Have Arsenal REALLY got enough numbers and quality?

There are still a few days of the January transfer window left for Arsene Wenger to add another player or two to his Arsenal squad, but he strongly suggested in his press conference today, available on Arsenal Player, that it would not be happening.

The Frenchman said, “It looks very unlikely.”

Making a joke about only making another signing if a top quality player turned up on his doorstep, Wenger declared that he was happy with his team options, claiming that all of the positions on the pitch were well covered by the Gunners, both in terms of having the players to cover and having players of sufficient quality.

When asked of there were any areas that needed strengthening he replied, “Number-wise we look alright. And quality as well.”

Wenger went on to explain the the achilles problem that has already forced Laurent Koscielny out of action this season is not guaranteed to stay away and that Per Mertescker having to play every game was not ideal and that is why we signed Gabriel Paulista.

So is the boss right? In goal we have three good keepers fighting for a starting place, without any of them being at the really top level of a David Seaman, but we still have not seen enough of Ospina to really tell. In defence we have the central pairing of Kos and the BFG, now with Paulista as cover as well as Chambers, with Monreal as an emergency back-up. We have two good left backs with Gibbs just shading it over the Spaniard and we have Bellerin doing well on the right, with Chambers as strong competition and the unlucky Debuchy due back in April.

Apart from another spate of injuries you can see that there is not much room for any more players, but perhaps the quality could be better.

Our midfield options are good and will be even better soon, when Wilshere and Arteta are fit. Wenger already has the problem of finding game time for the likes of Rosicky and now that Ozil is back, the fight for that number 10 role should be intense, although Rosicky has also impressed in place of Ramsey this season, as has the Ox. So with Flamini or Coquelin to protect the defence and lots of creativity, you would have to say the midfield looks good.

And up front we have the amazing Alexis and a constantly improving Giroud, with Walcott now up to speed (ha ha) and Welbeck on the comeback trail. Then we have Akpom and the Ox to give the manager plenty of options. Again though, in an ideal world the quality of our forwards could be a bit better, but we don’t know how much Welbeck, Akpom and Campbell will improve.

So do you agree with Wenger that he does not need to do any more transfer business this season?

Tags Gabriel Paulista Wenger

35 Comments

  1. and i really think that we need david de gea and yaya toure well win titles when we have a proper goalie and a bully 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁

    1. haywill is releasing a book this summer..scouting for dummies vol minus 1.

      available in all good hallucinations

    2. Why does every article here turn into a weep ?
      I want Schneiderlin?
      I want Tiote
      I want De Gea
      I want Song
      I want Christiano Messi
      I want Bony
      I want Benteke
      I want Balotelli
      I want Costa
      I want, I want, I want, weeeeeep, I want !
      They are not in the Arsenal team, they will not be in the Arsenal team. No amount of weeping and knashing of teeth will make it so.

      Geeesuz, are you not tired of posting the same thing over and over?

      At least you stopped wishing for Yann M’Villa.

        1. Dont think people understood your comment.

          I heard theres this guy called Frimpong in Russia, arsenalfan, young, DENCH and a DM. We should look into this fella’!

      1. To be fair the “I want him” comments are perfectly acceptable given it’s currently the only time we can actually buy players during the season.

        What’s wrong with saying I want us to get a top drawer ST or DM? I do….and if we pay a premium we could get them. Whether we do or not is another story, but surely a fan can say i’d like x or y during Jan?

    3. If the 17year old will start alongside Coqueline or compete with him, then all we need a lethal striker the kind that makes defenders piss in their pants even b4 the game

    1. You seem agitated.

      Go look at the Arsenal Chelsea game 1999 with Kanu and calm down, or get a girlfriend.

      1. kanu was a striker we need a bully like alex song 🙁 🙁 🙁
        and ive been datin a blonde now and shes nice i like her ill marry her someday 🙁 🙁 🙁

            1. Isnt “I do” a quite important part of marriage? Doubt he’ll be able to get the poster to say those words 🙂

  2. We need a Top DM, a Top Striker and perhaps amother LB. Then we are sorted.

    Chelski and City have improved their attack by signing:
    Chelski have signed Cuadrado
    City have signed Bony
    They also have top strikers: Costa, Aguero

    I would compare Giroud and Welbeck to their back-up strikers ie. Remy, Bony, Jovetic, Dzeko
    We need a Top striker in addition to Giroud and Welbeck. Without one we can’t compete for 1st place. It’s as simple as that.

    Also we need to improve defensively with a TOP DM and 1 more LB.
    Coquelin is good but can’t count on Flamini and Bielik is too young.
    Also, rumors that United are close to getting Hummels, so they will improve defensively

    But we are sooooo close
    Those 2/3 players will make us a strong team from top to bottom. It will be the difference from fighting for 4th place and 1st place.

