When most Arsenal fans were glued to the internet for most of the transfer deadline day, the signing of Danny Welbeck from Man United was greeted by many as a serious letdown. We wanted Radamel Falcao or Cavani if we couldn’t get Leo Messi and the 23-year old England striker was not floating many boats.
To be fair to us Arsenal fans, that was a knee jerk reaction and we soon started to warm to Welbeck and look more closely into his attributes and what he could add to the Arsenal squad. And we started to get optimistic and see that this could turn out to be a really good piece of transfer business for us, especially when we heard all the plastic Mancs moaning about it.
But the turnaround became a wheel screeching, rubber burning U-turn after Welbeck produced an excellent two goal performance for England and I just want to introduce a voice of calm and play devil’s advocate here. Just as we shouldn’t judge Welbeck on his goal tally for United, we should not expect him to Thierry Henry all of a sudden.
How about having some patience and giving Arsene Wenger some time to integrate the new forward into the Gunners team, in a position that he may favour but that he has not got too much experience in. Of course I would love him to blow Man City away with a hat-trick as much as anyone, but I am not expecting him to. I get the feeling that some Arsenal fans are building the lad up for a fall and that will not help him.
It will be his Arsenal debut after all, against the current Premier League champions, so why don’t we lower our expectations and take anything more as a bonus?