We all know that Arsenal had a terrible start to the season with a glut of draws against average opponents, and we all blamed Arsene Wenger for failing to bring in another top-class defender and a young but promising defensive midfielder.
But we all know that the real reason for our misery was the unrelenting injury problems that left us with only half of our squad for the first six months of the season. Now that Francis Coquelin has comeback as a new man in midfield (and signed a new contract) and the recent arrival of the beast-looking Gabriel Paulista to shore up the defence, we are now looking like the finished article at last.
As well as Le Coq and Gabriel we have also seen our injury list eased, and we all saw that, even with seven changes from the Leicester game, we still managed to field a top quality starting XI against Middlesbrough and produced arguably one of our best performances of our season so far.
Arsene Wenger feels we are definitely now well-stocked with quality players as he said after our win yesterday: “We have a week now to prepare for the Crystal Palace game and I did rotate today as well. I changed two defenders from our last game. It shows that everybody’s focused and has the quality to compete for places in the team. At the moment, in every single position, we have two very good players.”
Many JustArsenal readers thought that we also needed a top quality striker to actually challenge for the title, but Olivier Giroud is now looking like the real deal, and both the youngster Chuba Akpom and the ex-Man United Danny Welbeck could be adequate understudies against the weaker teams. Wenger remarked about Welbeck yesterday: “One of the reasons I bought him is that he can play central striker and wide. I believe he’s doing extremely well and is contributing to the team very well.
“He can play central striker like he did for a long time but the most natural centre forward we have is Giroud. All the strikers we have can play in different positions. The only one who can only play centre forward is Giroud, so when Giroud plays the others have to move out wide.”
It would seem now that Wenger’s major problem for the rest of the season is to rotate just enough to keep all our stars happy, as the quality in depth is there for all to see. So now we have the majority of our players fit and well, do you STILL think Arsenal needs to buy in the summer (except to replace ageing stars) or have we now got all the pieces in place to challenge for the title next season?
Just my opinion, but when is OG ever going to be a World Class striker? He is without question a well rounded, valuable footballer for the Gunners but would you place him in the same category as these colleagues.
PSG….Ibra and Cavani
Barca…..Suarez and Neymar
Real…..Benzema
Bayern…..Lewandowski and Mueller
Chelsea……Costa
City…..Aguero and Bony
Man U…..Rooney and RVP
Napoli…..Higuain
Athletico……Mandzucic
Porto…..Jackson Martinez
Lyon…..Lacazette
Again this is not a post intended to slight or denigrate OG ability, just personally believe a forward with genuine pace and skill would make Arsenal impossible to defend.
If you would of read the preface of my post i acknowledge the fact OG is a very good player and deserves to be respected by the Arsenal fan base. All the players do for that matter, regardless of form.
However if you honestly believe an Arsenal starting 11 consisting of OG, AR, and JW will win us the league and seriously compete for a Champions League crown, while Chelsea, Shitty and Man U continue to spend BIG I wish you nothing but peace of mind over the next decade of trophyless futbol @ the Emirates
You are sooo going to be proved wrong and i can’t wait. If you are discarding people like ramsay at 23 then how come people like lampard won trophies. Lampard may not have the silky skills of fabregas but he is a winner. People like u said with this team and wenger we will NEVER win silverware….then we won the FA CUP (AR scoring the winning goal). Now u guys having recognised u have been proved wrong are saying they wont win Premiership. when they do then u will say Champs league or world cup. Good luck with theory but I can categorically tell u now that u will be humbled.
Class act
Top man love this post. Your right for me jack should be CAPTIN end of. He loves this club and when he kisses the badge he means it. This site has so much crap about our players it hurts. Liverpool Man U teams like that have a 12th man and I’m afraid we don’t. Think the clock end should have speakers put under the seats so we frightened the hell out of the away teams
Giroud is turning into a well adjusted and skillfull players BUT he is still very inconsistent and does not really make me feel that tingle of excitement when he has the ball in the same way that Henry or Bergkamp did.