      1. Yes. Lol

        It’s so frustrating
        It feels like Wenger intentionally gets players to keep us at 4th place. It’s been going on the same way for a decade

        1. Funny how they thumbed your analysis, but agree with this comment. I can’t think of any big money signings that would be game changers, possibly another striker like Mandzukic or someone hungry. I’m not set on Welbeck or akpom. With the pieces we have we should feel confident and win games. I worry about Ozil coming back and playing the way he has been. Le Coq has been a huge addition. Hope he stays healthy

    1. Fred you manage to get this “can’t win the PL without top striker” thing out for just about every thread whatever the topic. You list Man U’s and Man C’s impressive striker roster but don’t mention that they both play with 2 up front so need double the number of squad strikers. The best team wins the PL not the team with the best striker. You will find a better correlation for good GK/defences winning the PL than having superstar strikers. You simply cannot say a team can’t win the PL without a top striker because it is not true and history has proven it. I do question your assessment of who is great and what constitutes a striker.

      Consider this, of the 22 PL winning teams to date:

      Only 6 have had the leagues top scorer in their team.
      PL has been won 7 times by the team that has NOT scored the most goals.
      PL has been won 11 times with that team’s top scorer amassing 19 or less goals.
      PL has been won with the team’s top scorer amassing just 14 goals.
      PL has only been won twice with a 30+ goalscorer.

      1. Yeah……but liverpool should have one last year, Suarez top scorer. City won and Aguero unlucky injuries kept him from being top scorer. Sure it’s a balance. We have a great striker in Giroud, but that’s it right now. Have to agree with Fred, wouldn’t mind another consistent goal scorer.

        1. I’m not saying I would not want us to buy a top striker I am saying it is not an essential prerequisite to winning the league as history has shown.

  3. If anyone of who we want can come in this window than go for it. If arsenal are serious about Gaya get him at the cheap £13.5m buy out before he carries on impressing and attracts Real Madrid, Barcelona…

    DM? If rumours are true we will have Mr Obvious in the summer. I want to see a top LW in the summer too…

  4. Don’t think we can never not have enough players, but I think we’ve had a decent transfer window including those returning from injuries. As long as we keep our physical game in check (no more injuries), I believe what will happen the remainder of this season will depend on our mental game.

    By the way, this trollfest with @haywill is clucking hilarious.

  5. *shrug* i’m actually quite happy with the squad. I’d like Schneiderlin added in the summer but happy to rely on Le Coq for now.
    – We have decent wingbacks and have added to central defence.
    – Our front 3-5 is one of the most potent in the entire league.
    – One of the best number 10s in the world, and Santi and Rosicky are ageing like fine wine.
    – There’s competition in the goal-keeping position and more importantly we still have players to come back from injury.

    Buying buying buying isn’t the answer to everything. We have quality and can beat anybody when we turn up.

    Its more about being consistent performance and tactical-wise.

  6. Wengster promised to replace
    Varm in July. So signining Clark
    is just catching up. Really in
    this window we have only signed a young DM, Belichick.
    The side is packed with 30 dienemic 4th place champions.
    Only Sanchez, Cazorla (on present form)
    and Ozil on reputation being top class.
    11 years without the EPL
    Lets hope Clark will be 1st class not another 4th plarse chump.

    1. we signed the coach for the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick? WTF–I thought he had a Super Bowl to coach this Sunday.

  7. A quality DM is our only essential signing. After that, we have a very strong squad. I’d like a new striker too perhaps, seeing as neither Giroud or Welbeck are really anywhere near the likes of Costa or Aguero. For the moment at least, the fact that we have Alexis on the wing firing in the goals makes up for not having a top striker. Walcott will also start chipping in soon hopefully.

    1. MTG – You are one of the most sensible on here and this is not aimed at you. But for the love of all that is %$$@@ why do we persist with this Sanchez “winger” thing and somehow his goals don’t enter in to any valid comparison with other sides. If people on here were Barca fans with their logic they would be moaning they have no “proper” strikers with Neymar a “winger”, Suarez who must now be a “winger” and Messi in a false 9 positon? Or worst still look at poor old Real Madrid who have to rely on their “wingers” to score nearly all their goals.

      Surely it is now time to compare the attacking/goalscoring prowess of different teams in a more sophisticated way. Chelsea have one prolific goal scorer at the moment. We have 4 or 5 who can and have scored a dozen or more league goals in a season. Which is better?

  8. Numbers wise we are ok,but quality wise we are almost there if we compare with Chelsea and horribly far from R.Madrid or Bayern. I think Arsenal fans needs to be realistic that we wont sign Reus, ever. Arsenal realistic targets are Brandt, Draxler

  9. @jones,
    I agree wit your stats. But I don’t think d guys r arguing that you need the best striker to win d league, they’re just saying you need a striker that’s among d best(sometyms more than one of them) to swing the league in your favor. Only a few league winners have managed that eg the ultra defensiv chelsea side of the 1st mourinho era with lamps top scoring and the early man utd side with cantona top scoring

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