You can follow me on Twitter @JamesMcManus1

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Roberto Di Matteo was handed a two-year deal to take over Chelsea in the summer on a permanent basis after a hugely successful six-month interim spell in charge last term, but is talk of a title challenge premature? You only have to look at their rotten pre-season form to realise that this is a side caught in transition.

Owner Roman Abramovich has invested heavily in the squad this summer, spending £65m on the likes of Eden Hazard, Oscar and Marko Marin, while Marseille right-back Cesar Azpilicueta looks to be getting closer to completing a move. All four of these players have one thing in common – they are all under 25 years of age and the long-term nature of these deals is worth drawing attention to.

You can never truly gauge a team’s form solely from pre-season – Tottenham for years dominated all before them year after year only to then go on and struggle in the league, but you can begin to make a judgement on the shape of the team and where the club’s new players are going to settle in. It looks as if Di Matteo is staking a hell of a lot on Fernando Torres being a success this coming campaign and there are simply too many things up in the air to treat them as serious title contenders.

Andre Villas-Boas was accused of trying to do too much, too soon, which may be true to an extent, even if his sacking for that very same reason can be considered extremely harsh. Nonetheless, the very same job that he was brought in to do still needs picking up and finishing off as they simply reverted back to the tried and tested old guard during their Champions League and FA Cup triumphs.

The club looks to  have a settled number one goalkeeper in Petr Cech, while Gary Cahill’s form towards the back end of last season was magnificent and in Ashley Cole they have one of the best left-backs in the world. Branislav Ivanovic is a sturdy and versatile squad player and John Terry, despite being hugely flawed, still has some use to him, while David Luiz has vastly improved. It’s only really at right-back where the troubles come in and they’ll definitely make a signing there this window.

However, you can’t ignore the fact that the club kept just 10 clean sheets last season, compared to Manchester United’s 20 and Manchester City’s 17, with even Arsenal (13) and Tottenham (14) achieving more. They failed to score in eight separate fixtures, again more than all of their rivals and some systemic problems still need addressing, even if some are willing to get carried away by the glitz of new signings and promise of more, with FC Porto forward Hulk still on the horizon.

They conceded 46 goals last campaign, more than Everton, Liverpool, Tottenham and both Manchester clubs – just because they’ve signed a few eye-catching creative talents, this problem doesn’t suddenly just go away and there’s no magic wand to this issue and the club could do with some more strength in depth at the back, even if on paper, the first-choice side looks decent.

There’s also an onus on changing the side’s style of play and they’ll need to integrate the likes of Hazard and Oscar slowly into a new league. The pace and physical demands of the Premier League will far exceed what both of them are used to and while they may be wonderful, world-class players in the making, right now, the pair are little more than potential and should be treated as such, rather than the world-beaters capable of helping to bridge a huge 25 point gap on both Manchester-based clubs.

Di Matteo will not be able, particularly given the money spent, to rely on such a defensive outlook that helped them to their success at the end of last season. He’s essentially just warming the seat until Pep Guardiola wants the job at the moment, which explains the relatively short contract he was offered which only increases the pressure on instant results. It’s a huge job to take on, especially for someone with as little managerial experience as Di Matteo, but patience is the key and expectations must be dampened.

In midfield, Ramires was a huge success last year and Oriol Romeu showed some promising signs too, but doubts still remain over the likes of John Obi Mikel, Michael Essien and Raul Meireles, while Yossi Benayoun and Florent Malouda look they’re going to be heading towards the exit door. The sheer volume of incomings and outgoings are just not conducive to a title challenge, that is not to say that the signings that the club have made this summer will not go some way to improving their chances of mounting one in the future, but for the time being, pragmatism must reign supreme.

The role that Frank Lampard will have over the coming campaign also provides food for thought, and at 34 years of age now, he must begin to accept that he’s no longer first-choice, otherwise we may see another display of his much-vaunted ‘professionalism’ as we were treated to last year, when he repeatedly complained to his media chums about Villas-Boas benching him.

They do have a tantalising front four on paper, with Torres and Mata dovetailing beautifully at times last year, supplemented by the likes of Hazard, Oscar, Sturridge and Marin, but they will need time to gel together and the club’s bumpy pre-season form, during which they’ve won just one of their five games so far, has seen Hazard shifted about in numerous different roles, which points to Di Matteo struggling to find where he’s best placed.

