So now we can finally stop being bombarded by Arsenal transfer rumours linking us with a summer swoop for Karim Benzema. To be honest the stories were getting ridiculous, with so-called experts claiming the deal was done and that private jets had been booked to bring him from Madrid and other such malarkey.
While a lot of Arsenal fans, including me, will be disappointed that we did not sign this quality striker, the situation is not a complete disaster, although it may seem all doom and gloom after the Gunners failed to score at home again.
For one thing, at least we and Arsene Wenger know that the deal is not possible with a week still left in the transfer market. So if the manager does decide that he needs more fire power in the Arsenal squad, there is time for him to do something. Every year a great proportion of transfer deals are done in the last few days so there is still hope that one or two new faces may arrive at the club in the next few days.
And one more thing to cheer you up and perhaps surprise you Arsenal fans. A Metro report reveals that a stat comparison actually shows that Olivier Giroud is just as potent a striker as the Real Madrid centre forward. The Arsenal man has 42 goals from his 99 Premier League games, while Benzema has 43 goals from his last 94 games.
While Benzema’s strike rate is slightly better there, we must remember that he gets many more chances with the likes of Ronaldo around him in Madrid, and it seems clear that goals are a little easier to come by in La Liga. Even without the comparison, Giroud’s scoring stats are pretty impressive and that is not the be all and end all of what he offers the team.
So forget Benzema, get behind Giroud and hope that Wenger uses the next six days wisely.
Spuds v Arse in League Cup!
Rather play a Prem side.
Should be fun 🙂
I don’t like these last min panic buys from Wenger..am afraid ..last season we bought a welbeck..whose next this time round?you rem the Barbartov? whose next?Loic Remy?
With some good convincing, we could get Ibrahimovic, he probably would like to get a taste of the premiership before he hangs up his boots but then he would hurt the team’s ‘cohesion’…Cohesion is good but I don’t know if it’s a good thing when it automatically disqualifies us from getting quality additions, by that logic, we wouldn’t have had Tony Adams because he also spoke truth to power. Mr. Wenger is not helping Giroud [or any other player in the team] by pampering them. We need players who would roll canons onto the pitch and fire our opponents into extinction not mice. Sir Alex fired up mediocre players and turned them to Champions over and over again. I only go to the games a few times during the season since I don’t live in England, for those who do, we need to defy those damn stewards and raise the temperature at the games, that’s the only practical solution I can come up with, we are not the ones who buy the players and all the noise we have made on social media and elsewhere keeps falling on deaf ears, they will not listen to our calls for players, let’s go to the games and turn the library upside down as much as we can, we cannot give those players a moments rest, we, the fans pay them [gate takings and TV subscriptions], you can’t take my money and not give 100%, Wenger can pamper them, we would not, they don’t read much that is being said on social media but they can’t ignore our chants at the stadium.
Zlatan makes 190k a week at PSG, no chance.
I still don’t understand why Wenger dint go for Pedro..we will regret not going for him. after all he could play on the wings rather than play Ramsey there. alternatively we could have played him on the wings and shifted Sanchez to the C.f role …we all know that Pedro has an eye for the goal..he is fast..think of a combination of Alexis,Walcott and pedro.wenger is deluded…another player who can bring a difference now that things are turning diff is Draxler..that guy is class and young as well..I think he’s better than Ozil when injury free
I’ve said like this before but got many thumb down haha..
Too many midfielders… Wenger said!
Im absolutely gutted. 3 games in and we are 5 points behind city without playing any of the top 4 clubs. and we dont look like we will sign anyone.
Dude we were 6 points above City in 2013-14 around October – November but still City won the title a good 7 points above Arsenal. It is just a start mate, Chill. We will challenge for the title.
same excuses every season for the last 10 years…
I’m confused – where is the excuse?
U still here?
Yup, He is still here and look at his name….(cavani done deal)..either he loves Arsenal too much which has made him go blind or he is Arsene Wenger’s deluded brother.
