Why Arsenal have every right to feel optimistic

Football FanCast columnist Alex
Dimond reacts to Arsenal's victory against Stuttgart last night and wonders,
given the ever impressive performances by their youngsters, if the North London
club have every reason to feel optimistic, ahead of the new season.

Arsene Wenger has
every reason to be a contented man. After a solid pre-season so far, his young
Arsenal side came from behind last night to record an impressive 3-1 win
against German side VfB Stuttgart.

Goals from Carlos
Vela, Nicklas Bendtner and 16-year-old Jack Wilshere ensured the victory, which
should provide great encouragement to supporters of the North London team. Wenger
also seemed happy with performance of his players, telling Arsenal.com:

"Vela is a little bit like Eduardo da
Silva, and Nicklas we already know from the end of last season is a very
powerful striker. They both did very well."

Another encouraging
aspect of the display was the debut performance of Samir Nasri, Arsenal's £12.5m
summer signing, who got 61 minutes under his belt:

"It was a very positive performance for
his first game," said
Wenger. "He has all it takes to be a
good player in this team."

While Arsenal lost the
likes of Mathieu Flamini and Alexander Hleb in the early part of summer, recent
news has been more positive. Transfer Rumours »”>Transfer rumours surrounding Emmanuel Adebayor
have quietened down, and the club yesterday announced the signing of another
exciting youngster, Portuguese right-back Amaury Bischoff. The 16-year-old,
formerly of Werder Bremen, is highly rated in the game and looks set to be another
of Wenger's masterful acquisitions.

To top it all off, the
club look set to receive around £7m from Blackburn, as a result of David
Bentley's sale to arch-rivals Tottenham. Such funds will be welcomed by Wenger,
who may well use them to make another addition in this transfer window.

But it is the
pre-season performances of his youthful charges that will most impress the
Arsenal manager. Both Vela and Nasri look to have adapted well to their new
club, and should contribute greatly to the upcoming Premiership campaign. The
return from injury of Bacaray Sagna, and soon Eduardo da Silva, will also be a
massive boost to a club still reeling from last season's disappointments.

Arguably, it was
Arsenal's lack of fighting spirit, coupled with a smaller squad size that cost
them trophies last year. Having added a few new faces, and with many youngsters
ready to make the step up, squad size should be less of a problem this year. With
another year's experience, the younger members of the first team should also be
even better this time out.

But more importantly,
the memory of bitter defeat should have created a desire within the squad to win
trophies, and a determination not to be beaten. Mentally tougher, they should
be better prepared for the 08/09 campaign.

With performances like
Stuttgart, Arsenal are already showing they mean business. The club, and the
fans, have every reason to be optimistic.

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