THIS ARSENAL SQUAD IS A VERY GOOD ONE by Uche
Hello folks. The transfer madness is over and we can finally focus on the squad we have and get our campaign off to a solid start. I will like to begin by saying that if you are the type that always sees the glass as half empty, don’t bother reading this article. You will only end up getting even more irritated, just like my last article pissed off a few because our defenders are not all world class. Mind you, we won the FA cup and beat the current EPL champions in the community shield with this same squad that many consider rubbish. I can imagine the envy some of us feel when they look at Manchester City’s squad but unlike them, we don’t have a blank cheque. But we still managed to spend a respectable 85 million pounds in this window. That is a lot of money and it is hard earned money. Just let that sink in for a second.
You see, growing up, I was that kid from a lower middle class family that was surrounded by friends with filthy rich parents. They always travelled overseas for the summer and had the best houses, toys and clothes. On the contrary, I had to make my own toys and never travelled to anywhere. It wasn’t easy, but I had an exciting childhood filled with adventure, hope, anxiety and ambition. Today I am nearly 40 years old. I look around at some of those friends of mine now and I cannot believe that they are not better than me, even with daddy’s money, thanks to hard work, talent and ambition. The reason I am telling you guys this personal story is because it is important to understand the mind set of an Arsenal fan. We need to be reminded of who we are and why we support arsenal. Personally, I look at Arsenal and I see myself. If you are an arsenal supporter, you are different. Do you know why? Because you identify with hard work, integrity and the joy of being self-made. That is Arsenal in a nutshell. That is why we cannot support Chelsea or Manchester City even though they have everything.
Again I must repeat that I am no Wengerite and the manager drives me crazy in many ways. For instance, I don’t understand why he refused to loan a striker in January this year. I believe that move cost us the league title. But my annoyance at the few things we have not managed to do well has not suppressed my appreciation of our current squad. Guys we have a really good squad. Surely it could be better. Any team in the world can always be improved on. Carvalho could have been a beast for us and Manolas and Socratis would have been more experienced backups for the central defensive pair of Koscielny and Per. We all know these things but what we have can still work for us. Take a look at this first team squad:
Szczesny
Debuchy Per Koscielny Gibbs
Chambers Ramsey
Walcot Ozil Sanchez
Welbeck
Sir Alex Ferguson will win a title with this squad. He has done it with a worse Man U squad. This Arsenal squad has everything: Pace, goals, passing, dribbling, experience, solidity and the mindset of champions. Notice that I have put Calum Chambers as that tall and hunky defensive midfielder we all yearn for.
The point I am trying to make is that our squad is nearly there. I mean, look at the players that didn’t even make this line up: Carzola, Ospina, Ox, Wilshere, Campbel, Flamini, Arteta, Podolski, Giroud, Diaby, Rosicky, Monreal, Sanogo, Zelalem, Bellerini, Hayden, Martinez etc. Our first team is so good that top players can’t even get games. Arsenal has a squad that we can be excited about. I saw Danny Welbeck playing yesterday for England and I was reminded of how good he is. We struck gold with this boy and unlike Giroud, he has pace, technical skill, aggression, dribbling and a fierce shot. He is a big game player and chases after the ball nonstop like Alexis Sanchez. He can also play on the wings. Surely this squad could be better but after spending 85 million pounds of hard earned money, I am proud of our club’s efforts and the players we have. Peace.
Uche
Sczeszny has already conceded 4 goals in 3 EPL matches.Ospina should now be played and if he concedes least numbers of goals than Sczeszny then he should start from here on and Wojciech on bench.
I think Ospina is a much better goalkeeper than Sczeszny.Sczeszny is a big Twat.He deserves to rot on bench,he is an error prone twat!
glad to see that we stand up for our players…
Sczezny = Golden Glove 2013 PL
Ospina = Playing for Nice till few months ago…
You seem very confident for a player you know sh@te little…
Yes @ Hald,
PLEASE can you explain how 2013’s EPL Golden Glove is shit and should “rot on the bench”?
