And now for the second sitting

The departure of Cesc Fábregas has sunk in, the first game has been played and won, and a sense of everyday life is slowly returning to the Arsenal. Well, it will when Samir Nasri, too, has left the club.

At the start of this summer's Silly Season, there were mumbles about Nasri's contract situation, and even before the end of Proper Season, the Daily Mail speculated on his replacement. Still, the general mood was that his agent and him were playing hardball in the contract negotiations, and it would all be sorted out. The focus was very much on Cesc and the neverending links with Barcelona.

At the start of June, while on international duty with France, Nasri was seemingly caught unawares by reporters' questions of his Arsenal future. His attempts at diplomacy failed, or were less than genuine, and his quotes went around the football world.

It's easy to guess that these quotes brought him to the serious attention of Manchester City, while their rivals Manchester United were already circling in. A £20m bid from the latter was reportedly turned down in July.

City has since spent the entire summer coaxing him towards the Etihad Stadium. If reports are to be believed, he stands to triple (!) his weekly salary from his current £60k at Arsenal to a stunning £185k of Qatari royal money. Arsenal's offer stretches only to less than half the deal which rumour has it is already agreed.

This says all about the uphill struggle Arsenal are facing when it comes to competition for the best available players. Manager Arsène Wenger has conceded that he has no proof that Nasri has been tapped up, but if a deal is in place before an offer has been accepted by Arsenal, it's at least an interesting case to be tried.

Tonight, the BBC report that the move to Manchester City may be finalised within hours rather than days. Like with Cesc, Arsenal have been hard negotiatiors. The fee looks to be £25m, not half bad for a midfielder with just a year left on his contract, and only half a season of world class football on his CV.

That Nasri has been allowed to drag his feet through the whole of last season without committing to a new deal is hard to accept for the fans. Wenger has relied on his renowned gifts of persuasion, but this time it hasn't worked. Perhaps the reason for that is the bad blood between him and Nasri's agent, dating back to the bribery scandal in the 1990s, as claimed by France based journalist Matt Spiro.

When Nasri now looks set to leave sooner rather than later (as I tend to trust BBC when reporting it), the so called transfer kitty at Arsenal is now a war chest and then some. That, and the fact that it's two weeks left of the transfer window, doesn't push the prices for players down.

It looks like Arsenal's haggling has brought better deals for the club, but less time to get replacements.