Even the players recognise that Wenger hasn’t improved our chances of winning the league!
Arsenal fans have given Arsene Wenger plenty of stick this past week, firstly over the loss to Liverpool and now the fact that another week has passed and still we see no new faces around the Emirates. But it isn’t only the fans that recognise Arsenal’s difficulties, as the players too have also noticed that the Gunners will find it very tough to compete at the top this season, due to a lack of activity in the transfer window.
On Arsenal’s title chances, Koscielny said: ‘Always. We are Arsenal – we fight for the title. Every game we play we want to win the game.This season will be very difficult because of the top clubs spending a lot of money on transfers, it’s unbelievable. But sometimes the collective can be better than individual players. So we want to keep our philosophy and play football.’
Although I agree in principle that being a collective team is better than throwing a bunch of players together in hope they can win something, most teams have quite simply integrated a few players into an already strong side. Arsenal however have signed Xhaka to replace two/three outgoing midfielders and Holding to reduce our injury crisis in defence. Asano isn’t even getting in the Arsenal first team this season due to work permit issues, so he won’t be improving us in any way, shape or form. With this in mind, Arsenal therefore haven’t strengthened at all, once again we’ve just replaced for the positions of players that we have lost over the summer.
It also depends on the quality of the player. I mentioned before how throwing a bunch of players into a team and hoping they gel together is not the right approach, however even with all the additions, say three or four additional quality signings, even if they don’t necessary gel well altogether at once in the team, their presence to improve the squad is noticed, especially in squad depth. Again Arsenal therefore haven’t improved their squad depth, they have only replaced outgoing players.
With all this in mind Koscielny is right to suggest that whilst ‘we are Arsenal’ and no doubt we will pull the strings together to get the ‘top four job’ done, Arsenal have been left behind by their rivals in the Premier League in terms of challenging at the very top. Yes the amount of money being spent is unbelievable, but if Arsenal want to compete amongst the best, then surely we have to act accordingly in turn with what the best do both on the pitch and off the pitch financially.
By AH