Reasons why Arsenal fans should be confident about our chances next season regardless of our transfer activity By Muha Anko Anko
Truth be told that the five teams above us will definitely strengthen and may obviously spend more than twice of what we may spend regardless of what the actual figure is out there for us to spend. I will also be the first to say that Arsenal will surely need some spending in order to reduce the gap between us and the teams above us. That’s very clear for everyone who has any idea of football and has been following the Premier league. What’s also clear for all of us fans is that regardless of how much money we have or which position we are in the financial table in the premier league, we can’t spend as much money as Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea and most recently Liverpool can. And most of them have been on top of us for a reason. That I admit fully. But are they there for financial reasons only?? I very much doubt that.
I know many of you will slate me for this but just be open minded for once and see why we may NOT actually need to spend hundreds of millions to be in top four next season. In justifying my points, let’s look at some facts here, the winners of the premier league 2015/16 were Leicester, how much money did they spend to achieve that miraculous win? They were position 10 of EPL expenditure table in 2015. Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea were top four spenders with Arsenal being 18th with only 10M used on Petr Cech that summer, but they (Leicester) won the league with us, Tottenham and City in top four respectively while holders, Chelsea, despite their expenditure, ended up position 10.
In 2016/17 again Manchester City led the way, splashing £174.05m on John Stones (£50m), Leroy Sane (£37m), Gabriel Jesus (£27m), Ilkay Gundogan (£21m), Claudio Bravo (£17.1m), Nolito (£13.8m), Marlos Moreno (£4.75m) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (£3.4m).
Meanwhile, neighbours Manchester United were the league’s next big spenders, with Jose Mourinho investing £149.55m on world-record signing Paul Pogba (£93.25m), Eric Bailly (£30m) and Henrikh Mkhitaryan (£26.3m).
Chelsea were third with 12M and Arsene Wenger reversed his frugal spending approach this term, spending £91.1m on Shkodran Mustafi (£35m), Granit Xhaka (£34m), Lucas Perez (£17.1m), Rob Holding (£2m) and an estimated fee of £3.4m for Takuma Asano during this window in this season, Chelsea won the league and if we are to be honest, they had one of the worst defensive records up until after Conte changed tactics after we beat them 3:0 at the Emirates. Again here, what won the league despite spending 124 M, was tactics, not necessarily money.
Last season again Manchester City splashed the most cash this summer, with an outlay of £217.3m – primarily on defensive signings Kyle Walker (£50m), Benjamin Mendy (£49.2m), Danilo (£26.9m) and goalkeeper Ederson (£34.7m) – in addition to midfielders Bernardo Silva (£43m) and Douglas. Chelsea overtook Manchester United as the next biggest spenders on Deadline Day, with last-minute signings Davide Zappacosta (£23m) and Danny Drinkwater (£35m) joining fellow summer acquisitions Antonio Rudiger (£34m), Tiemoue Bakayoko (£40m) and Alvaro Morata (£70m) to total £202m. United spent £169.5m on blockbuster signings Romelu Lukaku (£90m), Nemanja Matic (£40m) and Victor Lindelof (£39.5m), while Jose Mourinho also re-signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic on a free transfer. Arsenal only brought in Alexander Lacazette and A Kolasinac for free, only in this season actually the team that spent the most won the league. As much as money was used, one can argue also that also tactics also was relevant because Chelsea despite being second spenders, actually finished fifth. So yes, money plays a huge role, but also tactics were very crucial in how each team faired that season.
But actually while writing this article, I have noticed one particular thing that also played a role, that is; the manager, while they may not spend that much, no one can argue with the fact that Tottenham have performed their best under Pochetino, Liverpool have resurrected under almost new manager, Klopp, Chelsea won back the league under new manager Conte, and Manchester City are enjoying the best moments of their history under again, an almost new manager, PEP. So what have all this teams done that Arsenal have not been doing in the recent past apart from spending? MANAGER.
