Which positions SHOULD Arsenal be looking to strengthen?

We are anticipating Arsenal to have a busy-ish transfer window, but what positions actually need strengthening?

We are constantly linked with name after name, with a number of our supposed targets being midfielders, but we have a wealth of talent and numbers in that department, and other areas need looking at also.

We have three goalkeepers worthy of first-team action in Wojciech Szczesny, David Ospina and Petr Cech, although the former looks likely to leave the club on another loan deal this summer. Should Ospina agree to stay beyond the summer, we have no need to work on this position.

Somewhere we should be strongly looking at is our defence. Kieran Gibbs has been touted as wanting to leave in search of regular first-team action, and nobody would begrudge him an exit. Mathieu Debuchy is likely to leave the club also, leaving us short of numbers at both full-back positions, unless you consider Calum Chambers as a worthy option to play back-up to both Monreal and Bellerin.

Gabriel Paulista and Per Mertesacker have shared the CB role beside Laurent Koscielny this term, and neither have looked especially deserved of the role. We should sell the German in my opinion, and bring in an established centre-back, whilst possibly promoting one of our youngsters to the playing squad (possibly Krystian Bielik).

At the base of our midfield, we have a wealth of options, with Jack Wilshere, Santi Cazorla, Francis Coquelin, Aaron Ramsey, Mohamed Elneny and the newly signed Granit Xhaka all vying for roles. Despite this fact, we are still linked with possible moves for N’Golo Kante, Grzegorz Krychowiak and Marcelo Brozovic. These are all top players, but surely we would have to sell one or more of the above first?

We are also well stocked in the advanced midfield roles, with Sanchez, Ozil, Iwobi, Welbeck, Ramsey, Campbell and Walcott all available. The chance to add Henrikh Mkhitaryan would no doubt strengthen our side strongly, and could not be overlooked, but again, we should look to sell before we buy.

We are clearly shortest in the striker role, with Welbz ruled out for the next nine months, Walcott and Giroud are the only two options (unless you include Alexis). I still favour Theo being shown the exit door, and we should look to bring in two new forwards. Morata is strongly linked, while I would most like to see Lukaku and Vincent Jansson of Everton and AZ Alkmaar instead.

Do you agree with our weakest positions? Should we bring in a versatile defender who can cover both flanks? Who would you sell with Walcott?

Tags Arsenal Lukaku Mkhitaryan Walcott

34 Comments

  1. Howedes is both a CB and a LB/RB, so no better option in my opinion.
    Walcott should go along with Ramsey, and reason is that he’s a squad player but he actually starts every game which is killing us in one way or another.

    But its now confirm that he’s not going anywhere after Officially been announced as Arsenal no. 8

    1. “But its now.. Officially been announced as Arsenal no. 8”

      I can’t find this info on Arsenal.com.

  2. Attacking position(s)

    I’d say a solid reliable goalscorer (be he a CF, Winger or AM) capable of finishing off our moves 80% of the time should be top priority now.

    Defense don’t seem to me to be as big an issue right now as it was before we acquired the trio of Gabriel, Elneny and Xhaka.
    Mertesacker and Koscielny aren’t half as bad as some will like to think. Gabriel and Chambers provide adequate cover.

    Here is the trick though..

    This year our intention is clear: To own the middle of the pitch. Hypothetically speaking, Coquelin, Elneny, Xhaka and Cazorla are the exact set of players you need if you want to dominate central midfield with energy, aggressiveness and movement.

    This group of disciplined, hardworking midfielders will provide the protection that the likes of Mertesacker lacked.

    Still, an additional CB signing don’t hurt nobody. But I’d suggest we rather divert that money and effort into getting a 2nd solid and reliable goalscorer. This team -with 2 additional solid and reliable goalscorers in it- will be ready to compete for the everything until the last day.

  3. And still no mention of Flamini leaving! ?
    I wonder what his new squad number is for next season?
    … 4-ever? ?

    Sell: Walcott, Ramsey, Jack Wheelchair, The Ox, Debuchy, Gibbs and Mertesacker.

    Apparently Gotze is not wanted at Bayern Munich and was told to sling his hook… What’s Wenger waiting for? ?
    Gotze to sign for Liverpool and to say I nearly signed him? ?

