Sonko and Sagna to be reunited at Reading

Reading's Ibrahima Sonko will meet his cousin Bacary Sagna for the first time tonight when the Royals take on Arsenal at the Madejski.

Sonko was unaware that the brilliant Arsenal right-back was his cousin until his mother recently told him.

"Sagna is my cousin, apparently," said Sonko to the Reading Evening Post. "My mum told me he was, but I have never met him. The first time I will ever meet him will be Monday when we play against each other.

"I knew I had some cousins called Sagna, one of them is at Crawley and went on trial to Barnet, but I didn’t know the one at Arsenal was my cousin.

"I will say hello when I see him. Apparently he knows [that we are cousins] so it will be funny to see him. He’s doing well and he looks a very good player."

Sonko also spoke of some of his other cousins before the match though, controversially stating that he will kick Emmanuel Adebayor.

Daniel Bocande, Adebayor's teammate at Metz, apparently warned Sonko that Adebayor was too quick to be handled by anything other thank kicking.

"My cousin Daniel Bocande said to me ‘be careful because he is so quick'," said Sonko.

"When he has the ball at his feet he can be really fast. I think he is the complete player, but apparently he doesn’t like to be kicked.

"I’m not really like that, but if I have to kick him then I will do it. My cousin told me kicking him is the only way to stop him playing. If you do it early in the game it puts him off.

"When he starts smiling on the pitch you know he is going to play well, so hopefully he won’t be smiling."

Sounds like another case of less teams thinking they can boss Arsenal around by getting a bit physical. Well, they're wrong. With Mathieu Flamini and Cesc Fabregas enforcing the midfield, I don't think that we'll need to worry too much about getting bossed around by Reading.

All that this kicking talk will result in is a bad name for Sagna's poor cousin.

Does Eboue Have A Place At Arsenal?

Emmanuel Eboue played 35 games for Arsenal last season, taking the first-choice right-back position from Lauren (who transferred to Portsmouth due to his lack of first-team play). The Ivorian was criticized for his defending, but put in some brilliant crosses, prompting some to propose playing him on the right wing.

During the Summer transfer window, Arsene Wenger brought in the fabulous Frenchman Bacary Sagna. Sagna has been a rock at right-back, defending and attacking well. Along with Gael Clichy he provided width in an otherwise narrow Arsenal side, and his defending has been as good as any right-back at Arsenal.

Having lost his place at right-back, Arsene Wenger (and many Arsenal fans) thought that now was a good time to test him out in the midfield. He played a few pre-season games at right-mid, and failed to have much influence. Following an injury, he came back to play against Newcastle in our 2-0 Carling Cup victory over Big Sam's side. He featured again in the 1-0 victory over West Ham after Alex Hleb was taken off, and then started in the 1-0 defeat of Steaua Bucharest. However, he once again failed to have much impact in any of these games, making it unlikely for him to start tomorrow against Sunderland.

If he is second choice to Hleb and Diaby in the midfield, and to Sagna in the defense, do we really need him at the club? We have another capable right-back in 22 year-old Justin Hoyte, which means that Eboue will have limited chances in any competition other than the Carling Cup. Will he even want to stay under these conditions?

Of all of our players, Emmanuel Eboue is the only one that I would not mind selling in the January transfer window. He is surplus to Arsenal's requirements, and would likely command a fair sum of cash. Let's not hang on to him for too long.

Who was Arsenal's greatest signing this summer?

Arsene Wenger didn't splash out much cash during the summer transfer window (summary of Arsenal's transfer window activity here), bringing in only Bacary Sagna, Eduardo da Silva, Lassana Diarra, Lukasz Fabianksi, and Havard Nordtveit. However, there is no question that we have gotten some quality players through Wenger's astute eye for talent.

Some would argue that Wenger himself was Arsenal's greatest signing this season. Seeing him finally sign after months of speculation over his Arsenal future was a great relief to Arsenal fans. Having our manager stay on for another 3 years (without a get-out clause) was probably Arsenal's greatest coup this summer, but are some of Wenger's signings even more valuable than himself?

Bacary Sagna has been a rock at right-back since he came in from Auxerre for a fee rumored to be around £6.1 million. His defending has been more solid than any since Lauren was on top of his game, and his overlapping runs have provided excellent support up front. He's no Gael Clichy in terms of his dribbling skills, but his tough tackling adds a needed sting to Arsenal's back line.

Arsenal fans will be hoping that Eduardo will be able to provide the same sting up front. Dudu's arrival was controversial amongst Arsenal fans, with many looking for a more established striker after the loss of Thierry Henry and others happy to have signed a striker who could really put the ball away. I wasn't too keen on him in the beginning, but after seeing him play I began to believe that he could become a goalscoring left-winger in the mold of Robert Pires. Only time will tell, but Arsene may have once again unearthed an undiscovered talent in Eduardo.

The final major signing of the summer came in the form of the unwanted Chelsea utility player Lassana Diarra who came to Arsenal in a surprise final-day transfer. The 22 year-old has bundles of potential that he was never allowed to show with Chelsea and will be great support as a defensive midfielder when Gilberto is out. The 'new Makélélé' has yet to debut for Arsenal, but I think that there is little doubt that he will have some impact this season.

Arsene Wenger has once again managed to buy a fair amount of talent with a small amount of money, and it will be interesting to see which of our new signings has the most impact over our next few seasons.

Who do you think was our best summer signing?