Now to my point. Arsenal have done one major step this season by getting a new manager, who on paper, seem to achieve more from underperforming players. He is also flexible when it comes to tactics
Now let’s look at facts about our squad…
We can all agree that our weakness has been defence this season and our away form, because our home form has been somewhat stellar last season. We were only second to the champions with 47 points at home and City with 50. If the league table was to be awarded by home form, we would be second. While also scoring the second highest goals at home, again second only to City, last season.. but when it came to defending, we conceded a shocking 51 goals while scoring the same amount of goals with Tottenham, only that they conceded 36. Out of our 51 goals conceded, 31 were away from home. This coupled with our poor away form leads to only one conclusion. CONFIDENCE! that’s precisely why we had so many errors leading to goals last season.
Looking at our attack, we can go toe to toe with any of the big 5 of the EPL. In fact I believe we are better equipped up front than both Utd, Spurs and even Liverpool. With Auba and Lacca, we have one of the most lethal striker partnerships in the world leave alone the EPL. Auba played 14 to 15 games and scored 10 with 4 assists, while Lacca on his return, he scored 9 in 10 games with 2 assists. Doing all this at a team with lower confidence, now imagine what they can do if they are well motivated in a team playing with confidence? Trust me teams will fear Arsenal next season.
While some may not agree, but I believe Arsene stagnated almost all of our players. l will be also first to agree that in his day he developed world class players from youths, but in last 6-7 years, how many world class players have we developed? None! Who is to blame for this? Our transfers or the person in charge of development of players?
Why did the players stagnate? One of the main reasons is lack of competition. Let’s look at Bellerin for instance, the reason why he displaced the then France number one right back at Arsenal was because he was playing with a lot to prove, yes injuries to Debuchy played some role, but the main thing was because Bellerin played his heart out looking over his back because Debuchy was always going to come back. Right now he knows there is no one in the squad that can threaten his position. I think Emery has seen that and that’s why Lichsteiner or whatever his name is, is coming in. Our top performing defender, Monreal, had someone pushing him at the back, that is Kolasinac, ever wondered why he even chipped up with more goals last season than any other season? It’s because Kolasinac was also contributing up there too. He had to work his soxks off too to keep his position.
Last season also Ramsay got the player of the season award, do you remember the last time he had that? Why did he achieve that? It was because he was competing with Jack for a box to box position. I remember one time Jack came back from injury scoring goals from wing just to prove that if Ramsay can score, he too can score. When was the last time we had that? Carzola’s best came when Ozil arrived, he was our number 10 and with Ozil’s arrival he had to work extra hard, that’s why he took the box to box position from Wenger’s son’s, Jack and Ramsey. So competition brought the best out of these players. But it has not been there a lot in the last few seasons.
Another reason for our player performances going down under Arsene was because most of their them were being played out of their positions.
For heaven’s sake, which is Iwobi’s favorite position? Look at Ainsley, look at the Ramsay/Jack development stagnation? They came when they were being forced out of their positions. You can’t develop while playing at wrong position. The Iwobi most of us are slating here, has been praised as one of the most exciting Players by one sir Alex just a few years ago.
Now finally, the Emery effect on players can be a major weapon this coming season. There is a saying; Form is temporary, but Class is permanent. No players just becomes foolish just like that. I want to look at the players we claim to be useless and need to be replaced. Starting with Cech, yes his form has been somewhat below par, but he still is a top goalkeeper. You can’t expect a goalie to perform miracles when you have a poor defense. Yes, there are some errors he made that led to goals but still just two seasons ago he was the best Goalie in the EPL, do you remember what we had then that we don’t have now? A CDM in Francis. Not the best in the world, but he also brought the best out of Ozil and Sanchez. we had a period where a combo of Mustafi and Koscielny didn’t lose a match in over 20 outings.
There has to be a factor behind their poor performance. Yes Mustafi isn’t the best defender in the world, but that guy is a world cup winner with Germany. You don’t get a world cup game with German if you are useless. What brought his best then? Again Francis, despite not being the best in the world.
Same applies to Ozil, before he came to arsenal he was racking up assists at Madrid, he won German player of the year 3 times even in the season he led the top assist player were the days he played with Santi and Francis.
Are we seeing a pattern here? It’s not also a coincidence that we haven’t been in top four the last two years because we had no Francis in the starting XI.
Yes I believe we need to strengthen, but our team is not as useless as it showed last season. Even Xhaka will come good if we got a top DM and a winger. Yes we need to buy a defender, maybe a goalie too, but not sure we need 200m to be back at the top.