Anyway, All Guns Blazing..Dont leave this site…its just that Benzema was never Gunner happen…neither Cavani will come through, thats not how Wenger works….let it be…
As Arsenal fans, we all know too well that, no matter how good our preseason (or even a start to the season) is, it’s always too early to start dreaming of the title with 3 games to go. Not to say that we can’t win the title, but we should learn to tone down our optimism at the start of the season to avoid heartbreaks. Our recent history should have taught us by now to be more cautious. It won’t be new for a top team to start well & win the title ahead of us, it won’t be new for us to start well & be overtaken by another team when it really matters, it wont’ be new to have so many injuries, it won’t be new for Wenger to let us down over transfers, it certainly isn’t new to have a poor start to the season… Let’s all be hopeful that things will change for the better sooner than later, but let’s not put too much energy into thinking about it!
Good news? Well, okay, we will not dream of it again. But that has not solve our problem, so not a good news except for Wenger who will tell us that he tried but he wasn’t available as if he started early. You expect Real Madrid to sell at a time they cannot find replacement? It has been a ploy by Arsene. He had never had in mind of buying, if not he would gone to the market early. He had illusionary believed since the end of last season that he had a champion team.
We inquired, there was no bid because what team would be willing to sell their best striker without first buying a new one. It is clear that no-one wants to sell a top striker in today’s market as there is barely enough to go round. 32m Benteke wtf, that’s what we paid for Sanchez. Madrid of all clubs, with only one top central striker. Myself, seeing as there is a shortfall of real world class strikers well I would have liked to get Mandzukic.
Thats the whole point, Mandzukic is no-where near world-class and would not have been an upgrade on Giroud. So whats the point in getting him. We all know how Welbeck fared last season. He also was the same kind of buy, ‘no WC striker available so lets get Welbeck’ and we are again looking for that striker this window. If Wenger buys someone like Mandzukic then we would again be looking for a WC striker next window.
I think its become increasingly apparent that there really are no real quality strikers available this summer. I don’t think Wenger left it late because I really didn’t fancy any of the strikers who were available. The funny thing is when you hear all those pundits screaming for Wenger to buy a striker. I wish they would tell us who.
Well said, a few of them jumped on the Benzema story but that was never likely. If they thought Benzema was the best option well between him not being available and him hardly shading Giroud well it seems they know little and say it like they know all.
Obviosly Benzema has characteristics/abilities which are better than Giroud ..dribbling pace. But for sticking the ball in the net there really isn’t too much between them.
We could still sign Benzema.
what’s even more surprising is fans getting upset because Wenger failed to sign Benzema. The club doesn’t want to sell and the player wants to stay. how’s that Wenger’s fault? It’s the same with Lewandowsky. PSG are reluctant to sell Cavani. Higuain is too expensive.
we could have signed an persie back. He would have got us at least 10-15 goals. We can still sign cavani. We could have moved in for jovetic maybe. There is alvaro morata. There is lewandowski. There are a number of players who would be an improvement on giroud. Giroud cannot move and that is a problem.
Lewandowski last on your list?!
If he would even be available, he would top any list!
@allguns glad to see you’re still here with a peculiar name.
Van Persie – Think about marrying your ex-wife after she left you for your best friend.
Jovetic – Even Welbeck is better than him, Giroud is far better.
Morata – The only recognized striker at Juventus who was transferred last year with both Juve and Morata happy with each other.
Lewandowski – Very very difficult to land him. Unless there is an insane bid i don’t see him coming.
I think giroud is one of the poorest strikers among the champions league teams. He just cannot move and he puts our midfielders at a disadvantage. No wonder majority of his goals are off of his first touch.
I dont think you have a clue what your talking about… Giroud one of the poorest??? Ddue you need your head examined… I think any striker who scores 49 goals in 100 games (as quoted by alan smith) on monday night is a brilliant return, especially when all the arsenal play is pissing around with the ball on the edge of the box trying to create the ‘perfect goal’ … Ok players such as Giroud, Ozil, Santi are all unbelievably talented in their own rights, but the is no cutting edge from them… Giroud dont get much service to be fair and a majority of the shots he gets he is having to come back for it rather than a decent ball get put in the box… We have just 3 players who play direct football and they are Bellerin, Sanchez & The Ox, the others just pass it around all the time… We make many chances as a team as seen with 61 shots in 3 games and many of them have become corners and we have no one who can take a decent one of them either, they are always straight into the keepers reach or as far as the first defenders head… I could go on all day about this but I aint going to… Giroud shouldnt be made a scapegoat for the way the TEAM are playing, the midfield need to be more bullish and get the ball in the ball at any chance they can and give big G the service he craves.