    1. If we got Gotze then you would just find something else to moan about, I would guess how Iwobi doesn’t get as much time as he deserves or why doesn’t Campbell play…

      Why didn’t Wenger spend the money on a CF…

      Basically there are many reasons why we shouldn’t waste our money on Gotze.

      1. Like?…
        Gotze is 22 or 23 years old, he can play anywhere in the forward line, his a better finisher than all the strikers we have got  put together.
        Not only is Gotze a world cup winner but he also scored the winning goal that gave Germany that trophy.
        And his available for half the value of his true valuation.

        You obviously don’t know what you are taking about,
        So Where’s your many reasons for not signing him?

  4. Someone who can score from the right as OG and Alexis held up their end of the scoring.

  5. CF
    I would be happy with Xhaka and a CF.

    CB could wait for 12 months, until the next window and we could look at making a marquee signing out of it, until then we use the guys who helped Cech get the golden glove. Our def suffered from Coquelin being injured, our CM got over ran and we conceded too many goals.
    Xhaka and Elneny have added to the depth now and I believe our CM will be enough to add that extra steel in defending.

    All the money that would be used to get the CB would be thrown into getting the best CF we can.

  6. central defense to replace mert, understand gabriel, but need depth, and CF that links up better to our midfield philosophy, hold up play does not fit our pressing midfield, to often our wings & midfield are too far in front of our CF, need an aggressive CF with finishing skill,

  7. I think we should keep ramsey he is a top player when in form , i think we should keep the ox too and sell walcott and buy a first choice right wing in mahrez or mikhtaryan but i would rather get draxler as wolvsburg have finished 8th . We absolutely need a striker and i dont think morata will give us the goals we need , i think janssen of alkamaar can be the hit of the season . We need a cb as well and benatia 29 is a very good player and would buy him for as little as 16€ rather pay 30£on manolas . Gabriel can playat both lb and rb as he did with villareal and can cover bellerin , if gibbs wants out should cover monreal with another lb

  8. heard arsenal just dropped a bid of 28m for morata, this koulibally of napoli is a beast he shuld be our CB priority

  9. Morata is no good for Arsenal, he will be bullied in the premier league. Will get similar figures to Giroud if not slightly better.

    1. Also domestically in the league for Juventus Morata has 16 goals in 63 appearances. There is no defining special ability that he has that would be good for Arsenal.

  10. I think we should not fool ourselves with our defence at the moment.we are so poor infact ill say we are average in defence.the only guy who defends solidly is boss but unfortunately for us he to has some frequent off days where u can’t count on him.bellerin has been superb for us but defensively he still has alot to learn.now debate about mert and paulista,I don’t believe any of them should be a starting 11 cb for us nxt year,mert is gud but not worldclass or even decent he is average.pauli can proove us wrong but still not worth gambling him to fail.I believe we need a cb and am certain we will buy(hehe lol).now to our rb backup am still in shock some guys saying jenki can be a gud backup for bellerin seriously!!! A guy who can’t make it into a west ham team.ill just ask absimple

    1. Sorry about that typing is tough.as I was saying ill ask a simple question,
      Imagine bellerin is injured prior to us facing chelsea or city or man u will u be comfortable hving jenk step in?
      Ill be delighted to hear u guys opinion but to me that is a straight loss to us.lets find decent backup in that position asap

    2. We are so poor in defence that we had more clean sheets than any other team in the Premier League, and Petr Cech won the Golden Glove. Just saying…..

      1. Hehe,nce one admin.if we use clean sheets to say how gud our defence is then thats utter lies.how many games hve we conceded due to a defensive lapse?

        1. You said we were poor – or average – but on average we were better than everybody else! Does that mean other teams lost MORE due to defensive lapses?

          1. Hehe I still think we are average.conceding 3+ goals in how many games?
            I don’t deny we got cleansheet but I will be interested in seeing how many goals we conceded and what position we were in the goals conceded rank am sure we ain’t first

            1. Admin will u be comfortable having mert as ur main cd next year? Or evn paulista?

              1. That was not the question. You said we were average or worse. The meaning of “average” is a comparison with others. By that definition our defence was definitely ABOVE average…
                As to whether it could be better is a different discussion.

