Naturally and as usual, Arsenal have lost quite a few players to injury. We have been losing players at a regular rate ever since the season started, with Kieran Gibbs, Mikel Arteta, Per Mertesacker, Flamini and others picking up little knocks, while Nathieu Debuchy and Olivier Giroud have had to have surgery and will not be available until some time around the new year.
And this has stretched the Gunners squad a bit thinly for a few games this season, especially the defence. But you cannot blame this all on bad luck, because Arsene Wenger admitted that we were a bit short in this area a week or two before the transfer window closed. But the Frenchman did not sign anyone, despite the recent financial figures showing that the club has the best part of £200 million in the bank.
Wenger was asked about this today, as reported by ESPN, and the reason for him not signing a centre back or a utility player before the end of the window, which many Arsenal fans were left baffled by, although at least we did get a striker in, even though the signing of Danny Welbeck may not have happened if Giroud had not been injured. So why did Wenger not bolster the defensive side of the squad when he knew it was vulnerable?
He said, “There is not a lot on the market and if you look at the other clubs, they had exactly the same problem. If you went anywhere, everybody is looking for defenders.
“I feel that we made a very good buy with Calum Chambers and we are a bit unlucky to lose Debuchy and Monreal at the same time together. No matter how many players you buy, you cannot have three players in every position because it is impossible to manage.”
Maybe two players in every position might have been an idea though, especially with our history of injuries. Assuming Chambers is a centre back, that leaves another central defender and a right back that we are missing. Yet we could not find a decent player for either role with all that money at our disposal.
Now I am not suggesting that Wenger should have spent £50m to get someone or that there were some real top players on offer, but surely we could have got some decent cover for not too much money. Is it time for the Prof to get some more help in his transfer dealings?