Why are Arsenal being written off?

Royale with Cheese

They've sold Adebayor - a lazy troublemaker, and Toure - a player past his best who was 1/2 of a defensive partnership that just didn't work.

They will not miss Adebayor (sure Bendtner only scored 3 goals less than him last season), and they'll only miss Toure because Wenger doesn't look like he's going to sign another centre back. They needed another one anyway, so selling Toure and bringing in just one centre back isn't enough.

Goalkeeper is fine, probably the weakest out of the top 4 + Man City and Everton, but he's nowhere near as bad as some people would have you believe.

If they signed another decent centre back with premier league experience (even somebody like Hangeland), a decent centre mid... maybe even two of them, and possibly this Chamakh guy, then I reckon Arsenal would do well enough. The thing is, they probably won't sign anybody.

4th at best again this year I think.

eirebhoy

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

If they signed another decent centre back with premier league experience (even somebody like Hangeland), a decent centre mid... maybe even two of them, and possibly this Chamakh guy, then I reckon Arsenal would do well enough.

If they did that there'd be no question about them having the best team in the league imo.

keane2097

I'm surprised at people saying Adebayor and Toure are big losses. Adebayor wasn't up to much last year and seemed to cause a lot of trouble in the camp. Bendtnar was pretty much equally effective which doesn't say a lot about the guys contribution. Essentially they're replacing him with Eduardo for this season. He's a player that suits the Arsenal style much better and I think he will prove to be far more effective than Ade was last year, so I think their attack will be better this year than last.

Similarly, Toure was downright pour for much of last season. He's been replaced by Vermaelen who, while I admit I haven't seen much of him, appears to be a fairly talented player. Assuming Wenger has made as astute a signing as he normally does I can't see Arsenal's defense being weakened by this switch so this is another area I feel they will be better in this year.

The centre of midfield is where they could struggle with the aforementioned lack of a ball winning player potentially a major problem. I think though with the players they have - the likes of Fab, Arshavin, Rosicky if fit - they'll be able to simply outplay most teams. Think of Barca's central players. They have only average ball winners but outstanding ball players and were still able to destroy most everyone last year. I think Arsenal are potentially good enough to do the same this year.

On a personal note I hope they have a great season as I think an Arsenal team contending is good for the league.

Frisbee

As an Arsenal fan I would be fairly confident that, unfortunately, we won't be challenging for the league this year.

Hopefully we can retain a Top 4 finish, and if we keep our big players fit we should be able to fight off the likes of City and Everton for Fourth, but I really don;t think we have the depth to challenge.

Although there's plenty of time left, a big signing or two in defence and midfield and that could all change.

Dont be at yourself

Incidentally, from the guardian:

The perfect midfielder?

Is Denilson the perfect deep-lying midfielder? His total of 2213 successful passes was the highest in the league last season - and so, perhaps surprisingly, was his total of 147 interceptions. Only five players won more tackles.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/aug/13/chalkboards-premier-league

Pepe LeFrits

In the second half of last season Arsenal took 40 points while United took 55 and Chelsea and Liverpool took something like 43 or 44. That's a truer representation of the gap that Arsenal need to make up because Arshavin is absolute class and the impact of having players like Fabregas available shouldn't be underestimated.

Arseblogger wrote up a good summation of the squad situation today. We're weakish at CB and DM so we need some luck with injuries and a step up from young players if we're to win things. It's not unfeasible for it to happen though; nobody expected Flamini to improve like he did in 07/08, while imo Denilson & Song improved somewhat last season and are better players now than Flamini was in 06/07. A lot also depends on how the trio of Gallas (who is a better player than Toure, despite what some people in this thread have said), Vermaelen and Djourou fare.

Offensively though, there is an abundance of talent in Fabregas, Arshavin, Eduardo, van Persie, Rosicky, Nasri, Bendtner, Walcott, Vela, Wilshere and Ramsey and a lot of those players could get even better this season.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

In the second half of last season Arsenal took 40 points while United took 55 and Chelsea and Liverpool took something like 43 or 44. That's a truer representation of the gap that Arsenal need to make up because Arshavin is absolute class and the impact of having players like Fabregas available shouldn't be underestimated.

Arseblogger wrote up a good summation of the squad situation today. We're weakish at CB and DM so we need some luck with injuries and a step up from young players if we're to win things. It's not unfeasible for it to happen though; nobody expected Flamini to improve like he did in 07/08, while imo Denilson & Song improved somewhat last season and are better players now than Flamini was in 06/07. A lot also depends on how the trio of Gallas (who is a better player than Toure, despite what some people in this thread have said), Vermaelen and Djourou fare.

Offensively though, there is an abundance of talent in Fabregas, Arshavin, Eduardo, van Persie, Rosicky, Nasri, Bendtner, Walcott, Vela, Wilshere and Ramsey and a lot of those players could get even better this season.

Agree with this.

It's just so frustrating how close we are to having a truly quality squad, and how stubborn Wenger seems to be to add that DM and CB we need.

greendom

playa3 wrote: »

Agree with this.

It's just so frustrating how close we are to having a truly quality squad, and how stubborn Wenger seems to be to add that DM and CB we need.

What makes you so sure its stubbornness ? You know how consciencious he is with the club's money. It has to be the right player at the right price for him or its a no go

Fuzzy_Dunlop

greendom wrote: »

What makes you so sure its stubbornness ? You know how consciencious he is with the club's money. It has to be the right player at the right price for him or its a no go

That's kinda what I meant really. I don't expect him to be going out spending 20-30m on players but it's annoying the way he won't fork out that extra little bit to get the players we need.

rossie1977

arsenal won't lose that 4th spot, everton, villa and spurs (whom i expect a good season this year from starting sunday with a shock home win) are all behind them and we don't know what to expect from city. arsenal have only hit 80 points once in the last 5 seasons and that was with adebayor scoring 25 league goals on his own so if they are to threaten chelsea or utd then they will need someone to take that mantle

liverpool will move back closer to arsenal this year, alonso's departure will really hurt, i expect them two to be fighting for 3rd and 4th, man utd won't miss ronaldo half as much as people expect, the smaller teams are already beat before they step out on the field with them and in the bigger games ronaldo often went missing anyway, chelsea have the strongest squad in the league, if hiddick were in charge i would have no problem backing them 100%, will be interesting with carlo though

greendom

playa3 wrote: »

That's kinda what I meant really. I don't expect him to be going out spending 20-30m on players but it's annoying the way he won't fork out that extra little bit to get the players we need.

I know what you're saying but who knows what goes on when negotiations take place ? He desperately needs a defensive midfielder the seller knows that and suddenly thinks he can ask 20 - 30 million for a player worth nowhere near that. Supposition I know but who knows?