Wengerball: Ryo Ryo Ryo

When will Park Chu-Young get a chance to impress? Should Theo Walcott start worrying about his first team spot? Is the solution to Andrey Arshavin's form problems a simple position switch?

Wengerball attempts to chart yet another season in the Arsenal red and white, one that hopefully culminates in much anticipated glory in England's highest footballing echelon.

A Tale of Two Strikers

It was only a matter of time, and when Park Chu-Young curled a sumptuous short beyond Adam Bogdan's despairing dive, the delight on his face was all too apparent. The South Korean striker has been in excellent form for his country, but has found chances to impress at club level limited. With less than two years to go before he will have to leave the Emirates for mandatory national service back home, Arsenal's summer signing finally opened accounts for his new team. Full of running and constantly exploiting the space in the Bolton defence, Park caused plenty of problems for Zat Knight and Gary Cahill throughout the ninety minutes. While Bogdan was equal to a few early snapshots from the former Monaco striker, Park showed excellent technical ability and a willingness to chance the offside flag with clever runs in the space between the Bolton defenders.

In contrast, his direct competitor for a forward spot, Marouane Chamakh, endured a wretched time leading the line against Stoke City. It wasn't as if service was lacking for once, as a few crosses found their way through, but the Moroccan striker showed a distinct lack of form as he failed to even test the opposition goalkeeper. One gilt-edged opportunity from a Mikel Arteta corner kick was driven straight into the ground, despite having all the time in the world to place his header. The fans are quickly losing patience with Chamakh, and surely a few more such performances will see him relegated to third choice striker behind Park. While Chamakh's performances at Bordeaux suggested that he would not be a regular scorer, and expectations were surely boosted by his sparkling form early last season, the lanky forward was expected to at least cause problems in the air for opposing teams. On the basis of this year's appearances, Chamakh is increasingly looking more and more like a certain Nicklas Bendtner.

Russian Sparkplug

Former Arsenal manager George Graham was at it once again last week, suggesting that perhaps Andrey Arshavin was not "good enough" for the Gunners.

"Arshavin's been a poor buy," Graham told talkSPORT, "his enthusiasm doesn't seem to be there."

Arsène Wenger was quick to jump to Arshavin's defence, claiming "He's a great player, Andrey, and you have to give him credit for that and he stands up for his performances."

While that memorable four goal performance against Liverpool alone would not have been worth his £15m price tag, the Russian playmaker has been showing a return to form of late following his admission that he hadn't been up to scratch of late. Another fine performance was in the offing against Bolton in Carling Cup play, as he scored a fine leveller and then set Park up for the winning goal. It was interesting to note though that Wenger had for once chosen to play him in the hole behind Park, a position he favours and plays in for Russia. With space on both sides to pass to and capitalise on, Arshavin looked a far better player than the frustrated winger constantly running into culs-de-sac on the left. His opening goal was a thing of beauty, fashioning a goal from almost nothing in typical Arshavin style, but the assist was far more impressive, holding up the ball in front of three back-pedalling defenders and waiting for Park to run back onside before releasing it into space.

On that performance alone, Wenger might just consider slotting him in there for the time being while Arteta gets more used to his new teammates.

Ryo vs The Ox

Young players are usually given much more chances to impress. Patience early on is usually rewarded once they start to find their feet and perform on a consistent basis. While Theo Walcott still insists on exasperating on a weekly basis, many others have successfully made the transition. Jack Wilshere's moment came after he returned from his loan spell at Bolton, and impressed Wenger enough that he was inserted straight into the starting lineup before making himself a permanent fixture. Wantaway Samir Nasri also made the transition last season when he started making an impression in consecutive matches instead of drifting in and out of proceedings early on his Arsenal career.

Walcott will soon have good cause to start looking over his shoulder, for two Arsenal prospects will be licking their chops at the prospect of snatching his first team place. Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain's fine performance and goal against Olympiakos drew plaudits and showed fans why Wenger had seen fit to splash the cash on him. Against Bolton however, it was the young Japanese import Ryo Miyaichi who stole the show with a livewire performance that had the fans chanting his name. Though a goal is still yet to come, the kid who still looks like a schoolboy showed a startling turn of pace, closing down the opposition goalkeeper after sprinting from his own half. One thing's for certain, just like Wojciech Szczesny, this kid has that certain x factor about him. Don't bet against him staying on the bench for long.

Slap-Your-Head Arsenal Moment of the Week: Per Mertesacker bouncing up and down on the spot in the middle of the penalty box as three successive Stoke players combined around him to set up Peter Crouch's close range blast into the net. The German giant got nowhere near the ball during this set-piece situation, and seemed clueless as to what to do at this instant.

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