As you may or may not know, I’m quite an Arsenal fan boy, and with the new season about to begin football news and views on how the Gunners will go this season are available in bountiful quantities.
While there are the usual hopes and dreams at the beginning of each season, there have been some very real fears being voiced amongst Arsenal supporters – and it mostly concerns subjects like how many quality players Arsenal have lost since the last season, speculation about who is next to go, and the age and experience of Wenger’s recent signings.
Last season, despite not winning silverware, has to go down as a successful one considering most pundits were predicting arsenal to fall out of the ‘top four’ club. Arsenal led the premier league for over half a season and ended up just a few points off the champions, Manchester United.
In fact, I find it bizarre that many commentators on the 2007/2008 season talk about it as if it was simply a Chelsea / United race, when Arsenal ended up so close to both of them in the final standings. Last season failures can be put down to injuries to key players at key points of the season (Eduardo and Sagna) as well as long term ongoing injuries (Rosicky, Van Persie). It seems the pundits are again predicting doom and gloom for Arsenal this season.
However, there Jon Barutti’s article “Arsenal’s Waiting Game” sums up many of my own concerns about the coming season. I particularly like his point about the ‘british core’ – Wenger has always said he doesn’t buy English players because they are overpriced, however it seems that English players might end up, in the end, being more loyal to the English teams, and end up staying in the team longer, and performing better over multiple season. That’s probably a bit unfair on some of the longer term foreign Arsenal first teamers, but there are concerns about Arsenal players being a feeder club to big cash spenders in leagues around Europe.
I’ve watched nearly all the pre-season games, and Arsenal still seem to be suffering from the same old problems – lack of decisiveness in front of goal. Many people have labelled Arsenal the ‘comeback kings’ - a nickname I’m not fond of – going goals down and then coming back involves a certain bit of involvement from Ms Lady Luck, and I don’t think she can continually smile down upon the gunners. It further highlights that Arsenal are not taking their opportunities. Hopefully, with a fully fit Van Persie, Arsenal can solve this problem this season.
Arsenal’s midfield has lost two valuable players in Flamini and Hleb. Many people have differing opinions on Hleb, however I was against him moving away, I think he is a great player and a great mover of the ball, and I think Wenger played him in the wrong position. Having seen Hleb play behind the strikers cause devastation for the opposition because, after Fabregas, I thought he was the best passer of the ball in last season’s squad. Wenger’s signing of Nasri looks to be a good one, and hopefully Nasri can improve in what I thought was Hleb’s main weakness, converting scoring opportunities to actual goals. I need not go into detail about why Flamini will be missed – he was my player of the 2007/2008 season. Wenger has yet to find a suitable replacement for this player.
Well, Arsenal are about to kick off against West Brom. All the best for the Gunners this season!