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A switch to a more fluid system to suit the players at his disposal coupled with the need to let new players settle and a fresh emphasis on stylish, aesthetically pleasing attacking play all points to an inconsistent season ahead for Chelsea. When it clicks, it will be quite something to marvel at, but Di Matteo has inherited the job that Villas-Boas failed to see through and trying to change too much, too soon could see results become erratic.

At this stage, that in itself is no bad thing, as long as expectations align with the realisation that this is a period of transition. Last season’s success should be seen as the end of an era, the dawning of a new one is just beginning, a potentially exciting one at that, but as the club’s pre-season form has shown so far, Di Matteo has been left with just as many questions as he has answers going into the new league campaign and talk of a title tilt is unrealistic at this stage in the club’s rebuilding process.

You can follow me on Twitter @JamesMcManus1

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Arsenal have confirmed that they have finally completed the signing of Santi Cazorla from Malaga for an undisclosed fee.

The Spain international has been a target for the north London club for the last couple of weeks, with the Emirates Stadium side making the most of Malaga’s financial difficulties.

Despite a delay completing the deal, Arsene Wenger has expressed his delight that Cazorla has joined his squad.

“Santi Cazorla is a great signing for us,” the French coach told the Gunners’ official website.

“He is a player with good experience at both club and international level, who will add significant quality to our squad.

“He is a versatile, attacking midfield player who can play comfortably on either side of the pitch or centrally.

“He has good pace, is technically gifted and will be a huge asset to Arsenal Football Club. We are delighted that he is joining us,” Wenger concluded.

Cazorla meanwhile has also admitted his delight at the deal being completed and is looking forward to getting started with his new club.

“I’m so happy to be joining Arsenal. This is a club with great players, a fantastic stadium and huge support.

“The club has one of the best managers in football and their style of play is recognised and admired all over the world.

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“I’m so excited to be joining one of the greatest teams in Europe and also in the Premier League. I will do my best to help Arsenal challenge for trophies and make all the supporters happy,” he stated.

By Gareth McKnight

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Two opposite ends of the transfer spectrum (sort of) but equally baffling considering the state of the economy across Europe. Wolves would have been the happiest team last week (again, sort of) as the rest of us watched two of their key players return to the Premier League following big transfer bids from Sunderland and West Ham. Now, the impact of Matt Jarvis moving from the Midlands down to London is not quite the same as Thiago Silva swapping Milan for Paris, but both transfer would have left many, many fans shaking their head in disbelief.

Lets keep in mind that the double figures and potentially rising to double figures deals for both Jarvis and Steven Fletcher are for players who were both relegated last season. Maybe those who sign off on the deals in England’s top-flight are a little scared or even lack a little knowledge of the footballing bargains away from England. Or maybe they just really fancied the players on offer at Wolves. I’m inclined to go for the first one.

Steven Fletcher was bought by Sunderland to get among the goals and help the club force it’s way up the Premier League table. 12 league goals is ok for a player of his calibre, but so much more could have been done with that big transfer fee than landing a player who wasn’t good enough to keep his side away from relegation.

Swansea have impressed me again this summer, but I’ll get onto them soon. Instead, Wigan were one of the teams to make use of good players in foreign leagues. I’m sure they weren’t the only club in England to notice the excellent form of Arouna Kone last year for Levante—a team who made headlines by finding their way to the top of the La Liga mountain for the first time in the club’s history. Helping to take them there and to a fairytale Europa League finish (they really were unlucky not to grab a Champions League spot) was the 15 goals of Arouna Kone, on loan from Sevilla.

If a fee around £3 million can get you—a club pushing for mid-table safety—15 goals and the assurances of a player in his prime, then why bother with the inflated transfer demands of English clubs? Wigan are evidently one of those clubs who need to sell to buy, and yet they were the ones to outsmart bigger clubs by landing a very good striker in the Ivory Coast international.

Fulham, like Newcastle in recent years, have also really impressed in the transfer market. Among another set of arrivals this summer was former Hamburg striker Mladen Petric. The Croatian isn’t a player who is going to win Manchester United the league title, but he is an absolute steal for a club like Fulham. Martin Jol needs results now, not in a few years when a young striker realises his potential. In Petric, the Fulham manager has an experienced goal scorer who knows how to find the net. Petric’s lack of a “prolific striker” tag was more than made up for by his arrival on a free transfer. A smart pick up and one that does deserve praise.

