Early Season Review Part II

Image Source: Arsenal Dotcom

Eid Mubarak greetings to all our Muslim friends out there, we come in peace and love. So where do we start,  i mean there's so much to talk on especially with what’s being going on in the world of football? Aaaah yeah there’s the confederations cup still on going, with the semis slated for 29^th and the 30^th of June. A consolation of sort for club football enthusiasts like you and me but hey,. For what it’s worth,  its better than nada so i will take that…….Go Chile….Go Chile!!

Aiite enough of that, let’s get back to things Arsenal and continue with our 2017/2017 season review. We would take a critiquing critical look at our back five.

The Defence

         We all know that attack is the best form of defence Arsene Wenger likes to bang on the mantra about how we like to play fluid attacking football, very pretty on the eye with its expansive play. The good thing about that is yes, you deny the opponent the ball and limit their chances (Barcelona under Pep) right? I wish that was the case at Arsenal right now, cuz its not, we barely excited with pretty football and the gunners shipped in more goals last season that the previous season. This being the case after buying Mustafi and Holding, the former while an experienced international, has not exactly plugged the leaks. The latter on the other hand has been quite a revelation ……at a snippet too. Having said that, let’s start from the keeper Cech, it’s obvious he isn’t as stellar as he used to be back in Chelsea but he still is an upgrade over all our other keepers so moving on. It’s very obvious to everyone (including Wenger I hope) that you can’t win the EPL with a defence that ships in over forty goals a season. Naaah can’t work! If you ask me, our individual defenders are good. Bellerin is besides a few bogey games (crystal palace away), is developing into a world beater of a wing back, Monreal is still one of the most consistent left backs in the league, Koscielny I dare say is a world class center back even at over 30 years of age. Jury is still out on Mustafi but his debut season with us looks promising if not outstanding. 

          Now having said these, how come Arsenal is still conceding goals hopelessly? Simple.. our collective defending as a unit.  Look at Chelsea and Tottenham especially, as much as it goads me to say this, Spurs had the best goal difference(60) , scored the highest number of goals (86) and conceded the least number last season (26), did I hear you ask so why didn’t they win the league (pun intended)? Well I don’t know why, and frankly I really don’t care if they didn’t. Arsenal on the other were hand were 5^th on goal difference (33), 4^th on goals scored (77) and a distant 6^th on goals conceded (44) We definitely could borrow a leaf from either of Spurs book cuz they understand what It means to defend as a Unit way way better than the gunners despite the fact that we have better individuals. If I was Arsene, I would be looking at those numbers above and get Steve Bould to come up with a better plan. Conceding 44 goals in a season is just not good enough for a club of Arsenals stature, more indicting is matching the numbers side by side Spurs’s…..its DAMNING ARSENE, & that’s me putting it nicely. Whatever it is, just fix it.

On the transfers’ front, it’s the usual circus of speculations and half-truths just to get us to click links and buy their papers aye. Today its Mbape tomorrow its Lemar or Lacazette well my advice people, just remember Arsenal doesn’t conduct its transfers in the open so I take all these links/speculations with a pinch of salt. It would be nice to have Mbape though, to think we could have snapped him up last season for chum change. Anyway I don’t see Arsene spending all that money to get Mbape so let’s move on, Lacazette is looking more likely if you ask me and maybe one of Mahrez or Lemar. Then it’s on to the OUTs, Oxlade, Giroud, Walcott and Alexis, they won’t all go but I fear we would lose at least two of those players, note I said at least two. Quite frankly I wont mind losing Giroud as he is 30+ and not quite the consistent, i repeat the word consistent goal machine we desire. As long as we are getting a younger proven goal scorer like Lacazette albeit untested in the EPL. Alexis sale is a no no except its Aguero from city plus cash….Yes, plus CA$$H! Here is why, Aguero is good I mean really EPL proven gooood, but he is 29 and very injury prone, he also isn’t a harrier like Sanchez, plus whats the wage bill on MR Kun?? That’s why I need the cash. Oxlade I will keep and let Walcott go, the money could be used to get a Mahrez who has way more potential if you ask me. 

 Whatever we are doing I hope Arsene doesn’t dally as he is known to, get your team settled before the league kicks off instead of playing catch up again. I guess time will tell, for now let’s just enjoy the media circus of silly season as they regenerate same stories from the same old sources and quotes. Do enjoy the Confed cup games wherever you are….Ciaoo!