What really keeps me smiling is the fact that top DMs are not that expensive, look at Kante, Jorginho, Fabiano, these players don’t cost more than 50m. But they make everyone around them better, its not a coincidence that Kante won the EPL with Leicester and Chelsea consecutively and Vardy and Mahrez performed better with him than without him, look at Vardy’s numbers now that they have Ndidi, he scored a massive 20 EPL goals last season.
I know Emery will improve these players, and install systems that are going to bring the best out of these players. I have read most of us here saying they are excited to face next season without Wenger, regardless of the transfers, how do you think the players feel? Yes new players also adds confidence But we just need to spend well at the right places. Not a complete overhaul.
Over to you guys, looking forward to your comments below.
Anko
No we can continue with the same players who have failed us, make them work harder and add different tactics and expect them to out perform other teams who are miles ahead of us and are spending more on quality.
Joking aside yes is the answer to the heading
Can’t forget the lack of effort they put in the Atletico Madrid match at the Emirates
If we’re not careful we will lose our spot to burnley
#thursdaysinmoldova
#fc who ?
Sell mesut use that for a creative cm and a dm
Sell xhaka use for utility dm/cm
Sell mustafi and kos buy two cbs
Sell welbeck get winger in bring Eddie in too
Sell ospina buy gk
Use our money to top off certain deals where we are short
Bring back Perez ( not bad for the bench )
Buy muff a girl with a huge booty so on those bad game days she can console me
2018/2019 season sorted
Nicki Minaj??! ?
is it not funny on this blog since wenger left it keeps coming up what can we do to get into top four,but when wenger kept us 20 years in the top four it wasnt good enough.makes me laugh a litle.
Do you think once we get back into the top 4 we shall start chatting about how we can remain number 4? We are only in this position of dreaming about top 4 because of Wenger’s negligence. As soon as we are back we shall start talking about the league like Liverpool and utd fans. However, if we reach top 4 and we start aiming for 4th again I think that will be it for me and this club. I just don’t see any joy in 4th place finishes and round of 16 exits.
Once a gooner always a gooner Quantic….it frustrates me when we’re thrashed & finish 6th… but at the end of the day, I’ll always be a gooner, even if we’re relegated & end up in league one or even lower!!
John, for 20 years there was only 4 teams challenging for the top 4 places, now there’s 6
Oh and your reasoning? Spend 35 million on Xhaka but then we need to but players so he plays well WTF
No we either play him and other player in a system that suits them or we dont play them. The bonus of having emery is that we will see if the players like xhaka,iwobi or mustafi are bad or it was arsene system that was flawed(my personal view)
Emery adapts his system to his players so he wont keep players that dont suit his style(s) just because loyalty lol.
Good argument, but Arsenal still need to get rid of players that tend to be slacking off when they don’t have strong competitors and the ones that are obviously don’t have the technical/ physical abilities to compete in Premier League, such as Ozil, Xhaka, Mustafi, Koscielny and Ospina
Arsenal need hungrier players like Vardy, Mahrez and Kante. We don’t need players or staffs that are complacent with their World Cup or other major trophy collections, while unwilling to put extra efforts for Arsenal
Arsenal need to give their young talents more chances and a major overhaul is definitely needed. Because I don’t think most Wenger’s players would suitable to Emery’s system, like Klopp when he inherited Rodgers’ players
Goalkeeper, center back and a top top DM and I don’t see why we should’nt challenge. We have all been saying that we have good players we just need new ideas and I think the.new manager will bring this. If we get the above I’ll be excited about the new season
I get the feeling that some ppl on here want proof that wenger wrongly sacked or wrongly accused of bad management even tho the proof is in the pudding! As for spending big that’s just stupid it’s about spending right and having a plan! Wenger brought n.10s instead of wingers and deep lying play makers instead of DMs and that’s what needs to be addressed also the size of the team and the speed needs to be addressed for etc kos n Mustafi are smallish CBs so we have to balance it with a tall CM or better off getting a tall CB and at least one tall CM for set pieces and crosses, also speed in wide areas so we can stretch teams and preferably wingers that can cross! They are basic tools that Fergie always had in his teams that way if u have the talent and the tactics you won’t get caught out when a team forces u in wide areas or bombards u with crosses! Emery doesn’t need to spend big he needs to spend in areas the wenger failed to spend in just to give himself a chance! Every thinks Emery will boost the current team and there right but only for while until managers start using tactics to stop his team and that’s when he will need answers to them tactics and as it stands he doesn’t have the right type of players in certain areas to combat that atm that’s what the transfer window is for so let’s hope he knows what we need then get the best players available in them positions! £100/120mil is why we need to replace the defence first then add the other elements needed after a team is stable then u can add 1 or 2 top players a season but as it stands we have to rebuild while keeping in touch with city n Liverpool and by the way Leicester city brought 7 players the summer the won the prem
They need an overhaul to improve their league position.Senior players such as Cech,Mustafi,Xhaka and Kocielney have let them down and should be moved on or sold as should the vast majority of players out on loan e.g. Campbell,Jenkinson etc.Emery does not have a magic wand to turn average players into top quality performers nor can be stop the march of time which has caught up with Cech and Kocielney.Wenger was incapable latterly of taking hard decisions which must be made by Management in the best interests of Arsenal FC.
