We are now days away from the Liverpool game and there are a couple of things that are causing me some problems ahead of the start of the Premier League season.
They are, In no particular order:
Arsenal’s Goalkeeping Situation
I cannot believe that Wenger has not bought in a number one goalkeeper this summer. He buried Manuel Almunia in the press at the end of last season and Lukasz Fabianski has shown once again in preseason he is not god enough to play for a top team.
A good goalkeeper can win you games on their own (see van der Sar yesterday for an example). Almunia and Fabianski cannot do that. Instead they will cause Arsenal point this season and that is not good enough.
Coverage at Center Half
While I criticize Wenger for not buying a top goalkeeper, his signings of Vermaelen and Koscielny have been brilliant. Arsenal look like they have a center-half pairing that can play together for years. Still I would like to see Wenger sign anther quality center-half purely as cover. If Vermaelen or Koscielny get injured, I am not confident that Djourou can step in and play and the level that we would need him too.
Wenger’s Contract
Arsene is going into the last year of his contract. I will be totally shocked if he does not sign for another four years with Arsenal. But until he does, the media will harp on it and it could become a distraction.
Fabregas Playing For Spain
Spain is playing in Mexico this week which means more time for the Barcelona players to get back in his ear and whisper that he should be moving back to Spain next season.
Are these legitimate worries or am I overreacting?
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
He has not bought a goalkeeper because non of the top10 in the world has been available for under 15M.
And we want a gk that is better than the old one
all legitimate worries . for me the goalkeeper point is them most worrying , but good blog; it probably sums up every feeling most arsenal fans are experiencing…sigh…
in any case, im really looking forward to our attacking line up
CMON U GUNNERS
well i dont know y Arsene doesnt approach Neur,, or even Akinfeev. He could easily sign these 2 for under 10 Mil pounds and they wud last for many years. What i believe Arsene wants a keeper who is in the twilight of his career so he would not Jeopardize our young keepers. He is looking for a short term replacement. I believe he will sign a CB though but maybe not a keeper. Manuel isn’t that bad, its the few times he goes mad and makes mistakes that cost us. Fabianski however has been diabolical! He started out well but wtf he seems to be getting worse each time
the GK and CB positions are definitely issues fro concerns. I am sure, knowing the way stubborn prof AW operates, he is working behind the scenes, as well as watching situations in the transfer mkt. Let’s hope something positive will happen within the next forthnight.
If Wenger through negligence fails to address the weekness of last year goalkeeper and defence and we fail to win anything would you realy want him to sign a new contract or would you want someone in to take the club forwards ????
you know i am saying the same thing i don’t think wenger will sign any body else we have been link with so my players all of them unlike then he will come out say that the squad is good enough to compete i am not saying they cant compete but they need to sign a keeper and a defender djourou will not cut it and the first week of the season we have injury and then all hell broke lose i hope we can win some thing this season it will well apprecitated for the fans and for them
this may be getting into semantics….
…but i thought the term ‘center-half’ implied the vieira / petit role, as in ‘center half back (center midfield)’ rather than the verminator / kozzer positions.
anyways, good points raised here.
KEEEEEEEPEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!
david totally agree wit you on this mate. great points, even with few more weeks left on the window he should have sorted the goalkeeping issues before the 1st game of this glorious season. i believe he wants to give almunia a chance for another season to do well and up his market values. can u believe his willing to risk our tittle chances to gamble the market value of almunia?? lets face it our best goal keeper at the moment is vito mannone. he should be in goal against liverpool. we have the best style of football in the premiership. if we can get the defence right and avoid major injuries we can wipe out the whole league and win every available trophy in england.
can anybody honestly tell me if this arsenal team go head to head with the biggest team in europe ie. inter, barca, madrid, bayern etc. will you be confident that we can defeat them in battle?? my answer is no to that because we dont have strong enough defence. WE NEED ANOTHER SOLID DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER, CENTRE HALF AND A BRAND NEW GOALKEEPER ALL NATURAL BORN LEADERS. with all three signings we will be one of the most dreaded team in the world.
center-half is the same thing as the center-back i dont know why but thats just what they are called.
Talk about two-faced pillocks, I’m getting really cheesed off with you so-called Arsenal supporters. In one breath you condemn Barca for tapping up Cesc whose club doesn’t want to sell him. In the next, you criticize AW for not buying players whose clubs don’t want to sell them. GET A LIFE.
The embarrassing thing is it looks like we will not be able to put a side out at the weekend.Fab4,Song,Denilson,Diaby,Van Persie,Bendtner,Ramsey,could all be missing and we have not resolved the defence/keeper crisis we have at the club.Still time yet though.
Young_gunnerz: it’s actually not exactly the same, centre half is the ancestor of what became centre back position. In the early days of football, it was played 2-3-5. The 3 in the middle where the half-backs. The one in the middle was called centre-half.
Later on, this position was taken down the pitch, and became what is now a centre back.
@Nicky: the difference is that AW doesn’t get all his players to say to his potential recruit to come at Arsenal in every newspapers. And that’s called indirect tapping.
We just don’t want to sell Fab4 for €30mil. when he’s worth 50-60. Would you?
Now we do (at least I do) reproach AW to not spend money that is available to him to buy a good keeper for a fair price.
Not exactly the same is it?
Re Ivorygoonz
You miss my point. We don’t want to sell. Other clubs don’t want to either. The result is stalemate. AW isn’t to blame for the failure to buy.
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