There are many Arsenal fans who believe that the Gunners STILL need another top class centre-back, despite the arrival of Gabriel Paulista in January, although I think that most of them are hoping that Per Mertesacker will be leaving the club. Okay the BFG has not been fantastic this season, but I believe he is more than capable of being backup next year.
We all know that Laurent Koscielny is defintely our best centre-half, but his achilles problem seems to be incurable and he is likely to miss half of our games next season, so I think our main pairing will be Gabriel with Kos, with Gabriel and Merts as our second choice. I also believe that Calum Chambers will one day be challenging for that position but will be kept in reserve in the meantime.
Given our usual injury problems you would expect that more cover would be needed, but personally I think that the news that Nacho Monreal is set to be given a new four year contract nullifies the need for a new arrival. During our horrendous injury list in the first half of the season, Monreal was forced into the centre, and if anything he was a lot better than Mertesacker. At 29 years of age, he will gradually lose his pace for those runs down the left wing, so I believe Wenger is going to be using him more and more as a centre-back as time progresses, and defenders usually have a longer life span than any other players except keepers. By the time Monreal (and Mertesacker) get too old to perform we will have a matured Chambers waiting in the wings to take over…..