On current form it is clear that Arsenal have the quality and strength to mount a serious push for the Premier League title next season, always assuming that Chelsea do not suffer a major collapse and let us in this year of course. As long as the Gunners do not have the usual crippling injury list to cope with, I really believe that next year could be our year.
It wil not be easy, of course, but I do think that we will not have to worry about Man City as they are set for a big shake-up in the summer, and will start the next campaign with many new players as well as a new manager – and it will almost certainly take some time for them to settle down.
Then you have Chelsea, who have proved their credentials this season and will surely spend again. But I see them more as solid than spectacular and they only managed to build such a lead because Arsenal and the other big clubs did not get going until well into the campaign.
Now it looks as though Arsenal and Man United are the two best teams in the league and I think this could prove to be the case next season as well. Louis van Gaal is set to spend fortunes again this summer, with a top class striker, creative midfielder and centre back set to go to Old Trafford. So I can understand why a former United great Eric Cantona is tipping them for the title, as reported by Sky Sports.
Wenger will also need to strengthen a few key positions and as long as he does, I can see a real power struggle develpoing between us and our old rivals in red. Martin Keown remembers those fierce battles between the two clubs well and he has told Sky Sports that the Gunners have what it takes to lift the famous trophy.
Do you agree that Arsenal and United will be the top two next season? And if so, how will we be able to cope with their spending power?
Need to establish ourselves as genuine title contenders before we talk about ‘title rivals’.
Chelsea will get better, Mourinho has proven as much.
United will do big business so no guarantees with them, not sold on LVG.
City are a good manager away from brilliance.
Arsenal need to put two halves of a season together for the first time in 8/9 years and actually compete for the title. I’m not buying the false dawn many are waxing lyrical about, it’s same old same old. Still a whole lot to prove, but signs are finally more encouraging as the squad becomes almost complete.
What’s it like being so negative and only seeing the glass half full?
I’m sorry, must everyone conform to your rainbows and unicorns perspective where Arsenal are on the verge of European domination?
I don’t see what’s negative about wanting to see us avoid the same destructive patterns we’ve seen in recent seasons: playing half a season, managing injuries like amateurs, starting with important elements of the squad missing etc. I said signs are more encouraging, but a child like yourself can’t comprehend that and instead spouts nonsense about me being negative.
I’m rightfully reserved on my optimism seeing as we’ve done exactly the same thing the last 5 years (top 4, CL last 16). Sorry if I’m not sold on a 8, 9, 10 game run at the tail end of the season in terms of what it means for next term. I’m optimistic as I am EVERY year, but I recognize we need to do certain things before being ready for a title tilt. I was one of those fans who wanted a DM and CB in the summer (negative then too yea?), and look at what happened in Jan when we finally got them…
Same applies this time round as I’m simply stating as much. You carry on with your judgmental nonsense though.
Just look at your comments man your so hell bent on proving were going backwards and that wenger is passed it. It seems like you just want us to fail so you can be proved right.
Just get behind the team the signs are promising.
Look at my comments? I made them….I know what I say. I’m simply frustrated at our stagnation and want us to start a campaign with no question marks over our optimism.
You got the Wenger angle all wrong. I’m maybe his biggest fan, I want him to embrace change and evolution. He is starting to alter his ways which is why I say signs are more positive, but he cannot rest on his laurels.
If he doesn’t change his ways then I’m not against changing him for someone who will set us up to challenge – that’s the difference. There’s no excuse not to challenge next season, literally none…so I’m more than happy to have Wenger in the hot seat as long as he does what’s needed.
But you literally just said the only reason for not replacing wenger with klopp is sentiment. So how can you be his biggest fan if you believe that
I said calling Wenger “way better” than Klopp is based on sentiment.
Id take klopp this summer because I know he has what it takes to make a title challenging team and he would bring optimism. I’d also take a Wenger who hasa change in tact….
Whether he does that remains to be seen. If he doesn’t address some details then we’ll look back and curse not getting Klopp. If he keeps adapting then klopp isn’t an issue.
For Arsenal’s sake I hope we, as a club, start the season with a manager who’s gonna put all the pieces in place for a title challenge. Be it a rejuvenated Wenger or fresh faced Klopp I’d have either. I want Arsenal to do our very best.