The situation is Spain is well-known to everybody—those clubs are in a financial mess. The nice weather and attractive football does help to sweep those unbelievable levels of debt under the carpet, but it’s only for a while. Premier League clubs need to start picking up on the vulnerability of many Spanish clubs and the real likelihood of a top bargain.

Spurs are a clubs who have been looking for a goalkeeper all summer, with Hugo Lloris reportedly topping their wish list. The club don’t have long term stability in Brad Friedel, while Heurelho Gomes simply can’t be trusted. But instead of wandering around trying to think of ways to force Lyon to lower their price, why not look to Villarreal’s situation and the chance for a bargain goalkeeper?

That ship has of course sailed as Diego Lopez joined Sevilla all the way at the beginning of the summer transfer window. The Andalusian club were quick to notice the state of Villarreal and their need for cash and rightly swooped to land Lopez at a great fee of just over 3 million euros. He’s not exactly grabbing the headlines as Lloris is, which is in part due to the fact he’s overshadowed by bigger names in Spain, but he’s more than capable of playing for a top side in England. Teams like Tottenham really could have landed a long term starter in goal for a very attractive price.

We’re always likely to touch on the transfer of Michu to Swansea (and the move for Jonathan De Guzman was also an excellent piece of business), but what were bigger clubs thinking when they let this gem of a player slip the net? There’s hardly a case for suggesting Michu couldn’t adapt to the Premier League from La Liga’s smallest Madrid-based club, as the player has already found his way onto the score sheet in his first two games for Michael Laudrup’s side.

Bigger clubs might have looked to the idea that a player like Michu represents to much of a risk to trust him with your ambitions for the season. But really, where is the risk when the player cost Swansea £2.5 million and grabbed 15 league goals last season? He wasn’t mentioned as a possible addition to the Spanish national side for his ability to cut oranges in perfectly measured and equal pieces of four. This is a player who could have really helped to add great depth to a side whose ambitions are beyond just mid-table.

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Guillem Balague mentioned last week that many clubs in Spain are looking to sell their best players, including Alvaro Negredo at Sevilla. Balague said a fee around £15 million would force Sevilla to part ways with their striker, as I also suggested last week. Instead, Steven Fletcher of Scotland is preferred for a similar fee to Negredo of Spain.

Arsenal were smart in their capture of Santi Cazorla, capitalizing of Malaga’s situation, while Swansea and Wigan have also shown their eye for a good deal in Spain. There really is no excuse for English clubs continuing to overlook the excellent players available at teams like Real Betis, Sociedad and Bilbao. Until that changes, it will continue to be teams on the continent unearthing the bargains that are staring them in the face.

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Clint Dempsey has spoken of his relief at moving to Tottenham but said he is “disappointed” over his treatment at fellow London-based club Fulham.

The American striker had been expected to move to Liverpool on the final day of the transfer window, only for Spurs to seal a £6m deal. The 29-year-old expressed his feelings on matters in an interview with The Guardian:

“I’m very relieved and looking forward to getting back to playing. I think the team is a perfect fit. They qualified for a place last season for the Champions League but missed out on a technicality. But it’s still in London. My family doesn’t have to move far. My daughter, she can go to another international school and be on the same curriculum. It couldn’t have worked out any better in that regard.”

Dempsey led Fulham with 23 goals last season and has long spoken of his desire to play at the highest level – the Champions League. Tottenham finished fourth in the Premier League but missed out on getting into the competition after Chelsea won the title and the last qualifying spot.

“I’m disappointed in the way I was portrayed in the end with Fulham. I always wanted to play at the highest level possible. That was never a secret. That’s something I always said. It would be a dream of mine to play Champions League and you want to play on the best team possible to try to get there. That’s definitely a team with a lot of quality in it but now it’s all about the team that I’m with.”

The saga started over the summer, when Dempsey was linked with Liverpool with Reds boss Brendan Rodgers inquiring about his availability. The Fulham manager, Martin Jol, said Dempsey had refused to play for the club, one of the salvos from both parties that led to Dempsey tweeting that there were two sides to the story. Dempsey said he was simply relieved to look ahead.

