Alexis Sanchez spearheads som
shrewd summer signings at the
Emirates Stadium but Arsene
Wenger may be a player or two
short of a Premier League title
challenge
By James Goldman
With the FA Cup and Community
Shield in the bag, a big-money, big-
name signing on board and three
World Cup winners to come back,
things are looking up for Arsenal.
Headline arrival Alexis Sanchez aside
Arsenal’s summer signings have bee
shrewd, rather than spectacular. The
early arrival of the Chilean forward
meant that much of the momentum
and goodwill created by May’s FA Cu
success continued into the early
months of the summer – beating
Liverpool to the former Barcelona
man’s signature helped in that regar
Arsene Wenger would no doubt hav
preferred Bacary Sagna to have sign
a new contract, rather than see him
tread the familiar path from Emirate
Stadium to the Etihad - but in Mathie
Debuchy he appears to have found
more than adequate replacement.
The 29-year-old arrives with plenty o
Premier League, international and
European experience and though
defensively he may not offer the sa
dependability that Sagna guaranteed
for virtually his entire Arsenal career,
he will provide a greater attacking
threat.
The £16 million outlay on Calum
Chambers raised eyebrows but the
Southampton prodigy has shown
enough promise in pre-season to
suggest Wenger will again profit fro
the Saints' prolific youth academy.
Chambers has looked at home at
centre-back in pre-season and will
also provide cover at right-back and
most intriguingly in midfield
throughout the coming campaign.
David Ospina will represent top class
competition for Wojciech Szczesny in
the goalkeeping department but the
Pole’s improvement last season
means that the new signing from Ni
is likely to be restricted to cup
appearances unless the current No.
suffers injury or a drastic loss of for
For the second summer in successio
Arsenal have enjoyed the benefit of
the mega wealthy European vultures
focusing their attentions elsewhere.
Whether it is an indication of Arsenal
finally being in a position to withstan
the bully boy tactics employed by
Barcelona and Manchester City, who
have plucked players from north
London at will, or not, the fact that
Arsene Wenger has been able to pic
and choose the players he deems
expendable represents a major step
in the right direction.
Bacary Sagna’s departure has been
offset largely by the signings of Calu
Chambers and Mathieu Debuchy –
Hector Bellerin also appears to
represent a healthy long-term optio
at right-back – while Thomas
Vermaelen has been short of his be
form for almost three years now.
Injured already, the £15 million
Barcelona paid Arsenal for the
Belgium international could end up
representing one of the worst poun
for pound deals of the summer.
Squad players Lukasz Fabianski,
Nicklas Bendtner, Thomas Eisfeld, Pa
Chu Young as well as a clutch of
youngsters have been offloaded,
while the Gunners could also net up
to £15 million after Real Sociedad
activated a £3.5 million buy-back
clause in Carlos Vela’s contract.
Despite an unprecedented summer’
spend Arsenal’s squad appears to b
familiarly short of the depth and
balance required to maintain a
sustained assault on the Premier
League title.
The addition of Alexis Sanchez has
added a sprinkling of stardust to an
attack that was devoid of pace and at
times imagination last season,
particularly once Theo Walcott and
Aaron Ramsey succumbed to injury.
Mesut Ozil was rendered largely
impotent as one by one Arsenal’s
most direct attacking threats fell by
the wayside, spending more time on
the treatment table than on the pitc
The signing of Sanchez, Ramsey’s
return and Walcott’s impending
comeback allied to the additional
options provided by Joel Campbell,
Lukas Podolski and Alex Oxlade-
Chamberlain should see a side
tailored exactly to Ozil’s wants and
needs. It is up to him to provide the
ammunition, there really can be no
room for excuses now.
Despite Yaya Sanogo’s eye-catching,
still erratic, displays in pre-season an
Olivier Giroud’s stunning effort in th
Community Shield, Arsenal still lack,
regardless of Wenger’s intention to
turn Alexis into a centre forward, a
striker to compare with their likely titl
rivals but a lack of firepower is unlike
to be their undoing this season.
Wenger has so far relented from
signing an authentic holding
midfielder, the sort of player that
perhaps would have helped prevent
his team from the brutal and
psychologically damaging results the
suffered away from home against
Chelsea, Manchester City and
Liverpool last season.
Moreover, it beggars belief that the
Arsenal manager is yet to invest in
further cover at centre-back. Laurent
Koscileny’s Achilles injury and Per
Mertesacker’s late return from the
World Cup is likely to see a
partnership between a 19-year-old
rookie and far from rock solid left-
back entrusted with the responsibilit
of steering Arsenal through some
tough early season fixtures, as well a
a two-legged Champions League pla
off against Besiktas.
Arsenal will hope Mesut Ozil justifies
his fee and reputation, that Alexis
Sanchez provides the wow factor th
has been missing since Robin van
Persie was sold and that the coming
campaign represents, at long last,
defining ones for Theo Walcott and
Jack Wilshere. Their key man,
however, remains Aaron Ramsey.
The Welshman’s rise to prominence
neatly mirrored Arsenal’s return to
tangible success last season. Written
off as weak, scarred and damaged
beyond repair Ramsey proved all of
his doubters wrong and then some.
Providing tenacity, drive, energy and
vision from the heart of midfield the
former Cardiff man decorated
Arsenal’s early season form which sa
them lead the table before an
unmanageable workload manifested
itself in a near season-ending injury.
Ramsey returned in April to help
cement Champions League
qualification and provided his side’s
season defining moment with the
winner in the FA Cup final, his 16th
goal of a breakthrough campaign. A
smartly taken goal in Sunday’s
Community Shield win saw Ramsey
pick up from where he left off and
demonstrated that last season is
unlikely to represent a flash in the
pan.
Premier League stats*
Few would have forgiven Arsene
Wenger for taking the easy option an
waltzing off into the sunset with the
FA Cup victory providing a fitting end
to his Arsenal career back in May.
Instead, the Frenchman has opted t
sign on for a further three years in t
belief he is capable of extracting the
most from the best group of players
he has had the benefit of working
with since the move to Emirates
Stadium seven years ago.
In order to do so, however, Wenger
will surely have to prove he has
learned from the crushing defeats,
losses he accepted full responsibility
for, his side suffered last season
against the Premier League
heavyweights.
The Frenchman needs to demonstra
a degree of tactical flexibility, whethe
in shutting up shop away from hom
or sacrificing a midfielder for an extr
striker at home in order to make sho
work of the lesser lights. Should he
remain wedded to his favoured
4-2-1-3 formation whatever the
opposition then Arsenal are likely to
fall short again.
After ending their nine-year wait for
trophy expectation levels have been
raised further following the summer
arrivals, led by Alexis Sanchez.
Winning the Premier League would
an almighty ask given the strength of
the teams that finished above Arsen
last season and the strides
Manchester United are expected to
make under Louis van Gaal.
Still, Arsenal appear to boast many o
the tools needed to last the distance
and it is worth remembering they
finished only seven points off the pa
last term despite, even by their
standards, an almost unprecedente
injury list.
An improvement on fourth place
would still represent progress as
would a title bid that lasts beyond
March and does not falter as a result
of all too familiar failings.
Given the size of the squad, Arsenal
must target at least the last eight in
the Champions League having failed
to make a significant impact in the
knockout stages of the competition
since they reached the final in 2006.
Off the field, given the problems the
have often run into with regards to
extending the contracts of their star
players, sorting out new deals for th
likes of Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott
and the like well ahead of schedule
would also represent a healthy
change of tact.