If you don’t reply I’m assuming you’re “rotting” in hell, or a spurs fan!
I’d rather be rotting in hell though…
That fu**ing Undeserving Golden D**k winner has conceded 20 goals in 4 games.How many times has Ospina conceded more than 2 goals.
mate..u sure ur a Gooner?
well .. u dont f@cking seem so !!!
and ur football knowledge is as much as a 3 y.o. kid knows about black holes …
Cech took the ball 5 times from his net (our game in recent past),Cassillas has got even more … all keepers can have a bad day ffs!!
i aint sayin that Ospina is a no good , but u bro … maybe should change site and team..
peace
COYG!
Rest easy there fella, he is no gooner, just a bottom of the range shite troller. His best contribution in the past couple of days is wishing Wenger would die on his way back from Rome. Ignore the clueless t**t.
I disagree with what the other guy is saying ospina is a good player to compete with szezney. Ospina was rated buy squawkaa as the 2nd best keeper in the world cup
How is that statement justified the year after he is golden glove!?
its not , thats the point he’s full of sh*t.
You are not wrong.
Amen! That team does have what it takes to win the EPL… If our new sports conditioning coach can help our players avoid long term injuries, as in nothing longer than 2/3 weeks (because lets be realistic, injuries will occur for all teams), then we can definitely put up our hand as title contenders!
I know I will attract a lot of red ticks for this, but Alexis doesn’t play on the left. He plays on the right then cuts in to shoot on his favoured left foot. We have just bought a World class player, and lots of you want to play him out of position. I would imagine Wenger had to really convince him about coming to Arsenal, but do you really think he would stay with us if you played him in a position he doesn’t like, just because we want to utilise Theo on the right?
Sanchez is right footed…
sorry went a bit mad there, you are right of course, but it does detract from the fact that he has always played on the right
Actually for about 50% of his games for Barca he was LW. He sees himself as a number 9 or second striker.
And his favoured position is as a Second Second striker, 10 or false 9.
But i think he’ll do well as a False LW only if we have a proper RW so the midfield isnt congested because unlike all our other false wingers he tracks back, doesnt always come central and still makes runs in behind and takes on his full back.
His only problem on the left is that he has to cut in on his right to cross but how often do our LWs cross anyway…
But he is the super star, not Theo is what I’m trying to get across. If he doesn’t want to ply LW, it doesn’t matter how much we want him too.
He was played RW and LW (when pedro played) for barca thats not his favoured position, he plays through the middle but can play on either wing.
@Collin
I think you may have forgotten how good Walcott is seeing that he has been out for so long! I think Walcott is just as good as Sanchez on the right (if not better, just my opinion). This is where the dilemma lies because we have to field them both. Sanchez CAN play on the left, as we have seen him do on numerous occasions for Barca, granted not as much as we saw him playing on the right… But my point is that, in order to fit them both in the team, Sanchez should play on the left… However, I have a feeling Walcott will come off the bench against City anyway, just coming back from injury…
OK I know you’re all upset, but you need to look at the stats goal to game ratio: Lets start with TH14 – 0.49, he has slowed a little. DB10 – 0.36, RvP – 0.46, OG12 – 0.4 (and just for interest Falcao – 0.6)
Now Alexis – 0.3, Danny Welbeck 0.22 TW14 0.22
We are a little goal shy.
Stats are wonderful things. How about AS, TW and DB league goals for their last full seasons – both around 0.44 and DB at 0.36 (and 3rd highest ranked PL player in goals per mins). Bearing in mind there is a chance they could all play in a starting X1 not sure that is “a little goal shy” – a theoretical 1.24 goals/game.
And DB is 23 and plays out of position. Aged 23, Cavani had a scoring rate of 0.38 goals per game, Drogba 0.25, Benzema 0.3, Ian Wright 0.24 and Dwight Yorke 0.16 – the list goes on and on but you get the drift. Check out RvPs stats when he was the same age as the above trio.
