CanadaGooner
Hope everyone had a good summer. Here’s my first post this season, and I would like to use it as a bit of a ‘taking stock’ exercise, without necessarily trying to do any ‘summing up’ as the season has barely started, and surely, it is way too early to begin pre-judging the manager, team or even our opposition.
Last season began with a home defeat v Villa, and the knives were getting sharpened. We went on a rampage, beating the smaller teams in the league (a scheme that would have been good enough to win the title, if we had carried it through) and getting totally annihilated by our supposed title rivals. This season, we have started off by dropping points and struggling against the smaller teams; one can only hope that conversely, we then do better against the bigger teams and avoid those disgraceful maulings of last season.
There has been a whole lot of noise about the last minute purchase of Danny Welbeck, which I find a little odd. I’m sure that left to Wenger, he would have bought no one on Transfer Deadline Day, as he continued to tell everyone that we already have enough to do well this season. 10 years ago, we would all have believed him, as we knew what he was capable of. But after eight years of winning nothing, and especially, winning something last year after he managed to buy some players, you would have thought that simple logic was enough to make Wenger think differently this summer.
All that said, we were welcoming Mikael Silvestre in from Man Utd not too long ago, while selling our best players to Man Utd and Citeh; so, perhaps, for once, taking a fairly decent player off Utd is not such a bad thing. I for one, think Welbeck will do very well at Arsenal (and so would have the likes of Arshavin) if played in the correct position. We have players who can help him shine, and even with his low goal-scoring record at Man Utd, his average is still probably better than some of the alternatives we currently have. So, GOOD BUY!
To put this season in context: the pundits ended last season stating that Arsenal only needed two or three more players to be back challenging for the title, and after the Community Shield win against Citeh, Arsenal’s name seemed to return to the fray, when pundits spoke of title challengers in the Premiership. It has only taken three matches and the couple of struggles against Besiktas for everyone to get back to saying Arsenal are only good value for a top four finish (as if that isn’t already a given! Who else has done that for 17 consecutive seasons?).
Taking a realistic view of the team we have, and our defensive lapses, it would be extremely difficult to see how Arsenal would win the league this season, without even looking at the start made by the likes of Chelsea. As we all know ours is a long old season and the last few years with Citeh winning on the final day and Liverpool throwing it away last season goes to show that there is always a chance for a consistent team. The old, win one and lose one (to get the necessary kicking up the backside) with three points in the bag being better than drawing two and ending up with just two points seems quite appropriate for us right now, but I’m not sure anyone here would have been happy to see us lose to Leicester!
We have to hope Welbeck clicks into gear right away and proves the doubters wrong. Another trophy this season (either of the domestic cups) plus top four finish would be acceptable in my book. I will be at the E******s for the big match on 13 September; Come on you Gunners!!!!
