The former Arsenal and England forward Alan Smith was clearly not as disappointed as some Gooners with the away point against a difficult and in form Stoke City side at the weekend, especially as the Gunners were without two of our best attacking players in Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.
In fact Smudger, who scored the opening goal against Liverpool in the final game of the season in 1989 that gave Arsenal our most dramatic title win ever and inspired the book and film Fever Pitch, thinks that the resilience the current team showed at the Britannia Stadium proves that this squad is capable of going all the way and adding another title to our history of major honours.
Last week saw Arsenal complete the transfer of Mohamed Elneny from Basel and today we added a new contract for our Spanish left back Nacho Monreal and while a lit of Arsenal fans are hoping for or expecting more from the club, with most of them hankering for another striker, Smith is not and he does not think we need any more players to win the league this season.
Smith told Sky Sports, “Danny Welbeck is apparently only three weeks away and that will help them if he comes back in the kind of form he is capable of.
“Any manager would love to get in a world-class player to give the dressing room a lift, but it’s so difficult and I don’t think it’s going to happen.
“I think they’ve got enough. They didn’t have (Mesut) Ozil or (Alexis) Sanchez at Stoke and they were able to cope with that, and they’re due back soon so they’re not far off full strength.
“I think those are two good draws at Liverpool and Stoke. I know they could have won it easily at Anfield but in years gone by, they would have lost that game at Stoke.
“They didn’t use to be able to grind out those draws and wins in the difficult games. When they’re not at the top of the game and not playing that lovely football that we’re used to, they can get results.
“That’s the stuff of champions and you’ve got to have that if you’re going to win the league. That resilience will please Arsene Wenger.”
Resilience is not enough, of course, but the Gunners have also shown some great style and class and if we come through what looked like a potential title stopper of a month of January, still on top of the table and with the injury problems close to being sorted, will Smith be proved right?
Beating chelsea on Sunday will be massive for us, not to mention the priceless 3 points! Coyg!
True @Greg…
this also completely puts to rest the rumours of Monreal joining Bilbao.
I’m just elated about nacho monreal signing a new contract extension! Great news indeed!
Nacho monreal on twitter “Thanks to arsenal for giving me the chance to keep playing for them and the fans for supporting me in the good and the bad moments”!
Fantastic news
we have an excellent defense this season with
Cech
bellerin, koscielney, mertsacker, Monreal
Coquelin
Bench: Ospina, (debuchy ??) Chambers, Gabriel, Gibbs, Elneny, Flamini
Still not enough to beat barca
Yet we beat Bayern, and Barca with a lesser team when Guardiola was the manager
F_uck yeah, we have a new signing 😀
with alexis and ozil back, and coquelin hopefully coming back soon we look to be in good shape to push on for the title.
on another note, city have a few tough games coming up, they have leicester, spurs and west ham away within the next 4 matches, so we need to capitalize on our next 2 home games because I feel like city will drop some points in these games.
Let’s whoop chelsea!
Giroud is a modern day Alan Smith type of striker ?
So theres no surprise that Smudger thinks that Arsenal don’t need another striker.
We can’t be relying on the returning Danny Setbeck,
To solve our Striker issues, Especially after being out for almost a year, with different injuries.
It doesn’t look as if Wenger is too keen on doing anymore transfer business regarding incoming senior players.
All we can now do is just hope that our key players stay fit and healthy for the rest of the season! ? Yeah,
I suppose a Bj is out of the questiona as well? ??
lmagine that this could be our first team now.
szcezsny debuchy mertesacker koscienly gibbs flamini ramsey walcott cazorla sanchez giroud.
subs:podolski wilshere arteta chamberlain
chambers ospina
This is what wenger approved. The rest came due to inevitable circumstances.
You’ve lost me with that.
Listen Baby Please
People who think we are good enuf are delusional
We NEED ALL of the following
1. Aubemeyang (Campbell, Ox and walcott are rubbish)
2. Krychowiak (Eleny is £5 mill worth of rubbish)
3. Howedes (Mertsacker is finished)
4. Isco (in case Ozil gets injured)
With you all the way
we are not good enough to beat BARCA with this bunch..and to win the EPL? we need to add…every year,every year is Wenger excuses at the end of the season..INJURIES AFFECTED US..so have DEPTH like any big team in Europe has..SIMPLE..go and get Moussa Sissoko who today was talking that he wants to play in the UCL as Newcastle bought 2 CDM..the guy is a beast And the closest as Vieira was..He got physic..strong , can play either as RW or DM and specially stamina for 120 mins..go and get him is cheap option.We need 2 players to be consider between the elite.
there’s not a day u dn’t get wet for mousa sissoko! L()L
There is no doubting of Welbeck being a high intensity kind of a striker. So, when he comes back in 2 weeks time as per said, he should add another dimension to leading the Gunners line with his high intensity attack down the line or the flanks. And hopeful he will be scoring goals on for us on regular basis and also give assists to score. That will be the important.
Great news about Monreal and Sanchez will be in the bench at least. Ozil will be back but i hope we play Elnenny against chelsea, he’s far better than flamini. We need to win this game to show we’re past the hurdle
There is no doubting of Welbeck being a high intensity kind of a striker. So, when he comes back in 2 weeks time as per said, he should add another dimension to leading the Gunners’ line with his high intensity attack down the line or the flanks. And hopefully, he will be scoring goals on for us on regular basis and also give assists to score. That will be the important.
There is no doubting of Welbeck being a high intensity kind of a striker. So, when he comes back in 2 weeks time as per said, he should add another dimension to the leading the Gunners’ line with his high intensity attacks down the line or the flanks. And hopefully, he will be scoring goals for us on regular basis and also give assists to score. That will be the important thing.
Why can’t AW go and spend 65mil on PFA and get the player before kloop goes back to his old club and gets him in the summer. It’s mad you need to pay for the players now. Front line A S TW And PFA and OG as back up