Arsenal’s attack is better than Liverpool’s??? Ha ha ha ha ha. Absolutely delusional!!! Brilliant.
Don. Judge it as you like. Liverpools attack is fantastic, but the blogger wrote that abu and lacazette was on fire after lacazette came back from injury. It is true. He wrote lethal strikers. Fact is that goals to game ratio is best for abu, and lacazette has a better one than sane and firminho. His point was merely that no Investment is needed on top, 2 world class strikers, and one position to fill.
Yes it is. Which Liverpool striker is better than Aubameyang or Lacazette? Actually Liverpool goals come from midfielders and not strikers. Let’s not talk of Arsenal of last two seasons which played like a tired horse. These same players can be revitalised and shine again.
I agree that Cech,Mustafi,Xhaka and Kocielney all let us down last season and I would add Bellerin to that with his awful positional sense.
I certainly think that Cech & Koscielny are way past their best and should be replaced. However I watched a Germany international game about a year ago and Mustafi was Man of the Match so what has gone wrong there?
Could Emery do a Guardiola for us and bring out the best from of the existing squad who nearly all have ‘potential’ if properly organised and inspired. Time will tell
I am forever amazed at the number of fans who seem convinced Ozil must be sold.I accept we all have different opinions and we all see things differently but Mesit Ozil is by far and away our best player.Arguably West Germany are the best team in the world and Ozil will be one of the first names on the team sheet for every game.If he plays so well for Germany it is because they play him as a No10 with a free role.He is a playmaker and they get him on the ball where he can create.Simple.He is NOT a wide player.He is NOT an orthodox MIDFIELDER.He is a PLAYMAKER.
Emery must use him where he is best suited and we will all see the player we need him to be.
He is a Thoroughbred and not a workhorse.
?Therefore needs to play centrally with strong physical midfielders along side him.
OG-do you believe Ozil and the defence would benefit from the signing of a top drawer CENTRAL DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER?I wonder why nobody has thought of that before
Couldn’t agree more , Phil and Ozziegunner, 100% correct, Wenger playing him out wide expecting him to chase the the over lapping fullback was probably the most ridiculous tactical decision of the past season. With players like Auba, Lacazette and possibly a new wide man, Ozil, as a playmaker we be more needed than ever.
Phil, you, I and every man and his dog have been crying out for a class DM since Gilberto Silva left Arsenal. Our long term previous manager apparently no longer believed such a position was necessary at Arsenal.
Hopefully Enui, Sven and Raul will chase at least one if not two DM’s (there are a few good prospects out there eg Cavahli, Doucoure, Ndidi). I agree with Kenny regarding a wide player/winger to get the best out of Ozil and add width to the Arsenal attack. Dembele as part of a swap for Bellerin with Barcelona would be worth pursuing, or Emil Forsberg (expensive), Wilfred Saha or develop Nelson as a winger.
Meant to add Nzonzi as another DM option
if he’s our best player, why was no team interested in him when his Arsenal contract was almost up? He’s been long surpassed and Aubameyang is definitely our best player now. Tired of every player around Ozil being touted as the reason he is inconsistent. Every Arsenal fan already knows Xhaka is not good enough. And we dont want him to be a workhorse making tackles, we want him to be consistent and show up in big games, which he regularly fails to do. That is his main problem.
