Former Manchester United goalkeeper, Peter Schmeichel, admits Arsenal finally looks like a team that can finish inside the top four.
The Gunners have not made the Champions League since 2017 and came very close to achieving a top-four finish in the last campaign.
However, they eventually missed out on a place in the competition to Tottenham.
But they have responded well to that setback by signing the likes of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Both players and other new signings have looked decent in pre-season and they should help the Gunners to thrive in this campaign.
Schmeichel was predicting how the league’s standings will be at the end of this campaign and he said to The Times:
“The competition will come from Chelsea, and from Spurs, who have signed well and in Antonio Conte have a very clever manager who is so good at getting the maximum out of his players.
“I’m also looking (at) Arsenal and for the first time in a long time thinking “top four”.
Just Arsenal Opinion
Most fans and pundits know this would be a big season for Arsenal and their transfer business suggests they know how big the task is.
The Gunners will look to improve on their results with the influence of their new players and a slight improvement could push them inside the UCL places.
No holds barred!!!
Honest assessment from a pundit with football sense.
Not common practice from pundits these days.
Yeah! in contrast to Roy Keane, who talks like a pub lunatic.
Its hard to say what Arsenal or anyone else will do this season. I think at the start of last season people thought we will finish 8th. The thought of challenging for 4th was laughable to most pundits! But eventually, Arsenal at one time were favourites for it.
I do not think Arsenal has had a fantastic window, although their preseason preparations seem to be a lot better than it used to be.
At the start of the window I was looking at a top quality striker, left / right winger and central or box to box midfielder to compliment Partey. But we only sorted the striker position. I know the window is not closed but I think Arsenal’s business is almost done.
I really do not understand the Viera signing. That £30m should have been added towards the money for a winger or world class central midfielder.
We shouldn’t be baulking at top players being worth £70m or more if we really want to nail down top 4. We should have fought to get Savic who is world class and not Viera – we already have two players who play his position.
Excellent comment.
A lot dependson how Arteta rates players. Signing Vieira suggests Arteta is pushing Smith-Rowe out wide as a back up to Martinelli (in which case ESR should leave, ASAP). This gives the team depth across the front;
Jesus (Nketiah)
Martinelli (ESR), Odegaard (Vieira), Saka (Marquinos, Pepe)
Xhaka (Zinchenko), Partey (Elneny, Lokonga)
Tierney (Zinchenko), White (Saliba), Magalhaes (Holding), Tomiyasu (White, Cedric)
Ramsdale (Turner)
The Zinchenko signing makes it awkward to sign a midfielder because Arteta must have promised Zinkchenko a chance to play in midfield to get him to sign. Id the Gunners turn around and sign Savic or Tielemans, both proven scoring midfielders, Zinchenko would not get those minutes.
The team may also want to pare down the roster before bringing in anyone else, with a number of first team players who need to move: Bernd Leno (Fulham), Lucas, Torreira (Sampadoria), Nuna Tavares (Marseilles – loan), Hector Bellerin (Real Betis), Pablo Mari (Monza?) Falarun Balogun (Reims – loan), Ainsley Maitland-Niles (???), Jeff Reiss Nelson (????) Nicolas Pepe (????)
Reiss Nelson would be better back up for Saka than Pepè ……he got the making of a top winger and deserves a chance 💯
In my opinion Nelson couldn’t lace up Pepes boots. Nelson has produced nothing of note. There is a player in Pepe but not Nelson.
True
I think Arsenal should be challenging for the Premier league this season Not only champion’s league spot with the sort of players they have in the Team
I totally agree with Misan.
We need to challenge the league this season, given the fact that Man city won’t be doing too good this season as the previous seasons.
This season we look dangerous..
Go Gunners
We are having 5 substitutions this season and lots of tweaks is expected. Vieira could replace wingers and attacking midfielders when need be. Rowe should not fear, more substitutions will take care.
we should not forget that injury to odegaard or smith will leave us vulnerable.
We still need a serious deep six .cos party can’t play 3 consective matches without an injury. No one can do his job perfectly in our team
According to me,it was tomiyasu,party and Tierney that made us to miss top four,I mean if it wasn’t their injuries arsenal would be in champ league, the players must avoid injuries if we are to prove this.
Yeah, you are right
I completely agree with you. Same reason we need to sign alternatives in all their positions.
Get Tielemanns and we are good to go.
Agreed. Partey is too comfortable. He needs some competition.