The transfer rumour mill is in overdrive and the biggest name is being linked to Arsenal, Real Madrid and Manchester City.

Radamel Falcao, one of the most courted strikers in world football looks certain to move from AS Monaco, and the big question is where to?

Real Madrid has clearly been Falcao’s preferred destination and after banking £59.7 million for Angel Di Maria, the smart money would be on him joining Gareth Bale, Cristian Ronaldo and James Rodriguez at the Santiago Bernabeu. But do they still need to offload Karim Benzema first?

Manchester City are apparently sniffing around too, with Manchester City holding talks with Falcao’s representatives according to his agent.

And then we come to Arsenal.

We’ve been linked to Falcao for a few weeks now and the thinking is, that we’d sign him on a years loan for £20 million. This would allow Arsenal to have a top calibre striker at the club while Olivier Giroud recovers from a broken bone in his ankle, and the Columbian striker would still be free to join Real Madrid next summer.

The thinking is that Falcao only coming for a year wouldn’t “kill” the other players at Arsenal, as Arsene puts it, and Falcao would still have the move he’s always dreamed of.

And apparently, we’ve given up on our £50 million pursuit of Edinson Cavani, as we’ve left negotiations too late in the day for anything to happen.

So what do you think? Are Arsenal going to sign one of the best players in the world and have a world class striker at the club?

Or are we promoting within, using Yaya Sanogo as our main striker?

Leave your comments in the section below, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!

More than any other club, it seems that Arsenal suffer the most with the calibre of their squad members. We had a ridiculous number of players at this summers World Cup, meaning that in terms of starting the season, we’ve been at a big disadvantage.

The new season is only 12 days old but we’ve already played Manchester City, Crystal Palace, Besiktas twice and Everton, and despite the obvious physical limitations as well as the quality of our opponents, we haven’t lost a single game yet.

We’ve failed to get out of first gear and our performances are nowhere near the standard we can achieve. When we’re in full flow, our football is outstanding but at the moment, we’re relying on sheer grit and determination to get us through.

Fitness, sharpness and the performances will come as the season progresses, but the fact we’ve managed to be where we are now is testament to Arsene Wenger and the players.

Arsene has had to manage players coming back at different times over the summer, organise new signings and rotate the squad more than he would like at this stage – and we’ve had big players missing due to injuries and suspensions, such as Mikel Arteta, Aaron Ramsey, Olivier Giroud and Kieran Gibbs.

At Crystal Palace, we struggled but the desire got us a narrow 2-1 victory. At Besiktas, we fought well to get an away draw and at Everton, when we were 2-0 down no-one gave us a chance. But sheer will and determination secured a dramatic 2-2 draw.

And to last night.

With a team obviously lacking in match sharpness, Arsene Wenger must have been extremely proud of what he saw. To a man, every single player gave 110% effort. Whereas at Everton you could accuse a couple of players of strolling through the game, every player on the pitch against Besiktas was unbelievable. The performance might not have been as slick as it can be (that will come with time) but the fight, desire and determination shown at The Emirates was phenomenal. Players such as Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere ran and ran and ran, showing how much playing for Arsenal means. We might have rode our luck with a couple of decisions, but there’s no doubt that these players play for Arsene Wenger.

And if you look around the Premier League table, how many managers can say the same?

The effort and fight shown by the players so far this season shows the belief that something special can be achieved this season.

And when we do click into gear once everyone is fully fit, then we will be right up there competing at the very top.

After last night’s dramatic victory over Besiktas, the draw for the Champions League proper was made this afternoon at the groups have been officially drawn. Arsenal’s group consists of the following teams:

Arsenal FC (England)
Borussia Dortmund (Germany)
Galatasaray (Turkey)
Anderlecht (Belgium)

And we’re in Group D.

My initial reaction is that it could be a worse group. Chelsea (like Manchester United) always get an easy group and did so again this season, Manchester City have Bayern, CSKA and Roma while Liverpool are in a group with Real Madrid, Basel and Ludogorets.

You would think that along with Borussia Dortmund, we should be favourites to progress into the knockout stages and when you compare it to last years group of death, we should be okay.

We know the quality that Borussia Dortmund possess, and along with them is Galatasaray, who will give us problems. No-one likes travelling to Turkey and players you will have heard of include one-time Arsenal target Felipe Melo. They also have Hamit Altintop who used to play for Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, Wesley Sneijder and the man, the myth and the legend that is Emmanuel Eboue.

Eboue made over 130 appearances for Arsenal and although he was with us during our “barren” spell he’s won trophies in Turkey, winning the Turkish league twice and the Turkish cup twice (as well as their version of the league cup).

So what do you think of the Champions League draw? Could have been better? Could have been worse? Leave your comments in the section below!

With the unfortunate news about Olivier Giroud, and the fact he had surgery yesterday on his ankle problem, needs must and the fact is we have our main striker out until the new year.

When interviewed, Arsene was cagey about going into the transfer market, mentioning that Sanchez, Walcott, Campbell, Sanogo and Podolski can all play as a striker. While not sounding completely convincing, it shows that if the right opportunity doesn’t present itself before Monday then Arsene is happy enough to promote from within.

So who do you think should be Giroud’s replacement? I’ve listed the options within Arsenal along with all the names we’ve been linked with recently by the media.

Vote below and choose the player you think should be playing in Giroud’s position, and don’t forget to leave your comments in the section below!