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21st August 2013
04:53pm BST
Sean Nolan says...while there are legitimate concerns about how the team currently is, the top four is still within Arsenal’s grasp this season.
By about 4.45 on Saturday, the frustration was almost literally streaming out of my flatscreen. And I was giving a fair bit back too. I had just watched Arsenal concede a third goal to Aston Villa and a first opening day defeat in over a decade was now guaranteed.
But once the bile levels towards referee Anthony Taylor (who had a shocker) subsided, and the rancour over the rank bad luck that saw Gibbs and Sagna leave the fray wore off, a more pleasant reality dawned.
Realistically, Arsenal are in the race for fourth and fourth only. That may justly rankle with fans of a team that was a regular title contender not that long ago but that is the reality for now and it is a race that Arsenal must win.
But can they? First the negatives, which I’m sure my colleague will go into much greater detail. In that battle for fourth, Spurs, perennially bested by the Gunners, look much stronger this year and they should be better placed to compete across 38 games. Liverpool have improved too, while Arsenal, at best, have stayed the same.
No big name signings, to address deficiencies at goalkeeper, centre back, defensive midfield and up front makes Arsenal look weaker but I don’t think they are.
The squad that finished last season like a train are all back. Aside from a few minor niggles, they are all fully fit and the likes of Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey and Kieran Gibbs are one year older and wiser. Olivier Giroud scored 18 goals in all competitions last term so in his second season he should be even more comfortable and he is already off the mark for 2013-14.
Arsene Wenger is getting lots of grief for his lethargy in the transfer market but I don’t think it is for lack of trying and with just under two weeks to go, we would expect a body or two to come in and improve the squad.
His 2011 ‘trolley dash’ is much derided but it brought in Per Mertesacker and Mikel Arteta, among the two most consistent performers in the squad for the last two years. A similar late flurry of quality arrivals, without the Andre Santos-type purchases, would do very nicely.
But even if this Arsenal squad goes into the season without any bolstering, they can still attain the top four. For the last three years it has been expected that Arsenal will fall out but every year, without fail, they have done what was required.
Arsene Wenger is not perfect, but he deserves to be trusted when it comes to getting Arsenal into the Champions League. If it comes down to it, we’d back the super experienced Frenchman over a Spurs team trying to blend in a number of new faces and a Liverpool team still in rebuilding mode.
Losing at home to Aston Villa was not the best start. In fact, it was close to the worst possible start. But last season Arsenal only won four of their first 10 league games and still finished fourth. I reckon they will pull it around again.
Conor Heneghan says... I’m no Arsenal fan but for the last couple of seasons I have had an awful lot of sympathy for Arsene Wenger and his position at the Emirates.
There is no room for sentiment in football and nostalgia should never be a reason for a manager to hang onto his job, but spoiled by the glory the Frenchman brought to the club in the late '90s and early '00s, Arsenal fans seemed to have forgotten about all Wenger did for the club in the first place. Wenger, it appears, is a victim of his own success.
In the last number of seasons, despite the emergence of Chelsea and Manchester City, both of whom had much more money at their disposal than Arsenal, consistent qualification for the Champions League has simply not been enough.
A Piers Morgan-type mentality has been adopted by a small but growing section of the club’s support, who react to almost every single defeat or setback as if it is a crisis, as was the case this weekend. Those Arsenal fans are obviously entitled to their opinion and matters involving Arsenal are going to be a lot closer to their hearts than they are to mine, but from the outside looking in, the reaction, in a lot of cases, seemed a little over the top.
While I have sympathy for Wenger and the club, however, they still have a lot to answer for how they went about their business this summer and the worrying predicament they find themselves in with less than two weeks left in the transfer window.
Despite making all the right noises about making their presence felt in the transfer market and their ability to attract the top players, they have lost out on a succession of targets that all seemed within reach, with the possible exception of Luis Suarez. Certainly, having Gonzalo Higuain and Luis Gustavo around would prove pretty useful right about now.
Not only have Arsenal not signed anyone of note – they’ve actually only signed one player, Yaya Sanogo – but they let a whopping 17 players leave the club in the summer and as a result of that poor planning they go into a very tricky Champions League assignment with Fenerbahce tonight with barely a team full of fit players. It could end up coming back to bit them in the arse. Big time.
As they did a couple of years ago, it may turn out that Arsenal end up securing a few players at the last minute before the end of the month but that approach is hardly ideal and for every Mikel Arteta – who’s been a decent signing at best – you run the risk of picking up an Andre Santos, who proved to be a world-class autograph hunter but not a lot else.
Whatever ins and outs there are at Arsenal by the end of the month, I still think they’ll be alright. They have plenty of quality in the squad as it is and, as they’ve shown in recent years, the experience of chasing Champions League places counts for an awful lot.
But alright in this case might only be good for fifth or sixth place because those around them have been showing serious intent in their desire to take their place amongst the elite this season.
It would take a serious leap of faith to imagine that Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea will not finish in the top three or at least the top four. Outside of that, it must be particularly annoying for Arsenal fans that Spurs have been assembling a very talented looking squad nearby in Norf Landan.
If they keep Bale, great. If not, Paulinho, Chadli, Soldado and the rest are already looking like quality additions to the squad and Willian could well be on the way too and people are now questioning whether fourth place should be the height of AVB’s ambitions this season.
A little further back, dare I say this could be the year where bold statements made by Liverpool fans that they will breach the top four aren’t just idle threats and, especially if they can hold onto Fellaini and Baines, Everton won’t be far away either.
Arsenal have qualified for the Champions League for a remarkable 16 consecutive seasons but it has seemed like a more difficult task year on year and this just might be the season that it proves out of reach.
At the moment, it’s certainly looking that way.
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