EDITED…
Ok players such as Giroud, Ozil, Santi are all unbelievably talented in their own rights, but the is no cutting edge from them…
Harshil, if that ex-wife happens to be my personal financial adviser that makes the difference between me being worth 20,000 Pounds and 50 million pounds, I think I’d consider it.
But that is not the case with Arsenal and Van persie. Looking at your example it might be 20,000 pounds and 25,000 pounds but nothing more than that.
why did we even sign Giroud….Is there any way I can contact Wenger???? on phone maybe cuz I need to talk to that man.
Even me. I want to get access to him to find out why he doesn’t care about fans’ feelings.
Arsenal has done the same thing CONSISTENTLY for a decade…and CONSISTENTLY come up with the same results. Let’s not fool ourselves here. Except there is a tremendous miracle, we are not winning any titles this year with the strike force we have.
Well… No.
We’re not clamouring to replace core players with cheap options as we did for years. No-one is looking for the exit door, we don’t have Squilacci, Bendtner, Djourou, Chamakh, Arshavin and co. sitting on the bench laughing at the fact that they’re earning the same wages as players who bust their gut on the pitch every week. In the past few seasons we’ve added Ozil, Cazorla, Sanchez and Cech who were proven talents, not gambles in the market. We don’t have a 9 year trophy drought looming over our heads.
The expectations of fans has risen for a reason. The reason we expect more this season is because of the positive changes that are going on and the feeling of genuine progress.
Fair enough, there’s some questions with our strike-force. Definitely in consistency.
But Sanchez, Theo and Giroud? Consistency’s a problem, but all capable of finding form and the back of the net.
You don’t get my point…
What I mean by doing the same thing over and over again is that Arsenal has had the opportunity to sign excellent players (you can’t have enough of those)…but year after year, we only fix 1 problem while 3 more problems haunt us for the rest of the season.
Why is it that pundits like Thiery say we are short of 2 world class players, and Wenger still does nothing about it.
I’m sure we agree on some stuff and disagree on some…but we all love Arsenal. True?
Definitely! Sorry in no way was I trying to question your love for the club.
Honestly pundits should never be taken as gospel. This is the first season they’ve picked us to contend in quite some time. The past few seasons they haven’t even picked us as a top-4 side. So if we always seem to over-achieve their expectations…….
Though additions obviously help. Every season players seem to emerge with us and are brought through. Theo’s 22 goal season, Ramsey turning into a scoring machine, Bellerin and Coquelin last season. Koscielny turning into Bosscielny after a few seasons being a liability at CB.
I must re-iterate. I am in no way advocating that the squad doesn’t need strengthening. I think we’ll see one world-class addition and maybe one at the tier below before the window closes. I’m just saying… Every season a player emerges as a serious player for us. Could be Ox, could be Wilshere, could even be Welbeck if his finishing and first-touch improves.
Benzema getting chances with Cristiano Ronaldo around him? Do you watch madrid play football at all, who doesn’t know that bale and Benzema are just there to assist Ronaldo to score goals and win pichichi.
Who “stops” him scoring for France? Who stopped him at Lyon? Real scored 100 non-Ronaldo goals last season – hardly a dearth of opportunities to score at RM. Ronaldo was near the top of the assist rankings last season creating as well as scoring. Whichever way you cut and dice it he is and always will be less than a goal every other game striker. Amazing how we bend over backwards to elevate and make excuses for other team’s players but happy just to bash our own.
