The Transfer Window And Where It Leaves Us

That's a very promising assessment as I really like Jenkinson and think Jenks has a lot of potential. Lets hope this is his break out season (and that we get another CB in the January sales)

 

I'm hoping in the future Jenks and Bellerin are our 2 RBs. I rate them both though IMO Bellerin will be better. Also rumors are that Hayden and Bellerin will be promoted to the first team.

 

Not like there is a choice. Hayden really didn't look anywhere near ready for the premier league from the games I've seen him on.

 

My assessment of the team after transfer window...


Goalkeepers: Situation Improved
Fabianski would have done fine, but I'm hoping Ospina displaces Szczesny, as I really can't stand his dangerous plays in tense situations (3 opposition players pressing defenders? = Diagonal short pass).

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Defenders: Worse off

OUT: Vermaelen, Sagna, Jenkinson.
IN: Debuchy, Chambers

Here we are worse off in cover/depth, and in the case of the first team RB we are worse off defensively. What made Mertesacker work in our team was the work Sagna and Koscielny did to cover for his weaknesses. I think we will see Merts effectiveness go down with Debuchy, there have already been signs... but I just know from watching Newcastle and France that defensively his decision making and awareness are not on par with Sagna.

Some unlucky injuries could end our title "challenge" pretty soon.
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Midfielders: no changes in personnel (I only ignore Diaby on principle)

No improvement in defensive options, which doesn't leave us anywhere better against top sides who bullied and humiliated us last season.

Plenty of cover in CM and AM positions, the key here will be how Wenger uses them. Hopefully it won't be anything like how he's trying to force Ozil on the sides.

An anonymous twitterer recently illustrated perfectly how he's making use of Ozil:

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Forwards: Situation improved

Alexis Sanchez alone would make the changes in our forward line positive from last year. I'm just happy that Podolski and Cazorla will never again play as wingers in the same game. That was some of the worst football I've seen us play in years.

As for where the goals will come from, I think plenty of players can contribute... but I think there will still be games where we'll be frustrated due to our one-dimensional tactics. And since Wenger isn't likely to get better at the tactical side, the situation would have improved if we had gotten a really clinical CF to help us get an early goal and change the pace of such games.
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Overall, I think our team is still physically imbalanced which will show against many opposition sides. Ozil as an AMF with Alexis in the team will be very exciting though.


But what will make us better against top sides that humiliated us last season specifically? I guess we have a higher chance to get an early goal to offset pressure now since we have some alternatives to Giroud?

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply with a long well thought out post

I agree that defensively we are weaker due to the lack of depth we now have at the back. Last season I think we all felt that we where slightly light on numbers at the back but where comfortable because our first choice players played almost every game, barely ever picking up injuries or suspensions.

Now we have one less player in the mix and I can't help but think we won't be as lucky with injuries at the back as we where last season. But who knows. Maybe bellerin is going to be promoted to provide additional cover to the RB spot allowing chambers to cover at CB if both debuchy and a cb are out.

While I can see ways we could deal with injuries and suspensions I'd rather we had got another player in to ease the pressure on those we have.

That said I do think debuchy and ospina are upgrades on what we had and chambers is a great signing. He has played very well so far and I'm fine with him being our third choice CB. So I think we have probably slightly improved at the back, but lost any kind of depth which could be disastrous.

Further up the field diaby and zelalem will hopefully Add something to our midfield and Sanchez/Welbeck/Campbell are clear improvements on Bendtner/Park/Ryo.

So I do think the overall depth of our squad looks very good this season. It's such a shame we didn't get another defender.

Hopefully we get through to January in the mix and can add a defender then.

 

We're one major injury away from getting ****ed at the back, . Kos is already out for a week after that head injury, shows you how easy it is to get injured, and even moreso when it's Arsenal players.

Chambers has been good, but you can see he is still raw, he's practically made a major mistake in 3 games now, 1 of which led to a goal against Everton, and 2 which should've been goals at Besiktas away and recently Leicester away.

 

I agree with most that leaving ourselves so short at the back is criminal, Chambers has been a revelation and I'm sure AW thinks he's like having a LB and CB, but a pulled hammie and we are in serious ****.
I'm warming to the Welbeck signing without getting excited but he is an upgrade on no-one and probably an upgrade on Giroud.
No defensive midfielder is just frustrating.....

 

Didn't Bellerin beat Theo's speed record recently. He has looked quite good pee season so could add cover to DM. And surely Diaby will play someday and would be the presence we require

 

why did you not go for Alex Song? He had his breakout season for you couple of seasons ago.

 

He could've been useful as a CB option.

 

It's a pretty desperate situation when you're relying on Diaby.

 

he could have added some much needed steel to Manu as well.

FFS he was available for free loan. Huge snub for him from 2 bigger clubs.
or
Probably Barca would have wanted fee for his loan, had any of these clubs went in for him.

 

I think we are just so used to horrific injury lists that we are unhappy unless we have 5 world class options for every position. Truth is, we are just as deep at the back as most other clubs. Monreal looked pretty good at CB so as long as we don't have more than a couple of injuries at the same time we are OK.

if we need to, we can get someone in January, but we are OK for now. It is really difficult to sign a world class defender and not being able to offer him a game unless two people get injured.

 

Wenger himself said we are short at the back, so please oh please end this silly positive spin job to everything. Even if we only had 1 CB you'd still be on here saying how much depth we have.

 

I'm starting to wonder if some people realise that Chambers is only 19 years old, has limited experience and can only play one spot at a time? As much as fans want to rate Chambers, he can't play RB, CB and DM all by himself. I feel for the guy really, rather than spending the next year or two gradually being eased into the team, he's being thrown head first into it and believe me, when we get a couple of injuries, this will happen. Heck, it's happening now and we are suppose to be near "full strength".

I like Chambers and I quite rate the guy, but putting so much faith in an unproven, inexperienced player is a little foolish.

 

CB in particular takes longer to master than other positions, none are ever fully ready by the time they're 19

 

Exactly. Chambers is obviously very talented and one for the future but he really should still be learning his trade from the seniors. Instead of going straight into our first team, he should have been blooded into our preliminary domestic cup games, alongside Mertz.

 

In the one game I saw him play, Bellerin was amazing going forward and awful defensively.

 

Wenger probably fines his players for defending....

 

Chelsea have only Cahill and Terry before an 18 & 19 year old, that I have never heard of. They have Ivanisovic to move inside but he is hardly a specialist CB.

Liverpool have 3 CBs and then Toure who is past it in every sense of the word.

City are well stocked, but they can afford to pay every player 200K a week just to sit on the bench.

Manchester United have 5 CBs and Johnny Evens at 26 is the veteran. Quite frankly, I'd have none of them at Arsenal.

I don't really give a **** what you want me to do. I wish you would stop griping and groaning like a crying baby the whole time, but there is no chance of that!