Hey lovely Arsenal family, the season is well and truly upon us and I am so excited! You can call me stupid, but I can’t hide the fact that I am absolutely buzzing right now!
You might ask why I am excited, well I am proud to support one of the most prestigious clubs in the country, the only team with a golden title, a club with a rich history and class, playing in the most beautiful stadium in the world, playing in the best league in the world! There is so much to be excited about for me!
Now, I am certainly not oblivious to the fact that we have a lot to be worried about, but we can’t always dwell on that, there is still a global pandemic but still, we continue to live our lives as we focus on the positives and try to be happy, that is what being human is all about.
Aubameyang is not in form, the team is still unbalanced, some do not like Arteta and want him gone, we don’t have a creative force yet, no back-up goalie, we need a goal-scoring midfielder etc all these are genuine reasons to be negative and angry but it is a new season and as fans we are to look forward with hope and optimism.
Even though I didn’t not intend to do this, I will touch on some of the above issues namely; Aubameyang’s form, the unbalanced squad and a goal-scoring mid.
Aubameyang’s form:
Aubameyang’s form, while solely not the only reason for a woeful campaign last season, is a major reason. No one would have expected him to score just 9 PL goals last season, he suffered his worst scoring record in this DECADE! My question is, why did it happen right after his contract extension? I would refer you to Wenger’s response when asked if Ozil has lost motivation after his bumper contract; “Most of the time now we think when we sign a player for five years we have a good player for five years. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they practice, they play their best. Because they might be in their comfort zone”.
I believe the above is true for Auba and no one to blame but him.
Unbalanced Squad:
This right here, is a very big problem for us. The squad is still bloated and dis-jointed, right now we have 4 options for RB and none of them is good enough, in my opinion though, we can still manage with that, I think the front 4 is where the problem really lies.
Let me give you an instance of how I think a balanced front four should be:
__________Sanchez Aubameyang Sterling
Cazorla/ KDB/Bruno
___________Sanchez Lacazette Sterling
Cazorla/ KDB/Bruno
In the formations above, all players surrounding the CFs are goal-scorers and chance creators, this is how we should set up in my opinion. Using our players for the same set up, we should have:
____________Martinelli Lacazette Pepe
ESR
I would come back to this. Now, we have quite a lot of options but we need to get rid of some. When people say our team is good enough to compete, I ask them, “then why is it so difficult to sell them?” Clubs would buy a player regardless of his wage if he is good enough. We have tried to move players but you can’t force the buying clubs.
Ideally, I would sell one of Auba or Laca, SELL PEPE, offload Willian etc but it is easier said than done. I wish Willian could be our Sanchez though.
A goal-scoring midfielder:
Reading a lot about Arsenal lacking goals from midfield (especially as Willock is leaving) which is true, but I also don’t think that, in and of itself, it is an issue, because:
Arsenal don’t score enough goals, that is the issue, where they actually come from is entirely irrelevant. So then it is a question of why you think that is, Is it because we lack scorers or we don’t create enough chances? Very much the latter for me. Auba has more than the 9 goals he scored last season in him, Pepe is a goal scorer and not a creator, there are more goals in Saka, Rowe and Martinelli. I think we have goals in the forward line.
Looking around the top 6 teams, Gundogan is the only CM that scores regularly, Kovacic and Jorginho don’t score (from open play), none of Liverpool’s or Spurs CMs do.
The goals should come from your front four (CF, 2 wide forwards and the 10). Front 4 of Henry, Ljunberg, Pires and Bergkamp scored most of the goals, Gilberto, Vieira and Petit were not regular goal scorers.
In short, goals from midfield would be nice but goals overall has to be the focus and that means getting more from the front four – and that means getting the ball into good positions more often.
Last season, nobody moved the ball into the final third more slowly than Arsenal, THAT is the issue right there, solve that and there are more goals in this team in my opinion. I would add that, while ESR is good, he is nowhere near Arsenal quality at the moment IF we want to challenge for the top 4, he should not be a player we have to rely on!
It is not so difficult, yet not that simple, l should add that, if we were able to sell and move some players, we would have been able to make some additions, players like Niles, Kola, Elneny, Torreira, Bellerin, Cedric are more than surplus to requirement, those are 6 players we can absolutely do without. Manage to sell or offload them and we can have space for new arrivals in the team.
Having said all that, like a fool, I am still so excited about the season, I so much look forward to seeing the boys in action tonight and I will foolishly predict a 3-1 win for Arsenal tonight.
To Arsenal’s faithful, I would say; BE EXCITED!
Goonerboy…