Yes i already forget that karim who . Even he coming i still have some doubt are he gonna make it & adapt in epl who we knows is very hard,competitive. Im sure he choose easy way to play around cr , bale,james,etc in a league who your true opponent only barca and atleticomadrid rather than do the hardworking in arsenal and rough + balance team in epl Clearly no GUTS!! Example van persie was a brilliant forward , but when he reach 28-30 , from what i see, what he got is some skills left , decreasing alot in stamina. I saw Rvp in his last year at arsenal after he doing some penetrating, try to pass enemy defender he was breathing so damn heavily . More reluctant to get injury with rough tackle. I think that one of many reason why he was sold, before getting 30 and his price dropped alot. So do now i think this what happened to giroud , his stamina decreasing alot and since he not good at holding ball / passing( many misscomunication) ended giveaway ball to enemy. But still i admire giroud for having a balls , having GUTS .This factor i think what makes wenger refuse to pay huge bills to land karim who. So i think age is the most important thing before buying new addition. But still i hope wenger buy some adittion cf cdm this windows . Since now media bombing cavani issue , i really doubt cAvani is our solution since he already 28 and his price are not cheap , imagine he coming and need 1 season to settle in with epl style . Boom he already at 29 next years and will be lack of stamina and pace. hope wenger landing player who still at 24-26 , for me i choose lacazete + krychowiak + gotze ( 3 of them will make benefit too from shirt and stays longer ) So we need to respect our player for having a guts to play here , stop complaining , its all just wenger false for not playing ramsey,cazor,wilsher,etc at their natural position. And wenger should trust younger to start like ox and bellerin , when some are not in a good form , like ozil,alexis,ramsey. So that will create fair competition to the team and in no time, im sure our squad member ( and some golden boy) will fighting for place or just warming the bench + lighten up their winning mentality, passion
If there are no quality centre forwards then a serious manager would look for different attacking options … Griezman dyabala Vietto reus draxler etc etc all were our looked available this summer …. Wenger didn’t go this route which would require him to spend because he thinks giroud Walcott Alexis and wellbeck can deliver 4th place which is his aim as a manager … Makes sense to him and the board that pays him … For fans many who have been supporters much longer than wenger has been around it is unbelievably frustrating as it is not a top flight attacking line in comparison with teams we rightly compare ourselves with… Same goes for DM…. I think this also explains his persistence with mertesakher at cb ..stability cohesion to deliver 4th place is good enough … Playing players out of position is just down to bad management and favouratism IMO …. All in all this is the record if a B manager over a decade … We can do better
Well said!
A point in front of Chelsea
a couple behind Man U
and Liverpool. Why panic?
We can now go on an unbeaten EPL run till Xmas.
ECL draw will be very interesting.
This time last season we had just lost Giroud for 4 months.
Had Walcott long term injured.
We had no Coquelin tilll December.
No Gabriel till now really.
And we had a declining Szcz now we have Cech
So we are much stronger just have to be patient till the team
rediscovers the form the composure we know they have.
And we still have a week to sign a couple of quality players.
Where we end up doesn’t depend only on where we were a year ago let alone 15 years ago but where we are relative to the rivals who make up a competitive sport
Yeah let just wait and HOPE we dont get injuries like every year and if some miracle they all finally click city could be 10points clear by then
Bob, to be frank and to be kindid, that Benzema transfer to Arsenal was never fated to happen. That’s the reason it failed. Moreso as Arsenal are not currently in dear need of a striker, but are truly in need of 2 additions of top quality natural right winger & left back. Arsenal currenly have 2 natural strikers of Olivier Giroud & Danny Welbeck and a possible striker in the person of Theo’ Walcott. So, what are Arsenal going to sign another striker for? To satisfy the yearnings of some pundits and those of some Gooners? I think the Boss should hijack the possible signing of Victor Moses from Tottenham before it gets late. Otherwise, Spurs could onlease him on Arsenal in the Capital One Cup to knock us out if they suceeded to sign him. Arsenal don’t have a senior natural right winger, but adaptable ones of Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey with the later proving unadaptded to that role, but the former is more suitable for the role. But he’s often not available to play. A RW is the missing link in Arsenal forwad
No natural right winger……. Sorry forgot about the OX or something?? Hes better then moses
Its the same thing every year with these stupid last minute buys.
It will no doubt get worse in January when wenger realises that once again he has got it wrong and goes and buys another kallstrom.
I long for the day we will just sign the players we need before the season starts so that the transition period is done and dusted.
