Ruud Gullit told the Match Of The Day viewers that he believes Arsenal left their transfers too late, and as a consequence, were unprepared for the current season.
The Gunners moved quickly to bring in Granit Xhaka following the previous campaign, but after an early snub from Leicester’s Jamie Vardy, their transfer activity stalled.
The Premier League campaign is now into the third gameweek, and the club has picked up a disappointing four points thus far, and Gullit claims that Arsene Wenger has left it too late to strengthen for the season.
‘Look, it’s so late,’ he said on BBC’s Saturday night highlights show.
‘Everybody already bought their main players and Arsenal was always like are they in doubt.
‘They did it also with Mertesacker last minute as well.
‘You have to see how they cope with the Premier League, how they adapt to the team, so it takes some time.’
We can hardly argue, given our stuttering start to the term, but on the defensive side, who could have predicted those two late injuries we received? Per Mertesacker and Gabriel Paulista severely effected us, and with both of those fit would we even be signing Mustafi?
I know we wanted another defender, but Wenger could just as easily have brought in another striker, and a midfielder instead, with Julian Draxler, James Rodriguez and Marcelo Brozovic all having been linked with switches to us, and all believed to be available this month.
The Arsenal boss made it clear that he wanted to sign only three new members to the first-team squad, and Xhaka, Mustafi and Lucas Perez appear to be it, although Rob Holding has played every minute of our campaign this far following the injury losses.
Do you agree with the former Dutch star? Or did our injuries mess up Wenger’s plans?
Gooner P