You can;t go on their age, they were not the main striker at that time. Danny will be.
Also are you suggesting that we are a high scoring team?
Colin: Age is entirely relevant. TH14 and IW were both main strikers when they joined and their league goal/app stats by the age of 23 was 0.26 and 0.25 respectively. I suppose your point is that we need a 0.50+ man leading the line now rather than having to wait. Wenger probably has a slightly longer term plan than the fans and there lies the disconnect and the disappointment amongst a whole section of the fans.
And I have made no suggestion that we are a “high scoring team” – but historically for the last 20 years scoring goals has hardly been a glaring weakness. You should know the specific problems we had last year with just 68 league goals, losing TW and AR for a big part of the season clearly had an effect.
No. A very good DM is what is wrong with this squad and another CB. And why have you put chambers at DM? All 3 of our CB’s playing at once?
I have nothing against our players, but the big issue for me is that knowing Gibbs is very injury prone and that Kos has been carrying an Achilles injury that could flair at any time, Wenger didn’t work tirelessly to ensure our defence was strengthened over the summer. Then he let Vermaelen leave and loaned Jenkinson. I like Bellerin and he could be better than Jenkinson (I don’t know yet), but he hasn’t got the EPL experience of Jenkinson. So lets say Kos’ injury flais and he’s out for several weeks and Gibbs is out too. What does our squad look like then in defence.
I think Uche is the most optimistic writer on JA. Unfortunately, I don’t see Wenger setting up the team that way. It’s unlikely Chambers will get tried as a DM while Flamini, Wilshere and Arteta are fit. It’s possible we have a solution to our CDM problem – but our manager hasn’t tried – so we can’t find out. It’s the tactical rigidity and lack of rotation that drives me crazy with Wenger’s Arsenal. YES, Fergie could win the league with this squad I’m sure.
I agree, Fergie much as I hate to say would have a good shot at it. Mourinho and the rest no chance.
I think Szczesny is going to have his best season for Arsenal. He simply cannot afford to mess up. I reckon if Ospina gets his chance, he’s not going to let go the no.1 spot very easily.
‘Because you identify with hard work, integrity and the joy of being self-made. That is Arsenal in a nutshell. That is why we cannot support Chelsea or Manchester City even though they have everything.’
Shame that City now earns more revenue than your lot and that gap will only widen.
‘and the mindset of champions.’
Still giggling at that one.
Do you giggle?
Often, when reading back-slapping pieces of this nature, my shoulders are going now.
We earn WAY more than city in revenue you drunk fool. Only Barca, Real, Man utd and bayern earn more than us in revenue in world football. Get your facts straight you dumb f*ck
Deloitte Football Money League 2014 (Figures in millions £’s)
1. Real Madrid 444.7
2. Barca 413.6
3. Bayern 369.6
4. United 363.2
5. PSG 341.8
6. Lickle old City 271
7. Chelsea 260
8. Arsenal 243.6
Facts are straight and without resorting to name calling, dry your eyes.
Looool using Deloitte Football Money League to judge revenue lmao.
”We have not performed any verification work or audited any of the information contained in the financial statements or other sources in respect of each club for the purpose of the publication.”- Deloitte Football
And if you were up to date with anything rather than just google searching or seeing figures on twitter you would know City and PSG failed financial fair play due to their owners paying their clubs money in the form of bogus Sponsorship deals hence why these financial figures are distorted, also since then our revenue has exploded exponentially with the introduction of our new deals.
Also its just basic common sense we have the 5th largest fan base World wide, made it to the knock out stages in 2012/13 season where as city didn’t, we have a bigger stadium and charge more money, city’s newest sponsorship deal is worth around 12mill per year ffs how could they have greater revenue than us.