We still need a top DM CF and CB
Stop comparing giroud with benzema based on that one stat! Benzema is the far better striker, giroud probably gets more chances and squanders most chances. Benzema has to feed the likes of ronaldo hench why he has a higher assist record then giroud…… Put it this way if benzema was available nearly every top club would be interested but if giroud was available The top clubs wouldnt come piling in
Thats why giroud cost £12m and benzema was about £30m
When I see Chelse(defending champs) adding players and still be linked with the like of Pogba and Stone,City already strengthened up yet linked with De Bruyne,Madrid with their expensive squad still added some players(Casemiro and Kovacic),Barca added Arda and Vidal all to join January(their case is well known) Bayern the same with Arturo I fail to understand what should be going through Wenger’s mind.I have been his supporter through ane through for some years now but am afraid he should alter his philosophy a bit to accomodate the current situation.
Still optimistic with this window though.
Yet more nonsensical write-up. “Good news”, indeed-cue the sarcasm, as though AFC can claim to possess anything of comparable quality. Evidently, come the final reckoning, the joke is always on the muppet manager and his army of delusional, little, inch-fingered,internet warriors.
Calm down????!!!!!!!…….iv being calm for d last 9-10 years…….do u knw wat dat does 2 a very “patient” person????……we r beginning to look like Liverpool who believe evri year is their year……we have a first class idiot at the helm……idiot in d sense dat he says there is no quality beta dan wat he has in d TW…IS HE F**KING KIDDING ME!!!!!!!
manolas, abdenour, mussachio, mustafi,laporte,garay,hummels,subotic,Jose Jimenez(athl. madrid?)
krychowiak, javi Martinez[doesn’t play even wen fit], wanyama, gustavo
Pedro, Douglas Costa, and so on…….
other top class teams r not afraid to take risks in the TW…look at Chelsea with the players dey be bought…man utd, man city, even Liverpool, Bayern, juventus, inter, Milan, Roma….HELL, EVEN BARCA who ve been banned……they take risks, some pay off, others don’t…. we have d money right ??? spend it, take risks or is it d money Wenger’s inheritance????
go to South America, scout for players specially strikers…….he makes so much noise about s.America producing d best no 9’s….send ur f**king scouts dere and take sensible risks….no more Joel Campbell,vela,(lightweights) even Chelsea r getting smarter (Nathan,kennedy) ……God knws I need just a dai with Wenger…by d time I’m tru, d fans frustration 4 d past 10 years will show on his face…..
I think you and others would be more on point if you also listed out the players that left those clubs rather than suggesting they are simply layering on yet more quality. Juve is just a plain daft example, stronger without Pirlo, Tevez and Vidal? Really? City lose Milner, Lampard, Dzeko, Negredo, Jovetic with Sterling, Roberts and Delph as makeweights. United lose Falcao, Van Persie, Di Maria, Rafael and Nani – their signings are not all net gains. Chelsea “lose” their last 2 star signings Cuadrado and Luis – Pedro and Rahman are like for likes. Barca get Turan and Vidal and lose Pedro and Xavi etc etc. Whilst it is everyone’s perogative to be critical of the quality of our players – no-one of consequence has left so we have less need to be busy.
I disagree with the writer that Giroud’s stats suggest he is just as good as Benzema. In actual fact Benzema receives less service from the likes of Ronaldo and Bale, especially Ronaldo as both those players have an eye for goal and are not scared to shoot. Just look at how many goals each of them have scored, including Rodriguez. Ronaldo scored something like 62 goals in all competitions last season. Where as in Arsenal, how often do you see a typical striker partnering with Giroud? We have too many players who are too scared to shoot and instead will try and pass the ball to Giroud who too often WASTES a good opportunity. If you had to put Benzema or any other decent striker in Giroud boots over the last 2 seasons, they would have at least 30% more goals.
I am not saying Giroud is terrible and I believe he has a place in our squad but NOT as first choice CF. The guy cannot dribble and carry the ball forward which is a MAJOR handicap for any striker. He is good in the air, has a neat one two pass and when given enough time can belt a ball, but that is about it and I’m sorry simply NOT GOOD ENOUGH for a title challenging team.
Mr. Arrogant won’t sign anything. He is on his own world,
WENGER OUT