Welbeck as far as Im concerned is Crap and wont ever really make a dent as a striker and it makes me laugh when Wenger says “the reason I bought him was….blah blah blah” Wenger wasn’t even in the country when we bought Welback in. and stated that he wold have had him on loan rather than buy him in, so lets not listen to that rubbish. Of course we need to buy in new players as some of our guys are on their way out….Arteta and Flammini and some are never going to be 100% fit for longer than two seconds, Diaby and possibly Wilshire. Plus we don’t yet know who may want out when the summer comes
I agree with your sentiment about Giroud, he can produce WC moments but isn’t consistent like a Suarez, Lewy etc. However he is every bit as good as Mandzu, Bony, Higuain, JM.
IMO you either buy someone better right now (cavani), or you buy someone you think will be better soon (lacazette, draxler).
Personally I would love to see us buy Gonalons/Schneiderlin and Draxler. There’s longer term question marks over gk, b2b, cb. But most important for this summer is DM and ST.
Wow. Can’t wait what Hafiz would think about this article.
Back to the topic. We don’t really need a new player but its not bad if we had one. We more need of depth actually than a starting one. Not many players really interesting to add to our squad. Comes to mind is just Dybala and maybe another DM as either Illaramendi or Gonalons. Yes of course Schneiderlin would be great.
For the strikers. There aren’t really available strikers this summer other than the mentioned Dybala. But of course some of us are crying a big name so the most likely to leave their respective clubs are Cavani and maybe Lewandowski. To be honest ive never see Cavani as his price. If we can get him at around 30m~40m than it would be ok. As for Lewandowski its still not sure whether he is leaving Bayern. Other than this two i don’t really see much other strikers available but if there is. Feel free to remind me.
Heres a little present:
http://www.squawka.com/comparison-matrix#premier_league/2014/2015/falcao/126/126/1561/0/p|premier_league/2014/2015/olivier_giroud/126/126/115/0/p|ligue_1/2014/2015/edinson_cavani/118/118/2804/0/p#total_score/chances_created/key_passes/goals_scored/shot_accuracy/total_duels_%#total
Cavani when in Italy playing through the centre, his goals and minutes/games per goal was just phenomenal. Was definitely worth it then, and even last season playing on the wing he still got some good numbers. I reckon there is definitely a proper player there, he just needs what we all think Ozil needs.. is for him to be allowed play in his most comfortable position.
Totally off topic, but how good does Verratti look, top top top as a certain someone might say.
We dont nid to buy bt our rivals who are already ahead of us wil buy!
It is my opinion that every club must look to improve in the summer no matter where they finish.
Nothing can be achieved by simply standing still.
You must improve or else you will be left behind, no matter who you are.
Amen to that, and a critical analysis of the squad would leave an educated fan making the following deductions,
1) is WS really good enough to be the starting keeper for the next 5-10 years
2) should the BFG keep his place on the back line
3) is Le Coq the physical enforcer needed to balance the midfield dynamic
4) can Ozil and Santi consistently! play together
5) is OG skill set the right fit for the style of futbol Arsenal wants to play
6) is it time to say goodbye to Jack
And yes we need to strengthen this summer. Lol
No one is saying the squad should not be improved. Of course it should, 1 or 2 players in certain positions but mainly for competition not to get rid players like OG and AR. With the injection of players this season, can u not see how players like OG have improved? Thats wat we need. Competition. I think we need one more striker and a DM and letting Flamini and podolski go. And the team is set for next season.
Schneiderlin to replace arteta with coq taking over from Flamini.still need a world class cf imo.and a young CB to eventually replace kos.
Cavani(Lacazette, Dybala)MS, and Fabian Schar would be a dream summer
DM = SCHNEIDERLIN/Bender/Gonalons/Kondogbia as replacement for outgoing Flamini.
LB = Mings as a deputy for Monreal/Gibbs he is under 21 and home grown.