CC, i believe as usual you make some good points but i think you are keeping yourself on the fence a little regarding Wenger. If we start playing well and defending as a unit Wenger can be said to have changed, opposite applies also. It may be too long for some to remember but i can recall Wenger when he had money for players and a solid squad.. we played a little like we are now.
Things can be said to be going somewhat better for us lately simply because we have better players, the younger ones are a little older now so have good experience. Ozil has had plenty of time getting over RM heartbreak, Sanchez is a worldy.. throw Cazorla Ramsey in there and things click, but most importantly is the group has been together for a number of years gaining great experience.
Wenger has shown that he will still play players out of position with AR being recent example. Injuries in my opinion has been a bigger curse than the man management Wenger has supposedly changed from being.
Admittedly Arsene made two huge errors this season, one being Gabs late arrival and the other being Coqs very late arrival or the fact he should have simply got the cheque book out in summer, although some might be happier now we waited for Coq.
Other than above mentioned Arsene has an attractive and very distinctive management style so am at a loss to detect this so called change Wenger has gone through.
Not on the fence YY, I’m a Wenger fan provided he gets out his own way and yields to the demands of the modern game.
Injuries at our volume is poor management (either medical staff or Wenger ignoring advice), starting seasons half-cocked in terms of players, and tactics being arguably the main one. If he continues to showiinnovation and growth whilst taking care of the other nuances then I’m content.
If he’s rigid to his way vs the world then we suffer. I think our form is squad balance rather than quality based. Obviously helps having good players, but finally we have an attack that is offset by a unit that can protect us. I need more convincing on the coquelin matter as to me we only stumbled across that option via the injuries you mention. Hope it’s shown the value of a DM to him at last.
And I thought it was only me that this idiot was so negative about anything that Arsenal tried this year. His only two words in his posts that he keeps saying is CM CB, and Wenger has fixed that as can be seen by results.
CB
To coin your usual phrase “look at all the red thumbs vs green ones”.
How sad is your life that you come on here simply to call me names? Grow up
Claiming Man City are brilliant is delusion. They’re an ageing squad with Toure and Nasri no longer interested. Dzeko is nowhere near a top striker and Jovetic has flopped, try using logic next time. And Man U aren’t winning a trophy unless they sort out their defence and midfield, even then it would take time for their players to gel. Arsenal and Chelsea are the most settled teams in England and are the only clubs that have shown signs of challenging next season.
Man City have a brilliant squad and a manager like Klopp could make them devastating. I said I have reservations about United, but if they buy well in the summer they’ll easily be a force.
This “settled” bollox you’re peddling is nonsense. Chelsea got rid of two of their mainstays the last two years and have gone from strength to strength. If the management and recruitment is right a team will do the business. We can be as ‘settled’ as we like but I f Wenger doesn’t address what needs addressing then we won’t do jack settled or not.
I think you are buying the “false dawn” – think you meant to say “new dawn” or similar.
Why should we fear them? Coyg!
Where did all of the Wenger haters go? Admittedly I haven’t visited this website for a while but the last thing I remember was a bunch of Wenger hate. I bring this up because of the whole Klopp situation and I came on here as a neutral to see all of the debates about whether or not we should dump Wenger and get Klopp but I havent seen anything drastic yet. Just a lot of “Wenger knows best” and Klopp is a flop when not 4 months ago it was the other way around. I am not on either side of the Wenger bandwagon but Arsenal fans need to remember these days next time Wenger sees another few tough results because it is ridiculous how fickle many of us can be at times.
They’re trying to convince people that Man City have a better chance at challenging for the title than use next season. I’m not having it, their squad is no longer at its peak and Man U are still 5 players away from being genuine contenders.
If we don’t add to the team another top DM and another top striker it will be difficult
City, Chelsea and United will all sign big players this summer. We need to keep up.
This not only means signing big players but releasing and selling players we don’t need or are not useful anymore.