Nobody showed up in the big games last year with the exception of Spuds at Home Manure at home ( great performance even though we lost) and Chelsea away.Its not all down to Ozil.Tactics and playing him in the right position would help
?Support him with strong physical enforcer in midfield to do the “dirty work”.
Phil, I really struggle with some of your thoughts and comments but on this one I completely agree.
Arsenal will win the league with the same players without any new transfer in……….
Yup, most need to go. A lot of them hold the old Wenger attitude and aren’t winners. Look at Spuds players, no matter how much the media raves about them they are all bottle jobs. Same goes with many of these Arsenal players. Not winners, can’t put together a full consistent season. Only Sanchez was able to do this and it’s parts of the reason he left. The rest of the team didn’t want to win as badly. Can Emery change all of this? Possibly, but without a doubt a lot of our squad are just not good enough.
Leicester may not have spent massively but they did buy players. Their success proves you can improve your team in the transfer market without buying £100 million pound players but they still did it through the transfer market.
Arsenal can not spend unlimited amounts in the transfer market because of financial fair play rules and the premier league rules on short-term financing. Google them if you don’t know what they are. You do realise that Utd, Chelsea, City have been selling players as well as buying them so your figures are a bit distorted.
Arsenal’s problem was that they did not buy when cash rich. City are just doing what Arsenal should have done, spending their revenue. If you have a successful team, then company’s like Amazon will sponsor you.
Rather ironic that the spending rules which Arsenal encouraged UEFA to bring in are now going to operate against them so that they can not now spend their way back into contention even if their fans have been paying through the nose to watch their decline
Naz
Comment of the season already mate
i totally agree with the writer that money does not necessary buy success. if you look at Le Prof. he had a strong belief on his own culture (success from what you have), then money bombs come from other big clubs. the situation stranded him in such a way he become wondering whether to stay at home or go out and dance with others. time was not in his way though, at times he himself didn’t realize what he was up to, which transmitted directly to players. Take example playing bellerin at LWB at a big game of Liverpool. Lets Bring the DM and a CB NOT necessary the GK. The cannon will resume firing from all cylinders.
I would be inclined to think it is debatable as to how well an overhaul would work in the short term, i.e., over one season.
Wholesale changes would probably cause enough instability to negate the uplift in quality from the changes. However the changes are needed and I would not mind at all if it’s over one season or staggered over 2
My answer to this question is… YES. Not that a lot of these players would not be better under a new manager. However, I think this interview that Emery gave a while back gives you some close to how he wants to remake this team.
“Emery returned to the theme when was asked what he is missing as a coach. A man who won seven domestic trophies in two years in Paris again cited Guardiola’s iconoclastic attack on some of Barca’s most revered deities.
“Sometimes, you need to do what Guardiola did when he got rid of Deco, Ronaldinho, and Ibrahimovic,” he said. “Afterwards, Zlatan and his agent got into an argument with Pep? Ok, but they got rid of him, and they got rid of the obstacle preventing them from completing their masterpiece. Pep is a coach who makes masterpieces. What am I missing? Making my masterpieces, real masterpieces. And making them my own.”
If it is a lesson Emery is keen to apply immediately in his new role then there is only really one player at Arsenal considered to have a similar profile to Deco or a similar improvisational and lackadaisical streak as Ronaldinho. Even if he isn’t a malign dressing-room influence, Ozil is the only player in the squad who might fit the brief. And it is not the only early note of concern for the German to pay attention to.
When Emery faced the press for the first time as Arsenal manager, his English was broken, yet he managed to articulate clearly, if not expansively, what his philosophy of football would be at Emirates Stadium. “I think the history here is a team who loves playing with possession of the ball,” he explained. “I like this personality, I like playing with the ball; if you don’t have possession, I want a squad who are very, very intensive with pressing. Two things very important to be protagonist: possession and pressing when you don’t have the ball.”
So the more important question I think is who can play the way he wants to play. Thats why I think some of the current players on the Arsenal squad will be out, and maybe Ozil will be one of them.
