It was one of the wirst kept secrets in football. But yesterday Morocco striker Marouane Chamakh made it official that he was signing for Arsenal.
At his press conference Chamakh said all the right things:
“This is a dream come true and a great joy to be joining Arsenal. My goal was always to play in the Premier League and Arsenal was the choice of my heart. Without any hesitation, Arsenal was my preferred club. “The team and history of Arsenal, they make me dream. My goal was to join them out of all the English clubs because it is a club that makes me dream and I have been a fan since I was a child. I’m very excited about playing at the Emirates Stadium in front of the Arsenal supporters. I have heard many great things about the stadium and I cannot wait to be playing there in an Arsenal shirt. I will give my best to this club, the club that I used to support. We have many great players at Arsenal and I will be giving everything to help the team win trophies next season.”
So what do the Gunners get? At first glance Chamakh numbers are not that impressive. In 293 appearances for Bordeaux he scored 79 goals. That goal scoring rate translates into about 10 goals a season for Arsenal.
But more impressively, Chamakh has scored scored 27 goals in 53 appearances for Morocco, a goal rate of one every two games. My expectations for next season is that Chamakh scores 15 goals. If he can equal or beat that expectation I will consider his signing a success.
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Great news about this guy coming to us. He will be perfect, just what our team needs. You can’t read too much into his scoring stats as many teams don’t create even half as many opportunities as ours.
With our creative play and the number of scoring opportunities we make per game he should easily be able to score 15+ goals. Plus with RvP’s excellent set piece delivery he should be able to score many headers.
Chamakh is just the solution we have been looking for. He is a tall target man who can make life difficult for the opposition’s centre halves. He can hold the ball up, bring others into play and can provide the finishing touch to a move from within the 6 yard box.
I am looking forward to seeing him take on the teams up north. Imagine, next season when we travel to Blackburn and Stoke we could start with a front 3 of RvP, Chamakh and Bendtner!! I’d like to see us get bullied then!!
i want aserne to add big to the square this season
I think its a 9s signing by arsene.
Chamakh vill play to the left, as an substitute to arshavin
Wenger will be sensitive in the first 6 months as usual, he needs 6 months to settle in…like thierry henry
Listen everybody…..HE WILL NEED TIME TO SETTLE IN….this is the english Premier League
his workrate will suit us in the 4-3-3…
he can and will track back a lot more than arshavin and close down midfield and attack
he¨s good in the air, good for us both good in attack and to defend our own corners
Let,s see how Chamakh does in pre-season games such as the Emirates Cup and who he plays upfront with ,van Persie or Eduardo or Bendtner ,then we can start getting excited ?
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