My thoughts are:
Release: Flamini, Diaby (if injured again)
Extend contract: Arteta and Walcott
Sell: Podolski, Campbell and Sanogo
Loan: Akpom, Hayden, Miyachi, Zelalem
Bring back: Wellington Silva, Jenkison
Sign: Schneiderlin or Kondogbia and Lacazette or Dybala and young LB.
Agree with 80%. Flamini still has 1 more year contract. He needs to be sold, we can get some money from him this time around 🙂
Miyachi needs to be released.
Jenkinson needs to be loaned out again. He is OK and he home grown. Playing regularly will help his development.
We need to see how the proposed homegrown rules work out. Arsenal may have to anticipate the change by buying differently than we would all want. Hence why the names of Milner, Smalling, Cleverley and Sterling are connected with Arsenal.
I hate to say this but Milner for Rosicky makes sense if we need to grow from 8 to 12 homegrown players. He is free and available. Don’t get me wrong I love Rosicky.
Get Milner and Jonjo Shelvey and the midfield will have two very, very versatile players.
We are 2-3 top players from being a force in England and Europe with around a 90m investment.
Sounds allot but Man U, Liverpool,Chelsea spent more than this throughout last year.
Every top tittle winning teAm has 5-6 top players. Looking at our squad I’d say we have 3 ozil,Santi,alexis
We have allot of good players as well, but two many fringe /squad level players we could do without on loan or sold/released.
The signings we need and who they will replace
St Higuain(podolski,yaya)
Dm schnederlin (flamini + diaby)
Gk cech (if szezney goes + Martinez)
(Non of these players would increase our wage bill as the outgoings would cover them.)
This would provide us with 2 world class player plus solidify the dm position for around 55m – money recouped from outgoings 15m
Net spend 40m
Luxury signings
Cb hummels (loan chambers and/ or sell jenkinson )
Fwd rues (Walcott? + rosicky, ryo, campbell)
78m spent – 28m from transfers
Net spend 50m
The two luxury signings are two we should go after if they become available to further boost the team in terms of quality whilst reducing players on the fringes of the team.
I heard dat arsenal may sign Milner as a cheap alternative to Morgan schniederlein. D good side of d deal is dat Milner is a good player who comes for free, he wil increase no. of our homegrown players, and most importantly he will not directly replace le coq and thus wudnt hinder his development and also Milner can b used as a good squad player in other positions as well unlike Morgan schniederlein. However not signing schniederlein wud mean once again moving away from a world class signing and giving him a chance to sign for rivals instead.
Kondogbia or Schneirdelin would be the best options imo
Optimisticgooner.. Schneiderlein is not worldclass and is definitely not a worldclass signing if he is signed.. He is another average player… The Worldclass signing for that position are POGBA or JAVI MARTINEZ.
And to the topic.. We need to be as good as Barca,Madrid,Bayern or better.. WE NEED MORE WORLD CLASS players..
Get POGBA and MULLER/LEWY.
I think pogba is a bit overrated. Ok people say hes best in his position at d moment but wats d guarantee dat he will b a success on his return to premier league. He cudnt even make it into d starting 11 during his time at Manchester utd and den suddenly becomes worlds best after joining juve. Pogba might b better den Morgan but I wud rather pay 25 for Morgan den 70 for pogba.
Cech
Debuchy-Varane-Koscielny-Gibbs(in form)
Ramsey-Pogba
Walcott-Ozil-Alexis
Muller
Subs: Szcz,Ospina;
Gabriel,Chambers,Per;
Bellerin,Monreal,Jenks;
Santi,Wilshere,Coq;
Ox,Gnabry;
Giroud,Welbeck.
This is a team^^^ as strong as RealMadrid,Bayern Munich, Barcelona …
A team stronger than Chelsea,City and United.
WORLD CLASS from back to front.
4 additions (cech is optional)
Man U have benefitted from a light load. Lost at the 1st time of asking in the league cup (MK Dons), QF of FA cup (Arsenal) and didn’t play in europe. It is actually quite embarrassing that they never really featured in the title race untill now. They are also peaking at a time when the other clubs are feeling a long and overloaded season in the legs.
Man U will suffer the same fate next season and struggle to make the top 4.
On another note, a possible consequence of our current success is that Arsene might not see the need to spend this summer.