I know that a lot of Arsenal fans will dismiss out of hand the idea that Arsene Wenger and his lack of much action in the transfer market has helped the club to challenge for major honours. I was certainly surprised to see the Frenchman only sign the veteran keeper Petr Cech from Chelsea in the summer and then last month we only bought Mohamed Elneny and that was because if a midfield injury crisis.
However, the idea that this lack of many new players actually helps the team comes from inside the Arsenal dressing room in comments made to Arsenal Player by our Spanish left back Nacho Monreal. So maybe we should take note of what the defender says, as he is a lot more likely to know what he is talking about than us fans.
Monreal clearly feels that there is a great team spirit and sense of togetherness in the Arsenal dressing room, with no little cliques of certain players, and he believes that this has been very beneficial and even essential to the way the Gunners have performed over the last few seasons, ending the long wait for a trophy and now getting into a great position to challenge for the big prize of the Premier League title.
The Spaniard said, “It is very important the atmosphere in the dressing room. It is mandatory to have a really good relationship with your team-mates, we are like a unit. You play like a unit and you spend a lot of time with them.
“I can see now there is only one group. We are together and in every moment the atmosphere is amazing – this is very important to get trophies. If you want to win something it is necessary to have a good group.
“In the last few years we have played with the same players. Every summer, we have signed one, two or a maximum of three players. The team is practically the same group so that is very important.
“Arsenal is not 11 players, we are 24 amazing players and when one is injured, the other player could play really well. We have really good players and really good people. In my opinion, it is better than ever.”
So should we ease up a bit on what many see as the failings of the boss?