“There were some things that were said that weren’t true. That’s in the past. It’s about looking towards the future. I’m looking forward to playing with Tottenham. It’s a great team, a great club.”

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Paul Scholes inspired Manchester United to victory on his 700th appearance for the club with the opening goal in the 4-0 thrashing of Wigan at Old Trafford.

After a goalless first half sent nerves jangling in the United camp it was the 37-year-old who calmed the 75,142 strong crowd as he broke the deadlock six minutes after the break to set United on course for a third win on the spin.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s men had laboured to wins in their last two outings against Fulham and Southampton and looked set to struggle again against Roberto Martinez’s spirited Wigan side.

The Red Devils should have led after just five minutes but Javier Hernandez saw his penalty saved by Ali Al-Habsi after he was adjudged to have brought down Danny Welbeck. A series of spurned opportunities from Welbeck did little to reduce anxiety levels amongst the home support that would have gone through the roof had Ivan Ramis and Arouna Kone displayed composure in front of goal towards the end of the half.

It was left to Scholes to diffuse any tension as he tapped in from close range after Nani’s low cross was spilled into his path by Al-Habsi. Hernandez then atoned for his failure from 12-yards beating the offside trap to convert Alex Buttner’s cross to double United’s lead just after the hour.

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Buttner then made it a debut to remember as he bulldozed his way down the left flank before beating Al-Habsi with a brilliant strike from a seemingly impossible angle for his first goal since arriving at Old Trafford in the summer. That was followed by a fourth goal from teenager Nick Powell as he came off the bench to mark his introduction to the Premier League with a superb fourth goal as United move to second in the table.

A classic Premier League rivalry is renewed on Sunday afternoon, as Manchester United travel to Newcastle.

Sir Alex Ferguson will be looking for a response from his side after they lost to Tottenham in their last Premier League fixture, although Robin Van Persie inspired a Champions League victory in midweek.

Alan Pardew will play his first home match since being awarded an 8-year-contract, and is expected to start with the leagues most in form striker Demba Ba for the visit of United.

Ba opened the scoring in the corresponding fixture last season, with a superb half volley. Newcastle ran out 3-0 winners that night, in a match that eventually had a huge baring on where the title ended up.

Pardew named a strong side for the midweek win over Bordeaux, but the fact the likes of Ba, Ben Arfa and Davide Santon remained unused substitutes suggested they will start Sunday’s clash.

Defenders Fabricio Coloccini (hamstring) and Steven Taylor (calf) and Ryan Taylor remain unavailable.

United have a long injury list, and will be without the likes of Nemanja Vidic, Phil Jones, Antonio Valencia, Ashley Young and Chris Smalling.

Jonny Evans is expected to start after suffering a dead leg in midweek.

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Prediction: Newcastle 2-3 Manchester United 

Arsenal are set to offer Bacary Sagna a new contract in the next fortnight to fend off interest from abroad, The Metro claim.

The France international has been a solid performer for the Gunners since moving to north London in 2007 from Auxerre, but has raised concerns with the number of players that have left the Emirates Stadium side of late.

With Sagna’s current contract running out in the summer of 2014, Arsene Wenger is keen to avoid another star’s deal running into its last year, and wants a solution in the next two weeks.

Sagna is drawing attention from Real Madrid and Inter, with the Italian side thought to have made approaches for the full-back in the last two transfer windows.

Sagna is currently recovering from a broken leg, which forced him to miss Euro 2012 and the start of the 2012-13 domestic season for the Londoners. However, the player has returned to team training this week.

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By Gareth McKnight

Finally, after five games of bad results and even worse football, the Seasiders took a big step in the right direction on Tuesday night, only for Dexter Blackstock to take the shine away with a last minute equaliser.

No, it wasn’t the best performance of the season and yes, it was only a draw, but the way in which Blackpool went about the game against Forest finally looked like the Blackpool team we have come to love so much. It is a massive step forwards and a giant leap away from the hopeless displays lately.