Shirt sponsorship deal*
‘”We have not performed any verification work or audited any of the information contained in the financial statements or other sources in respect of each club for the purpose of the publication.”- Deloitte Football’
Which if you understood English meant they have accepted the figures put out by the clubs, which in turn have been accepted by UEFA. Also if you knew anything and weren’t just a Googling keyboard warrior, you’d know City fell foul because of imaging and intellectual property rights, nothing to do with the sponsorship. Those were a one off and if anything, the Etihad deal is vastly undervalued now.
5th largest fan base World wide, really, according to who?
You have a bigger stadium, but won’t have in two years, when our expansion makes it the 2nd largest in the PL.
Look, I get that you’re not an accountant, but just do some basic research son, you’ll see our revenue outstrips yours and the gap will only widen. I get that it is painful for you, but hey, console yourself with the fact that you pay £2k for a season ticket.
No mate you failed FFP because ”a number of secondary sponsorship deals which were considered to be above fair market values.” An attempt from your arab to funnel his money into the club. Also our revenue has increased alot since these last financial results. Our 2014/15 results will be higher than yours.
Also our fan base is estimated at 115mill worldwide that is the 5th largest behind Man utd, real, Barca and chelsea. Go check for your self.
Estimated, so, not based it fact and mere guesswork then.
Our revenue will outstrip yours going forward and already is doing today, that’s a Rafa fact.
Please point out one of ‘a number of secondary sponsorship deals which were considered to be above fair market values’ which we failed FFP for and I’ll accept that you aren’t just pulling stats from the Mirror, the Daily Star, or your arse.
You think it will continue to widen after the Mansours knob off over the horizon?
Yeah, cos that’s looking likely isn’t it…
By the way, those figures are for the 2012/13 season, figures aren’t out yet for our DOUBLE winning 2013/14 season yet, your eyes will be as red as your smacked bum.
Lool city fans lmao.
Where the f*ck were you before 2010 you c*nt.
And we get more money from an FA cup home tie then you get for winning the carling cup, also liverpool still made more money than you from the epl even though you won the league. Now with your bogus deals discredited expect very disappointing financial results no better than evertons.
Sad lad, ask yourself this, if the Etihad deal is bogus, then surely it will be bogus every year going forward?
It’s already been rubber stamped by UEFA, we fell foul over other matters, matters that were one-offs.
I get that you’re a bit scared, but try and not let that fear distort the facts. Your swearing and ranting is starting to make you sound a bit desperate.
As for Liverpool earning more than City last season, our figures aren’t out yet, so both your balls must be made of crystal.
“Sad-Lad”… Shame pour little boy doesn’t get enough attention on his man city site… I think you’re the “Sad-Lad” mate…
Kids these days! haha
These ship jumping glory hunting virgins only support clubs that are winning so that they have atleast one thing in their boring and embarrasing lives to brag about, so are you really surprised hes attention seeking on an arsenal fan blog?
WHY, are you arguing with a Manshity supporter on the Arsenal site.
Just blank them.
Anyone would think we played them next game and the spies are infiltrating our site for some info.
32 years a blue fella, but by all means make assumptions all you like. Why bother with guesswork and keep getting it wrong though, better to do what you do best, booing your current and ex-players.
Cheers for that insight Kia.
The ethiad deal is not one of your bogus deals although its clearly inflated as who on earth would pay 35mill p/y to sponsor a stadium thats barely filled and sponsor a shirt that barely gets any sales due to a non existent fan-base.
You clearly dont know anything about arsenals financial situation if you believe cities revenue will overtake arsenals. Only reason our figures are that low is because we were tied down to long term sponsorship deals that were used to finance our new stadium, figures as low as 10mill per year, you know figures similar to your newest sponsorship deal.
Also i didnt know you needed a crystal ball to see financial figures released by the premier league.
“The Merseyside giants earned £97,544,336 from Premier League funds for their 2013-14 campaign, pushing champions Manchester City into second place. City earned £96,578,329. Liverpool earned more than City because 28 of their 38 league games were screened live on TV as opposed to only 25 of City’s and TV appearances are one factor considered.” More of your games tend to get shown on live tv when your a BIG club.