                1. Admin thats my opinion I believe we are average.the way we concede goals,the no of errors.how our defence always seems to blow it when facing top teams.I hope we get one more cb but we will find out soon enough

          2. I would agree somewhat with both of you. I don’t think our defense was poor, I would say that with the goals we scored it wasn’t quite good enough.
            GF GA
            Leicester City 68 36
            Arsenal 65 36
            Tottenham 69 35
            Man. City 71 41
            Man United 49 35

            I think the priority should be on scoring more goals. However, some of the cheap goals we let in to loose some close games cost us the title. I still think improvements in the defense needs to be made, especially on set pieces. A take charge CB would help in this regard. We can’t assume that the other teams will not improve

      2. @Admin,
        I agree our defense is not poor…Mert-Kos partnership is not bad and both players I would say are top quality defenders…But both players also have obvious weaknessess, Mert, lack of pace, Kos, can be beaten by stronger players in the air…I ve seen top managers time and time again deliberately taking advantage of their weaknesses….I give you an example, Liverpool, when they were looking for an equaliser at 2-3, what did they do… lump the ball towards koscielny side, finish the knock down on mert side….You think that goal was not by design, watch liverpool first goal during their 2-0 win against watford, exact carbon copy but done on the reverse side…in both cases Benteke provided the knockdown and joe allen the finish….Southampton, after they got the lead against us during their 4-0 win, repeatedly lob the ball over Mert side and ask Long to race for it with Kos becoz they know in that situation Mert is not in the picture at aĺl…And its not an accident Mert conceded the penalty to Costa during our defeat at Chelsea this season, and it was not an accident they scored from a beautiful lob over Mert and Kos by Cesc to Costa during their 2-0 win last season….
        In short its not an accident certain managers such as ferguson, maureen, kouman, bilic, have a good record against us….they continue to expose the same weakness again and again….For this reason I would prefer if we can address at least one of this weakness this season….How? Gab for me has not convinced, Mert, we can’t expect him to turn into Usain and Kos, we cant expect opposing managers to stop pitting the likes of Kouyate, Van Dijk, G Mccauley, Benteke against him at set pieces and hope he can come out on top in their aerial duel every time….so how…The answer i am afraid lies externally…

        Having said the above I still think we should keep all our defenders bar chambers, who should be loaned out to gain some real playing time, debuchy, if he wants to leave.

    3. You wrong about jenk, he was a starter until he got injured. Also chambers and gab can play there so don’t think there’s need to waste money there yet

  11. We have no idea what a Top CF could bring to this team!

    All these while we are wasting around Giroud!

    Just saying!!!

  12. I would not let go Ramsy for whatever reasons you are bringing on to the platter. Walcot yea, with a little bit of ummm???? Instead of selling I would rather increase or strengthen the squad in a smarter way. Bring up or acquire a good understudy replacement for Per. Like it or not Per is not a, or is ‘the’ disaster. His hight has shielded us in troubled times without any one noticing. It poses difficulties to opposing wide players on how to get the ball over him into the danger area. So I think we need an upgrade in that area in the form of a ‘good’ understudy to Per. In the middle i don’t think we need to discuss it. It’s done and dusted. It’s up front wich worries every hair in my head. For I cant scratching on what should we do with Gitoud? Should we bring a second striker in the mould of Morata (to make him tick) or push for Wenger to off load him and get some one lithal like Lewa? It’s realy tricky if I am a coach coz there is no gaurantee (even in hell or heaven) that ‘the classy player’ you buy or bring up is gonna be a hit at the Emirates. Giroud position is the biggest headache for le-pro. As the gunners we need a real gun slinger up front, but who?!

  13. Same old question, same old answer, a centre forward and a centre back. That will set us back around 100 million. With Xhaka and a couple of promotions from the academy we should be set
    for the season.

  14. Is it me or do other supporters think Wenger has a `midfield mind`, like tunnel vision?
    Attack and defence don`t seem to register with him providing we retain possession and play the beautiful game til we lose it to a counter attack. How many times do we see in the stats ,Arsenal 70% possession but lose the game 2-1?

  15. Pri 1: We need a CF/striker who can convert the chances we create… Someone we can exect t score 25+ goals per season in PL. Both Giroud and Welbeck are very good players. However, neither one is a player you expect to score when they get a chance, unlike someone like Aguero.
    Pri 2: We need a CB to complement Koscielny; a mix of Mertesacker and Gabriel

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