Holloway tinkered again, understandably after an abject showing at Turf Moor. Gomes and Sylvestre came into the midfield alongside Osbourne, and Taylor-Fletcher moved to a forward role between Matt Phillips and Ince. Due to there being no other options, the back four and keeper stayed the same, but there now looked to be a balance to the team. A midfield that can pass and create, and a forward line with a mix of pace, power and intelligence. Could this be the game where Holloway finally remembered his passing philosophy? We could only hope so after watching opposition centre halves heading out aimless long balls for the last few weeks.

Again, the pitch looked quite heavy and even seemed to have patches of water on it, but then there is simply not a lot that can be done about the recent weather. Thankfully though, it didn’t affect the game in the slightest and we witnessed a good, fast paced match between two talented attacking sides.

Blackpool started the game brightly with Ludovic Sylvestre showing why he had been rewarded with a start. Moving the ball around nicely and never letting it settle before trying to pick out an incisive pass, which he did more than once. It is play like this that has been missing recently for Blackpool.

A pass that misses out a few men and cuts through the opposition. But with Sylvestre on the pitch, Blackpool had an early chance after a lovely move put Crainey through against the keeper only for the left-back to put it wide, possibly hitting the post. The Seasiders were probably the better side for the opening 20 minutes as the game had a nice ebb and flow to it.

At this point, unfortunately, we have to introduce Mr Ilderton who put in an exceptionally bad refereeing display that managed to upset and anger both sets of fans, players and managers, to the point where every decision that was given was cheered like a goal. He took leniency beyond belief where you actually begun to wonder if he had genuinely forgotten his glasses or his whistle.

Billy Sharp raced through into the Blackpool box only to be bundled over by Osbourne. Perhaps it would have been soft, but it was certainly a decision you see given and was a clumsy challenge by Osbourne. Then, to continue his bizarre approach to refereeing, Mr Ilderton allowed play to go on after a blatant foul on Osbourne in the middle of the park. The resulting move ended in a corner for the visitors and we all know what happens when you get a corner against Blackpool. Some poor marking, and some poorly attempted clearances led to Billy Sharp flicking the ball past a hopeless Matt Gilkes.

Blackpool reacted well and kept knocking on the door, and seemed to have carved open the Forest defence when Sylvestre sent Ince through on goal, only for the winger to be brought down. Mr Hopeless though simply waved his hands and played on when it could and maybe should have put Forest down to 10 men. Some more nice play, but nothing of note happened before the referee found his whistle just in time to blow for the break.

The message at half time must have been more of the same, but take a few more shots, as the Tangerines came out and continued to pass, but this time unleashing wild shots from outside the area.

The match lost it’s spark during the second half and really needed a change. On the hour mark Elliot Grandin made a return in place of Gomes and really changed the game. In spite of the fact Holloway said his attitude in training isn’t right, the Frenchman certainly looked up for the match, injecting some pace into the middle of the pitch and causing problems. And, deservedly, it was him who made a good run to get on the end of a fantastic Matt Phillips cross and head home an equaliser.

With the crowd encouraged and a spring in the players’ step, Blackpool continued to press and Grandin was involved again as the ball was bouncing around the Forest box and fell to Taylor-Fletcher who bumbled a shot which beat the keeper.

It really looked as if Blackpool were going to hold on to all three points until panic struck at the back. The ball was floated over and Blackstock latched onto it. The whole back line stood still with their hand in the air, more in desperation than anything, as the sub slotted home a last minute heartbreaker. The panic was understandable considering the defensive record of late. Add to that Matt Phillips slotting in at right back for the final 20 minutes and it’s no wonder there was a little confusion.

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A final little touch from the referee came as he gave Blackpool a throw-in because the Forest right back took the initial throw from a yard too far up the pitch. It’s nice to see that despite missing almost everything during the game, he was still up to the job, making sure he got the big decisions correct.

As horrible as it is conceding in the last minute, it will be encouraging to most Blackpool fans to have their team back. A good, passing, attacking side who create chances but can’t defend a cross. In all honesty, there is no shame in drawing with this Forest side, who played a great counter attacking game. When you looked through their team there was quality all the way through it and in Cox and Sharp they have one of the best strike partnerships in the division.

So, at last, we saw a good game of football at Bloomfield Road. Played with the ball on the floor. And now we can get back to trying to impose our style of play on the opposition and get back to winning ways. Next step, defending crosses. Then there will be no stopping us.

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