By the way where were you before the oil?
So United finish 7th and get a £75m a year deal just to sponsor their shirt. City win four trophies in 4 years, 2 of them league titles in the last three and you think £35m is overpriced? Ground empty? Every PL home game a sell out. Non-existant fan base? OK mate, if you say so.
Liverpool – that is TV revenue, not ALL revenue, geez, surely you’re not really this dim?
Apart from the fact that the Etihad deal covered the shirt sponsorship, the ground naming and the branding of the soon to be completed Etihad Complex, so yeah, vastly under-priced.
@HeavyRiffs.
Hope to see you here on next Saturady after the game.
I like fans of other clubs coming on here to say something.
But if it is not constructive, why make fun of another club on their forum?
Or is it that ManC fans do not have a blog about themselves?
Do yourself a favour.
Google Blue and Bitter.
Thats a ManC forum. Stay there. And if you come up here, say something constructive.
I thought City fans were the more humble ones from Manchester.
Seems i was wrong, wasn’t i?
‘Because you identify with hard work, integrity and the joy of being self-made. That is Arsenal in a nutshell. That is why we cannot support Chelsea or Manchester City even though they have everything.’
Is that constructive? Arsenal identify with hard work, integrity and the joy of being self made, thereby implying that City and Chelsea are none of those things.
I am here as the author chose to tag the story to Man City, it therefore shows up in City newfeeds. If his article hadn’t included cheap shots at City, you wouldn’t have even have read a comment from me.
Why aren’t you preaching to your fellow Gooners such as TH14 then?
Of course there is nothing wrong with this squad. We just lack a top quality cb and CDM. That’s all.
And striker mate, and striker. Surely, Welbeck’s signing didn’t make you think we no longer need a striker, no?
Yes, Yes it obviously did lol
its been nearly there for 6 years…tired of waiting
First of all I red ticked you instead of green, but you have it in a nutshell…. Nearly, but are we as nearly this year than last?
On paper the team has
the bare minimum in defense.
Good luck with that.
Arsenal has a large pool
of mid/attackers.
How often and just how
they will be deployed
will be fascinating to watch
City and Dortmund will be
a good test of how Arsenal is tracking.
The titles do not do justice to the articles out here…
I might not be a writer myself but I feel the content in the articles are “usually pretty good” (some writers ofcourse) but the titles just blows people off and others rush into comments reacting directly to the title rather than the issues raised.
Admin, we love and appreciate this platform but lets not name articles as if we are some American newspaper reporting on Africa. (No offence on the yanks, you all my brothers but some of your reporting still make us sound like we still walk around naked and climb trees for shelter out here)
But to the topic at hand, bar loosing Verm and not buying a CDM, our squad is much better as compared to the previous season!!!!
Scroll down to “***” to see the Arsenal comment.
Thank you for the life story Uche.
Coming from a background surrounded by people with better things, more money and a more privileged life, you should have aspired to be like them instead of growing up resenting them. By the way, somebody with much more money than you are not “filthy rich” … they are just people with more money than you. Probably because their parents did well at school, studied hard, went to University and acquired a well paid job afterwards.
They are not criminals, not bad people.
I don’t need to remind myself why I have supported Arsenal since 1979 when I was 11, never have done; and like most most fans my background has diddly to do with who I supported. Arsenal is the family team and has been for generations. My Grandfather stood in the stands of Highbury in the 1940’s with my mother as a tot sitting on his shoulders.
Chelsea became rich about 2005 mate and City a few years later, why do you think people have only been supporting Arsenal since 2005? 😀 Genuine fans don’t ever change a team during their life time, they also don’t support more than one team.
Seriously mate, real fans do not wake up one morning and convince themselves another team is worth their support because it has more money. They also don’t stand to attention with one hand on heart and the other saluting while thinking, “I am from an under privileged background or a working class background and this is why I MUST support Arsenal.” 😀 You’re nuts.