They are not the same players because the spirit is already broken. They need new players to join them so as to relight the fire in them.
Otherwise, they are no more than the walking dead.
The team need new players for added competition and motivation, but not an overhaul, if by chance we can actually instil this pressing game into our football we can be assured to improve on our standings in the table. Looking at our players laid-back attitude in matches it is now a question of who can manage the new philosophy.
Its unfortunate that this WORLD CUP have come at this time where we need the coach to view everyone, which then he can make proper recommendation to the management team, base on what he has seen from the players.
It is important to note that not every player can actually play the pressing game, perhaps due to fitness, knowledge or lazy attitude and some of our player’s attitudes just can not be changed. These are the players that must be moved along.
I have said on numerous occasions that ozil should have been sold there is no doubt that he is a brilliant player on his day, but those days have been too few for arsenal. The issue is nobody wants him and arsenal have given him a pay hike because they were afraid of the backlash from fans if he was to go for free, Wilshere runs around but no direction, if he was in any other team his name would not be mention, needs to move on from arsenal, Xhaka has shown some improvement his passing is excellent , but that is not the area we want to see greatness, tackling and reading play is where we want his focus on and last but not least Ramsay actually arsenal best midfielder and if that is true we are in a poor state, score some goals, a couple assist, shows the ability to get in the box, however, leaves holes in the midfield, gives away the ball trying fancy flicks and poor positional sense. Yes people say our defense was the weakest area, but i beg to differ i felt the weakest area was our midfield and the four gentlemen mention were the chief offenders.
It is left to emery how we use the players mention or how we get rid of them
Aub and Lac better than Firmino!?! This is getting funnier all the time.
Are you having a brain fart. PEA bossed German league, the same league where Firmino was a passenger. He scored 10 goals in 13 EPL appearance and you think firmino is better because of your lack of faith in arsenal.
Don, if you’re being serious you reall know very little about football.
Don, just for info Liverpool do have a fan site, probably not as good as this one but as a fan you probably need to me posting on the correct site.
You have a point. We don’t need to spend £200m to compete with the top five. Get a strong DM like N’zonzi and fast and technically gifted winger to what are coming in, we are good to go. With Emeri bringing the players out of their comfort zone with drills and tactics, the team will be feared. Many of the players will be playing their skin out next season because the manager is on a mission. He wants to be in the Champions League to right the wrongs when at Paris Saint Germaine.
Yes
Auba is better than firmino if you consider his goals per game ratio. Auba has been in Arsenal for how long now…
Great article, I really enjoyed reading this and if Unai can work some magic like you said with a sprinkling of players in the right positions then we could all be smiling again come the end of next season.
I have red Anko’s novel but will simply the following; that not necessarily the big spending team wins the competition but one that determines the most, Leicester City proved it in 2015/16 season.
Arsenal need the right tactics, strong players who can endure the game and most importantly ones that are determined to prove a point.
Arsen Wenger had lost ideas which can rekindle cohesion and the spirit of oneness to earn a critical point in big games…we the right crop of players in the field come next season I hope many Gunners will have the same old smiles in the unbeaten era.
Coaches as character; a coach needs to be a strong character and further instills and asserts himself in all games then he can carry the day. Maurinho is just one strong character in the game who has always proven to be the master over his players or boys.
Emery can carry the day if he uses character over his boys not colleagues.
You are all talking rubbish all we need is our fans to start supporting our football team through thick and thin be loud extra loud , Do you remember when a few years back we played Barcelona in the champions league the atmosfia was something extra different and we won 2-1 … believing and having confidence …watch us go
Believing…. needs a base as well.
We believed for a good 20+ years… but what was achieved? The club went to decline mode.
It’s simple… show us fans that the club (including players) are serious about doing good. And not just trying to milk money out of us.
Especially Kroenke, if he is going to sweep us aside, he is going to face an empty stadium. That is an absolute fact. The fans had done it, probably won’t hesitate to do it again. We are not your ‘Rams’.Get this fact right.
Looking for fans’ support… show us first. Things are never going to be one-direction.
I don’t wonna hear the words Emery out bcoz that’s a wenger thing after 22 years so no more “manager out” of anything “kroenke out” but I never wonna here Emery out as I believe he will try 100% with what he’s got