“At the moment we have a problem there. Justin Hoyte prefers to play at right-back, so Gallas is the most capable to sort that out. He could play, but I do not know yet”.

So says the boss, but I think we all know that Gallas will indeed make his debut tomorrow, either at centre-back if Djourou cannot recover or at left-back if he can. Wenger says Hoyte “prefers to play at right-back”, which is of course true, but also perhaps a tacit admission by the boss that Hoyte has had too many problems on the left, and is being targetted as a result. Which leaves Gallas and Nigel Flamini to cover the number three slot.

It’s a shame for Hoyte too, because I can’t see him ousting either Eboue or Lauren at right-back. Which makes him third choice there. Not a great place to be.

Anyway, until Clichy returns, it looks as though we could have the same left-back merry-go-round that we had last season.

But it’s important that Gallas plays tomorrow for other reasons – principally to get his fitness up and to bed him in with his new team-mates ahead of two rather large games – Hamburg and Man U.

And for those interested – the various Arsenal restaurants are already advertising Christmas bookings, and were doing at the tail end of August.

For God’s sake! That’s months away – we’ve got at least three or four sub-standard away performances to get under out belt before we can think about Christmas.