I am happy and relieved that Arsene Wenger accepted that Yaya Sanogo was not enough and that Arsenal needed to sign another centre forward, especially with Olivier Giroud being out of action until around the end of the year. And I’m not going to be down on the Frenchman for signing Danny Welbeck either, it is the failure to sign a defender that I am more concerned about.
Looking at the squad on the Arsenal website, the Gunners have just six first team defenders in Mathieu Debuchy, Calum Chambers, Per Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny, Kieran Gibbs and Nacho Monreal. For a team that is in the Champions League and therefore has three cup competitions and the Premier League games to cope with, surely the bare minimum is to have eight, two for each defensive position.
I know that Calum Chambers is versatile, but what if the youngster picks up an injury or a suspension> The Gunners would be left dangerously exposed and in danger of having to use a midfielder as cover. Arsenal do seem to get more than their fair share of injuries after all.
So this makes the decision by Wenger to sell Ignasi Miquel to Leicester and not sign another defender pretty risky in my eyes. Maybe the boss is putting faith in the academy players Isaac Hayden and Hector Bellerin, because there is no other cover. So can Arsenal really cope with what we have at the back?