Everton, Man City, Newcastle, Wigan, Leeds, Liverpool, et al => are ALL working class clubs. Just because some rich Arab buys Man City, this transforms all those working class fans who supported City for decades into => “Filthy Rich” fans I guess – in your mind.
Stop resenting people you bgrew up with, stop resenting fans at richer clubs (are Southampton FC fans sitting their resenting Arsenal fans?), stop being bitter and jealous of other people, period.
***
At last, I can point out our Defence is fine, much better than Chelsea’s defence, you know, that rich club your wrote an essay about above underlining your resentment.
Last season we had Sagna, Jenkinson, Koscielny, Mertsacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Monreal and Flamini.
This season we have Debuchy, Bellerin, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Chambers, Monreal and Flamini.
😀 What’s wrong, Bellerin is as good as Debuchy, if not better and far better than Jenkinson. Chambers is an improvement on Vermaelen (who could also play on the left, but Chambers can also play on the right), Monreal and of course Flamini, the left Full-back for AC Milan and before that Arsenal FC before Wenger tried him in Midfield. lol. I love being an Arsenal fan who sees through every gripe fans like you make.
So Wenger didn’t loan a striker? So what, he bought a decent one who has consistently played out of position during most of his time at United. United fans would have exactly the same attitude as you if Van Per$ie had spent most of his career on the Wing instead of his best position. The guy is 23, has never played upfront for Arsenal with the team we have behind him, but sure, speak about him like he is scum. Isn’t the fact he is a regular full international for England even a clue? 😀 Welbeck knows the EPL and will hit the ground running, he is a winner having come from United, would not have lasted so long at United if he was worthless and like Wilshere at Arsenal, he fought his way up through the ranks from a young age.
No wonder you think Wenger didn’t buy a defender, you have Chambers as a DM, geeeez. A position he has not played before but already you pick him for DM duties where he needs to be heavy tackler (injury risk) and be able to run forward with the ball and connect a decent pass to an attacker. Flamini runs tirelessly the whole game, he shouts and marshals the defence (the reason they were better last season), he is our most aggressive player and heaviest tackler, so sure, replace him with a 19 year old Chambers who has no experience in that position.
Walcott is injured, probably permanently. At most he’ll play a quarter of the season, hence the reason we bought Sanchez (his best position is right side btw and so is Chamberlain’s … so Walcott better get stronger and fitter because he will lose his place in England and Arsenal. Liverpool’s Sterling has already nicked his England place I think.
Sanchez can play striker and so can Joel Campbell, so can Podolski, so can Walcott, so can Chamberlain (bet you didn’t know this). We are covered up front,
The main problem with the Arsenal team is too many central midfield players being put on the wing. They naturally run into central midfield and this leaves no width, no wingers. It’s why Monreal is being exposed on his own. Wenger’s team selection fails often. All the games we drop points in, we have players out of their natural positions. Ozil on the Wing for example while Sanchez is up front. Leaving Flamini out is just nuts. He is the nearest we have to a tough tackling DM and it weakens our defence a lot when he isn’t covering it. Wilshere is wasted, Ozil has been wasted, Cazorla has been wasted, Sanchez has been wasted and we have dropped points on during all these times.
Ooo, I left out Gibbs when listing the defenders we have this season. My bad. We still have the same defence size and it is stronger than the season before.
Dude, you have way too much time on your hands! aha
Of course there is nothing wrong with this squad (except the fact that we needed a DM and another CB)… Wenger is and has always been the problem!
Surely there is nothing wrong with this squad…. But competing for the Championship, playing UFC football, Domestic cups,,,, with 2 CBs and one understudy/cover….. Is just unacceptable. I have never wanted to say this but Wenger has a biiiiiiiig problem and he needs to sort himself out or will do it for (the) fun/ fans…….
Finally an article with no negativity. Spot on mate!