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Alan Ball joined Arsenal from Everton back in October 1971. A new club record fee of £220.000 was paid to obtain the services of one of the best midfielders in football. He had prior to his Arsenal move won the World Cup with England and also winning EFL 1st division with Everton in 1970, also a runners-up medal from the FA Cup with Everton.

His move to Arsenal came just after the club had won their famous double and Ball being the start to peak it even more and everything looked perfect as Arsenal reached the final of the FA Cup in 1972. The Gunners had a good 1st division season ending 5th just six points behind the winners, Derby County.

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At the age of 26 Arsenal signed a player at a perfect age, and of course being among their best performers during his time with the club also getting the England captaincy for that special West Germany friendly 2-0 Wembley win, playing the current World Cup holders of the parket.

But a bit of an injury situation never made it possible to build on that first season as the team at Arsenal were at a decline and rebuild with Alan Ball just being in the mix of a shift in players, seeing a great number of players leaving, such as Charlie George, Ray Kennedy, Frank McLintock, Bob McNab.

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Ball did play on but when reaching the age of 31 he did see a chance to move on and signed for Southampton for a fee of £60.000, but still very much in shape and capable of doing many more seasons at the top as he helped The Saints back to the top flight and being a key player at The Dell for seasons to come.

Ball played a total of 177 league games, scoring 45 goals, in his five years at Arsenal, and also made his final caps for England while with Arsenal, building a total of 72 caps in which he scored 8 goals.

His days at Arsenal never became as great as he would have liked probably, but was highly rated by fans and seen as one of the real giants of this club going back.

Alan Ball had a career as manager as well being in charge of a number of clubs in football, being in charge at Man City and Southampton both in the top flight when Ball was at the wheel.

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Alan Ball sadly passed away in 2008 only 61 years of age. A long life in football being a manager, coach and player for a number of teams on several different continents. To look up more details you have Wikipedia as a source

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Chelsea played their second game of the season and after their impressive 3-0 home win v. Crystal Palace they continued their Premier League campaign with a new London derby game, this time away to Arsenal at The Emirates.

Exciting to see how Thomas Tuchel decided to just slot Lukaku in from start without any hesitation. It all went perfectly and probably as the German had predicted, saying in the interview before the game, that he just told Romelu to be confident and play to his strength in a position he knows inside out.

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During his previous spell at Chelsea, Lukaku struggled to score goals and in 10 league games never hitting the net, though most of his time during his previous stay were spent on loan at West Bromwich and Everton, before making that permanent move to Goodison Park.

Today he was back in a Chelsea kit and started his scoring at once hitting the 2nd of the goals in a great 2-0 win v. Arsenal. Lukaku spent two seasons in Italy scoring 47 goals in 72 Serie A games, and also being a title winner last season so his strengths are probably at a totally different level.

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Adding up his internationals for Belgium, in total 98 caps. He is close to break that 100 cap mark and also hoping to score more and add to his 64 goals so far. This is a proven goalscorer and his return to Chelsea will most certainly be a booster for the club as they seek more trophies to win.

Chelsea fans should be excited about what they did see today as Romelu Lukaku will hit the net a lot more this season than what he did with Everton as his chances will be at a different count. In 141 league gams for Everton he scored 70 goals. This a strong tally.

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Thomas Tuchel might be reluctant and hiding his vision and thoughts about this player, but with his age profile, his experience and the fact that he has so much power in his play will give him advantages and give this Chelsea team a new dimention, especially being a bit different than the other options up front.

With the departure of Olivier Giroud they needed a strong carachter up front, and to get Lukaku might be more than expected as he surely is a much better player at this moment than Giroud. This looks like a brilliant signing.

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Chelsea will in their next game play Liverpool away. A difficult task but what an exciting clash to watch and hopefully see a battle between van Dijk and Lukaku. That perfect thriller will be on show next Saturday

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