Striker = Lacazette/Dybala
This is what I can think of. However contract negotiations with Walcott could derail and leave Arsenal with the need to fill this position.
Cazorla might be sold by Arsenal as he is in top form but getting older. We do need to replace him.
I have no idea if Arsenal will keep hold of Arteta or Rosicky both are getting older.
If Walcott demands A Sanchez money, ship his ass off to the highest bidder outside the EPL. Although he has been inconsistent thus far in his career, I’ve always rated OX’s all round game more than Theo.
Any of MS, Bender, Kondogbia, Gonalons would be a solid investment to pair with Le Coq for the future.
Add Dybala or Lacazette, Mings and Fabian Scharr and Arsenal will be able to play with ANYBODY in the world.
We are on the same wave length here.
Scharr would make good sense too as he is available on free transfer. That could mean maybe the end of Mertesacker, not necessarily the same summer but the next winter transfer. We get young blood and lower wages.
It might look easy being a football manager and you might even be kicking some ass on the consoles but i dont think just buying all the flavour of the months during each and every transfer window is the right way of going about it.
If we want to be top 4 team then probably not.
If we want to win the PL and Champions League of course.
Realistically we need 3 players
1. Top Striker
2. Top DM/B2B
3. LB (understudy/backup)
A Top striker for following reasons
1. You can’t win PL without one (previous champions had Costa (2015), Aguero, RVP, Tevez, Van Nistleroy, Drogba, Henry, Bergkamp)
2. You can not be one of the Worlds best without one (Currently: Suarez, Benzema, Costa, Aguero, Cavani, Ibrahimovic, Lewandowski, Neymar)
3. Giroud is very good and scores but not consistent, misses chances and doesn’t perform well against big teams/big moments and can’t pull a goal from nothing)
4. Welbeck is still raw. He misses more chances then Giroud. Akpom is young. Sanogo is not good enough.
DM:
1. Coquelin won’t play ever game.
2. Need someone to compete with Coquelin
3. DM helps defense and attack by breaking up play, counter attack, tackles, chasing balls etc. So to have a top player here is indispensable
4. Flamini, Arteta, Wilshere are not top quality
5. Bielik very young
LB
1. Only have 2 specialist LB (Gibbs, monreal) as opposed to 3 RB (Debuchy, Bellerin, chambers)
2. Academy doesn’t have great young RB/LB
We need 2 buys this summer, potentially 3. We absolutely need a top class DM to compliment and compete with Coquelin. Flamini must be out, and Arteta is old and may only have next season in him.
Gabriel can play anywhere across the back 4, so we don’t need a LB, although a young one would be nice. We do however need a LW to replace Podolski as I don’t see him returning next year. If possible, a LW that can score would be perfect, kind of like a Sanchez signing. Reus, Cavani, Draxler. That gives us options to play with 1 or 2 strikers. We could also use an out and out goal scorer.
Again, potential just 2 signing at DM and a striker/LW, but all 3 , plus a young LB need to have numbers added.
Maybe – but we perhaps haven’t been in a position to buy those “2 signings” until 2013. Some might say it is quite remarkable we have competed since 2005 with essentially a negative net spend in the 2005-2013 period. Surely even the most blinkered and hateful AOB can see that the purchases of Ozil and Alexis within 12 months of each other was a watershed moment for AFC. For perhaps the first time, the old “2 additions away from a contender” mantra may hold some truth.
Arsenal cannot remain complacent this Summer. At the least we need to buy a defensive midfielder to compete with Coquelin. There are some players who are definitely going – Diaby and Flamini. Arteta’s time is up too – maybe a 1-yr extension. Bialik is not going to be ready for next season. Contracts of Walcott, Rosicky are coming for renewal. Both should stay but yes We shouldn’t be held ransom by Theo on wages. We have too many players Ox, Chuba and Gnabry to take his place. Is Zalelam going to be ready? What do we do with Jenkinson?
A lot to do!