da dobrowin： Arsenal are only a top goalkeeper away from winning the title. That’s the view of Phil Neville on the BBC this week.
da gbg bet： Commenting on the back of Arsenal’s win over Hull, Neville is clearly impressed with the Gunners’ performance. They won the game at a canter against a team that have been on the up over the last few games as they try to save themselves from the drop.
Arsenal made it look easy, and that’s what Champions do. So it’s not a tough leap to say that Arsenal could be Champions next season.
When a team doesn’t win the title but finishes near the top, it’s natural to ask why they didn’t make it and it’s natural to look for ways in which they can improve on their squad in order to put up a better fight next time. And that seems to be what we’re doing with Arsenal right now.
At the start of the season, it was a midfielder and a defender. Wenger’s men were fairly light at the back when the transfer window closed at the start of September. Injuries then depleted the squad even further as Mathieu Debuchy and Calum Chambers were ruled out of action for a while. They also seemed to lack a quality defensive midfielder, and Mathieu Flamini looked a little lost sitting in front of a back four with no help from his midfield mates.
Since then, though, Arsenal have brought in Gabriel Paulista and managed to get their injured men back. They’ve also found that Francis Coquelin is a more than competent Premier League defensive midfielder, and he’s brought some steel to the Arsenal midfield.
And so all the talk of typical Wenger buying only lightweight number 10s has gone out of the window somewhat. Arsenal had been title ‘challengers’ up until their showdown with Chelsea the other weekend, and although they didn’t put up much of a ‘challenge’, they have been very very good since Christmas time.
So Arsenal are a team tipped to do well next season, and on the showing of this season, why not? But that doesn’t mean that Arsenal are only one player away from the title.
In fact, they are at least two away.
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Phil Neville thinks that all Arsenal need is a top quality goalkeeper. Szczesny isn’t good enough, and Ospina is fairly unproven. The Chilean is a wonderful shot stopper, but he doesn’t instil too much confidence as a keeper who will command his area with authority and doesn’t really look that inspiring between the sticks. The Pole meanwhile looks to have burnt his bridges with a cigarette in the shower.
Arsenal probably do need a keeper. If Szczesny does leave in the summer they’ll at least need a deputy to Ospina, and if they need to bring in a keeper anyway, why not go for one who could be first choice?
Petr Cech may not be available – not to a Chelsea rival at any rate – but if Arsenal are serious about winning the title they’ll need someone with that sort of quality. Iker Casillas is also a name that’s been thrown about. We’ll see what comes of that.
But we still get back to the age-old problem for Wenger’s Arsenal team post-Gilberto Silva. Arsenal need a hard-hitting midfielder.
Sure, Coquelin has been a revelation. And Arsenal have been very solid at the back as well as very impressive up front with the frenchman linking defence to midfield. But it’s hard to differentiate between a player in good form who is punching above his weight and the kind of player who can do it season after season. Form is temporary, as they say.
It’s not an attack on Coquelin to say that, it’s just that he’s unproven for more than half a season, and if Arsenal are going to challenge next season they’ll need a little bit more than that. Even if they brought in a better player, it’s not that Coquelin will be out on his ear – he’ll still have a role to play.
They mightn’t need a Makelele type of player, maybe just a player who can help out the rest of his teammates, rather than simply being a destroyer or a saboteur. Coquelin is doing this role now, but perhaps a bigger, stronger Patrick Vieira type is what Arsenal need. That way Coquelin would still have a role, he could still play lots of games and we’ll be able to see if he’s as good as his form suggests. But having options is what makes great teams great.
So Arsenal need two proven players. One in front of their defence and one behind it. And if they do that they’ll be well on their way to a title tilt come this time next season. Injuries have always played their part in Arsenal seasons over the last few years, but with extra reinforcements and lots of different kinds of players, Arsenal should be able to shuffle the pack if they need to. Being able to cope with injuries is the main thing Wenger should be prioritising.
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